Vika's Three Day Birthday

Vika's sixth birthday was March 14 but we started the celebration on Saturday March 12 with her first time ice skating.
She was so excited to be an ice skater.
It only took a few times around the rink with Gavin and then she was ready to try on her own hanging onto the side. She was brave a few times and let go of the side to get around other people but mostly stuck to the side for the rest of the time.

After skating we went out to dinner to Ex-ta-sea. Yes, that is the name of the restaurant. It is in the ship near our house and has the best Western food in Shekou. These are little mini burgers that are the perfect size for Vika.
The Galicia's gave Vike this dancing donkey that was hilarious. Vika couldn't stop playing with it.
The restaurant has pool tables which Vika had fun playing with the chalk. Can you tell? She was covered with chalk from head to toe.
It wouldn't be a party with Blair. Yes, the restaurant is also a bar so Vika can say that her parents took her to her first bar when she was 6. We are such bad parents but we don't have much of a choice here.
On Monday, her real birthday, I was able to take cupcakes to her classroom to share with her class.

That evening Gavin and I took Vika to have her first hair wash. She was quite the princess and was very pampered.


It's not only a hair wash but a body massage. I'm really going to miss these when we leave.
After the hair wash they blow dry your hair.
Here she is.....the little princess after her spa treatment.
We then went home for cake and presents.


The happy little birthday girl with her "real" Barbie. She has gotten so many fake barbies here that it was a real treat to get a "real" one.

The New Seaworld in Shekou

This is the plans for the "new" Seaworld Plaza near our house. It looks amazing but knowing how things get done around here, it probably won't look nearly as nice as this. It is going to take over a year for completion which we won't get to see but unfortunately we have to live through all the construction right now. There are plans to build high rises and malls all around us. This place will look totally different in a few years.

I thought I would give a tour of what it is like when we walk to school every morning. It's like walking through an obstacle course. This is a shot near McDonald's in Seaworld. China doesn't seem to care about the safety of people much because this is all right where people walk in and out of the restaurants. We actually have to walk under the scaffolding and who knows what can fall down on you.
This area used to be a fun hang out for the kids. It was an open plaza where you could rollerblade, skateboard, ride bikes, or just sit on the benches and people watch. Not really the fun place anymore which means there isn't much for the kids to do on the weekends. Again, this is on our way to school and only a few blocks from our house.
All the sidewalks and roads are torn up as you can see. All along our way there are open trenches, holes, and just debris everywhere.


Just about everything is done the hard way with manual labor. It's a little funny to see these Chinese men working in street clothes. I've even seen some with suit jackets and dress shoes digging trenches.
The every annoying jackhammer is a constant background noise to our lives here.
This is right in front of the Middle School and Upper Elementary building. Like I said it is construction everywhere.
Looking out my classroom window is a beautiful shot of cranes. I used to love my view because it was of the bay and was actually a pleasant backdrop, but that will change since they are building one of the tallest buildings in Shekou here.
Right in the middle of all this construction is actually a tent where some of the workers live. Not a place I would want to sleep.
War zone? Earthquake? NO...Construction! This was once restaurants, shops, and a plaza in front of the ship.


These are shots from our bedroom window. Just proof of how close the construction is to us.
Another tent for the workers out on what was once the driving range. I think this is the Kitchen or "mess hall".

All this construction has driven us crazy. It really isn't a safe place to walk anymore. Last night we were coming out of a restaurant in the ship near all the construction. The board walk in front of the ship is being taken out with loose boards everywhere. As we were walking to the ship I mentioned how unsafe all this was now and of course as we walk out after dinner I stepped on a board covering a hole that broke under my foot. My right leg fell in a hole all the way up to my thigh. The board they used to cover this hole was a very thin piece of plywood that just cracked under my foot. Fortunately I'm ok but I was one mad puppy. Who would think that a thin piece of plywood would be safe to cover a three foot hole? CRAZY!

noise, Noise, NOISE!!!!!!

