Evening folks. So we got confirmation today that we have TWO MONTHS of summer holidays!!! Oh yeah!! We have all of July and August off to travel and be merry. I am already counting down the days. Looks like we will try and see Beijing first up in early July (before Olympic chaos hits but whilst everything is nice and clean and pretty!) and then trek around from there.
On another positive note, we also received our resident visas today, so looks like we are here to stay! Speaking of which, I can now cancel our plane tickets that needed to be purchased at Melbourne airport for us to be able to leave the country...yet again, thanks to STA travel for throwing that curve ball at us!
And finally we have this Friday off work for Tomb Sweeping Festival. (I guess those three things now means we are out of luck for a while!) Across China people go home to their families and tend to the graves of family members. We are planning on spending a couple of nights in either Suzhou or Hangzhou. Suzhou is very near here, which makes us almost think we should make the most of having the time and go to Hangzhou - which we believed was closer but Mr Pan thinks would take about 3 hours on the train. Both are said to be beautiful, but considering Suzhou is a mere 15 minutes by bullet train...only time will tell. Time to do some internet research and find a hotel room!
Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
WuXi (Marcus)
The weather was somewhat better today than yesterday. While the temperature must have been somewhere in the mid-teens, the wind was still quite cold, but at least the rain had stopped. We decided to spend the afternoon in WuXi, with the main event being a 'Western Meal' in TGI Friday's.
We caught the bus in which was as usual, standing and bracing yourself as the bus ducks and weaves it's way through traffic and uneven roads while the bus's TV entertainment screens blast at a level just above maximum. One thing we have noticed about the Chinese is they don't seem to recognize that noise level on a radio/tv which is where it just starts to distort. In Metro the other day, there was this stereo system beside the shoe section blasting music and announcements out in full distortion mode. Courtney and I were talking about it - how can anyone, be they Chinese, Indian, Greek, Aboriginal whatever...how can ANYONE have sound pumping out at that level and just carry about their business as if it's not there?!
So our first stop was the Nanchang Temple and market complex where we have been several times before. We had to buy a few things(including a boat load of pirated DVD's for me :):):) - throw your ethics out the window in this country folks). I also woofed down a bigmac meal at the nearby McDonalds - thoroughly satisfying. Moreso when you have a window bench seat facing out and basically become the western monkeys on display eating western hamburgers!! I showed them how it's done however, putting the Mac down in around 14 seconds tops.
The temple is actually a really cool place. There are different sections with so many different kinds of things for sale it's not funny, all amongst some absolutely awesome 'authentic' looking Chinese architecture. We definitely like exploring this place.
Sunday's at the Nanchang Temple have market stalls, rides for the kids like this bubble water thing - a really great family atmosphere. It feels like we're out doing what the Chinese are doing. I had to tell Courtney over and over to the point we almost had a fight, NO, you are NOT going in the water bubble!
We have found so many cats in China it's not funny. Every time we find one we have to go talk to it because we're slowly turning into weird cat people. There was this huge aquarium area in the market - no not like Metro's food section - actual pet fish this time, and around it...heaps of cats! Cats in cages, cat's just hanging out. One cat was absolutely dead to the world asleep on top of a fish tank - the fish tank's light keeping it's belly hell warm. Cats make us very very happy. When we see them we get these big dumb grins on our face and bee-line to them.
Beside the aquarium was an area packed to the rafters with birds. Some really beautiful birds in there actually - looked sort of like Butcher birds with really striking yellow markings by their heads.
We were walking around through an area with lots of plants and we are hearing this PEEP PEEP PEEP like a baby chicken, but we couldn't see where it was coming from, until I spotted this little boy walking by with a tiny plastic bag in his hand and in the bag? Yep baby chicken. Later on we found a few guys like the one above, equipped with Box 'O' Chicks.
Here's a classic example of Chinese see, Chinese do. A branch on a nice looking Pine tree(i think) about eye-height - nice and flat, perfect place to put an empty cup! Who needs bins when the tree's are so convenient. That cup incidentally contains the milk tea that is my favourite new addiction.
One of the other things i bought in the Temple Market today was an actual FULL-sized coffee mug. You just cant find the damned things over here. I had a choice of the above Japanese Anime image or 50 or so Chinese rock star looking punces..I took the Anime.
And like every other product in China, it was dirty. It's amazing, most things you buy here in shops are actually dirty. The Pig mugs Mr Pan's daughter bought for us as a gift? Needed to be washed hardcore. When I had a good look at this cup when I got it home I thought -hmm it's actually not too bad - so ran my finger across the bottom of it's inside...ah there we go, China.
So with our shopping done, we headed back into the city centre to have an early western meal at TGI Fridays. We both love asian cuisine, but I think you get to a stage where you just crave familiar food - like chips. We went to TGI's where the staff spoke quite good English. It was nice and clean and felt good. We were the only Westerners there, though saw one older western man leave. Then one came in..then another...then a pair of them, then four of them, then there's another at the bar. Pretty soon WE ARE THE WESTERN MAJORITY.
Now this is where things feel weird in China. We talk often about wanting western company - like when we met Barb in Shanghai - it felt wonderful to just walk around and talk with her like we do back home - but here...and actually in Shanghai too - we just feel WEIRD around other westerners. We don't want to make eye contact, let alone talk to them.
Of the men (haven't seen a western woman here yet) in TGI Friday's, one arrived before another and sat by himself at the table. He gave us a sort of scowly perusal in passing as he went to sit down. When his friend arrived - both men were in their 40's, the friend had an american accent. The other stood up and moved to him, saying in a loud(but jokey) voice, "Turn Around!! Turn Around!!!" then proceeded to try and give him a kick in the ass. His friend is like, "Oh ho ho ho you Frenchies are so aggressive," or something. I'm just sitting there thinking...wankers.
These guys embody what I assume a considerable portion of Western Expats would be like in this country. From these dickheads, over by the door we have the very meek, very polite Chinese waitress who sort of man's the main door, opening it and welcoming people in. It is obvious these guys feel they are superior to the Chinese - you can just feel it - they simply exude some kind of vibe that we instantly pick up.
I was watching the staff in Pizza Hut last week, and felt the same today. Do the Chinese staff feel awkward serving us - westerners, in a clearly western restaurant? A place they are all but forced into trying to speak English - a place that would attract quite possibly any westerners in the city at any time. It looks like they are timid because of this, and I can almost imagine how it would feel to them.
I don't know what it is about other westerners, but it almost felt refreshing to be outside and amongst nothing but the Chinese again. Inside we left the western rich men in their western restaurant, showing off with their western money like absolute twats. Ok they weren't that bad, not even half, but the little pantomime with the foot up the ass really made us think this way of them.
We are curious to check out some of the expat haunts in town, particularly a bar called Blue Bar, and an Aussie Pub type place, however we feel weirded out whenever we see other westerners in WuXi and really don't wish to have any dealings with them. YET, back at the school, all on our lonesome, we talk about how we would love it if the school employed another couple..you know, brothers in arms.
Who the hell knows really, maybe the tiny droplets of Chinese water that make their way into my mouth while I shower are finally getting to me.
We caught the bus in which was as usual, standing and bracing yourself as the bus ducks and weaves it's way through traffic and uneven roads while the bus's TV entertainment screens blast at a level just above maximum. One thing we have noticed about the Chinese is they don't seem to recognize that noise level on a radio/tv which is where it just starts to distort. In Metro the other day, there was this stereo system beside the shoe section blasting music and announcements out in full distortion mode. Courtney and I were talking about it - how can anyone, be they Chinese, Indian, Greek, Aboriginal whatever...how can ANYONE have sound pumping out at that level and just carry about their business as if it's not there?!
So our first stop was the Nanchang Temple and market complex where we have been several times before. We had to buy a few things(including a boat load of pirated DVD's for me :):):) - throw your ethics out the window in this country folks). I also woofed down a bigmac meal at the nearby McDonalds - thoroughly satisfying. Moreso when you have a window bench seat facing out and basically become the western monkeys on display eating western hamburgers!! I showed them how it's done however, putting the Mac down in around 14 seconds tops.
The temple is actually a really cool place. There are different sections with so many different kinds of things for sale it's not funny, all amongst some absolutely awesome 'authentic' looking Chinese architecture. We definitely like exploring this place.
Sunday's at the Nanchang Temple have market stalls, rides for the kids like this bubble water thing - a really great family atmosphere. It feels like we're out doing what the Chinese are doing. I had to tell Courtney over and over to the point we almost had a fight, NO, you are NOT going in the water bubble!
We have found so many cats in China it's not funny. Every time we find one we have to go talk to it because we're slowly turning into weird cat people. There was this huge aquarium area in the market - no not like Metro's food section - actual pet fish this time, and around it...heaps of cats! Cats in cages, cat's just hanging out. One cat was absolutely dead to the world asleep on top of a fish tank - the fish tank's light keeping it's belly hell warm. Cats make us very very happy. When we see them we get these big dumb grins on our face and bee-line to them.
Beside the aquarium was an area packed to the rafters with birds. Some really beautiful birds in there actually - looked sort of like Butcher birds with really striking yellow markings by their heads.
We were walking around through an area with lots of plants and we are hearing this PEEP PEEP PEEP like a baby chicken, but we couldn't see where it was coming from, until I spotted this little boy walking by with a tiny plastic bag in his hand and in the bag? Yep baby chicken. Later on we found a few guys like the one above, equipped with Box 'O' Chicks.
Here's a classic example of Chinese see, Chinese do. A branch on a nice looking Pine tree(i think) about eye-height - nice and flat, perfect place to put an empty cup! Who needs bins when the tree's are so convenient. That cup incidentally contains the milk tea that is my favourite new addiction.
One of the other things i bought in the Temple Market today was an actual FULL-sized coffee mug. You just cant find the damned things over here. I had a choice of the above Japanese Anime image or 50 or so Chinese rock star looking punces..I took the Anime.
And like every other product in China, it was dirty. It's amazing, most things you buy here in shops are actually dirty. The Pig mugs Mr Pan's daughter bought for us as a gift? Needed to be washed hardcore. When I had a good look at this cup when I got it home I thought -hmm it's actually not too bad - so ran my finger across the bottom of it's inside...ah there we go, China.So with our shopping done, we headed back into the city centre to have an early western meal at TGI Fridays. We both love asian cuisine, but I think you get to a stage where you just crave familiar food - like chips. We went to TGI's where the staff spoke quite good English. It was nice and clean and felt good. We were the only Westerners there, though saw one older western man leave. Then one came in..then another...then a pair of them, then four of them, then there's another at the bar. Pretty soon WE ARE THE WESTERN MAJORITY.
Now this is where things feel weird in China. We talk often about wanting western company - like when we met Barb in Shanghai - it felt wonderful to just walk around and talk with her like we do back home - but here...and actually in Shanghai too - we just feel WEIRD around other westerners. We don't want to make eye contact, let alone talk to them.
Of the men (haven't seen a western woman here yet) in TGI Friday's, one arrived before another and sat by himself at the table. He gave us a sort of scowly perusal in passing as he went to sit down. When his friend arrived - both men were in their 40's, the friend had an american accent. The other stood up and moved to him, saying in a loud(but jokey) voice, "Turn Around!! Turn Around!!!" then proceeded to try and give him a kick in the ass. His friend is like, "Oh ho ho ho you Frenchies are so aggressive," or something. I'm just sitting there thinking...wankers.
