The school campus is very peaceful, very quiet and quite beautiful at night. The grounds are so large yet so sparse. You would not know that there are around 3500 students on it..somewhere - and I think around 900 teachers - and their families. You can wander around during the day and particularly at night and barely see a soul. At least, it was serene until a cat fight quickly ruined that vibe :)
The longer I am here the more I enjoy the grounds themselves. I am feeling more comfortable here, and I like that the lake is right outside. It's nice to be near water, even if it's just a man-made lake surrounded by smog. The school is relatively clean - Wednesday afternoon is actually a clean-up period, where students clean the grounds, the dorms, collect rubbish etc, but I think the students do what I used to do back in School and practice pretending not seeing rubbish rather than picking it up.
A slight identity crisis, the school has many european style lamps, which are quite pretty at night. In the background, that is clearly Vegas.
Continuing on the identity crisis theme, here we have our jasmine tea, served up to us in a coffee plunger, in little coffee cups, and it even came with a small jar of sugar. Um COUGH. If anyone remembers the photos we first uploaded of the bizarre cappucino, this is that same place. It is called something like the Tian Hua Coffee House. A large number of restaurants around here have the word Coffee in their name. We arent yet sure what it means exactly. We suspect it's the owners attempts at making it appear more westernized, as most of China is adopting it's own translation of what is western(you should see the department stores, eesh). The menu in this place is awesome. I would photograph it except the waitresses wont go away when they give it to us until we order, and we don't yet know how to tell them to bugger off and let us think about it in Chinese. You have tasty sounding meals such as Beef with Command, Chicken with Stay of Proceedings and I don't know about you, but Pork with Iron sounds positively nummy! I think the owners of these places have taken a typical western coffeeshop concept(which they still dont understand) and made it into a restaurant, so it appears cutting edge. Already I am close to the edge and about THIS far from teaching them to say good morning in the mornings, not when we leave at night!!!
At least after what was a pretty crap day, I can lose myself in the beauty that is the plastic grass stuck all over the walls, and enjoy the plastic creeping vines along the staircase, forgetting that I am not in fact in a dusty dirty town where I get stared at 24/7, but instead in a magical forest!
2 comments:
Anonymous
said...
love the photos, they will be a great compliment to this book you are writing without even realising you are. These blogs are fascinating the way they swing with your moods and experiences, definitely a future book here....you are both completely out of your comfort zones so how good are you going to feel about yourselves and what you are capable of when you get a little further down this track and on top of things more. This unexpected experience of being thrown to the lions and huge culture adjustment is exactly what you expected! your just living through it right now and it's no fun. Keep going. We are all living through it with you. Shanghai will be good timing which is exactly why i wanted to shout you a hotel so you had more time there as I felt you needed it. Now. Plus the socks and hotties will make you smile and spending some time with 2 aussis will help bring you some sanity. You will come back refreshed and up for the challenge. Any chance of lol's friend mailing a text book he recommends?
Hey guys, can you please plop some chiscken with stay of preceedings in a small envelope,and pop it in the post? I might have a large legal battle on my hands one day, and need a chicken stay of preceedings for the jury if they stay in all night deliberating over my verdict. It just might be the thing to win them over. Hang in there guys, it seems like you're handling everything that comes at you thick and fast! By the way Marcus... your mum rocks! I somehow find myself wishing that I had some warm socks and some hot water bottles too. It's not even cold here, but the support is what counts here. Courtney, you seem to be doing well after your nuclear hot shower, and seem amazingly positive in the face of hardship, and a sincere lack of Jimmy-ness about the place, as I can imagine. Hang in there!
Two 'whiteys' who have chosen China as the destination for their long-overdue career sea change.
China's two newest English teachers armed with only their ability to speak English(on a good day) and what they keep telling themselves is enthusiasm for the unknown.
Marcus is proficient at Peking Duck whilst Courtney is highly adept yet flexible in Dumplings and Soup Noodle.
Will this help them? Time will tell!
The school campus is very peaceful, very quiet and quite beautiful at night. The grounds are so large yet so sparse. You would not know that there are around 3500 students on it..somewhere - and I think around 900 teachers - and their families. You can wander around during the day and particularly at night and barely see a soul. At least, it was serene until a cat fight quickly ruined that vibe :)
The longer I am here the more I enjoy the grounds themselves. I am feeling more comfortable here, and I like that the lake is right outside. It's nice to be near water, even if it's just a man-made lake surrounded by smog. The school is relatively clean - Wednesday afternoon is actually a clean-up period, where students clean the grounds, the dorms, collect rubbish etc, but I think the students do what I used to do back in School and practice pretending not seeing rubbish rather than picking it up.
A slight identity crisis, the school has many european style lamps, which are quite pretty at night. In the background, that is clearly Vegas.
Continuing on the identity crisis theme, here we have our jasmine tea, served up to us in a coffee plunger, in little coffee cups, and it even came with a small jar of sugar. Um COUGH. If anyone remembers the photos we first uploaded of the bizarre cappucino, this is that same place. It is called something like the Tian Hua Coffee House. A large number of restaurants around here have the word Coffee in their name. We arent yet sure what it means exactly. We suspect it's the owners attempts at making it appear more westernized, as most of China is adopting it's own translation of what is western(you should see the department stores, eesh). The menu in this place is awesome. I would photograph it except the waitresses wont go away when they give it to us until we order, and we don't yet know how to tell them to bugger off and let us think about it in Chinese. You have tasty sounding meals such as Beef with Command, Chicken with Stay of Proceedings and I don't know about you, but Pork with Iron sounds positively nummy! I think the owners of these places have taken a typical western coffeeshop concept(which they still dont understand) and made it into a restaurant, so it appears cutting edge. Already I am close to the edge and about THIS far from teaching them to say good morning in the mornings, not when we leave at night!!!
At least after what was a pretty crap day, I can lose myself in the beauty that is the plastic grass stuck all over the walls, and enjoy the plastic creeping vines along the staircase, forgetting that I am not in fact in a dusty dirty town where I get stared at 24/7, but instead in a magical forest!
2 comments:
love the photos, they will be a great compliment to this book you are writing without even realising you are. These blogs are fascinating the way they swing with your moods and experiences, definitely a future book here....you are both completely out of your comfort zones so how good are you going to feel about yourselves and what you are capable of when you get a little further down this track and on top of things more. This unexpected experience of being thrown to the lions and huge culture adjustment is exactly what you expected! your just living through it right now and it's no fun. Keep going. We are all living through it with you. Shanghai will be good timing which is exactly why i wanted to shout you a hotel so you had more time there as I felt you needed it. Now. Plus the socks and hotties will make you smile and spending some time with 2 aussis will help bring you some sanity. You will come back refreshed and up for the challenge. Any chance of lol's friend mailing a text book he recommends?
Hey guys, can you please plop some chiscken with stay of preceedings in a small envelope,and pop it in the post?
I might have a large legal battle on my hands one day, and need a chicken stay of preceedings for the jury if they stay in all night deliberating over my verdict. It just might be the thing to win them over.
Hang in there guys, it seems like you're handling everything that comes at you thick and fast!
By the way Marcus... your mum rocks! I somehow find myself wishing that I had some warm socks and some hot water bottles too. It's not even cold here, but the support is what counts here.
Courtney, you seem to be doing well after your nuclear hot shower, and seem amazingly positive in the face of hardship, and a sincere lack of Jimmy-ness about the place, as I can imagine.
Hang in there!
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