Aorund the World in 190 Days

On September 20, 1519 Ferdinand Magellan left Spain with five ships and 251 men. Nonie and Brett left Ottawa on January 20, 2009 leaving behind one and one on the way grandchildren. March, 1520 Magellan landed and wintered in Puerto San Julian, Southern Argentina. Nonie and Brett landed in Kelowna on January 20, 2009 and wintered in Penticton. November 21, 1520 Magellan enters the straits that bear his name. On February 04, 2009 Nonie and Brett cross the Straits of Juan de Fuca in a U-Haul Rental truck delivering her Mom's furniture to a new home. On March 26, 1521, Magellan reaches the island now known as Guam. On February 14, 2009, Brett and Nonie reach the island now known as Vancouver. Magellan is killed on April 27, 1521 by the islanders of Mactan. On February 14, 2009 the eye specialist finds a macular tear in Nonie's right eye and her travel days are over for a few months. With only 110 crew left, Magellan's crew abandons one of the ships. On February 28, 2009 Brett abandons Nonie and flies to Harbin, China. Two of Magellan's ships turn back and are imprisoned by the Portuguese in the Spice Islands. Nonie returns to Penticton to recover and get better. The Victoria, Magellan's one remaining ship decides to continue the voyage West. After 8 long weeks apart Nonie arrives in Harbin on April 5, 2009. Eighteen survivors of Magellan's original crew arrived back in Spain on September 6, 1522. Nonie and Brett depart Harbin in July 4, 2009, traveling through Mongolia, Russia, Estonia, Sweden and Iceland arriving in Ottawa on August 1, 2009. It took Magellan's crew almost two years to circumnavigate the world and he didn't live to see the end. Nonie and Brett did it in 6 months and 10 days. Take that Magellan.

Our travel from Ottawa was exciting, boring, wearisome, exhilarating, lonely, breathe taking, aggravating, astonishing, frustrating, scary and while it was a lifetime experience we are glad to be home. We will miss the people though..... I think Magellan would agree with all of the above, except maybe the getting killed part.

Baby, It's Cold Outside. Welcome to Iceland

Rumour has it that Iceland is bankrupt. It certainly was not obvious to us as we departed the plane. The airport was bustling with tourists coming and going and we found prices at inheritance threatening highs. Bankrupt or not there were no fire sales to be had for tourists. That being said, pricing was not as bad as Moscow or Stockholm but Nonie and I are still suffering sticker shock as we continue to compare costs to Harbin and that really isn't fair. Hmm, or is it?

Our bus ride from the airport took almost an hour and give us a glimpse of what we were about to see. Iceland's landscape can be described as tundra with large scars of millennia old volcanic debris dotted with small scrubby trees. Much of Iceland is above the Arctic Circle. We were told that NASA used Iceland as a test track for their first luner lander and lunar buggy.

We were summarily dropped off on a street corner and told that our hotel was just around the corner. A walk around the corner and down a block but no hotel. Back to the beginning and try again. Down two blocks, thankfully they were short blocks and no hotel. Back to the beginning and dammit, I had to ask directions. The hotel turned out to be right on the corner where we were dropped off. On my behalf, the lobby was located in a basement and the only sign for the hotel was a small, small, small sign etched onto the glass door. What's wrong with a little neon for Pete's Sake? This lack of attention to detail could easily have cost us the Amazing Race.

Despite the miserly signage the hotel was awesome with the room right out of an IKEA catalogue. Multiple height ceilings and beams, 42" flat screen with BBC, free wireless and the fluffiest duvet we have ever sank into. The bathroom had a frosted glass wall and a shower with multiple shower heads at various discerning heights. This was all topped off by a decent and free breakfast buffet along with a very dedicated, all be it fastidious staff. The entrance from the street opened onto a black tiled landing then ten or so stairs down to the lobby. The adjacent wall from the landing and stairs was tiled in black as well, with water flowing down the wall into a 24" wide by 12" deep well/trough that ran along the edge of the landing and stairs to capture the water coming down the wall. Very cool looking but as we were to discover very dangerous. The wall had several carved features which esthetically broke up the water as it flowed down the wall. As we were leaving the hotel from the top landing for our first foray into Reykjavik, Nonie decided to take a closer look at these features. In her excitement, she missed the well/trough and stepped right into it. I immediately screamed for the life guard and dove in after her pulling her from the brink. Thankfully the only thing hurt was her pride and we had a much better topic of conversation everytime we left the hotel rather than the dreary one of my not being able to find the place. The hotel has since put up "no swimming' signs.

We finished the day exploring Reykjavik with three dry feet and one wet one. Last joke, I promise. Day 2, saw us boarding a bus for an eight hour tour of some if not all of what Iceland has to offer. With only one day to explore, we opted for the guided tour. Some of the hightlights included a power plant completely powered by the extremely hot ground water that is available all over the island. There are three other similar plants providing over 90 % of the electrical power requirements to the island. But for this little bankruptcy thing they may reach 100 % in the next two years with a little in reserve for growth. Next we visited an area with an "Old Faithful" like geyser and a schedule of eruptions to match. We have been to Yellowstone so it was hohum, okay. We then proceeded to a large rift zone where the European and North American tectonic plates meet and is marked by a large canyon where the two plates have slowly been separating for the last few million years. Very cool scrambling around. A visit to an interesting water fall (Hohum) and a late lunch. Next and last stop was a large greenhouse operation that was located over a hotspot, an area where the volcanic magma is located close to the surface keeping the ground above freezing 12 months a year. Plunk up a greenhouse and you are good to go. Our final experience was a island wide traffic jam heading out of Reykjavik for a three day long weekend so our eight hour tour became nine hours.

The next day before boarding the plane and our return to Canada, we spent our last few hours in Iceland at the Blue Lagoon where we spent a few hours lounging in a huge hot pool with the most dazzling colour of blue. It seemed like a nice way to relax before the long trip home. The lagoon is located near the ocean and the heated water along with the salt leaching in from the nearby sea water creates a very pale pastel blue colour in the water. What they failed to mention in the brochures is that the lagoon is really a retaining pond for the hot water effluent that is discharged from the local power plant. Better we did not know.

I developed this nasty itch all the way home. Oh, the first picture is a joke. Or is it? The place is called Iceland.

The Cornells Invade Sweden

Compared to our previous border crossings, our entry into Sweden was a bit of an anticlimax. No snarly border guards, no grim immigration officers and no strip searches. We just walked off the ferry, a short stroll and we successfully invaded Sweden. No grudges here. A free bus dropped us off two blocks from our hotel. It was early so our room was not ready, but with our bags stored for the day, we headed out for a peek at Stockholm.

Stockholm is surrounded by water with plenty of water borne options to see the City. For not a huge fee, leaving something for the kids inheritance, we bought tickets on a "hop on, hop off" tour boat that stopped at just about everything we wanted or needed to see. The tickets were good for two days. Our first stop was Gamla Stan, the "Old Town". It seems like every city in Europe has one. This one was not unlike most of the others. Well maintained, manicured, lots of souvenir shops, restaurants and full of tourists. We spent most of our time exploring it then jumped on board one of the beautifully restored tour boats and took the full ride to check out and discuss our options for the next day while watching the sun set over Stockholm. A perfect end to the day.

