Hello everyone!
More than a month ago I started a blog about our Golden Week adventures but only got two paragraphs done before I got busy doing other things and never finished. We've been pretty busy with school and soccer stuff and when I have time I don't feel much like writing but I thought I should update on what's going on around here.
The biggest news is that we have come to a decision about our adventure in China. In June, 2015, when the kids are finished their school year, I will take them back to Canada to stay. By then we will have been here four years and we feel that it is time for them to leave. It has a lot to do with air pollution but also their need to have a yard and a neighborhood with kids, wanting to join hockey and baseball and especially their need to see and spend time with family. Tim will continue living in Shenyang until he is finished with work and will visit us often. When his work is done I don't know where we will go but it will definitely be closer to home (we can't get much further away than we are now).
In the meantime, we have had some great events and occasions here.
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| Ryan's having fun at school. |
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| And he lost his first tooth! |
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| International Day at SYIS was a lot of fun again this school year. |
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| Kids in Korean Masks |
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| Great traditional outfits! |
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| Ryan had a birthday. He's 6 now! |
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| His class sang Happy Birthday to him. |
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| He also specified all the colors of the icing for his classmates' cupcakes. |
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| After school, Ryan decided he wanted to decorate his own cake. I let him go to town with it. |
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| He wanted it to look like a pizza. |
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| Happy Birthday Little Man! |
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| Next came Tim's birthday. We had a really nice afternoon with friends. |
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| Ryan talked Sam into playing Super Mario 3D World. I think he liked it! |
Every year at this time China celebrates National Days or Golden Week. We decided to take a little trip rather than staying in Shenyang. It's the second busiest travel time of the year and just getting train tickets was a big chore, but we managed. First we were off to Beijing to get Tim's passport renewed, eat some Peking Duck and stay in a nice hotel.
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| Ryan and I on the train. |
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| Our hotel didn't quite live up to expectations but this awesome restaurant did. Best Peking Duck Ever! |
Next we took another super fast train to Tianjin. It's the fourth largest city in China after Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou,but I had never even heard of it. It was very different from the other cities we've been to and I liked it. There was a lot of European influence in the architecture and every once in a while it felt like we weren't in China. The hotel we stayed in while here, The Someset, was very disappointing but we made the best of it. After two days though, I was happy to get out of our smoky smelling room.
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| Tianjin at Night |
We took the kids to a park and were surprised with lots of rides. It was a lot of fun!
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| We did the water ride you can see in this picture. It was awesome! |
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| We took a ride on the big Ferris Wheel. |
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| Nick was a little nervous. |
We returned to Beijing and were supposed to stay one night at a hotel next to the train station for an early departure the next morning. We decided that we just wanted to get home and tried to change our tickets for an afternoon train but after a great deal of trouble I found out that we were staying put. So, we walked to our hotel dragging our butts and luggage. The hotel I had booked was the Marriott City Wall and I wasn't expecting too much. Some sites had great reviews and others had lousy ones. When I went to check in the friendly lady at the desk asked if we wanted to upgrade to an executive room with two king size beds. After four nights of sleeping with the kids that sounded great. We said yes. The room was lovely and the beds the nicest I've ever slept in with many, many pillows (I love lots of pillows). That afternoon my desire for more Beijing KaoYa sent us on a wild duck chase trying to find restaurants using TripAdvisor and the map function on our phones. We finally gave up and tried to get a taxi back to the place we had gone to a few nights earlier only to find out that they didn't open for another three hours. At this point we were all very hungry and ended up getting snacks at a 7-11 before heading back to the hotel for room service. In the midst of all the searching and frustration I asked if anyone was having fun and Ryan replied that he was "having a GREAT time!" (without sarcasm!).
One of the perks of upgrading to an executive room was that we were invited to the club lounge for a snack buffet, free drinks and dessert. Who could pass that up? Along the way we met some lovely Aussies and had a nice chat in the elevator. We grabbed some food at the "snack" buffet that could have served as our supper had we not ordered room service a couple hours before. There was a wonderful variety of foods and they were delicious.
After some tasty snacks and drinks, Tim and the boys played some cards while I sipped on a glass of red wine.
Eventually we started chatting again with the Aussies and their friends who were sitting next to us. They were so friendly that within a few minutes we had all moved over to their table to and for the next few hours we had the best time of our entire trip. It's so fun to talk with other travelers (they were hopping onto a cruise ship within the next few days) about the places we've all been and where we hope to go in the future. We were sad to say goodbye at the end of the night but I have a feeling we'll see them next year if they go through with their trip to Canada. I sure hope so!
Since our trip to Beijing and Tianjin we've had more things happening. Such as...
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| Nicholas playing in his first soccer game of the season. |
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| Don't their uniforms look nice? |
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| Bandaged-up Day during Spirit Week |
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| Ryan riding home from school on the Bib bus. |
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| SYIS Carnival and a giant game of Angry Birds. |
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| Plunger Race |
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| Wagon Rides |
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| And, of course, cotton candy! |
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| I've been out for some walks in the park. This is a new theater call The Diamond. You can see the before and after of the cleaning process. Yuck! |
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| You couldn't pay me enough to do this. |
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| Goats - not what I would expect to see on a morning walk in a city park. You probably can't tell but the goat herder is busy on his cellphone. |
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| Field Day with a twist. Not the usual track and field events. |
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| Nicholas and Ryan were on the same team, #17. They came in 1st!! |
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| Nicholas turned 8! |
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| He was sung to in English,Chinese,Korean and Italian! |
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| Mom and Dad gave us all East Coast Lifestyle sweatshirts for our birthdays.We love them! |
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| He wanted to decorate his own cake. |
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| He did a great job! |
We had a get together at our place with friends, some of whom are leaving soon. It was a lot of fun!
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| Al & Angela demonstrating how to make this unique "sandwich" with pork or donkey meat. |
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| Everyone watching intently! |
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| Nicholas had a great time playing with his friends. Federico spent the night for his first sleepover ever! |
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A little whip cream for breakfast:).
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So, that's it for this year. We leave for home and vacation soon and I know I won't have time to write anything. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! See you in 2015...
