Poker at 5am!

Last night we had a surprise party for a friend of ours Tracy. She was very surprised. We also had anther birthday party for a 40th downtown Suzhou for the husband of our friend Tiffany. I felt so bad... I got to the 40th at 1.30am this morning. They left soon after. How can you spread yourself more evenly? The first party wouldn't let us leave, and the second was annoyed I didn't come earlier :( I was sad because, I had said yes to the 40th before I knew about the surprise party, but I have had more to do with Tracy than Todd. HARD decision!

Any-who, we were out until 3.30ish when we went back to another friends house to play poker. I was 50RMB to play and by 5am I had 125RMB, but I was so tired I cashed out - that doesn't mean I got the cash though... I didn't know that when I said I'd cash out ;)

A got up around 10.30 so I am still feeling a bit tired. Kane will be home soon with lunch, I'm tidying the house and doing a load of washing to keep on top of things. Not much else to say.

Thanks Mum for the Xmas pressies of chocolate and small Xmas puddings, SELF-TAN cream (so that I don't glow in Thailand), my clothes and my credit cards - desperately needed before our trip next week.

Friends Renee and Kate, both from the US

Bye bye
Kelly
xxx

Holiday desperately needed!

OK, so we have been in China 5 months now. We've had a roller coaster ride until now - I desperately need a holiday. We've worked 15 weeks with a quick trip home and a one week break. The days are so much longer at work than we're used to and we pretty much leave home 1/2 hour after the sun comes up and it's nearly dark when we get home - it's getting colder and colder. The wind is getting really bitey! - OK, whinge over... hopefully :)


We went to Shanghai last week to some copy markets. The people at the copy markets are very pushy and try to grab you and pull you into their stores. They even chase you down and try to get you to buy their product even when you've walked out and say no. I bought some fake ugg boots, a jacket, prada handbag and make-up case last weekend for all under $100. It was a long day. Kane bought a money clip and a lighter.


Kane has some friends over at the moment watch Mayweather and someone else box on the telly. Here is a photo before the main boxing match begins.


I've also put some photos of my corridor on here to show. There are 11 classrooms in my corridor, its a three story building with god knows how many corridors - maybe 40???? So it's HUGE!



Take care - Kane and I are off to Thailand in 2 weeks for Xmas, hopefully I'll get a nice present.


Merry Christmas everyone

Love you all,

Kelly

My pottery!

These are some of my finds from yesterday. The first one is a blue crystal vase. It has these vibrant blue crystals on it. Apparently it is very difficult to make, as you have to carefully fire it to a certain temperature and remove, so it's is very time consuming... so the art teacher said. I got it for RMB45 - $6. Would be worth a couple of hundred in the states a reliable sources told me!These two wee a little more expensive, RMB 120 - $20, I just loved the colours in the vertical lines.
This is my authentic Dingshen teapot set. Th teapot is so small, the red thing in the corner is a coaster. It's only as big as a medium sized coffee cup. This is handmade and has a small dragon on the lid o the teapot. I watched these teapots be made and it is tedious work. The tea set and the wooden draining board were RMB250 - $40.
This is the little dragons head close up.
Oh and I didn't get this this weekend, I got this last weekend - My plant!
Kane is off at a antique market this weekend, so who know what we'll get next!

Dingshen Pottery Village

Today I went on a trip to Dingshen. A smallish village about 2.5 hours away from Suzhou. Dingshen is known for its teapots, which are famous all around the world. There was even a photo of the Queen drinking tea from a Dingshen teapot. Today I managed to find a small teapot and 3 glazed vases. All for under AU$80. Most of the teapots are made from terracotta and so are very dark in colour, all have unique character, the one that I bought has a dragon on the lid of the teapot. It was a very long day, but definitely worth doing. Here is a picture of the teapot factory 'sweatshop'!

This is a photo of Dingshen where I bought my teapot set. A very authentic picture of China life!

Two of our favourite places where we live

These are some of our favourite place in SIP (both in the same neighbourhood), the furthest being 300m away. The first one is our Muslim restaurant. No one speaks English (or Yingyu, as I learnt last night) but they always try to talk to us, Kane especially. The ladies are not very talkative, but it may be part of their religion. They are a family business with brothers, wives, sisters, a grandmother and some children, all pitch in to run the business. The 'man', there are several, but there is one in particular who is the boss, he'd only be in his early 30's takes most of the orders and money... no paper needed to write down orders. It is a dirty little shop, but it has character, pictures to choose your food from and it's cheap, our favourite meal 'la mien' RMB9 a meal, that's only $1.80. Here are some more pictures that I took walking home from la mien, it's only around the corner. The first one is walking past some shops, our Muslim restaurant is snugly tucked in behind these shops on the right.
One is of a building site. We are getting a new shopping mall right next door. Yes there are those 'China' wheelbarrow bike everywhere! This man on the building site was very happy to have his photo taken. I wonder if he knew his image would be splashed over the Internet.
The others are of the road towards our Neighbourhood centre (shopping centre), the view of our apartments walking past them and a few from the front of our complex.

