Now I have lived in Beijing for almost 6 years and has been noted on networks and the internet around the world, we are having an unusual winter.  If is cold (-16 C) everyday and more snow than we have had in the previous five winters.  I am tired of the cold.  I also say that when I am back home in Ontario though.  I was born on a cold (-40) night in January in Saskatchewan.  You would think that this would prepare me for the cold or at least I would like the cold.  I don’t….unless I can stay inside and keep warm.

Regardless of that I saw something new the other day here in Beijing.  As usually happens when there is a snow fall the snow is eventually moved off of the roads and piled on the side of the street. At home we use snowplows for this work.  Here in Beijing they use manpower with shovels, brooms and on occasion parts of a cardboard box, which actually works very well. The roads are cleared and have been for about a week.

Everything was fine until Friday when I saw all of the workers out again with their shovels picking up the snow and throwing it out on the street.  Apparently, there are problems with people trying to get on the buses and so the piles of snow must be gotten rid of and the road is the best place as they are already clear and don’t have snow on them.  It makes a weird kind of sense.

Happy Holidays from Macau and the incredible Westin Resort the home of the Heavenly Bed.

About two months ago I was informed my airline points provider that I needed to use them or lose them.  As I wasn’t planning on going anywhere before the deadline that would keep me in their good graces I decided to use ‘em.  That is how I ended up at the Westin in Macau for the week after Christmas.

I have never been to Macau and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to visit the Portuguese side of China.  More about that later after I have actually seen the Portuguese side of China.

Yesterday my driver picked me up at 6 AM and took me to the Beijing Airport.  It was cold (-11 C) though the wind with which we have been blessed the past week or so had died down. (Did I mention we woke up to a sandstorm on Christmas morning?) Anyway, no problem checking in and quickly through customs to the luggage check part.

I uploaded unloaded all the stuff I was carrying (I never can seem to get it just right with my carry-on luggage) and then had to have the body wand run all over my body.  But they added another little side search which was a physical pat down on my legs going as far as to lift my pants a bit.  That is OK – rather safe than sorry.  Last year we had to go through everything without our shoes.

Had a good flight on Air Macau and landed on time to +11 weather with overcast skies.

Later that day.  My room is wonderful and I recommend anyone that wants a lovely resort to stay at in Macau without all of the hubbub of the Venetian or the other Casino resorts I tell you this is where to stay.

When cold weather suddenly descends on Beijing it does not always lead to nice, cozy and warm houses if it is before November15th. Such was the case when I woke up this morning in my very cold bedroom though I was very warm under my two silk and lamb’s wool duvets. The weather had taken a definite change to the cold side. In fact, it was snowing.  November1st and Beijing was having it’s first snowfall.  It was beautiful. My phone started beeping as my friends sent messages to everyone commenting on the wonderful snow.

It was wonderful…… I have always loved the first snowfall of the winter.  It is the third, fourth and twentieth that dislike. Of course, that very seldom happens here in this part of the Middle Kingdom.

Usually snowfalls here only last for a little while and are more snain based than actual snow but not this time.  Big, beautiful, soft snowflakes were falling to the ground.  Even though the ground had not yet had time to freeze the snow collected and stayed.  Again, it was beautiful.  It continued on for about three hours and has left the city covered in a lovely blanket of white.

What does all of that have to do with November 15th?  It is the cold part that has to do with that date. In China the heat is turned on that date.  Before November15th I have to use the air con/heat wall units. While they are great providing cold air, they are a pick lacking when it comes to providing heat.  They also pull an unbelievable amount of electricity. I am cold even though I am dressed in winter clothes and an afghan.  November15th can’t come soon enough for me. Then for four glorious months I will be toasty warm until March 15th when all of the heat is turned off and we start the process all over until it is warm again.

Regardless of that, the first snowfall of Beijing has been great.

Also, a Korean friend sent me a text this morning and said it was a Korean tradition to make a wish on the first snow fall.  So I have.  I sure hope it come true. Will let you know.

Watching the baseball playoffs is an interesting challenge here in Beijing.  I was thrilled when I realized that I could get the games live, if I got up early enough, or watch them later in the day with replay.

