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Small talk

/ edebock / 2 Comments

After a two week hiatus, I’m finally back in the blogosphere! We spent part of that time enjoying Family Camp at Camp Harmattan, the Church of the Nazarene campsite  located between Olds and Sundre in southern Alberta. Down in the valley of the Little Red Deer River, we had no access to internet and I must admit that it was a nice break.

While telling his story, one of the speakers at camp made a statement that startled me. Dr. John Seaman and his wife, Linda, served on the mission field for 27 years. The last 17 of those years were spent in West Africa. John said that when he was elected to his present position of district superintendent of the Michigan District of the Church of the Nazarene, he felt completely overwhelmed. West Africa had become his comfort zone and Michigan was not!

That got me thinking. Over the past several years, we’ve stretched our comfort zones until, at times, it feels as if they have no boundaries. As I’ve thought about this over the past few days, however, I’ve come to the conclusion that my comfort zone has nothing to do with geography. I feel completely at home walking the streets of Asia but there are times right here at home when I struggle to step outside my comfort zone.

That’s where the book that I’m currently reading comes into play. I can stand in front of a class of any age in any part of the world and feel at home. I have no problem with public speaking as long as I’ve had time to prepare and I can put on a costume, even a very skimpy one, and act on stage before a full house but I dread social events where I’m required to mix and mingle. I’ve worked hard to overcome my incredibly shy nature but I still feel tongue tied and wish that I could disappear into thin air when I’m in a situation that requires conversation with people I don’t know well. I’m sure I often come across as a total snob! That’s why I’m hoping that The Fine Art of Small Talk by Debra Fine will help me stretch my comfort zone in a new direction.

booksFine begins her book with a “Winning at Small Talk” worksheet. If you find yourself responding no to more than a few of the questions, this book is for you, she says. I answered every question with a no!

“If you generally wait for someone else to take the initiative in a conversation, you have been self-centered,” she says in Chapter 2. Ouch! That would definitely be me.

The book is an easy read but putting it’s principles into practice will likely take a lot more effort. Fine suggests having a repertoire of icebreaking questions to use to engage someone else in conversation. I can’t actually see myself using many of the ones she suggests but maybe I should try “Have you ever read The Fine Art of Small Talk by Debra Fine?”

Do you have any favourite conversation starters?

Busy day in Beijing

/ edebock / 4 Comments

I prefer to blog as I travel while the images and impressions are fresh in my mind but our whirlwind tour of China didn’t allow time for that. Now that we’re home and recuperating from jet lag, I’ll do my best to recap for you over the next few days.

As we walked toward Tiananmen Square on our first morning in Beijing, I felt completely overwhelmed. Many times during our months in China, we commented on how surreal it felt to actually be living there but in early June of 1989 when tanks rolled into that square and mowed down hundreds of protesting students I couldn’t possibly have imagined that I might someday stand on that very spot. The exact number who died that day has never been officially confirmed. The reality of being there brought a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes. When I mentioned my feelings to our tour guide, she quickly changed the subject pointing out the Great Hall of the People where the nation’s government meets, the China National Museum, the Monument to the People’s Heroes and the Mausoleum in the centre of the square where Chairman Mao’s embalmed body has lain in state since his death in 1976. I was later told that tour guides are not allowed discuss the Tiananmen massacre with foreigners.

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Tiananmen Square

Joining a throng of visitors, mostly Chinese, we passed beneath the gigantic portrait of Chairman Mao and through the Gate of Heavenly Peace into the Forbidden City. It was from high on this gate that Mao proclaimed the formation of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949 and we truly felt that we were at the heart of the country.

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The Gate of Heavenly Peace

Our Beijing guide chose to pack too much into our first day there making our tour of the Forbidden City, so-called because it was off limits to the ordinary people for its first 500 years, a rushed one. Originally constructed over a 14 year period in the early 1400s when China’s third emperor, Zhu Di, moved his capital from Nanjing in the south to Beijing in the north, the Forbidden City is China’s largest and best-preserved complex of ancient buildings. We would have liked more time to explore it but fortunately, it is not unlike many other similar complexes that we’ve seen in Asia.