These guys embody what I assume a considerable portion of Western Expats would be like in this country. From these dickheads, over by the door we have the very meek, very polite Chinese waitress who sort of man's the main door, opening it and welcoming people in. It is obvious these guys feel they are superior to the Chinese - you can just feel it - they simply exude some kind of vibe that we instantly pick up.
I was watching the staff in Pizza Hut last week, and felt the same today. Do the Chinese staff feel awkward serving us - westerners, in a clearly western restaurant? A place they are all but forced into trying to speak English - a place that would attract quite possibly any westerners in the city at any time. It looks like they are timid because of this, and I can almost imagine how it would feel to them.
I don't know what it is about other westerners, but it almost felt refreshing to be outside and amongst nothing but the Chinese again. Inside we left the western rich men in their western restaurant, showing off with their western money like absolute twats. Ok they weren't that bad, not even half, but the little pantomime with the foot up the ass really made us think this way of them.
We are curious to check out some of the expat haunts in town, particularly a bar called Blue Bar, and an Aussie Pub type place, however we feel weirded out whenever we see other westerners in WuXi and really don't wish to have any dealings with them. YET, back at the school, all on our lonesome, we talk about how we would love it if the school employed another couple..you know, brothers in arms.
Who the hell knows really, maybe the tiny droplets of Chinese water that make their way into my mouth while I shower are finally getting to me.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
I'm a real boy!! (Marcus)
Passing the time on Saturday night(because I can count the number of activities to do here at night on my ears) having just finished watching a pirated DVD called 'The Bucket List' which was quite enjoyable actually if you haven't seen it, I whiled away the time 'Propaganderizing' a photo of the school.
It is a crack-up around here how much of this kind of stuff you see. Billboards advertising property, TV commercials, everything - blue skies, flitting butterflies, nice golden sun. Ahh the reality of it all.
See if you can pick the real one!
It is a crack-up around here how much of this kind of stuff you see. Billboards advertising property, TV commercials, everything - blue skies, flitting butterflies, nice golden sun. Ahh the reality of it all.
See if you can pick the real one!
This just in: Man with WuXI's largest feet finds shoes! (Marcus)
As the title suggests, correct! I have stumbled upon a pair of Adidas sneakers which are actually my size, 11.5. We went to Metro today with Mr Pan to buy a few odds and ends and I thought I'd take a quick look at their shoes. At the bottom of a pile on sale, my eyes popped out of my head when I saw the size, and seemingly the only pair in the whole damned city. Actually that's not true - i found a second pair, but they looked feral. These at least, while not glass ballroom shoes still don't look too bad. One thing I have discovered about the Chinese is their fashion sense is, well it's shithouse.
These make me very happy. The two pairs of regular shoes I brought with me are wearing out big-time due to wearing them every single day. I kiss you Metro.
Ok now the above photo was taken in Metro. Metro is like the size of Bunnings - and actually looks very similar to Bunnings and has basically everything. Down one end are various electrical goods, TV's, clothing, stationary, all kinds of appliances, crockery etc etc. And down the other, a supermarket, complete with a few aisles of nothing but imported goods(woohoo!). Down the very end is the fresh meat section, fresh fruit, a bakery and finally a section which is basically like an aquarium except - nope, they aint pet's honey, dem's fer dinna! So this guy above is one of the school's drivers. He's been out of action for a little while as he broke his right hand - he was hit on his bicycle by a car. Actually on the way to Metro we saw our first accident where it looked like someone was hurt quite badly - an ambulance rushed by us to the scene where someone was lying on the road(except we couldnt see them as they had a huge crowd around them). The road's here as we have said are shockers - we also found out Mr Pan's wife, Yulan was in a car accident last year sometime - and i've heard of others - so i guess there are more accidents than we thought(and we are aware that there's a 55+ deaths a day road toll in China - which I guess for a population of 1.3 billion, really isn't too bad).
Back to the story - which by this point will probably be a let-down. So that's one of the school's drivers - lovely guy, always smiling, and like most other people around the school, cant speak english. We decided to have a looksee at all the live fish - actually Mr Pan called us over there to show us a huge live crab which apparently was from Australia. There was a lovely tank full of yum yum frogs, eels, these weird small headed turtle things. Mr Driver thinks it'd be cool to pick up one of the eels, and does so, but you know, eels bein' eels, it's slippery as hell and he drops it on the ground. With big smiles he picks it up and drops it again, this time into the turtle tank. Then it's all the fun of the fair as he stands there watching it hoping the turtle will have a bite at it or something. Ahh Chinese people.
Prison Food!
Here is Courtney and I enjoying our daily pris er canteen meal. Mmmh mmm. Would be an even bigger Mmmh mmm if the type of food served was ever different.
Today to our complete surprise we discovered the entire middle part of the school; a massive area, is in fact one huge fountain! What the hell?!!? We've walked through this area so many damned times and never noticed ANYTHING that remotely resembles a fountain. Yet today as we're walking back from picking up our wages, I hear water, we go and have a look, and ya blammo a massive fountain! It was actually pretty awesome too, with water patterns that changed constantly.
We found out it was because students and teachers from other school's were at our campus today for an english exam. Apparently these other school's don't have the facilities to hold exams but Tian Yi, the 'Chosen School' with it's unlimited gold/money certainly does. Hell did you see the mega fountain?!? In typical Chinese fashion, such visible representations of wealth are only turned on or exhibited if someone of note visits. We had the fountains at the front of the school and beneath the golden apple on for when we first arrived..well so Mr Pan could photograph us in front of them. Never the big fountain though :( I bet they'd have put that on if we were American :(
On a different note - the fog you see is not smog - it's actually fog(well actually it probably is smog too). Today was colder and drizzly - of course, because it's our weekend! Slightly cynical? Yes!
Here is the building of Senior 1 where we teach all of our lovely teens. It's actually a great way to find out how fit you are, tamping up 5 flights of stairs to get to the top. On Friday afternoon I have class 16 which is on level 5, to which I always arrive buggered, then have to go straight down to the ground floor for class 1. There's several rows of these buildings - 3 in fact. One for Senior 1, Senior 2 and Senior 3 - the equivilant of year 10, 11 and 12 in Australia. We have to walk past Senior 2 and 3's buildings to get to Senior 1. The students in those buildings have never been taught by us, so we're a constant novelty. As we walk by, there's always some kid yelling, HELLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. We put up with it for the moment, but it's only a matter of time before they're introduced to the western finger.
And last but not least, a ninja photograph of the menu at the 'Coffee' shop restaurant we go to just down the road. I was too full for Rice with Flesh, but the Rice with Frog had me drooling.
These make me very happy. The two pairs of regular shoes I brought with me are wearing out big-time due to wearing them every single day. I kiss you Metro.
Ok now the above photo was taken in Metro. Metro is like the size of Bunnings - and actually looks very similar to Bunnings and has basically everything. Down one end are various electrical goods, TV's, clothing, stationary, all kinds of appliances, crockery etc etc. And down the other, a supermarket, complete with a few aisles of nothing but imported goods(woohoo!). Down the very end is the fresh meat section, fresh fruit, a bakery and finally a section which is basically like an aquarium except - nope, they aint pet's honey, dem's fer dinna! So this guy above is one of the school's drivers. He's been out of action for a little while as he broke his right hand - he was hit on his bicycle by a car. Actually on the way to Metro we saw our first accident where it looked like someone was hurt quite badly - an ambulance rushed by us to the scene where someone was lying on the road(except we couldnt see them as they had a huge crowd around them). The road's here as we have said are shockers - we also found out Mr Pan's wife, Yulan was in a car accident last year sometime - and i've heard of others - so i guess there are more accidents than we thought(and we are aware that there's a 55+ deaths a day road toll in China - which I guess for a population of 1.3 billion, really isn't too bad).Back to the story - which by this point will probably be a let-down. So that's one of the school's drivers - lovely guy, always smiling, and like most other people around the school, cant speak english. We decided to have a looksee at all the live fish - actually Mr Pan called us over there to show us a huge live crab which apparently was from Australia. There was a lovely tank full of yum yum frogs, eels, these weird small headed turtle things. Mr Driver thinks it'd be cool to pick up one of the eels, and does so, but you know, eels bein' eels, it's slippery as hell and he drops it on the ground. With big smiles he picks it up and drops it again, this time into the turtle tank. Then it's all the fun of the fair as he stands there watching it hoping the turtle will have a bite at it or something. Ahh Chinese people.
Prison Food!
Here is Courtney and I enjoying our daily pris er canteen meal. Mmmh mmm. Would be an even bigger Mmmh mmm if the type of food served was ever different.
Today to our complete surprise we discovered the entire middle part of the school; a massive area, is in fact one huge fountain! What the hell?!!? We've walked through this area so many damned times and never noticed ANYTHING that remotely resembles a fountain. Yet today as we're walking back from picking up our wages, I hear water, we go and have a look, and ya blammo a massive fountain! It was actually pretty awesome too, with water patterns that changed constantly. 
We found out it was because students and teachers from other school's were at our campus today for an english exam. Apparently these other school's don't have the facilities to hold exams but Tian Yi, the 'Chosen School' with it's unlimited gold/money certainly does. Hell did you see the mega fountain?!? In typical Chinese fashion, such visible representations of wealth are only turned on or exhibited if someone of note visits. We had the fountains at the front of the school and beneath the golden apple on for when we first arrived..well so Mr Pan could photograph us in front of them. Never the big fountain though :( I bet they'd have put that on if we were American :( On a different note - the fog you see is not smog - it's actually fog(well actually it probably is smog too). Today was colder and drizzly - of course, because it's our weekend! Slightly cynical? Yes!
Here is the building of Senior 1 where we teach all of our lovely teens. It's actually a great way to find out how fit you are, tamping up 5 flights of stairs to get to the top. On Friday afternoon I have class 16 which is on level 5, to which I always arrive buggered, then have to go straight down to the ground floor for class 1. There's several rows of these buildings - 3 in fact. One for Senior 1, Senior 2 and Senior 3 - the equivilant of year 10, 11 and 12 in Australia. We have to walk past Senior 2 and 3's buildings to get to Senior 1. The students in those buildings have never been taught by us, so we're a constant novelty. As we walk by, there's always some kid yelling, HELLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. We put up with it for the moment, but it's only a matter of time before they're introduced to the western finger.
And last but not least, a ninja photograph of the menu at the 'Coffee' shop restaurant we go to just down the road. I was too full for Rice with Flesh, but the Rice with Frog had me drooling.Friday, March 28, 2008
Things I have learnt so far about teaching (Courtney)
Mammoth post follows...perhaps make a cup of tea.
