Warning -Epiphany Alert with Dessert

While rereading my previous blog, I was struck by an epiphany. It is not "Living Chinese" that creates our adventures but "Living Canadian in China" that is our problem. Things are different here, to say the least and every day we are faced with that fact. Rather than accept it, we are constantly looking for reminders of home or opportunities to enjoy something, anything that reminds us of the lifestyle we left behind. Something as simple as finding a jar of Skipy sends shivers of excitement down our spine. It is not easy embracing a totally different culture, in fact I would suggest impossible. I have discovered a new found respect and understanding for people who have the courage to immigrate to a new life in a new world. I can now understand their need to retain a bit of their old life style and culture. Nonie and I get to go home when we have had enough, our life in Canada was just put on hold or a while. Makes it so much easier to live as we do, knowing we always have a safe haven to return to.

December has flown by. This is the first opportunity I have had to access our blog in a while. The Great Wall continues to make it difficult to get to it on a regular basis and when I do, it is so sloooooooow. Downloading a picture can take an eternity. Well actually, about 2 minutes, but when you are used to instantaneous access to everything, 2 minutes can seem like forever.

The "Second All Most Annual Christmas Ornament Making for the Cornell's Cheap Christmas Tree Party" was a success. We managed once again, to con all our friends and colleagues into creating wonderful and inventive ornaments for our Christmas tree. All for free. Well Nonie did provide some of her fabulous desserts as an incentive for their artistry. It took her the better part of a weekend to prepare.

She was joined by Janie and Eiko for the baking part and Justin for the Gingerbread cooking decorating part. Justin is from Inner Mongolia so the Gingerbread Men started to look more like Gingerbread Mongols especially when they started attacking and subjugating the Shortbread Santa cookies.

We have spent the last week listening to our students complete their final exams. The exams consist of a 6 minute unscripted conversation between two students followed by a few questions to test their comprehension. I have listened to over 50 conversations this week, perhaps one was unscripted. Another 50 or so conversations to be heard next week. Peking Opera is starting to sound like a much better option.

We have a winner from our most recent reader contest. Once again the Warners have come from nowhere and guessed that there are three Canadians in the picture. Please note the decorative tattoos on two of the Canadians. The rest of you should have looked much closer at the picture. For thier trouble the Warners have won a brand new Ford ????. Drive safely Warners.

Stay tuned for the rogue goats.

Living Chinese

I have been using this term quite a bit lately, so I thought you might be interested in what it means to us. I am sure you have all put your own definition to what you think we mean but perhaps a little clarity to elucidate your fuzzification on what we mean when we say "Living Chinese". I believe it can be best defined through a series of small vignettes (stories for you Americans) that will demonstrate the act of "living Chinese". The term defies a single definition, but is more of a condition of life in China. It is not bad or good but always arrives unexpected, yet in the back or your mind it is always expected.
Our China Part Deux has been exceedingly easier for us but it is not been with out it's challenges and our biggest challenge, not being able to read the language. We can be looking for something or some place and one day find it right down the street by accident. It has always been there, plain as the signage it is written on. We however cannot understand the signage so it is easily overlooked in the hurly burly of life. We miss opportunities on a daily basis because we lack the ability to read the darn signs. Since we first arrived in Harbin, we have been walking over 20 blocks to buy peanut butter only to discover last week that it is available and has always been available in a market just off campus. Thankfully Skippy cannot be written in Chinese characters and so was written in pinyin on the sale sign. Pinyin is the Chinese characters translated into sounds using our recognizable alphabet and was done to assist poor Laowai (Pinyin for foreigners) to read Chinese phonetically. Our eyes
were drawn to the sign with the pinyin Skipy on it and voila, a new source of peanut butter.


This year Thanksgiving was arranged by a Newfie laowai ( East Coast Canadian) and was held at the local Holiday Inn. We were promised turkey, mashed potatoes and a bunch of other stuff nobody cared about. Not sure why a Canadian was organizing an American holiday but hey, that's what makes us Canadians. I digress. We arrived early at the hotel and were greeted by the delicious aroma of freshly cooked turkey. There sitting on the counter of the bar was a small (12-15 lbs) beautifully cooked tom ready for carving. Salivating, we impatiently waited for the carving to begin. At the appointed time we rushed the turkey guy who proceed to cut the most miserly portions. No matter how sadly you gazed into his steely eyes and begged for more, he denied every request and continued to mete out tablespoon size portions of turkey. Okay, no problem, we are wise in the ways of the Buffet, we will just go back for seconds, thirds, fourths, fifths and so on and so on. I did not put my Buffet pants on for nothing. The miserly portions were our clue that the hotel had only cooked one turkey. Thankfully we figured it our early and after five or so trips managed to put a little turkey away in a plastic bag for what must have been the smallest turkey sandwich ever seen on a Canadians dinner table. There were over 50 guests for dinner that night and if you arrived a little late, you were forced to choke down some Thanksgiving barbecued chicken brought in from a restaurant around the corner. Of course there was plenty of pork and fried rice so no one went home hungry. Living Chinese.


