Spirit Week

Lots of pictures for you this week.
It was my first week as PE teacher and also Spirit week at SSIS. This means there was a theme everyday for the kids (and teachers) to dress up as well different events happening at lunch time (such as tug of war between grades, trivia, dodgeball). Of course Mark never passes up an opportunity to dress up so he arrived at school in some elaborate costumes this week.
Monday was Jeans day for the primary school and PJ day for the secondary school. Mark didn't want his picture taken in his pajamas (even though the whole school saw him that way) so here is Abigail in her jean outfit.

Tuesday was Freaky day. James got into the mood as well. Check it out - you've never seen James like this before!



Look at how tall he is in this picture!! He is standing next to Mark and there is barely any difference (ughh, I don't even want to think about!)
As you can see, Mark got into the "freaky" theme as well. He had business to do in the finance office that day and the Chinese lady he was talking to had to cover her eyes and look down at her desk while she was talking to him because she was so disturbed by his appearance!
It was twin day for Abigail on Tuesday. Here she is with her twin Tabitha. Or as we like to call them - Tabigail.
Ok, moving on to Wednesday. This was Freaky day for Abigail and Idol day for secondary. This is Mark and Abby outside our building where we catch the bus. Mark was dressed as Pythagoras (not sure if I'm spelling that right)

I don't have any pictures from Thursday. It was PJ day for primary and twin day for Secondary. Mark was twins with another teacher but the day got away from us and we don't have any pictures. Friday was inside out and backwards day for primary and Blast from the Past for secondary. Mark was of course - a pirate and wore the costume Trudie made for him last year for his Calculus lesson. We couldn't find the hat and his eye patch broke so a lot of people didn't know what he was. Oh well.
You can't really tell but he has nasty teeth in his mouth.

So spirit week is over. I was pretty much over getting dressed up by Thursday. James only got dressed up once the whole week. Mark and Abby were all about it.
I was utterly exhausted after this week. Running around outside all day everyday really took it out of me. I was happy for the weekend to come.
This weekend a new shopping center within walking distance of us opened up. Well, since we walk just about everywhere, I guess you could say a lot of things are "within walking distance" but this place is very close to us. It is an actual mall. That is quite unusual for Suzhou. It is also quite upscale. We walked over this afternoon and were shocked to see KFC, Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen and a really nice bakery along with a huge grocery store with western goods, and nice clothing department stores with Nike, Umbro, Maybeline.
So we're really excited about that. Before now we would have to taxi into old Suzhou, endure crowds and noise and probably have to visit half a dozen shops to get what we can now get in one place down the street for us. I was also happy to see that the grocery store has a ready-made deli where you can pick up things for dinner so I have another option than going out to eat when I'm exhausted at the end of the day and don't feel like cooking (I'm trying Mum - I promise!)

After we visited the new shopping mall we headed to central park. It was a beautiful day and James wanted to fly the kite he got for his birthday.

That's James in the middle of the amphitheatre.

I saw these men as we were walking through the park and I thought "how curious, they're having a men-only picnic", but then I looked closer and saw that they were actually sitting there playing cards. They were having a great time sitting there on their blanket, enjoying their Saturday. It's only fair that I take pictures of Chinese people every once in awhile, they certainly take a lot of pictures of us! Mark and I were saying today at the park that we should really charge admission for the entertainment we provide!

That's all for now, I'm turning in. We have a short week ahead of us as we get Friday off. Then we have a week off school for the labour day holiday here in China. We thought about traveling but when we thought of all the bouncing around we will be doing this summer we decided to just do some day trips around Suzhou. Speaking of the summer, we hope to have our tickets booked this week so we will be able to let you know our firm dates soon.

Whew! long blog. Love to all from the Smiths!

Movie night

Hi Everyone,
I am very hurriedly posting this blog on a Tuesday night between dinner and bedtime. Forgive me if it is brief!
Last week Mark worked extremely hard on putting together a movie night for SSIS. This was his grade nine homeroom's Community and Service project. The money they raised went to Habitat for Humanity. So Mark used his knowledge of sound and lights in the theatre and turned it into a movie theatre. Going to the movies is not really something that is available to us here in Suzhou so we had a lot of students wanting to buy tickets. They showed Aliens vs. Monsters and sold concessions, including popcorn made the old fashioned way in our food technology lab. It was a big hit! All in all, his homeroom raised around 3000 RMB.
Here's Abigail with some friends enjoying the show.