I got into this habit during the summer of watching the baseball games as a nice relief from watching endless soccer, table tennis, fishing and cricket shows on ESPN/Star.  Ok, I was having to watch the Yankees play every game but at least I could cheer for the other team.  I have a long standing policy of cheering for “anyone but the Yankees”.  So I watched the Yankees and occasionally got to see my Blue Jays play.  It was wonderful to watch MLB and listen to the crowds and the commentators.  There is just something about the sound of a baseball game that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

An Aussie friend spent a lot of the summer living with me and she had to put up with me occasionally going on and on about the wonders of baseball. It makes no sense to her and she has even less interest.  Oh well, at least she explained Cricket to me.  This is the umpteenth time I have had someone explain this game to me and each time I grasp a bit more but I still really do not see what all the fuss is about.  I am becoming desperate enough to have “Cricket for Dummies” sitting in my Amazon cart.  I haven’t hit the purchase button yet but you never know.

So, it is now baseball play off season and I am ready to enjoy all of the action whether live or tape – don’t really care.  (I should also point out that I only get 4 English channels and so thoroughly enjoy my ESPN.) Suddenly, everything changes.  The playoff games are on as I expected but they are being simulcast in, get this, Chinese…..yes, they are over riding the English commentators with Chinese.  I am devastated.  I have realized that a great deal of watching or listening to baseball or any sport for that matter has to do with the sounds that go with it.  I have lost that though they have still allowed the crowd noise to come through but the information is in Chinese.  So now instead of being able to work on my computer  while sitting in front of the tv listening to the game and occasionally looking up, I must know actually watch the action and put up with the commentators.

In all fairness, I will point out that I think the commentators are doing a good job even though I don’t understand them.  They get excited at the right places and no when to be quiet at the right places.  I also got to hear God Bless America during the seventh inning stretch. That was nice.

I decided that I would listen to the game on the radio online while watching the game but after searching for about 30 minutes I gave up. If anyone knows a way to listen to the games online free please let me know.

Last Sunday Iwent to the small flower market, not to be confused with the large flower market I visited the Sunday before, to buy flowers for my small balconies.  I wanted to bring some colour to the outside world on the 11th floor.

Now when I say small I am being kind.  The with of my balconies, I have three, is exactly 66cm. I never thought I would come to the time where wishing to have an additional 10 cm. would be so important. I won’t bore you with my dreams for the balconies if I had those additional 10cm.

A few years ago collapsible lawn chairs came to Beijing and I bought a set only to find they were built with an Asian frame in mind. I don’t have long legs but with the end of the chair digging into my thighs it was not comfortable. The next year bigger chairs came out and I bought two of them along with two small nice plastic IKEA tables with lids.  It has been lovely and I have spent many a comfortable and relaxing hour on the balcony.

This year because I am not going home to Canada for the summer, I decided to add flowers to the balcony which is what I was going last Sunday.  It was so much fun!!!!!! I bought petunias, impatiens and geraniums in a variety of colours.  I gathered quite an audience as I tried to figure out what I wanted with both pots and flowers. Eventually, I had settled on what I wanted and made arrangements for them to be delivered to my house for 50 RMB (about$9.00).  I love China.

I had a lot of fun moving the flowers around on the different balconies and was quite pleased with the result. I then spent a nice Sunday afternoon sitting on my eastern balcony reading and watching the world go by down below.  That was,of course, before the wind and the sandstorms came into Beijing last week.  After two days and nights of brutal wind and having one of my plants, a beautiful hydrangea, break in half and blow away I moved the plants inside and there they sit.  They are still beautiful but at the moment not quite fulfilling their outdoor purpose as the wind continues.

Today is again Sunday and the wind is still howling outside on the 11th floor but the sky is beautiful and blue.  Outside the sounds of traditional Chinese instrumental music floated up from the center area of the complex as the usual group of 20-25 older Chinese ladies went through their morning  exercises.  It is a beautiful slow elegant form similar to Tai Chi moves.  Yesterday another group was doing sword exercises.

The only sound around is that of the music and the occasional dog barking as they are taken for their walk.  I love the gentleness of the morning heras it is so different from the frantic pace of  life outside in Beijing.

I have finished watching the Red Sox beat the Yankees 16-13 and it is time to get ready for church and see what else Sunday in Beijing is going to bring.

