It has been a while since i wrote,internet has been dodgy and the keyboard i am using now has limited space bar and shift usage. Work with me here...
Day two in Shanghai was a blast, after a slow start we headed out looking for the "Chinese Sexual History Museum" (Hey, the Lonely Planet said it was good OK.) We arrived by taxi at the address to find it...nowhere...TIC(This is China) where things get torn down and rebuilt in a week. The gallery that was there must be sick of backpackers looking for ancient sex toys, as before the door was even open we got handed a flyer with the new address.
Across the city, under the shadow of the Pearl Tower, we found the museum plus a number of other interesting odds and sods. First we went to a very sad aquarium, but there was one tank where all the fish were staring out at us as if WE were the exhibit. Very disconcerting.
We then went to the 'Sound Fury Fantastic' which was basically a room with the lights off and headphones. Almost, and I mean almost,so bad it was good.
The sexual history museum catalogued 5000 years of Chinese art, education and erotica from foot binding (so women couldn't get away) to porcelain fruit with hidden sexual manuals for mothers to hide in a new bride's dowry. It was very interesting(in a Sassy Lass research way, MPV.)
The last activity onn our ticket was the Bund Tunnel. A short tram car ride under the river across to the Bund. What makes it unique is all the psychedelic lighting in the tunnel. (Think Kubrick's 2001.) It was very cool.
From there we caught a taxi to the French area of the city. Originally it was the area of greatest French influence, but in reality it was always 90% Chinese. It still bares many of the hallmarks if the colonial time however. It is the upmarket shopping strip, blink and you could be in Paris, 5th Ave or even upper Collins St. There are little alleys of the main strip with courtyards showing little apartments, straight out of France.
The shopping urge was strong, but I managed to resist...until we stumpled over the clothing market. Why by Benetton jumpers for 700rmb in the shop when you could get them for 70 in the market? 3 shirts and 1 cashmere (sure it is) jumper later and I was out of cash (but not motivation.)
Our final night, we decided to spend it in style, heading to the Shanghai Grand Theatre to see a joint production of "Swan Lake" by the Shanghai Ballet and Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe. All glittering chandeliers and well heeled ladies..and us in hiking boots.
Now I say it was high art, but it did involve swans on roller skates, stuffed camels, acrobatic frogs, hat throwing ballerinas, some serious contorionists, and jugglers who juggled with children - I am sure this is one of the reasons China is on Amnesty International's watch list. *
If you think dancing on point is hard, imagine doing it balanced in some guys head and you get the picture. It was a classy way to end our all too short stay in Shanghai.
Tuesday we returned to Beijing and spent a few hours frigging around, not really achieving much. We did see the flag lowering ceremony, from crowded distance. Beijing feels like a different city from when I was last here, the warmth, the sun and the new hostel are all a pleasure. We are in the north west of the city in a little hutong accompanied by 2 dogs (Michael the Cocker Spaniel and a miniture Chow) and 3 rabbits. Speaking of dogs, one thing I love about China is the little old men walking little decrepid dogs, mostly Pekinese. Talk about pets and owners looking alike, these are gorgeous and youu can tell they have been hobbling together for centuries.
There are also 'Health Parks' dotted through the city where you can go to exercise. Used by the the very old and very young, they have play and gym equipment, badminton, basketball, tai chi and shrunken elderly Chinese waving their arms and legs in the air. Very cute.
The other city feature I love, and it was in Shanghai too, is the propensity for people to fly kites anywhere. You can look up through the skyscrapers and see flying dragons and phoenix.
Yesterday we left again, this time by train, to Datong. A 6.5 hour hard seat journey that was remarkably good. We made friends with the two solo Chinese passangers near us, exchanging limited dialogue with the help of a phrase book. We passed through more arid chinese landscape,with jagged mountains rising up here and there. Datong is in Shanxi provence, west of Beijing, we could easily make it to Mongolia from here.
I have to note I have been receiving a bit of attention of late. For some reason I must be exuding a smell that is attractive to the chinese, because (aside from JaJa) this didn't happen in Shanghai or Yantai. I seem to be all gorgeous all of a sudden. Outside Tianamen Gate I got asked to be in pictures with other Chinese tourists (but without Suzanne who was with me.) Then our fellow train passengers seemed rather interested (though I was wearing the "Boys are Stupid" t-shirt) THEN in the taxi last night the driver a) asked me if I was married, b) asked if I wanted to be married (in Chinese of course c) took my photo and d) spent most of the ride singing "I love you...Wo ai ni....I love you" to me. Again Suzanne was a little dejected. (I think it is the pale skin, all tan has gone, and the blue eyes...but i cold just be humurous lookin'.)
Anyhow, we went last night to the place recommended by Lonely Planet as the best resturaunt in Datong. While there is something wrong with eating Beijing Duck outside of Beijing when in China, we did manage to stuff our faces for 20rmb each. Nice.
On the surface Datong is a lot like Yantai, which makes sense when you have huge state organised economic development creating cities at exactly the same time. Their tourism industry is more developed and it is this reason we are here.
Run out of time...more tomorrow....
*Not to make light of Chinese human rights. The Yantai teachers told us that in 1989, the year of Tianamen, every student across China was punished, regardless of location. They were forced into jobs and paid less - some even still today.
31 March 2005
27 March 2005
To Sir with Love: Hellos and Goodbyes
Our final days in Yantai have been filled with photos, farewells andwhat shaped up to be "Chinese Idol" or should I say the EnglishSpeech Competiton as the art department sign displayed. The compwas taken out by a young girl who recited Martin Luther King Jr's "Ihad a dream" speech. A risky choice, even native English speakershave issues with 'Mississippi' and 'Alabama'. I had coached her, shehad no idea how important the speech was in modern history, and wewere all pleasantly surprised at the result. The kids REALLY got intoit, and we spent a lot of time telling them to "TAKE THE MICROPHONEAWAY FROM YOUR MOUTH" as the reverb bounced off every surface in theauditorium. Our two hosts, Gai Fei and Wang Fung, are preparingthemselves to be the Tony Barber and Delvine Delaney of China (OK, theEddie and Catriona then...to prove I am not so old) and I am very pleased to say that Wang Feng gave me a collection of photos ofhimself to remember him by. I have them by my heart. Speaking of hearts, we had a quartet of boys who sing "Take me to your heart" with more passion that...well....talent, and we have decided this is our Yantai theme song. I can't believe I am saying this, but Delta Goodrem will be a welcome change.
The English/Australian volunteer teachers' version of an all singing, all acting "Waltzing Matilda"brought the house down, even if I do say so myself.Thursdays' Careers class turned out to be rather fun. I have a small set piece that goes something like this...
On Thursday night the teachers asked us all to go out to dinner, and karaoke, to say goodbye. Of course we had also planned a farewell withthe other volunteers, but Suzanne and I were very quick to reneg onthe volunteers and decide to go with the teachers. If I wanted to hangout with UK, NZ, Australians and Americans I would have volunteered there I guess. The sad thing is I don't get to say farewell to Harryand JaJa, but as I forgot to email JaJa it was probably OK.
Karaoke was accompanied by average food (even for my broad tastes).Luckily for Suzanne and I there was only a few English songs on the machine (though we did try to belt out "Take my to your heart" in Chinese). Over the course of dinner we massacred "Heart of Gold", "To Sir with Love" and (heaven help me) "YMCA." We could not hold a candle to Mrs Mu, Mrs Li, Miss Tan and George, all who had beautifulvoices. George had started the evening saying he wouldn't sing, andended it eyes closed with TWO microphones in his hand belting outChinese love songs. I would like to point out that all of this is done with only 1/2 a small glass of Yantai beer - Chinese just don't drink. (Unlike English gap years who got themselves blotto the same evening.) Friday we said out goodbyes, exchanged gifts (I have a LOT of Chinese calligraphy now between presents and a trip to a local gallery) and shed a few tears. My junior class all sang for me, a TV theme song...but it was very moving.
We spent out last lunch celebrating Sandy's 26th birthday eating birthday cake and parts of pig as yetunidentified. Happily, my bag is 3kg lighter than it was, with the removal of books and odds and ends. I have a "You buy - You discard" rule in place to keep my purchases small both monetarily and packing wise.
8am today we flew from Yantai to Shanghai, arriving at our hostel the suburbs by 11am. What a difference to be back in a 'big' city. Even with 6 million Yantai felt small. We spent the afternoon walkingaround the city focussing on The Bund, Nanjing Rd and the city centre. People and guide books say Shanghai is an 'atmosphere' city, and those are definitely the places I like best. Already it feels like a mix of New York, Paris and Hong Kong. The architecture combines art deco influences (along the river is like Chicago) with super-modern glass and steel skyscapers, yet along the alleys are little Chinese buildings and interesting nooks and crannies. The streets are busier than Beijing and there are traffic policeblowing whistles constantly. Sue-ling was prompted to say "Is crossing the street a sport in Shanghai? Must be, there are referees everywhere." (It was funny at the time, trust me.)
Catching the busis an experience. Chinese just RUN at the seats, like it is a game ofmoving musical chairs, and once the bus fills up people climb over youlike kelpies over sheep. It is a physical exercise.The tourist markets are a mess of bargaining and I will admit to loving some of the kitchy stuff. I saw something (which I later bought and may give as a gift to someone if I can part with it) and yelled "Mao" in delight (as the Chairman features), and in response every market stall holder started yelling "MAO MAO MAO" in my direction like the seagulls in Finding Nemo.
My Chinese character recognition continues to grow, as I spoted ourstreet today in Chinese (It is literally Sky Mountain.) I can now also write my Chinese name. In total I can say/read: Xin Xiang (me) , sky, mountain, water, people, China, female and internet. ConseqentlySarah suggested I open "Kim's female only, sky, water, mountain,Chinese internet cafe" and I think it is a pretty good idea.
A special note to say HAPPY EASTER to everyone at home and CONGRATULATIONS to the lovely Nina who had a healthy baby boy (I hear via the grapevine.) Missing you all a lot, and starting to look forward to arriving home.
PART TWO
I seem to be unable to get into my blog in Shanghai, it figures that at least one site is out of action in each Chinese city. ConsequentlyI am writing this in my email and attempting to send it in via sneakymeans. My space bar also doesn't work, so work with me here. Today we have spent the morning cruising old Shanghai, mess of markets, old buildings (or recreated old buildings) food stalls andlots and lots of people. We had a ball negotiating with some of the more strenuous stall owners. Sarah got chased down the street andalmost physically put into the bag she was trying to buy.This afternoon we went on a boat cruise down the river, a chance to rest and look at the amazing architecture. It reminds me so much of Chicago, all the buildings have little signplates telling you when and who made the building. It is quite lovely. Being Easter we are off for coffee and some form of chocolate in ownlittle celebration of the day.
The English/Australian volunteer teachers' version of an all singing, all acting "Waltzing Matilda"brought the house down, even if I do say so myself.Thursdays' Careers class turned out to be rather fun. I have a small set piece that goes something like this...
(When a student suggests 'Businessman' as a career)
I point to a male student
"You could be a businessman, but I couldn't be a businessman."
I point to a female student
"She wouldn't be a business man, what would she be?"
Yesterdays' smart arse replied ,
"A Housewife."
On Thursday night the teachers asked us all to go out to dinner, and karaoke, to say goodbye. Of course we had also planned a farewell withthe other volunteers, but Suzanne and I were very quick to reneg onthe volunteers and decide to go with the teachers. If I wanted to hangout with UK, NZ, Australians and Americans I would have volunteered there I guess. The sad thing is I don't get to say farewell to Harryand JaJa, but as I forgot to email JaJa it was probably OK.
Karaoke was accompanied by average food (even for my broad tastes).Luckily for Suzanne and I there was only a few English songs on the machine (though we did try to belt out "Take my to your heart" in Chinese). Over the course of dinner we massacred "Heart of Gold", "To Sir with Love" and (heaven help me) "YMCA." We could not hold a candle to Mrs Mu, Mrs Li, Miss Tan and George, all who had beautifulvoices. George had started the evening saying he wouldn't sing, andended it eyes closed with TWO microphones in his hand belting outChinese love songs. I would like to point out that all of this is done with only 1/2 a small glass of Yantai beer - Chinese just don't drink. (Unlike English gap years who got themselves blotto the same evening.) Friday we said out goodbyes, exchanged gifts (I have a LOT of Chinese calligraphy now between presents and a trip to a local gallery) and shed a few tears. My junior class all sang for me, a TV theme song...but it was very moving.
We spent out last lunch celebrating Sandy's 26th birthday eating birthday cake and parts of pig as yetunidentified. Happily, my bag is 3kg lighter than it was, with the removal of books and odds and ends. I have a "You buy - You discard" rule in place to keep my purchases small both monetarily and packing wise.