This is some of Mark's students working at the concession stand. I don't have a picture of Mark - he was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. I was proud of him though, he did a really great job.
We are in the middle of a busy week. It is my first week as a primary PE teacher - the maternity leave position started yesterday. It is also Spirit Week for the whole school so we are busy with that. I will post again on the weekend.

Lots of love from the Smiths!

James' birthday and Easter in Suzhou

James turned 12 on Saturday. I can't believe it, honestly it seems like he was 2 yesterday!
We started the day skyping with his grandparents and opening a few gifts. Then we headed out for brunch at the Renaissance hotel which is where Claude and Lynn stayed when they were here. They have a really nice spread; pancakes, eggs, bacon, even a juice station where you can pick your own fruit and they juice it for you right there. All you can eat so it was right up James' alley. I can't ever seem to get enough food in that boy!
In the afternoon we had James' party across the street at Central Park. It was a perfect day for an outdoor party. Sunny and warm with just a slight breeze. So there were 7 boys at the party and James wanted to just play capture the flag......for 3 hours! They all had a great time. We were able to let them run around and not worry too much about them. We ordered subs from subway and had cupcakes, the whole thing went very well.

Here are the boys (and Abigail). In the back on the left is Nick from France, next to him is John from the US, the boy on the left of James is Brian from Singapore, the next two on the right of James are Theo and Addison who are from the US and Mohid on the end is from Canada. They don't look very happy in this picture but they were just exhausted. 3 hours of capture the flag was a bit much I think. It is a big park!




Yesterday was Easter. We had our friends the Warrens over. They are the same family we had for Thanksgiving. They have 3 daughters and are from Canada, they moved here the same time we did. The meal was better than the turkey I cooked for Thanksgiving but very basic since I wasn't in the mood to do anything too difficult the day after tackling James' party. We had a nice time and spent most of the evening sitting on the balcony and letting the kids go crazy in the apartment. We don't have a basement or backyard so we had to improvise!

So that's all for this week. We are into another busy one. James just returned home from a track and field meet in Shanghai. It is after 8:00 so he is home just in time for a quick snack, shower and bed. Apparently he ran his best time yet! He has also told me he has an upcoming meet in Hong Kong. That should be interesting!
Good night everyone!

James' big week

James is now learning how to play the Saxophone. At SSIS the middle schoolers rotate arts classes instead of choosing what they want to take for the year. So he started with visual arts and just finished drama. He will end the year taking music. He was hoping to learn the saxophone and has brought it home to practice twice this week so hopefully his enthusiasm will continue.


Another big change for James, he has braces! He is still adjusting. The biggest heartbreak has been he can no longer eat peanut butter! We are expecting withdrawal symptoms soon :)
He will most likely have the braces on for 18 months and then go to a retainer for a year. So, hopefully all done by the time he is 14.
We are heading into a busy weekend. James' birthday on Saturday and Easter on Sunday. I will blog again soon.

Lots of love to everyone!

James Bond Party Pictures

Hi Everyone, I am not really blogging - just posting some pictures for those of you who are not on facebook. I will write more this weekend. So here you go.....have a good laugh!

Mark needed 2 guns for the evening, not sure why. The other one is tucked into his pants. Looking pretty handsome.

Mom goes Bond girl for the night.

This is Mark with Doron (my new teaching partner and a fellow Canadian) and Mark Voigt the middle school counselor from Australia (he doesn't usually wear his hair like this or have a moustache)

This is Kevin, normally a very serious guy. He is part of the high school administration.

Sampling the cake...yum!

The "dangerous" couple having a good time

Me with Gabe, one of my favourite people at SSIS. He came over to apologize for ignoring me because he didn't know who I was!

Another one of my favourite people, Martyn, the elementary school principal. He tried on my wig after this but the picture I took somehow got erased :(

That's all the pictures for now. More blogs to come soon. Happy April everyone!