We held our 2nd All Most Annual HIT Foreign Teachers Ping Pong Tournament this past week. 13 contestants representing over half of the populated world. Winning countries included Russia, America, Japan, and of course no ping pong podium would be complete with out a Chinese member. Congratulations to Abbas, the Powerful Persian. The Iranian powerhouse dominated the American branson in a match that went the distance in the A Division.


Another contest for our regular readers. "Find the Canadians" in the picture above. Name them all, send us an email with all their names and win a chance for some fabulous prizes. I have attached a picture of our previous winners enjoying a prize winning day on the beaches of Hawaii. Congratulations Warners. Who will be next.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

November 11, 2010. Woke up to -17 Celsius this morning. Winter has come way to early this year. Two days previously, we had a high of +10, cloudy and wet. The perfect combination and the next day we awoke to 6" of beautiful white stuff. Snow tires were the hot sellers on campus with traffic brought to a standstill.

The snowplows were out. I am always astounded that a city of 4,500,000 uses very little heavy equipment and the snow is moved off the streets and sidewalks into trucks by hand. Only in China could this happen. Thousands of people with plastic snow shovels. Canadian Tire could make a killing here.

A little snow doesn't seem to slow down the Chinese desire to play basketball. The snow had barely stopped and they were out clearing a court. Basketball, seems a funny game for the Chinese to be fixated on. They are not exactly a country known for their large stature. The Yao Mings are few and far between.

The buses were busy. Oddly, traffic seems to move better after a snow fall. The private cars stay home and only taxis and buses dare to venture out on the roads. The buses are great, for about $0.15 you can go any where in Harbin. The buses don't run on set schedules, the just drive the route over and over till their shift ends. You will often see two buses from the same route arriving at the same time. Of course they are never the bus you are waiting for. The two buses will pass each other taking turns stopping at alternate bus stops. Some buses are shiny and new, and others would be considered death traps in most 3rd world countries. They are not heated but at this time of year, it is actually a pleasure to be travel in an over crowded bus. You can share the other riders body heat.

The week ended with a special treat. One of my students invited me to attend a student Peking Opera group that meets every Sunday to practice. At the practice they let me play in the band where I was in charge of cymbally type of instrument. The conductor would raise his magnificently thick eyebrows in my direction if he wanted me to ching ching. I was pretty good I thought. They invited Nonie and I to attend a traditional Chinese talent show the next weekend. We were were greeted at the door by one of the actors/actresses. In the old days, the opera was the domain of men and all the parts including the female roles were played by men. The young fellow in the picture had a lovely voice but perhaps a tad to much makeup for my taste. Beside opera, the show also included Chinese cross talk which was very funny and I found myself laughing with the audience even when I didn't know what they were saying. The two and one half hours seem to ZZZzzzz by. Listening to Peking Opera is a lot like listening to the bagpipes. It's fun for the first 10 minutes but you want to poke your ears out after 150 minutes.

Nonie and I are hosting the 2nd Almost Annual HIT Foreign Teachers Open Ping Pong tournament and attending a concert. More on that in our next blog.

New Pool, Crazy Ideas

Since we were last at HIT they have had the wisdom to build an lovely eight lane 50 metre swimming pool. There are actually two pools. The pools are built over each other and both are above the ground. One pool is located on the fourth floor and the other on the second floor. Changerooms are located on the third and the first floors. No elevator so you must walk up three flights of stairs to the changerooms and then up another flight to the pool deck. The other pool is for ????? At first I assumed it was for the HIT swim team to train but they seem to use our pool. The door is always locked so I have not been able to confirm that a second pool even exists but I have been assured it does. Interesting construction technique as it would have been significantly cheaper to build them both on the ground with the pools below grade as the structural requirements to support not one but two pools has got to be huge. I would love to talk to the architect. But that's just the facility guy in me coming out. But it it a nice addition and I have been taking advantage of it. There is no chloriney smell around the building, so I am not sure what disinfectant process they are using for the water but sometimes it is better if you don't know.