1. Teaching is really hard work! When Marcus and I decided to up and move to China, we figured we'd be living it up. Only teaching for 15 hours a week, cruising around sightseeing, eating ourselves into dumpling induced comas, daily massages...you name it. Well, it's harder than we thought! Whilst we might only be teaching 14 & 15 classes respectively each week, our week is consumed by school. Our timetables mean that we cannot go into the city during the day or do very much other than sit and wait in the apartment until next class. And living on campust, whilst it has its benefits (eg - getting things fixed, no commuting time), it does mean that you are living with your boss! And he knows where you are at all times...although that could be due to other factors as well I suppose ;-)
The kids themselves are for the most part good. We each have our fair share of ratbags, but even sometimes they aren't the problem. Sometimes it's the really smart or confident kids that are the problem, trying to answer every question, wanting to be the centre of attention. It's a minefield each class just trying to navigate the different personalities and English abilities. In one of my Thursday classes I have two boys, who in Australia may be considered as having special needs in a classroom environment. This is something that I am totally unprepared for, and whilst I try my best each week to keep them happy and entertained it can be really hard. By the time Friday night hits we are pretty much buggered.
2. Trying to keep a class of 55 teenagers interested, listening and actually participating is almost impossible, and things that work in one class are just a complete flop in another. You can never be sure of how a class will react or to what level they will participate. Class 15 is my prime example. For the most part they are my least liked class, yet sometimes they surprise me. Class 8 is the same. I spent the first 2 or 3 weeks loving Class 8, now they are on my hit list. I'm slowly, very slowly working out how to handle them, but I think I will get to the end of the year and not be much further along than I am now. The problem is seeing them only once a week. Whilst this is great for us, as in it means we only have to produce one lesson plan for each level of kids, it means that we spend literally zero one on one time with them. I can easily see how a lot of them feel like they aren't getting any attention, and therefore will often go about creating reasons to gain attention! However, having written that, a class like Class 2, which is packed to the rafters with 57 kids, to the point that I can't even walk down to the back of the room, has no attention problems. There are cheeky looking boys in that class too, so why are they a problem in some classes, yet not others? I wish I knew. Something about this class just runs well, and everything stays on track. I'm yet to pin point why. Thankfully though we do not have the problem of mp3 players and mobile phones like some schools. I think if we had to deal with that on top of standard classroom antics I would have lost it all together.
3. Speaking Chinese would be a real asset - more so if the kids didn't know we spoke Chinese! My god, they just will not speak English!!!! It is so frustrating as their English is overwhelmingly good. They claim to be "shy", yet have no hesitation in acting like the class clown! There is still a lot of Chinese being spoken in class, almost to the point where I'm considering coming to class with a set of "class rules" (number 1 being no Chinese!) but thankfully it's not directed at me. I mean in so far as the kids aren't using Chinese to be cheeky to me or rude to me. That I am thankful for. Whilst they might muck around they wont actually be rude to me, which can't be said of Western kids. I would love to have an insight though into some of the things that are said. Most of it is just general chit chat but it can be so infuriating when you are walking around the classroom only to hear "nobiog jgoihit ohbut...(teacher approaches..) yes, I'd like to order an orange juice please"...(teacher moves to next group)..ngkht thth iuehij ghug hjh..." ARRRRGGGHHH!!!!!! Do some bloody work! Last week I had about 6 - 8 boys up the back just messing around during an activity where they had to work in groups of 4. So I wandered down toward them, they were so engrossed in their conversation they didn't even have time to warn each other that I was approaching. One boy was animatedly talking about something on the back of his head. So I walked up behind him and ruffled his hair which scared the bejesus out of him. "We aren't talking about hair or appearance today, we are talking about sport!! Now if you turn over you'll see we are actually doing activity C not activity A!!" Man, if you are going to pretend to do the stuff at least be on the right page...it's like How to Fake Doing Work 101!
4. Classroom discipline. This is a tricky one, and yet another thing I was completely unprepared for, but I am slowly making progress...I think. I am not one for confrontation of any level, and I find it really difficult to approach these sorts of things. But in a packed classroom it is unavoidable and necessary - otherwise the class will descend into chaos, from which there is no return. The kids move seats every couple of weeks, yet somehow the boys up the back seemingly never move. The kids are pretty self reliant, even in class, they have monitors etc, and I think the class moving is left up to them (it's to give their eyes a break from looking at the board always in one direction). Hence, I think the bigger more bullyish of the boys somehow manage to not do terribly much moving forward, possibly more just sideways. So enivitably in every class there are a good 10 boys that really just do nothing. Nothing. Occassionally they give me the courtesy of listening, but I am getting better at talking over them, to the point that sometimes the other kids will give them a "sshhhh" because they are missing what I am saying. It is getting easier to play the role of the teacher and the one in control. I am slowly getting used to it being my classroom and not taking any crap. Just don't let them smell the fear!! Marcus doesn't have quite as many issues with the boys as he can tower over most of them!
I have devised a number of stratgies for classroom management. Barrelling on with what I am saying is just one of them. Number two is a quick, come on guys, listen up please...said in a hey, I'm just like you, we're all friends kind of tone. Number three is looking around the classroom with my teacher face on whilst one of the kids is answering a question or reading a dialogue. It's as though as soon as anyone is talking, it gives them permission to all talk. I say to them, you give your classmates the same level of attention that you give the teacher (which really isn't asking for much most days!) But having a stern look around often grabs their attention and pulls them into line, even if it is just for a minute, it's a minute won. Shows them that I am not giving my undivided attention to the person in front of me. Fourth is all about positioning. Who says I need to be at the front of the classroom? I wander all over the place, going around listening, seeing if anyone needs help, and most importantly, hovering around groups that are clearly doing nothing. Today I spent 10 full minutes standing next to two groups of boys just to make them do something. It works. Fifth is actually moving students. This has to be executed well, and cannot just be one or two students. I've taken to moving entire ROWS of students, before we begin an activity, telling them it's for their greater good so they can speak to different people. More like it's so I can break up some of the attitude groups. They don't like it, some of them wont even move until I make them. I tell them it's only going to be for the activity, then oops! I forget to tell them they can move back.
Last but not least on my classroom management is not my fave, and I've only employed it twice. Sadly, both in the same class, Class 8. You would think they would have learnt the first time. Today we are doing a lesson on ordering food. This could be stretched over weeks and weeks, there is so much to talk about with food. So we have a dialogue with a customer and a waiter. AFter a couple of kids act it out for the class, I go through any new words, explain stuff etc. Then I get them into pairs and make them read through the dialogue a couple of times, using their dictionaries if needed and asking me any questions. Today's lesson also involved them then using a menu and practising ordering food with their partner. Well it was clear from the start that a group up the back was doing nothing. So I went and hovered around. When it came time to talking, I pretended I was a waiter and I went around the class asking random people if I could take their order - did they want a drink? Or dessert? Maybe something for their friend? (I like randomly asking extra people whilst one person is talking, keeps them on their toes!) Well I went up to one of the boys who had been doing nothing and asked if I could take his order. Silence. What would you like to eat? Nothing. I point to the menu, to prompt him...How about something to drink? He wont even look at me, let alone even try and do it on the spot. I then ask him, why are you at a restaurant if you do not want to eat? The class giggles, I make him sit down. I then, as I'm walking to the next random person, tell the class that there was a good example of why they should do the activities when I give them practise time, so they wont be embarrassed in front of the class when I ask them to speak. I said that you all had plenty of time to read the dialogue and look at the menu, and also to ask me any questions about the menu or to get me to explain or answer any questions. The look on this boy's face, mortified. The good kids of the class all had looks of triumph on their faces that I would actually say something that was quite harsh...but here's hoping that the need for me to be an awful teacher are few and far between. A little bit of fear can go a long way though, just not so much that they lose all respect for you. It's a fine line!
5. When a class goes well, it really can be fun and rewarding. Take for instance the kids and gifted classes. No matter what we do, these kids eat out of the palms of our hands. They love that we are there spending time with them, they are interested and happy. Oh what a couple of years difference can make. This too can be said for the Senior kids, but not nearly as often. I have 8 senior classes, 5 junior and 1 gifted per week, and I relish the days when it's the kids. No matter what mood you are in or how tired or sick you feel, you come out of these classes with a smile on your face. I would happily teach them all week. Funny isn't it because I actually wanted to teach teenagers. I figured I could relate to them (which for the most part I can) and that we could have some really fun and interesting interactions. I had gone over in my head all of the teachers that I liked in school and whose classes I had enjoyed the most, and thought yup, I'll be just like that and they will all love me! Not so. The interactions with the kids though are fantastic. I've always been somewhat afraid to talk to children because I really don't know that many, and I'm never quite sure how to approach them, but teaching has given me a whole new outlook on children in general. And I really should stop calling them kids because they are 13 - 14 years old, but they all look so young. I have some kids in the gifted class that seriously look about 8, they are adorable.
6. The English language is incredibly hard!! Whilst we teach oral english, there are still components of grammar and pronunciation that come along with that. Even my spelling can leave a lot to be desired some days! Nothing like being put on the spot trying to spell something. I understand English and I speak it well, but far out I struggle to explain why things are the way they are! Why does the word "neighbour" sound like neighbour? I don't know!! Why should your sentence include "to be" and not just "to"...your guess is as good as mine kid! And the amazing thing about this is, the english teachers themselves speak mostly poor english. HOW do they teach grammar?? At the junior campus the other day, Marcus asked one of the teachers what the time was. In front of a clock. She couldn't answer. The teachers at this campus barely speak to us, and when they do we struggle beyond "How are you". To which they mostly answer "Fine thank you, and you?" Just like the kids do. Textbook English and nothing more. I have gotten almost all of my classes to stop saying "fine thank you". Now when I ask "How are you guys?" or "How you doing?" I get a chorus of different responses, happy, hungry, tired.
7. Oh the questions we are asked and the conversations we have. You can never guarantee what a kid is going to ask when they put their hand up or come and see you after class. And for the most part, they are never English questions. Like poor Marcus today who had a kid wanting to play hangman with him after class as she had thought of a word for him. The word was "forlorn". How the heck are you supposed to guess that?! I had a young girl a couple of weeks ago ask if I could teach her an English song for a singing competition. How do you gently let down a child with something like that? There are a lot of things I will help with but singing just isn't one of them. Even though I am constantly asked to sing. Which I am thoroughly over (thoughts run through my mind each time "I am not a performing monkey!!!!") I managed to suggest that i could get lyrics etc for her if she found a song and could help her with difficult words and what not. It can be so hard, especially as they don't realise that there are restrictions on your time as well. I had one boy at the Junior campus say we could go shopping. Sorry kiddo, but we can't, you aren't allowed to leave the school. I had another group of girls tell me that I should come to Nanjing with them on Friday. I would love to guys but I have to work, I teach lots of classes. But why can't you come???
8. Most of the time I don't feel like a teacher. Ha! Considering I'm not a teacher that probably seems pretty obvious. Mostly I feel like I'm there to entertain or act, or just as a prestige thing for the school to say hey, look how grand we are we have foreign teachers. This has its benefits too, as the senior campus don't seem to care what we teach, just that we are there. So long as they can take happy snaps of us to show around I think that is all they really worry about. Except of course for our lovable Mr Pan, who tries to get to one of our classes each week. And not to observe, oh no, to learn. He is so cute. He attended my last gifted class. Sat up the back, got a handout, did the activities, then boasted to me afterward what new words he had learnt. I'm going to miss this guy a lot when we get home.