Awe, the beautiful sounds of the city....NOT!!!!!!!

Our life here in China has been filled with nothing but noise. As I was walking to school this morning I realized how noisy it is here. I've had a headache for four days now and no wonder with all the noise around me. For some reason the Chinese feel that they need to honk at everything. Instead of learning to drive like a normal person, they just honk to get you to move out of their way. Busses honk, cars honk, even the electric bikes and bicycle riders honk at you as you are trying to walk down the sidewalk. It is REALLY annoying. You don't know how many times I have wanted to stick my arm out as a bike that just honked at me rides by or purposely step in their way so that they have to swerve out of control.

On top of all the honking we now live in one massive construction zone. They are tearing buildings down and building new ones all around us. The construction noise starts at 6:30 every morning and doesn't stop until 10:00 at night (if we are lucky). The air is filled with jack hammers, machines, pounding, and just noise all the time.

If it's not honking or construction, it's the sounds of the bands playing in the bars on the weekends until 1:00 in the morning. Occasionally we can hear the elevator music that they play all day long in plaza next to us, but not often enough.

A person's life really needs to filled with beautiful sounds or none at all, not unwanted noise!

Finally!!!!

Yes, I'm finally updating our blog. It's been months since I've had the time to actually sit down and blog. I guess the biggest thing that has happened in the past few months was Gavin and my trip to Thailand for the job fair. The first job fair of the season for international teaching jobs is in Bangkok each year so we had been planning this for months. It was a week full of ups and downs but was worth it all.

Gavin and I left a very cold Shekou Sunday afternoon and arrived in Bangkok late Sunday night. We woke up to a very sunny and warm 80 degrees. This was a shot from our hotel room. The job fair didn't start until Tuesday night but we wanted a few days to relax before the whole roller coaster started. We spent the first day laying out by the pool, did a little shopping and then went to a dinner cruise on the river that night.

We felt like quite the tourists but it was fun to just spend time together.

Along the river were many of the tourist spots that they had lighted up. It was a very romantic beautiful night.


After dinner we were entertained by Thai dancers. They danced right next to our table. It was amazing how they bend their fingers.




Tuesday we registered for the job fair and again spend the day just relaxing by the pool. The fair was at the Shangri La Hotel right on the river. Tuesday night the fun began with an orientation and many trips to check our mail box at the hotel. The boxes are where the schools can contact you if they are interested in setting up an interview. Prior to the fair we had researched and selected only seven schools that we felt would be a good match for us and contacted them prior to the fair. We checked our box numerous times Tuesday evening and finally had an invitation for an interview from ISG in Saudi Arabia. This was one of our top picks and were very excited to know they were interested. We were able to schedule interviews with several of our top schools for Wednesday morning.

After several days of interviews and lots of ups and downs, we were offered jobs with ISG in Saudi. We were very excited and relieved. We still had a few days left in Bangkok and spent them doing a little sight seeing and lots of shopping.

On Friday Gavin wanted to venture out and decided to go on a little "walk" to find a temple. We walked and walked through the city and finally found it but weren't able to take pictures inside so we snuck this one while walking by. It was pretty cool but Gavin decided he wanted to continue walking to a park. Our little "walk" turned into a five mile hike through the city which took us over an hour.
I was not the happiest camper at this point. Fortunately we were very close to the skytrain and jumped on and were back to our hotel in half the time.
The best part of the day was our fried bananas and ice cream. This really did taste as good as it looks.

The thing I love the most about Thailand is the shopping. We were lucky enough to have time on Saturday morning before our flight back to China to go to the huge outside market. It is a wholesale market during the week and is only open to the public on the weekends. They have some amazing deals and I brought back lots of cool things for hardly nothing.

It was a very fun and exciting week. Now we are preparing for our move to Saudi. Our adventure here in China is coming to an end in three months but another one will begin.