8am today we flew from Yantai to Shanghai, arriving at our hostel the suburbs by 11am. What a difference to be back in a 'big' city. Even with 6 million Yantai felt small. We spent the afternoon walkingaround the city focussing on The Bund, Nanjing Rd and the city centre. People and guide books say Shanghai is an 'atmosphere' city, and those are definitely the places I like best. Already it feels like a mix of New York, Paris and Hong Kong. The architecture combines art deco influences (along the river is like Chicago) with super-modern glass and steel skyscapers, yet along the alleys are little Chinese buildings and interesting nooks and crannies. The streets are busier than Beijing and there are traffic policeblowing whistles constantly. Sue-ling was prompted to say "Is crossing the street a sport in Shanghai? Must be, there are referees everywhere." (It was funny at the time, trust me.)
Catching the busis an experience. Chinese just RUN at the seats, like it is a game ofmoving musical chairs, and once the bus fills up people climb over youlike kelpies over sheep. It is a physical exercise.The tourist markets are a mess of bargaining and I will admit to loving some of the kitchy stuff. I saw something (which I later bought and may give as a gift to someone if I can part with it) and yelled "Mao" in delight (as the Chairman features), and in response every market stall holder started yelling "MAO MAO MAO" in my direction like the seagulls in Finding Nemo.
My Chinese character recognition continues to grow, as I spoted ourstreet today in Chinese (It is literally Sky Mountain.) I can now also write my Chinese name. In total I can say/read: Xin Xiang (me) , sky, mountain, water, people, China, female and internet. ConseqentlySarah suggested I open "Kim's female only, sky, water, mountain,Chinese internet cafe" and I think it is a pretty good idea.
A special note to say HAPPY EASTER to everyone at home and CONGRATULATIONS to the lovely Nina who had a healthy baby boy (I hear via the grapevine.) Missing you all a lot, and starting to look forward to arriving home.
PART TWO
I seem to be unable to get into my blog in Shanghai, it figures that at least one site is out of action in each Chinese city. ConsequentlyI am writing this in my email and attempting to send it in via sneakymeans. My space bar also doesn't work, so work with me here. Today we have spent the morning cruising old Shanghai, mess of markets, old buildings (or recreated old buildings) food stalls andlots and lots of people. We had a ball negotiating with some of the more strenuous stall owners. Sarah got chased down the street andalmost physically put into the bag she was trying to buy.This afternoon we went on a boat cruise down the river, a chance to rest and look at the amazing architecture. It reminds me so much of Chicago, all the buildings have little signplates telling you when and who made the building. It is quite lovely. Being Easter we are off for coffee and some form of chocolate in ownlittle celebration of the day.
22 March 2005
The Great Outdoors, don't mess with the Chinese and angry designers
Friday night I persuaded Sian and Sarah to come to dinner with me at Mrs Zhong's house. It was a wise choice. Mrs Zhong is obviously a little higher on the socio-economic food chain than some of the other teachers and the apartment was quite luxurious, with tiled floors and leather couches. The food was prepared by a friend and her sister, consequently it wasn't as relaxed and laughter filled as my previous home meal with Miss Tan.
Sian is a vegetarian who doesn't like tomato, while Sarah doesn't like seafood. Of course this leads me to wonder which they came to the seafood capital of China. Mrs Zhong took the 'Jewish mother' approach to Chinese hospitality and proceeded to pile heaps of food on their plates (luckily she couldn't reach mine. ) The food included pippis, squid, fish, a type of clam/scallop that I have never seen in Australia, strawberries, tomatoes, mussels and beef. I expected Sian to crack it at some stage, but I was amazed to see them eat everything that they got. As for me, I love it all (as usual.) Just when we thought we had made it to the other side, out came 4 kinds of dumplings, rice vinegar and raw garlic (which you eat with the dumplings.)
We did have to sing for our supper, not literally, but I was forced into 2 versus of Waltzing Matilda in my Junior classes this week, and once while out to dinner. This time we gave improvised English classes to Mrs Zhong's son, a classmate and a cousin. All around 13 they were delightful. Miss Tan's daughter had displayed a lot of the 'Chinese coddled child syndrome', but these kids were gorgeous.
Saturday morning at 7am we waited by the school gate to be picked up by our guide. Suzanne organised a trip to Nanshan, sparing me the joys of travelling with the 18 year olds for 48 hours. Sian, Sarah, Suzanne and I spent the day with an English speaking guide (and I use the term English speaking in the loosest sense of the words) exploring Nanshan religious park and the Grand Buddha statue.
The 2 hour drive began by going through 'new' Yantai, where there are a lot of special economic zones. The architecture and street design is futuristic, in a Jetsons sort of way, and the Chinese LOVE big, bold monuments, coloured lights and huge fake rocks. As it starts to merge with the moon like winter landscape and surropunding mountains it made me think of Carl Sagan's Contact - sort of Hollywood futurism. Yantai has great roads, big 6 lane highways with very few cars, but you know that within 5 years it will be completely different. Economic development is happening faster than you can imagine.
Once in Nanshan we visited a series of religious sites and temples. Originally built in the 10th century it has been destroyed and rebuilt 5 times, most recently in 1999. The park is dominated by the Grand Buddha, 38.66m high at 380 tonnes. We climbed the 360 steps to the top (puffing) to go under the lotus petals and arrive in a room filled with 9999 little, gold lacquered buddhas. Resting on tiers, they sat reflected in the glow of their individual lotus lamps, like little punters waiting for the beginning of the Grand Final. (Not to make light of the beauty, it was spectacular.)
Home by 6pm we wandered out to find food, ending up at a little noodle stall in the market for brilliant pork noodles. The noodles at school are made by stretching dough by hand, folding it over, then stretching again. Once there are 32 or so strands, it goes into the pot for 30 seconds then in a bowl of, needless to say, MSG laden soup. At the stall the dough is shaved with a flat blade, creating flat thicker noodles, served with duck eggs, tofu, chilli and pork. So good we ate it Saturday and Sunday. The market sellers, or some of them, are used to us now and wave and say 'Ni Hao' as we come by. Of course we have reached the point where we are starting to be accepted, just as we are preparing to leave.
Sunday dawned and again we were on the bus by 7am, off to do the two things doctors always recommend when you are suffering a nasty Chinese cold - climbing a mountain and swimming. We drove for 3 hours long roads that shook every bone in your body. (The trip from Cambodia to Thailand had nothing on these roads.) Arriving at Laoshan by 10am I looked up and a beautiful pagoda high in the clouds and asked nervously, "Are we going up there?" If I had been given the choice I may have caved, as coughing up green stuff does not encourage one to spend 3 hours hoofing it up a bloody great hill, but I wasn't, so I went and it was fantastic. (It was also sorely needed, I have discovered that I am taking home an extra 3kg of excess bagage....around my middle. I can't understand it, I have eaten continuously, most of it deep fried on a stick and done no exercise...LIFE ISN'T FAIR.) Anyhow, the views were spectacular and the climb a good one. I was not sorry.
After a car side lunch we drove back into the town of Longkou (which means dragon's mouth) and spent a glorious couple of hours bathing in a mineral spring pool and bath. Suzanne managed to get a scrub down and milk (yes milk) massage as well, but the rest of us ran out of time. Once we got over the whole, "Gee I'm gonna be naked in front of all these people, including my friends" we had a blast. (Everyone was looking at us being western anyway, so what did it matter?)
Monday saw me correct about 200 job application letters, talk about de ja vu. Highlights included;
Last night Suzanne and I finally got to go out to dinner with the girls we taught Engligh to the previous weekend. Accompanied by their cousin JaJa, who brought along his mother (bless him) we had a fantastic night. More seafood, including crabs, sea urchin soup and these purple things that made me feel faint when I saw them alive in the tank. I don't know how I ate them. JaJa had spent 2 years in Canada, so his English was great, and his mother was a teacher for 30 years so she gave us a Chinese wrtiting lesson. My spaking has stalled somewhat, but we are now learning characters. I can confidently draw 3, so only 9997 to go before I can read the paper. I can't yet write my name though. I have this philosophy that if I stare at the characters long enough I SHOULD be able to work out what they mean. Hasn't started working yet though.
JaJa works in finance, and he gave us some interesting info about laws in China. In particular a child cannot work in the same industry as their father, when in the government/business world. Jaja's father works for CNC the largest communications and internet company, he travels all over the world, consequently Jaja cannot work in the telecommunications industry at all. Obviously to avoid nepotism. (How fast would the ANZ graduate program crumble once we took out all the kids of execs of ANZ or other banks???) This family were very wealthy, we were collected in a brand new VW Jetta and driven to the luxury side of town. Jaja had never even been to the area in which we are living, he had to hire a taxi to follow to get there.
This week we are very busy, I am still lecturing on careers to every class in the school, and we are preparing for a year Engligh competition on Thursday (we are the judges.) So we have selected the competitors, selected the hosts, we are now training the competitors and the hosts, writing the scripts, designing prizes AND planning what WE are going to perform. No rest for the wicked, I started class at 7:20am this morning. It is amazing given the fact we had nothing to do for the first 5 days. We are having our own little farewell on Thursday night, gap years, Jaja and the girls, Harry the Uni student and all the other people we have met are being invited to ....wait for it.....KARAOKE. We shall see how it turns out.
Sian is a vegetarian who doesn't like tomato, while Sarah doesn't like seafood. Of course this leads me to wonder which they came to the seafood capital of China. Mrs Zhong took the 'Jewish mother' approach to Chinese hospitality and proceeded to pile heaps of food on their plates (luckily she couldn't reach mine. ) The food included pippis, squid, fish, a type of clam/scallop that I have never seen in Australia, strawberries, tomatoes, mussels and beef. I expected Sian to crack it at some stage, but I was amazed to see them eat everything that they got. As for me, I love it all (as usual.) Just when we thought we had made it to the other side, out came 4 kinds of dumplings, rice vinegar and raw garlic (which you eat with the dumplings.)
We did have to sing for our supper, not literally, but I was forced into 2 versus of Waltzing Matilda in my Junior classes this week, and once while out to dinner. This time we gave improvised English classes to Mrs Zhong's son, a classmate and a cousin. All around 13 they were delightful. Miss Tan's daughter had displayed a lot of the 'Chinese coddled child syndrome', but these kids were gorgeous.
Saturday morning at 7am we waited by the school gate to be picked up by our guide. Suzanne organised a trip to Nanshan, sparing me the joys of travelling with the 18 year olds for 48 hours. Sian, Sarah, Suzanne and I spent the day with an English speaking guide (and I use the term English speaking in the loosest sense of the words) exploring Nanshan religious park and the Grand Buddha statue.
The 2 hour drive began by going through 'new' Yantai, where there are a lot of special economic zones. The architecture and street design is futuristic, in a Jetsons sort of way, and the Chinese LOVE big, bold monuments, coloured lights and huge fake rocks. As it starts to merge with the moon like winter landscape and surropunding mountains it made me think of Carl Sagan's Contact - sort of Hollywood futurism. Yantai has great roads, big 6 lane highways with very few cars, but you know that within 5 years it will be completely different. Economic development is happening faster than you can imagine.
Once in Nanshan we visited a series of religious sites and temples. Originally built in the 10th century it has been destroyed and rebuilt 5 times, most recently in 1999. The park is dominated by the Grand Buddha, 38.66m high at 380 tonnes. We climbed the 360 steps to the top (puffing) to go under the lotus petals and arrive in a room filled with 9999 little, gold lacquered buddhas. Resting on tiers, they sat reflected in the glow of their individual lotus lamps, like little punters waiting for the beginning of the Grand Final. (Not to make light of the beauty, it was spectacular.)
Home by 6pm we wandered out to find food, ending up at a little noodle stall in the market for brilliant pork noodles. The noodles at school are made by stretching dough by hand, folding it over, then stretching again. Once there are 32 or so strands, it goes into the pot for 30 seconds then in a bowl of, needless to say, MSG laden soup. At the stall the dough is shaved with a flat blade, creating flat thicker noodles, served with duck eggs, tofu, chilli and pork. So good we ate it Saturday and Sunday. The market sellers, or some of them, are used to us now and wave and say 'Ni Hao' as we come by. Of course we have reached the point where we are starting to be accepted, just as we are preparing to leave.
Sunday dawned and again we were on the bus by 7am, off to do the two things doctors always recommend when you are suffering a nasty Chinese cold - climbing a mountain and swimming. We drove for 3 hours long roads that shook every bone in your body. (The trip from Cambodia to Thailand had nothing on these roads.) Arriving at Laoshan by 10am I looked up and a beautiful pagoda high in the clouds and asked nervously, "Are we going up there?" If I had been given the choice I may have caved, as coughing up green stuff does not encourage one to spend 3 hours hoofing it up a bloody great hill, but I wasn't, so I went and it was fantastic. (It was also sorely needed, I have discovered that I am taking home an extra 3kg of excess bagage....around my middle. I can't understand it, I have eaten continuously, most of it deep fried on a stick and done no exercise...LIFE ISN'T FAIR.) Anyhow, the views were spectacular and the climb a good one. I was not sorry.
