Crazy School Trip

Yesterday we had the joy/frustration of going on another trip with our school.  I say "joy" b/c it was nice being away from our regular teaching schedule, but "frustration" b/c we spent 6 hours on the bus getting there and back thru Shanghai rush-hour.  Man, we might as well have flown back to Bali in that time!  

The trip was to a town a couple hours out of Shanghai called Suzhou (pronounced "Soo-jo")-first to a famous mountain (more of a hill if you're from BC!), and then to an amusement park.  It was incredible how clean the air seemed for only being a couple hours away from the Shanger.  It was so nice and refreshing (literally!).  Also, it was one of the rare times we've seen trees, leaves, and grass in the past 8 months, so definitely a big treat!  

The amusement park was kinda like Disneyland, but since it was a Wednesday it was SO empty... just our 9 busloads of school kids were there... all the kids were let loose and were just told when to be back at the buses... the whole thing was super organized by the Chinese staff with kids marching to busses with corresponding numbers in their hands, a megaphone-man leading the whole procession.  Once at the park, the kids were in groups with student-leaders who had to text their teachers every couple of hours and account for everyone in their group... no one was left behind this way.  Very efficient... another thing that would NEVER happen in a Canadian high school!

This is the front of the park... lion-riding, our new favorite.  

Water feature at the entrance.  You could walk underneath the spray but the water was all manky so I came back out.

This was some random dive-display... like something you'd see at the PNE... all these divers jumped off very scary heights and did cool tricks.  Check out how high the middle ladder goes.

Super cool rollercoaster... I totally wanted to go on it but it cost almost 8 bucks for 1.5 minutes of fun, plus the ticket lady was on her lunch break so I couldn't buy one.

See what I mean when I said it looks like Disneyland?  Kind of...

Terry and I with Minnie Mouse and some other creature- we couldn't quite figure out who he was... maybe a knock-off version of Hello Kitty?

And the final picture... for those of you who have never travelled to Asia, let me enlighten you about the squatty potty.  It's a cheap toilet in the ground.  You squat above it (facing the door), and do your thing.  Then you step on the pedal behind it and it flushes... clean and simple.  Oh, and they don't supply toilet paper... it's always assumed on this side of the world that you'll bring your own... don't leave home without it!  I'm serious!  By the way, this is one of the cleaner versions... I've used MUCH worse here (sorry, no pics of that... don't want to scare you!)

In other news... the weather here has been amazing since about a week or two ago.  It's been about 20-22 degrees every day... warm enough for shorts or capris and a short-sleeved shirt, but not so hot and humid that you're sweating like a pig 24/7 (like it was in Sept/Oct).  Very comfortable.  I had some new clothes made at the fabric market (that's a whole other post!), for warmer weather, so I'm happy to be wearing those... again, pics to come.

This weekend is a long weekend here in China (Chinese Labour Day)... we get Fri, Sat, and Sun off (and don't even have to make it up by working next weekend... wow, they're getting generous!).  We have a bunch of errands to run tomorrow, plus our cel group.  On Sat we're gonna be going to the X-Games.  Sunday is church and relaxing...

Hope you're all well.  Only 8.5 weeks till we're home for the summer- YESSSS!