Next day, with a belly full of free breakfast buffet we jumped on a vintage 1oo year old ferry and headed to our first stop. The Skansen Museum is a park where the Swedes have for over 100 years been storing historical buildings from all over the country. The buildings have been lovingly derected and rerected in the park. There are hundreds to choose from. As an added attraction, they have populated the park with staff dressed in period costume doing everyday stuff like baking bread, making furniture, glass blowing, equipment repairs and my favorite, a fully operational power plant from the late 1800s. Three hours turned into six hours as it was a big park.

A short walk from Skansen brought us to the Vasa Museum home to a perfectly preserved ship built in 1628. The ship was constructed in Stockholm for some invasion or other. About one hour into its maiden voyage, it sank. The design was poorly thought out. It was twice as high as any ship of the time but with a very narrow beam. The ballast was made up of round rocks that had a tendency to roll around. The ship had two decks of cannons. As the ship made its way out to sea, a strong wind came up rolling the ship on to its side. The ballast rolled to the listing side of the ship causing the ship to list even more. Water began pouring into the open gun ports. Thirty minutes later the ship was on the bottom of the harbour where it remained for over 400 years. The ship was recovered in 1962 almost intact and placed in a climate controlled environment. The boat contains over 95% of its original wood. It was an awesome sight. We arrive late so only had an hour to appreciate its beauty. Put this one on your must see list.

Feeling a bit nackered, we jumped on another gorgeously restored boat, this one a large teak and mahogany cruiser for another Swedish sunset and a return to our hotel. Time to prepare for departure to our last stop before we set foot in Canada again. Tomorrow we head for Iceland.

Ferries and Fairies

On our last day in Tallinn, we continued our trolley (with tickets) and walking explorations. We kept finding these lovely little hidden tourist jewels every time we turned a corner thanks in most part to the cute Estonian student/guide we met the day before after we were hassled by the trolley police. I would definitely recommend Tallinn to anyone who is planning a trip to the old Eastern Bloc countries. Back to the Casino around 4 PM to pick up our bags and a short hike to the ferry terminal for our overnight cruise to Stockholm.

You have to see this boat to believe it. It is not your typical car ferry, it is in fact a cruise ship calling itself a ferry. It had not one but two show lounges, a disco, a pub, a piano bar, a bar that was just a bar, a pizza joint, buffet dining, three "a la carte" options (Italian, Meat, Tres Expensive), casino, movie theatre and children's play area. I had booked the cheapest accommodation as possible so our room was an inside one with two single beds, a 26" flat screen TV, desk and small bathroom. This boat was spotless. I am a professional facility guy and I know clean, not Nonie clean but clean none the less. It has been on this run for at least a year and it looks pristine.

We arrived at the terminal to find it very, very busy. Check in was quick, all computerized. We were given a card which would open our room door and act as our identification on the boat/ship. The line to get on the ship was long and moving very slowly. It was Miller Time and we were anxious to board and find a bar with a view so we could watch the departure in style. We eventually made it to the head of the line to find that they were actually boarding two ships at the same time. One was headed to Helsinki which was only three hours across the Baltic and which most of the line was headed so we were able to proceed quickly onto our ship, find our room and head to the bar where a lovely window seat became our home for the next few hours. The drinks were not to overpriced and there was free wireless internet.

It was Nonie's birthday so the plan was to treat ourselves to a nice meal and a bottle of wine. Once again, too many choices. Nonie eventually settled on the meat place and as the sun set on the Baltic we eased in to our table with a great view of the Balitic and a little sticker shock from the wine list. We opted for water and a beer. After dinner we wandered to one of the show lounges to check out the action.

Karaoke was in full voice at our first stop. Not our usual cup of tea but we decided to stay and have one of those "foofoo" drinks with the little umbrellas. They were on special. We found ourselves a quiet corner of the room right beside the stage not planning to stay too long. Shortly after we settled in, a lovely couple of the non-heterosexual persuasion joined us in the corner. They were both giddy with the excitement at the thought of belting out a few tunes and perhaps having a few drinks. Over the next 20 minutes the gay population in our little corner of the world increased significantly with most pouring over the Karaoke menus looking for that one perfect song. Our plan to stay only a few minutes vanished as we became caught up in their infectious party atmosphere. We found out later that Stockholm was hosting a Gay Pride event the day we were to arrive. It was an interesting evening watching their interactions and it needs to be said that I was the only guy in the group who had a little umbrella in his drink. Oh and the ferries name was the Baltic Queen. It is all starting to dawn on me.

We will arrive in Stockholm at 10 AM tomorrow. One more border to cross.

That's Tallinn, With Two L's and Two N's

Estonia was not a place that appeared on Nonie and my radar for places to visit. I found it when I was investigating various options to depart Russia. Tallinn, the capital of Estonia is becoming the hot new place where tourists from all over the EU flock for some history and cheap, well at least cheaper than the rest of Europe prices. Estonia is a small country with a little more than 3,000,000 people, a third of who live in Tallinn.

Tallinn is compact little city with a stunning well maintained, 400+ year "Old Town" that still has many sections of the original wall that once circled the town providing protection from the invading Swedes. Yeah, Sweden actually invaded countries back a few hundred years. Now they leave the job of invading countries up to IKEA. I actually found the "Old Town" a little too perfect. They keep all the buildings in pristine condition and there is no seedy under belly left. I am sure that it was not this well kept 400 years ago. Did I mention there were too many tourists and too many options for dining. Nonie and I have difficulty making up our minds where and what to eat when there are too many choices. When this happens, we usually opt for fast food at a McDonalds or similar. Sad but true.

We spent most of our time in Tallinn wandering back and forth to "Old Town from lovely room at our hotel and casino. The hotel had a wonderful, free breakfast buffet and gave us some free loot to blow in the casino. We did take a short trip on the trolley cars. I was not sure how to purchase a ticket so we just sat down and looked for a free ride. Two stops later, the trolley police got on and we were busted. Thankfully, I played the "stupid tourist" card and they let us go with stern warning in Estonian as well as a demonstration on how to pay for our tickets. We did meet a lovely Estonia student who worked as a guide during the summer. She filled us in on all the great places to go and what places to avoid.

We leave by ferry for Stockholm and our final few days in Europe.

A Tale of Four Cities`

St. Petersburg is a city with a split personality. It is an old city with areas that reminded us of Prague minus the graffiti, a city crisscrossed with canals much like Venice without the gondolas, the Peterhof, a palace with magnificent gardens that rival Versailles and Peter Paul Fortress, a castle that compares with Karlstejn. The fortress, a monolithic structure that has protected St. Pete for for over four hundred years. The City is clean and full of tourists. So much to see and so little time.

An overnight train from Moscow saw us arrive early in the morning. A short walk brought us to our hotel. It was really a cross between a motel and and hostel. A mostel! Thankfully an early check in was not a problem, so into single camp cot like beds for a quick nap. We did not have to share our compartment on this our last train ride but sleep is still illusive on a rocking and rolling train, along with the early arrival, made a nap a priority.