Our apartment block is the taller one directly to the left behind the building in the middle. It's sort of hidden by the tree.

Oh... PS - The bloke walking in many of the photos with Kane is Bruce. He is from Canada. He lives in the same block as us and also teaches Grade 4 with Kane.

Wow!

Hello everyone!

How to know you are loved?

Go home to Australia and you will know you are loved :)

I am so sorry to everyone who checks this thing regualry only to find it hasn't changed. We really need to make more of an effort. Kane and I are so removed (well, it feels like it) over here that we forget that their are people who love and care about us so much.

Ty and Zoe... Your wedding was so amazing! It was more beautiful than I ever imagined and it is good luck for something unusual to happen on your wedding day (the rain - not the other women in Ty's life!!!!) I have been telling everyone how fantastic your bridal waltz/dance was - truley a highlight. I am so glad that I came back for this special event and it made me realise more than ever how important you both are to our lives. I'm so sorry Zoe for crying at outside the church and at the breakfast the next morning, but everytime you said 'we miss you both so much', I wanted to agree but I think I would have started bawling even more.

We miss everyone back home, and it made it so hard to leave on the Tuesday - yes Marty they played the Melbourne Cup in the plane.

Congratulaions to Robbie and Lisa on their engagement, we wish you all the best - please have you wedding in our holidays!!!!!!

Not Posting much lately hey?

Lion Grove Garden - Suzhou
Kane and I at Lion Grove Garden

We are having so much trouble with blogger being blocked in China at the moment. Some times we can even get into this page to write anything - so I will now!


We are going really wll at the moment, school is in it's 7th week and we have got so much to do. We do't have our kids nearlly as much as we did in Australia - We teach them only 25 out of 40 periods each week, which is a problem because yo feel like you do soooo little to teach them and you get really good at doing nothing - but no time to spare!!!!!????


It is starting to cool down now, it was 21 today and I was feeling very chilly. Kane played Soccer at school and they won 8-1, a big thrashing. We went out last night and I am still feeling verrry seedy, have totally wasted today I suppose.


We are really looking forward to coming home in 3 weeks for Ty and Zoe's wedding, I think the dose at home will help to break this very long term up.


Take care Kelly

Hey everyone we had a great day today. The school called classes off today due to a huge typhoon that was expected to hit China. At one stage the winds were travelling at 175 mph but we didn't get much at all. I think it was called typhoon wipha. Anyway got to go. Congratulations to all the mitta boys/people on a fantastic win in 2007.

Full School Week Over

Well I have jut finished my first school week with children... And I am exhausted.

My kids are gradually improving their behaviour, they are still very noisy, but are sowing signs that they are willing to conform to my expectations. I had them out SILENTLY walking the corridors Friday afternoon, in a straight, single file line, (how it is done here :0) We did this for 30 mins and they definitely got the idea that walking all over the hall yahooing all the time, dawdling and not concentrating is not what I believe is good enough, especially when nearly everyday children get mixed up because they are not CONCENTRATING!!! Rrrrr

Kane has had a dose of food poisoning or I think it might be the IBS that he had a few years back rearing its head. He does say he feels better today though. (Ok, I've been told... not IBS, food poisoning ;)

I went to Ikea yesterday in Shanghai and bought up! I got bath mats, shower curtain/rod, dish drainer, VODKA, choccies, chop sticks, bathroom caddy X2, BED OVERLAY (I slept really well last night), plastic tubs, finger puppets, table place mats, a cutlery draw insert and I'm sure something else that I can't think of. Had a great time and spent less than AU$200.

We went grocery shopping today at Metro (a cash and carry without the millions of Chinese) and spent 1400 yuan, just under AU$200 as well. Has been good to get into the routine of it all, waking up, work, home, gym (some nights), dinner, Everwood episode and bed.

We may be going to Shanghai this weekend to see a women's world cup soccer game and then staying in Shanghai for the weekend, back 12pm Sunday, but this all depends if my shipping HAS to arrive next Saturday, if that is the case, no Shanghai.

I took some photos on my journey home from Shanghai yesterday... Enjoy.

This is the average place the Chinese live in, I'm not sure how old it is because the quality of building is very poor.

Out in the suburbs (or the distance the suburbs would be in Melbourne) are these little villages dotted all over the place. But in between are new factories or...

New building sites for apartments.