Words cannot begin to describe how beautiful the Hermitage Museum is. The Winter Palace, built by Catherine the Great, is part of the museum. They have incorporated entire rooms from many different eras into the museum. I was fascinated by the grandeur of the rooms and in all honesty did not spend that much time looking at the hundreds of paintings. I was sorry to have missed the Monet exhibit but by that time it was late and they were starting to close down hall ways. There were certain areas that we just ran through with hardly a glance at the old wall hangings etc. The ceilings and floors were incredible.

On the other hand, I did not find the museum that user friendly. I do understand that it is in Russia but as a world class museum, supposedly second only to the Louve, the only language available to read for the most part was Russian. They did have audio tours you could get for an additional 300 roubles but that still didn’t take you to exactly where you wanted to go. It was hard to find out who the painters were or the names of the halls we were in. That is actually just a typical English speakers gripe though, the other places we have been to in St. Petersburg have been very user friendly.

One thing that was very interesting was the fact that by paying an additional 100 roubles I could take any pictures I wanted to take. So we took a lot. Some of them are on Facebook but I will get them on another site soon. I am heading to England so it should be a bit easier to get online there.

This is our last day in St. Petersburg and so we must drag our cases down the stairs,  through the courtyard, down the street, across the bridge to the travel agency that has arranged everything for us.  It is pouring rain right now so that should be interesting.  We are going to go and see St.Isaacs Cathedral if we get a chance.  The train leaves for Moscow at 4:00 which means we will be home at 11:00 in time to sleep, pack and leave for the airport at 6:45 to fly to Manchester. Oh well, more stories to tell later.

I cannot believe that it is already Friday of my vacation in Russia. We are having a great time though spend most of the time absolutely exhausted.

We arrived in St. Petersburg last night around 9:30 and were taken to our 2 bedroom serviced apartment. At first as we were going through the court yard and up the stairs I was wondering what it the world we were getting into. It is a wonderful apartment with every mod con you could possibly want except for one thing. We don’t have room darkening shades in the bedrooms. As I am writing this it is 10:30 at night but the sun has not set yet and won’t for another 2 hours. Then it will be like an early twilight until it is time for the sun to rise again. You totally lose track of your time. Cathy and I are never in a rush in the mornings because we know that it will never get too dark to be outside.

We visited the Church of Our Saviour on the Spilled Blood today.It is magnificent. It is now a museum and was reopened in 1997 after being completely refurbished. For over 30 years this incredible cathedral with its 7 million individual pieces of mosaic the Life of Christ completely presented in these pictures was a warehouse. The Spilled Blood part of the title which is appropo for Christ, actually refers to the fact that Alexander II was assassinated on the spot where the church is now built.

St. Petersburg is the city of Peter and Catherine the Great. The buildings are painted many different soft colours and has a real European feel to it, though I don’t think Cathy actually agrees with me, and she has spent a lot of time in Europe.

Tonight for supper we took a gypsy cab to the restaurant. I will stop here for a brief explanation of a gypsy cab. The following is taken from a magazine on St.Petersburg.

“Taxi” is a term to be used loosely in Russian. Although there are official taxis, most St. Petersburgers hail ordinary cars. This can be unsafe, but you are usually OK if you take the necessary caution. There is a certain protocol to follow. Always agree in advance about the price. If the driver refuses,slam the door in an angry manner and sometimes they change their mind. Then hop in and enjoy the Lada expereince.”

And  that is exactly how it works.  So we caught a cab while we were standing by the water front which is the Bay or Gulf of Finland and went to the Shamrock Bar where we ate Chicken Kiev and drank Baileys.  Food was great, music too loud but a good time.

I saw the Hermitage Museum from the outside today. WOW!!!!!!  We are going into it tomorrow so I will have more to say about it.  I am really looking forward to it.  I would upload some pictures but there is some sort of glitch so I will put them on Flickr or Webshots for everyone to see, in a couple of days. Though there are some pictures on my Facebook page.

Well, it is time for bed by my body time if not by the sun time.  More later.

I recommend

I cannot even begin to let you know how excited I am to write those words. Actually, I have been here for three days but there were times over the past month that I didn’t think I would ever see Russia. In fact, it seemed to do everything it could to keep me out. This trip had been planned for 8 months and everything was paid for ready to go until I had to apply for my visa.