The rest of the day was spent walking, walking, more walking with a little planning for our attack the next day on all the touristy spots we could fit in. Getting from point A to B in St. Pete was a challenge due to all the canals. We were always looking for a bridge. Feeling frisky, we decided to jump on the subway for a quick afternoon visit to Peter Paul Fortress as there was as subway stop right at the fortress and only one stop away from our location. We got off at the next stop to find our selves in the middle of busy commercial area. No sign of a fortress anywhere. Some struggle with that pesky Cyrillic alphabet and we realized we had over shot our destination. Nonie and I were both sure that we did not miss a stop but what the hey, back on the subway. Paying a little more attention on this return trip, we discovered that there is a stop there but is still under construction so we slowed down but did not stop. All the subway route maps show the Peter Paul stop, but nowhere do they mention that is closed. Oh well, we got to sit down for a few minutes.

Up early, we headed out to catch a hydro-foil to Peterhof. The weather was spotty and windy. We ran into one of the couples we met during our Trans-Siberian. They had taken the trip the day before. They had to take a bus back from Peterhof as the hydro-foil is very weather sensitive. A long trip. Armed with this information, we decide to pass on Peterhof and walk over to the Peter Paul Fortress then spend the afternoon in the Hermitage. The fortress was awesome and worth the second effort. A few hours turned into several, so we did not get back to the Hermitage till late in the afternoon.

The Hermitage is the repository of every piece of art that Russia has managed to amass over the last 400 years. It is so big, that if you were walk through every gallery, you would travel over 24 kilometres which was exactly how long the line of people was who were waiting to get in. After much agonizing, GASP we decided to be "drive by tourists". Get the picture and move on. It was Miller Time anyway and I needed one of those Russian beers. The Russians have perfected the art of making fine vodka but are still working on a good beer. Perhaps some Miller Litesky

We exit Russia tomorrow for Estonia and the beautiful medieval town of Tallaan. One more Russian border crossing to go!

The Moscow Girls Make Me Sing and Shout

Having grown up during the cold war, my visions of the Kremlin were coloured by the times and the emotions that were evoked during that period. The threat of mutual nuclear destruction left me with the image of a cold and dangerous place where the evil Mother Russians planned their nefarious deeds and plotted the take over of the free world. Nothing could be further from the truth now. It is far from a cold and dangerous but a treed oasis of stunning architecture with many of the buildings having once been churches. Our visit there was the highlight of our stay in Moscow. By the way, Red Square is not actually red but black. It was named the Red Square long before the Communists ruled there.



St. Basil's Cathedral is located in the square. If Disney were designing a cathedral, they would have used St. Basil's as their model. St. Basil's is a psychedelic array of swirling colors and redbrick onion domes. Nine domes top the cathedral. It was built to celebrate Ivan the Terrible's victory over the Mongols in 1522. It was named after the "holy fool". "Basil the Blessed" was a beggar who if you believe the images, ran around naked begging for money which he donated to the church and the poor.

We found Moscow very clean and cosmopolitan filled with beautiful women having the longest legs in the world. When God was handing out legs, the Moscow girls double dipped. When he was handing out customer service, most Muscovite's were playing hooky. Everyone seemed to walk around in perpetual scowls. Not the Harbin scowl where if you offered a quick smile you immediately received one back. Tried my most beatific smile on many only to receive back looks of "I wonder what he is smoking". Even the panhandlers scowled. Having said all this, we did meet a number of friendly people along the way, although not involved with the service industry.

We spent most of our time exploring the city from the street. Lots of "lost time" The Cyrillic letters were at times difficult to read but we found if you looked at the letters quickly then looked away, then looked again, you could get a sense of what the sign said. Didn't work every time, hence the "lost time". Looking forward to getting back to a country with a real alphabet.

We leave for St. Petersberg by bus. Looking forward to the border crossing.

The Siberian Express

We did not actually ride the Siberian Express because it is only a rumor. The trip is actually several different trains that eventually brings you to Vladivostok the terminus for the Siberian Express. We started our trip from Beijing on the Mongolian Express which terminates in Irkutsk where we became part of the Siberian railway route. The trip from Irkutsk to Moscow involved three and one half days. We crossed the line that marks the border of Asia and Europe along the way. If you do the entire Siberian route, it will take over 7 days and cover almost 9,000 kilometres. Our trip from Beijing cover over 7,000 kilometres, 5 nights and 6 days on the train.

We were joined in our four bed compartment by two Australian brothers about our age. They were at the beginning of what would be a four month trip through China, Mongolia, Russian and most of Europe. They were on their way to Berlin where a friend had purchased a camper van for them. They kept the trip interesting with their banter and continuous nattering at each other. We first met them at Galena's as they were staying there as well. We were also joined by the Taylor family whom we had spent some time with in Mongolia. They and their son Rory were going as far as Yekaterinburg.

Travel by train through Siberia is hard work and all done from a sitting position. Sleeping, eating, reading and playing, all while enjoying the changing landscape. Every once in a while, jumping off at a station to stretch and purchase various food stuffs to eat along the way. Eating in the dining car was always an experience. The staff were the most disinterested lot you could find anywhere. Taking your order was like having gall stones, painful, seemed to take for ever and totally unsatisfying when it was over. All that and you had to pay for it. It was so bad, it was actually funny. The bad service of the Siberian Express is a well documented phenomena and I now have the pictures which I will post at a later date.

The trip was a dream of mine for many years, not sure about Nonie. One more check in the box. Next stop, Mother Russian and the Kremlin. Pictures to follow.

To Russia With Love

Thankfully we met Irena and several other friendly and personable Russians over the last year because based on our travels through Russia, we would be led to believe that the Russians are not a particularly friendly people. It started with our 11 hour wait to get across the Mongolian and Russian borders. In 11 hours we managed to travel about 3 kilometres. I was told we had a speedy crossing. Hmmm! No strip or body cavity searches to break up the boredom.

We arrived in Irkutsk around 8:00 and were whisked away to Lake Baikal where we were spending a one night home stay with a local Russian family. Our room was tiny but the beds were soft and verrrrry comfortable. No door on our room, just a curtain and the toilet was outside. It was not as bad as it sounds. Our stay included all our meals and Galena did not disappoint. She was our Russian home stay host. She took it personal if we did not finish all the food that was put in front of us. Not a problem as it was all very tasty, made from many local ingredients. One especially tasty dish was the omul fish which is found only in Lake Baikal and is recommended that it be eaten with several glasses of vodka to avoid stomach problems. The hangover is optional.

Lake Baikal, Siberia is the deepest fresh water lake in the world. The lake could provide the drinking water for the entire world for at least forty years. It is so clear, you can see down over a 150 feet although it is over one mile deep in some spots. Did I mention it is also very cold, a balmy 8 degrees the day we arrived. It is said that if you swim in Lake Baikal you will increase your longevity by 25 years. Sounded good to me. Did I mention it was 8 degrees. I started my swim by a slow stepping immersion process. I had reached my calves when I started to have second thoughts about the need for an extra 25 years. I thought about it too long however as I lost the feeling in my feet and collapsed into the lake. I thrashed about for a few hours (perhaps only seconds) and struggled quickly out. My skin burned for several minutes after. The sensation was not unlike the feeling you get from frost bite. The boys disappeared and were not seen for some time. Luckily having children is not high in my priorities at this moment in my life.

