The Wood Family Adventures

Molly the Pirate!

      Ok, yes, we know it has been a long time but we figured someone may still check our blog from time to time.  I think Facebook is part of the problem.  We post pictures and our stories there so putting things on our blog somehow seems redundant.  Please comment when you do read this so we can have an idea how many people (if any) are still checking this site.  Thanks!

      Molly dressed in my pirate costume that I just had made from a taylor.  She looks way cuter in it than I did!  You cannot see but we went to the jewelry market and bought skull beads and braided them into her hair.  It is funny, our 3rd year in one laceration (Shanghai) somehow everything seems so much easier.  We know where to go to get what we want (generally).   That means the adventure part of China is coming to a close.  Time to move on?

Last week we experienced another wonderful aspect of International Teaching. Darcy, Molly and I spent five days at an outstanding resort in Kota Kinabalu on Northern Borneo taking part in regional teacher training. I had the privilege of acting as Concordia’s conference coordinator for EARCOS. This three day workshop brought over a thousand teachers from around Asia together to share best practices. One of the perks of my responsibilities was complementary flight and accommodations for the trip.

We enjoyed the presentations immensely, and even more so the visiting with other International teachers. We met people who had taught all over the world, and had incredible stories to tell. It was a fantastic experience for each of us, and Molly made new friends from all over the world.

This weekend we did something different and hosted an Indian dinner. Guests were asked to bring an Indian dish and come in Indian clothing. We decorated the house and played some great Punjabi music. It was really wonderful!

Riding with my friends Russ and David on Sunday morning. This village area is just a kilometers from our place.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghFXzGgf0mw

This year has presented Darcy and I with a number of firsts, and this weekend was one of them. On Sunday we gave our first international professional development seminar to more than 125 educators and administrators from across Thailand. Tis was a wonderful, yet overwhelming experience .

Our audience was made of teachers from small international schools from across Thailand. Some of the attendes had left home at 4am just to attend! We were quite humbled by their response to what we shared, several people told us the presentation was the best PD they have attended.

After our inservice session, the school was kind enough to provide us with a driver for the remainder of the day. We went to the Ko San road area and enjoyed the crazy backpacker ambience and some wonderful street food. It was a fast trip, but a very rewarding experience. What a memorable Valentine’s weekend!

Our Chinese New Year break this year was certainly enjoyable. The first part of our trip was spent on the Island of Phu Quoc in the sea of Thailand.

It was great fun just hanging out for a few days and doing very little. Wake up, walk, breakfast, bible study, beach, massage, repeat.

We really had a wonderful time. It is very easy to imagine teaching at one of the schools in this region and being able to take such trips all the time. Thank God for the blessing of teaching abroad!

Over the Chinese New Year break we had the pleasure of traveling to Southern Vietnam. This was especially eventful for us as we were able to travel with our friends from home Mike and Feather Wood, whom are now teaching at QSI Shekou where we began our international experience.

 Saigon was a fantastic destination, and we truly enjoyed our time in the area. We were able to visit the Chu Chi tunnels were the Viet Cong fought, cruise on the Mekong Delta, and visit Phu Quoc Island to the south. It was wonderful to escape Shanghai’s frigid temperatures and smog for the warmth and blue skies of this amazing region.

We were so excited to be invited to a Chinese wedding.  This was one cultural event we didn’t want to miss out on while we are here in China.  Luckily, Darcy became friends last year while in Xi’An with one of our Mandarin teachers who got married this year.

 We were both a bit disappointed that there were so many western traditions now being adopted into Chinese wedding culture (white dress, flowers, archways, favors, flower girls, and NO fireworks!!).

We captured a few things that were a bit different to share with you.  At our table was a couple of bottles of wine (western) but the whiskey, cigarettes and duck tongue were all Chinese. Darcy tried the duck tongue.  Chewy and smoky flavored but the crunchy gristle was hard to handle. (The pinkish-red item, third from the left is the duck tongue)

 The bride and groom were officially married months earlier when they received their wedding documents from the government.  They begin living together as husband and wife then but the night before the wedding, the bride returns to her parents home and the groom must come and formally take her the day of the wedding banquet.

Upon arrival to the wedding banquet, the bride and groom pose for photos with the guest.  It is like our receiving line but at the beginning of the event rather than the end.  Notice in the photo the lady in red off to the side.  This is one of three bridesmaids.  She is there to help the bride change into her many dresses for the evening (at least 4 dresses are needed and only the first one is the western traditional white).  The other main job of the bridesmaids is to collect the red envelopes.  When guest arrive and have their photos taken with the bride and groom, they slip a red envelope with money in it to the bride or groom (we are still not sure which one we were supposed to give it to).  The bride holds the envelope during the photo then passes it off to the lady in red for safe holding.  You do not put your name on the envelope and the amount you put in the envelope depends on the number of people in your party.  Most of the money you give is used to pay for the wedding banquet.

As it turned out, the whole idea of flower girls is just catching on in China and so the process is a bit less formal.  The bride had arranged for several of the western teachers’ little tiny daughters to be flower girls.  The only requirement was to wear a dress (color didn’t matter).  One of the flower girls (age 2) decided she wanted no part of it so with just seconds to spare Molly was asked to be a flower girl (she met the requirements: western, girl, dress).  Click the link below to watch Molly in action.

Chinese Wedding Video

December 5th I ran the Shanghai 1/2 Marathon and knew I’d definitely worn too much clothing. It was warm and sunny, beguiling us into thinking winter  would be pretty easy this year. Two hours ago it started snowing. We may be pushing our bikes home today if it continues to come down at the current pace.  So much for an easy winter. We are glad to be headed for southern Vietnam over Chinese New Year!

We’re walking along the soccer pitch next to our home this weekend and Molly starts singing what she believes is a Chismas classic, “Winter Wonderland”. While it’s great to listen to her singing, we were a bit surprised to hear “In the getto we can build a snowman….”She really thought that’s how the song went!