I am sure those people from big cities are used to big motorways, but I was amazed. (I'm sure this is nothing compared to Beijing)

Hey everyone just a quick little note to say hi. Everything is very different over here from traffic to the people and various other things. If there is a truck or bus get out of the way. They will always just honk and push on through. There is no road rage though as this is the way it goes in China. The development in this area is phenomenal- there are high rises everywhere. It is sad really. The old Suzhou is beautiful and contains wonderful gardens and lots of canals and water. There is little to no safety equipment when building these high rises- the men just use bamboo ladders and cranes (they even wear thongs). I went with a couple of blokes to Tiger mountain which is a famous spot in Suzhou- the place was basically a huge garden where one of the previous rulers of China would stay when he visited Suzhou. The place was littered with beggars which you feel sorry for. There was one old lady that was about a metre tall. I was also offered a massagee by one guy which basically means he will take you on his 3 wheeler carriage bike to a massage parlour where you get more than you bargained for. The people work extremely hard here for little money. We have a vegetable lady who we go and see each week for our vegetables. She is really nice and always throws in extra shallots. She told Kelly through an interpreter that she will always be the cheapest. I nearly stepped on a guy one day as he was asleep in one of the isles of the supermarket. And he was working there. This is very common people sleep a lot on the job- no-one seems to care. Anyway will talk more later.

How to know you've reached China!

Hello fellow Australians,

Here are 10 ways to know you are in China...

1. Cars have the right of way... no matter what!
2. Car horns are considered politeness
3. Fireworks are needed to scare away ghost when moving in to an new home, with out warning, where ever!
4. I can not even fit into a size XL
5. All shoes are a size 5 (lucky Mum)
6. They ultrasound you for parasites
7. Everything says made in China, but is by far, worse in quality
8. 5 main meals can cost you $9.
9. BEER is sold at the supermarket and is so cheap, $5 a slab
10. My cleaner costs me $50 a month for 16 hours of cleaning

I could go on, and on. Everyday I am more surprised by what I see,

Farewell comrades,
'teacher, teacher'

Poked and proded

We have been in China now for 4 days, it doesn't feel that long at all. So much has happened, already we have met some amazing people, all so different!

We have managed to buy groceries/household stuff at a grocery store, direct a taxi using idiot cards, get lunch and dinner several times, and have a medical this morning which included - blood test, x-ray, dentist check, ECG, ultrasound (for parasites!), blood pressure, eye test and height/weight measurements.

Food is really cheap, usually under 40RMB which is around AU$5. We are going to buy a scooter tomorrow which will cost approx 2000RMB - AU$350. It is battery rechargeable and reaches around 45kmph.

I have a mobile number now though I can't remember it. Buying a new sim card was tricky, it took several Chinese to work out what I wanted cause I didn't take my old one with me. The word for sim card is 'sim ca'.

We now know a couple of words, I think I might do some lessons. They are pretty expensive but apparently worthwhile, 2 hours, twice a week. A fair bit of money though.

Our compound is pretty sweet, it has 9 multi-story apartment blocks (between 20-25 stories each) with four apartments on each floor. They are all under 1 year old and brand new, 5 blocks aren't finished yet and most apartments are empty, so it's lovely and quiet at the moment. I'm sure that will change later on when more people move in. We have a pool which cost 20RMB each time you use it, a free gym, a tennis and basketball court (these both cost), extensive ready-made gardens, a management office with staff, small grocery store, coffee shop and a full time tennis coach. - And we don't have to pay for it!

We will get an Aiyia (sp?) which is a helper. They clean, wash, iron, shop and can cook for you and cost around AU$50 per month (depending on time spent doing your jobs).

That's about all for now. Kane is at the gym at the moment, I'm not sure what we will have for dinner tonight, but fresh veg sounds good!
Cheers Kelly

Hi... we are in China. Here are some photos...

Moving Day

Tomorrow is moving day. We have been busily getting ready today and the house is in shambles. I still have to go through and chose which shoes to keep with me and not ship over. Because we are sending our mattress over we also have to downgrade to a double bed which shall be interesting, luckily we have a spare single just in case it is too squishy! Today has been washing day so that everything is clean ready to be packed and also the things worn today are ready to go tomorrow as we only have 30kg each to take on the plane. I think I shall be taking some heavy carry on luggage.

Will fill you in on how the move went later in the week.
Kelly

Beginnings

On the 9th of August this year we will be starting a new chapter in our lives. We will be moving to Suzhou in China and will be working at a private international school, Suzhou Singapore International School or SSIS for short.

We will be living in an apartment block, but we are not sure where, what it looks like or how many rooms. We also have to live off very little money for the next few months. Anyway this will be a joint blog about are travels so that family and friends can easily keep in touch.

Cheers