The next day we were up early to catch a ferry across the lake and a train ride along the edge of the lake and back to Irkutsk where we overnighted in a hotel. The train ride was a slow but scenic trip. We stopped and visited several villages as well as a small protected bay where people picnicked and swam in the warmer (9 degrees) water of Lake Baikal. All in all, a nice way to spend a relaxing day. Did I mention that we had a cute personal guide that shepherded us for the entire trip. Got her to smile once or twice.


Irutsk is a modern looking city with lots of cafes and pubs to keep it interesting. We did not leave till the afternoon so we had several hours to explore the city. Tourism is just starting to evolve here with most staff having graduated with honours from the French school of tourism which believes the no matter who you are, you should be treated poorly and ignored as much as possible. Not a smile to be found anywhere. The three and one half day train ride to Moscow was starting to look good.

Smackdown in Mongolia

We left Sainschand on an overnight train to Ulaan Bataar. Luck was with us (me) as we shared our compartment with a cute Irish lass named Moreag. The trip was an over nighter and had us arriving at about 7:00 am the next morning. Moreag and Nonie took the top bunks and I the bottom as in all likelihood it would be me making the 3:00 am walk to the bathroom. About 4:00 am I awoke to this gentle moaning coming from the top bunks. Not a snore but more a soft low mooooaaaann. Knowing Nonie's snore, I realized quickly it was Moreag. I fell back to sleep secure in the knowledge that she was probably dreaming of me in the bottom bunk.

We arrived into Ulaan Bataar on the first day of the Nadaam Festival. The festival is celebrated all over Mongolia but the mother of all parties is in Ulaan Bataar, the capital of Mongolia. We were swept off the train and dropped off at a slightly run down stadium. The place was hopping with huge sumo-esque types wearing bathrobes, which we quickly deduced were wrestlers. Wrestling is huge in Mongolia and is a big part of the Nadaam Festival. It is not WWF wrestling. There is no ring, no masks or makeup. The match involves grappling with each other out in the middle of the stadium field till one of them manages to force the other's knee or shoulder to the ground. There are no weight classes so the small guys fight the big guys until there is just one man standing. The wrestling will go on for all three days of the festival.

From the stadium we were rushed out to the other big event of the Nadaam, horse racing. Not the typical North American horse race but a real horse race with the distance any where from 12 to 20 kilometres depending on the age of the horses. The race we were to watch involved horses who were at least 7 years old. The horses are ridden by young male jockeys, some not more than seven years old over a distance of 12 kilometres. You cannot watch the whole race only the finish but you can see them coming from a long ways off. The horses are ridden hard out for the whole race. Just where we were located we watched three horses collapse and die. We heard several more had collapsed and did not get up at the finish line as well. Not a great end to our day.

Our second ger (pronounced gar) camp was a step up from our first one with eight operating showers and hot water. We were still pumped up from the wrestling and perhaps a bottle (or two) of wine and next thing I know I was throwing it down with Aaron and some poor Singaporean honeymooner for the wrestling championship of the ger (pronounced gar) camp. But as you know what happens in Mongolia stays in Mongolia.

Next stop, Russia.

Giddeeyup!

Riding a camel is a bit like ridding a bike. A bike that has had the seat removed. Imagine sitting on a triangle, the pointy end. Then shake the triangle from side to side while moving it up in down in a jerky motion. You have just described a camel ride. Thankfully it only lasted a few minutes or I would never be able to have children. Thus started our second day on the Gobi Desert. I should mention that I just milked the camel so she may have been a bit cranky.

Fermented camels milk, or as it is affectionately known "white beer". We were served a mug while visiting the ger (pronounced gar) camp of a family of camel breeders. They wanted to get us drunk before we met the camels we were to ride. I realize now why. Nonie wins the prize for drinking all hers while I made it till the chunky parts. Will it catch on in North America? I don't think Molsons has anything to worry about.

Then it was off to the Black Mountain for a quick climb. You can see the Mountain from miles away as it is the highest point in the otherwise flat terrain. Climbed to the top for a great view. But men only. Women are not allowed to climb to the top. Some religious rule. A rule probably started by a Mongolian wife who did not feel the need to follow her husband up the hill on a hot Mongolian summer day. The upside, is if you get to the top, you can make a wish for yourself. I still waiting for mine to happen. If anyone hears that Shania is touring in Estonia in the next week, please let me know.

We did manage to fit in a quick visit to a site where they had discovered some dinosaur bones. Rory the five year old, son of our fellow travelers, the Taylor's, Aaron and Shelly, had been promised that we would be looking for dinosaur bones. Well if it is one thing the Gobi has, is lots of bones laying around. Despite its bucolic look it can be a tough place to live. To a young five year old, they were all dinosaur bones. He filled his backpack a couple of times over the two days. Mom and Dad had bought a real prehistoric tooth in Taiwan which was artfully seeded for him to find. He was ecstatic, thankfully as he was not taking all those other bones home. I can just see the look on the face of the customs guy who looked into that suitcase if he had taken them all.

Back to the ger (pronounced gar) camp for lunch, a nap and then on to the train station for an overnight to Ulaan Baatar where we are to enjoy a day at the Nadaam Festival then on to another ger (pronounced gar) camp which I am told is nicer than the first one.

Five Bars Over Mongolia

For you Blackberry addicts, you will be pleased to know that no matter where you are on the Gobi Desert, you can get cell phone connections. I could not get it in my apartment in Penticton but miles in the middle of nowhere in Mongolia, we are getting five bars. Telus should hire some Mongolians to work on their cell system. After a short 16 hour train ride from Beijing we arrived in Sainschand Mongolia at about 5:00 am. Most of the time was spent at the border dealing with immigration issues. After a pleasant strip search and some scowls we were allowed to leave China and enter Mongolia.
Our first stop was a ger (pronounced gar) camp located about 2o kilometres from Sainschand where we were to spend two nights. It was a basic camp with not a lot of amenities. Our ger (pronounced gar) was nicely appointed but the washrooms were a couple of 100 feet away. A long trip at around four in the morning with a wonky flashlight. One shower that sort of worked if you squatted down to use it as there was not enough water pressure to push it all the way to the end of the spray nozzle if you were standing. Some hot water, but cold showers were the order of the day. After all we were in the Gobi Desert.
The Gobi is not all sand dunes, most of it is made up of thin scrub where camels, sheep, goats and horses can find a few things to eat. Raising these animals is still the way of life for most Mongolians living in the Gobi. The live in gers (pronounced gars) and migrate at least three or four times a year. Mostly to assure that the camels, goats, sheep and horses have something to eat and to prevent over grazing.
A short nap and some breakfast, we headed out to a Monastery called Khamar. It has existed in the middle of the desert for almost 200 years. It it located here as it is near a source of some kind of power. It is a working monastery still today. There seems to be a huge deposit of iron in the area as the landscape is dotted with huge mounds of red dirt. Perhaps the power is magnetic. Despite the fact of its remote location, it was very busy with a few tourists but mostly Mongolians come to worship.
We were joined on our adventures by a couple and their young son. Americans currently living in Taiwan. We were stuffed into a minivan and transported around the Gobi at breakneck speeds over roads that had not existed a week before. If there was no road, we just sort of headed into the right direction. We got stuck in the sand once. But there was enough of us to push ourselves back on to solid ground. Not a problem. We could have easily called MAA (Mongolian Automobile Association) to send out some tow-camels. Remember we have great cell phone reception.