9. Even with all of the above, teaching still sure as hell beats working for a bank. 'Nuff said!
1. Teaching is really hard work! When Marcus and I decided to up and move to China, we figured we'd be living it up. Only teaching for 15 hours a week, cruising around sightseeing, eating ourselves into dumpling induced comas, daily massages...you name it. Well, it's harder than we thought! Whilst we might only be teaching 14 & 15 classes respectively each week, our week is consumed by school. Our timetables mean that we cannot go into the city during the day or do very much other than sit and wait in the apartment until next class. And living on campust, whilst it has its benefits (eg - getting things fixed, no commuting time), it does mean that you are living with your boss! And he knows where you are at all times...although that could be due to other factors as well I suppose ;-)
The kids themselves are for the most part good. We each have our fair share of ratbags, but even sometimes they aren't the problem. Sometimes it's the really smart or confident kids that are the problem, trying to answer every question, wanting to be the centre of attention. It's a minefield each class just trying to navigate the different personalities and English abilities. In one of my Thursday classes I have two boys, who in Australia may be considered as having special needs in a classroom environment. This is something that I am totally unprepared for, and whilst I try my best each week to keep them happy and entertained it can be really hard. By the time Friday night hits we are pretty much buggered.
2. Trying to keep a class of 55 teenagers interested, listening and actually participating is almost impossible, and things that work in one class are just a complete flop in another. You can never be sure of how a class will react or to what level they will participate. Class 15 is my prime example. For the most part they are my least liked class, yet sometimes they surprise me. Class 8 is the same. I spent the first 2 or 3 weeks loving Class 8, now they are on my hit list. I'm slowly, very slowly working out how to handle them, but I think I will get to the end of the year and not be much further along than I am now. The problem is seeing them only once a week. Whilst this is great for us, as in it means we only have to produce one lesson plan for each level of kids, it means that we spend literally zero one on one time with them. I can easily see how a lot of them feel like they aren't getting any attention, and therefore will often go about creating reasons to gain attention! However, having written that, a class like Class 2, which is packed to the rafters with 57 kids, to the point that I can't even walk down to the back of the room, has no attention problems. There are cheeky looking boys in that class too, so why are they a problem in some classes, yet not others? I wish I knew. Something about this class just runs well, and everything stays on track. I'm yet to pin point why. Thankfully though we do not have the problem of mp3 players and mobile phones like some schools. I think if we had to deal with that on top of standard classroom antics I would have lost it all together.
3. Speaking Chinese would be a real asset - more so if the kids didn't know we spoke Chinese! My god, they just will not speak English!!!! It is so frustrating as their English is overwhelmingly good. They claim to be "shy", yet have no hesitation in acting like the class clown! There is still a lot of Chinese being spoken in class, almost to the point where I'm considering coming to class with a set of "class rules" (number 1 being no Chinese!) but thankfully it's not directed at me. I mean in so far as the kids aren't using Chinese to be cheeky to me or rude to me. That I am thankful for. Whilst they might muck around they wont actually be rude to me, which can't be said of Western kids. I would love to have an insight though into some of the things that are said. Most of it is just general chit chat but it can be so infuriating when you are walking around the classroom only to hear "nobiog jgoihit ohbut...(teacher approaches..) yes, I'd like to order an orange juice please"...(teacher moves to next group)..ngkht thth iuehij ghug hjh..." ARRRRGGGHHH!!!!!! Do some bloody work! Last week I had about 6 - 8 boys up the back just messing around during an activity where they had to work in groups of 4. So I wandered down toward them, they were so engrossed in their conversation they didn't even have time to warn each other that I was approaching. One boy was animatedly talking about something on the back of his head. So I walked up behind him and ruffled his hair which scared the bejesus out of him. "We aren't talking about hair or appearance today, we are talking about sport!! Now if you turn over you'll see we are actually doing activity C not activity A!!" Man, if you are going to pretend to do the stuff at least be on the right page...it's like How to Fake Doing Work 101!
4. Classroom discipline. This is a tricky one, and yet another thing I was completely unprepared for, but I am slowly making progress...I think. I am not one for confrontation of any level, and I find it really difficult to approach these sorts of things. But in a packed classroom it is unavoidable and necessary - otherwise the class will descend into chaos, from which there is no return. The kids move seats every couple of weeks, yet somehow the boys up the back seemingly never move. The kids are pretty self reliant, even in class, they have monitors etc, and I think the class moving is left up to them (it's to give their eyes a break from looking at the board always in one direction). Hence, I think the bigger more bullyish of the boys somehow manage to not do terribly much moving forward, possibly more just sideways. So enivitably in every class there are a good 10 boys that really just do nothing. Nothing. Occassionally they give me the courtesy of listening, but I am getting better at talking over them, to the point that sometimes the other kids will give them a "sshhhh" because they are missing what I am saying. It is getting easier to play the role of the teacher and the one in control. I am slowly getting used to it being my classroom and not taking any crap. Just don't let them smell the fear!! Marcus doesn't have quite as many issues with the boys as he can tower over most of them!
I have devised a number of stratgies for classroom management. Barrelling on with what I am saying is just one of them. Number two is a quick, come on guys, listen up please...said in a hey, I'm just like you, we're all friends kind of tone. Number three is looking around the classroom with my teacher face on whilst one of the kids is answering a question or reading a dialogue. It's as though as soon as anyone is talking, it gives them permission to all talk. I say to them, you give your classmates the same level of attention that you give the teacher (which really isn't asking for much most days!) But having a stern look around often grabs their attention and pulls them into line, even if it is just for a minute, it's a minute won. Shows them that I am not giving my undivided attention to the person in front of me. Fourth is all about positioning. Who says I need to be at the front of the classroom? I wander all over the place, going around listening, seeing if anyone needs help, and most importantly, hovering around groups that are clearly doing nothing. Today I spent 10 full minutes standing next to two groups of boys just to make them do something. It works. Fifth is actually moving students. This has to be executed well, and cannot just be one or two students. I've taken to moving entire ROWS of students, before we begin an activity, telling them it's for their greater good so they can speak to different people. More like it's so I can break up some of the attitude groups. They don't like it, some of them wont even move until I make them. I tell them it's only going to be for the activity, then oops! I forget to tell them they can move back.
Last but not least on my classroom management is not my fave, and I've only employed it twice. Sadly, both in the same class, Class 8. You would think they would have learnt the first time. Today we are doing a lesson on ordering food. This could be stretched over weeks and weeks, there is so much to talk about with food. So we have a dialogue with a customer and a waiter. AFter a couple of kids act it out for the class, I go through any new words, explain stuff etc. Then I get them into pairs and make them read through the dialogue a couple of times, using their dictionaries if needed and asking me any questions. Today's lesson also involved them then using a menu and practising ordering food with their partner. Well it was clear from the start that a group up the back was doing nothing. So I went and hovered around. When it came time to talking, I pretended I was a waiter and I went around the class asking random people if I could take their order - did they want a drink? Or dessert? Maybe something for their friend? (I like randomly asking extra people whilst one person is talking, keeps them on their toes!) Well I went up to one of the boys who had been doing nothing and asked if I could take his order. Silence. What would you like to eat? Nothing. I point to the menu, to prompt him...How about something to drink? He wont even look at me, let alone even try and do it on the spot. I then ask him, why are you at a restaurant if you do not want to eat? The class giggles, I make him sit down. I then, as I'm walking to the next random person, tell the class that there was a good example of why they should do the activities when I give them practise time, so they wont be embarrassed in front of the class when I ask them to speak. I said that you all had plenty of time to read the dialogue and look at the menu, and also to ask me any questions about the menu or to get me to explain or answer any questions. The look on this boy's face, mortified. The good kids of the class all had looks of triumph on their faces that I would actually say something that was quite harsh...but here's hoping that the need for me to be an awful teacher are few and far between. A little bit of fear can go a long way though, just not so much that they lose all respect for you. It's a fine line!
5. When a class goes well, it really can be fun and rewarding. Take for instance the kids and gifted classes. No matter what we do, these kids eat out of the palms of our hands. They love that we are there spending time with them, they are interested and happy. Oh what a couple of years difference can make. This too can be said for the Senior kids, but not nearly as often. I have 8 senior classes, 5 junior and 1 gifted per week, and I relish the days when it's the kids. No matter what mood you are in or how tired or sick you feel, you come out of these classes with a smile on your face. I would happily teach them all week. Funny isn't it because I actually wanted to teach teenagers. I figured I could relate to them (which for the most part I can) and that we could have some really fun and interesting interactions. I had gone over in my head all of the teachers that I liked in school and whose classes I had enjoyed the most, and thought yup, I'll be just like that and they will all love me! Not so. The interactions with the kids though are fantastic. I've always been somewhat afraid to talk to children because I really don't know that many, and I'm never quite sure how to approach them, but teaching has given me a whole new outlook on children in general. And I really should stop calling them kids because they are 13 - 14 years old, but they all look so young. I have some kids in the gifted class that seriously look about 8, they are adorable.
6. The English language is incredibly hard!! Whilst we teach oral english, there are still components of grammar and pronunciation that come along with that. Even my spelling can leave a lot to be desired some days! Nothing like being put on the spot trying to spell something. I understand English and I speak it well, but far out I struggle to explain why things are the way they are! Why does the word "neighbour" sound like neighbour? I don't know!! Why should your sentence include "to be" and not just "to"...your guess is as good as mine kid! And the amazing thing about this is, the english teachers themselves speak mostly poor english. HOW do they teach grammar?? At the junior campus the other day, Marcus asked one of the teachers what the time was. In front of a clock. She couldn't answer. The teachers at this campus barely speak to us, and when they do we struggle beyond "How are you". To which they mostly answer "Fine thank you, and you?" Just like the kids do. Textbook English and nothing more. I have gotten almost all of my classes to stop saying "fine thank you". Now when I ask "How are you guys?" or "How you doing?" I get a chorus of different responses, happy, hungry, tired.
7. Oh the questions we are asked and the conversations we have. You can never guarantee what a kid is going to ask when they put their hand up or come and see you after class. And for the most part, they are never English questions. Like poor Marcus today who had a kid wanting to play hangman with him after class as she had thought of a word for him. The word was "forlorn". How the heck are you supposed to guess that?! I had a young girl a couple of weeks ago ask if I could teach her an English song for a singing competition. How do you gently let down a child with something like that? There are a lot of things I will help with but singing just isn't one of them. Even though I am constantly asked to sing. Which I am thoroughly over (thoughts run through my mind each time "I am not a performing monkey!!!!") I managed to suggest that i could get lyrics etc for her if she found a song and could help her with difficult words and what not. It can be so hard, especially as they don't realise that there are restrictions on your time as well. I had one boy at the Junior campus say we could go shopping. Sorry kiddo, but we can't, you aren't allowed to leave the school. I had another group of girls tell me that I should come to Nanjing with them on Friday. I would love to guys but I have to work, I teach lots of classes. But why can't you come???
8. Most of the time I don't feel like a teacher. Ha! Considering I'm not a teacher that probably seems pretty obvious. Mostly I feel like I'm there to entertain or act, or just as a prestige thing for the school to say hey, look how grand we are we have foreign teachers. This has its benefits too, as the senior campus don't seem to care what we teach, just that we are there. So long as they can take happy snaps of us to show around I think that is all they really worry about. Except of course for our lovable Mr Pan, who tries to get to one of our classes each week. And not to observe, oh no, to learn. He is so cute. He attended my last gifted class. Sat up the back, got a handout, did the activities, then boasted to me afterward what new words he had learnt. I'm going to miss this guy a lot when we get home.
