Time for a New Title

It has been over six months since we have returned to Lethbridge from Nanjing and as we will not likely live there again it is time to change the title of our blog to reflect our present life. We have traveled a bit since we have returned and the blog will now document the travels we hope to do in the future.

The picture on the blog header is from our vacation in Nova Scotia last September.

If for some reason we are unable to travel anymore (perhaps the airlines will go broke because the more stringent measures for security cause people to quit traveling by air or perhaps we will get too old to get travel health insurance or whatever), we may post some of our photos from previous travels. Our travels have taken us to all provinces of Canada except New Brunswick and Newfoundland as well as the Yukon, and we have traveled in the U.S., Mexico, the British Isles, Europe, New Zealand and, of course, Asia.

In the distant future perhaps we will need a slogan to help us get up and get moving. Go Baines, go!

Snow in Nanjing

It is somewhat colder in Nanjing this winter. Last year it didn't snow when we were there and the temperature did not often go below freezing. This year they had snow in November. One of Bob's students e-mailed him and told him how excited some of the students were because they had never seen snow before. One of my students sent me a picture of the snow.

Compare the snow in Nanjing with the snow in Lethbridge!

Mini Mandarin Oranges

We were excited yesterday because Safeway was selling mini mandarin oranges. We had only seen them in China and they are very good. The picture shows one of them next to a tube of lip balm.

I was also excited because the box the oranges came in had Chinese writing on it and I recognized one of the chinese characters on the box. 小
It is xiao and means small. I have been forgetting the Chinese that I was able to learn when I was there, so it is good to know that I haven't forgotten everything.

A Further Look at Nanjing

Yesterday Bob mentioned that people were still looking at our blog, so I thought I would add a few more posts. This post will be about the Greenland Square Zifeng Tower (or Nanjing Greenland Financial Center). We watched it being built over the ten months that we were in Nanjing.

The Zifeng Tower has 89 stories. It will be the second tallest building in China and will contain office space, retail space, restaurants, and a 500 hundred room hotel.

The following pictures show views over the ten months that we were there. The first was taken in the middle of September and the last towards the end of June.

Home Again

We arrived in Calgary on the 26th June. Edward and Jeremy's families were at the airport to meet us. We got to Lethbridge on Saturday afternoon and were so happy to see Sue-anne and her family. It is good to be back.

Pearl S. Buck

Pearl S. Buck taught English Literature at Nanjing University. She lived in a house located in the North Garden of Nanjing University from 1919 - 1934. In May 2000 a plaque was placed on the house to recognize her, but not many people seem to know about her house. We wondered if she is out of favour with the Chinese government.

We didn't get a picture of the plaque, but this is the house.


Check out the spelling on this sign:

Winding Down

Two more days to go in this oppressive heat. We have had rain a couple of times and it has cooled down to 28 C. for a short time. Mostly it is well above 30 C. When I go out my hair becomes dripping wet and sticks to my head and the sweat drips off my nose.

Bob has his grades turned in and mine are ready to turn in tomorrow. We are spending our time trying to see what we can fit in our suitcases and what we have to jettison.

Today we made a last trip to Fuzi Miao (Confucius Temple) market place. We passed a Muslim Mosque and I remembered that we had tried to visit it, but because I had knee length shorts and bare feet (inside my sandals) I was not allowed in. Well next time we visit Nanjing maybe I will wear long pants (or a dress?) and socks and go to visit the mosque. There are other places in China that we have missed seeing, so if we ever come back we will go to Hongzhuo, Suzhuo, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Guangzhou, Qingdao, Jinan, and maybe Chengdu. However, we have already seen more of China than a good many of the Chinese people.

We leave here Friday morning and land in Calgary on Friday afternoon – it will be a long day.

I will be happy to feel the dry Alberta air again. I look forward to drinking tap water and Dr. Pepper. I will be happy to do the laundry in a regular size washer and drier. A dishwasher sounds good as well as a kitchen sink that is higher than thigh height.

There are things I will miss about China: the students at the university, the Nanjing Branch of the church and its members, the good times that we had with the other China teachers, fresh fruit, the Nanjing subway which makes it easy to get around, the tailor who will make anything (although sometimes he puts the buttons on the wrong side of a blouse or the zipper in the wrong side of a skirt) and the markets and the low prices.

I might even miss the traffic and the vehicles driving on the line between lanes or on the wrong side of the road because there are too many cars on the right side, the constant horn honking, and walking down the middle of the street, but probably not.

Unless something momentous happens in the next few days this will be the last post. Thanks to all our readers. We hope to see you soon.