Our 60th birthdays are fast approaching and Nonie and I are both looking at ways to mark the occasions. Nonie is still pondering what hers will be but I would like to announce that I am going to take a stab at Ironman Canada in 2012. I have sucked one niece as well as one of our colleagues here at HIT to join me in my quest/stupidity. This precipitous announcement will make it more difficult for me to weenie out of training for the next 20 months and it would be a shame not to put the new pool to good use.

Are trip plans are gelling for our return to the west (flying east) on the winter break. More on the trip at a later date. The trip will involve traveling around the world once more, this time in only 48 days. We will depart Harbin on January 4th, 2011 and arriving back in Harbin on February 18th,2011 travelling east the whole way. This will be the second time we have circumnavigated the world. We traveled west the last time and felt a change was in order. Don't want to get into a rut. Stay tuned.

Getting The Munchies in China

It's 2:00 am, you are sitting in front of the tv watching something you just downloaded off the net because despite having over 60 channels, none of them are in English, you get a sudden urge for some chicken feet. Sure, sure, you are saying Brett, those look just like the chicken feet I can get at the 7/11. Well looks can be deceiving. They may look like Canadian chicken feet but do not be fooled. The most obvious give away is the fact that there is not one iota of les langues des Francais on the box. Secondly, the chickens toes are not finely manicured. You can be sure these chicken feet have never seen the inside of a 7/11. So be aware of knock off munchies and read those labels closely.

If those snacks just aren't putting an end to the rumbling in your stomach, then it is time to head outside and find the nearest 24 hour gruel restaurant.

If you really have the munchies, then I suggest a big bowl of the "Gruel of the Day". Comes with endless breadsticks and an all you can eat salad bar. Sadly that may not end the rumbling in your stomach but a least the rumbling won't be because you are hungry.

Snacking in China can be an adventure where reading the labels is not always a sure thing. They have chips in over 20 interesting flavours. Meat (Barbecue I think). Fish ( A sort of funky smoked salmon flavour). Pickle (Dill). Tomato Sauce (Ketchup). Shrimp (Have't had the guts to try that one). All Dressed (All of the above with a hint of salt and vinegar). Bon appetit!

But if all else fails, I suggest you make friends with as many people from diverse cultural backgrounds as you can. Meet Solmez and Abbas. A lovely Iranian couple who are grad students here at HIT. For the last two years they have lived in a single room in the foreign students dormitory. Tired of living in one room, they decided to find a small affordable appartment near the campus for themselves. Something with more than one room and a real kitchen. Three weeks of looking and they found the perfect place with a kitchen Nonie would kill for. We convinced them that in North America, it was a tradition to invite all your friends over for a meal to celebrate the new home. They bought it and we were rewarded with a fabulous 8 course meal of Iranian food. Sadly we could not convince them that it was necessary to serve their friends a meal every week for the first year that they lived in their new place. We may have gotten a little greedy. Thanks Solmez and Abbas.

The weeks seem to be flying by. We are always busy but often have time to catch a nap in the afternoon after those long lunches. We are now half way into this semester. We finished our student presentations and plays this week. ZZZZZZZZ! Between Nonie and I we heard over 25o presentations and 20 or so delightful plays/dramas put on by the students. I have come to realize that the Chinese are closet hams. To finish the week, on Sunday we were asked to be guest judges at an English speech competition for first year students at the second campus. Thankfully it was the finals and we only had to listen to 9 competitors. The students also had to prepare a 2 minute talent show to accompany the speech portion. Could have done with out that.

Knock It Off

There has been some scepticism expressed by a few of our regular readers (all two of you) that there can not be that many onions available to the residents of Harbin. So to put your mine at ease, please accept the following photographic proof of how onions have taken over the streets of Harbin. They are peaceful for the most part as long as you don't spook them. We found that if you tip toe through the onions, you can avoid many nasty incidents. Just makes you want to cry, doesn't it?

Guchi, Tommy Hilfinger, Dioer, Channel, Nikee, Faberg, all brands that are readily available on the streets and in the markets of Harbin. Students tell time with the Bolex Oysters that can be found on many of their wrists. But if you think this kind of thing is just for those expensive name brands, think again. You can also find Mr. Kleen, Sarah Lee cakes, Crust Toothpaste and the ever popular Krapht Dinner or KaiDee as it is affectionately known as here. We want for little here in Harbin.

