Travel

Packing 102: Mix, match and layer

/ edebock / 9 Comments

How many outfits do you really need to take on any trip? After all, you can only wear one at a time!

Since we’ll be teaching during our upcoming stay in China, I’ll need a working wardrobe as well as casual clothes but I won’t pack a top that can’t be dressed up with dress pants or a skirt or down with jeans or capris. In addition, nothing will go into the suitcase unless it can coordinate with several other items so that just a few pieces produce many different looks.

Unlike in Japan where Richard was required to wear a dress shirt and tie to school every day, we’ve been told to dress for the classroom the same as we did in Canada. Our orientation booklet does say that we should dress conservatively, however, so I’ll stick with neutral colours for dress pants and skirts. A pop of colour can always be added with a brighter top or a scarf.

Layering is also key to travelling light. Whether you’re packing for a destination with warm days and cooler nights or expecting a seasonal change such as we’ll experience in China, layers are the way to go. A sleeveless top over a cami and worn with a cardigan will keep me warm in late February when Dalian’s average temperature is around 0°C (32° F). I’ll wear the same top on its own when daytime highs reach the mid twenties in May and June.

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Without question, the most versatile piece in my suitcase will be my Jockey Person to Person black modal cardigan.I have yet to figure out all the different ways that it can be worn! Click here to watch a short video that shows just a few of them. And here are a couple of my favourite looks.

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So, what will I pack for approximately 4 and a half months in China? The list will probably be refined a bit between now and packing day but here’s what it looks like right now:

  • 3 pairs of dress pants
  • 2 pairs of jeans
  • 2 pairs of capris
  • 2 or 3 skirts
  • 2 camis
  • 2 button up shirts
  • 1 long sleeved tunic top
  • 3 long sleeved tees
  • 2 short sleeved tees
  • 3 or 4 sleeveless tops
  • 2 cardigans
  • 1 fleece hoodie
  • 1 pashmina

Throw in socks, underwear, pjs, and a couple of belts and scarves, as well as assorted accessories and I’m almost ready to go. I never travel anywhere without a swimsuit and, of course, I’ll need shoes! I’m seriously thinking about only taking three pairs; a good pair of walking/hiking shoes that I’ll wear on the plane, a pair of black flats and a fairly dressy pair of sandals that are also comfortable to walk in. I’d love to take more and I will if there’s space but I survived childhood with only one pair of shoes at a time so really, anything more than that is luxury, isn’t it?

I’ll also be packing a light spring jacket; one that works well in wind or rain since we’ll be living on the coast. I’ll wear a wool coat on the flight over but when we return in July, I’ll have to try to squash that into one of our suitcases. I’d look a little funny wearing it in the height of summer!

In the meantime, before I start the big packing job, there’s one more trip we must make. Our mountain has moved! Richard picked up our completed medical forms this morning and on Monday we’ll be heading for Calgary to apply for our visas. When we drive, all my careful packing tips go out the window and we usually end up taking way more than we need. This time, I must remember to pack our skates as we’ve promised to take our grandchildren, Drew and Jami-Lee, skating in Bowness Park if the weather cooperates.

Packing 101

/ edebock / 7 Comments

A friend of mine is packing for a three month stay on the BC coast.

“Not my idea of fun,” she says. “Especially when there will be a season change and we don’t dare leave home without heavy winter gear.”

She posted on my Facebook page this morning, “How on earth do you pack to fly to places like Japan and China!!?? A province away is overwhelming me!!”

Yes, packing can definitely be overwhelming but I think it’s something I’m pretty good at. In fact, my sister recently suggested that I could write a book about it. I don’t think I’ll do that but over the next little while, as we continue to prepare for our stay in China, I’m going to share a few of my finer packing tips here.

Rule #1, of course, is travel light! My parents always taught me never to pack more than I could carry without assistance. Of course, the introduction of wheeled luggage made that a lot easier but less is still definitely better.

Packing is also all about using space effectively. China is a developing country. Many of the products that we are accustomed to using may not be available there. We have been advised to bring a sufficient supply of medications and other essentials to last for the duration of our stay. We did the same for our year in Japan. When crossing international borders, prescription and over-the-counter medications must travel in their original labelled containers but have you ever noticed how much empty space there is in most of the bottles on the drugstore shelf? And how much extra packaging is used?

By simply removing bottles and tubes from their boxes and filling pill bottles to the top, I was able to reduce this

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to this

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Of course, most of this will be used up before our return trip leaving a bit of extra suitcase space for purchases we might want to make while we’re there or for some of the bulky winter clothing that we’ll be wearing on our way to China. We, too, will have a seasonal change to deal with.