After a car side lunch we drove back into the town of Longkou (which means dragon's mouth) and spent a glorious couple of hours bathing in a mineral spring pool and bath. Suzanne managed to get a scrub down and milk (yes milk) massage as well, but the rest of us ran out of time. Once we got over the whole, "Gee I'm gonna be naked in front of all these people, including my friends" we had a blast. (Everyone was looking at us being western anyway, so what did it matter?)
Monday saw me correct about 200 job application letters, talk about de ja vu. Highlights included;
One thing I have noticed is that the Chinese love to hold a grudge. Like says Fawlty Towers, it is definitely recommended that you "don't mention the war" as the Chinese are not fond of their Japanese neighbours. Neither are they that fond of the Germans, when the English girls were talking about how many students learn German one teacher asked "Why? They started two world wars." It is good to know that they like to forgive and forget....I want to be an architect because I am careful, scary and violent. (Just what sort of architects do they have in China anyway?)
My family work in the law. My father is a lawyer, my mother is a
bench.
Last night Suzanne and I finally got to go out to dinner with the girls we taught Engligh to the previous weekend. Accompanied by their cousin JaJa, who brought along his mother (bless him) we had a fantastic night. More seafood, including crabs, sea urchin soup and these purple things that made me feel faint when I saw them alive in the tank. I don't know how I ate them. JaJa had spent 2 years in Canada, so his English was great, and his mother was a teacher for 30 years so she gave us a Chinese wrtiting lesson. My spaking has stalled somewhat, but we are now learning characters. I can confidently draw 3, so only 9997 to go before I can read the paper. I can't yet write my name though. I have this philosophy that if I stare at the characters long enough I SHOULD be able to work out what they mean. Hasn't started working yet though.
JaJa works in finance, and he gave us some interesting info about laws in China. In particular a child cannot work in the same industry as their father, when in the government/business world. Jaja's father works for CNC the largest communications and internet company, he travels all over the world, consequently Jaja cannot work in the telecommunications industry at all. Obviously to avoid nepotism. (How fast would the ANZ graduate program crumble once we took out all the kids of execs of ANZ or other banks???) This family were very wealthy, we were collected in a brand new VW Jetta and driven to the luxury side of town. Jaja had never even been to the area in which we are living, he had to hire a taxi to follow to get there.
This week we are very busy, I am still lecturing on careers to every class in the school, and we are preparing for a year Engligh competition on Thursday (we are the judges.) So we have selected the competitors, selected the hosts, we are now training the competitors and the hosts, writing the scripts, designing prizes AND planning what WE are going to perform. No rest for the wicked, I started class at 7:20am this morning. It is amazing given the fact we had nothing to do for the first 5 days. We are having our own little farewell on Thursday night, gap years, Jaja and the girls, Harry the Uni student and all the other people we have met are being invited to ....wait for it.....KARAOKE. We shall see how it turns out.
18 March 2005
Whatever makes you 'happy'...
It is strange to think my time in Yantai is already coming to a close. We have booked a flight to Shanghai for 26th March, so we have just a week to go.
As time goes by, my focus shifts from the broad brush strokes of China and Yantai, to the little details that provide colour and spice to my days. I can now recognise many of my students, but never remember their names. (I am happy I have mastered the teachers' names.) The personalities of the students are starting to become more clear. Some of us, Sue-Ling in particular, have aqcuired fan clubs, who pass notes and follow us around campus. I have had a number of the girls offer to take me shopping (I must give off "I want to spend money" vibes.) I confess to having a favourite, a boy whose name is Wu Fan (I think!) who is in the brightest Senior 1 class. He never stops smiling and oozes charisma, he looks a little like a Chinese Harry Potter, and is going to seriously break hearts one day.
The other student, who is frequently on my mind, I have christened 'Badge boy.' He is not in any of the classes I teach, but I suspect he is stalking me. He wears a beige cable knit jumper and is nondescript except for one fact. He wears three badges on his jumper, each has a single english letter on it and they spell out the word G.A.Y. Now I have to admit I did a double take the first time I saw him, and now I spend my time trying to get the other girls to notice him (or maybe he is just in my mind??) Homosexuality is 'forbidden'in China, and nothing about this boy leads me to believe he is leading a 1 child mardi gras campaign, so I am determined to find out what is going on. Last night I cracked and told Miss Tan about him, she quickly asked George (which caused much amusement as we are sure that George is the gayest man in China.) George and Miss Tan said resolutely that it meant the boy was 'happy'(though they know exactly what the word means in the west.) O...K....
Over the past couple of days we have been judging the students in an English speaking competition. We have been choosing the best in each class, a frustrating task after the first 2 hours, then next week the best in the year compete. The school ground is now littered with our english speaking rejects, and Suzanne tends to run the competition like a Hollywood casting agent. "That's enough...Next!" She yells. I feel like the students are all dejected now.
One student, Arlene, wrote a composition entitled "See How Much I Love You" about her grandparents, and I have to admit I teared up when she read it to me for practice. She has written me a copy and I have stuck it in my journal.
Food wise, I can confidently say "My name is Kim and I am addicted to MSG." By 4pm you ustart getting withdrawal symptoms and craving noodles. When I leave I expect the detox to be painful. Luckily you can buy bags in the supermarket, so I guess I will resort to heating it on a spoon and injecting straight in my veins.
The other change that has taken place is that my notions of acceptable clothing seem to have slipped. It may have to do with the fact that I am weaing 50% of my wardrobe at any given moment (it has actually got a lot warmer recently,but HEATING IS STILL REQUIRED.) When I found myself wearing birkenstocks and socks to breakfast the other day I realised I have joined the dark side.
Wednesday we gave speeches to the English teachers across the school on the education system and careers in the UK/Australia. I felt like I was back home, teaching about resumes and application writing. Now I have 7 classes where they want me to give the same lecture to, so today I have four. Given my voice is still shakey I am doing it tough. Tonight I have dinner, solo, with the Junior english teacher and her family.
Last night we took all the teachers out for dinner, to say thank you for providing us with such a great experience. Thirteen people ate the usual ridiculous amount of food and drank a bottle of Yantai for a grand total of $50. Some of the teachers haven't eaten out for a long time, so a lot of fun was had by all. Suzanne taught us all some sign language (she is a speech pathologist) so I can now say "My name is Kim" and "I love you" in sign. We also had much laughter over the descriptions of the food, when I asked Miss Tan what a certain purple intestine looking thing was she replied "It is sea food...from the sea." "As opposed to sea food....from the land?" I asked. We also passed on the great traditions of 'thumb wars', 'slaps', 'knuckles' and other famous western masochistic games.
Lastly, I have been christened with a Chinese name. (Thanks to S who got me one from her teacher,but Sandy spent hours finding the bestnames for each of us here.) My name is Xin Xiang which means fragrant (as in flowers, thanks very much, my hand clothes washing has been FINE.) Luckily for me it has no tones, so is pronouced fairly easily. Writing it, however, is another story. It have 29 pen strokes in the chinese characters, much harder than the others. I told them I was going to get it tattooed on my arm (just kidding...) and they were impressed with my dedication.
Tomorrow I am heading off to Nanshan with the youth brigade, a dangerous choice for me as I have been a little cranky of late, I suspect I have passed my 'need to travel by myself use by date' so this is an exercise in tolerance on my part.
PS - ANZ'ers may be able to tell me why I got paid $13.03 from ANZ yesterday? Given I haven't worked for 7 months it seems a tad surprising?
As time goes by, my focus shifts from the broad brush strokes of China and Yantai, to the little details that provide colour and spice to my days. I can now recognise many of my students, but never remember their names. (I am happy I have mastered the teachers' names.) The personalities of the students are starting to become more clear. Some of us, Sue-Ling in particular, have aqcuired fan clubs, who pass notes and follow us around campus. I have had a number of the girls offer to take me shopping (I must give off "I want to spend money" vibes.) I confess to having a favourite, a boy whose name is Wu Fan (I think!) who is in the brightest Senior 1 class. He never stops smiling and oozes charisma, he looks a little like a Chinese Harry Potter, and is going to seriously break hearts one day.
The other student, who is frequently on my mind, I have christened 'Badge boy.' He is not in any of the classes I teach, but I suspect he is stalking me. He wears a beige cable knit jumper and is nondescript except for one fact. He wears three badges on his jumper, each has a single english letter on it and they spell out the word G.A.Y. Now I have to admit I did a double take the first time I saw him, and now I spend my time trying to get the other girls to notice him (or maybe he is just in my mind??) Homosexuality is 'forbidden'in China, and nothing about this boy leads me to believe he is leading a 1 child mardi gras campaign, so I am determined to find out what is going on. Last night I cracked and told Miss Tan about him, she quickly asked George (which caused much amusement as we are sure that George is the gayest man in China.) George and Miss Tan said resolutely that it meant the boy was 'happy'(though they know exactly what the word means in the west.) O...K....
Over the past couple of days we have been judging the students in an English speaking competition. We have been choosing the best in each class, a frustrating task after the first 2 hours, then next week the best in the year compete. The school ground is now littered with our english speaking rejects, and Suzanne tends to run the competition like a Hollywood casting agent. "That's enough...Next!" She yells. I feel like the students are all dejected now.
One student, Arlene, wrote a composition entitled "See How Much I Love You" about her grandparents, and I have to admit I teared up when she read it to me for practice. She has written me a copy and I have stuck it in my journal.
Food wise, I can confidently say "My name is Kim and I am addicted to MSG." By 4pm you ustart getting withdrawal symptoms and craving noodles. When I leave I expect the detox to be painful. Luckily you can buy bags in the supermarket, so I guess I will resort to heating it on a spoon and injecting straight in my veins.
The other change that has taken place is that my notions of acceptable clothing seem to have slipped. It may have to do with the fact that I am weaing 50% of my wardrobe at any given moment (it has actually got a lot warmer recently,but HEATING IS STILL REQUIRED.) When I found myself wearing birkenstocks and socks to breakfast the other day I realised I have joined the dark side.
Wednesday we gave speeches to the English teachers across the school on the education system and careers in the UK/Australia. I felt like I was back home, teaching about resumes and application writing. Now I have 7 classes where they want me to give the same lecture to, so today I have four. Given my voice is still shakey I am doing it tough. Tonight I have dinner, solo, with the Junior english teacher and her family.
Last night we took all the teachers out for dinner, to say thank you for providing us with such a great experience. Thirteen people ate the usual ridiculous amount of food and drank a bottle of Yantai for a grand total of $50. Some of the teachers haven't eaten out for a long time, so a lot of fun was had by all. Suzanne taught us all some sign language (she is a speech pathologist) so I can now say "My name is Kim" and "I love you" in sign. We also had much laughter over the descriptions of the food, when I asked Miss Tan what a certain purple intestine looking thing was she replied "It is sea food...from the sea." "As opposed to sea food....from the land?" I asked. We also passed on the great traditions of 'thumb wars', 'slaps', 'knuckles' and other famous western masochistic games.
Lastly, I have been christened with a Chinese name. (Thanks to S who got me one from her teacher,but Sandy spent hours finding the bestnames for each of us here.) My name is Xin Xiang which means fragrant (as in flowers, thanks very much, my hand clothes washing has been FINE.) Luckily for me it has no tones, so is pronouced fairly easily. Writing it, however, is another story. It have 29 pen strokes in the chinese characters, much harder than the others. I told them I was going to get it tattooed on my arm (just kidding...) and they were impressed with my dedication.
Tomorrow I am heading off to Nanshan with the youth brigade, a dangerous choice for me as I have been a little cranky of late, I suspect I have passed my 'need to travel by myself use by date' so this is an exercise in tolerance on my part.
PS - ANZ'ers may be able to tell me why I got paid $13.03 from ANZ yesterday? Given I haven't worked for 7 months it seems a tad surprising?
11 March 2005
Carrots and other sports
Firstly - thanks to all those who told me Yum Cha was Dim Sum. I'm not a complete nuff nuff, I did know that. They didn't know those words either!
Composition sentence of the week: "I like to play football, basketball and vegetable."
It is a good thing we saw this in the staff room, as I think we would have lost it completely in front of the class.
My Junior classes are progressing well, they are much harder than the senior class as the 12-14 year olds have a much lesser understanding of English and have a tendency to stare at me like guppies. This week we did "What are you going to be when you grow up?" The second class was great, and as the bell rang one little boy (one of the ones I named last week I think - so either Thomas or James) followed me and said "Miss, can I ask you a question?" "Of course" I replied. "What are YOU going to be when you grow up?" Rather than go into a long and elaborate speech on how I haven't yet established how my philosophical life and economic life are going to mesh while providing psychological stability, I just said, "I'm going to be an actor." "How are you going to do that?" he followed (it was our routine.) "I'm going to watch a lot of movies." I replied. Ain't that the truth.
Friday night saw us crowd into Suzanne's room to watch The Green Snake, a Chinese VCD with English subtitles provided by George. (He of the permed hair and playboy bag.) It was a modern (1992) retelling of a Chinese fable, and could be described as 'interesting', but also (as Sue-ling put it) "Green snakey porn." We thanked George profusely. The subtitles were white and small, so we spent as much time making up dialogue as reading it. Something we are doing with a lot of Chinese tv.
