Traditional Chinese Song

Here is a link to a beautiful version of the Chinese song that my little dog Moli is named after.
Enjoy!

and here's what it all means
Lyric:
Traditional Chinese                 Simplified Chinese
好一朵美麗的茉莉花                 好一朵美丽的茉莉花
好一朵美麗的茉莉花                 好一朵美丽的茉莉花
芬芳美麗滿枝椏                         芬芳美丽满枝桠
又香又白人人誇                         又香又白人人夸
讓我來將你摘下                         让我来将你摘下
送給別人家                                 送给别人家
茉莉花呀茉莉花                         茉莉花呀茉莉花

Hanyu Pinyin
Hǎo yī duǒ měi lì de mò li huā
Hǎo yī duǒ měi lì de mò li huā
Fēn fāng měi lì mǎn zhī yā
Yòu xiāng yòu bái rén rén kuā
Ràng wǒ lái jiāng nǐ zhāi xià
Sòng gěi biě rén jiā
Mò li huā yā mò li huā
Literal Translation                                                       
What a beautiful jasmine flower 
What a beautiful jasmine flower   
Sweet-smelling, beautiful, stems full of buds 
Fragrant and white, everyone praises
Let me pluck you down
Give to someone  
Jasmine flower, oh jasmine flower

Figurative Translation

Flower of jasmine, so fair!
Flower of jasmine, so fair!
Budding and blooming here and there,
Pure and fragrant all declare.
Let me take you with tender care,
Your sweetness for all to share.
Jasmine fair, oh jasmine fair.

dusting off the blog

As I logged on to my blog, it felt like I had to blow out the cobwebs :-)
Life has been busy. New class schedule  with more hours, my own English Classroom to teach from (instead of going from class to class), New (white fluff ball of love) puppy "Moli", everyday stuff like cooking and cleaning...the days just fly past.
I have to decorate the new classroom, so I will get the kids to help out. At the moment I am using it(undecorated) and just the fact that I have the tables set in groups of 5 around the edge of the class and a big open space in the middle for games and activities, well lets just say it seems to have blown the kids minds. They are so used to routine, they find it hard when things are different. Luckily most of them also find it exciting.
With my new added hours of classes and a young puppy in the apartment, it's hard to find time to get across the river to Walmart. Now that there is fresh milk for sale there this year, it's a torment that I rarely get to pick it up. Many of my classes don't seem to be before lunch or dinner time at school which also means that I mostly come home and cook, well kind of cook anyway :-)
Both my apartment and my classroom are located on the 6th floor of their buildings, so I spend much of my time climbing stairs....up and down, up and down. It's 102 stairs up to my apartment...I haven't counted the ones at school but I'm pretty sure more. So added to the normal up and down for going to work and at work...also add the extra couple of times up and down at home for "Moli" morning and night so she can get fresh air and not stay in the apartment all day. I've taken to trying a kind of "walking the stairs meditation"..it seems to help :-)
Oh, I've also now got digital reception on my T.V. There is one English station  (lol) and just my luck...It's basically all news, which I hate to watch. Still at least the reception is good now and I can still watch ICS on PPTV which is my favourite English speaking station, produced in Shanghai.

Gratitude

I've left Moli home alone for a couple of hours, a couple of times now and she seems very, very good. I broke her into it by walking in and out of doors to bedrooms and shutting them behind me or her and in and out the front door for short periods of time, she doesn't seem to notice I've actually gone anywhere, so hopefully things will continue that way. Moli weighs in at a massive ;-) 0.6 kg, today... 0.7, YAY ...I think her poodle bloodlines must be "toy", although her brother was in the pet shop with her and he was nearly double her size.
I left her home this morning and headed into the city for a bit of shopping and some lunch. The weather is glorious and I had one of those moments coming home when you suddenly realise how much you have to be grateful for. 1) I actually got a seat on the bus 2)It was near a window 3) the window opened 4) The sun was shining 5) There was a beautiful cool breeze blowing through the window as we travelled along 6) I shut my eyes and relaxed and knew when we were crossing the Yangtze river on the Yiling bridge because the air gets fresher and even cooler 7) I opened my eyes to look downstream and realised once more "I'm in China, living near the Yangtze" It looked and felt beautiful. 8) I was heading home to a wonderful little puppy who I knew was probably chilled out asleep in her basket not worried about me being out hardly at all.
I guess it's all to easy to get so used to things that you can take them for granted, but I often think how lucky I am...and today I really feel very grateful!