Thanks to the kindness of strangers Nonie and I were gifted with a voucher for one night
with breakfast at the five star Shangri La Hotel here in Harbin. We quickly booked ourselves a room for Saturday and quit living Chinese for 24 hours. No Chinese spoken here, just English! Traditional North Americanesque food (Salmon Fettucinni for Nonie and Fish and Chips for Brett)! English TV News (Sadly only BBC and CNN) and the piece de resistance HBO showing movies we had already seen. We may do this again if we find living Chinese becoming wearisome. It was a nice escape. We also enjoyed the first snow squall of Harbin winter from the comfort of our 15th floor, centrally heated suite with a fully stocked mini bar. Returning to the real world the next day, Nonie made a new friend along the way. In a city of 9,000,000 you would think ducks would have something better to do then accost people on the streets. Don't get me started on those crazy gangs of chickens.

For the last few weeks, the students have been preparing formal presentations for class. So this past week, we have been listening and listening and listening some more. With more this week. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Some have been very inventive while others culled directly from the internet. More on that another time.

Signs of Winter

Sadly, it seems our Indian Summer has drawn to a close and we are starting to see minuses showing up in the weather forecast. We don't need to read the forecast to know that winter is coming. Trucks overflowing with onions and cabbages have started to show up on every street corner and any flat surfaces along the streets and alleys are covered in these onions and cabbages. Harbiners are drying them in preparation for storage and use during the winter. When they run out of street space they squeeze the onions and cabbages into every window ledge or balcony in their apartments. Even high end condos have onions and cabbages sprouting from their windows and balconies. Strata councils in Canada would have serious reservations about this practice but not a problem in Harbin. Cabbage and onions are a staple of most dishes in North East China cuisine which is also known as Dong Bei cuisine. The cuisine has become a favorite of Nonie and mine. For more signs of winter check out our October 2008 blog. They're baaaack!

Dumplings, comfort food for those long cold winters. It is the Canadian equivalent of a hot bowl of pea soup and crackers. Tomato soup for those of you with out any french heritage. The dumplings come stuffed with every kind of filling you can imagine. From simple pork stuffing to exotic vegetable and spices. Served steaming hot from the wok to your chopsticks. Add a little vinegar and soy for flavor and you can make a meal of them. They look easy to make but beware, fold them incorrectly and you will have a wok full of broken dough and stuffing floating around in the water. A lesson I learned the hard way.

Happy Canadian thanksgiving to you all you Canadians and wanna be Canadians out there. We hosted our second almost annual Thanksgiving dessert soiree this last week. A gathering of multiple nationalities enjoyed Nonie's cookies, carrot cake, lemon loaf and homemade bruschetta. It was enjoyed by all and included an impromptu singing of O'Canada by the resident Canadians (Brett, Nonie, Armin) Sadly no turkey but the American thanksgiving is coming up and we are pretty sure we can find a turkey feed somewhere.

Nonie and I will be attending another trivia night this week to defend our title. Keep posted. We are feeling invincible.

Pedestrian Perils

The China Daily (China's only English language daily) recently reported that private car sales have been increasing by double digits annually for the last several years. We can certainly vouch for that. During our last stay, the campus was relatively clear of moving and parked vehicles. Now, you would be hard pressed to find a parking spot anywhere on campus. Off campus, it is just nuts. Pedestrian rights do not exist. You may be fooled at first by the wide hash marked cross walks, pedestrian crossing signs and the little green men signs found everywhere. But once you been grazed by a kamikaze taxi or two, you quickly realize that these pedestrian accouterments are suggestions only and not taken seriously by Harbin drivers. The only thing that will stop a vehicle (that includes police vehicles) turning left is something bigger than them coming through the intersection. Sidewalks are just an easy and quick way for motorcycles, gas and electric scooters to avoid busy intersections and traffic jams. The electric scooters or stealth scooters as I like to call them, can sneak up on you quick especially when you are a law abiding Canadian and are under the mistaken assumption that sidewalks are for pedestrians. But on the plus side, you get a great workout just walking to the market.


The past few weeks have been very nice only having to work eight of the last 15 working days. We celebrated a national holiday, 61 years of communist rule in China. Enjoyed a free meal on the provincial government and rubbed elbows with some provincial muckymucks who tried to get me drunk on Chinese shooters, a delicious alcoholic drink that can be bought in various strengths from 25 to 80% alcohol. A week after drinking the stuff, you can still burp and taste it. I was told the stuff we were knocking back was 38% and had been made special for the provincial government to serve at dinners that would be inhabited by foreigners. Left unsaid but inferred was that foreigners could not handle the good stuff. (80%) Little did they know they were dealing with a 1/4 Newfie who had just been screeched a few months before, so I could laugh at their meagre attempts to get me drunk and lose face. That and the dinner was over in less than an hour, which when you subtract the time to eat over 12 of the tastiest dishes we have had in China, did not leave a lot of time for knocking back shooters. Take that Chairman Mao. One for the Canucks. But who's counting.