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in the Forbidden City

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Next on the day’s agenda was the Summer Palace, a huge park complete with gardens, pavilions, temples, bridges and man-made Kunming Lake. The soil that was excavated to form the lake was used to build Longevity Hill which overlooks it. The Summer Palace was vandalized during an Anglo-French invasion in 1860 but rebuilt in 1888 as a palatial summer resort for the Empress Dowager Cixi, also known as China’s Dragon Lady. She spared no expense even using money that was earmarked for a modern navy to build an enormous marble boat at the northern edge of the lake!

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Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill

Our third historical site for the day was the circular Temple of Heaven with its three levels representing God, the emperor and the people. Sally, who we dubbed the “reluctant tour guide”, dismissed it as unimportant because “we have no God anymore”. She told us that Mao gave the Chinese people “freedom from religion”. She didn’t appear to share the hunger for something to believe in that we sensed in many of the young Chinese that we were acquainted with.

Temple of Heaven

Temple of Heaven

Again, we would have liked to have had enough time to explore the peaceful park surrounding the temple but that was not to be. These are only a few of the highlights of a very busy day that ended with a Kung Fu show that was a fantastic combination of martial arts and dance.

In one way, we were very blessed while we were in Beijing. Did you notice the sky in the photos? Beijing is usually shrouded in heavy smog. It reaches such dangerously high levels that some people actually wear gas masks outdoors but just before we arrived, the air was cleansed by heavy rain and we enjoyed clear skies and unusually fresh air!

Spring… definitely worth waiting for!

/ edebock / 8 Comments

I’ve been waiting for spring ever since we arrived on campus at the end of February. It’s been like looking at a drab cocoon and waiting for the beautiful butterfly to emerge. Though the grass was brown and the trees were bare, we could see the potential for so much beauty.

Now, suddenly, spring is upon us and it’s even more beautiful than we imagined. It began a couple of weeks ago when the grass seemed to turn green overnight. Then the magnolia trees alongside one of the lecture halls burst into magnificent bloom. Before we left on last week’s holiday, I expected to see leaves on the trees when we got back and I wasn’t disappointed.

This afternoon, as we walked across campus on our way to pick up a few groceries at the supermarket, we recognized the unmistakable smell of lilacs in bloom. We soon found ourselves wandering parts of the campus that we hadn’t bothered with before! There were blossoms everywhere; bright splashes of red, white, pink, and vibrant purple. I wasn’t the only one with my camera out!

China’s on vacation

/ edebock / 8 Comments

Today was the first day of China’s annual three day Labor Day holiday but we get the whole week off so we boarded a plane early this afternoon and flew to Jinan, the capital city of Shandong province, southwest of Dalian. Jinan is nicknamed the City of Springs because of the vast number of artesian springs that are concentrated in the downtown district which is also circled by a moat.

Our hotel is located in the heart of that area but we had a little difficulty locating it because we didn’t realize that it’s located on the upper floors of a building with only an unassuming elevator entrance at street level. The streets were filled with people in a festive mood so it was easy to find someone to ask for help. I randomly chose Michael who turned out to be a first year university student studying tourism management. He was absolutely delighted to assist us, leading us up to the hotel lobby, helping us with the check-in procedure and walking us to our room. There, he gave us his cell phone number and suggested that we call him if we needed any more help or if we wanted him to act as our guide. He wanted nothing more than the opportunity to practice English with us.

After settling into our room, we headed out to explore the area on foot quickly discovering the moat directly across the street from our hotel and wandering along it until we arrived at the city’s central square which was one big party. It was crowded with people frolicking, flying kites, and shopping at the many booths that had been set up.

Deciding that it was time to find some supper, we left the square and continued walking turning in at nearby Furong Alley, a pedestrian street festooned with hanging lanterns and bright red banners. I immediately recognized it as the street of restaurants and food booths that I’d read about in our Lonely Planet guidebook. It was absolutely packed with people! As we made our way through the throng looking for a place to eat, who should appear out of the crowd but Michael, the only person we knew in the entire city of 2.27 million people! He and two of his roommates had just finished their supper but they happily led us to a restaurant, helped us order a delicious dinner and left us to eat it telling us that they’d be back in half an hour to continue showing us around! We spent the rest of the evening with them enjoying the party atmosphere of a country on vacation and seeing some of the sights of beautiful downtown Jinan.

Home improvements

/ edebock / 2 Comments

As I’ve mentioned before, we live in a very old building. The apartment seems to be falling apart around us but each time something’s gone wrong, it’s been quickly taken care of so the place is improving all the time!