Perhaps my husband’s packing tip is the one most people would like to adhere to though: just let your wife do it! Yes, I do all the packing for both of us! Lucky man!

Tangled knots of tension

/ edebock / 2 Comments

This has been an eventful week.

On Monday, I learned that my Dad had finally made the decision to seek permanent care for my Mom. She’s 90 years old and suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, she’s virtually blind, incontinent and confined to a wheelchair. Dad has been burning himself out trying to be her primary caregiver and most of the time she doesn’t even know who he is.

I was relieved! I would be able to leave the country knowing that Mom was being well cared for and that Dad could finally relax and possibly regain his flagging health and strength. Then came Wednesday and a phone call from my sister. Dad was suffering from chest pains and she was catching a plane that afternoon to fly out to Vancouver to be with them!

I was already feeling stressed over the delay in getting our visas. This news was almost more than I could handle! Questions and doubts flooded my mind. What was I thinking of? Was going to China at this point sheer insanity? We’d already signed our contracts! What choice did I have now?

I don’t handle stress well. Apparently, neither does my father! His chest pains were not an indication of an impending heart attack as we feared but, as far as we can tell, the result of stressing about the decision he’d made and all its implications. He had lain awake for long hours Tuesday night worrying about where Mom would end up, how he’d get her there, what he should pack for her, whether or not she’d adjust well to her new surroundings and so on and so on until the pain began.

We knew that initially, at least, Mom would go into the first appropriate long term care bed in their area. We prayed that it would be easily accessible by bus so that Dad, who no longer drives due to failing eyesight, could visit her regularly. God did even better than that! Tomorrow morning she’s moving into a care facility just down the street from the apartment building where my parents have lived for over 20 years! It’s literally about 500 metres away, close enough for Dad to walk over anytime he wants!

After more than 64 years of marriage, tonight will be the last night that my parents will spend together. It’s sad, but Alzheimer’s is sadder. In a sense, Mom has already been gone for quite a long time. I’m just glad that Dad will still be able to spend time with her each day and that my sister is there to help them with the transition.

Now, if only the results of our blood tests come back soon so that we can head to Calgary to apply for our visas. Then maybe the knots in my stomach will begin to untangle!

Over, under or through the Wall

/ edebock / 10 Comments

One thing we absolutely must do while we’re in China is visit and walk on the Great Wall but it’s not that wall that’s been bothering me.

The Great Firewall of China, or the Golden Shield as it’s officially known, is a censorship and surveillance project operated by the Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China that prevents access to websites that are deemed undesirable. I’m pretty sure I can learn to live without Facebook but what would I do if I couldn’t blog?

I know that there are ways to get over, under or through the wall; things called VPNs (virtual personal networks) but I’m not overly computer savvy. I was a little worried about whether or not I’d be able to figure out how to access and use something like that especially considering the fact that I’ll be in a country where I won’t speak the language.

Then, a couple of days ago, I was searching the WordPress site looking for something entirely different when I came across a series of instructions entitled Generating a Post by Email. We’ve been assured that we’ll be able to use our gmail account so it would appear that my problem has been solved! In fact, this post is my test case. I’m actually writing it as an email to make sure that this works and that I have it all figured out.

I may not be able to lay things out exactly the way I’d like to and I haven’t figured out whether or not I can include a link but apparently I can add photos and tags. In fact, I’ll test those features with this post too.

I always receive an email notification when one of you leaves a comment and I’ve already figured out how to respond to those via email so even that won’t be a problem if I’m not able to access the blog directly.

So why not pack your virtual suitcase and come along with me? We fly to China one month from today and you won’t even need a visa!

photo credit: http://www.dgreatwallofchina.com/

Our mountain is moving!

/ edebock / 10 Comments

If you read yesterday’s post, you know that we were thrown into a sudden panic when we learned that we can’t apply for our work visas until we can present physical examination records with the myriad of other forms and documents that are required. It often takes three weeks or more to get in to see our family doctor and we’re supposed to leave for China a month from tomorrow! What were we going to do?

The problem seemed insurmountable but nothing is impossible with God! (Luke 1:37) After temporarily freaking out, I calmed down and realized that if God wants us in China nothing will stop us from getting there.

We don’t climb our mountains alone. Within hours, people around the world, including a blogging friend I’ve never met, were praying for us and the mountain began to move.