Speaking of TV - where do Australian news readers go to retire? QLD? NO, Florida, NO - Beijing. Firstly there is former Today Tonight disgraced news (ahem) person Stan Grant reporting for CNN Asia (nice work if you can get it) but also (Dad you will like this) former ABC 'zany' weatherman Edwin Maher hosts a program called Wide World or somesuch. It is hard not seeing him without a 'goofy' pointer in his hand.
On Saturday the gap girls met up with the other gappers to go to Penglai, and Suzanne and I had a blinder of a day. Firstly I got my ticket for Shanghai, accompanied by Jack our volunteer support. As he drove the wrong way up the middle of a four lane road, he said to us, "China is a democracy....people drive wherever they want." It is not quite as mad as Hanoi (the Intrepid crew will testify to that) but the driving erratic to say the least.
We then met up with two Chinese girls who had approached us on the street on Wednesday asking for English lessons. This happens all the time. In fact, Tom, one of the gap years, had a waiter say to him "I am looking for foreign friends." Tom wasn't exactly sure what type of friend the waiter was referring to. The waiter continued, "I am 18 years old, and I am a boy." Tom replied, "I am 8 years old and I am also a boy." You get used to these types of interactions.
Anyhow, in exchange for a coffee, Suzanne and I spent 90 minutes practicing English with two 20 year old art students and their male cousin, who spoke excellent English after spending 3 years in Canada. Jaja, the cousin, kept taking my photo with his phone, which went beyond flattering to kinda creepy. We are all having dinner together Thursday. I never knock back a free meal.
Brief interlude: Two reasons why China, as a country, is just WRONG
1. On March 20 they turn off the heat. Somewhere in China there is a heat Nazi, who says to the country "No more heat for YOU!" This is just wrong. It is still freaking freezing. Not to mention I will never have dry clothes again. Bring on Shanghai and its' 20 degree weather.
2. Chinese chocolate. I am not sure which psychopath invented the stuff, but it tastes like bad wax (yes, as opposed to good wax.). Before the arrival of Cadbury and Nestle there must have been a lot of PMT inflicted women killing their husbands or themselves on a monthly basis, as no one on earth could get any enjoyment out of the disaster that is Chinese chocolate.
Return to the narrative...
After a catch up with the GVN volunteer group, who are much more varied in age, nationality and gender, we went back to school to meet Miss Tan. We discovered that we have some of the best conditions, and we have definitely been the ones who spend the most time with our teachers. Consequently we are having the best time. There was a lot of winging going on. Miss Tan invited us, Mrs Mu and Miss Le to her house for dinner that night and we also gave 8 local kids, including Miss Tan's daughter, an impromptu English class. They had never spoken to a westerner before. Dinner lasted about 5 hours and involved 13 or so courses. Miss Tan's husband, Mr Chung, spoke no English, cooked all the brilliant food and took a great liking to Suzanne. So much so he indicated that he was more than willing to ditch Miss Tan and run away with Suzanne. Any potential international incident was averted.
Over the course of Friday and Saturday my voice was getting croaky, and by 10pm Saturday night it had gone completely. Mr Chung took me to the local chemist, which was open at 11pm at night, and I have stocked up on throat lozenges. Ther teachers have also purchased about 3kg of drugs for us (Sue-ling is sick too.) Hopefully the voice will be back tomorrow as I have been asked this week to speak on jobs and employment in Australia (at least I can do that quite comfortably.) (My schedule is still flexible, only my Friday classes are confirmed. I found out that some of the other volunteers have 22 classes a week. The program is not very well run it seems.)
Yesterday we shipped off to Penglai ourselves. About 2 hours away by bus, we spent the day wandering the Penglai Pavilion, one of the four oldest wooden buildings in China, built in 1061. For a Chinese tourist operation it was pretty well run - only 1 of the 9 attractions was closed, but they did have to open the doors and turn on the lights of the museum so we could look around! As we walked in I saw a sign that said you could buy insurance. For 1 yuan you could insure yourself for 60,000 yuan as a death payment. It seemed a tad excessive, until we saw the cable car and the wooden plank walk that ran around the sea cliffs that were covered in ice and snow. There are never any safety barriers, if fact there seems to be a blatant disregard for most people's safety.
Today I found and internet cafe, I had heard a rumour they existed and actually worked somewhere, and as I have no classes (and no voice to talk to anyone) I have spent a glorious hour typing away and breathing in cigarette smoke. I've also read a whole novel, and marked the last of my essays. Off to the shops now for yoghurt and butter. So domesticated am I.
Composition sentence of the week: "I like to play football, basketball and vegetable."
It is a good thing we saw this in the staff room, as I think we would have lost it completely in front of the class.
My Junior classes are progressing well, they are much harder than the senior class as the 12-14 year olds have a much lesser understanding of English and have a tendency to stare at me like guppies. This week we did "What are you going to be when you grow up?" The second class was great, and as the bell rang one little boy (one of the ones I named last week I think - so either Thomas or James) followed me and said "Miss, can I ask you a question?" "Of course" I replied. "What are YOU going to be when you grow up?" Rather than go into a long and elaborate speech on how I haven't yet established how my philosophical life and economic life are going to mesh while providing psychological stability, I just said, "I'm going to be an actor." "How are you going to do that?" he followed (it was our routine.) "I'm going to watch a lot of movies." I replied. Ain't that the truth.
Friday night saw us crowd into Suzanne's room to watch The Green Snake, a Chinese VCD with English subtitles provided by George. (He of the permed hair and playboy bag.) It was a modern (1992) retelling of a Chinese fable, and could be described as 'interesting', but also (as Sue-ling put it) "Green snakey porn." We thanked George profusely. The subtitles were white and small, so we spent as much time making up dialogue as reading it. Something we are doing with a lot of Chinese tv.
Speaking of TV - where do Australian news readers go to retire? QLD? NO, Florida, NO - Beijing. Firstly there is former Today Tonight disgraced news (ahem) person Stan Grant reporting for CNN Asia (nice work if you can get it) but also (Dad you will like this) former ABC 'zany' weatherman Edwin Maher hosts a program called Wide World or somesuch. It is hard not seeing him without a 'goofy' pointer in his hand.
On Saturday the gap girls met up with the other gappers to go to Penglai, and Suzanne and I had a blinder of a day. Firstly I got my ticket for Shanghai, accompanied by Jack our volunteer support. As he drove the wrong way up the middle of a four lane road, he said to us, "China is a democracy....people drive wherever they want." It is not quite as mad as Hanoi (the Intrepid crew will testify to that) but the driving erratic to say the least.
We then met up with two Chinese girls who had approached us on the street on Wednesday asking for English lessons. This happens all the time. In fact, Tom, one of the gap years, had a waiter say to him "I am looking for foreign friends." Tom wasn't exactly sure what type of friend the waiter was referring to. The waiter continued, "I am 18 years old, and I am a boy." Tom replied, "I am 8 years old and I am also a boy." You get used to these types of interactions.
Anyhow, in exchange for a coffee, Suzanne and I spent 90 minutes practicing English with two 20 year old art students and their male cousin, who spoke excellent English after spending 3 years in Canada. Jaja, the cousin, kept taking my photo with his phone, which went beyond flattering to kinda creepy. We are all having dinner together Thursday. I never knock back a free meal.
Brief interlude: Two reasons why China, as a country, is just WRONG
1. On March 20 they turn off the heat. Somewhere in China there is a heat Nazi, who says to the country "No more heat for YOU!" This is just wrong. It is still freaking freezing. Not to mention I will never have dry clothes again. Bring on Shanghai and its' 20 degree weather.
2. Chinese chocolate. I am not sure which psychopath invented the stuff, but it tastes like bad wax (yes, as opposed to good wax.). Before the arrival of Cadbury and Nestle there must have been a lot of PMT inflicted women killing their husbands or themselves on a monthly basis, as no one on earth could get any enjoyment out of the disaster that is Chinese chocolate.
Return to the narrative...
After a catch up with the GVN volunteer group, who are much more varied in age, nationality and gender, we went back to school to meet Miss Tan. We discovered that we have some of the best conditions, and we have definitely been the ones who spend the most time with our teachers. Consequently we are having the best time. There was a lot of winging going on. Miss Tan invited us, Mrs Mu and Miss Le to her house for dinner that night and we also gave 8 local kids, including Miss Tan's daughter, an impromptu English class. They had never spoken to a westerner before. Dinner lasted about 5 hours and involved 13 or so courses. Miss Tan's husband, Mr Chung, spoke no English, cooked all the brilliant food and took a great liking to Suzanne. So much so he indicated that he was more than willing to ditch Miss Tan and run away with Suzanne. Any potential international incident was averted.
Over the course of Friday and Saturday my voice was getting croaky, and by 10pm Saturday night it had gone completely. Mr Chung took me to the local chemist, which was open at 11pm at night, and I have stocked up on throat lozenges. Ther teachers have also purchased about 3kg of drugs for us (Sue-ling is sick too.) Hopefully the voice will be back tomorrow as I have been asked this week to speak on jobs and employment in Australia (at least I can do that quite comfortably.) (My schedule is still flexible, only my Friday classes are confirmed. I found out that some of the other volunteers have 22 classes a week. The program is not very well run it seems.)
Yesterday we shipped off to Penglai ourselves. About 2 hours away by bus, we spent the day wandering the Penglai Pavilion, one of the four oldest wooden buildings in China, built in 1061. For a Chinese tourist operation it was pretty well run - only 1 of the 9 attractions was closed, but they did have to open the doors and turn on the lights of the museum so we could look around! As we walked in I saw a sign that said you could buy insurance. For 1 yuan you could insure yourself for 60,000 yuan as a death payment. It seemed a tad excessive, until we saw the cable car and the wooden plank walk that ran around the sea cliffs that were covered in ice and snow. There are never any safety barriers, if fact there seems to be a blatant disregard for most people's safety.
Today I found and internet cafe, I had heard a rumour they existed and actually worked somewhere, and as I have no classes (and no voice to talk to anyone) I have spent a glorious hour typing away and breathing in cigarette smoke. I've also read a whole novel, and marked the last of my essays. Off to the shops now for yoghurt and butter. So domesticated am I.
10 March 2005
Learning to live, finding a husband and teaching the teachers about 'sucking up.'
Mise en scene
This entry I thought I would tell you more about Yantai, and the Yantai Middle School Number 4, rather than bitch and moan (as I have been doing of late - sorry.) Now, I will concede that 3 things happened yesterday to brighten my life considerably - firstly, I got access to gmail, so now that site seems to work OK. So everyone who have sent to hotmail but not gmail, I haven't read that yet. Secondly, I got my first phone call, and despite the fact I predicted a flood of tears, it actually filled my heart with joy (to use a phrase that Miss Kristen once said to me.) Thanks to everyone. Thirdly,I now have a grand total of FIVE classes and 150 essays to mark, but more on that later.
The students at Yantai middle school, all 3000 of them from 14 - 19 years old, work very, very hard. Classes start at 7:30am and go until 9:30pm. Each class is 40 minutes long, and they have between 10 and 20 minutes break between each. Some have classes on Saturday and they get A LOT of homework. They sit at the desk behind HUGE piles of book, sweating over the exams that will decide their future. They do get 2 1/2 hours at lunch where some go home, but most are put to bed at school and told to sleep. The school becomes a ghost town. Generally they are very well behaved, but the older ones are not interested in aything other than the exams, so our classes are not high priorities. (We got about 6 Senior 2's to the first English Corner, compared to 200 senior 1's, but our fame is spreading so we got 30 last night - my 'shake it all about' in the Hokey Cokey has become stuff of school legend.)
The boys aspire to be tall and have facial hair,which to me, is less attractive. The girls look 13 when they are 19, and love tight pants, knee high boots with flowers embrodiered on them (don't we all) and lots of hair clips. Physical affection is against the rules between boys and girls, but the girls, and even the boys, are very affectionate with their friends - holding hands and touching a lot.
Basketball is the sport of choice, and the boys play from 6am to 9pm (right outside our windows.) We don't see the girls doing any exercise and us teachers get a lot of attention when we take over the basketball court at lunch time with my green spikey ball to play four square and piggy in the middle! My dreams of running have gone out the window, as the only time I wear my running gear is between layers 3 and 5 each day to keep warm. On my first day I asked the teachers whether anyone does tai chi in the morning, having visions of me out there gliding away at 4am. They looked at like I was insane and said only OLD people do tai chi.
There is a four floor canteen, which provides all our meals (though we tend to do breakfast only every second day and weekends it is closed.) A menu might look like:
Breakfast - egg cooked in tea and fried rice
Lunch - rice, two or three vegetable and meat dishes that contain the following vegetables and meat - SPAM SPAM SPAM, capsicum, potato, cauliflower and LOTS of fried stuff of unidentifiable origin.
Dinner - I always have wheat noodles in a broth and sometimes a steamed bun, but mostly they are filled with cabbage and make me sick.
