First Days in China...as Promised!

Okay, so these photos are from about 6 months ago!!! This is what our apartment looked like when we first got here. (ALMOST) Except for a few things, like the yellow pillows. Those we bought at IKEA. Yes, they have an IKEA here which is pretty awesome. It takes about an hour to get there though, so we have not gone too many times. Plus, we can get most of what we need right here in Clifford. Clifford Estates is sooo much bigger than we imagined!! 11000 people. Almost the same size as Winkler or Morden ;)

Our living room



























Our Bedroom. There is a big wardrode and a small desk with a mirror beside the bed. The far wall is all WINDOWS!!! Such a beautiful view. We are on the 29th floor, and we have a view of a "mountain".









The View. Right now though, all we see is fog. Fog and more fog.












The Kitchen. We now have a big red oven sitting on the counter that we bought. I don't know how I would make supper (or bake) without it! People in China don't seem to bake anything...











This is the view out of the kitchen. There is a big glass sliding door, then the dining room table and the living room. Oh, and Matt! :)










The Bathroom. Pretty nice, eh? We even have a bathtub. I was surprised at that. In many places in Asia, you just get a shower head.



















































Okay, so we also have a small laundry room off the kitchen, and a small second bedroom. BUT, you will just have to come here to see them!!!
I will end with a funny photo. Here is Matt when we went to a pizza place. They gave us gloves, yes, gloves to eat the pizza. Matt enjoyed using them :)






Goodbye and Goodnight!!!
The Howdens :)
(Posted by Amanda)

Update

Hello everyone!
How are you doing? We miss all of you.
We just wanted to let you know the status of next year. We had decided that if Matt got accepted to do his TESOL online, that we would stay another year in China. Then Matt will get a contract from the school and will be guaranteed a job next year. We said if things did not work out with the TESOL that we would go back to Canada.
So...Matt got accepted to the TESOL program. He will start tomorrow or Tuesday. This means that we are most likely doing another year in China.
There still is a chance that we will come back to Canada though. I am still quite unsure. Mostly I think it would be good to come back to China, but in a lot of ways I would like to go back to Canada.

Here's a little of what we have been up to:
This weekend I went shopping in Guangzhou on Saturday with Lindsay. I bought 2 pairs of boots! That is very unlike me. I bought a black and a brown pair. Anyways, I only spent the equivalent of about $58 Canadian. I also bought 2 watches!!! They were under $10. I also bought Matt a Birthday present. So that was fun. Then we met up with some friends for a Birthday dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Friday night we had friends over to play games. Today we didn't feel like going to church. So we just did our own Bible reading (and singing!) at home. We went for a walk up the big hill by our house, and read books and watched T.V. shows.
My kids have been pretty rotten at school lately, and so it has not been as enjoyable as normal. I hope it's just the weather. It is so dreary and foggy outside. Everything is damp, there is so much moisture in the air.
This past week, Matt and I babysat for some friends on Monday night. We are still doing our "volunteering" every 2nd Tuesday. The other Tuesdays I go play badminton and then Matt and I go hang out with a few friends - we either watch T.V. or play games. Some Wednesdays we go to Trivia Night. It is at a Canadian owned pub close by. It's nice because it almost feels like we are back in Canada. They have different people host the night and different categories. You play on a team. It's a lot of fun! I am continuing to take Mandarin classes once a week.

We have been busy exploring more of Guangzhou and Hong Kong. A couple weekends ago Matt and I went to Shamian Island. It's an island within the city. It feels and looks a little like Europe. People go there to get wedding photos taken, walk around and also to adopt Chinese babies!!!! We saw quite a few Caucasians with Chinese babies. We went to Hong Kong, not this weekend, but the last one. Matt finally got a multi-entry 6 month Visa which is awesome. We also got a lot of shopping in. I was able to take a day off of work, so we had a 3 day weekend there. We got to see more of Hong Kong than we've seen before. We went to Stanley Market there which is right by the water. It seems everyone in Hong Kong is rich, and the drive out to the market area was really nice, with lots of fancy houses along the coast. In two weekends we might go to Shenzhen and Macau for a friend's birthday.
I think that's pretty much it for what's new with us.
We would love to hear back from you!
Love,
Amanda and Matt

On the journey to China (July and August 2011)

We have taken the time to go though the 11,000 plus photos we have taken with our camera since we were in Winnipeg (and got the new camera) up till our last trip (this weekend) to Hong Kong.
(A side note: we made a trip to Hong Kong to get me, (Matt), my third travel visa. I had one from Canada good till December. In December I went to Hong Kong and got one that was good for 30 days and I could enter China twice. I used those up and I used up the 30 days. I was able to get a 6 month visa and I can leave and enter China whenever I want now. )

Back to the photos...

