OK the secret is out!

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这是我的“迷路”的故事

在中国的时候我经常迷路。

中国的路大部分很宽，交通业很拥挤。过马路不安全。

经常在路口有天桥，或者在路下走过路。比如，西安的钟楼在很大的环形路口。下面有很大的地下通道，有很多入口，出口。你必须要记住从哪一出口，所以很容易迷路。

当然我常常猜错了！上楼梯以后我走了很长时间，突然发现我不知道在哪儿。我迷路了！我总是有地图，但是经常找不到路的名字标志。而且地图上写的汉字，看不清楚。

有的时候我坐出租车去一个地方，但是我不知道怎么告诉司机我要去哪儿。

比如，在登封我住在酒店，名字是 ”登封 Climb"。附近有嵩山公园。我给司机看地图，然后司机带我到嵩山公园。我走到公园里找我的房间。我又迷路了！

这是我的中国 “迷路” 的冒险。

这是我的新房子

My latest homework - "This is my new house".

     我刚搬到新房子。中国旅行以前我卖了以前的房子。以前房子比较大的。有四个卧室，三个卫生间，等等。我小孩儿搬走以后不需要大房子，所以最近租了比较小的房子。

     房子外面有很多树。房子在小山上。你看，房子右边有车库。车库里没有车，只有摩托车和很多箱子。（因为房子比较小没有空间，所以还没拿出来。）房子左边有油箱－暖气只用取暖油。

     请进！左边有客厅，客厅里有沙发，小桌子，收音机，壁炉。没有电视－我在中国的时候，儿子拿去了。

     过了客厅有饭厅。饭厅很小，有新的桌子，椅子。过了饭厅有起居室。请坐！看了我的花园。（恐怕，今天下雨。）

     饭厅的旁边有厨房。厨房里有冰箱，微波炉，烤箱和洗碗机。都是电的。也有不拿出来的箱子！

     进房子的右边有一个大厅。大厅的左边有卫生间，壁橱和洗衣间。洗衣间里有洗衣机，烘干机和热水器。都是电的。大厅的右边有两个卧室。大的当办公室，也有别的不拿出来的箱子。（也有儿子的床，如果他以后决定搬回来。）小卧室有我的床。

     房子的房顶上有露台。你看，非常漂亮的观看（风景）！可能看到海洋。

     这是我的新房子。希望你能来看我！

Writing the HSK Level 3 Chinese Test

I don’t know what possessed me, but I just (a couple of weeks ago actually) did a day trip over to Vancouver to write the HSK test, Level 3.  HSK stands for Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (汉语水平考试) and is the Chinese Government’s standard test for Chinese proficiency for foreigners.  There are 6 levels, so you might expect Level 3 to represent about the halfway point in learning the language.  However each level roughly doubles the amount of vocabulary and grammar of the previous level.  Roughly:

                Level 1 = 150 characters (along with associated words and grammar)

                Level 2 = 300 characters

                Level 3 = 600 characters

                Level 4 = 1200 characters

                Level 5 = 2500 characters

                Level 6 = 5000 characters

Level 3 is the minimum level you need to use for university credit (either to enter a university in China or apply for “equivalency” for a Chinese language course).  Level 4 is the minimum level you need to consider working in China (and more likely Level 5).  I’ve now achieved Level 3 after about 2+ years of study.

There are 3 sections to the HSK Level 3 test, which covers Listening, Reading and Writing.  (Speaking is a whole separate test – the HSKK, of which there are only 3 levels.)  There are 40 questions in Listening (answering questions about a spoken dialog), 30 questions in Reading (answering questions about a written dialog) but only 10 questions in Writing (rearranging characters to make a sentence, and filling in the missing character in a sentence).  I thought this third section would be the easiest (and therefore studied it the least) however when I got my marks, I got 97/100 in Listening, 93/100 in Reading, but only 64/100 in Writing L  Very disappointing.  However that gave me an overall score of 253/300, which is not bad.  (A pass is 180/300.)

I told my Chinese teacher Valarie about my disappointing score in Writing, and she is now giving me writing assignments almost every class!  Maybe if you’re lucky I’ll post some of them on my blog J

Here’s the first – Planning my next Chinese holiday!