Later on our return to the ger (pronounced gar) camp, we came across a well where a Mongolian family was watering their goats, sheep, cattle and camels. They dropped huge canvas bags down into the well, pulled them up and dumped them into troughs where the camels, sheep, goats jockeyed for position get a drink. Finished, they jumped into their old truck (after using a big hand crank to get it started) and a couple of motorcycles and roared off home while the animals meandered off to find something to eat. It was a great end to our first day in Mongolia.

The New Adventure Begins

Dropped into the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube on our first day in Beijing. It seemed appropriate as our new adventure involves a job working in the Athletes Village for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. I start on August 10 and will be let go mid April. I had not planned to work in facilities ever again, but this is an opportunity that I cannot let go by. It means delaying our return to China by a year but it is an experience that will be just as exciting and mind boggling as our past year has been. Nonie and I plan to rent a nice condo in downtown Vancouver for the time we are there. Close to work and all the good (and bad) things that Vancouver has to offer. You are all welcome to visit us if you get the notion.


We spent our last day in Beijing with our friend Chao. We met Chao in our first few weeks in Harbin. He was hanging out in the hall outside my classroom. He was looking for some help to polish his English on his resume he was making for grant applications to US universities. We took the project on and happy to say he was accepted with a full scholarship to Texas A & M starting this fall. We hope to see him some time in Vancouver if he can fit it in.

We depart for Mongolia on Tuesday July 6th. Getting excited.

The Fat Lady Has Sung

The last week in Harbin was a whirlwind of lunches and dinners saying goodbyes to departing friends. It culminated on Friday night when we introduced the concept of "pot luck" to our Chinese friends. We feasted KFC, delicous quiches, pizza, rice balls and thanks to Tom and Aileen, fresh grilled hamburgers. Lots of food, beer and laughs

Saturday was departure day and a sad day for us. The younguns have been a wonderful part of our life for the last year and we are taking away some great memories. Takae, the daughter we never had. Branson, the rogue son who's antics both thrilled and dismayed us. Brian the enigma with the dryest sense of humour (That's humor for Brian) this side of the Gobi. Tom, our quiet son with a lot to say. Edoardo, our long lost Italian son who shepherded Nonie safely around Harbin and always made us feel special.

A big thanks to our friends Justin and Janie, who helped us in so many ways. We so enjoyed sharing our traditions with them, we will miss their smiles and thier friendship.

Many things went unsaid Saturday morning but were expressed in the fierce hugs we gave each other. We look forward to the future and the opportunity to meet them all again.

Our newest adventures began when we entered the car for the aiport.

It's a Girl!

Nonie and I would like to introduce you to the latest addition to the Cornell Dynasty. Unlike the Qing Dynasty who faded into obscurity, we continue to beat the odds and make babies. Sweet! Her name is Isla (Eye-la)Jean and she entered the world in the early morning of June 23rd at a whopping 7 pounds and 7+ ounces. Granmma and Grampa are doing fine. Oh and mom is too. Dad is still wondering what happened to the dangly bit but I will explain it to him when we see him at the beginning of August. The perils of having the "TALK" so early in his childhood as he has forgotten the "girls are different from boys" segment of the "TALK". We didn't have access to PowerPoint presentations back then. Although he did manage to make a baby. Hmmm?

Having had only boys to raise and no nieces close by, we are a little lost as to what the protocols are for baby girls. No help here in China where the male child still remains supreme, especially with the " one family, one child" rule. As all good grandparents do, we will make decisions based on what feels good and to hell with the future consequences. "To raise a child is great but to spoil is divine."

In China, children are either spoiled or forgotten depending on the economic circumstances of the family. There is a huge divide between how a child is raised if you are a have or have not. Some of my students have not seen their fathers except for a few times a year when they return for short vacations from jobs that may be thousands of mile away from their home province. Moving your family to where you work is closely regulated and not easy to do. There are over 150,000,000 itinerant workers in China so you can imagine the number of children growing up in a one parent household. Sometimes both parents must move to where the work is but thankfully grandparents quite often fill the void of the missing parents.

For the most part, children are revered here and no sacrifice is too great for parents to make so that their children can live a better life than they did. Parental sacrifices are a recurring theme that we have heard from a few of our students. Hearing these stories, sometimes made me feel remorseful as I do not remember much sacrifice when we were raising our two boys but then sacrifice is in the eye of the beholder.

We are busy this week with goodbye dinners and a little adminstration work. We have already said goodbye to Brian with others following every couple of days. There have been a few tears shed and I suspect a few more to come.

We're Back

Thanks to our in-house computor wizard we have regained access to our blog site. It seems that big brother "C" feels that unedited access to blogs is not healthy for young minds so has blocked access to all off shore blog sites. I am not sure if they have even read my blog so I guess I can't take it too personal. I have probably put a few censors to sleep over the last ten months.

Glad to be back as this will be the only way I will remember what the heck we have done over the last fifteen months. (Censors take notice: I avoided the hell word)

We have been busy so I will just give you a quick recap. We made it safely back from Shanghai. We were successful in obtaining our visas for Russia and Mongolia. Tickets and travel arrangements have been finalized for our return to Canada. Completed our last class on Friday night with a little administration work left for next week. Had many long lunches and a few dinners with friends. Gave a boring presentation entitled "Growing Old in Canada: 6 Decades of Change", not a big turnout. Did a little local sight seeing during the "Dragon Boat Festival" holiday. Had planned to go to Beijing but opted to save some money and stay local. Introduced our Chinese friends to the concept of "brunch". It may catch on.

We will leave for Beijing next Saturday and then two days later leave for Mongolia and home. Will hopefully keep you all enthralled with our newest adventures as we proceed around the world.

Stay tuned for the bestest news yet along with pictures.

Shanghai, The Old and the New

The history of Shanghai goes back to the 10th Century when it began life as a small market town. It became a home to 250,000 refugees when a sudden feudal war broke out in Kafeng, one of the seven ancient capitals of China. Over the next 10 centuries it continued to grow in stature, as a cotton and textile producing area, as well as due to it's location at the mouth of the Yangstze River. Trade between China and Europe became brisk with Shanghai playing host to the British, Americans, Germans and French. The growth of the cotton industry in 19 Century Europe and the Americas slowly destroyed the cotton industry in Shanghai and its stature started to wane. During the Sino-Japanese war over the Korean Peninsula in 1894, the Japanese became the controlling partner in Shanghai and began to build factories to take advantage of the cheap labour force that had relocated to Shanghai due to the war. Japan was soon followed by the rest of the western world and thus the industrial power house that is Shanghai was born. 