9. Even with all of the above, teaching still sure as hell beats working for a bank. 'Nuff said!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Mmm fried chicken head (Marcus)
Yes so Courtney is feeling much better - thankfully - that we decided to go out for dinner. Regular haunt of ours, I think tonight was our 4th time there. The thing I like about this place is we don't order via a menu - the menu is 100% in Chinese characters with no pictures or anything. We order using nothing but Chinese and help from the Waiter who is an absolutely lovely young guy who can speak very basic english. With his help and our basic Chinese, we get there. We have been ordering 'safe' dishes - ie 1 or 2 vegetable dishes(can you believe we have been here over a month and both don't know the bloody chinese word for vegetables?!) - and this beef dish. The beef dish is just awesome. It comes on a sizzling plate, and is chunks of beef in a sort of gravy, surrounded by a ring of crisp green broccoli. It's a definite winner! Taking a new tact, we thought we'd try and branch out a little and order a pork dish - however the word we took for pork...Ju Roe...the waiter didn't understand...and surprisingly he didn't know the words Pig or Pork either. Go figure..
So at his suggestion we ordered a chicken dish. We were very happy with what actually made it out, actual chicken meat!! Chicken can be like western enemy number 1. We have tried chicken stomachs on little skewers, and they're awful. They're hard and chewy and I don't like the taste. We went to a korean place the other night and ordered 3 meat dishes which they cook in front of you, and the third one which we hadn't ordered before, i think was these bloody stomach things again, blech!. We're happy woofing into the chicken meat, which came with a chili sauce, when i suddenly realized that one of the pieces was in fact the chicken's deep fried head. Mmmm mmmmh!! That's the thing about China - there's no pissing around, it's INTO THE POT! ALL OF YOU, WINGS, BEAK, LEGS, EYES, KNEES, you heard me, IN THERE!!
Beaktastic!
And completely unrelated, two of the little local cuties playing in a tree outside our apartment. They actually called out to us as we were on our way to dinner, "Hello!! What's your name?" Of course when you then tell them you're taking their photo you get instant....
..Asian Salute!
So at his suggestion we ordered a chicken dish. We were very happy with what actually made it out, actual chicken meat!! Chicken can be like western enemy number 1. We have tried chicken stomachs on little skewers, and they're awful. They're hard and chewy and I don't like the taste. We went to a korean place the other night and ordered 3 meat dishes which they cook in front of you, and the third one which we hadn't ordered before, i think was these bloody stomach things again, blech!. We're happy woofing into the chicken meat, which came with a chili sauce, when i suddenly realized that one of the pieces was in fact the chicken's deep fried head. Mmmm mmmmh!! That's the thing about China - there's no pissing around, it's INTO THE POT! ALL OF YOU, WINGS, BEAK, LEGS, EYES, KNEES, you heard me, IN THERE!!
Beaktastic!
And completely unrelated, two of the little local cuties playing in a tree outside our apartment. They actually called out to us as we were on our way to dinner, "Hello!! What's your name?" Of course when you then tell them you're taking their photo you get instant....
..Asian Salute!Cough! (Courtney)
Another day, and more weird shenanigans. Marcus and I just returned from teaching our last classes for the day (and after stopping at the printing department to collect our 1600 pieces of A3 paper for next week's classes! Times like those I wish we had one of those handy three wheel cart things I see everywhere) when there was a knock at the door. Of course, it was Mr Pan. Mr Pan has developed a somewhat frustrating habit of calling us on the phone to see if we are free, only to be standing outside our door waiting to come in! This makes it somewhat difficult to say we are not free when he can clearly hear us talking, watching TV etc. Anyhoo, Mr Pan is at the door, somewhat out of breath. He comes in, announces "a gift for you" and proceeds to hand me a five litre bottle of cooking oil. Uh, Mr Pan...come with me to the kitchen...we already have a 3 litre bottle of cooking oil! He says that's ok, just use slowly. I point out to him that we have been here over a month and look at how little progress we have made on our original bottle! He laughs, then says he must leave, and literally runs from the apartment, down the stairs and across back to his own apartment. Yet another interaction where we will never know why he decided to buy us a gift of cooking oil. I suspect he went to the shops bought oil, got home, realised he already had some and so as to not get in trouble off Oolan for wasting money, decided it would be a great present for Marcus and Courtney!
There are times when I feel as though we are in a sitcom and Mr Pan is like our Kramer...
Today we had our one of our classes cancelled so that we could meet with some people from the Jiangsu Provincial Education Department. Lovely folk. They seem to go around and see how new teachers are settling in. I was chatting to one of the ladies and she asked me how we were dealing with being lonely etc. This is the first person to recognise that Marcus and I have gone through a huge life change and that yes, we miss our home and family and friends greatly! And yes, there are days when we are lonely! It was so nice to talk to her. What do you think I received from them????
More flowers!!
So just a quick update to say yes, I am alive. I have not been very present on the blog or on emails or any other form of communication for a week or so now due to a nasty flu like thing. It knocked me for six, but I am on the mend today, I can basically talk again and feel much better. But lordie what a week it has been! It's been a long time since I have felt so utterly ill, just like every part of my body had some sort of complaint. I had been warned that bugs here could be severe, and I can confirm that yes they are! The final straw was of course on Monday where I taught three classes in the afternoon with no voice...a challenge to say the least! Last week James sent through some much needed teaching advise, and one of his suggestions was to run a class in silence. Initially I thought hmm, that might be too hard. Well James, I can safely say that I ran a number of classes basically in silence out of necessity! The kids were great though, they all understood that I was sick and for the most part tried their hardest to be quiet and listen. And ultimately they were happy to play games which involved them doing all of the talking - I actually had one class that was overjoyed to play Simon Says for a full 25 minutes!!
So I just wanted to send an update that yes I am ok, as I have received some concerned emails, no I don't need to go to the hospital or be evacuated by air etc etc. But thank you for your concern =) Mr Pan kindly took me to the chemist a couple of nights ago to get some more medicine, which he insisted he pay for. It goes back to the whole Chinese thing of - I ask you to do something, therefore I pay. This was one of those times when I felt mortified that he was paying. I do everything to offer money, which only insults him. He explained to me that he has a card for the chemist which has money on it, like a chemist credit card. I tried to explain thta that money was for him, his wife and daughter not some ill westerner! But he would hear none of it. He is such a generous man, I feel like I need to set up some sort of trust fund where I can deposit part of my salary to him each month. So after that little excursion I am now taking a total of 29 pills three times a day. All herbal stuff of course!
Tonight we are even going to go and get some dinner! Actual food! Poor Marcus has gone above and beyond, trapsing to the shops, procuring food, heating up rice bags for me, you name it. In complete desperation the other night we actually ate dinner at the canteen (at 5:10!!), hoping it would be different from lunch. Sadly we can confirm that the same mostly awful food is served for dinner as well. I suspect the poor kids probably eat it for breakfast too.
Speaking of kids, I was today asked my second grammar question. Which I dread. Whilst I obviously speak English, teaching grammar is a mindfield of problems as I just do not have the training. Whilst I understand English grammar, I can't explain it! Last week a girl asked me if "ponytail" was a countable or uncountable noun. What the!?!? I googled later, and thankfully I told her the correct answer. It's countable by the way. Today one of my fave kids wanted to know why one of his homework sentences was marked as incorrect. It took me so long to explain but we finally got there. Next week I'm going to try and take some pics of my gifted class. I only have one gifted class but I absolutely love them. They make Wednesdays so enjoyable. I'm even getting better with all of their names - there's a Jimmy (who is my fave, and not even because of his name) a George, Ben, Koby, Oscar, Wendy, Cindy, Jessica, Automan or Ultraman (I haven't been able to work out which) and....a Piggy!!! Yes, his name is Piggy and he is completely serious about it. I asked him why he chose the name Piggy, he stood up in front of the class and went into this long winded explaination which took about 3 full minutes. Turns out he wanted to be called Pig (which by the way he described it took him HOURS of deliberation) only to be told by his English teacher that Pig was not a suitable name. Well well, nothing like determination, he decides then that Piggy will do instead! Adorable.
A picture that one of the girls from the Junior Campus drew for me.
Righto, it's 5:40...must be time for dinner!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
She's still sick! :( (Marcus)
Poor Courtney is still sick. She sounds worse than Marge from the Simpson's. She has a cough she can't kick which is in turn giving her a really sore throat. Mr Pan took us up the street last night to get her some Chinese medicine for it; which she has been taking, but unfortunately she's still very sick. She's also very tired from crappy night's sleeping with the constant coughing. On top of that she was thoroughly blocked up, but I rubbed some Vix onto her chest which I think helped.
Today I banned her from teaching. I had her call Mr Pan to tell her she was too sick to teach, and for him to hear that her voice was in fact worse than it was yesterday. She really shouldn't have taught yesterday when she was already not well.
I doubt she will pull up fine tomorrow and if not, she will not teach again. Mr Pan will also take her to see a doctor - and i told him that this time it must be the best place - ie one of the cities hospitals. She likely has some kind of throat infection or somesuch. We still have penicillin from when she was sick a week or two ago so that will come in handy.
Today I banned her from teaching. I had her call Mr Pan to tell her she was too sick to teach, and for him to hear that her voice was in fact worse than it was yesterday. She really shouldn't have taught yesterday when she was already not well.
I doubt she will pull up fine tomorrow and if not, she will not teach again. Mr Pan will also take her to see a doctor - and i told him that this time it must be the best place - ie one of the cities hospitals. She likely has some kind of throat infection or somesuch. We still have penicillin from when she was sick a week or two ago so that will come in handy.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Obligatory photo post! (Marcus)
For those(including myself) who aren't particularly fond of large walls of text, here are some pretty pictures to look at. Continuing on with the photos from the lesser quality mobile phone(because we just haven't been enthused enough to use the regular camera), here's some shots from out n about.
One of the girls in downtown Wuxi's Pizza Hut. We thought...this is too cool, what the hell are they wearing, then were let down when we realized they had some kind of Arabian Nights pizza special thing going on so ah yeah, costume. Wouldn't put it past regular Chinese shopworkers to wear uniforms like this for no reason other than it looks potentially western influenced.
Surprisingly there were other things on the menu other than pizzas. Courtney tried her luck with what kind of looked like a delicious open souvlaki with couscous - but alas, what actually arrived at the table didn't look so appealing. It was tasty though apparently. Of the few western style dishes we have eaten, they come in very small portions. I ordered a hawaiian, and despite lacking in the toppings department, it was bloody wonderful.
WuXi's very own Shanghai-style building. This is one a few and possibly where WuXi gets its nickname as 'Little Shanghai.' Despite Courtney being sick the other day, and having depressingly zero luck finding shoes big enough to fit me(in like 100 bloody shops) we have upgraded WuXi City from being not bad to pretty cool actually. Oh and check it out, BLUE SKY!!!
Wandering around. Chinese people everywhere(funny that). We have only been on weekends which is quite busy/buzzy. Notice the nice blossom tree in the background that's now in full glorious bloom. Many people were photographing each other in front of it. Spring has made most areas look quite considerably better.