We finished the week with some bowling, a pasta dinner with Janie and Justin and a brunch with a few of our fellow teachers to celebrate our last day of the National Holiday. Nonie took advantage of the time off to throw a coat of paint on our livingroom walls. Thanks to a helping hand from Janie who left each day covered in pale blue spots. Nonie had asked for white paint but I guess the paint store person thought blue would be a nicer touch. She is learning to live with it.

A little late with this blog but will catch up in the next week. Congratulations to the Warner's who successfully answered the skill testing question in the last blog. Staves is the plural of staff. Not quite grammatically correct in this context but hey, they were trying. The Warners have won an all expense trip to the wonderful Hawaiian islands which they are currently enjoying. Aloha, Warners.

I'm On Top of the World

How quickly time has flown. It seems like we just arrived and already four weeks have passed. Classes are progressing nicely. There seems to be a huge spread this year, in the individual abilities of the students we are teaching. Some have excellent skills while others in the class have almost non-existent abilities. In fact, a few students had to bring someone to translate for them as their comprehension and speaking skills are minimal. These students have not been grouped in any manner but seem to be peppered around all classes.

Our social life continues at a fast paste. Last week ended with branson organizing a bus to take a group of about 20 for a picnic on the shores of the Songhua River. The weather has taken a turn and the temperatures have dropped considerably from our first two weeks so consensus was that while it is still reasonably warm, we should have a picnic. Over night temperatures are getting down to 1 or 2 degrees. The picnic was a quiet affair on a scrappy little beach located adjacent to the bridge. The beach was occupied by some hearty entrepreneurs who had constructed a restaurant out of some old timber and canvas. The had some picnic tables set up along the edge of the river. We had brought all our own food and drink so we negotiated a fee of 100 RmB to rent some of the tables and a place to set up the barbecue. They were not to happy with us when we first arrived, but the 100 RmB seem to cheer them up.

Meat on a stick was the featured main course. Meat on stick might be an exaggeration. Fat on a stick might be a better description. It is bits of meat, interspersed with bits of fat, leaning towards more bits of fat, placed on a long wooden skewer. branson and Arseni rented the barbecue from the local Chuar (Meat on a Stick) restaurant, along with some charcoal and about 120 pre-made meats (fats) on a stick. The first few you eat are tasty but they tend to loose their appeal after two or three as you hear your arteries clogging up.

For dessert, Nonie provided some freshly baked raisin/oatmeal cookies and mini poppyseed muffins. They were well received by all, especially the Chinese attendees. Desserts in China are definitely different than what you find in North America. They lean toward cakes and cake like cookies. The cakes are usually highly decorated and look fabulous. But beyond that, it is liking eating air. They have no flavor, zero sugar and are totally disappointing to the palate. All show and no go!

Sunset over Harbin thanks to branson.

The mid-autumn fesival (moon festival) was celebrated this week and so there were no classes on Wednesday and Thursday. To celebrate, we threw the budget out the window and made our way to the Dragon Tower to get a little closer to the full moon. The tower is the Empire State Building of Harbin. It climbs 400 plus metres and provides a comanding view of Harbin. For 200 RmB or 1/25 of our month salary, we enjoyed a buffet dinner in the revolving restaraunt but due to a TV program being shot in the restaraunt, we did not revolve until later in the evening. The buffet dinner was hohum, but we did have the services of a personal fuyuan (server) who followed us around the buffet tables and then carried our plates back to the table. The buffet offerings were interspersed with special offerings direct from the kitchen to our table. Caviar, a small steak, one large prawn, salad, soup and a small chiffon style dessert. The buffet desserts were standard Chinese fare. Thankfully the view and the attentive fuyuan made up for the pedestrian food.

Skill testing questions for all readers of the Cornell's adventures. What are "staves"? The sign was found on the Dragon Tower service elevator. "Elevator for Staves Only". Send your answers to your our email address for a chance to win valuable prizes.