我的作业：我的旅行计划:

     上次中国旅行我去过很多地方。比如北京，洛阳，西安，昆明，桂林，等等。我也在几所学校学汉语。
     下次我先去上海。上海是中国最现代的地方。有很多新的建筑，也有很多古迹。如果上海比较贵，我不要在上海住很长时间。上海附近有苏州，杭州。“上有天堂，下有苏杭。”  我想去太湖游泳。
     我下来想爬黄山。“爬黄山以后不用爬别的山。”  黄山上有宾馆。虽然很贵，但是我要呆那儿几天。
     我想去成都呆几个星期尝一尝四川菜。四川菜非常辣，但是上次去中国我对辣的菜习惯了。（我习惯了吃辣的菜。）现在，我觉得在加拿大中国菜没有味道。我也听说成都有很有名的茶文化。我很想吃四川菜喝四川茶。成都附近有很有意思的小村庄。我认识一个英文老师跟我看很多照片她拍了。（我认识一个英文老师。她给我看了很多她拍的照片。她给我看了照片。她给我看了她拍的照片。）
     我也想再去西安。我要再爬华山。上次我坐索道到西峰，下次我要都自己爬。我觉得华山是中国最漂亮的地方。当然，中国最好的中文老师（Valarie）也住在西安。
     我想在中国的学校学几个星期汉语。中国是非常好学汉语的地方。有很多机会用汉语。上次我认识很多新的中国朋友。下次我想看他们－需要去洛阳，郑州，西安，桂林，也别的地方。我觉得下次中国旅行需要一年多！
      去中国以前需要办签证，买机票。在中国我打算坐火车去什么地方。坐火车也有很多机会见面新的中国朋友。
     这是我的下次中国旅行计划!

Send a Geek to Cordova Bay

Here is the first tour of my new place!

Time Zones Around the World

I've just started my Chinese lessons again, after about a 3 month break.  I'm currently visiting my daughter in Quebec, and since she is a student and generally pretty busy, I figured this would give me something to do while she was at class, doing homework, etc.

Well this has lead to an interesting conversation with my teacher about the whole timezone thing.

Did you know that China has only a single timezone?  Despite being the 3rd largest country on earth (or 4th on some lists, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and call them 3rd tied with the USA) the entire country runs on a single timezone.  Well it turns out that the Chinese think it very strange that other countries contain multiple timezones!

Me:  I'm in Quebec right now, so it's 8PM.  In Victoria it's only 5PM.
Valarie: That's strange!  Why is the time different?
Me:  Because Canada is so large.  The sun sets later in Victoria, so it's in a different timezone.  That way the sunset it at the same time (about 6PM) everywhere.
Valarie:  How strange!  In China we are all on "Beijing time".

When travelling in Europe, we noticed that Italy and Spain are on the same timezone, resulting in a sunset about an hour later in Spain.  Where dinner time is around 8:30PM in Italy, it starts around 10PM in Spain!  However the Spaniards are thinking of changing this - see the following article:

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24294157

This is one of the things we really liked about Spain, the relaxed and laidback lifestyle, and late dining habits.  (Although for me the 10PM dinner was actually a "second dinner", there's no way I could hold off eating that late!)

Special Guest Post from Sonya and Jack

By Sonya and Jack

(Ed note:  I'll leave it to the reader to figure out which parts of this post were written by Sonya and which by Jack.)

Both Jack and I had promised Ian that we would do at least one guest blog post. We didn’t quite manage to blog during the trip, but we thought we’d make up for this by doing a final "our favourites" post.  (And Ian, you are free to add editor’s comments if you want to add to our list but no changes!  Frutti di Bosco is the best gelato flavour without question!!  (Ed. note: except for gin and tonic!))  Well let’s start there.

Our Favourite Gelateria and Gelato 

The gelato shop in Calci was definitely our favourite. Conveniently located across the street from the grocery store, many flavours, delicious and large scoops at a low price. Honourable mentions do need to go to the gelato shop in Pistoia which had Ian’s all time favourite flavour – gin and tonic. We had this in our first week in Italy and searched everywhere else we went for gin and tonic flavour but never found it again.