One very large book store, famous in Jiangsu province apparently(even toilet blocks are famous I think). Named Xinhua bookstore, it was actually huge inside, but like most other stores, stagnant, mostly completely devoid of character and possibly somehow relocated from the 80's to present day. There's something that just draws me to photograph misspelt English words.
A sign we found on the bus. God only knows what the exact meaning is. The best we could come up with from left to right is, No washing your face in the toilet if you are a cross between a dog and a pig with one droopy tit, No smoking, No removing your head and dropping the pieces into the bin, and please remove arms while seated.
Woo yeah check that blue sky and greenery! This is at the schools other campus where we teach the Junior 1 classes (13-14yr olds). It's a much smaller campus but its actually good with some really nice grass and tree's around the place. I am glad as hell we don't live there as just a stone's throw away it's absolute dirtsville - actually, if you could see the suburb surrounding the campus you'd laugh, it is so different out there with the most clogged up chaotic streets I think ive seen. But within the campus, it's really nice. There's a particularly nice little pagoda over a small lake which is full of healthy looking goldfish. I am a big fan of this place.
Here's Laoshi Courtney returning from inspecting the school news signs. On this particular day, our dashing teacher had lost her voice - making it very easy to teach 3 full classes. Given a choice...hmm, try and teach 3 classes of kids with no voice or likely be taken to a shitty hospital to sit in a crap bed for 4 hours and get an IV drip for a sore throat..what would you pick?????????????
Each student building in this campus is 4 levels high, but my current fitness levels makes it feel closer to 12.
One of the girls in downtown Wuxi's Pizza Hut. We thought...this is too cool, what the hell are they wearing, then were let down when we realized they had some kind of Arabian Nights pizza special thing going on so ah yeah, costume. Wouldn't put it past regular Chinese shopworkers to wear uniforms like this for no reason other than it looks potentially western influenced.
Surprisingly there were other things on the menu other than pizzas. Courtney tried her luck with what kind of looked like a delicious open souvlaki with couscous - but alas, what actually arrived at the table didn't look so appealing. It was tasty though apparently. Of the few western style dishes we have eaten, they come in very small portions. I ordered a hawaiian, and despite lacking in the toppings department, it was bloody wonderful.
WuXi's very own Shanghai-style building. This is one a few and possibly where WuXi gets its nickname as 'Little Shanghai.' Despite Courtney being sick the other day, and having depressingly zero luck finding shoes big enough to fit me(in like 100 bloody shops) we have upgraded WuXi City from being not bad to pretty cool actually. Oh and check it out, BLUE SKY!!!
Wandering around. Chinese people everywhere(funny that). We have only been on weekends which is quite busy/buzzy. Notice the nice blossom tree in the background that's now in full glorious bloom. Many people were photographing each other in front of it. Spring has made most areas look quite considerably better.
One very large book store, famous in Jiangsu province apparently(even toilet blocks are famous I think). Named Xinhua bookstore, it was actually huge inside, but like most other stores, stagnant, mostly completely devoid of character and possibly somehow relocated from the 80's to present day. There's something that just draws me to photograph misspelt English words.
A sign we found on the bus. God only knows what the exact meaning is. The best we could come up with from left to right is, No washing your face in the toilet if you are a cross between a dog and a pig with one droopy tit, No smoking, No removing your head and dropping the pieces into the bin, and please remove arms while seated.
Woo yeah check that blue sky and greenery! This is at the schools other campus where we teach the Junior 1 classes (13-14yr olds). It's a much smaller campus but its actually good with some really nice grass and tree's around the place. I am glad as hell we don't live there as just a stone's throw away it's absolute dirtsville - actually, if you could see the suburb surrounding the campus you'd laugh, it is so different out there with the most clogged up chaotic streets I think ive seen. But within the campus, it's really nice. There's a particularly nice little pagoda over a small lake which is full of healthy looking goldfish. I am a big fan of this place.
Here's Laoshi Courtney returning from inspecting the school news signs. On this particular day, our dashing teacher had lost her voice - making it very easy to teach 3 full classes. Given a choice...hmm, try and teach 3 classes of kids with no voice or likely be taken to a shitty hospital to sit in a crap bed for 4 hours and get an IV drip for a sore throat..what would you pick?????????????
Each student building in this campus is 4 levels high, but my current fitness levels makes it feel closer to 12. After a month, 10 things I like about China (Marcus)
1.The Food – mostly! It’s a mixed bag. On one hand we have the wonder of street food…but we also have the stinky oily cess pools that is what other street food is served from. We have the myriad of steamers, baked goodies, stuffed buns and oodles upon oodles of cakes and sweet breads and candies, then we have the cold slops and boney to the max meat that is present on our trays in the school canteen. We have the delicious multitude of Chinese dishes that we are slowly learning about, then we have the unknown potentially disastrous minefield of animal parts; which raises the question, will we boldly go, where no sane(or more accurately, no aware..)Westerner has gone before.
2. The People – On the whole I find the Chinese people to be extremely interesting. They are so extremely different to us in so many ways it’s hard to describe in just a few words. There are so many of them…so many. It’s so hard to comprehend just how many there are and I have tried before. They’re not just over there, across the street in one massive horde – no, they’re everywhere, absolutely everywhere. Everywhere you go is an absolute hive of activity. Every street is teeming with people. Every shop has at least 4-5 store workers, even when the store is the size of a shoebox. If you see a truck on the side of the road receiving repairs, there’ll be usually one guy working on it, and at least 5 other guys standing around, talking, adding input, you name it. On the corners of streets, men sit on their motorcycles just…I don’t know what, just chillin’ out really.
3. Shopping – I like it but the novelty is wearing off. There’s some really interesting things to purchase in some really interesting places, but most of what you see is just repetitions of the store/s beside it. We are always on the lookout for interesting ‘chinese cultural’ type items, BUT, it feels kind of weird/wrong/pure touristy buying these things when there’s really not much to see culturally around where we are currently. It is just weird. Back in Melbourne, none of us would shop in an Aussie tourist shop – we’re feel like idiots – but we also don’t have a rich 5000 years of culture in Australia either – we’re not even at 300 years if memory serves. China on the other hand, has one of the longest histories on the planet and most of us western folk know very little about it. It is depressing when you read about things such as the cultural revolution where much of this was destroyed. What we have in our area I guess is modern China in its dirtiest form. I do find the shopping interesting however. It is very different from home. I don’t think I would enjoy it permanently though. Bargaining can be fun, but on the whole what is on offer for sale is the equivalent of what was on sale at a shopping centre that Courtney, Sam, Jess and I went looking through in Springvale once upon a time.
4. Feeling Unique – I have never felt this way before. When I am walking down the street, I am the ONLY one of my kind. All eyes are on me. I am usually a reserved person. I usually die a little on the inside when I am the exact centre of attention and all of my life I have tried to avoid being in that position – even on birthdays! So now here I am and all eyes are on me. Here I am standing before 1500+ different kids a week in groups of around 55 and I don’t feel particularly daunted. I guess it’s different in front of a culture so different to ours than in front of your peers, but it is almost surreal all the same. Here I can literally reinvent my personality if I so wanted. I could be some kind of musician, or sportsman or whatever the hell I wanted. I could be a big rough and tumble fireman if I wanted to(though clearly I am not) – but to the Chinese, I AM! It is the weirdest thing ever. They perceive all of us western people as being big and strong. They often assume height = strength and my students see me as exactly that. I can actually understand how a celebrity would feel now. I can also actually understand why it must also shit them to death. Having been here over a month, it’s still uncomfortable being watched by absolutely everyone. If they’re not just sneaking a quick glance, they are full on staring, or pointing you out to someone else to make sure they don’t miss you. I feel surprised at how little they have seen of western people here. While I am not fond of it, I know that this is practically one of the few places on Earth where I could actually experience this. I can feel unique, special, different and interesting. I can have people look at me in wonder. When I pick up something at the supermarket, there’s always someone checking it out – what does the white man eat??? Wowowow he knows our language!(well a teensy bit). So yeah, when I go home to Australia, I am back to being just one of the crowd again. I do plan on savouring the unique feeling at least a little bit, as I honestly cant think of anywhere else where you would experience it. Even the remote villages in Africa would be used to tourist buses pulling through them, but here, this country has literally been largely closed off since almost forever, and their stares just show the reality of it.
5. Zhen zhu nai cha – or milk tea for the uninitiated. This stuff just rocks. I think this is what I will miss the most when I return to Australia, although they might actually have it in the more Asianified places. It’s basically a plastic cup with some jelly balls in the bottom. They seal it with this weird contraption then give you a nice thick hard plastic straw which you plunge through the lid. You drink it hot and can even buy multiple and micronuke them later should you get a craving. I cant even think of what it tastes like, but it’s vaguely reminiscent of chocolate milk. I didn’t like the jelly ball things at first, but now I chomp on em like a pro. (Yeah I said I chomp on balls)
6. Kids & Oldies – The kids – anything from 12 or so right down to the toddlers, are absolutely adorable. Never have I felt the need to just pick up random kids and give them a hug. The toddlers are padded against the world whilst the 12 yr olds are just plain innocent and cute. Every one of them is adorable, I am not sure what happens to them in adolescence or moreso adulthood… The Chinese life cycle seems to be something like, born cute as hell, grow into a fugly then return to cuteness once you age, because the oldies are almost as cute as the kids. They’re small, they’re wrinkled, they hobble around together in parks on weekends. They stand there, staring off into space having their slow-paced conversations. They’re up doing Tai Chi. They’re riding around carrying loads of things on their bikes or shoulders that we ‘younguns’ wouldn’t touch. Hopefully someday soon I will gain the confidence to actually ask people on the street if I can take their photo. I want to remember these dear old folk forever. There is something just so inheritantly peaceful that radiates from them.
7. Culture and meaning – Chinese culture is very different from our own; that much was obvious from the day we first arrived here. I like the fact that everything here has meaning. Every name, every garden layout, every building, it all has a deeper meaning to it. To us, we name a baby because we like the sound of it. We build a garden because it looks good. The Chinese seem to operate on different levels. Whenever I have asked someone’s Chinese name, they have firstly told me it, then immediately gone on to tell me what it means. Mr Pan’s wife, Yu Lan (Pronounced OO LAN) is a type of flower, which we have since worked out is actually a magnolia. Another English teacher I met, whose English name I can now not remember, her name was after a famous Chinese poet’s ‘red dream’ or some such. Chinese culture is a topic that again cant be summarized in a single paragraph.
8. The language – Chinese as a language is very interesting. The characters have always been really appealing to westerners(just look at how many people have tattoos they wouldn’t have a clue what they meant). The spoken language is likewise very interesting to listen to. Like English, you get your good speakers and bad speakers. Some sound quite precise and almost musical – very nice to listen to, whilst others speak so fast it’s just a messy jumble, or others again who literally shout-talk, which again is somewhat unappealing. I wish I could speak the language, I wish I wish I wish. Even just at a slightly higher level. Right now I know some words and phrases to get me by, but nowhere near basic conversational. I wish I knew just enough to have a basic conversation, this can be so frustrating.