Weeeeeerre Baaaack

21 bum numbing hours and we arrived back in Harbin. It was de ja vu. Arriving very late in the night, we were pleasantly surprised to find Janie and Justin waiting at the arrivals gate, their huge smiles beaming at us from the other side of the windows. What a wonderful start to China part 2. The next week saw us quickly get back into the swing of life in Harbin. But no return to China would be complete without a few twists. Upon arrival we were given the keys to our apartment. Trying to enter, we were greeted by a sleepy voice from inside wondering who we were. It seems that the apartment was still occupied by a summer teacher. Happily she was leaving and we moved in a few days later. Thanks to Romain and Zouyan, who sadly returned back to France this year but left us with everything we needed to set up the apartment and quickly make it our home again. Having been here and done that, we found that we were able to get things done a little speedier then our first time as we knew where to go and who to talk to. Talking still hasn't got any easier for us. but thanks to a 8 week Mandarin course in Vancouver it is a little easier. NOT!

In China, when family, friends and just but anyone else gets together, food plays an important part in the event. The success of the event is measured by the number of food dishes that have been served to your table. We expats have taken on that tradition with great gusto and it was no surprise that our first week back in Harbin ended with a dinner. Brian, branson, Janie, Justin, Chris, Arseni, Abbas and one new colleague Steve, affectionately known as "The Snipper", another American to add to our multi-cultural group.


Work began in week 2. Happily, we found ourselves teaching the grad students again. Seven classes each, Monday to Friday, and finished by noon each day. Hello, long lunches. Even better, we can use the same curriculum that we developed previously, providing us with even more leisure time that we had last time. Two more dinners were attended. The first hosted by the Foreign Affairs department for all Foreign Experts. The dinner was held at Porters. The restaurant tries to put a British spin on their menu and service. But old habits die hard and the dinner still takes on a very Chinesey flair. The dishes are served randomly and not quite in the order you would expect. Our second dinner of the week was hosted by the Foreign Languages department to celebrate Teachers Day". and was attended by all teachers. Not a national holiday in China just yet. Many teachers receive small gifts, flowers or fruit baskets from their students. I received on small gift from one of my male students. It was nicely wrapped with a pink ribbon and blue paper covered with phrases such as "Good Luck, "Just For You" and my favourite one, "To My Lover". Not sure what my student was after but I am sure he just wanted to butter me up. We were in and out of the restaurant in just over an hour, including speeches.

Because we were out of the dinner so early, Nonie and I relented and agreed to go to the soft opening of a new club located near the campus. They were hosting a trivia night. You are now reading the blog of the newly crowned Harbin Trivia Night champions. The host was an ex-pat Newfie and he peppered his questions with Canadian content, allowing Nonie and I to be of some help to the team. At least when the questions were of things that happened pre-1990s.

Thus ended our second week. Stay tuned. Not sure whats coming up but you can be sure that there will be parties, dinners and more twists.

Congratulations, Leah and Will.

It was our great luck to meet Leah and Will, our very first morning in Harbin in 2008. We arrived from the airport to our apartment late into the night after a 24 hour marathon trip. We were requested to meet in the lobby early the next morning to deal with visa and other issues. Completely overwhelmed by jet lag, very little sleep and with great trepidation, we made our way down to the lobby and had our first glimpse (with extremely bleary eyes) of the kids who would become our friends and colleagues over the next year. Will easily stood out in the crowd. Tall lad, with the reddest hair and scruffiest beard. Leah, not so tall but with a smile that made up for her small stature. Over the next few weeks, Leah and Will along with Tom, Brian and branson were to become the mentors and guides for an old couple surviving their first few weeks in an extremely foreign country. Please take an opportunity to glance over our past blogs from September 2008 onward for those adventures.

Flash forward almost two years and once again suffering a little jet lag and in another foreign country, we are blessed with the opportunity to attend the wedding celebrations for Leah and Will. We were joined there by Brian who stopped in from France on his way home for a visit with family before returning to Harbin. Once again Leah and Will took care of us, hooking us up with family friends, Suzanne and Walt. Suzanne and Walt opened up their lovely home and hearts to us, making sure we wanted for nothing. Walt, taking a day out of his busy schedule, acting as a tour guide, transported us to the birth place of John Adams (2nd President) and John Quincy Adams (6th President) along with side trips to the battle fields of Lexington and Concorde. They made our time there even more special.

Leah and Will took time out of their hectic schedule to drop in and see us on our first evening at Suzanne and Walt's. Nonie presented them with a quilt which she had spent the last six months planning and making for them. I must say, that is one of her most brilliant ones to date.