It goes without saying that EVERYTHING has MSG in it, times 100, and if it can be put on a stick it will (but no crickets or seahorses.) According to the other volunteers in Yantai our food is very good, and I agree, we are very lucky. (Our school is considered to have good conditions, but academically very weak.) We also have a market nearby, so if lunch is unappealing we head out to get egg muffins, pineapple (on a stick of course), steamed buns or duck and chicken legs. We can eat for about $1, and it is a good time to practice the little phrases like "How much?", "That one" or "Thank you."
We are also close to a supermarket and one of the big shopping centres, so we are always stocked up with chocolate, yoghurt (which is great), tea, instant coffee (with which I have found I am addicted to sweetened condensed milk) and lemons (for hot water with lemon.) We have als found a place for real bread (no sugar) and the joy it created was amazing. I am also learning to love Bubble tea, which is quite frightening.
Academic Achievement
Miss Tan has given me one of her 'real' English classes, as has Mrs Mu, so unlike the other girls I have official vocabulary to teach and I must set (and correct) homework. I was scared that the students would hate me, being the mean homework giving one, but I have had fantastic classes so far. (Of course there is some bribery going one with koala pins.) The actual teaching makes everything worthwhile, especially with Senior 1 who are great. We have also got to the stage where students say hello (or g'day) to us outside, which is pretty cool!
The other girls, too, are getting into the swing of things. I sat in on two other classes this week, firstly to hear Sue-Ling teach 60 chinese students about English History ("Aqueducts are cool" she said of the Roman inventions...this is because she is a BIG NERD.) Yesterday her word of the day was 'bloodthirsty' and the students LOVED it. Later, Suzanne and I nearly cried with laughter when we found ourselves trying to explain yum cha to the Chinese. They had no idea what it was and there seems to be no translation. ("Fluffy buns??" says Suzanne hopefully.)
I have set my students a composition on the differences between Yantai and Melbourne. Some of them a hysterical to read. I get a lot of "Today we learned about Melbourne from our new English Teacher, Miss Kim. She is very beautiful and attractive." (Attractive was one of the vocab words.) This led me to explain to the teachers the concept of sucking up. I also got, "Melbourne is very hot in summer, it can reach 40 degrees. OH MY GOD!" Generally the standard is very good and they really listen to what you say, so you have to be careful.
The teachers themselves are a gogeous lot. Suzanne and I spend a lot of time in the Senior 1 staff room, chatting to them and teaching them words and concepts. (This morning was 'eccentric', 'mature' and 'piss off.' They will only teach us Chinese swear words if we teach them ours!) They love us now, as it seems that the previous volunteers have worked little and hung out in their rooms. Suzanne and I are begging for work, and we prefer to talk to the teachers. I can understand how some, mostly young, volunteers would struggle, as it is hard to form the initial bonds (as evidenced by my first grumpy Yantai entries.) Apparently 2 from another school have already gone home as they couldn't handle it.
We have 1 male teacher in senior 1 english, his name is George and he has permed hair, wears headphones and carries a Playboy Bag. When I commented on how nice the bag was we ended up in a conversation about Playboy. George knew the word as 'dude', but didn't know the company or the pornagraphic nature (being outlawed.) We aren't sure he got it, but it was pretty funny trying to explain.
The teachers are trying to find Suzanne a Chinese husband, it has become a running joke around here. They asked me why I wasn't married and I explained my current (very happy thank you) situation and showed them a photo of Taxman and myself. The women said we look like movie stars (Oh STOP it) and George said "He looks very humourous." Now this could mean, a) he looks like he has a good sense of humour, b) something else entirely or c) he's kinda funny lookin'!
Very, Very Surreal Evening
Tuesday was International Women's Day and everyone in the school got some free milk to celebrate! Try not to think too hard about this. We were taken out to dinner by the school principal and one of the head teachers - both men. None of the female teachers got to come.
Promptly at 6pm, after we had spent an exhausting 25 minutes playing a made up game that involved plastic fruit with 80 Senior 1's, we were ushered into Headmaster Yu's car for our official meal. And what a meal it was. We went to one of the newest, most luxurious seafood restaurants in Yantai. It was a swanky 7 storey affair, built in the middle of abject poverty and construction sites. The view from the window of our (private) room looked over a large crater of escavation, while the walls were gold and red lacquer. This pretty much sums up Yantai as a whole - ridiculously opulent at one point with designer shops and luxury hotels, then extreme poverty at the other end of the spectrum. Not sure where the equal share of resources (from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs) in communist doctrine went. (It is the national conference of the NCP and CPPCC in China this week and that is all that the 36 TV stations are showing. We have one English channel, but there is little you want to watch. The good news is there is a new version of "Monkey Magic", let's hope we get the dubbed version on ABC soon!)
A round tin of Double Happiness cigarettes was on the table as a gift for the headmaster, who did all the ordering from the ground floor by picking out live seafood from tanks and displays around the room. We drank bottles of Yantai wine, which is famous in China, and really pretty good (a merlot, but freezing cold.) We only drank when the headmaster drank, and made a toast by tapping the glass twice on the table before drinking.
The headmaster spoke no English, so Mr Pung, head of Senior 2, was the translator for the evening. The headmaster made many official statements of thanks and welcome, while we nodded politely and hoped were weren't offending anyone by drinking our tea at inappropriae times. I seem to get a lot of attention being left handed, as it is pretty much beaten out of chinese children, yet weirdly if you are left handed you are considered extremely clever (well, duh.) Over the course of about 2 hours we had what felt like 724 dishes, but was probably about 17. An odd mix of sweet and savory, which included such scary things as shrimp with pinapple in a mustard/mayo sauce topped with, wait for it, coloured SPRINKLES. (When will the Asians learn that PINEAPPLE IS NOT A VEGETABLE?) We also had a type of mud fish, which was delicious, and various squid and muscle type squidgy stuff. We were stuffed to waddle point when Mr Pung said it was time to 'rest' and were squashed back into the car for the ride home. The guards at the restaurant wore russian type hats and coats and saluted us as we left. HOORAH.
Wednesday night saw us meet up with the other volunteers again (there are two groups here, GVN and Travellers. Travellers is all UK and young, while GVN is global and more varied in age. We haven't met the GVN group yet, but do so on Saturday.) This time at Culture Square I sampled seahorse on a stick. Not a big fan of that one. I kept burping sea horse for about an hour (sorry, but it is true!) But JACKPOT, we were there for Chinese line dancing and TAI CHI. Suzanne and I are heading back for more tai chi, as well as getting lessons from a teacher at school. It is true, tai chi is only done by older people (who are gorgeous) but we don't care. We have a crowd of people staring intensley at us wherever we go anyhow, you just get used to it.
We also met two young girls who, in very bad english, asked us to give them lessons. We said we would meet them on Saturday for coffee and give them free conversation classes. We made them very, very happy.
Later we all ended up in a Yantai nightclub, we were looking for a bar but couldn't find any. Much like Melbourne's Metro it was huge, and must be packed in Summer. As it was there were a few sad karaoke singers (WHY WHY WHY must they torture me like this?) and a DJ in a long black coat, ponytail and glitter cowboy hat. Big night in Yantai, as we all have a 10pm lock out time. We actually got locked out and had to scale the fence, just in time to have the headmaster drive past us. So much for our good reputation in Yantai Middle School Number 4!
As you can probably tell, I am settling in now and starting to enjoy myself. For a volunteer position it is pretty good, but I think staying a year would be tough, mainly because of the fact you have too much free time (Hence the large entries). It hasn't snowed since Saturday, which is a mixed blessing, I am laughing heaps (but no crying Jo) and am glad I made the decision to come.
This entry I thought I would tell you more about Yantai, and the Yantai Middle School Number 4, rather than bitch and moan (as I have been doing of late - sorry.) Now, I will concede that 3 things happened yesterday to brighten my life considerably - firstly, I got access to gmail, so now that site seems to work OK. So everyone who have sent to hotmail but not gmail, I haven't read that yet. Secondly, I got my first phone call, and despite the fact I predicted a flood of tears, it actually filled my heart with joy (to use a phrase that Miss Kristen once said to me.) Thanks to everyone. Thirdly,I now have a grand total of FIVE classes and 150 essays to mark, but more on that later.
The students at Yantai middle school, all 3000 of them from 14 - 19 years old, work very, very hard. Classes start at 7:30am and go until 9:30pm. Each class is 40 minutes long, and they have between 10 and 20 minutes break between each. Some have classes on Saturday and they get A LOT of homework. They sit at the desk behind HUGE piles of book, sweating over the exams that will decide their future. They do get 2 1/2 hours at lunch where some go home, but most are put to bed at school and told to sleep. The school becomes a ghost town. Generally they are very well behaved, but the older ones are not interested in aything other than the exams, so our classes are not high priorities. (We got about 6 Senior 2's to the first English Corner, compared to 200 senior 1's, but our fame is spreading so we got 30 last night - my 'shake it all about' in the Hokey Cokey has become stuff of school legend.)
The boys aspire to be tall and have facial hair,which to me, is less attractive. The girls look 13 when they are 19, and love tight pants, knee high boots with flowers embrodiered on them (don't we all) and lots of hair clips. Physical affection is against the rules between boys and girls, but the girls, and even the boys, are very affectionate with their friends - holding hands and touching a lot.
Basketball is the sport of choice, and the boys play from 6am to 9pm (right outside our windows.) We don't see the girls doing any exercise and us teachers get a lot of attention when we take over the basketball court at lunch time with my green spikey ball to play four square and piggy in the middle! My dreams of running have gone out the window, as the only time I wear my running gear is between layers 3 and 5 each day to keep warm. On my first day I asked the teachers whether anyone does tai chi in the morning, having visions of me out there gliding away at 4am. They looked at like I was insane and said only OLD people do tai chi.
There is a four floor canteen, which provides all our meals (though we tend to do breakfast only every second day and weekends it is closed.) A menu might look like:
Breakfast - egg cooked in tea and fried rice
Lunch - rice, two or three vegetable and meat dishes that contain the following vegetables and meat - SPAM SPAM SPAM, capsicum, potato, cauliflower and LOTS of fried stuff of unidentifiable origin.
Dinner - I always have wheat noodles in a broth and sometimes a steamed bun, but mostly they are filled with cabbage and make me sick.
It goes without saying that EVERYTHING has MSG in it, times 100, and if it can be put on a stick it will (but no crickets or seahorses.) According to the other volunteers in Yantai our food is very good, and I agree, we are very lucky. (Our school is considered to have good conditions, but academically very weak.) We also have a market nearby, so if lunch is unappealing we head out to get egg muffins, pineapple (on a stick of course), steamed buns or duck and chicken legs. We can eat for about $1, and it is a good time to practice the little phrases like "How much?", "That one" or "Thank you."
We are also close to a supermarket and one of the big shopping centres, so we are always stocked up with chocolate, yoghurt (which is great), tea, instant coffee (with which I have found I am addicted to sweetened condensed milk) and lemons (for hot water with lemon.) We have als found a place for real bread (no sugar) and the joy it created was amazing. I am also learning to love Bubble tea, which is quite frightening.
Academic Achievement
Miss Tan has given me one of her 'real' English classes, as has Mrs Mu, so unlike the other girls I have official vocabulary to teach and I must set (and correct) homework. I was scared that the students would hate me, being the mean homework giving one, but I have had fantastic classes so far. (Of course there is some bribery going one with koala pins.) The actual teaching makes everything worthwhile, especially with Senior 1 who are great. We have also got to the stage where students say hello (or g'day) to us outside, which is pretty cool!
The other girls, too, are getting into the swing of things. I sat in on two other classes this week, firstly to hear Sue-Ling teach 60 chinese students about English History ("Aqueducts are cool" she said of the Roman inventions...this is because she is a BIG NERD.) Yesterday her word of the day was 'bloodthirsty' and the students LOVED it. Later, Suzanne and I nearly cried with laughter when we found ourselves trying to explain yum cha to the Chinese. They had no idea what it was and there seems to be no translation. ("Fluffy buns??" says Suzanne hopefully.)
I have set my students a composition on the differences between Yantai and Melbourne. Some of them a hysterical to read. I get a lot of "Today we learned about Melbourne from our new English Teacher, Miss Kim. She is very beautiful and attractive." (Attractive was one of the vocab words.) This led me to explain to the teachers the concept of sucking up. I also got, "Melbourne is very hot in summer, it can reach 40 degrees. OH MY GOD!" Generally the standard is very good and they really listen to what you say, so you have to be careful.
The teachers themselves are a gogeous lot. Suzanne and I spend a lot of time in the Senior 1 staff room, chatting to them and teaching them words and concepts. (This morning was 'eccentric', 'mature' and 'piss off.' They will only teach us Chinese swear words if we teach them ours!) They love us now, as it seems that the previous volunteers have worked little and hung out in their rooms. Suzanne and I are begging for work, and we prefer to talk to the teachers. I can understand how some, mostly young, volunteers would struggle, as it is hard to form the initial bonds (as evidenced by my first grumpy Yantai entries.) Apparently 2 from another school have already gone home as they couldn't handle it.