9. Environment – Now this is a mixed bag. While there’s the obvious pollution and neglect issues – I find it interesting at the same time. This is a place unlike anywhere I have been to ever. I haven’t been anywhere in the world before so likewise have nothing to compare it to(and I don’t count a family holiday to Fiji as anything other than that). Previously, my only real views of poverty were what I did see in Fiji. Here were tiny villages, or dirty little towns, filled with islander looking folk. It’s not much, but for the age I went there, it left an impression. The main reason it stuck in my mind was it was so different from home. But China blows that memory out of the water. Here is an environment that is just so utterly different it’s hard to take it all in. When it clears up(like today and yesterday), it can be quite beautiful in its own way, but most of the time it’s just smoggy old jam-packed China. I can’t wait to see more of the country at any rate. I enjoy witnessing it’s differences to things that are familiar. I am sure that will wear off at some stage however.
10. History – I like most history and I find Chinese history very interesting. If anything I just wish more of it was visible. When I look at the hustle and bustle in the streets, then see old period movies set in the earlier days of China, I can practically see the place as it was. I can imagine the people doing the very same things they are today in exactly the same ways. I actually think that over the years, the real Chinese people have changed very little. To them life is just about which job is done next. They’re always busy, working to support themselves and their millions of tiny communities. It really is very interesting.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
A man by the initials of DL exiled from T (Courtney)
No, it's not one of those Mensa questions (eg - 24 H in a D), it's simply my way of making sure you all know what my blogpost is about, without me actually having to mention the little old man in red robes. I feel I need to acknowledge what is going on as much as I need to write about our daily life here.
So I'm sure you have all seen recent reports on the news of violence, death, protests etc. Funny that, as we don't seem to be seeing very much at all! News coverage on any issue in this country is lacking to say the least, world news is non existant and senstive news...well it just plain either doesn't exist, or is the exact opposite to the truth. For the first couple of weeks we were here, we didn't really catch up on a lot of world news. Slowly we started spending more time reading daily news websites from home and abroad. That was really when I started taking note of what was being broadcast here. Initially there were reports on China's growing involvment with Dafur and the humanitarian crisis there. Their stance on everything amazes me. There is a rehearsed answer, which has obviously been fed down the line, and no one will deviate from it. I watch CCTV9, the international channel here, and I wonder how the presenters (hardly any of whom are actually Chinese), can justify in their minds what they are being told to say.
I should point out now, that my knowledge on current affairs, or of Chinese or Tibetian history is not strong. I do my best to know what is going on in the world. but there are some areas that I do not feel I can comment on because I don't have enough knowledge. I am not an overly political person, but I do have my own strong beliefs and principles. So this post is purely to point out what I have been experiencing whilst living here.
So over the last couple of weeks, my interest has grown each day, when I catch a glimpse of the news here, and then compare to what I can read on the internet. It should be noted that most international news sites have been blocked over the last few days. We have our ways of getting around that. Whilst I knew when we moved here that there is strict control over the media, I really had no idea of its reaches. Simply put, the people here are fed lies. And day by day as I read the news, the conflict that goes on in my own head grows - it can be hard to reconcile living by choice in a country when their actions go against everything you believe in. However, my reasons for living here are not political, I'm here for a totally different reason, but it is still increasingly difficult, even simply from a human level to know what is going on and know that it is not recognised.
The events over the last couple of weeks have been told as follows - protests organised by the DL to politicise those great games coming turned violent. There were riots in the streets which caused mass damage, and the deaths of 13 people. The riots apparently took place over 2 or 3 days and a couple of hundred "ring leaders" have supposedly "turned themselves in". Hmm.. Whilst we go back to my previous comment on me not knowing a great deal on the history, I find it impossible to believe that the DL would be some sort of devious mastermind...doesn't quite fit with the whole Buddist thing.
Of course we know that there have been many many more deaths, days worth of violence, which has also spread to other parts of this country, and that yesterday also spread to India. We are also hearing about mass condemnation and a lot of talk of boycotts etc. Here, we get the exact opposite. We hear that over 100 nations have thrown their support behind China...might I point out these countries included Zambia, Indonesia, various regions of Pakistan, not exactly your world super powers. There have been no mention of those countries at all.
We also hear that western media lie and manipulate the truth, even though in reality no western media is allowed into the area - and those that are there do their reporting in secret. Talks of boycotting the games intrigues me. Firstly, I doubt it would happen. Whilst I know there is always a degree of politicising when it comes to the games, I highly doubt many would give up their chance for glory. Secondly, even if boycotts did occur, this country is so set on perfection and being the best that they would find a way around it. No kidding. Somehow, they would come up with a way of making it seem like it wasn't important. Thirdly, we have China's position in the world. It is well known that China is the world's factory, and there are huge economic risks involved when so much trade is focused on one country. In an ideal world, athletes or countries could chose to boycott based on their beliefs. However, when so much relies on China, it simply cannot be an option.
I think what frustrates me the most is preventing people from accessing information and therefore knowledge. So much goes on here that is just not reported (eg - the hijack situation in Xian recently) and now that I am witnessing it, it is so hard to comprehend when I come from a country where all of those rights are respected and encouraged. Yes, I have no doubt there are areas of our own media who report things for their own gain or other reasons, but on the whole it is very very different. As they say, knowledge is power, and in a country of this size with such huge numbers of poor, it is going to be increasingly interesting to see which direction this country goes. It is either going to be the next big super power, or it will simply implode on itself.
Ok....now onto some more light hearted things...
Our weekend has been pretty quiet, mostly because I have picked up another flu. Most likely I didn't get over the last one properly and my body is yet to adjust to dealing with hundreds of snotty, sneezy, coughing kids all week. Needless to say, but Friday I was struggling to walk up the stairs to my classroom. Thankfully the classes on Friday basically ran themselves,allowing me to just hover at the front of the class. I then proceeded to sleep for most of yesterday. We got a call last night just before 6pm asking why we weren't at English Corner...sigh! Turns out this voluntary, fortnightly thing is in actual fact a weekly thing...and which we suspect they have changed the name from English corner to Foreign Teacher's Corner. So Marcus dutifully explained that we were told it was every second week, we had not eaten, I was sick and we wouldn't be coming! No doubt we will hear about this again this week, and this time we will be discussing it properly so there are no future misunderstandings! If it is so important, I don't see why we are the only ones expected to go and not all the other 90 English teachers. Time for some words with good old Raymen we think!
Today we headed into the city to do a bit of shopping. I'm still not well, but the thought of spending hours sitting on a wooden couch just didn't appeal. We ended up wandering around for hours, and stumbled upon a really cool park area of the city which we will be going back to explore more. Poor Marcus wanted to buy a new pair of shoes....people weren't lying when they said we wouldn't be able to find things in our size!! I swear we must have been to every shoe and sport shop in the city and no one sold shoes big enough for Marcus. No one. So I'm not sure what he is going to do. We also wanted to each get another one or two warm tops. Of course we were limited in what we could bring over, so now it's time to bulk up our wardrobes a bit! I found a chunky cardigan in one of the department stores that I really liked. So I thought I would just try it on in the shop as it didn't involve a change room. Well! Someone call the police I nearly caused a riot of my own. About 5 girls around me all decided they now wanted the same top that I was trying on! There was only one other one left, and as I was trying to figure out the confusing payment system someone had the other top in their hands. Jeez...who would have thought after all these years I become a style icon?! Needless to say, simply paying for something here isn't straight forward, but thankfully a young customer saw my confusion and spoke English! So once you decide on your purchase, it is bagged for you. Then a receipt is written up, which you must take to another part of the store to the cashier. You pay the cashier, get stamps on the receipt then go back to the store. They take their part of the receipt then you are allowed your bag. I would never have figured this out alone!
Even though I probably should have stayed home today, I wanted us to have some sort of "weekend". This week was mostly good, but I did seem to spend a lot of my time getting into semi trouble and answering questions! I got quizzed on Tuesday by Miss Soon for my lack of appearance at English corner last week. I wont go into it, but I should have told her then that we wont be attending all of them. Alas, that will have to happen this week now. Then on Wednesday after my gifted class I was asked to go to the office to meet a Miss Wong. She is one of the gifted teachers, and wanted to know why there was so much noise and laughter coming from my class....lordie! I reminded her that we teach oral english, and therefore there is a lot of noise! There is 55 kids damn it! I challenge anyone to keep that many kids quiet. She was lovely though and we had a good chat afterward. Sadly, it turns out the following day in class she fell off the teaching podium thing and broke her ankle. Then I got in trouble off a different Miss Wong for letting my class out early! The class before lunch finishes at 11:55, although on our timetable it says 11:50. So I have 3 classes a week that are in this time frame. Once it gets to 11:50 I get them to finish up whatever we are doing and I let them go. They absolutely love it as lunch is the only time of the day when they have free time. I realise there are rules to follow etc, but I can't help but feel more and more on their side, they have absolutely no childhood. So it gets to 11:53 on Wednesday and I let them go. We have an understanding that if I let them go they have to be silent so as to not disturb any other class, which they obey. Well, one of the teachers saw kids leaving the building, found out which class they were and dobbed on me!
Mr Pan dropped over last night, which was seriously the last thing I felt like as I lay comatose on the couch, but he wanted to bring his daughter over. Marcus teaches her in one of the gifted classes and she is a real cutey. Supposedly 12 but looks a bit older. She came over with a present for her teachers, some glorious coffee mugs, as seen below.
Our latest present - coffee cups with pigs and kiwi fruit on them. Go figure!
The side of the box, I can't get enough of the cuteness of everything.
Pig cup also comes in Dog Cup. Both tasty delicacies I hear...
Mr Pan decided that my cough is not because i am sick but is simply a bad habit, and made his daughter run home to get me some Chinese medicine. Mr Pan's father was a traditional doctor when younger, and still seems to mix up potions for the family. So Della returns with two tiny little vials with black balls in them. I am to take 6 of them 3 times a day which is supposed to relieve me of my cough. I am all for Chinese medicine, but I love the way Mr Pan puts it. He says you must take Chinese medicine for a long time for it to work - hmm, I keep thinking, more like by the time I finish taking it yes my cough will be gone because I will be well!!! I tried to explain that I was actually sick, and yes, I do cough a lot normally anyway. I said my dad is kind of the same, we both just clear our throats a lot. So dad, look out, you are next on Mr/Dr Pan's list of rounds! I think he planning on sending you some medicine in the post!
My new medicine...even though I think they are just poppy seeds.
I will leave it there for now as I hear bed calling and we have an early start tomorrow. I need to get some rest and hopefully wake up with my voice restored, as I currently sound like a very very quiet and croaky drag queen. Not quite sure how I'm going to be able to yell to all my classes tomorrow but I have no doubt that it will be interesting!
Finally, two pictures of plants we bought 3 weeks ago. The one above lives on a table in the lounge room. It is actually growing (there's a first for everything!) and is a nice healthy green colour. The one below lives outside on the balcony. It's not looking so flash and I think is slowly dying or being crushed under the weight of dirt and crap that floats through the air here. I hate to think what is happening to our lungs...
Happy Easter! (Marcus)
I have just been informed by Mum that it is easter, so..Happy Easter! The easter bunny didn't come for us unfortunately :(
It has stopped raining and is smog sunny outside. Courtney is still unwell but quite a lot better so we are going to try a small city trip today to by some much needed clothing type things.
Have a nice easter, please eat chocolate eggs for me as i pine for them, my precious eggs, where are you? :( :(
It has stopped raining and is smog sunny outside. Courtney is still unwell but quite a lot better so we are going to try a small city trip today to by some much needed clothing type things.