The wedding attended by the immediate family was held on a small island located a short 100 metres (125 yards for you American readers) off the beach of Leah's family's home. The wedding party was transported to the island on a boat that Leah had built when she was a teenager. The reception/celebration attended by a hundred or so friends and family was held a few days later at the Russell home. Met both sets of parents and quickly discovered where Will got his sense of adventure/humour (humor for your American readers) and Leah got her sense of well being and that beautiful smile. The evening ended with the couple walking down a small trail, lined by family and friends holding candles, to the lake. They then cast a small raft decorated with flowers and lit with candles out into the lake. It was to represent the beginning of their journey together as man and wife. I would not want to start any rumours (rumors for you American readers) but I think it brought a tear to Brian's eye. The couple would leave a few days later to return to their home in England and another wedding party for friends and family.

Brian was delivered to the airport the next day while Nonie and I stayed an extra day exploring the little bits of Boston that we did not see in our first three days. The next day, a short 12 hour flight (acutually three flights) and 6 hour drive found us home in Penticton. Oh, by the way, with our luggage! Take that Air Canada!!!!

Harbin, here we come.

Bahston Been There

Day 2 saw us further inundated with American history. We started the day with a visit to North Boston or Little Italy as it is now known. Skinny streets with miles and miles of 200 - 300 year old brownstone houses and apartments. The area is home to the "Old North Church" which played a pivotal part in the American Revolution. Perhaps the quote "One if by land and two if by sea." rings a bell. No pun intended. It is the church where they used the bell tower in which to hang the two lanterns that told the revolutionaries that the English were coming across the Charles River to march toward Lexington and Concord. " One if by land and two if by sea" were words in the poem "Paul Revere's Ride" written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow long after the actual event. Then on to a visit and a quick tour to Paul Reveres house which is still standing in North Boston. It seems that Paul was only one of over a dozen riders who headed out to warn the Revolutionaries. Paul became the poster boy for these heroes, mostly in part because of Longfellow's poem.


Boston is an excellent walking city but at the same time has an excellent transit system and getting to the various historical sites is very easy. The Old Government House was our next stop. The building is considered the geographic centre of Boston and the "Boston Massacre" occurred just outside the front door of the building. Massacres were more compact in the Revolutionary times with only 7 people killed in this fight. The massacre was not planned by the British to occur. A small group British Regulars were surrounded by a very large and unruly crowd and only fired into the crowd when they were spooked by someone in the crowd firing a gun into the air. A while later, the newly written constitution was read from the balcony of the building to the citizens of the newly created republic.



Dropped in to Hahvard University to sign up our grandchildren. That is assuming MIT or Oxford doesn't get them first.









Day 3 started with a visit to Fenway Park, the oldest operating baseball field in the world. During our travels around Boston, we found many sites that claimed to be the first and/or oldest something in the world /North America. Boston has done a wonderful job maintaining their historic sites. We were lucky and our tour group was allowed to access the playing field and I got to touch the "Green Monster" as well as sitting in the seats at the top of it. We finished the day with a ferry ride to Salem and a visit to the Salem Witches Museum. Scary stuff.

Andover and the wedding celebrations are next on our to do list.

Bahston Been

Bahston is steeped in history. Where else could you sit in an 200 year old pub and sip a Samuel Adam's beah (beer) while looking across the street at the grave of Samuel Adams. There were in fact three signahs (signers) of the Constitution located in the same graveyard. Sadly they did not have beahs named aftah themselves.



Old Ironsides. No not Raymond Burr but the oldest operating naval ship in the world. Built at the beginning of the 19th century, it still floats and at least a couple times a year gets out on the hawbah (harbour) for a float. It is manned by the Navy and foh a small fee and a non-invasive body frisk, you can tooah (tour) the ship.




Bahston Hawbah has been around for ovah 300 yeeahs (years). It is rumoured that the pilgrims actually built the first high rises.

Bahston has more American history per square mile than any othah City and this was just the first day.

Welcome to Bawston

Befoah, I begin the story of our lovely trip to Bawston you will be required to complete a short lesson on Bonglish or Boslish if you prefer.

Boston- Bawston
before- befoah
after- aftah
never- nevah
Harvard- havahd
lobster- lobstah
over- ovah
cool dude- wicked pissah

You get the ideah!
Stay tuned.

Article 7, Subsection 5.4 Grandparents Handbook

As per the Grandparent Handbook please find attached the obligatory and latest pictures of our recent visit with said grandchildren. Future PHD, Ronan was busy trying on lab coats, looking for that perfect fit.





Future marine biologist Isla checking out her dinghy. Snicker, snicker!
She doesn't have a dinghy.







