Building614

Hong Kong

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:17:00 +0000

This past week, including both Tomb Sweeping festival, and Easter, we went to Hong Kong in order to process Jenny's Work Visa. There's a lot that can be done in a week's time. On the first day, we hiked up Victoria's Peak, which, interestingly, is the same thing we did when we visited Hong Kong almost exactly one year ago ( http://building614.blogspot.com/2008/04/our-first-trip-out-of-guangzhou.html ). We also visited the science museum. They have this very large Energy machine, which unfortunately was not working. You can see the picture, it's supposed to have balls rolling through all these crazy twists and turns. It's a very large version of what we saw in South Korea when we went to the rolling ball museum.

The picture of the tube of white beads was interesting - on one end of the tube was a speaker, that was playing either a monotone or music. And the beads would dance to the music as they lined themselves up with the wave form from the music.

At the art museum, somebody had painted what it's like to ride a public bus in China.

While we were there, the Hong Kong International Film Festival was going on, so we caught a French film about a father and his grown daughter. While waiting for the film at the cultural center, there was a group of dance students performing, though some of the performances seemed more like rehearsals.

Overall, we had a good time, but we were ready to return home - it's tiring living out of a hotel.

Fire!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:15:00 +0000

Last Thursday, our building caught on fire. Interestingly, we wouldn't have known, except that we heard the fire trucks and decided to look out the window. Seeing a lot of smoke above us, and parts of the building floating to the ground, we decided it was probably best to get out, just in case the fire got out of control. It turned out the fire was only on the outside of the building, and was fairly far away from our apartment. The firemen put out the fire using their hoses from the top of the building. We could feel the spray drifting down 40 stories below. Luckily, Jenny remembered to grab the camera before we headed down, aren't these great pictures?

Football!!! (I mean Soccer) Again

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Here's some soccer photos from our most recent game. This semester, the European exchange students aren't quite as intense as last semester's, but they're still a heck of a lot better than I am. I was hoping my new shoes would help me play better, but I still think I'm the worst player out there. These photos were taken by Jenny with our new camera: unfortunately for me, it's a really good camera and Jenny's a really good photographer, and if you zoom in on the pictures, you'll see why it's unfortunate, the camera captured some of the funniest facial expressions I've probably ever made.

Matt Meyers in Guangzhou - Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:26:00 +0000

On day 2 with Matt, we started with a 7 mile run around the Sun Yat-sen University campus, then along the river. We crossed the river, but then ran into dead ends, so we turned around. We then headed to Shamian island and the White Swan hotel for Dim Sum. Walking around Shamian, we ran into some classmates that were showing some exchange students around Guangzhou. After leaving Shamian, we headed to Yuexiu Park. Here we saw the 5 rams statue - a tribute to the 5 immortals who founded Guangzhou - as well as a lot of beautiful trees and flowers. We also visited the Guangzhou city museum, which has some cannons from the Opium wars, which apparently make a good modern day playground. Lastly, we saw a memorial to Sun Yat-sen.

Matt Meyers in Guangzhou - Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 08:51:00 +0000

Over this past weekend, Matt Meyers, OSC 2007, currently studying in Korea, came for a visit. After a cup of joe for breakfast and a bowl of 粥(zhou - pronounced the same as joe) for lunch, we headed off to White Cloud Mountain （白云山）. After a year in China, we were very pleasantly surprised to find a park that had unpaved hiking trails. We happened upon them by accident, having taken a detour to look at a tea field, and continued on up to the top. During the entire hike to the top, we ran into only 2 other people - 2 very active Chinese ladies. At the top, we were treated to some very beautiful scenery of Guangzhou city from its highest point. That night, after returning home, we headed out for dinner at our favorite all you can eat and drink sushi restaurant.

The Little's in Guangzhou

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 04:02:00 +0000

This past weekend, our friends and fellow Olmsted Scholars (class of 2007), the Little's from Nanjing, came to Guangzhou for a visit on their way back from 4 weeks in Southeast Asia. You can see their blog here. We took the ferry to Shamian Island and walked around there for a while. It was a very fun day, it's always a great pleasure to visit with good friends.

Ice Lantern Festival in Harbin

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 04:39:00 +0000

The video is a bit large because there were so many pictures to put in. This place was amazing (and cold). Some of the highlights were the snow sculpture of the Bird's Nest (the Olympic stadium in Beijing) and the snow sculpture of the rocket. They had ice skating, ice slides, a camel?, horse drawn sled rides, frozen fruit on a stick (especially good), fireworks, and an ice skating performance. Truly a wonderland.

Skiing in Yabuli

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 11:46:00 +0000

On our second day in Northeast China, we went to the Yabuli ski resort. It is supposedly the biggest in China, but it is really not that big. They have 11 runs, but only 1 is accessible to everyone - you have to pay extra to ski on the other runs. So, since this was Jenny's first time skiing, and Tim hasn't been skiing in over 10 years, we decided to play it simple and stick with the one slope. You can see from the video that Jenny is a natural at skiing. We had a great time, and will probably be skiing again in the future.

Spring Festival Trip to Northeast China (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 13:54:00 +0000

During the past week, we went to the northeast part of China to partake in some of the frozen festivities that occur up there. Over the next several days, I will be posting little parts of our trip with pictures. On our first day, we arrived in Harbin, and, though we had brought enough clothes, we weren't quite mentally prepared for the cold. On top of that, because it was the first of the Chinese new year, nobody was out - and no shops were open. But that didn't matter too much, since we were tired and willing to call it an early night. We did get some photos of the lighted ice sculptures that were near our hotel in front of the train station. These were just a small sampling of what was to come later (Yes, they are completely made of ice, and if you try to lick it, your tongue will get stuck).

