posted by Sarah
We're back in Spokane for the summer!
More updates to come, but right now I need some serious sleep time.
aaaand we're back!
Tuesday, July 07, 2009 | Posted by Joel + Sarah at 2:44 PM 1 comments Links to this post
Labels: Spokane, Washington
5 weeks left
So we have recently switched to posting on our blogs via email, because the Great Firewall has inconveniently blocked blogging sites in preparation for the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. More on that later...
Today, however, I'll post a little about the Duan Wu Festival - literally meaning the summer solstice according to the Chinese calendar - but more popularly known as the Dragon Boat Festival. This year marks the first time China has made it a national holiday - a way to ease the travel strains during the other parts of the year, and also to reintroduce some traditions that had been repressed during the building of the Communist Party.
Since we both had the day off, we spent it hiking up Baochu hill, a hillside park that separates our neighborhood from West Lake. Luckily the weather isn't killer hot yet, and we saw lots of families and elderly people spending their day off here as well - everybody seemed well prepared with tea, snacks, games, taichi equipment, yoyos, portable radios for dancing lessons, or just a newspaper.
Pictured here is an instructor of the Gong Fu Fan - actually she's teaching the same routine that I learned! One great thing about China is just how communal everything is - so anyone can stop to observe or participate in park activities. I especially like the looks of concentration on her students' faces - I'm sure I've had a similar look on my face when learning this routine!
Thursday, May 28, 2009 | Posted by Joel + Sarah at 7:39 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Getting Ready for the Next Chapter

The last quarter of the schoolyear is in full swing -- my teaching load is 18 hours a week, for 4 different courses -- and Sarah's busy memorizing countless Chinese characters. We're so busy, in fact, that the fact that we are leaving China in almost exactly eight weeks hasn't really sunk in yet.But it's true! Let's recap the geographical Joel and Sarah timeline with a look at where we're headed next....
1999 Joel and Sarah meet in Seattle: College, friends, staying up late, and 5 years later, marriage!
2004 - 2005 Seattle, WA, USA: Living in an awesome house in Magnolia, workin' 9 to 5...
2005 - 2007 Eureka, CA, USA: Joel in school and freelancing, Sarah working at the print shop and perfecting the art of the apple tart...
2007-2008 Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China: Trying desperately to teach one language while trying desperately to learn another...
2008-2009 Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China: Sarah progressing much further in the study of one language while Joel progressing much further in the teaching of another...
2009 - 20?? Vancouver, BC, Canada
It's true! We are moving to the Pacific Southwest. Everyone has always said things to me like "you'd make a good professor," plus I think I have the right kind of glasses for it, so applied to several different schools. After much thought, solicited advice, prayer, and coin-tossing (maybe not all of that), we decided on the University of British Columbia. Not to get into the boring details too much, but I'll be in the Department of Language and Literacy Education working toward a PhD in Teaching English as a Second Language.
We're looking forward to a relaxing (or maybe busy?) summer and are right now tentatively making plans for a trip to Portland for a Dandelion Method reunion (not a show, just hangin' out), to California to see some friends and Wine Country, and just maybe some down time at my parents' house in Spokane during which we won't do anything. School starts September 1.
Until then, it's a race to the finish of the academic year! 加油!
Sunday, May 03, 2009 | Posted by Joel at 5:45 AM 3 comments Links to this post
Sarah's new blog
Yes, Sarah started a new blog. You can access it/RSS feed it/follow it here:
http://sarahjhh.blogspot.com/
Thus ends the horn tooting.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009 | Posted by Joel + Sarah at 7:55 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Nanjing in 48 hours
posted by Sarah
Since we had a three day weekend last week (Joel usually has to teach on Saturdays) we took advantage of the free time and spectacular spring weather to visit the city of Nanjing, perhaps best known in the US for the Nanking Massacre - which occurred at the start of WWII. Located in Jiangsu Province (the next one up), it took us about 4 hours by bus to get there from Hangzhou.
Monday, April 27, 2009 | Posted by Joel + Sarah at 11:32 PM 1 comments Links to this post
Suzhou in 36 hours (差不多)
posted by Sarah
We have often heard about Suzhou, because it's linked to Hanzhou in an old saying: "上有天堂,下有蘇杭" which translates as:
"Above is heaven, below is Su-Hang (the cities of Suzhou & Hangzhou)."
We decided to take a weekend trip to the city whose legendary beauty is matched only by our own Hangzhou. The weather was perfect and we got some nice pictures, which we will share here:
Singapore is really invested in Suzhou - this sculpture titled "Harmony" was unveiled by some political bigwig from Singapore.
Monday, April 20, 2009 | Posted by Joel + Sarah at 1:12 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Joel's Parents in Hangzhou & Shaoxing!
posted by Sarah
We spent a good week with Joel's parents in our adopted home of Hangzhou. Besides seeing the sights, we also stuffed ourselves silly and had multiple massages (foot and head) - a great way to get the tension out of those sore muscles! Our week in review:
We went to a show called "Westlake Impressions" - a nighttime spectacular directed in part by Zhang Yimou, the guy who brought us "House of Flying Daggers" and "Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony." It was pretty impressive - people walking on water, giant multi-storeyed boats, and lots of cool lights.
On Thursday we spent the day in Shaoxing, where we lived last year. We had a great time revisiting old sites and a sleepy boat ride on Shaoxing's canal (it's one of China's old water towns).Monday, April 13, 2009 | Posted by Joel + Sarah at 2:21 AM 1 comments Links to this post
