China, Bloody China (Marcus)

This morning, I lazily climbed out of bed, slipped on my warm socks, slipped on a top and had immediately countered the cold chinese morning. I opened the curtains and looked out, seeing almost the same view as every morning before it. The sun was out, but you cant see it. It was misty - a sort of bright haze, which is the pollution. All in all it looked nice, but every morning looks mostly the same. I keep hoping that one day I will look out and it will be crystal clear.

I walked into the kitchen and started making myself a bowl of cornflakes. I have eaten cornflakes almost every morning, a rare imported luxury I found at the supermarket megastore, Metro. From the bathroom came, "@R@(*(*SD*(DS&!!! *(@*Y*(YSF*YF!!!" I poked my head out of the kitchen to make sure she was alright, only to hear, "Why the F@*R(Y*F cant just one thing work in this f(@U)(C)(&)(&ing country!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

For the last two mornings, Courtney has suffered boiling hot, freezing cold temperature bouncing. I have absolutely no idea why as my own showers have been pretty much fine. The shower is different to anything I have had to deal with before. Here, you don't run out of hot water - which is a very very very good thing. But here, it's like an intellectual challenge that requires puzzle-solving skills, agility and rapid reflexes to keep the bloody thing at an even temperature.

The shower is a hose with a showerhead attached - whatever you call those things, of which you can mount on the wall. The problem here is, it faces vertically out from the wall, meaning it's angle of spray covers the entire bathtub. What this means is if you're happily watering yourself and the shower suddenly either goes arctic or nuclear, you have absolutely no escape route to get away from it. In a normal shower, you simply step aside, or turn the shower head. In this shower? You're trapped. This is what Courtney was enjoying this morning.

Personally I did discover an escape route, and that involves pushing a button on top of the bath's water tap down lickedy split, which means the water then goes into the bath, not through the showerhead. Having a shitty shower is the instant key to having a shitty day in my opinion. There is not a lot worse than the completely unsatisfying feeling you experience when your shower 100% sucks.

Courtney started earlier than me today. While she went off to teach, I had Mr Pan and one of his computer teachers trying to help me setup something on my computer so that I could download movies and TV shows. We hate our only english channel, CCTV9 with a passion. It is absolute horseshit. It is the biggest combination of absolutely suckass shows and even worse presenters I have ever seen. There's no actual entertainment on it, it's all crap news propaganda and current affairs. It has two advertisements - no kidding, every ad break it plays either one for K-KO health drink - which i freakin recite in my sleep, and another for a few of the local lakes, all mysteriously devoid of pollution! CCTV9 = shit

I can now at least get movies, yeah they're not legitimate, but like I or the rest of China cares right about now.

We both had a fairly good day. Three classes each. I had two of the normal Senior 1 classes, which are the 17-18 year olds, and one of the 'gifted' classes, which is youngsters who are, well gifted. They are around 12 years old. I love the kids, they're just adorable. Yesterday we taught three classes at the Junior school campus of Tian Yi - a really nice little campus I might add. The kids? Absolutely wonderful. They are so cute, so sweet. It's their innocence that makes them so appealing I think. These kids are just the most natural things I have ever seen. They're an absolute joy.

Today after our 3 classes, we wandered into town. We got a few things from the supermarket then walked down what has turned out to be a fantastic food vendor street. A food vendor is just a chinese person who has basically ridden a bike up which contains usually a 44 gallon drum that is in fact an oven, and they cook food. Some of the stalls are a little more permanant. The food for sale is absolutely awesome. There is such a huge variety. From sweet breads, to this wonderful old woman who cooks popcorn in this pot, then sweetens it with honey, to dumplings and stuffed buns. All kind of things I am not sure about. There's these dark eggs, which look weird, but i am sure are tasty. Mini-hotdog things, sliced pineapple, you name it, it's there. The people are so nice. They all stare at us, as we are like aliens walking in their world, but they are so lovely. None of them can speak english, but we get by with the little chinese we know. Things like - Number Ger - however you spell Ger - Ger being One unit - so one unit = Yi(one) Ger, or Si(su) Ger for say, 4 units.

We then say, Dorshau Chien - however you spell it, which means, How much money? chien being money. They usually hold up fingers to show how much - and this is the best thing, this food is absolutely cheap as hell - yet as good, if not better than what you find in most stores. One guy asked us - something something Maegor? Maegor - again, i have no idea how to spell this - means, American? Another guy asked us the same the other day on the bus. He was beaming from ear to ear and absolutely BURSTING to talk to us. He was opposite us, leaning forward and smiling, trying his absolute best to make eye contact. This is where it's frustrating not being able to speak much, as we'd positively love to talk to these people - even simple things, like asking what they do for a job, how their day was, etc.

So they're both, Maegor whatever whatever, and we're no no! Wo shi Ao da li ya - aka we are Australian - and they really like that. We should sew a little Aussie flag on our coat or something, i think people look more fondly on aussies than americans.

It's things like these little food vendor streets, and the simple chinese people in the back streets that really make China special. While we have had some very frustrating things happen and have felt completely culturally shocked, we are constantly having these little wonderful experiences which will all add up to form a terrific memory of China. These are the things we will show anyone who wishes to come visit us. It's something that you just cant get in Australia. It's something that really opens your eyes to a people that have so little, yet they flash you smiles that are just so completely warm - particularly the kids. Last night I was interviewed by three little girls from the schools newspaper or somesuch. They were gorgeous little kids, so innocent - so nothing like the kids back home.