Mo Li Hua 茉莉花

This is my third year here in Yichang. I love life here but I obviously  miss some things from Australia like Mum and Dad, Sunshine, clear sky, beach, fresh air etc. Also all of my life I have been lucky enough to grow up with dogs. I think being responsible for dogs can teach you many life lessons and give you a cool companion to share life with. Since losing Bronson and moving to China I have thought about the idea of getting a dog on and off, but with settling in to a new life, thought I had better wait.

I thought long and hard and decided that now is the time.

Enter...Mo Li Hua...
This beautiful little girl melted my heart. She is a “GuiBin”  which is a cross between a Poodle and a Bichon (Poochon). This breed is very popular here in Yichang,but you mostly see brown ones, not so many white.

We called her "Mo Li Hua" This of course is Chinese and means "Jasmine Flower". When you pronounce "Mo Li" it actually sounds almost identical to the English name "Molly". She is totally adorable, seems very clever and has a massive appetite.

The other really great thing is that the place we bought her from is a vet/shop/groomers, with a great reputation and all her needs (including boarding if we all  have to go away) is catered for there. The Vets husband speaks English and worked in Australia for a few years, and their daughter lives there now!
It was obviously all meant to be :-)

Shanghai Shines

World Expo in Shanghai. It's not everyday you get to see a world expo and it was an amazing feeling just standing amongst the elaborate buildings and the hundreds of thousands of people. The weather was stinking hot but Shanghai tried their best to keep peoples cool by installing sprinklers and shade all over the expo grounds and above the long queues.  We didn't see many of the so called "BIG" named pavilions as none of us are that way inclined, to stand in 4 hour queues was not why we were there. We just wanted to soak up the atmosphere and see whatever opened up for us. We did however see Australia Pavilion blasting through the queue (at dinner time) in an amazing 20 minutes maximum.

 Made me proud, they did a wonderful job. Funny to see everyone aghast when they found out about our low population. We also had an aussie dinner there, tasty! Another night saw us fine dining in Luxembourg pavilion, a refined experience in China :-)
We explored Expo for three days in total and around those days we explored the rest of Shanghai!





The Bund at night was even busier than Expo but is a sight to behold.

Lingering around the alleyways of TianziFang....always a treat!

Shopping, eating out, Starbucks Coffee...Ahhh it's all too good.

I love Shanghai to visit and I can see why many expats decide to make Shanghai their home....There are many of the comforts from our homelands to be found there,but, I think I couldn't live the life...Always great to come back to Yichang.

transition

Time really does fly now days. 5 weeks back in Australia went very quickly. I had a great time catching up with family and friends. Some great times meeting and getting to know my new niece Mathilda and spending time with my Brother and family, visiting the Perth Zoo, shopping and hanging with Mum, golf with Jude, Supa Golf with Anthony, Kings Park, Family get together, just relaxing at home with Mum, Dad and the dogs....the list goes on.
After I arrived back in China I only had 3 days to re acclimatise and I was off to Shanghai for the World Expo.13 days in Shanghai, 24 hour train journey each way, 3 days in total at World Expo and the rest of the time wondering around the amazing city of Shanghai with Nettie, Carol and Netties sister Helen.
I didn't take my laptop with me so I'm just catching up now that I'm back home in Yichang.

The Swordsman Theme

I realised today that I forgot to put the beginners video of me playing Guzheng on my

blog...so here it is

.

It's called "The Theme from the Swordsman" and is just a very basic piece.

I took this a couple of months back now and since I've been holidaying back in Australia, I haven't got to practice at all. Unfortunately being the size it is, Guzheng is not made to easily travel half way around the world with! It's a beautiful instrument and even though I don't do it justice here :-) I will indeed keep enjoying to learn something so new to me. Guzheng really is such a traditional Chinese instrument. It's so steeped in Chinese culture and history and I adore the many different sounds it can make. You cant see it in such a simple piece as this but bending strings to get notes, vibrato techniques, plucking all come into play and you can really convey how you are feeling through the music you play. All that and it looks so beautiful too!

Oh if anyone is wondering what the screaming noise in the background is...it's the kids over at the school basketball court screaming support for their class teams :-)