We’d only been here a few days when Richard opened the cupboard below the kitchen sink and noticed that we had a problem. There was water where there shouldn’t be water and lots of it! A call to the school resulted in the caretaker showing up that same afternoon to fix the leak. When he left, the kitchen faucet was no longer loose and we haven’t had a problem with it since.

Then there was the electricity issue. You may have read about that in my post entitled An electrician’s nightmare. In the week since the breaker was replaced, we haven’t tripped it once!

That doesn’t mean that nothing else went wrong though! Late yesterday afternoon we received a text message from the school informing us that our downstairs neighbours had called the landlord to report that there was water coming through their ceiling, presumably from our bathroom! We’d noticed a small amount of water pooling beneath the pedestal sink lately but when your entire bathroom is a shower stall, water on the floor is commonplace and we hadn’t paid a lot of attention to it or determined where it was coming from. We gave permission for the caretaker to come into the apartment while we were out teaching our evening classes and when we got home, it was easy to see that he’d narrowed the problem down to the connection leading to the washing machine. Now there’s some shiny new plumbing under the sink and no more water on the floor.

I can’t help wondering what’s next. As long as it isn’t the gas line, I guess we’ll be okay!

[Home, home improvements, plumbing, electricity]

[China]

More family drama

/ edebock / 6 Comments

There’s nothing like a late night phone call to get your heart racing and the adrenaline pumping! I had just crawled into bed at about 11:45 last night when the phone on my bedside table rang. It was our son, Matt, calling to tell us that Dad’s high rise apartment building had been evacuated a couple of hours earlier and Dad’s whereabouts were unknown!

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photo credit: Vancouver Sun

While conducting a search warrant for drugs on the 11th floor of the 29 storey building, Burnaby RCMP officers found more than they were looking for… 10 sticks of dynamite and several small bombs! As soon as Matt heard the news on Twitter, he headed over to Grandpa’s to make sure that he was okay.

Dad is a distinctive looking man. Though slightly stooped by age, he once stood 6 feet 6 inches tall and only weighs about 170 pounds (yes, that’s definitely where I got my skinny genes!). He’s fairly frail and walks with a cane. The officer that Matthew spoke with knew immediately who he was looking for and told him that he had seen Dad waiting in the lobby earlier. He assumed that he had had gone to the nearby community centre that had been opened as an evacuation centre and directed Matthew there. Dad wasn’t there nor was he at the care facility where Mom lives. Unable to find him, Matt headed home and called me.

I assumed that Dad might have called someone from his church and that they had picked him up but I had no way of knowing for sure. I called my sister who agreed that that was a likely scenario but neither of us had a name or a phone number to call. We discussed the fact that Dad is of sound mind and wouldn’t just wander away into the night. We agreed not to panic and I crawled back into bed.

That’s when the phone rang a second time! It was Matt’s wife, Robin. The evacuation centre had called. Dad was there and Matt was on his way back to pick him up. Their plan was to bring him back to their place for the night but when Matt got there, he was told that the order was about to be lifted. He waited with Dad then took him back to the apartment. All was well!

It wasn’t until this morning that I learned that when Matt went over the first time, Dad was actually sitting in a warm bus outside the building waiting to see what was going to happen. He sat there for an hour and a half before being taken to the evacuation centre.

Dad doesn’t carry a cell phone and he probably wouldn’t have called anyone if he did. He knew he was okay and had no idea that anyone was worrying about him. As my niece pointed out, he doesn’t understand how fast news travels these days. We’re just relieved to know that he was in a safe, warm place where he was able to sit and wait in relative comfort! We’re also very grateful that something of this nature didn’t happen while Mom was still living at home. That would have been a much greater ordeal.

I think I’m going to escape all this family drama and go to China! We leave later this afternoon!

Packing 105: To fold or to roll, that is the question

/ edebock / 14 Comments

Though some people roll their clothing to pack it in a suitcase claiming that it takes up less space and doesn’t wrinkle as much, I prefer to fold most of ours.

I learned to fold and pack from a master. When I was a child my father spent several years commuting between Powell River and Vancouver almost every week. Every week my mother did his laundry, starched and pressed his dress shirts and repacked his suitcase. I remember watching her with fascination. She could fold a shirt so that it looked like it had just come out of it’s original package.

Every summer, our family of six would pile into the big blue and white International Travelall and set off on a camping adventure that often lasted several weeks. Mom would pack everything we needed into the back of the vehicle. There was no such thing as a nylon tent in those days but she could fit the bulky canvas tent, six sleeping bags, foam sleeping mats, the Coleman stove, dishes, food, clothes, life jackets and fishing gear and a multitude of other things into the space behind the back seat.