Last night I learned that there’s a new doctor in the area. So new, in fact, that his clinic isn’t even ready for use yet and he’s only seeing walk ins at the hospital outpatients department. We spent two hours there this morning. Dr. O was efficient and personable; definitely a positive addition to our medical community. By lunch time, all of the required procedures had been done. We’d undergone everything from eye examinations to chest x-rays and ECGs and blood had been taken. My blood pressure was a little high but that came as no surprise after the stress of the past 24 hours!

The only hitch now is that the results of the required AIDS test usually take about two weeks to come back. As long as they don’t take any longer than that, we’ll still have enough time to make our trip to Calgary to get our visas but I’m praying that they come back sooner. After all, our God can move mountains!

Mount Robson                      photo: Nate DeBock

Lord, move this mountain!

/ edebock / 9 Comments

Yesterday the paperwork that we’d been waiting for arrived; the invitation letter and working permit that would allow us to go to China to teach. Today we filled out our visa application forms and the supplementary forms required for a Z (working) visa. I gathered together the mountain of paperwork that we’d need then decided that I should phone the Visa Application Service Center in Calgary to make sure that we had everything we needed before we made the four hour trip to Calgary on Monday. Thank goodness I did!

When you phone the service center, you get a recording telling you that all the information you need is on their website. I knew that but I’m anal. I wanted to talk to a real person just to be sure. After pressing one for English then listening to a lengthy menu, I finally pressed 0 and was connected to Peter. That’s when I learned that the website is actually out of date!

According to the website, which I first checked several weeks ago, people who are going to China to work for less than 6 months do not need to present a physical examination record with their visa application. Wrong! Peter told me that that requirement changed a couple of months ago and yes, we would need to present completed medical forms!

Yikes! We live in rural Alberta where there’s a doctor shortage. It can take weeks just to get an appointment! We’re supposed to have a complete check-up, a chest x-ray, an ECG and even an AIDS test, for goodness sake!

Panic immediately set in. I’m sure my blood pressure went through the roof! How in the world are we supposed to climb this mountain in the limited amount of time we have to get our visas?

That’s when Matthew 17:20 came to mind. “I assure you, even if you had faith as small as a mustard seed you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”

For a moment, my eye was only on the mountain; the problem. When we focus on the problem, everything else including God seems small but when we focus on God, the problem seems small. Right now, I’m trying very hard to focus on God and not to worry. As our friend Ilef likes to say, I’m waiting to see how God’s going to get us out of this mess. I believe that if God wants us in China, we’ll be on the plane with visas in hand!

Lord, move this mountain, I pray! 

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I’d rather be adorkable

/ edebock / 9 Comments

In my last post I suggested that I might be weird and my readers kindly failed to respond! Thank you, dear ones! Now I’ve decided that I’d rather be considered adorkable! Isn’t that a precious word?

In an earlier post I mentioned that from time to time I would probably be sharing tidbits from the video course, The Secret Life of Words: English Words and Their Origins, which I’m watching while treadmilling.

Okay, you caught me! Treadmilling isn’t actually a word but it might be someday and if it was, it would be an example of functional shift, a shift in part of speech without change of form. In this case, a noun becoming a verb.

Today’s lecture was all about how new words are created which brings us back to adorkable, a great example of blending two words to form a new one. We use blends all the time. Smoke + fog = smog. Motor + hotel = motel. So why not, adorable + dork or dorky = adorkable?  I love it!

Do you know anyone who’s adorkable?

In case I’ve bored you completely by this point, I’ll also add a piece of real news. Today I purchased our plane tickets! We leave for China on February 20!

Time flies!

/ edebock / 6 Comments
Melaina's watch

The watch we gave our daughter for Christmas!

I recently read an interesting quotation by inspirational speaker, Michael Altshuler.

The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.

It seemed fitting for this time of year.

Every pilot needs two things, a destination and a flight plan. According to a 2007 study conducted by author and psychologist, Richard Wiseman, only 12% of the participants successfully kept their New Year’s resolutions and achieved their goals! The other 88% knew where they wanted to go but they didn’t get there. Perhaps they didn’t have a flight plan.

Did you make any New Year’s resolutions this year?

Whether your destination is a cleaner house, a lower number on the bathroom scale, a college degree or a new job, you need a plan.

Wiseman suggests six ways to actually keep your New Year’s resolutions:

  • Be specific. Make sure your resolution has a tangible, achievable outcome.
  • Write it down. Outline the small manageable steps you’ll need to take to achieve your goal.
  • Make time. Establish a realistic schedule for accomplishing your goal.
  • Move past doubt. Don’t listen to negative self-talk.
  • Find a supportive partner, someone who will keep you accountable.
  • Be still. Spend time every day doing something to relax and let go of stress.

