Dear CIWC Members,
Our largest fundraiser of the year is coming up soon!
Please read the article in this month's newsletter
regarding the 3rd Annual CIWC Christmas Bazaar this year
featuring supporting charities Ecologia
http://www.ecologia.org/ and Sichuan Quake
Relief
http://sichuan-quake-relief.org/ (this
charity was started by expats in our community). Both
charities are working on earthquake relief efforts from
the devastating May 12th earthquake in Sichuan
Province. We need our members help in both volunteer
efforts and fundraising efforts. Please email Minu at
minurast@gmail.com if you are interested in
volunteering and Cyndi at
ajcyndi@yahoo.com if you are interested in
fundraising.
We have had some very successful new events so far this
year and quite a few of our members are stepping up and
taking charge of new activity groups. We want to say
thank you to those people for their support. If you
haven't attended as of any yet we might suggest trying
Monday Aqua Gym or Wednesday Craft Group or the
Documentary Discussion Group. These groups have had
great success so far and are still looking for new
people to join. Please let us know if there are new
activities that you would like us to offer and we can
partner together to add your new group.
It has been great seeing large participation in the
groups we have been organizing. It helps reaffirm that
our hard work improving the quality of life here in
Chengdu is worth it!
Sincerely,
CIWC Committee
---------------- ANNOUNCEMENTS
---------------------------
Place of the month – Foot wash (洗脚)
I was out of town for most of this month so didn't go
any place new, but as soon as I got back to town the
first place I headed was for a foot wash. Actually the
name is misleading as there is a whole lot more to it
than just washing your feet. The place I go to starts
off by washing your feet, then exfoliating, moisturizing
and massaging, before moving on to massage your legs,
arms, back, neck. This takes in total about 90minutes
and costs just 48RMB, including hot water and some
fruit. It takes place in a teahouse so you could also
play mahjong, drink tea or have other kinds of massages,
and you can select a room for 2, 3 or more depending on
how many people you go with. So next time you are
feeling like a bit of TLC, head for one of the many
massage places in town. My favourite is HuaYuFang on
GuangFuBeiJie (花语坊，
广福桥北街6号),
but there is bound to be one close to where you live.
Enjoy J
CIWC Christmas Bazaar
Dear CIWC members,
CIWC Bazaar Committee would like to encourage you to get
involved in the one and only charity event that CIWC
sponsors during the year. Help us give back to the
community in which we live!
CIWC Bazaar Committee has decided that all of the funds
raised by the CIWC in 2008 through the Bazaar, cookbook
and calendar sales will go to Ecologia and SQR.
Ecologia needs 70,000 RMB to help a village rebuild
homes and help families begin a cottage industry where
they can earn a living! More to come about this
project! The remaining money earned will go to Sichuan
Quake Relief – working on many projects in the quake
area to help relieve the suffering of those living in
the area.
The CIWC Bazaar Committee has been organizing since
May! The Co-Chairs are Karin Noll and Cyndi Pill. They
will be coordinating the event and should you have any
questions, please contact them. The other committee
members are:
Entertainment: Bushra Sadiq
Food: Sarah Schiller and Traci Perdue
Local Crafts: Karin Noll
Table Sales: Benedicte Bellier
Volunteers: Minu Rastogi
Charity Coordinator: Catherine Platt
Publicity: Katie Lohman
Children's Games: Sarah Moore
Sponsors for the event: Cyndi Pill, Kim
Dallas and Fang Bjorn
CIWC members, if you think your company might be willing
to donate funds and be listed as a sponsor for the 2008
CIWC Christmas Bazaar, please contact Cyndi. We have
letters explaining our event and what the money is going
to be used for and we can provide fapiao. Our goal this
year is 100,000 RMB! Please help us reach this goal
either through individual donations or through your
company!
ajcyndi@yahoo.com
The success of our event depends on volunteers. We need
about 100 volunteers to sell calendars, baked goods, run
the children's games, sell tickets, monitor the silent
auction, etc. If you know you will be here and want to
volunteer your time right now, please contact Minu at
minurast@gmail.com
If you have something to sell and would like a table,
contact Benedicte at:
benebellier@gmail.com
We are going to have a wonderful event again this year
and look forward to having lots of support from CIWC!
Karin Noll -
karinnollqsi@hotmail.com
CIWC Website
We are back on... Line! -
www.chengduiwc.com
After several months of absence, the CIWC-website is
back on track.
Please visit our web place weekly for updates on the
Classifieds, Chengdu Links, the Newsletter & Calendar.
--------------- EVENTS
---------------------------------------
Coffee Morning, Tuesday 4 November
Please join us for our coffee morning on Tuesday
November 4th at the Bookworm at 10 am.