We woke up Saturday to a sunny and comfortable morning and a lovely Chinese/Western breakfast. Our plans were first to head over to the Pudong side of the river and explore all those shiny new buildings. We were to take a shuttle train that travelled between the two riverbanks in a tunnel under the river located only a block from our hotel.   We arrived to find it closed due to construction. Plan B had us take a stroll down E. Nanjing St. to gawk at the fancy shops and find our way to the Peoples Park.  We arrived about 10:30 to find the park just starting to fill up. There are two subway stops located in the park and there was a continuous line of people exiting out into the park.  It was a little like the line of ants you see marching from their nests, all heading in the same direction and following the ant in front.  We explored the park and headed over to the Shanghai Museum or what looked like a museum.  Whoa, no crowds. Excellent. We quickly jumped into line, whoa, tickets on sale for half price, whoa, can it get any better?  We followed the crowd inside.  Whoa, wrong museum.  We found ourselves in the Shanghai Museum of Architecture.  Oh well, I really wanted to go there anyway.  Shanghai has some of the most stunning buildings I have ever seen. It was nice to be able to see them all in one place. 

 The park was getting busy so we took the plunge down into the subway for a quick two stop run across the river to Pudong.  We exited out into the sunlight to find ourselves surrounded by 8ft. high steel construction walls on all sides. It seemed like the entire Pudong was under construction.  Following the crowd along narrow walkways we eventually found an area that was not under construction and provided a fabulous view of the Pudong landscape of award winning architecture. We also had our second "sea of humanity" experience.  It seemed like the entire population of Shanghai was headed to one of the architectural wonders located in the Pudong.  It  is a huge tri-pod shaped tower called the "Pearl".  It is home to a Shanghai television station and a tourist event much like the Empire State Building, with the most convoluted ticketing system ever invented.  There were over 10 different tickets that you could purchase with a myriad of options.  I just wanted to go to the top, but you can't just go to the top, you have to visit a bunch of other stuff and pay for it.  There was a massive lineup just to get into another massive line up that got you to another lineup for tickets. Nah! We decided just to wander around the Pudong and enjoy it from the ground.  As we made our way away from the architectural wonder, the crowds started to thin our til it seemed like it was just Nonie and I. The rest of the Pudong area was deserted.  

Our biggest challenge was trying to find our way around all those damn construction fences. The Chinese seem to have a huge surplus and they are not afraid to use them.  Everywhere we wanted to go was blocked and involved an extra 500 metres of trekking around these fences, just so we could travel 100 metres.  We did stumble across a cute little park with it own lake or that's what the sign called it. It was really just a glorified pond but at least it did not have any construction fencing.  By now we had consumed much water and a bathroom break was becoming imminent.  I spotted a nearby McDonald's sign, always a home of clean washrooms, so we headed over that way.  Aaaagh, only to find those damn construction fences were keeping us from that lovely porcelain.  After much cursing we backtracked down this alley and through a construction site to finally arrive.  Ahhhh!  We took advantage of the break and had a large  fry and a couple of cold Cokes.  

After a little more wandering around and more stunning architecture we had had enough and we waded back into the "Sea of Humanity" for a return subway trip home and supper.  We took a few moments back at the hotel for a rest then a quiet dinner in the hotel dining room complete with a cute Chinglish menu and pseudo Western food such as the ever popular spaghetti with tomato soup sauce.   After dinner and a half bottle of fine Chinese wine under our belt, we again waded out into the Bund to try and find the river cruise dock for a nice evening cruise around the Pudong.   We found it not as busy as Friday night.  We  were not pushed along so much as led along.  We made the assumption that the crowd knew where they were going and went with the flow.  We were correct as we eventually reached a temporary pedestrian bridge that took us across the barricaded street to small chunk of the riverbank that was not under construction and was left for the tourists to jam themselves into. And jammed we were.  We eventually found an small area that allowed us a clear unobstructed view of the lights of Pudong and the effort was worth it.  It was quite a show.  We watched a video of a 35 story high butterfly unfolding it's wings and taking flight.  Took my breath away.  

It was now just about 8:00 and the crowd actually seemed to be thinning out.  We wandered around looking at the various boat options for river cruises and after careful consideration, did not find any that looked seaworthy enough for us to risk our lives on.  All the really nice ones seemed to be docking somewhere else.  It had been spitting rain on and off, so it was time  to go home for a wee drink from the last half of the bottle of wine  and some napping in front of the ever present English news channels that seem to populate Chinese cable.  But luck was with us and we found one Channel playing an English movie with Chinese subtitles. 

Tomorrow we are headed for a breakfast of Starbucks muffins and a Cafe American.  Ahh! Can it get any better?

Shanghai Baby

As we walked the streets we were greeted everywhere by a "sea of humanity". Over the years, I have heard or read this phrase on dozens of occasions and always thought I had an inkling of what the phrase meant. I was wrong, at least until last Friday night on the Bund in Shanghai. We arrived at Pudong/Shanghai International Airport on Friday in the early afternoon. The waiting areas seemed abandoned as we exited the plane and made our way to the luggage area. We found ourselves the only passengers in a massive hall where we were greeted by eight huge, empty carousels. At that moment, I casually thought to myself that I had expected Shanghai would be busier than this. Our luggage arrived quickly and we made our way through the airport to the MagLev Train station.

The MagLev would shuttle us to the closest subway station. We virtually had an entire car to ourselves. We quickly got up to speed. Did I mention that the MagLev reaches a top speed of 450 kph? I took a moment to send a high speed, 450 kph text to our colleagues in Harbin. As we sped past cars on the adjacent freeway, they seemed to be going backwards. As quickly as the train got up to speed it slowed down and we arrived at the subway stop in under 8 minutes. The subway car was nearly empty and we were able to get seats. We had three stops to reach the one nearest our hotel. At the next stop we found that station a little busier but the last stop before ours was very crowded and our car quickly filled to capacity. As we neared our stop we fought our way to the door in preparation to disembark. As the car rolled to a halt and the doors opened, we were greeted by a mass of people anxious to board the car with no time or patience to let people off. I know now how a salmon feels trying to swim up stream. I grabbed Nonie and we pushed our way through the crowd. It seemed like all the riders in all the cars were leaving at this stop. We just let ourselves be pushed along trusting the crowd knew where they were going and would deliver us to an exit. With memories of having Nonie's purse pickpocketed as we departed a subway station in London, we clutched our belongings securely as we flowed through the station.

We were eventually spit out onto East Nanjing St., a busy pedestrian shopping street in central Shanghai. It took us a few minutes to get oriented and find the correct direction to our hotel, about a ten minute walk away. We took a few hours to relax in our room before heading out to see the sights.

Our hotel was only half a block up from the Bund. The Bund is a street/quasi park that runs along the Huangpu River and stares across to the Pudong District of Shanghai. The Bund was the Wall Street of old Shanghai with most of the buildings built in the 1930's and where fortunes of the robber barons were made and lost. Across the river is the Pudong New Area. The area did not exist eleven years ago and is now home to some of the world's most stunning and possibly most gaudy architecture. The panorama that you see behind Nonie and I is only a small part of the view and has only existed since about 1997 and later.

We found the Bund completely dug up and under construction. A eight foot wall had been erected between the sidewalk and the street and the river. We could barely see the skyline of Pudong over the fence. We turned right, looking to find a break in the construction so we could cross the street and reach the riverbank for a clearer view. The complete renovation of the riverside along the Bund had been started about two weeks before we arrived. It is scheduled to be complete in time for the 2010 World Exposition that will be held in Shanghai next May 1, exactly a year from the day we arrived in Shanghai.