Future Olympic triathletes getting in a few laps in the pool.

The Emperor Has His Clothes

Armed with some clothes, we took the opportunity to explore the Niagara region for a few days. We started with a visit to the Welland Canal and were lucky to see a freighter use a lock on it's way to Lake Erie. We spent a few hours in Niagara On The Lake. Lovely little place with our visit slightly tarnished by a $25 dollar parking ticket. Our bad! We parked on the street and walked by at least four or five ticket spitters with out seeing them.


We ended that day with an overnighter in The Falls. Niagara Falls seems to have become a mecca for families. It felt like Nonie and I were the only couple there. Back in the day The Falls was a place for honeymooners. Perhaps the honeymooners are now coming back with their kids. We spent the night in a lovely hotel that overlooked the falls.


Opting for the cheaper room, our view of the Falls was more a view of the water vapor coming off the Falls but it was a great view of the fire works that were scheduled for that night.



From there it was off to Toronto by train for a visit with my aunt and cousin. Toronto continues to be the centre of universe. Up early the next day to catch a train to Smiths Falls and an overnight to visit with another aunt. Found that train travel is very civilized and we arrived with our luggage. Okay, that was my last shot, I will move on. Smiths Falls is a lovely place to pass a few hours. It is located right on the Rideau Canal with a lock, considerably smaller than the locks on the Welland Canal. Once again our timing was good and we saw a couple of small power boats pass on through.

Next stop Ottawa and the chance to fill up on grandchildren before we leave for China.

Luggage Lost, Luggage Found, Lugggage Undelivered

Flying on points, getting bumped to business class, access to the Maple Leaf Lounge, all good. Then Air Canada went and spoiled it by losing my luggage for almost four days. To be fair, my luggage was not lost, it just didn't follow to Ontario at the same pace I did.

It started with bad weather in Edmonton and being redirected to Calgary to wait out the bad weather occurring in Edmonton. This meant missing my Edmonton connection to to Toronto and a probable overnight in Edmonton. A nice attendant got me onto a Toronto flight out of Calgary that had been delayed due too some inclement weather there. I arrived in Toronto the next day and about three hours after my original arrival time only to discover my luggage did not. Hey no problem, the bag would arrive sometime that day and be delivered the next day.

Hearing nothing the next day, I called 1-888-LOSTLUGGAGE and found myself talking to a very apologetic operator on another continent whom I would get to know very well over the next three days. Actually, I talked to seven different operators over the next few days, but all were very sincerely apologetic and following to the letter, the script found in the "How To Deal With Irate Passengers Who Didn't Get Their Luggage" manual. To be fair to me, I did not get irate till at least the fourth call.

Despite the bag laying dormant in the Toronto baggage claim area for over 48 hours, Air Canada could not or would not figure out how to get the damn bag to me in Beamsville. With time running out, I borrowed a vehicle and spent five hours of my vacation traveling to the airport, getting lost due to some construction near the airport, then a two hour commute back on the freeway that had turned into a parking lot.

I got the feeling that Air Canada had no intention of getting my bag to me. A very frustrating few days.

Thanks for the vent, I feel better already plus I smell better. I didn't realize how much I rely on under arm deodorant till I quit using it for a few days.

Why Do We Keep Leaving?

Six weeks have come and gone quickly since our return from eastern Canada. Busy, busy, busy! Nonie and her sister Lynda successfully packed and moved a five bedroom house over 3,000 kilometres. We had some time to reconnect with family and friends. Some golf, some quilting, but most of all, some serious LazeeBoy time.

So as I kill time waiting for yet another airplane, I ponder the question, "Why do we leave?". I have to mention that I am killing time in the executive class lounge at the Vancouver Airport. Air Canada in all it's wisdom decided to reward me with a excutive class seat for my trip back to Ontario which gives me access to the lounge at the airport. I am currently sipping a nice Malbec and deciding what to have from the lunch buffet. Thanks Air Canada though I think it is payback for that scary trip into St. John's.

But I digress. Back to the question "Why do we leave?". Penticton is a joy to live in so why do we continue to leave it, so often. At this point I was going to start a top ten list of the reasons we live in Penticton but the following statement kind of says it all. "It has everything and anything one would want or need in a place to live. " Saves a lot or writing and really a picture is worth a thousand words.

But I digress. Back to the question "Why do we leave." Why?

"Because we can!"

There will come a time in our life when we won't be able to leave and as long as we can, we will continue to explore the world and have adventures. All the while, knowing that we have Penticton to come back to.