(Ed. note - we found Mohito flavour but it was disappointing.)

Our Favourite Pizza

Yes, definitely Ian's pizzas that were baked in the wood oven at our exchange house in Calci. Even the "train wreck" pizza was delicious. Close runner up (and very, very good!) were the pizzas at Voglia di Pizza the local pizzeria in Calci.

(Ed. note - buying pizza saved about 7 hours work.)

Our Favourite View

The view from the bedroom window at the house in Calci gets top prize. You could see the entire valley which was a wonderful spot to watch the sunset and sunrise. We also had a great view of a lightning storm going across the valley one night, and a fireworks display another night.

Also amazing were the views from the rooftop deck at the beach house in Zahora,

the view along the coast from the balcony at our apartment in Cinque Terre,

and of course, all the views from the many, many towers that Ian insisted we climb up.

(Ed. note - by the end of the trip me & Jack would climb the towers and Sonya would go shoe shopping.)

Our Favourite Hike

I think it’s a 3-way tie between the hike up in the hills near Calci where we stumbled across the 11th century ruins of a monastery,

the hike between the towns in Cinque Terre (and of course our lunch afterwards- I loved that pesto pasta and the antipasto misto!),

and the hike down to the bottom of the New Bridge in Ronda (which was then followed by a hike through the country side in the mid-day heat but it did end with a delicious lunch! Ian’s paella was the best!).

 
Our Favourite Accommodations

If we exclude our exchange house, then hands-down the best apartment we stayed at was in Sienna. This was the amazing, luxurious apartment with a full dining room, separate living room and bedroom, and a bathroom with a Jacuzzi that would fit a family of four and a shower with every possible feature you could think of.

Close behind was our beach house in Zahora Spain with the rooftop patio that looked out over the beach, and the fancy 2-bedroom apartment we rented in Seville.

Our Favourite Beach

Not only was Zahora in Spain the best beach, but it was also Jack’s overall favourite for the entire trip. This is partly due to the beach itself which was white sand, very long, good waves and not too crowded.  But also because Jack made friends with some Spanish and British kids that were staying at the same place as us.

(Ed. note - Jack's other "favourite" part was that the kids got to stay up every night until 2AM playing hide & seek and sitting around chatting.  Hence the fact that the last pic is a little dark.)

We were also surprised at how much we enjoyed the “ pay” beach just north of Pisa. We are used to free, uncrowded beaches in Canada so we thought we would hate having to pay to go to the beach that was lined up as far as the eye can see with beach umbrellas and loungers. But it was actually quite fun and we ended up going twice to the same beach house. There is something to be said for being able to walk a few feet to the beach café for a cappuccino in the morning or an aperitivo (or gelato) in the afternoon. And the water was warm!

Our Favourite Show

This is a hard one for me as we saw a number of excellent shows – flamenco, opera in Vienna, blues festival, Mark Knoplfer, ….  (Ian’s favourite was clearly Mark Knoplfer!)

(Ed. note - yep!)

But I will have to go with flamenco. We saw 3 flamenco shows while we were in Spain, including Duende at the Alhambra in Granada, a small show in Cunil, at street show in Granada. All were very good and inspiring, but my favourite was the last one we saw in Seville with Marcos and family. The dancers were unbelievably good and we were sitting only a few feet away from them.

Jack’s favourite show was the many exhibits and events at the medieval festival in Volterra.

Best Meal

I’m not even going to attempt Best Meal. There were just too many good ones. But I’m sure Ian would vote for the best breakfast to be the pane,  ham and tomato.

(Ed. note: and speaking of food ...)

Zombies can only be eaten if you cook them properly, otherwise side effects could happen.

For example:  Serious coughing, random twitching, itchiness, constipation, and other things. The  final stages will turn you into what scientists are calling them now. Zermbies. Highly dangerous if you are bitten, scratched or other things that the Zermbies can do to you. Please contact your local quarantine if these effects have happened to you.  If you happen to see a Zermbie make sure it isn’t your neighbour before you kill it.  When you are killing a Zermbie it is highly suggested that you use a chainsaw to cut off its head. Once you have cut off its head, burn the rest of the Zermbie.

