just a few pics

That's it for now. The next pics should be from HongKong where I expect to be for Easter Weekend.
A view of West Lake above.

West Lake which is the centre of the tourist area of Hanzhou is filled with these boats. We crossed the lake on one of these boats. It was so serene and peaceful but of course I love being on the water.

Dusk has arrived and this pagoda was in the background from the market we visited.

Went for a ride around the wetlands in this boat. T pics below are the wetlands.

Hangzhou (pronounced HongJoe)

I have many more pics of Hangzhou but it is late now and I am ready for bed will post more another day.

Flowers in Bloom

This is the fields in the tea plantation with workers picking the tea leaves.

I've just had a great weekend in the most beautiful city in China which could easily call itself the most beautiful city on earth. I know I have shown you pictures of many gardens in the various cities in China but this whole city is a garden. Moira and I went with a tour group with 12 people who we hadn't met before and had a great time. It was quite exhausting however as we spent all of Sat. afternoon walking through the Xixi Wetlands, through a market that night and then slept on a rock hard bed. The next day we had a boat ride across West Lake which the whole tourist area is centred around, walked a little and then visited a tea plantation which was a long climb down into a valley and then a long climb back up to the highway. I will let the pictures tell you more about this trip.

mail me some postcards

Hi I hope you are able to read these posts from today because I cannot. The global child day I mentioned in my previous post is going to have a display of postcards from around the world. I would appreciate if you could mail me a postcard showing something Canadian so I can put them in the display. My address is:
Cathy Barrie
300 Jin Xiu Rd
9th City
Building 23, Room 602
Shanghai, 200125
China

The Image of the Child

Okay all you Reggio colleagues. The Image of the Child a principle I have struggled with given my tendency not to trust children with books and a few other things. Suzanne knows how I have struggled with this. But believe me I must have a fantastic image of the child because I trust them to learn everything put in front of them. This little tirade is a result of being questioned about trying to teach continents (I know it's learn and I have learned a lot). In our newsletters every other week we are to include words we are teaching and we are teaching continents but were told that concept is too hard for these young children. However in my usual tactful way (don't laugh brothers I am very different at work-I don't have to be tactful with you.) I explained how the children learn this concept. And of course I opened their eyes and they understood. Would you believe continents comes from our project, "What can Fly?" Of course you would because you would immediately think of airplanes. It is flags that lead us to countries which lead us to continents which will lead us to airplanes because I have to get back to bees and butterflies for our trip to the insect museum in a couple of weeks.
Tomorrow I'm off to Hangzhou "the most beautiful city in China" for 2 days. It promises to be a fun trip with a group of strangers set up by a travel agent. The weather is beautiful although there is a possibility of rain. We are going to the Xixi Wetlands while there so I hope the rain doesn't happen. I'll let you know all about it.
The end of the school year is coming up fast and then I'll be home again. I have so much to accomplish in the next 3 months - reports now, portfolios, displays for global child day, work for the yearbook, reports again in June. We have 4 reports in the year on the children and it makes my head spin. The portfolio is what I really need to work on and I have a lot to do there but that is very exciting work. The displays for global child day is exciting too - that will be based on our project work on flags, countries and continents. And oh yes, I want to put together a display of everything we learned this year sort of a synopsis for the parents to take a look at in June. I think I'll do some of that right now. Talk to you later.

Warrior pics

The outside area of the buildings that house the Warriors.

Seeing the warriors has made me think a lot about history or at least ancient history. It isn't something I would have thought about going to see except for my husband insisting that I do. But I have learned a lot about thinking over 2000 years ago, how advanced things were and I have learned about war formations something I am definitely not interested in, but the books written back then on that subject are still valuable today. Although I still think it all has to do with grown men playing with their toy soldiers.

This is kneeling archer. Noticed that his topknot is on the opposite side of other warriors so as not to interfere with reaching for an arrow.






This is one of the buildings that house one of the pits. There are 3 pits that are open to the public.














This is a small area of stores around the Warriors

I AM a Terra Cotta Warrior

"I am warrior. Here me roar."

This is modern day Terra Cotta Warrior. Notice the top knot of hair which is how you recognize said named warrior.

This is Big Goose Pagoda

These are just a couple of pics from the site of the warriors. You can see them in the background of the picture with me in it

Xi'an was very interesting. We saw the Big Goose Pagoda, Banpo Village which is an archeological find of a neolithic village, a factory of terra cotta warriors where they make the ones you buy from clay, and of course the Warriors themselves all on Sat. On Sun we wandered around the old town seeing the Bell Tower, the Drum Tower, the Muslim quarter and the city wall from centuries ago. I took many pictures some of which I hope to print.

IWD

Happy International Women's Day to all the women who read my blog. I hope you have a great day and celebrate all that you are and all that women have accomplished. One of the most memorable accomplishments to me (among the so many) is gaining the knowledge of birth control. I was quite amazed to learn that at one time although men (Dr.s) had this knowledge it was not allowed for women to know of birth control. At least one suffragette went to jail for spreading the word and I believe it was diaphrams to women. Sorry my memory is so bad that I don't remember her name or the exact time period - maybe 20's or 30's. But I think we should give a word of thanks to her for the enlightenment she brought to us.

Sightseeing again

My brother Dave is here with his wife Karen so I have been sightseeing again. We started Sat. off with a trip to the Urban Planning Centre. Dave doesn't really like museums but I thought this would be interesting to him because of the model and map of Shanghai. He loved it! I didn't think we were ever going to be able to leave. It is quite fascinating to see the map of the city which you walk around and have a bird's eye view of. Dave estimated it is about 3 - 4,000 square feet. It is a very good way to see where everything is in the city that you would like to see. The centre is actually 4 floors of Shanghai - a bit of history and what is happening now and in the near future.

Last Friday it was so warm here I wanted to keep the children outside for the morning and we did not need coats. (Today, Mon. it is very cold and about 4 degrees.) The picture of the bush in bloom is so beautiful I have made it my desktop. We took the picture in the park where the children were playing. Most of the classes took their children into the park on Fri. I hope that warm weather comes back soon.

Next weekend Dave Karen and I are off to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors. It should be very interesting. There are thousands of these warriors from centuries ago and apparently there is an even larger amount that they haven't found or dug up, whichever, than they have already found. Although I don't know how they know there are so many if they haven't found them yet but that's what I hear. I'll also find out how exhausting it is to squeeze such a trip into a regular weekend. It is a 2 hour flight from here. We leave Fri. right after work and get back on Sun. evening.

Talk to you later.