Victoria Visit

Scott and I spent the past weekend in Victoria. On Friday we got together with some old friends and had dinner and drinks. It really made me appreciate and miss Victoria. It's such a nice city, although it really is incredibly small and quiet, even compared to Vancouver, but especially when compared with Beijing.

Here's Tomoka and Jamie, who will be having a wedding ceremony this June. We spent time with them in Japan in December 2007. Scott has known Jamie since elementary school, I believe.

Samantha and Dave. Scott has known Dave for years (I think since elementary school as well), and I have known him since high school.
Scott and me:
On Saturday my family had "Christmas" again for me. I had a few small gifts I had brought back from China, as well as some things I had picked up during my first few days back in Vancouver, so we had a dinner (steak dinner, not turkey haha) and christmas crackers, and then opened the gifts.

Mom also gave me some Christmas foodstuffs that I missed out on eating while I was in China, such as Christmas pudding. Mmmmmm. I'm hoping to make one more Christmas dinner for Scott and I before I head back to Beijing. Even though Scott isn't a big fan of the British-style Christmas pudding, I LOVE it. 

Here's nearly everyone wearing the Christmas cracker hats:
Sitting in the living room by the tree:





On Chinese New Year's Eve both Scott's and my families had dinner together at a local Chinese restaurant. It was interesting because the food included some more Northern or Shanghai dishes, so my parents and brother got to try some new things. In the past, when we have gone out for Chinese food in Victoria we have generally eaten more Cantonese-style food. Anyway, they all really enjoyed the food...and they were utterly stuffed. For some reason we mistakenly thought all the dishes had arrived and we were all very full but then the kitchen sent out three more dishes! 

Here we are after the meal:

Visit to Chilliwack

This past weekend Scott, me and my family went to Chilliwack to visit my Grandparents, my aunt Carol and my uncle Brent, as well as my cousin Jill and her two lovely kids, Willow and Evan. We all had a nice time...but I realized my sleeping schedule still isn't back to normal. I woke up at 3:30am and couldn't sleep again until 7am or so. Oh well...slowly but surely I'll get used to it.

I didn't take enough pictures, and I entirely forgot to pull out the camera when Carol and Brent were over, so there aren't any pictures of them, and only one of grandma. I also missed getting a good picture of Jill. Damn.

Mom opening a gift from Grandma, and Dad looking sleepy or soused.

Dad looking unchanged, Paul and Scott.
Grandpa opening what I'm sure was a rather thrilling gift of a table runner. Unfortunately I had a hard time finding masculine gifts in China.
Scott with the adorable and chilled out Evan:

Grandma helping Evan check out the microwave.
Me and Willow playing with her new BC Ferries toy.
Me and Evan as Jill and the kids were getting ready to leave.
I've been having a wonderful time on the trip home so far. The time is flying by though, so I have to make the most of it!

HOME!

I'm back home in lovely Vancouver!! The flight was decent since I took something that made me sleep, which made it feel a lot shorter than usual. It was so wonderful to see Scott at the airport waiting for me with some flowers. I'm so happy!

I'm not adjusted to the time yet...I was up until about 11pm on the day I got back and then woke up at 5am, but that's still not too bad.

Anyway, no time for many pictures yet. Let me start off with a couple from China that I hadn't gotten around to posting. Here is a Santa/Tree who is still in the window of one of the restaurants Zoe and I frequent:

And here's a gigantic spread of food we ordered so that we would have leftovers to eat while studying for exams:
And a couple pictures back in Vancouver. Here's me prepared for a walk and dinner:
And here's Scott looking serious in the restaurant: 

Interesting Old Footage of Beijing

Through the Danwei website (which found this via another website called Quirky Beijing), I just watched this old travelogue about Beijing. Obviously the commentary is rather dated and at times condescending, arrogant and racist, but it really is amazing to watch and see how much this place has changed since 1931!



As is obvious, I am having trouble studying much....i'm nervous about the exams, but I'm also excited to be heading home, so it's hard to focus.

Here are a couple more pictures from dinner last night:






And a couple more pictures from the last day of Jingdu class:

Last Class Party!

Tonight my class had our last party at a nearby restaurant. It was really nice and our Jingdu teacher even joined us! 

Here are some pictures!

Mika, me, Yinxin, Zhimin, and Minghe

Guangyou and Hao Laoshi (our teacher)
Xianyu, Song Jun and Jhonny
Dae Hyun, Guangyou and Hao Laoshi
Minghe, Dae Hyun, Guangyou and Hao Laoshi
Mika and me
Izumi and me squishing Mika
Hao Laoshi!
And a few pictures of some of the dishes we ate:

Last Newspaper Class!

After my other post we had a break for a few hours and then went to our last newspaper class. Unfortunately our teacher was ill and so we had a substitute. Anyway, we spent the entire time just individually working on exercises. Once the class period ended we took a few pictures together.

Here's Jhonny, from England and Indonesia, and Mika, from Japan.

And Mika and Daxian (Dae Hyun) from Korea:
Me and Izumi, from Japan, and Daxian:
Me and Mika:
L-R: Baoxian, Xiuzhen, Guangyou, Xianyu, and Yinxin, all from Korea.
Minghe, Shengjun, Jhonny, me and Daxian:
Me, Yinxin and Jhonny:
Now it's time to spend the next three days cramming and by this time next week I'll be back in Canada :D

So Tired...hate proverbs and other sayings

Agh, the test today didn't go all that well. One of the questions I was asked was to list three proverbs or sayings and then explain their meanings. Proverbs are the bane of my existence! I can't even remember English ones, let alone Chinese ones. Anyway, I could think of two, but it took me awhile to slowly think up the last one...and I couldn't remember it properly either. How annoying...oh well. At least it's over now. 

I am exhausted as I didn't sleep well last night and both my roommate and I were up a bunch of times during the night. 

After the oral exam I went to our very last reading and writing class (Jingdu). We took some pictures together. My teacher, Hao Laoshi, is the one in the front, making 'bunny ears' behind Daxian's head (the guy wearing the baseball hat and in a pose which makes me laugh my head off). Mom said it looks like his bum is right on me, but I assure you it's not! Haha.

One more of everyone. This time our teacher is third from left, at the back. Still, it's not really the complete class...we're missing Kaitlin, Tammy and Alex who should all be in it too! :)