We have 1 male teacher in senior 1 english, his name is George and he has permed hair, wears headphones and carries a Playboy Bag. When I commented on how nice the bag was we ended up in a conversation about Playboy. George knew the word as 'dude', but didn't know the company or the pornagraphic nature (being outlawed.) We aren't sure he got it, but it was pretty funny trying to explain.
The teachers are trying to find Suzanne a Chinese husband, it has become a running joke around here. They asked me why I wasn't married and I explained my current (very happy thank you) situation and showed them a photo of Taxman and myself. The women said we look like movie stars (Oh STOP it) and George said "He looks very humourous." Now this could mean, a) he looks like he has a good sense of humour, b) something else entirely or c) he's kinda funny lookin'!
Very, Very Surreal Evening
Tuesday was International Women's Day and everyone in the school got some free milk to celebrate! Try not to think too hard about this. We were taken out to dinner by the school principal and one of the head teachers - both men. None of the female teachers got to come.
Promptly at 6pm, after we had spent an exhausting 25 minutes playing a made up game that involved plastic fruit with 80 Senior 1's, we were ushered into Headmaster Yu's car for our official meal. And what a meal it was. We went to one of the newest, most luxurious seafood restaurants in Yantai. It was a swanky 7 storey affair, built in the middle of abject poverty and construction sites. The view from the window of our (private) room looked over a large crater of escavation, while the walls were gold and red lacquer. This pretty much sums up Yantai as a whole - ridiculously opulent at one point with designer shops and luxury hotels, then extreme poverty at the other end of the spectrum. Not sure where the equal share of resources (from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs) in communist doctrine went. (It is the national conference of the NCP and CPPCC in China this week and that is all that the 36 TV stations are showing. We have one English channel, but there is little you want to watch. The good news is there is a new version of "Monkey Magic", let's hope we get the dubbed version on ABC soon!)
A round tin of Double Happiness cigarettes was on the table as a gift for the headmaster, who did all the ordering from the ground floor by picking out live seafood from tanks and displays around the room. We drank bottles of Yantai wine, which is famous in China, and really pretty good (a merlot, but freezing cold.) We only drank when the headmaster drank, and made a toast by tapping the glass twice on the table before drinking.
The headmaster spoke no English, so Mr Pung, head of Senior 2, was the translator for the evening. The headmaster made many official statements of thanks and welcome, while we nodded politely and hoped were weren't offending anyone by drinking our tea at inappropriae times. I seem to get a lot of attention being left handed, as it is pretty much beaten out of chinese children, yet weirdly if you are left handed you are considered extremely clever (well, duh.) Over the course of about 2 hours we had what felt like 724 dishes, but was probably about 17. An odd mix of sweet and savory, which included such scary things as shrimp with pinapple in a mustard/mayo sauce topped with, wait for it, coloured SPRINKLES. (When will the Asians learn that PINEAPPLE IS NOT A VEGETABLE?) We also had a type of mud fish, which was delicious, and various squid and muscle type squidgy stuff. We were stuffed to waddle point when Mr Pung said it was time to 'rest' and were squashed back into the car for the ride home. The guards at the restaurant wore russian type hats and coats and saluted us as we left. HOORAH.
Wednesday night saw us meet up with the other volunteers again (there are two groups here, GVN and Travellers. Travellers is all UK and young, while GVN is global and more varied in age. We haven't met the GVN group yet, but do so on Saturday.) This time at Culture Square I sampled seahorse on a stick. Not a big fan of that one. I kept burping sea horse for about an hour (sorry, but it is true!) But JACKPOT, we were there for Chinese line dancing and TAI CHI. Suzanne and I are heading back for more tai chi, as well as getting lessons from a teacher at school. It is true, tai chi is only done by older people (who are gorgeous) but we don't care. We have a crowd of people staring intensley at us wherever we go anyhow, you just get used to it.
We also met two young girls who, in very bad english, asked us to give them lessons. We said we would meet them on Saturday for coffee and give them free conversation classes. We made them very, very happy.
Later we all ended up in a Yantai nightclub, we were looking for a bar but couldn't find any. Much like Melbourne's Metro it was huge, and must be packed in Summer. As it was there were a few sad karaoke singers (WHY WHY WHY must they torture me like this?) and a DJ in a long black coat, ponytail and glitter cowboy hat. Big night in Yantai, as we all have a 10pm lock out time. We actually got locked out and had to scale the fence, just in time to have the headmaster drive past us. So much for our good reputation in Yantai Middle School Number 4!
As you can probably tell, I am settling in now and starting to enjoy myself. For a volunteer position it is pretty good, but I think staying a year would be tough, mainly because of the fact you have too much free time (Hence the large entries). It hasn't snowed since Saturday, which is a mixed blessing, I am laughing heaps (but no crying Jo) and am glad I made the decision to come.
07 March 2005
Working for peanuts, culinary adventures and tropical weather
FIRST:
DAD - I am not sure I gave you all the info on my email, and now I can't send any more. (I can't read or send any emails from any account.) I do need to get some money transferred so can you call me. In case I got it wrong - the time difference is 3 hours behind here. It is 7:30am here, 10:30 am home.
For anyone else who wants to take pity on me - my phone number is:
0011 86 535 6877430
I think! Try it and see.
On to the news.
Friday, as I was writing this (and I still can't understand why I can, yet cannot do anything else on the net. Thank god for small mercies I say) the teachers in the Junior staff room kept feeding me. Peanuts, tea, hot water and eventually dried squid. As I said the peanuts were good, when I returned I received a 3kg bag full of them. I am, it seems, literally working for peanuts.
They turn the heating off all weekend, as the students go home, so we saw that as a perfect reason to get out and explore the city. We caught the number 41 bus into town, then through town as we forgot which stop to get off. We ended up at Tashan, which is billed in the Yantai guide as 'a site of religious significance and amusement park.' Well there may have been religious significance in the pagodas we could see far in the distance amidst flurries of snow, but the amusement park was just very, very sad. After a few photos at the gate, we weren't about to pay 30 rmb to get in, we caught the bus back into town.
Food was on the agenda. We are getting used to breakfast at 6:30, lunch at 11:30 and dinner at 5pm, so by noon we were starving. We landed at Parkson, the most up market of the many department store complexes in the city. (If I haven't said before, Yantai has 6 million people, it is not a shanty town - except when it comes to the superhighway.) A guard escorted us into a place for yum cha, and then after lunch he escorted us through the shops! It isn't often we get armed protection. There are not a lot of westerners here...
The guard passed us on to Harry. Harry was a Yantai University student who spoke excellent English, and basically attached himself to us for the day, after showing us his ID card. We expect this may happen regularly. He was a sweetie, and we have exchanged phone numbers for future meetings with locals. Though we may have scared him with all our questions about Chinese dating habits.
For the rest of the day we wondered the city. Me on the great Internet cafe hunt (we found one, but we still could not access google, gmail, yahoo, hotmail or banking sites) and Sue-ling and I on the "Great Yantai Search for the Best Duck" - we think this will be an ongoing, pleasurable endeavour. After a ridiculously expensive, but AMAZING, real coffee with milk we were scheduled to meet up with some other volunteers at Culture Sqaure.
Culture Square is an open food market in the centre of the city. Filled with noodles and steamed buns, clay packages which I am determined to work out within the month, and anything imaginable on a stick. Squid, meat, scorpions, crickets, seahorses, lizards - all on a stick and fried for dining pleasure. Never one to back away from a culinary challenge I had my first scorpion (pork crackling) and cricket (leaves). Seahorse and lizard are next.
Sunday was a bit of a repeat of Saturday. Bus into town, food, then explore the local surrounds. This time we went to Yantai Hill, a series of museums explaining Yantai's history as a trading port, maker of fine clocks, and place of colonialization. Many of the buildings look American and English, because they were built by, well, the American and English. We all got taken (again!) by a temple money sting which didn't bother me, as I am used to it, but annoyed the English girls somewhat. Most of the buildings were closed, being end of winter, so we couldn't see that much.
Late afternoon found us as Yantai's famous Beach number 1. It was really lovely to be by the water, and the weather was positively tropical at about 10 degrees, so we skimmed stones and ate steamed corn. (Not as good as Vietnam.) Australian beaches have nothing to fear from the Chinese.
The youn' uns then went to dinner at Pizza Hut, with the other youn' uns from around town, but Suzanne and I went home for a more Chinese dinner (noodles and cold chicken) and a chat. I do love having the girls around, but an 11 year age difference is a tad noticable when there are 16 of them. I am not overly enthused with US food chains (there are hundreds of KFC's here, but only one McDonalds) and I have no great desire to visit them - except for the fact that they have western toilets. One of the little things you miss.
You may wonder why I am writing so much? Well, I still have no classes. In theory I am to get a timetable today, which is why I am hanging out here in the Senior Staff Room, but I am not holding my breath just yet. I have a nasty feeling I am going to be dragged into a class room of 60 students with no time to prepare.
DAD - I am not sure I gave you all the info on my email, and now I can't send any more. (I can't read or send any emails from any account.) I do need to get some money transferred so can you call me. In case I got it wrong - the time difference is 3 hours behind here. It is 7:30am here, 10:30 am home.
For anyone else who wants to take pity on me - my phone number is:
0011 86 535 6877430
I think! Try it and see.
On to the news.
Friday, as I was writing this (and I still can't understand why I can, yet cannot do anything else on the net. Thank god for small mercies I say) the teachers in the Junior staff room kept feeding me. Peanuts, tea, hot water and eventually dried squid. As I said the peanuts were good, when I returned I received a 3kg bag full of them. I am, it seems, literally working for peanuts.
They turn the heating off all weekend, as the students go home, so we saw that as a perfect reason to get out and explore the city. We caught the number 41 bus into town, then through town as we forgot which stop to get off. We ended up at Tashan, which is billed in the Yantai guide as 'a site of religious significance and amusement park.' Well there may have been religious significance in the pagodas we could see far in the distance amidst flurries of snow, but the amusement park was just very, very sad. After a few photos at the gate, we weren't about to pay 30 rmb to get in, we caught the bus back into town.
Food was on the agenda. We are getting used to breakfast at 6:30, lunch at 11:30 and dinner at 5pm, so by noon we were starving. We landed at Parkson, the most up market of the many department store complexes in the city. (If I haven't said before, Yantai has 6 million people, it is not a shanty town - except when it comes to the superhighway.) A guard escorted us into a place for yum cha, and then after lunch he escorted us through the shops! It isn't often we get armed protection. There are not a lot of westerners here...
The guard passed us on to Harry. Harry was a Yantai University student who spoke excellent English, and basically attached himself to us for the day, after showing us his ID card. We expect this may happen regularly. He was a sweetie, and we have exchanged phone numbers for future meetings with locals. Though we may have scared him with all our questions about Chinese dating habits.
For the rest of the day we wondered the city. Me on the great Internet cafe hunt (we found one, but we still could not access google, gmail, yahoo, hotmail or banking sites) and Sue-ling and I on the "Great Yantai Search for the Best Duck" - we think this will be an ongoing, pleasurable endeavour. After a ridiculously expensive, but AMAZING, real coffee with milk we were scheduled to meet up with some other volunteers at Culture Sqaure.
Culture Square is an open food market in the centre of the city. Filled with noodles and steamed buns, clay packages which I am determined to work out within the month, and anything imaginable on a stick. Squid, meat, scorpions, crickets, seahorses, lizards - all on a stick and fried for dining pleasure. Never one to back away from a culinary challenge I had my first scorpion (pork crackling) and cricket (leaves). Seahorse and lizard are next.
Sunday was a bit of a repeat of Saturday. Bus into town, food, then explore the local surrounds. This time we went to Yantai Hill, a series of museums explaining Yantai's history as a trading port, maker of fine clocks, and place of colonialization. Many of the buildings look American and English, because they were built by, well, the American and English. We all got taken (again!) by a temple money sting which didn't bother me, as I am used to it, but annoyed the English girls somewhat. Most of the buildings were closed, being end of winter, so we couldn't see that much.
Late afternoon found us as Yantai's famous Beach number 1. It was really lovely to be by the water, and the weather was positively tropical at about 10 degrees, so we skimmed stones and ate steamed corn. (Not as good as Vietnam.) Australian beaches have nothing to fear from the Chinese.
The youn' uns then went to dinner at Pizza Hut, with the other youn' uns from around town, but Suzanne and I went home for a more Chinese dinner (noodles and cold chicken) and a chat. I do love having the girls around, but an 11 year age difference is a tad noticable when there are 16 of them. I am not overly enthused with US food chains (there are hundreds of KFC's here, but only one McDonalds) and I have no great desire to visit them - except for the fact that they have western toilets. One of the little things you miss.
You may wonder why I am writing so much? Well, I still have no classes. In theory I am to get a timetable today, which is why I am hanging out here in the Senior Staff Room, but I am not holding my breath just yet. I have a nasty feeling I am going to be dragged into a class room of 60 students with no time to prepare.
