The good and the bad

Good - Well Chinese New Year Holiday has begun we are on holiday

Bad - Marking is continuing through all hours of the day and I am very very tired

Bad(for me)/good (for them)  - colleagues are flying off to different parts of the world

Good - it was like a warm summeres evening compared to welsh standards last night

Bad - cant see outside the window today due to mist or fog or rain not quite sure what it is

GOOD - in 3 or 4 days time (depending on time zone) Charlie and Beattie are coming to stay :-)

 

And we will be seeing lots of things some new to me but will be nice sharing them and Suzhou with family

 

 

And go on walks ...... I live near Casa Zoe(not Casa Zoe II)  although some may say we live in Casa Zoes

Red line marks a lovely walk with views of many many different things ending up in Times Square amazing how it only takes a couple of hours to get to USA and you can walk it just like walking to Central park,

 

Best be off to buy pillows, towels and other essential items when you are having guests to stay....ttfn xxxxx

 

Intercontinental Suzhou Brunch with friends

 

CHAMPAGNE BRUNCH IN THE INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL SUZHOU

with

Colin, Jake, Rebecca, Dan, Kristin and Sophie

 

 

Lobster became an obsession for Colin as it was soooooooooo good in the best possible Irish accent

 

Closely followed by sliders - "Do you like my baps" Colin asked.

 

 

 

Dans lonely sausage

 

 

Sophie with her Alien balloon man

 

The Visual & Performing Arts Department, Music, Drama and Art

 

Sophie doing her bit for intercountry relations

 

Jake, Colin, Me, Rebecca, Dan (Kristin had gone)

at the end of a lovely morning/afternoon from 11.30-3.30

and Dan and Colin made every minute of the buffet count even eating purple potato ice cream.

Chinese style New Year Party

Have not written anything for a while have been burning the candle at both ends so to speak with the AQA online examination marking and school work and preparation for the exhibition and usual teaching.

 

We had the Staff Chinese New Year Party yesterday evening a little early but as we break up for the celebrations on Wednesday it was the right time.

 

Chinese office staff organised it and although it was a little unusual by western standards it was an enjoyable evening and ran from 6.15-9.45 and was an evening of staff entertainment, games and gift giving.

 

Each department had to do an act or turn in the aprty and the Visual and Performign Arts deparment did a dance and singing to "We go together" last song from Grease............was interesting to say the least lol

 

 

 

The Drama studio was turned into the entertainments venue

 

 

The Music department turned into a dining room

 



 

Michael (Acting Principal) excitedly awaiting his turn with the office staff to perform a Chinese dance about Cats and Mice

 

Rebecca the Drama Teacher and from South Wales with Alan (College Counsellor) being the MC's for the night in Chinese and English

 



 

The chinese staff doing the Rabbit dance

 

Office staff plus Michael doing their Cat and Mouse dance plus others brought onto the floor (Krisitn and mike)

 

English Department doing their unbrella dance

 

As it was to celebrate Chinese New Year everyone had to leave with a gift and if you did not win one fo the top three prizes you still ahd a gift of a kettle.  May sound rather random but I was very pelased with my kettle as I needed a new one for the apartment and had been thinking of getting a new one so aI was very pelased with my gift.

 

A good time was had by all and I returned to the apartment and turned down an evening at Wawa's (sad face) to mark.......remearkbale will power I have.  Never mind will make up for it at the Intercontinental brunch on Sunday morning with champagne with Colin :-)

Dulwich College Interenational High School Programme Suzhou Art Exhibition

Staff and Pupil Art Exhibition

"Celebrate China"

 

Held in the lobby of the school

 

Posting Instructions to Paula and anyone else whi is having problems

THANKS TO RENATA and MY MUM FOR PASSING THE ON.

 

1) Go to Karen's blog website.

2) At the top in the very right hand corner of that blog you can see "create a blog" and "sign in".

3) Click on "sign in".

4) Then you will be prompted to either "sign up" ( red box at the top ) or to "sign in".

5) Click the red box on the very top ( sign up ) and follow instructions. You will be asked to create a gmail address with a password etc. I wanted to keep my original e-mail address and just have gmail as an additional one. I therefore did not click any boxes for a transfer of addresses etc.

6) Once you have finished all that successfully you will receive some e-mails from gmail. I was asked if I wanted my original e-mail account to be linked to gmail. I just ignored that. In other words I took no further action after I had created the account.

7) Once you are the proud owner of an additional e-mail address you go back to Karen's blog, enjoy what she has written and then enter comments in the box. After you have finished you need to click the box "publish". You will then be prompted to sign in with your new gmail address and your password. In addition to that you will have to enter a number and a word into a box which will be displayed on the screen. Enter these and click "publish" again and you are done.

Posting plea

Can some please tell me how you make a comment stay on the blog ........ post it in the comments and I will post it on here for others to see.

 

Thank you

Suzhou Delicacy - Squirrel Fish

Dinner in Suzhou with Jake and Jackie...........very interesting dish

 

The story goes that Emperor Qian Long was visiting south Yangtze when he came upon a luscious carp swimming in a lake. He ordered the carp cooked for him. The imperial chef is caught in quandary. The carp is considered a "holy fish" in those parts and yet to defy the Emperor's command means certain death. He came up with a brilliant dish, turning the carp into the look of a squirrel.

 

Chinese exercise

School exercise class Chinese style

 

Lots of shouting, bending, swinging but at least it keeps you warm on yet andother freezing Suzhou day.

