Yantai City, China

We spent last weekend just kicking around in lovely Yantai city with friends. Yantai is known as the "city of the double sea" in China, because it is at the tip of the Shandong peninsula with the Bohai Sea to the west and Yellow Sea to the east. We took in the sights downtown--the old lighthouse and the quays, and then enjoyed ourselves at Tashan Park, which is on the mountain just up the road from the school where we teach. The gondolas go up to the pagoda pavilion at the top, where the monkeys like to hang out. The bumper cars were pretty fun, although anyone who has ever spent any time on a road in China will wonder why the Chinese need an amusement like bumper cars--their normal driving habits are pretty much what most of us would think of as bumper car worthy.

Happy Spring!

Each day as classes wrap up, out in front of the school's gates vendors gather to sell the kids sweets and toys. Yesterday as we left to go downtown for some lunch and errands, we came upon an entirely new product for sale --baby chicks! In many different colors! They were so cute and soft, I wanted about ten, but sensibly Jude didn't think they'd make good stow aways.

Qingdao, China

Last weekend, along with some other volunteer English teachers, we visited one of the many historic sites in Shandong Province: the city of Qingdao. The city is an important coastal town that has served as China's port to the world for hundreds of years. Boats and sailors from Korea, Japan, and the European seafaring nations land here for trade and commerce. Qingdao is the site of the sailing events at the 2008 Olympics, and construction is proceeding at a furious pace.

The city, which is ultramodern, is also home to some old traditions and temples. Nearby is Lao Shan, one of the five sacred mountains in Tao tradition. The temples in the city also harken to sacred origins of the Tao faith, and the red ribbon signifies good luck in the coming new year.

Yantai Bilingual Middle School, China

Well we left behind the tropical heat of Thailand and arrived in the city of Yantai, China on a chilly, gray winter day. The city is big. It has big buildings and big streets and big construction projects going on all over the place. The school where we live and teach is also big. And the classes are big--40 students or more. If you asked our impressions of China so far, we'd probably say China is big. They seem to like to do everything in a big way.

We've been here for two weeks now. We've settled in to our lovely little apartment--the "Foreigner's Flat." We've been treated very well by the staff and the kids. As you can see, the staff is big too. That's us with the sixth and seventh grade English teachers. Yes, just the English teachers. We'd probably need a panoramic lens on the camera to take the picture if we wanted to include math, science, history, and phys ed teachers.

Teaching is fun, and the kids are great, and the weather is warming up. We're planning to do a little traveling around the area over the next few weeks to see the sights...