Spring Festival Flower Street

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 15:08:00 +0000

In celebration of the Chinese New Year, there are streets full of vendors selling flowers, decorations, and a bunch of trinkets you don't really need. They even pass garden decorations (see third picture) as toys that people hold while they're walking around because they spin. And because this is the year of the bull, everybody was wearing lighted bull horns - we personally thought they looked more like devil horns. There were also plenty of bull decorations - like the big gold bull statue in the second picture. It was fun, but there sure are a lot of people.

Spring Festival - The Chinese New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:05:00 +0000

Nearby our house, there were many decorations hanging for the upcoming Chinese New Year.

Lingnan Business Plan Competition

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 09:53:00 +0000

As the last event ending the semester, I participated in a Business Plan competition. My group ended up with third place, winning a cash prize that bought a night of karaoke. I really didn't expect to win anything, so making it to the final round was a pleasant surprise. The winner will go on to the Asia Business Plan Competition, which, last year, was held in Thailand - I'm not sure about this year. The pictures in reverse order, are me speaking in the final round, our group standing in front of our showcase, our "CEO" giving his 60 second elevator speech, me looking bored in front of our showcase, and then us receiving our finalist award. Altogether, it was a fun experience.

温泉 Hot Springs

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 04:48:00 +0000

上个周末我们去一个温泉去泡温泉！真好玩！这里也会爬山！

This past weekend we went to a hotspring resort to soak! It was very fun. You can also hike here.

Presentations to End the Semester

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:26:00 +0000

During the last month and a half, I've been busy working with multiple groups on multiple projects to finish up the semester. Here's a picture of the last presentation I did in DMD - Data, Model, and Decision Making - which is a fancy way of saying statistics - although some claim that DMD stands for Dead, Mostly Dead. Doesn't everyone look so excited. The semester ended well, although one of my group presentations was down right terrible.

Holiday Party in China

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 04:51:00 +0000

This past Saturday we had a big holiday party at our house. In all, about 35 people came - we had a blast. Even Mom and Dad (bear) came (you can see Mom hanging out with the girls). In addition to eating a lot of various foods, we played several games. We had a pull-up competition. We made gingerbread houses. And we had several performances by our friends. You can see us in the picture with the Beijing Opera performance. Some people really enjoyed the performances - they certainly were funny. Overall we had a really great time.

Merry Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:24:00 +0000

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

From: Jenny and Tim

We decided to write our Christmas letter here. This way, we don't have to worry about postage and we can reach so many more family and friends. Tim and I have survived almost a year in China. We have faced many challenges and have managed to overcome each one! We are very happy to be here and hope that the rest of our time here is just as rewarding. We have both finished one semester of school. I completed one semester of teaching English as a Second Language. This has been a daunting task as my students have little to no English exposure and because I have never taught this subject area. I hope that I can provide the best resources and guidance to my students. Tim has met many new people at Sun Yat-Sen University. He enjoys singing karaoke and eating pizza whenever he has a chance. We love our neighborhood and are getting to know the local people. I especially like it when the lady who fixed my shoes smiles and waves at me on the street! I also particulary enjoy the bike ride through Sun Yat-Sen University. I will have to take a video so you can see the canopy of trees and purple blossoms that fall along the path. We miss all of you and hope that you will come and visit if you can. Merry Christmas!

bIrThDaY FlOwErS!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 04:06:00 +0000

I am 30!

我是三十岁！

Football!!! (er, I mean Soccer)

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:24:00 +0000

I've taken up playing soccer with my classmates. We've been playing just for fun for the last couple months, but this week we entered a school wide tournament. And wouldn't you know it, they pitted us against the foreign exchange students from Europe (who we had been practicing with). Unfortunately, their skills are just a little better than ours (I think they must be given a soccer ball when they are born). They beat us 5 to 1, and you can see in the second picture that I was the goal keeper. Surprisingly, my teammates were extremely supportive of the fact that I let 5 goals in. They want me to continue as goalie - they even told me that I did a great job. These guys really know how to make a person feel good.

Our next game will be in a week, hopefully the other team won't be so tough.

Chinese Bathrooms

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 12:49:00 +0000

This week I am teaching my students how to write words with oo. I noticed that many words have oo, like room, bathroom, etc.

In China you can sit or squat when you use the bathroom.

So, I took advantage of this teaching opportunity and placed the "double O's" appropriately in our class bathroom.

The kids loved it and one student actually fell down the toilet!

Blue Sky

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 05:19:00 +0000

我觉得天空是那么蓝,空气是那么好.

I think the sky is very blue, the air is very good.

All in a days work

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:07:00 +0000

I asked him if I could take his picture. He didn't seem to mind as he was talking on his cell phone asking for directions to deliver this log he was hauling on his bike.

Make a cake

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:42:00 +0000

It is a cow! MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Guangzhou Amusement Parks

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:29:00 +0000

Guangzhou boasts 4 different amusement parks including a circus, waterpark, roller coaster park, and safari zoo. Together with Brian and Akiko we visited the roller coaster park, but today we tried the water park. Both parks were extremely organized and clean. All we have to do is jump on the subway and a free bus takes us the rest of the way. If you come to Guangzhou, we'd be happy to go again!

http://www.chimelongwaterpark.com/default1_en.htm

Happy Birthday!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:13:00 +0000

Happy Birthday Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad's birthday is September 23rd and 24th I think! WE Love you. This is a soy flour cake with local fruit.

Magazines WANTED

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. Woodruff) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:47:00 +0000

If you have any magazines or English newspapers, I would love them! Please send anything you have (old, new, whatever) via media mail which is cheaper if you can. These are for school.

Timothy Woodruff
US Consulate Guangzhou
PSC 461
Box 100
FPO
AP 96521