A Massage with some Chinese Staff/ The IRP Police

So I got a massage at the mall near the school yesterday.  I went out to eat with some of the Chinese staff.  We had ramen noodles.  They were okay.  Nothing special.

After that, we headed to a massage parlor (no, not a brothel), and had a 100 minute massage.  Initially the massage was for my feet, but I guess the masseuse got bored (or fed up) with massaging my feet.  She gave me a whole body massage instead. Good deal...especially since I only paid the foot massage price.


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I remember at UBC, my old FAs used to tell my cohort and I that there are no IRP police (Instructional Resource Packages or IRPs, are the curriculum standards of BC schools).  Well, looks like that wasn't true.  Tomorrow, the BC teacher's accreditation team come in to take a look at everyone's lessons.  I think I'm ready.  Let's hope so.

Many Things Happening/ Trip Plan

Well, I haven't updated this thing for a long while.  There are many reasons for this.

I've been slowly planning for my 5 week trip around East Asia.  South Korea and North Korea just had an exchange of artillery fire.  I'm not sure if this will make me change my plans or not.  Probably not, but it's too early to tell.

Because I worked an extra day last month, we get two 3 day weekends in December!  Nice trade off!  For Christmas, I'm going to a hot spring with some of the Chinese staff.  For New Years, I'm going to visit the Terracotta Warriors of Xi'an with some Canadian colleagues. Hen hao!!!



 I think I temporarily got sick last weekend.  I haven't exercised recently because I've been busy at work.  And I missed the school bus to go to free Kung Fu lessons.

Here's my preliminary trip plan:

January 15 - Bus from Wuhan to Jingzhou (ancient capital of the Kingdom of Chu, a powerful state during the Warring States Period).

Jan 16-21 Jingzhou

Jan 22 Wuhan to Seoul, South Korea

Jan 22-27 Seoul

Jan 27 - Feb 1 Travel through South Korea to Busan

Feb 1-3 Busan

Feb 3 - Busan, SK to Fukuoka, Japan (via hydrofoil)

Feb 5- To Osaka

Feb 5-8 Osaka

Feb 7 Day trip to Nara

Feb 8-9 Kyoto

Feb 10-14 Tokyo

Feb 14-16 Sendai

Feb 17 Sendai to Tokyo

Feb 18 Tokyo to Wuhan

Trip Planning: South Korea and Japan

Well, it's time.  I have to start planning for my trips to Japan and South Korea.  Trying to find cheap tickets in my spare time.  I might spend 1 week somewhere else in China before heading off to the Land of the Rising Sun.  I figure I should go to Japan, then to Korea.

Today I did my first high school invigilation.  I was so excited, I told one of the veteran teachers that I look forward to "bagging and tagging" a cheater.  The 3 hour exam went smoothly, and no one cheated (or perhaps I didn't catch anyone cheating).

Anyways, aside from supervising exams, marking and finalizing report cards, I'm running more often, and trying to score some cheap plane tickets to Osaka. From there, I'm going to bullet train to Kyoto, Tokyo, then Sendai to see my friend.

If I'm staying in China for a week before heading off to the easternmost countries in East Asia, where do you think I should go?  I'm thinking Hong Kong, but I'm open to suggestions.