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One summer we chartered a float plane and flew into Garibaldi Lake nestled high in the coastal mountains. Mom had to weigh every single item that went on that trip to make sure that we didn’t exceed the plane’s weight limit. Yes, she was definitely a packing wizard!

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But I digress! Though I fold the majority of our clothing, I often roll things like pyjamas to fit into small unused spaces between other items. On our upcoming trip to China, I’m also going to try a packing technique that I’ve never used before. By packing bulky items in ziploc bags and squeezing the air out before sealing them, they’ll take up much less room in a suitcase. Richard’s navy blue fleece hoodie is two sizes larger than my red one but look at how much less space it needs.

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And before I bring this packing series to an end, here’s one last tip: It’s amazing how much you can pack inside the shoes that go into your suitcase. Stuff them full of socks, underwear, pantyhose, pill bottles, anything that will fit!

Do you fold or roll?

No more mountain!

/ edebock / 4 Comments

We have our visas!

After the panic that I was thrown into three weeks ago when we learned that we had to have complete medicals done before we could apply for our work visas, our trip to the Chinese visa application centre was quite anticlimactic. We drove to Calgary on Monday, going directly to the centre when we arrived in the city. Though there were nine spaces at the counter for serving customers, we were the only ones there. After carefully checking all of our documents, the representative took our passports and told us to return on Thursday. It was that simple.

When we went back this morning, there were a few people there but we didn’t have to wait. Within minutes, we had our passports with the visas in them. We checked them carefully, paid the required fees and were on our way. The mountain had moved!

In spite of the unexpected stress involved in getting our visas, there’s also been a bit of humour involved. Carefully following the instructions provided by our employer in China, when we completed our visa application forms we entered “employment” as my main reason for going to China but “to accompany my wife” as Richard’s! His is also a work visa but apparently it was faster for them to acquire a single invitation letter and work permit for the two of us than it would have been to treat us as two entirely separate entities.

With the exception of the Mosuo tribe, a small ethnic group living in Yunnan province, China is not a matriarchal society. The only reason we can think of that I appear as the head of the family on our documents is that I’m the one who has done most of the communicating with our employer. Whatever the reason, I’ve definitely had fun calling Richard my consort and teasing him that he’s only going along as my companion!

No more mountain! Thank you for your prayers!

No more mountain! Thank you for your prayers!

Packing 104: What else will I pack?

/ edebock / 4 Comments

Packing, especially for a long stay, isn’t only about clothes. As I mentioned in my first packing post, we’ve been advised to bring a sufficient supply of medications and other essentials to last for the duration of our stay. There are also all sorts of random things that will be tucked into our luggage when we leave for China.

Depending on where you’re going, packing a towel might be a good idea. If you stay in 4 or 5 star resorts you certainly won’t need one but if you frequent $12/night guest houses like the one we stayed in in Cambodia, you’d better take one with you! Our apartment in China will be fully furnished. Dishes and bedding are provided but we’ve been told that towels are not. We can buy them there, of course, but after travelling and hanging around airports for over 24 hours, we’ll probably want to shower and fall into bed when we arrive! I think I’ll pack a couple of towels.

If necessary, laundry can be done almost anywhere. I always pack a small container of powdered laundry soap for those occasions when something needs to be washed out by hand. I learned a valuable lesson on our last international trip, however. ALWAYS pack that container in a ziploc bag! Airline baggage handlers are not kind to luggage and it’s amazing where powdered soap can end up when it’s released from it’s container and allowed to wander freely. Fortunately, the container was in an outside pocket of our suitcase but I was brushing soap from between the pages of my Bible for a long time afterward and I just recently found some hiding inside the case that holds my spare pair of glasses!

If you have eyesight like ours, an extra pair of glasses should always travel with you and it’s a good idea to take a copy of your current prescription as well. Add a pair of sunglasses and you’re ready to go.

Believe it or not, when I shop for clothes, I almost always think about how well an item will pack. How much space will it take up in a suitcase? How badly will it wrinkle? The second question is less important this time as I’ll also be packing our dual voltage travel iron which usually resides in our travel trailer. It’s not something that I’d bother packing for a shorter vacation trip but there won’t be an iron in our apartment in China so it will be essential. We’ll also take an adapter plug that will allow us to plug it in as outlets in China are different from those in Canada.