The place to be if you want to catch up with old friends
or want to meet new friends while you are enjoying a
tasty cup of coffee.
If you plan to attend, please RSVP to Maartje at
maartjeverdiesen@hotmail.com before November
2nd.
Indian Cooking Demo, Wednesday 12 November
Please join us for a Indian Cooking demo presented by
Minu Rastogi. She will cook several dishes including
Tandoori Chicken, Garbanzo beans curry, Vegetables, and
Rice Pulao and will provide the recipes written in
English and a list of places you can buy your
ingredients. The charge for this event is 20RMB per
person including lunch. The cooking demo will be held in
the kitchen of Minu Rastogi. Please stay tuned for
further details on this cooking demo. Please RSVP to
Minu at
minurast@gmail.com. Please note the cooking
demo is open to the first 10 RSVPs.
We are currently looking for people to host the Monthly
Cooking Demos. In the past we have had Indian, Italian,
French and Irish Cooking Demos and we are looking
forward to adding a new variety of demos this year. When
you host a cooking demo you will be teaching everyone
how to make approximately 3 dishes (starter/side dish,
main dish and dessert) as well as providing the
ingredients and recipes for your students to take home.
This year we will be charging 20 rmb per person which
includes your lunch. You can host this in your own
kitchen or feel free to use mine. If you are interested
in hosting a cooking demo this year, please email Kim
Dallas at
berlydallas@hotmail.com.
Book Group, Thursday 13 November
November Book Selection: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by
Barbara Kingsolver
Hostess: Kim Dallas
The Book Group is meeting November 13 at 7:17 pm at
Kim's. The group supports the hostess by bringing a
snack, bottle of wine, soda or something else to share.
A group member also volunteers to be the discussion
leader. The discussion leader will find some information
on the author, read a review or two and maybe provide a
few specific points to begin our talk. Just enough to
get us started. See you on the 13th!
karinnollqsi@hotmail.com
Monthly Luncheon, Wednesday 19 November
The CIWC holds a monthly luncheon at a member's home on
the third Wednesday of every month. Everyone who
attends brings a dish to share. It is a great chance to
catch up with old friends or meet new people.
The November Luncheon will be held on Wednesday November
19 at Beth Andonov's house (in China Garden) at noon.
Please R.S.V.P to Beth if you can attend and for
directions at
bethandonov@gmail.com.
If you are interested in hosting a luncheon, please
contact Cyndi Pill at
ajcyndi@yahoo.com.
Happy Hour, Thursday 20 November
Come and enjoy our new event, "Happy Hour". Everyone is
welcome, couples, friends, we will all meet in a bar
somewhere in town to enjoy good drinks and chat.
The location this month will be Mooney's Irish Pub in
the Shangri-La Hotel as they offer free white wine for
ladies on Thursdays as well as lots of other drinks
2-for-1. So come along on Thursday 20 November from 7pm.
Market trip, Monday 24 November
This month we'll be taking a trip to the hotel equipment
shop in the south of Chengdu. This stocks all manner of
cooking equipment so if your kitchen isn't fully fitted
out yet this is the place to go. We'll be going on
Monday 24 November, meeting at the Starbucks on
ShenXianShu Lu at 930am to carpool. Please RSVP to I-Leen
(136-8342-1388 or
ileentsao@cyche.com).
Documentary Discussion Group, Tuesday 25 November
Please join us for a documentary discussion group. We
plan to meet the last Tuesday of every month. This
month's meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 25th
from 7:00pm to 9:00pm at the home of Tracy Kowatch Koren.
We will watch "Sicko" which is a documentary by Michael
Moore about Health Care System in the USA versus other
parts of the World.
Friends and significant others are welcome. Tracy
lives in Zhong Hai City. Please RSVP to Tracy at
tracykowatch@gmail.com so that she knows how
many people to expect. Drinks will be provided. Please
bring a snack to share.
We are hoping that this group will provide individuals
with an open and safe environment to learn and express
their own opinions and thoughts on topics of interest.
For this reason, we will choose a wide range of
documentaries to show, and we are open to any
suggestions you may have.
Ladies Meal, Thursday 27 November
The CIWC committee thought it had been a while since we
had an evening event just for the Ladies, so this month
there will be a chance for the Ladies to get together
for a Thai meal at one of Chengdu's premier Thai
restaurants, Thailand Shark Fin Restaurant. We will meet
there at 7pm on Thursday 27 November.
Please RSVP to Benedicte at
benebellier@gmail.com by 25 November to
confirm you are coming and to get directions/address.