The problems started with the fact that I had to get a new Canadian passport because it was going to expire in July 2009, 14 days before my new work visa for 2008-2009 would expire. Twenty one days later I received my Canadian passport with 48 pages and then the school took my passport for 2 weeks to get my work permit renewed for next school year. By the time I received everything back there was not time to get a Russian visa. It now takes 15 working days for a Canadian to get a Russian visa. (has something to do with oil up in the north). I still went to the Russian Embassy and was told no by a very nice man. I almost cried.

After that devastating news I emailed my friend and told her our summer plans were off. At that point Cathy got into panic mode and contracted everyone she could and I eventually received an invitation from the UK Embassy to come to Russia. My invitation didn’t arrive until Wednesday night (I am leaving Sunday). Thankfully after a 2 hour wait outside the Russia Embassy on Thursday morning (also the last day of school) I was issued my entry visa in 50 minutes for a large fee. It didnt’ matter – I was going to Russia.

I won’t even describe the next two days as I said goodbye to my incredible students and a lot of friends who have finished their contracts and I shopped and shopped. It was frantic but I was going to Russia. I was starting to believe.

Sunday morning my ayi arrived and got a taxi arranged to take me to the airport. Just as we were dashing out the door by suitcase broke and everything was all over everywhere. We grabbed another, larger suitcase, threw everything into the new suitcase and it about 8 minutes were out the door to the airport.

The taxi ride and check in were uneventful. The new Terminal 3 in Beijing is beautiful and extremely efficient. I wandered along and spent too much money in the duty free shops especially the Olympic shops and finally got to my gate which was downstairs and looked more like a bus station than a beautiful gate for this modern airport. It was jammed and i had to push to find a seat because of the weight I was carrying. I had decided that with my sore back I would not take a backpack but would bring my computer case on wheels so I wouldn’t have to lift anything but just wheel right on board. Was I ever wrong.

Because I wanted to save money on this trip I had decided to fly Air China instead of a European carrier and there were consequences for going cheap. Instead of walking onto the plane we were all loaded on board buses and taken out to the far reaches of the airport to our plane where we had to climb the stairs from the tarmack to the plane. (OK -so much for not having to life anything). I also had on a long skirt and there I was struggling up the steps like a toddler, clutching my skirt, my duty free junk, my purse and my heavy computer roll on luggage. No one to help.

Got on board and found my seat with no problem and settled down. It took 1 1/2 hours to load the plane becasue of the buses. Finally we took off and had an uneventful trip. I was on my way. I would be there in eight hours. Short of the plane falling out of the sky I figured I had the hardest part behind me. I was wrong.

When we deplaned in Moscow we had to walk quite a long way to passport control, not a problem, and then we had to go down into the next level to go through passport control. No escalators just steps. So I gathered everything up and still feeling positive I descended into what was about to become hell. Yes, at the Moscow airport hell is known as passport control.

Four hundred people jammed into a space for half of that with no queing, to direction and no enough people to process all of us. I will not go on to describe what transpired but it was 2 1/2 hours of standing jammed together doing shuffle before I got through. No one in MOscow smiled or welcomed us. Announcements were continually made in Russia but as there were mostly mainland Chinese in the room with the occasional English speaker and a handful of Russians the announcements were wasted. No one got angry we all just stood there.

Finally, I was through and then I had to find my luggage. Don’t picture a big lovely automated luggage track with people to help you and care about you. No!!!!! No one spoke English nor was interested in charades which work so well in China and other countries. The luggage had long since been abandoned and after wandering around for about 15minutes I finally found it on the London England carousel and loaded it on my cart. I was only three hours late and I knew Cathy was just around the corner. I was wrong. I had to go through another luggage check. I had to unload all my luggage again by myself, I was yelled at by the russian guard because I didn’t know what to do…..he was so busy leaning against the machine and smoking he wouldn’t be able to help, then wait for it to come through the other side, reload my cart, again being yelled at because I was so slow, and then I was able to be released from my little version of hell.

Of course, wonderful friend that she is,Cathy was waiting for me and it was so great to see her. She had been waiting for 3 1/2 hours with no idea what was going on until a french lady emerged from passport control and told her what was happening inside. Thank goodness Cathy knows a number of languages.

I am now here and we are having a wonderful slow and quiet time. I am seeing Moscow and it is wonderful.

This has gone on far too long so I will post again tomorrow just before we leave for St Petersburg.