03 March 2005
Teaching the Chinese to say "G'Day", The Hokey Cokey (Pokey) and Northern Island
My first full day in Yantai saw me hit the local shops, which is really like a giant K-mart. You can get almost anything, except bread (without sugar), milk, orange juice, vegetables and all the things you actually want to eat. I did get another doona (I haven't any sheets and I was so cold last night I slept under my MATTRESS - which is just a thin doona) because don't think I can survive another night without one. Also on my list was a mug, coffee (instant), condensed milk (I have a taste now), scarves, hats, more thermals (you can never have enough) and pens, paper and school supplies. So much for not shopping. (The whole thing cost me about $30.)
I have also gotten the lay of the school, which is pretty big, met many of the teachers, and learnt that my first lessons are tomorrow. I am teaching Junior 2, about 14 years old. The four other volunteers teach seniors (between 17-20 years old.) This is interesting for them as three of them are 19.
Internet access is basically non-existent, and for some reason I can write this blog, but not access the actual site to read it. I also can't get any email (though hotmail just worked I think.) So you can't reach me, and I can talk to you only via this. I am not a happy camper in this respect. Of course, I actually have a PHONE in my room, new, but I dont know the number and if anyone calls me I may cry!
I have learnt from my colleagues never to listen to Jack, our contact from the volunteer group, as everything he says is wrong.
To get an idea, I sat in on 3 lessons with the others. Suzanne teachers the kids to say "G'day" while leaving out a couple of States when talking about Australia and Sian spelt Ireland, Island at one stage. She also asked me how to spell Edinburgh, it is the blind leading the blind folks. Heaven help me tomorrow.
Part two
It is now friday afternoon and I have just finished my first two (and currently only) classes for the week.
It is hard, OK impossible, to get a straight answer out of the Chinese, and I have to admit is frustrating the hell out of me. It took me 24 hours of pleading to get these two classes at all. As I have said, they didn't know we were coming and seem to think 2 classes a day and I require a nap. I think a 6 day weekend is a little excessive even for me.
Watching the other girls yesterday was informative and amusing. Aside from things i have already mentioned, it is easy to see how people get stereotypes about countires, because that is what we talk in. Or we just make it up. (Australia has 8 states, we all play ping pong...)
Nothing, however, could prepare me for English Corner last night. English Corner is a voluntary initative for the senior classes that we all run together. Last night was the first one so we were unsure of how many would turn up. Run after dinner at 5:30pm, we planned to teach them songs and games. We rocked up to find OVER 200 students trying to cram themselves into our small room. All day we had bickered over the words of the "Hokey Pokey" or "Hokey Cokey" as the English call it. It seems we all sing it differently, most particularly the last line, which they sing "Knees bends, arms stretch, RA RA RA!" How English is that! They might as well sing "Jolly Hockey Sticks and the Famous Five!"* So 6pm finds us on the badminton court with about 70 (just Sue-ling's a my group) singing "WHOOOOOAAA the Hokey Cokey" and nearly crushing us to death. It was pretty funny.
The teachers, it seems, find it less funny. We are having a bit of a debate on informal versus formal teaching. Engligh Corner is meant to be fun, so we pretty much ignore them, but in class we follow their lead if they are there (which is rarely.)
As for my classes, the students were much better at English than the teacher implied. (One corrected me on syaing Yantai was the Capital of Shandong.) At the end of the class they sang for me, and made me sing for them (!!!) In one class two boys asked me to give them english names. I resisted the urge to let the power go to my head and call them Ignatious and Herbert, or even glorify those I love (Taxman, fancy a Chinese named after you?) I stuck to good old fashioned biblical names. I suspect before the month is out I will have been given a Chinese name. Probably one that means "She who wears funny hats, carries a green ball and is covered in chalk dust." I carry a green ball, which is great it looks like a virus, and use it in crowds so they can follow me. I am not afraid to bean someone with it either. Though the Chinese boys are great at basketball and could kick my ass.
Last night we went into town and met the other volunteers in Yantai. There are about 12 and all are from the UK and ALL are in their gap year (so 18-19). Suzanne and I, being 31 and 30 are absolutely ancient to this lot. Everyone has interesting stories and facilities and all are pretty much left in the dark most of the time. We are meeting up on weekends to explore the area.
It looks like we are leaving earlier than expected. When I told my Junior 2 teacher I am here for a month she said "Why?" So we may all head back to Beijing together, then some of us are going to a religious site outside Beijing, the wall and then Shanghai.
Lastly, the teachers are laughing at my Chinese as I called them 'mouse' instead of teacher. Same word, different tones.
No hotmail access today, but I saw the emails from S, Taxman and D - THANK YOU and I hope to reply on the weekend.
* This is retirbution for everyone laughing at my room. It seems that I have got the dud room, as has been the fashion on this trip. Everything is in miniture, hence I call it "The Hobbit Room". Small bed, small dresser, no clothesline (we do our own hand washing), no VCD, no desk, no lockable space, little storage. The lock issue has caused a problem, as I locked my valuables in my backpack and then proceeded to lose the key. This required some backpack surgery and will necessitate some repairs when I get home. Not my finest hour. Anyhow, the girls think my room is hysterical, especially with the "Hello Kitty" doona I brought to stop me freezing to death in the night. I would pay $1000 for a hot water bottle right now.
I have also gotten the lay of the school, which is pretty big, met many of the teachers, and learnt that my first lessons are tomorrow. I am teaching Junior 2, about 14 years old. The four other volunteers teach seniors (between 17-20 years old.) This is interesting for them as three of them are 19.
Internet access is basically non-existent, and for some reason I can write this blog, but not access the actual site to read it. I also can't get any email (though hotmail just worked I think.) So you can't reach me, and I can talk to you only via this. I am not a happy camper in this respect. Of course, I actually have a PHONE in my room, new, but I dont know the number and if anyone calls me I may cry!
I have learnt from my colleagues never to listen to Jack, our contact from the volunteer group, as everything he says is wrong.
To get an idea, I sat in on 3 lessons with the others. Suzanne teachers the kids to say "G'day" while leaving out a couple of States when talking about Australia and Sian spelt Ireland, Island at one stage. She also asked me how to spell Edinburgh, it is the blind leading the blind folks. Heaven help me tomorrow.
Part two
It is now friday afternoon and I have just finished my first two (and currently only) classes for the week.
It is hard, OK impossible, to get a straight answer out of the Chinese, and I have to admit is frustrating the hell out of me. It took me 24 hours of pleading to get these two classes at all. As I have said, they didn't know we were coming and seem to think 2 classes a day and I require a nap. I think a 6 day weekend is a little excessive even for me.
Watching the other girls yesterday was informative and amusing. Aside from things i have already mentioned, it is easy to see how people get stereotypes about countires, because that is what we talk in. Or we just make it up. (Australia has 8 states, we all play ping pong...)
Nothing, however, could prepare me for English Corner last night. English Corner is a voluntary initative for the senior classes that we all run together. Last night was the first one so we were unsure of how many would turn up. Run after dinner at 5:30pm, we planned to teach them songs and games. We rocked up to find OVER 200 students trying to cram themselves into our small room. All day we had bickered over the words of the "Hokey Pokey" or "Hokey Cokey" as the English call it. It seems we all sing it differently, most particularly the last line, which they sing "Knees bends, arms stretch, RA RA RA!" How English is that! They might as well sing "Jolly Hockey Sticks and the Famous Five!"* So 6pm finds us on the badminton court with about 70 (just Sue-ling's a my group) singing "WHOOOOOAAA the Hokey Cokey" and nearly crushing us to death. It was pretty funny.
The teachers, it seems, find it less funny. We are having a bit of a debate on informal versus formal teaching. Engligh Corner is meant to be fun, so we pretty much ignore them, but in class we follow their lead if they are there (which is rarely.)
As for my classes, the students were much better at English than the teacher implied. (One corrected me on syaing Yantai was the Capital of Shandong.) At the end of the class they sang for me, and made me sing for them (!!!) In one class two boys asked me to give them english names. I resisted the urge to let the power go to my head and call them Ignatious and Herbert, or even glorify those I love (Taxman, fancy a Chinese named after you?) I stuck to good old fashioned biblical names. I suspect before the month is out I will have been given a Chinese name. Probably one that means "She who wears funny hats, carries a green ball and is covered in chalk dust." I carry a green ball, which is great it looks like a virus, and use it in crowds so they can follow me. I am not afraid to bean someone with it either. Though the Chinese boys are great at basketball and could kick my ass.
Last night we went into town and met the other volunteers in Yantai. There are about 12 and all are from the UK and ALL are in their gap year (so 18-19). Suzanne and I, being 31 and 30 are absolutely ancient to this lot. Everyone has interesting stories and facilities and all are pretty much left in the dark most of the time. We are meeting up on weekends to explore the area.
It looks like we are leaving earlier than expected. When I told my Junior 2 teacher I am here for a month she said "Why?" So we may all head back to Beijing together, then some of us are going to a religious site outside Beijing, the wall and then Shanghai.
Lastly, the teachers are laughing at my Chinese as I called them 'mouse' instead of teacher. Same word, different tones.
No hotmail access today, but I saw the emails from S, Taxman and D - THANK YOU and I hope to reply on the weekend.
* This is retirbution for everyone laughing at my room. It seems that I have got the dud room, as has been the fashion on this trip. Everything is in miniture, hence I call it "The Hobbit Room". Small bed, small dresser, no clothesline (we do our own hand washing), no VCD, no desk, no lockable space, little storage. The lock issue has caused a problem, as I locked my valuables in my backpack and then proceeded to lose the key. This required some backpack surgery and will necessitate some repairs when I get home. Not my finest hour. Anyhow, the girls think my room is hysterical, especially with the "Hello Kitty" doona I brought to stop me freezing to death in the night. I would pay $1000 for a hot water bottle right now.
02 March 2005
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....
The one downside of touring tour type travel is you forget how to think for yourself transportation wise. There is always a cyclo or taxi or boat waiting to take you somewhere, or your trusty leader will organise it for you. That is why I was filled with dread today with negotiating my own way from my Bangkok hotel to my Beijing hostel.
I will admit to caving in Bangkok and getting a taxi to the airport. Bangkok traffic leaves a lot to be desired, I am surprised there is not more road rage. 6 hours later I landed in Beijing. A lot of people got changed on the plane into really, really warm clothes and I thought to myself "Hmmm, that's interesting." Determined not to take the 'easy route' I negotiated the airport shuttle bus into the centre of Beijing (16 yuan compared to 120 for a taxi.) One the way I listened to the chatter of the Chinese passengers (I was the only westerner on the bus) and realised how different it is to have no other english speakers around. I was so used to having guides and other westerners with me the past 3 weeks that it was quite a surprise to hear no English. Staring out the window I notices some white patches on the ground. Could it be? YES, IT WAS SNOW. "Well roll me in coconut and call me a lamington," I thought. I couldn't have been more happy. I love cold and I very rarely see snow, so tiny little puddles dotting the ground made me bounce with glee.
It was dark when the shuttle dropped me off. Now I was allowed to get a taxi, as my hostel wasn't far. If only I could find one.....waiting, waiting. Along comes a Chinese version of the tuk-tuk. Knowing I was making a financial mistake, but my nose was starting to feel like it had frostbite, I got in. 30 minutes and 2 stops to ask for directions later I paid triple what I should have but made it to the hostel. Welcome to Beijing.
I really only have 2 full days in Beijing between now and when I leave (in April), so I am doing an organised tour through the Forbidden Palace, Summer Palace and a few other pieces tomorrow. When I return from Yantai there will me a trip to the Great Wall. Not a huge amount of touristing, but then again that isn't what I came here to do.
Moore, Roger Moore and you thought I shopped a lot...
I woke up to look out my window and see a blanket of snow covering the rooftops. YIPPEE. While mostly melting as it hit the ground, it was still snowing as I stepped outside to catch snowflakes on my tongue. Man it was cold. At this point I say a public thank you to S, who has lent me her goosedown jacket, thermals and socks and Mum who gave me hiking boots for Christmas. Today was the first day I wore them and didn't lose 3litres of sweat from my feet.
At 8am I was picked up in a mini-van to do a whirl-wind tour of Beijing. My guide, Winnie ("As in the Pooh" she said) had me, a German (Lars) and three Taiwanese people (Nelson and 2 others whose names I didn't get) so the info was a mix of Chinese and English.
First stop was the Forbidden City, so named because it was forbidden to the general populace for 500 years. Only the Emperor and assorted hangers on were allowed in. At 990 rooms it dominates the centre of the city, but only 30% is open for tourists (as with most of Beijing it is getting ready for the Olympics in 2008.) Much to my amusement the audio guides you can rent proudly state that the English one is spoken by Roger Moore. (No word on who does the others.) I kept having flashbacks to the Japanese whiskey commercial scene in Lost in Translation, "You know Lodger Moore? Lodger Moore, 007?" (I am full of inappropriate language moments. It seems that whenever I try to speak to someone who doesn't speak English I slip into French. Which is odd given I don't speak French and neither do any of the populace in the countries I have visited. I hope that "No parlais vou Francais" is better than just shouting "DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?" or speaking in a dodgy Chinese accent?)