Voltage also varies from country to country. Here in Canada, we use 120 volts but China uses 220. Fortunately, our laptop computer, which will travel as a carry-on, has its own power converter. A camera is absolutely essential, of course, and at least a couple of memory cards. That, too, will travel in our carry-on luggage.

Wherever we go, we love to walk and hike. Since I’m always curious to know how far I’ve gone, I’ll be sure to pack my pedometer. A compass doesn’t take up much space and can be very handy so we’ll take one of those too. If we planned on geocaching, we’d also take our handheld GPS unit but caching hasn’t really caught on in China yet and I’ve also read that it’s illegal to use a GPS there without a permit! I’m not sure if that’s true or not but since there will be so many other things to see and do, we’ll leave that pastime until we get home again.

A travel alarm clock and a tiny flashlight will also be tucked into our suitcases. Though July and August are Dalian’s rainiest months, it’s on the coast and we’ll definitely need umbrellas. I’m sure we could buy them there but we have several folding ones so we’ll pack a couple of them including a tiny one that fits into my purse.

China is officially an atheist country but we are allowed to take a Bible with us for our personal use. We don’t travel anywhere without one so our compact ultra thin edition will go with us. Our Lonely Planet guidebook is bigger but it will definitely go too. I’m also hoping to fit a few paperback books into our baggage that we can leave behind when we finish reading. We probably should have invested in an e-reader by now as we’re both avid readers but I still like the feel of a book in my hands. It would be handy when we travel though, especially when we spend lengthy periods of time in countries where English is difficult to find.

Reminders of home are important if you’re away for an extended amount of time. A few family photos will definitely go to China with us. Our orientation handbook also suggests that we bring items that show the culture and history of our country to share with our students but I haven’t figured out what those ought to be. Any suggestions?

Maybe I should also pack a few twist ties. That’s the one thing we had a hard time finding in Japan!

Packing 103: Carry-on

/ edebock / 3 Comments

My sister flew from Edmonton to Vancouver a couple of weeks ago but her suitcase went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico! If you’ve ever had a suitcase go astray, you know how important the contents of your carry-on can be.

I once carried a kabocha in my carry-on but I’m usually a little more sensible than that! Our suitcases have failed to keep up with us three times over the years but each time, we’ve been fortunate to be on our way home. Last year, however, we were stranded overnight in Houston with only our carry-on baggage but fortunately we were prepared.

So what are the essentials that should go into your carry-on luggage?

  • Passports and travel documents, of course. These should be stowed in a safe but easy to access location. 
  • A change of clothes or at least fresh undergarments. You can probably get away with wearing the same pair of jeans for several days but underwear, no!
  • Something that you can sleep in comfortably (unless you prefer to sleep in the nude).
  • If you’re on your way to a tropical destination, I’d suggest a swimsuit. It doesn’t take up much space and who wants to hang out on the beach in their travel clothes while they wait for a suitcase to be delivered? Of course, this could be just the excuse you need to buy a new one!
  • Medications; at least enough to last for a few days.
  • Basic toiletry items. Don’t forget that airline safety regulations restrict liquids, gels and aerosols in carry-on baggage to a maximum of 100 mL each and that all such items must be carried in a clear, resealable plastic bag that is no larger than one litre. There’s also limit of one bag per person. I always add my toothbrush to this bag.
  • Something to keep you occupied during a long flight or lengthy airport layover. This might be a book, magazine or e-reader or if there are two of you, a deck of cards.
  • Any valuables that couldn’t easily be replaced if your suitcase went missing permanently.

What else do you pack in your carry-on?

Most airlines allow two pieces of carry-on baggage per person; one larger than the other. A small purse can be carried on-board as well but a larger one will usually count as one of the allotted carry-ons. Mine is neither small nor overly large but I’m not interested in trying to keep track of three items anyway.

Our most interesting and innovative piece of luggage is the two piece Mountain Equipment Coop backpack that Richard received from his school staff as a retirement gift. Attached together, the two multi-pocketed bags are big enough that they have to fly as checked baggage but when separated, the larger wheeled pack and the smaller detachable day pack can travel as carry-ons. The wheels are great for traversing airports like the ones in Vancouver and Shanghai where we’ll change planes on the way to Dalian and the combo will be perfect for weekend or overnight trips while we’re living there.

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