All posts tagged: out & about

Around Town: Saturday Night Life

Published by Sula H.

Our Saturday night life usually looks rather tame. Not so the other day, however. Fast pace and a bit of a thrill was the order of the day when we went go-kart racing. Now, if you’re someone with a driver’s license and a love for speed, you might think this is just real boredom . Not so in China, however – I assure you. Most of our friends don’t have any driver’s license, and if they do, they usually don’t have much experience driving. So, getting on a go-kart course with a bunch of people who don’t know what they’re doing can turn into quite the exciting obstacle event, with the added effect that you’ll never know what your obstacles are going to do next. I for my part was entertained enough just watching the action, especially with my special Canadian (squirrel) friend racing the course like a mad-man, and everyone else just trying to escape him. You see, there’s never any ordinary adventure in China. On that note, happy racing, friends!

Of Cameras and Travels

Published by Sula H.

This is what happens when you allow your camera to go traveling with a friend who wanted to borrow it: It gets to see all the places that you wish you could have gone to instead. I wish, my friend had just asked if he could take me instead of my camera to come along with him. I would have certainly appreciated to see those places more than my camera. But I guess that’s the purpose of my camera’s existence: traveling, seeing beautiful places, experiencing fun moments. And I? I just have to be content with looking at the pictures … … and hope that one day, I’ll get to go myself!

A Plane Story

Published by Sula H.

A bike ride to the airport is always a fun trip. Today, however, it was especially worthwhile going there for at least two reasons: Not only did the students love getting so close to the planes, but because of the holiday, incoming planes were especially frequent. Sooo, I couldn’t have chosen a better day to invite students and friends to join me on a field trip. And though we had to deal with a couple of adversities on our way, I assure you, they were having just as much fun as I. And that’s the plane truth.

Among Lilacs

Published by Sula H.

It’s Easter. And on top of it, it’s beautiful weather. So, yesterday, I decided to take out my camera and go among the lilacs. As I was out on that walk, I was having so much fun, that in fact, I didn’t just stay among the lilacs, I also did some more exploring among the other blooming creatures of spring. Need proof? Here are the lilacs …   And here, that’s me enjoying a walk on a wonderfully sunny Easter Sunday:   And if you’d like to see more, you can check out the photo gallery.  

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, …

The Way We Travel

Published by Sula H.

Spring Festival (and the winter break for that matter) is just behind, which means it’s the busiest time of the year – traveling-wise. After all, pretty much all of China is shifting some way or another, going back to celebrate the holidays with their families, visiting friends and relatives, or simply taking advantage of having a couple days off work to travel. Traveling season also means that those who venture into leaving the comfort of their homes to go on a journey, may be facing a series of obstacles. Obstacle #1 | The Tickets The problem with this one is: Officially, you can only start purchasing train tickets (the main means of transportation here) about 10 days before you mean to travel. But when the 10th day before the journey comes, and you run to the ticket center early in the morning, and get to be the first one after they open their doors to purchase a ticket, the answer still will be most likely: “Sorry, no more tickets available!” How that’s possible? Yeah, good …

Around Town: Metro

Published by Sula H.

One of our favorite stores around is Metro. I particularly like it, because it is a German store. So it has a lot of things from Germany, but from other places as well. It’s over in the city and even with good traffic (which is rare) it takes well over an hour to get there, but you can get things there which can’t be found anywhere here in town. Things like butter. Or cheese. Things people in other places usually take for granted. Here we don’t. Let’s take butter for instance: How precious can a chunk of it become when it takes so much effort to get it! Once you’ve brought it home safely, you treasure it, and everything you use it for becomes a treasure as well. Like Christmas cookies. Precious simple Christmas cookies. What are Christmas cookies without butter? The list goes on and on … as I said: We do love Metro! Last time I went there because I needed to get candles, and Metro always gets a fine selection of Christmas …