Beijing also has an incredible number of funny signs. All through the Forbidden City is the sign stating "Don't Fall Down." Thanks for that. I also spotted what was clearly a bugle with a red circle and a line through it, i.e. No trumpetting allowed. It's a good thing too as I was just about to whip mine from my day pack.
After the Forbidden City we went to the Temple of Heaven, the largest site for worshipping Heaven in the world (as opposed to worshipping gods that is.) Whereas the roof of the Forbidden City is yellow, yellow being the Emperor's colour and anyone else caught wearing it got executed, the roof at the Temple of Heaven is blue, blue for the heavens.
Here I noticed something odd. There were a HUGE number of tourists with prams. Babies of about 12 months were everywhere. Then I noticed something else, all the babies were Chinese but the parents were German. Winnie advised they were Europeans here to adopt Chinese babies. Apparently for a paltry $30k US you can take home your own little Chinese bundle of joy. Here I am feeling guilty I spent $8 US on rice paper drawing in Vietnam.
Next stop was a silk factory, so I now have the low down on Chinese Silk versus Cambodian Silk (I still prefer Cambodian.) Like a lot of what I saw today it was government run, VERY expensive and would have been funny if I hadn't been caught up in the great Chinese game of "Let's scam the tourists." As for the clothes on sale, the cast of the Sopranos must shop there regularly.
A quick lunch and a visit to a pearl factory (where I won myself a freshwater pearl by guessing how many were in the oyster - 21) and we hit the Summer Palace. This was the most beautiful thing I have seen so far in China. It was built in 1760, and rebuilt in 1888 after the Anglo-French armies ransacked it, to honour the Emperor's mother Cixi. Known as "the Dragon Lady" she basically ruled China for 48 years. There is a man made hill, artificial lake (which was frozen and people were walking across it) and the world's longest corridor at 783m, that was built so Cixi wouldn't have to walk outside when it was too hot or cold. We learnt all about Pixiu, a mythical Chinese animal that supposedly brings wealth and success to business people, but mainly to the 'government' gift shop that sold the jade versions to those of us captivated by the story. (You may detect I am a little peeved with the Beijing trade with tourists, and yes you are correct. While in Vietnam and Cambodia there is playful bargaining, you sort of know where you stand. Here there was little bargaining, but just out and out sharking. While I have had my share of experiences already, the stories I heard from everyone else today supported the fact, even those who speak Chinese are having the same issues. It is tiring being so vigilant or in my case failing to do so.)
Last stop was a tea house, where we tasted 5 varieties of tea. They were lovely, and thankfully too big to fit in my pack!
I got dropped off near Tiananmen Square for a brisk dusk walk by the Tiananmen Gate, Mao's Mausoleum and the other building whose names I forget right now. I hope to get in and see Mao when I return to Beijing, as like in Hanoi, it is only open in the morning. Rob had said that it would be great to start a "Dead Guy World Tour" where you could visit the great communist dead guys - Mao, Lenin and Ho Chi Minh. I'd pay for that. The joy of snow had worn off by this time, it stopped snowing about 11am, and it was just cold. It took 90 minutes and 3 periods of being lost before I made it back to the Hostel. I am pretty familiar with the Hutongs around the district though! And before you all start saying "Lost AGAIN???" take alook at a bloody Beijing map.
For the second night running I had dinner at the dumpling resturaunt across the street. For 10 rmb (about 1.80) I ate my fill of dumplings and drunken oat noodles. While not as fond of Chinese food as I am Vietnamese, Khmer and Thai (though I am prepared to be won over) you can't beat that for value.
Tomorrow I leave for Yantai and what I hope will be 4 weeks of no spending.
Home Sweet Home
By 1pm I had arrived in my new home of Yantai. I alsmost didn't make it, for some reason the expressway to the airport was closed and I almost missed the plane. I should add my faith in Beijing merchants was restored somewhat by a taxi driver who actually tried to give me a discount.
Beijing was a balmy 10 degrees, so I felt the shock arriving in Yantai which was still covered in dirty snow and a chilly 2. I was met at the airport but a guide from my volunteer organisation and deposited promptly at Yantai middle school. I have a nice dorm like room, with a wooden bed which should be fun. The shower looks better than the one in Beijing (which was a slow trickle of tepid water, so hair washing has been avoided.)
The school itself looks a little East German like, or whatever East Germany looks like in films anyhow. Very industrial, the area is close to the city but working class. There are 3000 students and an english department of 7 (I'm sitting in their cramped office right now - internet access is very slow and gmail is out of action completely for the next 4 weeks. Hotmail it is for messages.)
After I was left to unpack, nothing happened. I was told that someone would come to show me around at 2pm, but by 2:45 I went looking. I still have no idea about classes or schedules, except I work 5 days a week. Though I know where the food is, and when to get it.
Pretty nervous about the whole class room thing. I have nothing else to be nervous about now, so that is it. Wish me luck.
I will admit to caving in Bangkok and getting a taxi to the airport. Bangkok traffic leaves a lot to be desired, I am surprised there is not more road rage. 6 hours later I landed in Beijing. A lot of people got changed on the plane into really, really warm clothes and I thought to myself "Hmmm, that's interesting." Determined not to take the 'easy route' I negotiated the airport shuttle bus into the centre of Beijing (16 yuan compared to 120 for a taxi.) One the way I listened to the chatter of the Chinese passengers (I was the only westerner on the bus) and realised how different it is to have no other english speakers around. I was so used to having guides and other westerners with me the past 3 weeks that it was quite a surprise to hear no English. Staring out the window I notices some white patches on the ground. Could it be? YES, IT WAS SNOW. "Well roll me in coconut and call me a lamington," I thought. I couldn't have been more happy. I love cold and I very rarely see snow, so tiny little puddles dotting the ground made me bounce with glee.
It was dark when the shuttle dropped me off. Now I was allowed to get a taxi, as my hostel wasn't far. If only I could find one.....waiting, waiting. Along comes a Chinese version of the tuk-tuk. Knowing I was making a financial mistake, but my nose was starting to feel like it had frostbite, I got in. 30 minutes and 2 stops to ask for directions later I paid triple what I should have but made it to the hostel. Welcome to Beijing.
I really only have 2 full days in Beijing between now and when I leave (in April), so I am doing an organised tour through the Forbidden Palace, Summer Palace and a few other pieces tomorrow. When I return from Yantai there will me a trip to the Great Wall. Not a huge amount of touristing, but then again that isn't what I came here to do.
Moore, Roger Moore and you thought I shopped a lot...
I woke up to look out my window and see a blanket of snow covering the rooftops. YIPPEE. While mostly melting as it hit the ground, it was still snowing as I stepped outside to catch snowflakes on my tongue. Man it was cold. At this point I say a public thank you to S, who has lent me her goosedown jacket, thermals and socks and Mum who gave me hiking boots for Christmas. Today was the first day I wore them and didn't lose 3litres of sweat from my feet.
At 8am I was picked up in a mini-van to do a whirl-wind tour of Beijing. My guide, Winnie ("As in the Pooh" she said) had me, a German (Lars) and three Taiwanese people (Nelson and 2 others whose names I didn't get) so the info was a mix of Chinese and English.
First stop was the Forbidden City, so named because it was forbidden to the general populace for 500 years. Only the Emperor and assorted hangers on were allowed in. At 990 rooms it dominates the centre of the city, but only 30% is open for tourists (as with most of Beijing it is getting ready for the Olympics in 2008.) Much to my amusement the audio guides you can rent proudly state that the English one is spoken by Roger Moore. (No word on who does the others.) I kept having flashbacks to the Japanese whiskey commercial scene in Lost in Translation, "You know Lodger Moore? Lodger Moore, 007?" (I am full of inappropriate language moments. It seems that whenever I try to speak to someone who doesn't speak English I slip into French. Which is odd given I don't speak French and neither do any of the populace in the countries I have visited. I hope that "No parlais vou Francais" is better than just shouting "DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?" or speaking in a dodgy Chinese accent?)
Beijing also has an incredible number of funny signs. All through the Forbidden City is the sign stating "Don't Fall Down." Thanks for that. I also spotted what was clearly a bugle with a red circle and a line through it, i.e. No trumpetting allowed. It's a good thing too as I was just about to whip mine from my day pack.
After the Forbidden City we went to the Temple of Heaven, the largest site for worshipping Heaven in the world (as opposed to worshipping gods that is.) Whereas the roof of the Forbidden City is yellow, yellow being the Emperor's colour and anyone else caught wearing it got executed, the roof at the Temple of Heaven is blue, blue for the heavens.
Here I noticed something odd. There were a HUGE number of tourists with prams. Babies of about 12 months were everywhere. Then I noticed something else, all the babies were Chinese but the parents were German. Winnie advised they were Europeans here to adopt Chinese babies. Apparently for a paltry $30k US you can take home your own little Chinese bundle of joy. Here I am feeling guilty I spent $8 US on rice paper drawing in Vietnam.
Next stop was a silk factory, so I now have the low down on Chinese Silk versus Cambodian Silk (I still prefer Cambodian.) Like a lot of what I saw today it was government run, VERY expensive and would have been funny if I hadn't been caught up in the great Chinese game of "Let's scam the tourists." As for the clothes on sale, the cast of the Sopranos must shop there regularly.
A quick lunch and a visit to a pearl factory (where I won myself a freshwater pearl by guessing how many were in the oyster - 21) and we hit the Summer Palace. This was the most beautiful thing I have seen so far in China. It was built in 1760, and rebuilt in 1888 after the Anglo-French armies ransacked it, to honour the Emperor's mother Cixi. Known as "the Dragon Lady" she basically ruled China for 48 years. There is a man made hill, artificial lake (which was frozen and people were walking across it) and the world's longest corridor at 783m, that was built so Cixi wouldn't have to walk outside when it was too hot or cold. We learnt all about Pixiu, a mythical Chinese animal that supposedly brings wealth and success to business people, but mainly to the 'government' gift shop that sold the jade versions to those of us captivated by the story. (You may detect I am a little peeved with the Beijing trade with tourists, and yes you are correct. While in Vietnam and Cambodia there is playful bargaining, you sort of know where you stand. Here there was little bargaining, but just out and out sharking. While I have had my share of experiences already, the stories I heard from everyone else today supported the fact, even those who speak Chinese are having the same issues. It is tiring being so vigilant or in my case failing to do so.)
Last stop was a tea house, where we tasted 5 varieties of tea. They were lovely, and thankfully too big to fit in my pack!
I got dropped off near Tiananmen Square for a brisk dusk walk by the Tiananmen Gate, Mao's Mausoleum and the other building whose names I forget right now. I hope to get in and see Mao when I return to Beijing, as like in Hanoi, it is only open in the morning. Rob had said that it would be great to start a "Dead Guy World Tour" where you could visit the great communist dead guys - Mao, Lenin and Ho Chi Minh. I'd pay for that. The joy of snow had worn off by this time, it stopped snowing about 11am, and it was just cold. It took 90 minutes and 3 periods of being lost before I made it back to the Hostel. I am pretty familiar with the Hutongs around the district though! And before you all start saying "Lost AGAIN???" take alook at a bloody Beijing map.
For the second night running I had dinner at the dumpling resturaunt across the street. For 10 rmb (about 1.80) I ate my fill of dumplings and drunken oat noodles. While not as fond of Chinese food as I am Vietnamese, Khmer and Thai (though I am prepared to be won over) you can't beat that for value.
Tomorrow I leave for Yantai and what I hope will be 4 weeks of no spending.
Home Sweet Home
By 1pm I had arrived in my new home of Yantai. I alsmost didn't make it, for some reason the expressway to the airport was closed and I almost missed the plane. I should add my faith in Beijing merchants was restored somewhat by a taxi driver who actually tried to give me a discount.
Beijing was a balmy 10 degrees, so I felt the shock arriving in Yantai which was still covered in dirty snow and a chilly 2. I was met at the airport but a guide from my volunteer organisation and deposited promptly at Yantai middle school. I have a nice dorm like room, with a wooden bed which should be fun. The shower looks better than the one in Beijing (which was a slow trickle of tepid water, so hair washing has been avoided.)
The school itself looks a little East German like, or whatever East Germany looks like in films anyhow. Very industrial, the area is close to the city but working class. There are 3000 students and an english department of 7 (I'm sitting in their cramped office right now - internet access is very slow and gmail is out of action completely for the next 4 weeks. Hotmail it is for messages.)
After I was left to unpack, nothing happened. I was told that someone would come to show me around at 2pm, but by 2:45 I went looking. I still have no idea about classes or schedules, except I work 5 days a week. Though I know where the food is, and when to get it.
Pretty nervous about the whole class room thing. I have nothing else to be nervous about now, so that is it. Wish me luck.
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