Beijing, as I am sure other cities, has its own unique way of judging the air quality. The scale starts at 1A here which basically means an absolutely fabulous day with blue skies, white clouds and within reason, nothing to worry about. It then moves up the scale from Great to Really Scary. We usually see a 2B day with 3A’s thrown in here and there. Each one of these comes with a suggestion of what is acceptable to do outside.

The school has incorporated an air quality rating within the standards for the school which is terrific. We are able to judge what the students will be allowed to do based on the daily email we receive and not spend forever sending emails back and forth to everyone trying to figure out what to do.

Today was one of those Getting Scary days which wasn’t helped by the fact that we were once again trying to have our Sports Day. The reading was a 4A the highest we have seen during school days this year. Immediately, everyone knew that once again Sports Day was called off. (The previous Monday the government mandated 3 days of official mourning.) We are going to try for next Monday, no make it Tuesday, no let’s go back to Monday – that is how the emails went this morning. I was just confused at the end.

Ok, the reason for the lousy reading was a sandstorm or more appropriately called a dust storm. This is the time of year that Beijing experiences this phenomenon. We are located just 120 miles away from the Gobi Desert and with it creeping closer and closer to the city every year we get hit by wind and dust storms. The wind is strong and the sky turns a very interesting colour and everywhere there is a thin layer of yellow dust. Last night, I went to bed early to be ready for sports day and about 11 pm a huge thunderstorm hit. Then the wind stated howling outside my apartment and the steady wind brought with it the dust.

Why is this even an issue big enough in my mind to spend time blogging about it? I have a headache and I keep sneezing even after taking two Claritan, my throat is scratchy and I am thirsty. Of course, there is a discussion about whether this is caused because of the outside conditions or the fact that the kids have been inside the entire day with no outside playtime. Actually, both of those reasons come down to the same reason.

I don’t think I will ever understand chinese dogs.  Now when I say “Chinese dogs” I am not just meaning the ever popular Chinese pug or Pekinese (we had 2 over the years).  I am talking about any dog that lives in China or my part of China – Beijing.

I don’t understand the training methods that are involved to make it possible for a dog to sit in the basket of a bicycle or motorcycle, to sit on the back of a wagon, to sit on top of a cart full of groceries as it is being rolled down the rocky street, and never budge or fall off or apparently show a desire to do any of those things.

Every morning when I leave for work there are dozens of dogs and their owners going for an early morning walk around our complex.  Most of the dogs aren’t on a leash of any sort and with the exception of occasional barking there are not any problems.  It is the same thing in the evening though it has become apparently recently that the more rambunctious dogs are walked after 10 p.m and there is a lot of barking involved.

Dogs in my complex rule supreme.  They are proud and well behaved though I can’t always say the same for their owners.  I remember last fall watching a beautiful Pekinese doing his business on the grass and his owner bent down, after the dog was finished, and with a lovely clean tissue wiped the dogs butt clean and then just threw the tissue on the ground.  YUCK!!!!!!  Where are our priorities.????

Actually, there must be new dogs laws out and being taught on Chinese television because over the past 6 months you see everyone walking around with a plastic bag to clean up after their dog.  Unfortunately, there are parents who don’t do that with their little children.

Dogs in Beijing tend to be of the small variety as that is what is mandated by law and the predominate colour of value is white.  It never ceases to amaze in a dirty, smoggy city like Beijing white dogs rule.  On the other hand they are usually very clean.

I do fell sorry for one of the poodles in my complex as her parents insist on having her ears dyed a different colour every couple of weeks.  She can have blue, yellow, green or fuschia ears.  I figure she spends her life just rolling her eyes and trying to put up with it.

Dogs clothing business is huge in Beijing also.  Some of the best dressed living creatures on the streets are the dogs.  You would never send your dog out in the rain without the boots on that match the outfit.  Winter coats are extremely popular though I do think that a chihuahua looks a bit strange in a fake fur coat when there is already all that beautiful real hair.

Dog language also confuses me as I soon realized that the dogs don’t understand English but just Chinese.  Now I don’t need to be confused with the whole tone of voice discussion.  I understand that but I choose to believe that when I say “Ni Hao” (good morning) the dog is more aware than when I say “Hi”.  It is hard for me to get my find around that all of the dogs, not just the Chinese breeds all speak Chinese.  A french poodle who responds to Chinese is just too funny…..