catching up ... (january - march)

january went by in a blur. we came home after Christmas with only three weeks until the break for chinese new year (how can we bear it you ask?) - but in that three weeks the school experienced their first set of diploma exams which had not only the students nervous but staff as well, and i had to issue my third installment tuition fees which wasn't exactly just a matter of printing them off and placing in an envelope. lots of missed lunch hours and early mornings - but we were able to get everything done. i think what saved our sanity, if one were to be as bold to call it that, was our morning runs. dave's ankle slowly came around and just this morning we were thinking he is back to his normal full-speed-ahead, although he can still notice it acting up on any great incline.


for CNY we chose cebu (philippines) for a WONDERFUL week of relaxing and diving. the resort was incredible, we were upgraded to the #1 "shack" and had the most picturesque view from our balcony; in fact, most evenings we ordered room service and ate on the balcony not to mention the morning coffee/canasta sessions!
the resort had a house reef which meant that we had just a 1.5 minute boat ride to the start of the dive - and down we would go to the most incredible sealife.


we did do a day two-dive trip down past cebu city which was a 3.5 hour boat ride, it was equally as impressive, but alot more congested of course. at one particular mooring spot there must have been at least 30 boats, all with groups of divers (we had our boat all to ourselves!).




the resort was extremely tight security-wise and in order to go off the compound you were required to sign a waiver. when we first got there, one of us was very interested in attending the cock fights that were held sunday evenings in town; the other one knew she, oops i mean knew they would end up not watching too much of it, but just wanted to be that supportive partner. the resort explained they could set it up, but strongly recommended choosing something else and the supportive one certainly let out a sign of relief when it was deemed too dangerous of an undertaking.




our day tour over to bohol proved to be a very good choice. put lots of miles on and saw lots - highlights included the chocolate hills, some caves, this very interesting but very old church, and the funniest little animal - the tarsier.



our tour guide was not exactly what you would call a tour guide - he was actually our dive master and was chosen to take us as the fellow originally lined up was on another tour. well! i think bohol was his first trip off cebu - seriously! didn't know how to get through the ferry terminal, jumped ahead and chose the best seat for himself - once we were in bohol we hooked up with a local driver/SUV and he was excellent but it became very apparent who was doing all the work! too funny. as we were driving back to the resort (after the ferry ride from bohol back to cebu city), it must have been about 9:30 pm or so, and we had not eaten supper yet, the guide/driver decide to make a stop. we were sitting in the back wondering what was going on. here they were buying themselves a nice roasted chicken for supper - and it was very hard to sit there and smell that wonderful aroma, ON AN EMPTY STOMACH!!


the very next weekend (after returning from cebu) our little running group (dave, lisa, mona, cassie, jacqueline and myself) did the hong kong 10K. UNBELIEVABLE is all i can say. imagine this: 32,900 runners ... in the 10K alone !!! then take into consideration there were two other events (full and half) and picture ALL those people trying to catch the metro to get to the start of the race. again, all i can say is UNBELIEVABLE!!! it was a great experience and we were pleased with our time, knowing that with those types of crowds it is not where you try for ANY time !!!

halfway through the next week, we got an email from our friend howard (who is the VP of the high school) about the "inaugural"/first ever zhuhai half marathon ... and we laughed ... and said why not?!!! we thought it would be great to get in on the very first one, even though none of us had done too much over 7-8 miles in the last couple of months. dave, lisa and i were able to very easily convince steve to join us - okay, now he is an athlete there is no doubt - but he hadn't run, oh, for a good couple years. as we were making plans for the event that was only a few days ahead, he goes "okay, so what do you think i should do to get ready for this?" .... we laughed and all said at the same time ... "run"!!! the half was so much fun and such an easy/flat-and-fast/but very scenic course. LOVED IT! people were lined up the entire route and cheering their hearts out. they obviously had been coached what to say in english - we had many pictures taken as dave and i wore our canada shirts - but we'd hear not only JI-YO (mandarin for go) but "look good" ... "fighter" ... "come on" ... then dave and i actually got a "hurry up" near the end!!! as you are reading these, what makes it so funny is the way they pronounce them - each word is drawn out with a bit of a pause between, so for instance fighter becomes "fii.............ter". we would respond with our limited mandarin "xiexie" and some would further reply "you.....re ......... wel.....come"! i guess you just had to be there - it still makes me laugh!

alberta learning spent the previous week here evaluating the programs and the school in general (which by the way, we passed with flying colors); five student teachers are doing their practicum teaching (one of which is a young girl from didsbury of all places!!!) ... and now we are counting the days until our next break, when we go to malaysia for easter. we will be meeting deanna and glenn on tioman island (singapore has a 4 day weekend then) and spending the last 3 days in KL.

oh i must mention we had our two little friends as visitors last weekend (their parents did a quick get-away to hong kong). we thoroughly enjoyed them and the weekend - and were able to get them to teach us a few more games on the wii (we were basically just using it for the wii-fit, which is quite excellent i must say). even though the weather was not very favourable, we did not let it damper our spirits - we watched a couple movies, baked some cookies (which i really wished i would have gotten a picture of - imagine this - thick gooey, chocolatey dough absolutely OOOOOZING out of their fingers - amid tons of giggles), did the dollar store tour and then lots of wii time. we are going to miss them next year that is for sure!