We went to the park after we got the camera. Here is one of our new friends in Winnipeg.











After the park we went to Jenny's for the going away party (or as Jenny called "Bon Voyage").
We had a great time with our friends in Winnipeg. It made me (Matt) think of the summer of 2008 and how we always partied at Jenny's house and stayed up way too late and then had to try to work the next day.

After the party we started our drive to Ontario. We had a few stops before we got to Hamilton.

Our first stop on the trip. Kenora, Ontario. We went to the community center. I built this wall of rocks with Lakefront Restorers in October 2011. 3 guys and 3 days and we finished!

















Here we are in the car during our loooooong journey through Ontario. The weather was beautiful and we were stopped for about an hour due to construction, so we took the time to take some photos...








It was Amanda's first time in Toronto!!! We took the subway, saw the CN tower, CBC building, Matt's College, and the Toronto Skydome, (Roger's Centre), for hotdogs! We also went to a restaurant called O Noir. You eat in pitch black and are served by people who are blind. It was a pretty cool experience and the food was delicious! Thanks Candi and Wes for telling us about it! ;)

Next stop:
Niagara Falls. We met up with Matt's sister, Bobbie and went on a rainy day. It was beautiful!














Okay, that's it for now! Hope you enjoyed. Next up: Our first days in China!

Matt and Amanda :)

Holidays and Home Sweet Home...

Hello everyone!
So we are back from our long vacation and getting back into the routine of teaching and life in China.
Christmas Eve was spent with friends and we had a wonderful potluck supper. Then we walked around our community and looked at the lights display they set up for Christmas. Christmas morning was spent opening gifts and talking with family. We had a special dinner in the evening. The next day we left for Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (formerly Saigon).
Our holiday was spent in Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. We started in southern Vietnam and worked our way all the way up to the north. We spent a lot of hours on buses, (many of them sleeper buses), and saw a lot of the country. It was a bit of a whirlwind - we did the country in 12 days. Every city we went to in Vietnam felt very different from the next. It is a fascinating, busy country with a fascinating history. We were able to go to the DMZ area, walk in what used to be an underground city made up of tunnels, sleep on a boat in the beautiful Halong Bay, visit many caves, floating markets, museums, and markets. We also got some clothes tailor-made.
Next we went to Laos, where we slowed down quite a bit. We enjoyed the slow pace of the country, the beautiful landscape and the interactions we had with people. Some highlights were visiting and teaching at a couple of schools, working on an organic farm, and enjoying some really good food.
Our last country was Thailand. We decided to spend a week in the north of the country in a city called Chiang Mai. There we did a 2-day trek in the mountains, slept in a wooden house on stilts, rode elephants, went white-water rafting, helped build a bamboo fence at a school, visited with relatives, and did some sewing for a local orphanage. We had a great time there. In Bangkok we revisited where I lived and worked 5 years ago, spent Chinese New Year in Bangkok's Chinatown, went to a floating market and did some more shopping. We also went down to an island for a couple of days in the sun and on the beach.
We had a great trip, had unforgettable experiences, met great people, but we were glad to go "home" to our little apartment in China.
My first two days back at school with the kids have been great. It feels like a fresh start, and my kids have been working hard. They are little cutie pies :)
This weekend we went into Guangzhou with a friend to an all-you-can-eat Japanese/sushi restaurant. Today we ventured out to the Western Market in Guangzhou. Even though we are back from traveling, there are many adventures to be had here. Going out into Guangzhou is always an adventure. We are really blessed to enjoy where we live and where we work, and for the great opportunities we have to travel and see the world.

What’s new in your part of the world?

Blessings,

Matt and Amanda

(Posted by Amanda)

This is the view from our apartment.

Our little Christmas tree.

Matt at work. :)

Home sweet home

We are now back in the Clifford estates after travelling around southeast Asia for the last month. It was awesome! We went to Vietnam, Loa, and Thailand. We are working on get pictures up here soon. First we just need to go through the 3000 plus photos. We are glad to be in back in our apartment in China we missed it.

Posted by Matt