88 days to go!

Celebrating friends' March birthdays

Those aren't presents - they're all fireworks!

Sparkler anyone?

Well you're never gonna survive...unless...you getta -

-little craaazeh. ... campfire fireworks debris.

8 is a lucky number in China…it is time for some of this luck, coupled with the fact that it is indeed my year – The Year of the Tiger roared in this Valentine’s February 14th – to rub off on me! On that day I was sitting in a hammock on Koh Payam beach…which seems very, very far away now.

I am reticent to say that spring is here, even though the heat has been turned off in most public buildings for a few weeks already, including of course, our school. However it does definitely look like the winter is behind us: temperatures are hovering at around plus or minus 10 degrees Celsius; the protective plastic sheeting has been removed from the shrubbery and trees in the surrounding parks and boulevards of TEDA by multitudes of trucked-in migrant workers; and the plant beds which housed long-dead annuals are slowly being replaced with those in bloom. Spring right?

We have definitely been guilty of hibernating both literally and figuratively since returning back to full time teaching in TEDA. My lack of posting in March can attest to this hibernation. It was still frightfully cold when we returned at the end of February – just in time to savour the 24-7 final week of Chinese New Years fireworks. At one point fireworks were being set off in our courtyard where another high-rise is about 50 feet away. Not sure that even the ebullience of Team Canada winning gold at the Olympics back home would have allowed for such a by-law violation in Vancouver – but here it’s fireworks anywhere, anytime!

I returned and immediately did some spring cleaning – totally rearranging our apartment and felt good about that. But work woes (plus frozen toes as the concrete building that is my workplace is currently colder than the outdoors) and the uncertainty of what our future holds and where it may be holding it has definitely taken its toll. But with the seeming coming of spring, I think that I myself feel like taking off the proverbial long underwear and making changes: with new concrete plans and people and places to look forward to. And thus the countdown was born…my year in China will come to a close – in 88 days. I know I have learned much, endured much, taught a lot and surprised myself too – with much more of that to come in the 3 months ahead and a heck of a story at the end of it — maybe even a book right Ingrid? 88 days and counting…

I would definitely love to toast to spring! To rebirth!

*We have not been complete shut-ins. There have been some nights out and a short girls trip to Beijing last weekend to temper the grey skies with. Looking forward to our week off at the end of April whereupon my mother will touch down in Peking. Tenho grande saudades da minha mãe.