Sounds like an excellent flight plan to me!

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions but we definitely have a destination this year! China, our next big adventure!

The flight plan is a work in progress. Right now we’re working our way through a lot of little steps while we wait for the documents that we need to apply for our visas to arrive. This morning, I made numerous calls figuring out how to suspend telephone, internet and cable TV service while we’re away and notifying our credit card companies that we’ll be out of the country. Next week we have appointments to make sure our immunizations are up-to-date and will have photos taken for the visa applications.

I’m sure the next few weeks will fly by but step-by-step, we’re getting closer to our destination!

Our next big adventure!

/ edebock / 8 Comments

ENGLISH TEACHING IN CHINA. Just retired and seeking adventure and or change? Five cities to choose from: Beijing, Nanchang, Yantai, Dalian and Chongqing. Accommodation is provided. Half year and full year contracts (airfare paid). University students. Curriculum provided and full staff support. Chance to travel. Short teaching hours. Contact…

The ad appeared in the Fall 2012 issue of News and Views, the quarterly publication of the Alberta Retired Teachers’ Association. It caught my eye as I flipped through the magazine at breakfast one September morning. I pondered it for a bit before bringing it to Richard’s attention and asking if he was interested. He was and so a new journey began!

Everything was put on hold for awhile when Dad became ill and we headed off to Vancouver to put Operation Parent Care into motion. Now that he’s had his surgery and is recovering well, we’re moving on. We signed the contracts this morning!

We’re going to spend one semester (February 25 to June 30, 2013) teaching English at Liaoning Normal University, a teacher training university in Dalian, a coastal city in northeastern China! We’ll have our own fully furnished apartment right on campus and will have the option of preparing our own meals there or eating in the university cafeteria.

I know, college cafeterias aren’t known for quality food but I’m thinking that not having to grocery shop, cook and clean up  and having the opportunity to sample local foods while mingling with students and fellow staff members doesn’t sound like such a bad idea. We’ll definitely try it out.

In case you’re wondering, no this is not a mission trip. The People’s Republic of China is a communist country that has traditionally been quite closed to Christianity. In fact, our teaching contracts contain a clause that says The Teacher shall respect China’s religious policy, and shall not conduct or engage in religious activities incompatible with the status of a foreign teacher/expert. What does that mean? Upon inquiry, we’ve been told that we’re welcome to bring our Bibles with us and to read and study them in the privacy of our own apartment. We also know that there are Christian churches in Dalian and have been assured that we can attend one if we want to. While this isn’t a mission trip per se, I firmly believe that our mission field is wherever we happen to be; that God can use us anytime, anywhere. He’s done it before and I’m sure he’ll do it again.

Censorship is also an issue that we’ll have to learn to live with. According to Wikipedia, internet repression is considered more extensive and more advanced there than in any other country in the world. The government not only blocks website content but also monitors individual internet use. Facebook is blocked but we’ll be able to use email as well as Skype to keep in touch with family and friends. China has also been known to block WordPress blogs but I’m already looking at ways to get around that if it happens. I can’t imagine not being able to share our experiences with all of you this way! After all, that’s how Following Augustine started in the first place.

The next step and one that I hope goes quickly and smoothly is getting our visas. We’ve submitted the many documents that were required so that the recruitment staff in China can apply for visa invitation letters for us. Once received, we’ll take them to the closest Chinese consulate, which is located in Calgary, to arrange for the visas. Then there are travel arrangements to make and packing lists to be made!

I’m excited and just a wee bit overwhelmed but first comes Christmas! By the time the fun and family time is over my feet will be back on the ground and I’ll be able to begin seriously preparing for our next big adventure.

map_of_china

The Trip

/ edebock / 19 Comments

I wasn’t home from Vancouver for a full week before I started packing for the next trip… The Trip. It didn’t take me as far from home or last as long as most trips do but it was one I looked forward to with great anticipation. I spent the past weekend in Edmonton with six friends from church on our 10th annual Christmas shopping trip; a marathon of shopping and fun!

Over the years, our number has varied from three to more than a dozen ladies. I’ve missed only once, the year we lived in Japan.

We’ve learned a lot since our first trip. In the beginning, we’d leave very early Saturday morning, spend one night in a hotel and return home completely exhausted the following evening. Then, for several years, the mother of the one gal who’s been on every trip offered to host us in her home. That’s when the trip became a two nighter. Deb’s mom now lives in a care facility and we’re back to hotelling but we continue to spend two nights in the city.