 



Oh how the weather changes

Oh how the weather changes here in China..................one minute freezing and all heaters on and triple fleece blankets on your bed to mist you can hardly see anything through and pouring rain.

 

 

Goes from this last night

 

 

to this and pouring down reminding me of Wales

 

 

 

Oh well at least I am apartment bound today so the weather does not affect me : report writing, lesson planning, ironing, sorting things out for the presentation on Friday, the art exhibition a week on Friday, making soup, and preparing for the no sleep marking to start on Friday.

The on the 5th Feb Charlie and Beattie come and I am so excited to have visitors :-)

 

Catch up again sometime

 

 



Busy week/Wawa evening

Ok just got in from an evening in Wawa Wewe with Dan (welsh angelsey) Rebecca (welsh South wales) another Dan (Hirwen South wales) Julie (Chinese), Colin (Irish), Jake (English) and Kristin (USA)........... and I will be writing reports all day tomorrow and Sunday and will be Casa Zoe tomorrow evening and margharita time.  Sorry it has been a busy one so no blog for a few days with the highlight being the return of the Irish musical one. 

 

Check out the art dept site all 4 sections of it on:

 http://www.dchigh-suzhou.cn/en/content/igcse-students-first-major-art-project

Shows what I have been up to if you are interested, not just sitting back and enjoying chinese life full of toilet seat covers, chickens feet, spitting and other quirky features but have been working the same if not harder than before and loving every mintue of it. Looking forward to Charlie and Beattie coming over in two and a half weeks and then Sam and Irene not long after that and then home for the Summer and when I return some more visitors.

Night all xxx

 

 

A little poem inspired by my recent purchase from Auchan

I have to admit to giving in and purchasing a purple stripy toilet seat cover for the grand sum of 39p.  Jake is slightly worried that I am sucumbing to the chinese quirky ways and is concerned that they will find me eating chickens feet and spitting in the street.  Inspired by my warming purchase he put his English degree to good use and penned the following.  Thank you Jake I have never had a poem dedicated to anything I have done before and I will cherish it for future giggles.

 

 

And now, the strangest thing I did ever meet:

A cushioned leopard-print toilet seat.

You see, my apartment’s pretty old,

So it’s bloomin’ freezing cold,

No central heating, no hot log fire,

No radiator, pretty dire.

But with my fluffy lavatory seat,

My bathroom worries are obsolete.

Outside is like an arctic storm,

 

But, at least my bottom’s nice and warm.

Intercontinental Brunch

Brunch at the Intercontinental Suzhou was a quiet and grown up affair.  Good job we passed on the champagne and saved that one for when we are reunited with Colin and Rebecca, Dan and Kristin are able to join us and then it will be a much more rowdy affair lol.

 

 

Michael - Deputy Director - American

 

Jake - English teacher- English (1/4 welsh so he says lol)

 

Jackie - English teacher - Chinese but wants to be western or New Zealander

 

The boys

 

Intercontinental hotel Suzhou

 

Well best get on with some marking .... not going to eat again until next weekend, lovely food, good company, lovely oancakes, beef, roast potatoes, french pastires, ice cream and any other type of food you can imagine.

Jackies Birthday

 

 

Managed to get them uploaded

 

 

Jackie and Jake at Casa Zoe

 

Kristin, Jake, Jackie,Annie and Chris in Casa Zoe

 

Michael and Jackie at Wawa Wewe

 

Rest of the crew at Casa

 

Michael, Dan (South Walian), Julie, Travis and Feifei at Casa

 

Mint punch with giant ice ball at Wawa wewe

Casa/Wawa/Jackies birthday

Well Iwas hoping to upload some photos of the evenings event however for some reason unknown to me my pictures will not upload.  Will try tomorrow.  Maybe it is the fault of the cold......maybe it is the snow......maybe its the ice on the inside of my bathroom window, maybe its the pitcher of iced margharitia at Casa Zoe celebrating Jackies birthday or the mint punch with giant iceball at Wawa Wewe celebrating Jackies birthday but for some reason they do not want to upload.......................its 11.50 pm its freezing cold,...... hot water botle warming the bed so maybe time to turn in and maybe have some sleep for the first time in about 3 weeks...........night.................x

Toilet seat cover

And as if by magic a picture just arrives to my in box from Charlie:

 



Chilly Suzhou

 

Ok the philosophical woman in China is now gone and she is wondering why she came to live in a fridge lol.  The sky is clear, blue, sun is shining but it is absolutely freezing, Classrooms remain warm if you leave the door shut but enter into the open plan atrium (see below) and your teeth begin to chatter and students and staff take their lessons in coats and scarves.

 

 

However even though it is rather cold the walk to my art room which is away from the main school and across the campus makes the chill factor disappear with such lovely old grounds to walk through.

 

 

I come from Wales the land of the rain and cold I should be able to handle a bit of cold weather but "Oh no".  If you are one of the lucky people to have an apartment that has underfloor heating (not in my price range)  warmth is easier to come by..........changing ceiling aircon (so necessary in the summer) to heating for the winter allows air to be blown around the room and warm the ceiling but unfortunately I do not sit on the ceiling of my apartment.  At least I brought two cases back with me full of jumpers, cardigans, boots............gloves, scarves and very thick socks I can get from here.

 

When the furry, flowerey, patchwork, towelling, frilled toilet seat covers began to enter the shops a month ago, myself and Jake thought they were so humerous we would get them as fun christmas gifts for people at home who would appreciate their subtelty.  So who did I give my gifts to Taff (brother in law) and Beattie (Charlies boyfriend).  Well gentlemen all I will say is I know why they use them.