Have a nice easter, please eat chocolate eggs for me as i pine for them, my precious eggs, where are you? :( :(
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Rain rain and more rain :( (Marcus)
Blah it's a terrible day outside. When it rains here - which hasn't been much really - it really rains. Unlike back home where it comes in fits and starts, here it just rains and rains and rains.
Courtney is still feeling really sick today - nothing bad don't worry - I mean, nothing dodgy - which is a good thing, regular cold symptoms, and yes I keep checking! I made the trek over to town to buy some food supplies for dinner, and some additional snacks - like the milk tea drink things I am addicted to. Because it didn't stop raining, by the time I got back home I was buggered and wet and sweaty and basically everything but cool.
I have noticed that when it's cloudy here, or rainy, there's a light smell of smoke in the air. It's like the thick cloud cover is trapping all of the pollution smoke in. Saturday is just like any other day here. If it's rainy, out come the ponchos. I watched the gardeners working outside in the rain, doing their best to make sure it looks like Spring has truly sprung around the school grounds. They're either very dedicated or more accurately, have no choice but to work - rain hail sun or snow.
We've spent the day inside today as it's so miserable out, and I have banned Courtney from going into the cold. Tomorrow the students do their walk I am told - I called Mr Pan last night to ask him and he was totally tanked. It was a classic, his normal goofy voice but tankafied. I doubt now I will go on this walk as I wanted to go into the city to get some shoes and another long sleeve top - and so does Courtney. If she is well enough, we will go. If she isn't, she's once more banned from going outside as she will have to spend the whole week miserable, teaching when sick.
They don't really understand sickness around here i think. If one of us is sick, I think it's off to the hospital we go to see a doctor - which for a cold/flu, really isn't neccessary. If it comes to that though, we will INSIST this time we're taken to the best one, even if it's in goddamned Hong Kong. I refuse to let myself or Courtney go back to that SHITHOLE place I enjoyed 4 hours of IV fun in. Absolutely refuse. Afterall, we didn't pay big money on travel insurance to be given a freezing pig sty of a room to wallow in.
Courtney is still feeling really sick today - nothing bad don't worry - I mean, nothing dodgy - which is a good thing, regular cold symptoms, and yes I keep checking! I made the trek over to town to buy some food supplies for dinner, and some additional snacks - like the milk tea drink things I am addicted to. Because it didn't stop raining, by the time I got back home I was buggered and wet and sweaty and basically everything but cool.
I have noticed that when it's cloudy here, or rainy, there's a light smell of smoke in the air. It's like the thick cloud cover is trapping all of the pollution smoke in. Saturday is just like any other day here. If it's rainy, out come the ponchos. I watched the gardeners working outside in the rain, doing their best to make sure it looks like Spring has truly sprung around the school grounds. They're either very dedicated or more accurately, have no choice but to work - rain hail sun or snow.
We've spent the day inside today as it's so miserable out, and I have banned Courtney from going into the cold. Tomorrow the students do their walk I am told - I called Mr Pan last night to ask him and he was totally tanked. It was a classic, his normal goofy voice but tankafied. I doubt now I will go on this walk as I wanted to go into the city to get some shoes and another long sleeve top - and so does Courtney. If she is well enough, we will go. If she isn't, she's once more banned from going outside as she will have to spend the whole week miserable, teaching when sick.
They don't really understand sickness around here i think. If one of us is sick, I think it's off to the hospital we go to see a doctor - which for a cold/flu, really isn't neccessary. If it comes to that though, we will INSIST this time we're taken to the best one, even if it's in goddamned Hong Kong. I refuse to let myself or Courtney go back to that SHITHOLE place I enjoyed 4 hours of IV fun in. Absolutely refuse. Afterall, we didn't pay big money on travel insurance to be given a freezing pig sty of a room to wallow in.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Ah Friday again! (Marcus)
Actually it's good Friday today..I think. I was completely oblivious to the fact that this weekend is Easter until yesterday when I think Courtney mentioned it. If not for that, I would not have had a clue. I feel so oblivious to what's going on back home sometimes it's not funny. It's like we're in our own little bubble world - us and 4 zillion Chinese people.
This Friday marks day 1 of month 2. I can't believe we have been here a month now, eesh! I guess we have well and truly passed the early days of initial culture shock. Actually in hindsight I would have to say we're quite a way passed it now. Sometimes things can feel quite sucky, but I think we've found a bit of a groove and are coasting along in it.
Courtney is sick again unfortunately. More cold/flu like symptoms which she likely picked up from one of the students as there's quite a few sick at the moment apparently. Ah the joys of dealing with like 1500ish different kids per week...maybe even more.
So Wednesday, the 19th - or was it Thursday the 20th..one of the two, marked us being here a month. We feel a lot more comfortable than we did initially(Other than Courtney being sick again) and this week's lesson for the senior students has been quite successful. I taught it four times today and I have to say that by including a game or two into the mix definitely scores us brownie points with the teens.
Tomorrow all of the students we teach - Senior 1, Junior 1 and Gifted - actually, maybe only Senior 1 and Gifted - Mr Pan said around 900 kids - so yeah, not Junior 1 - are going on some big 'hike'. I asked Mr Pan how far it was and got about 7 different answers so lost interest. One of the students today told me its 12 km - I figure 6km there, 6km back. The students are going, and all of their teachers.
I am actually tossing up going - (Courtney isn't due to said illness) - because I think it might be a good chance to 'socialize' with some of the students and teachers and well, it might be fun. The only thing that worries me a little is my left foot. Since breaking it when I was a teenager, it can unpredictably become suddenly very painful for absolutely no reason, but generally when walking. So I will have a think about it and will see. If I go, I will take the camera along, because who knows what I will see on the trip. The thought of 900 kids alone crossing the streets around here cracks me up. Mr Pan said the teachers would guide them across - ie stop traffic etc, but China being China, most vehicles will continue on regardless..so yeah, that'll be comedy.
If I go on the walk tomorrow, we will go to WuXi city on Sunday - or if i don't go, we'll go Saturday. We really want to buy a new top or two each, and I really need a new pair of shoes. Living in the same 4ish tops, and same two pairs of shoes is really wearing them down to hell. The shoes you buy from the cheap market style places are really kind of crap. There's a few big department stores - actually that's not true, there's a LOT of big department stores in WuXi City, so I am sure we'll find something.
Right and finally, to prettify(tm) this wall of text, here's some photos - taken using my mobile phone(so sorry the quality isnt as good).
Have been trying to get a closer shot of these kind of guys since arriving here but never have the actual camera when we see them. You have to admire their loading skills. It's not dangerous or anything cruising around with that kind of load. I should start an album dedicated to stuff we've seen on the back of trucks and motorcycles alone. I think my favourite is still one we saw after being here a few days where this guy is riding by on a scooter with a huge pane of glass horizontal across the bike..down where his legs were.
This is apartment construction as I have mentioned before. You see these ALL over the place. So many it's hard to comprehend. It goes from being a fugly mess covered with bamboo scaffolding and the like as you can see above, and suddenly turns into hey presto new apartments.
Ok I mentioned this traffic jam the other day. The photo doesn't really do it justice. This is outside of Metro. The car's here are basically banked up. To the left you can see car's pulling out of Metro, blocking a bus and a lot of other traffic behind them. It was grid-locked like this for over ten minutes. Why? Because the stream of cars on the right would NOT, repeat NOT let those cars cutting in..in. And of course those cars tried to cut in regardless - they couldn't give a rat's ass what they were blocking. This is what I love about China, it's every man for himself on the road. There were at least 5-10 passenger busses caught up in the jam, it was lovely.
And last but not least, there's nothing quite so refreshing as Acid Milk. Mmh Yeah.
This Friday marks day 1 of month 2. I can't believe we have been here a month now, eesh! I guess we have well and truly passed the early days of initial culture shock. Actually in hindsight I would have to say we're quite a way passed it now. Sometimes things can feel quite sucky, but I think we've found a bit of a groove and are coasting along in it.
Courtney is sick again unfortunately. More cold/flu like symptoms which she likely picked up from one of the students as there's quite a few sick at the moment apparently. Ah the joys of dealing with like 1500ish different kids per week...maybe even more.
So Wednesday, the 19th - or was it Thursday the 20th..one of the two, marked us being here a month. We feel a lot more comfortable than we did initially(Other than Courtney being sick again) and this week's lesson for the senior students has been quite successful. I taught it four times today and I have to say that by including a game or two into the mix definitely scores us brownie points with the teens.
Tomorrow all of the students we teach - Senior 1, Junior 1 and Gifted - actually, maybe only Senior 1 and Gifted - Mr Pan said around 900 kids - so yeah, not Junior 1 - are going on some big 'hike'. I asked Mr Pan how far it was and got about 7 different answers so lost interest. One of the students today told me its 12 km - I figure 6km there, 6km back. The students are going, and all of their teachers.
I am actually tossing up going - (Courtney isn't due to said illness) - because I think it might be a good chance to 'socialize' with some of the students and teachers and well, it might be fun. The only thing that worries me a little is my left foot. Since breaking it when I was a teenager, it can unpredictably become suddenly very painful for absolutely no reason, but generally when walking. So I will have a think about it and will see. If I go, I will take the camera along, because who knows what I will see on the trip. The thought of 900 kids alone crossing the streets around here cracks me up. Mr Pan said the teachers would guide them across - ie stop traffic etc, but China being China, most vehicles will continue on regardless..so yeah, that'll be comedy.
If I go on the walk tomorrow, we will go to WuXi city on Sunday - or if i don't go, we'll go Saturday. We really want to buy a new top or two each, and I really need a new pair of shoes. Living in the same 4ish tops, and same two pairs of shoes is really wearing them down to hell. The shoes you buy from the cheap market style places are really kind of crap. There's a few big department stores - actually that's not true, there's a LOT of big department stores in WuXi City, so I am sure we'll find something.
Right and finally, to prettify(tm) this wall of text, here's some photos - taken using my mobile phone(so sorry the quality isnt as good).
Have been trying to get a closer shot of these kind of guys since arriving here but never have the actual camera when we see them. You have to admire their loading skills. It's not dangerous or anything cruising around with that kind of load. I should start an album dedicated to stuff we've seen on the back of trucks and motorcycles alone. I think my favourite is still one we saw after being here a few days where this guy is riding by on a scooter with a huge pane of glass horizontal across the bike..down where his legs were.
This is apartment construction as I have mentioned before. You see these ALL over the place. So many it's hard to comprehend. It goes from being a fugly mess covered with bamboo scaffolding and the like as you can see above, and suddenly turns into hey presto new apartments.
Ok I mentioned this traffic jam the other day. The photo doesn't really do it justice. This is outside of Metro. The car's here are basically banked up. To the left you can see car's pulling out of Metro, blocking a bus and a lot of other traffic behind them. It was grid-locked like this for over ten minutes. Why? Because the stream of cars on the right would NOT, repeat NOT let those cars cutting in..in. And of course those cars tried to cut in regardless - they couldn't give a rat's ass what they were blocking. This is what I love about China, it's every man for himself on the road. There were at least 5-10 passenger busses caught up in the jam, it was lovely.
And last but not least, there's nothing quite so refreshing as Acid Milk. Mmh Yeah.
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