One year we simply couldn’t find a weekend that worked for enough people so we squeezed the trip into a single day leaving Sedgewick in the wee hours of Saturday morning and arriving home well after midnight! Never again! That was simply way too grueling.

A couple of days after that trip, I met my across the street neighbour in the grocery store. “I almost called you in the middle of the night on Saturday,” she told me. “There was a van backed up at your door and I thought maybe you were being robbed!” I assured her that that was just me arriving home from my annual Christmas shopping trip and unloading all my purchases!

Our accommodations have varied from last year’s dingy motel where, on one of the coldest weekends of the year, one of our rooms had no heat (we were eventually moved to another room) to this year’s luxury digs where Pam and I soaked in the hot tub after a long day of shopping.

Unlike last year’s dingy motel, however, this year’s hotel didn’t include a complementary breakfast so we brought our own picnicking on muffins, yogurt, fruit, juice and coffee before setting off each morning. We also came well supplied with wine and chocolate!

Another lesson we’ve learned is to ensure that we have enough vehicle space for the multitude of bags and boxes that join us over the weekend. We still laugh about our first trip when two women purchased guitars at the very last store we stopped at. There were seven ladies packed into an eight passenger van and it was already fully loaded. We managed to add the guitar boxes to the top of the pile in the rear of the van but every time the driver touched the brakes they slid forward stopping only when they encountered the heads of the poor ladies in the back seat! This year there were seven of us again but we took the eight passenger church van and a large SUV!

Just some of our Saturday purchases!

Where do we shop? Well, over the years we’ve been many different places avoiding only West Edmonton Mall which is just too big and too crowded at this time of year. In recent years, we’ve settled on a route that works well and takes in the widely varied needs and interests of a group that ranges from a very young mom to grandmothers like me.

On our way to Edmonton, we stop in Camrose usually taking in at least Walmart and the Christian bookstore, Wisemen’s Way. The staff at Wisemen’s has learned to expect us at this time of year and have even kept the store open late for us several times. This year we left home early enough to get there during regular store hours.

On Saturday morning, we try to be in the parking lot of Greenland Garden Centre in northeast Edmonton when the doors open at 9:00 a.m. At this time of year, Greenland is transformed into western Canada’s largest Christmas store. Whether or not we buy anything, we all love spending time there soaking up the ambiance and getting in the mood for a full day of Christmas shopping. We also pose for our annual photo in front of one of their gorgeous trees. There’s always a staff member willing to oblige and act as our photographer. One year when there were only three of us, we even had staff members stand in for regulars who were missing!

After we leave the Christmas store, we make our way toward the south end of the city stopping first at Londonderry Mall and then Kingsway Mall. Further south, we visit Blessings, another Christian bookstore; Southgate Mall and several stores in South Edmonton Common. This year a few of us also made a side trip to Cabella’s, a huge outfitting store on Anthony Henday Drive. We also added a Toys R Us store to our usual itinery.

On Sunday morning, we go to church together before hitting a few more stores and then heading for home. This year we broke with tradition and included a Y chromosone on Sunday morning. Michelle’s youngest son is in his first year at the University of Alberta so we invited him to join us for church and lunch.

Being our tenth anniversary, we spent a lot of time reminiscing and laughing over past fun and foibles, retelling stories like the one about the wayward guitars and the year that Tracy walked into a pillar bending her glasses out of shape! She was blind as a bat without them so a trip to an optician was quickly added to our agenda. On the same trip, she stumbled and fell in an underground parkade managing not to injure herself or break the fragile gift she was carrying! Tracy moved to Saskatchewan several years ago but we still miss her!

We also instituted a new tradition this year. We stopped for dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Camrose on Friday. When we opened our fortune cookies someone suggested that we purchase a Lotto 649 ticket using the numbers on the backs of everyone’s fortunes. The draw for $3.5 million was to take place on Saturday and we’d have seven chances at the jackpot. Split seven ways, we’d each win          $500 000! We had so much fun all weekend exclaiming over the things we’d buy or the adventures we’d go on if we won that we’ve decided to buy a ticket every year from now on!

On the way home we stopped in Camrose again to check on our luck. Since splitting our $2 win seven ways wouldn’t work very well, we invested in another ticket! That draw is on Wednesday and the jackpot is an estimated $8 million so the dream goes on. It would probably be easy to guess how I’d spend some of my winnings. After all, here’s what my fortune cookie had to say!