We eventually found our way to the extreme end of the Bund where we found a hotel with a nice and virtually empty deck overlooking the river and Pudong. We grabbed a table, ordered a drink and prepared to watch the sun set and the lights of the Pudong skyline appear as darkness fell. It was stunning to watch as the faces of huge highrise buildings were turned into giant video screens. I kept losing track as I tried to count the number of floors used for showing these advertising videos. Vegas has nothing on this show.

Drinks done, we strolled back towards the Bund, hoping to find another break in the construction that would allow us to get a different view of Pudong skyline. As we moved deeper into the Bund, the crowds grew in every increasing numbers. Five blocks later, with no break in the construction in sight, we found ourselves being pushed along buy a "sea of humanity". It just sort of happened. We really did not notice until we decided to turn around and return to our hotel only to find ourselves facing a wall of people all heading in the opposite direction from the one we wanted to go. As we were close to a cross street, Nonie and I decided to fight our way to the corner thinking that once we got off the Bund, we could move more freely. This thought was quickly dispelled as we turned the corner only to find thousands more visitors streaming down the street, drawn to the Bund and lights of the Pudong skyline. It was a bruising return to our hotel.

This was our introduction to the beautiful and exotic city of Shanghai. A scene that we would face a few more times as we explored this city of 17,000,000.

Goodbye Leah

We said farewell to one of our colleagues this past weekend and the American contingent is down one of their prettiest members. A small gathering was held at the Cornell's to celebrate Leah's new beginning and our loss. We will miss her ever present smile that could been seen from a block away and her patience in always being there to help us out of a jam with her excellent Chinese. She is returning to London to visit with her Grandparents then on to spend some quality time with her family in Massachusetts before joining main squeeze Will in England to begin a new phase in their life. Will, the only British member of our group will continue teaching till the end of the semester and after a little travel in China, will return to England to begin his duties as a teacher in the Chinese Department of a posh public school. In England, they call private schools, public schools. Still trying to figure that one out.


A number of our group will be saying goodbye at the end of the semester so there will be a few more goodbyes to be had. I have said this before but I will say it again. It was so easy to bond with these kids. I am sure that some psychological mumbo-jumbo could explain our feelings but this will somehow spoil what has been a wonderful moment in our life. Who cares why, it just happened and our lives are better for it. Sometimes it is better not to know how, but just to savor those moments.

"Stay in touch" is so easy to say, but over the years Nonie and I found it was easier said than done. But this time Nonie and I will stay in touch with this crazy bunch. We just gotta know!

For reasons that will come up in future blogs, Nonie and I will not be returning to Harbin next semester. It was a difficult decision.But don't worry, the adventure continues. Stay tuned.

Welcome To Middle Age

I had to break the bad news to our birthday boy, Edoardo, that he can no longer qualify as a youngun since he has now officially entered middle age or the Dark Side as I like to call it. "Luke, You are starting to sound like your Father". (sotto voci Darth Vader) I made a grown Italian man cry. I quickly told him that he was eligible to maintain his youngun status for another five years by acting as a mentor to the other younguns. Sort of like the Past President position maintained by many organizations, created to allow the passing on of all the accumulated wisdom of the policies and procedures of the organization. Of course he will discover that the younguns won't listen as they fully believe they know everything and that what input he has is ancient and of little use in their lives. Those of us who have entered our senior years have had to face that stigma for the last 25 years so it is now second nature to us, to be regulated to "old news" status.

We celebrated his birthday on Saturday night with a lovely meal in a large private room at a local restaurant with over 20 people attending. Most Chinese restaurants provide one or more rooms for their guests to dine in privacy. The nicer ones provide only private rooms and have no public seating areas. Some of the larger restaurants occupy 3 or more floors of a building with small rooms seating 8 and growing to larger rooms with seating for up to 20 or more. The room will always have a round table with a Lazy Susan occupying the centre of the table. The Lazy Susan on a table for 20+ is huge but it may need to hold 15-20 different dishes. The one on our table was a round piece of 1/2" glass over 5' in diameter. It looked strong enough to stop a puck.

There is some unwritten rule about the ratio of the number of food dishes to people but I have yet to figure it out. I think it is based solely on the appetite of the person or persons ordering the meal. Kind of like the rule "never go grocery shopping when you are hungry as you will have a tendency to buy too much". Ordering food is quite a process. Some restaurants have the food artfully displayed on tables in a room usually located where you enter the restaurant while other make do with pictures. You point to the dishes you want or in some cases, to the fish swimming around in huge tanks. Over the last year we have seen some interesting dishes. From live silk worms to turtles poking their little heads out and staring at you as you ponder their fate.

You return to your room and twenty minutes later the dishes start arriving. Typically, they will arrive one at a time, delivered 5 or 10 minutes apart. Once a few dishes have arrived people will start to eat while more dishes continue to arrive over the next 40 minutes or so. The Lazy Susan will be in continuous motion so you need to be quick when one of your favorite dishes goes by. That is a challenge for me as I have not grasped the intricacies of chopstick use yet. I think it has something to do with the missing piece of my thumb. There are no serving spoons for the dishes, you just dig in with your chopsticks. This can involve lots of work as most dishes are usually carved up into small chopstick size portions so it can involve quite a few transfers to your plate. The plates are usually no larger than a coaster making it difficult to pile on a lot of food. This helps to reduce your food intake and may explain my shedding pounds during our time in China.

The nicer rooms will also contain couches, and all the makings for a karaoke party. Wandering around the restaurant, you will often hear some really bad singing. The room is yours for as long as you want it so most diners make a night of it. You can carry on as crazily as you want, as long as you keep it in your room. As a long time people watcher, the private rooms do not satisfy my needs but it is more civilized. Nothing can spoil a nice meal than watching some sloppy drunk at the next table unless he is your sloppy drunk.

Life has settled into a nice rhythm since Nonie has returned, with long lunches and surprisingly late nights for us. Our switch to late afternoon and evening classes has thrown both our Circadian clocks into disarray. We are staying up till 10, sometimes 11 o'clock at night and sleeping in till 6:30 or 7:00. I not sure if we will become night owls but it is actually a nice change all be it a temporary one.

A Chinese Easter

Unlike Christmas, Easter passed relatively quietly in Harbin. The only signs we saw were a few posters of cartoon Easter bunnies in the window of the local Pizza Hut franchise. The Chinese have not embraced Easter as they have Christmas. Not sure of the reason. Perhaps the religious tones of Easter are so much stronger than the Christmas.

Nonie, who is always thinking, brought back all the fixings for an Easter egg decorating party. So Saturday was set aside to have the younguns over.Much like our Christmas tree ornament making party, they immediately jumped into the spirit of the moment creating some truly unique designs and patterns on their hard boiled eggs. White eggs do not exist in Harbin, brown only. This created some interesting colors after the eggs were removed from the dyes.

Faberge had better watch out if the Chinese should take it into their minds to start creating those beautiful and intricate egg creations. We had to make it very clear to some of our guests that even though the eggs were hard boiled, they would not keep for ever and would need to be eaten or thrown away. Much to their consternation as they did not want to destroy all their hard work. The afternoon included a highly competitive Easter Egg Hunt and finished with a piece of Easter Bunny cake and ice cream.

