All posts filed under: Blog

Happy Easter

Published by Sula H.

It’s the Easter weekend, and to all of you that care about such things, I wish you very happy, restful and delightful Easter holidays. Make sure you keep some chocolate bunny leftovers for me, because here in China, we certainly don’t get much of Easter in any way. It’s just another normal, busy busy weekend like every other!

Bee Keepers and Other Curious Creatures

Published by Sula H.

So, like I told you, we went mountain climbing yesterday. And while that in itself usually is an exciting event, the highlight of the day for me was our stop at the bee keeper’s. It’s this old man and his wife, who camp out at the foot of the mountain where they keep rows of beehives. And for the first time in my life, I was able to see how honey is “made.” After all, quite some of us purchased a jar of pure, all natural honey, and so the old man had to get more honey from the honeycombs. And we? We get honey deluxe – all inclusive that is. Even the extra portion of protein, since our honey comes with bee wings, bee legs and all that other good stuff that makes this honey so special!  

Mountain Climbing and Sad Discoveries

Published by Sula H.

Everyone (we take) loves to go to the mountain not far from town where we can have adventures, nature, and lots of rock climbing. I’m no exception. So, I took a group of my students out on a little trip. But this time, I was in for a little disappointment. They are turning the bottom part of our trail into I-know-not-what – they say it’s going to be a water reservoir. But whatever they are doing, I’m just really sad, because they took down a huge part of the mountain, are breaking apart rocks and whatever else is in their way, and completely change what was so lovely about “our” mountain. And if you look at the pictures and wonder why I’m fussing since there’s no sign of anything out of the ordinary – that’s only because in defiance of what’s going on, I didn’t feel like taking pictures of the destruction. My photographer-heart simply ignored this part of our hike. Anyhow, the good news is, the majority of our nature retreat is still intact, …

Take Care of the Dryer

Published by Sula H.

Yes, we have dryers and washers. And they regularly make it on the list of topics that need to be discussed during our faculty meetings. Here’s just one of the reasons why (and since we received the notification in such a wonderful email, I thought, I’d simply share the contents of that email with you here):   Dear _____, Since the new dryer was installed, we found out some teachers put the very wet clothes in the dryer. The dryer would be broken by this. The attachments are the pictures of the wet clothes. We have asked the worker to fix the dryer once. Can you please mention all the teachers who live in your building that spin and dry the clothes before put them in the dryer?  And would you please mention all the teachers that please pour the water in the box of the dryer before use it. It because that if the box fulls of the water and the dryer won’t work. Thank you for your help.   No more questions, right?

April’s Fools

Published by Sula H.

I’m a happy girl. Because for once, I made it through April’s Fools day without being on the fooled side of things! Yes, Fool’s Day is practiced in China, which I come to realize anew every year. But while there certainly was potential to get fooled yesterday, this year I was prepared. For anything. So, when one of my dear friends sent me an urgent text message yesterday, saying that so and so was trying to tell me that such and so was trying to get a hold of me, because he needed to discuss something important with me, had tried to call me, and hadn’t been able to get through, I was on my guard. It could’ve been true, but the message just as well sounded like a hoax. So, I carried my cell phone to class with me to have my students vote on whether it was a trick or not, and they all voted with one voice, which saved me some later embarrassment and gave us something to be amused about. And …

And then it was … Spring!

Published by Sula H.

It was just the other day, when I looked from the elevator through the glass of the far away front door to our building, that I realized: Spring has come! Having been so busy recently, I never realized that everything outside had changed, and trees and shrubberies are in full bloom. But today, I ventured out for a little half-hour stroll, and I’m very inclined to share with you what I was able to enjoy:

A Busy Weekend

Published by Sula H.

Holidays in China are a peculiar thing. Why I’m saying this, you ask? Well, take this weekend, for example. We all have to work and go to class both Saturday and Sunday, because next week, there’s a holiday. Yep, you heard me right. In order to get three days off, we have to work two extra days. If that doesn’t quite make sense to you, don’t worry. It doesn’t make much sense to me either. Fact is, that we have a busy weekend ahead (giving up our free time for classes on Saturday and Sunday) so that we can have Monday-Wednesday off. Well, they say, it’s because of the holiday. That way students actually can use the holiday to go home or travel. And yeah, if you think hard enough about it, you can see how some of them may benefit from this change. I for myself, would have rather had this weekend off, as it’s going to be sunny and beautiful outside.