If a Zermbie infection has begun in your town, leave immediately because the army will be coming to bomb your town. If a Zermbie  infestation starts in your school or maybe the same building that you are in then use these simple drills - quickly exit the building and then lock the doors to the building making sure that no one or no Zermbies can get out. Once you have done that call the ZermbieBusters.

We hope this manual helps to fight off those  Zermbies out there.

Made by the producers of Green Fungus Inc

Kicking my mid-life crisis up a gear

Me and my new Yamaha FZ6.

Busy September!

I've had a busy month in September!  Finding a new place to live, getting ready to go back to work in October, etc etc etc.  However I found the time to take a motorcycle class at Vancouver Island Safety Council - highly recommended for anyone considering getting a bike!!!  I did the "novice" course (4 days classroom and practical; we learned on Triumph 150's at Western speedway) and then a 2 day "traffic" class (basically driving a bike around in traffic for 2 days straight).

Well, now I'm hooked, and tomorrow I'm off to shop for a bike!

Thursday I'm flying out to Quebec to visit my daughter for a week.  I fly home on the 29th, then on the 30th I move into my new place, and on Oct 1 I'm back to work.  That's the end of my 6 month sabbatical :-(

Back in Canada, eh?

Our 26 hour trip from Pisa to Victoria went off pretty smoothly, with one tiny "hitch". Our flight from Rome to Toronto was delayed for over an hour, and when we boarded the plane we found it was because they had been trying to fix the entertainment system.  Well guess what they failed!  So, we had a 10 hour flight with no movies!  Fortunately I had picked up a book in Rome (The Godfather, ~600 pages) which lasted me the flight.

So back in Canada!

We had to ask for information at the Toronto airport, and I said "I'll look after this, I'm fluent in the local dialect!"  After 5 months travelling in China, Italy and Spain it felt pretty good :-)

Last few days in Italy, summer is drawing to a close :-(

We've spent the last few days visiting some of the smaller towns around Calci, visiting a few local wineries and "olive-oil-aries", and spending one last day at the beach:

The weather at night is becoming a bit more chilly, and one night we even had a quite violent thunder storm!  We had strong winds, rain, and a spectacular lightning show.  Of course all this happened at about 3AM ...

Our last day was spent mostly cleaning and packing,but of course we made time for a final cappuccino and gellatto at our favourite Calci cafe and gellatto bar:

One final farewell shoot of the Calci valley:

Arivaderci Calci (sniff) ... it's been a great summer.

European eggs vs North American eggs

On our first trip to the supermarket over here we had trouble finding the eggs.  Eventually we found them on an unrefridgerated shelf, in the baking section.  (Of course we immediately took them home and put the in the 'fridge.)

But why are eggs not required to be refrigerated here in Italy vs back home in Canada?  A mystery!  But apparently one that has a very interesting explanation:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nadiaarumugam/2012/10/25/why-american-eggs-would-be-illegal-in-a-british-supermarket-and-vice-versa/

And now we all know :-)

A Visit to Volterra in 1398

Today we went to a medieval festival in Volterra, a hill town about an-hour-and-a-bit drive in the direction of San Gimignano and Siena.  Volterra boasts the oldest city hall in Europe (~700 AD), and in fact it was the city hall upon which the one in Florence was modeled.  The fair was quite spectacular and the whole town was dressed up.  (I think if you rent a place in Volterra this is one of the clauses in your lease.)  The fair was held in the town's main piazza and also a large field, which apparently was the site where the town's main square used to be until the Medici attacked the town and burned it to the ground.

Here are some pics from the fair.

There were archery demonstrations and contests (spoiler - this girl didn't win).

Mock torture and executions.  (As soon as they had you in the pillory they pulled out this branch and started to tickle you.)

Roving medieval bands.  (They would pull tourists out of the audience to embarrass, so we watched from the safety of the town's tower.)

"The flag guys."  They would kick the flags around with their feet and toss them in the air.

A falconry demonstration.  Very informative (if you happened to speak Italian).

Dead pig sandwiches, yum!

More archery.

The drummers would lead the performers from one place to the next.  We just fell in line and followed.