Nonie has had a successful return to the classroom. Her Friday students presented her with a lovely bouquet of flowers and a small wall hanging to welcome her back. That is just another of example of the kindness that we experience almost every day from the Chinese. I will miss these little civilities when we leave China.

We will be celebrating the thirtieth birthday of one of the younguns this weekend. I sense a party in the wind. More next blog.

Seven Weeks, One Day, Four Hours

Nonie has landed safely back in Harbin. Seven weeks, one day, four hours snce we last saw each other. This is longest we have been apart since we first met on November 30th, 1973. She experienced no problems along the way. All her flights were on time with her luggage arriving in Harbin at the same time as she did. I can relax now. Tom, a fellow Canadian has lost his luggage on three out of four trips back and forth between Canada and China. I think that I can count on two fingers, the number of times we have lost luggage in all our years of travelling. I would like to say it is all due to careful planning but I cannot in all honesty claim that. We have had some hairy connections over the years. I remember one that had us running through LAX like O.J. Simpson on his way to the Hertz counter. We arrived 90 minutes late to catch a connecting flight in another terminal. We made it to the gate only to find we had been given the wrong gate number on our boarding passes. This little glitch required another Simpson like dash to the other side of the terminal. Despite this, our bags managed to arrive with us in Vancouver. Perhaps we should have let the baggage handlers get us to the correct gate.

Nonie arrived to a impromptu hall party organized by the younguns. They were as thrilled to have her back in Harbin as I was. She was greeted by a huge bouquet of balloons and a welcome home sign decorating the elevator lobby on our floor. Lately, the lobby has been the location of a number of social gatherings. It has a nice couch and two comfortable chairs with more room for a crowd then in our apartments. Word quickly spread around the building of Nonie's return and the lobby was soon filled with well wishers. Even the building staff wandered up to say hello. I am constantly amazed at how quickly we have bonded with the people here. Most are in their twenties and they remind us so much of our own kids. Full of life and way to much confidence. It will be difficult to say goodbye over the next few months.

Happy Qing Ming Day

It was a quiet long weekend with only the sound of money being burned in the streets. As I wandered each evening, I came across small fires burning on just about every street. On one small block , I counted 14 fires. It was quite windy, so the flaming embers were blowing every where. It was a very surreal atmosphere. And thus began my introduction to the Qing Ming festival. Qing Ming is a time for the Chinese to honour their ancestors and departed loved ones. Tombs and grave sites are cleaned and offerings of tea, flowers, food, wine, joss paper accessories and perhaps a small libation are left on the tomb for the enjoyment of their ancestors. Starting early in the week, market stalls opened up on every block selling all the necessary items for a successful Qing Ming. The colourful packages contain stacks of joss or rice paper and bricks of paper money wrapped in red or gold foil.

One of the rites of Qing Ming involves the burning of offerings. The traditional belief of the Chinese is "when someone dies, their spirit goes to the afterlife or Hell". Hell in their sense is not like our Hell, it is a kinder, gentler place. Here the spirit lives on doing much the same things as they did in life. But, to do this the spirits still need money. Wait a minute, maybe it is like our Hell. Those surviving want to assure that their ancestors have a comfortable after life so they burn different offerings including cash. The money is actually play notes and are called "Hell Money". The notes are quite colourful imprinted with lotus flowers, thistles, dragons, and pots of gold. They also burn facsimiles of cars, houses, watches and even cell phones. It seemed to me that the joss or rice paper was the most popular for burning.

The ceremony begins by laying the offering down on the street or sidewalk. Many of the celebrants carried a stick or branch. The branches may have been willow as the Chinese believe that willow branches can help ward off evil ghosts that wander about on Qing Ming. They take the branch and draw a circle several times around the offering, then set it on fire. There were many different styles. Some lit the entire offering at once, while others slowly fed small portions into the fire. All this was done in silence. As I walked around, I had to be careful where I stepped as there were literally dozens of small ash piles littering the streets from previous ceremonies. I returned early the next morning to get a picture but too late, they were gone. Judging by the numbers of fires I saw over the three or four days, the GDP of Hell will not be experiencing a "financial crisis".

My baby is back safely in the fold. More in the next blog.

Ten Reasons Spring Has Arrived

1. My nose is running continuously.
2. Basketball is going on non-stop morning to night.
3. The street vendors have shown up everywhere with more coming every day
4. The dogs have shed their cute little winter coats for cute little spring coats
5. The canvas door screens are disappearing from all the entrance doors and are being replaced by the lighter plastic ones.
6. The little woolen booties covering the metal door handles have all but disappeared.
7. Tables are showing up outside a few of the neighborhood restaurants.
8. The bottled beverages are disappearing off dorm window sills. Students are looking for cooler places to store their beer.
9. The leeks and cabbage that once hung from every balcony and window have about all but disappeared and been replaced by laundry.
10. Thick woolly long underwear has disappeared off store shelves or has gone on sale for deep discounts

Good news. My baby's coming back. Nonie was given the go ahead to fly this week and will be back in Harbin next week. Exactly seven weeks,one day and 4 hours since we parted company in Penticton. This has the longest we have been apart since we met on November 21, 1973. Thanks to Skype, it has not been as bad as it could have been.

I have now completed five weeks of teaching and thought perhaps a few comments on our new group of students would be in order. The students are all third year juniors, supposedly the creme de la creme of the junior students. They are all expected to enter the graduate program at HIT when they complete their fourth year. Nonie and I were given the classes as we work for the grad department in foreign languages.

My first impression of the juniors was based on our experiences with the Grad students and I quickly assumed these students had a much higher level of skill as they appeared confident, almost brash in speaking English. In the early weeks of our first semester, getting the Grad students to talk was a major hurdle for Nonie and I. The high level of confidence displayed by the juniors led me to falsely believe that they had a much greater skill level than the Grad students. Now five weeks in I find that on the whole their proficiency in English is at only a slightly higher level than the Grads but their confidence to speak is certainly at the next level.

Our grad classes were formed based on marks that the students received in placement exams they took at the beginning of the semester. This allowed for a reasonable balance of skills in each class. The makeup of our current classes are around the students majors and the skill balance of each class is definitely broader. It presents a few challenges to assure everyone is on the same page when giving instructions. Something that I struggle with sometimes. The students look out for each other and will help others when my directions become a little blurry. I now spend a bit more time soliciting feedback from students to assure that they are getting it. Giving instructions was an area I sucked at during our TESOL course. (If you are reading this Sean, I know, I know!)

While there is only a few years separating the Grad students and the juniors, there is a great divide when it comes to their maturity levels. That coupled with the lack of young women can make for a very loud and boisterous classroom at times. I got the stink eye from a teacher who was teaching in the adjacent class on my first night. But despite the lack of maturity, most seem to have a higher confidence level than the Grads. They almost seem empowered, perhaps by their standing as the top students in HIT.

Despite the differences, it has been an enjoyable five weeks in the classroom. Our schedule is not as favourable this semester. All our classes are in the late afternoon and evenings. I have been slow to adjusting to this as I am a morning person. I get home from classes around 8:30-9:00 PM but find myself a little to wound up to go to bed right away so stay up another hour or so. Now my usual 6:00 AM wake up has moved to 7:00 AM. I think that no longer qualifies me as a morning person. Not sure of the rules.

This weekend is a long weekend so planning to be very lazy.