----------------- REGULAR ACTIVITIES
----------------------
Mondays, Aqua Gym
Aqua Gym will be on Mondays, 11am at Lido garden
Swimming pool.
The fixed price is now 30 RMB for usage of the pool, and
25 rmb for the teacher.
Lido garden swimming pool is located on the second ring
road in the south. Please contact Emmanuelle
Hermandesse at
ehermandesse@yahoo.fr if you are interested
in participating. She can also text you the Chinese
address, in order for you to show the Taxi.
Badminton Club, Tuesday and Thursday
Anyone interested in badminton is invited to join this
new group. They meet every Tuesday and Thursday morning from 9:00 am to 10:00. If
you are interested in playing badminton, come on over to
the health club at Zhong Hai Ming Cheng. It's on Shen
Xian Shu Nan Lu, across from Shanghai Garden and
Starbucks. The cost is 15 RMB per person. Bring your
racket and we'll provide the birdies. Contact I-Leen
Tsao for more info, 136-8342-1388 or
ileentsao@cyche.com.
CIWC Playgroup, Wednesday mornings
CIWC Playgroup is a mother and baby group that is a fun
playtime for pre-school kids, and also a great way to
meet other mothers and share information about family
life in Chengdu. The age range is typically from 6
months to 4 years, but older children are welcome also,
not to mention Dads! We meet every Wednesday morning
except during school holidays, and occasionally arrange
events at other times. All children who come to
playgroup must be accompanied by a parent or caregiver.
Playgroup will continue to meet at Etonhouse Preschool
this year from 10.00 to 11:30 am on Wednesdays. We have
the use of a pre-school classroom well-stocked with
toys, books, paints etc. and access to a wonderful
outdoor play space. Thanks to Sarah Moore and all the
staff of Etonhouse for their generosity in hosting us.
The school sends a bus which picks us up from the
Kempinski Hotel at 9:30am and returns to town around
noon. The bus ride is part of the fun!
On the third Wednesday of the month, the day of the CIWC
luncheon, we meet at the home of a group-member in town,
so that people have time to get to the luncheon if they
wish. Details of this monthly venue and of other events
are circulated on a separate playgroup mailing list. If
you are interested in joining the group and receiving
playgroup mailings, please contact
chengduiwc@gmail.com.
Wednesdays, Crafter's Group
The Crafter's Group meets every Wednesday (with the
exception of holidays) at The Bookworm. Linda Allen is
the new coordinator of the Crafter's Group and has had
quite a large turnout the past few Wednesdays. In the
past there have been a wide variety of crafts at the
group such as quilters, sewers, knitters, crochetters,
scrapbookers and painters. If you are interested in
attending the Crafter's Group please email Linda Allen
at
P3LAA@aol.com.
Tennis Club, Wednesday and weekend
Tennis Club is open to all CIWC member and their friends
or spouses. The Tennis Club meets twice a week, on
Wednesday evenings and either Saturday or Sunday
afternoon at different locations throughout the city
such as Modern Sports Park (10 Shenxianshu Lu, right
next to the railway tracks, the club house has a pyramid
structure that you can see from the Airport Expressway).
Courts are either outdoor or semi-indoor. The fee is 50
rmb for 2 hours which include new balls and water. For
further information on Tennis Club please email
Katharina Schuette at
katharina.schuette@diplo.de.
Mah Jiang Fridays
Now that you live in Chengdu the best way to get
acclimatised is to try your hand at things that the
locals enjoy, such as spending the afternoon in
teahouses, eating strange parts of animals cooked in
chilli soup, walking backwards for exercise or going to
the market in your pyjamas (only kidding about that last
one!).
If you don't fancy any of those, you could try the
(slightly) more sedate pastime of Mah Jong. Anybody who
is interested is welcome to join us in the Bookworm on
Friday afternoons at 1pm.
Latin Dancing, Thursdays
Thursdays at Carol's Too at 7:30 p.m. there will be
Latin Dance lessons including salsa, merengue, bachata
and cumbia. There is a free lesson followed by dancing
until late. This is open to the public.
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CIWC Taxi Cards
We still have several books of Taxi Cards available for
purchase. We have lowered our price of the books from
50 rmb to 25 rmb. Proceeds from the sale of taxi cards
help support CIWC's philanthropic efforts and operating
costs. We appreciate our members' support... thank you!
CIWC Cookbooks
We have a few cookbooks left from last year's Christmas
Bazaar. The price per cookbook is 120 rmb. They make
really great gifts and it contains recipes from all
around the world. Proceeds from the sale of taxi cards
help support CIWC's philanthropic efforts and operating
costs. If you are interested in purchasing one of these
cookbooks please email us at
chengduiwc@gmail.com. Thank you!
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