The band of "the flag guys".  They played these coronets with one valve, pretty cool (if you're a band geek).

We had to exchange our Euro's for the 1398 currency, which is called "Big".  One "Big" equals one Euro.  There were one and five "Big" coins.  It was kind of fun jingling a pocket full of medieval change for the day :-)

A souvenir from Venice

Here is some pasta I picked up in Venice.

This can be filed under the category: "When you see it ..."

Fun times in Venice

We spent 3 nights in Venice, in (as I mentioned in another post) "full tourist mode".

It didn't start out well though.  We had booked a cab to take us to the train station on Wednesday morning, but at exactly 6 minutes past the time we had booked the cab (have I mentioned that all Italian cabs run exactly 6 minutes behind schedule?) we got a call from our cabbie saying she way waiting outside our house.

I looked out the window.  "No you're not."

"Yes I am, number 5  Via San Donato."

Well eventually we figured she was at some similarly-named street, and not San Donato at all.  We tried giving her directions but eventually she just asked one of the locals and then followed a little motor scooter that happened to be going in our direction.  Then, on the way to the train station, she spent most of the time on her cell phone complaining to all of her friends (in Italian) about her lousy morning.  Hey, we don't speak Italian, but we're pretty sure you're speaking about us!

We finally got to Venice and checked into our little apartment and then went out to explore the town.  We had dinner at one of our local restaurants (we were staying a little bit off the beaten path, so not too touristy) and we were even treated to a performance afterwards!

Our first full day in Venice we:

Visited St Mark's Basilica;

Toured the Doge's palace;

(The main square inside the Doge's Palace looks a lot like St Marks Square outside the Doge's Palace.)

(Most of the palace was off limits to photos.  This is one of the staircases.)

(The famous "Bridge of Sighs".  That's the Doge's Palace on the left and the "new prisons" on the right.  We got to cross the bridge and tour the prisons.  Check out the throng of tourists on the bridge outside the Bridge!)

And in the evening went to a performance of "Rigaletto" at one of the local palazzo's (palaces).  We thought it was at Palazzo Barhauger (or something like that) so we took a vaporetto (water bus) to the closest stop, and then (since we were early) found a nearby cafe for a drink.  Of course we were at the completely wrong place, as we found out after our drink, and it was 12 minutes until showtime.  We asked a couple of well-meaning locals, who also lead us astray, and then asked at a nearby hotel.  The hotel desk person happened to know the show (it was at the Palazzo Barhauger-something else) so she gave us directions.  It was on the other side of the Grand Canal, so a short footrace later we made it to the show JUST ON TIME.  Of course then the show started about 10 minutes late ...

However it was very interesting.  I think it was an abbreviated version of "Rigaletto" (there were only 4 actors and it was a bit under 2 hours long) and took place in several rooms of the palace.  We the audience followed the actors from room to room.  This is a highly recommended way to see an opera!

(Note no pics allowed during the performance, of course :-(  So here are a couple of crappy pics of the palace as we were filing out:)

The next day, still in "full tourist mode", we:

Took a vaporetto the full length of the Grand Canal;

Near St Mark's Square, the traffic was unreal - gondolas, vaporettos and other craft.  Pretty much everything in Venice is delivered or taken away by boat.

A lot of the homes and hotels have their main door on the canal rather than one of the streets.

Near the Rialto Bridge.  More traffic.

Went on a gondola ride;

And explored a bunch of Venice neighbourhoods.

(Our gondola ride started out on the Grand Canal, near the Rialto Bridge, but it was too crowded and choppy so we made our driver take us down some of the small side canals.)

Overall it was a very enjoyable visit.  There are some areas of Venice that are as crowded as anywhere on earth (trust me I spent 3 months in China) - St Marks Square, the bridge next to the Bridge of Sighs, the Rialto Bridge - but once you get even a bit off the beaten path the crowds die down and it's very pleasant to wander about.  Of course other than Florence this is the most expensive city we visited, so be prepared for a hit on your wallet!

Tomorrow we are headed to Volterra for a medieval festival.  Motto - "Party like it's 1349!"  We're down to our last week so no more rest days!

(Just a picture of the Venetian sunset.  No big deal.)