Back to teaching, woot! :( (Marcus)

Well tomorrow marks our return to teaching. Mr Pan came over earlier and delivered our new teaching schedules. We found out recently that the other campus where we taught junior students has since been separated from Tian Yi so we will not be teaching them again - only Senior 1 and Gifted like we did last semester.

What this means is for the next four weeks we have a whopping 10 classes each per week. I have 8 x Senior 1, 2 x Gifted and Courtney 9 x Senior 1, 1 x Gifted. We have classes every day of the week with some days as being only the one class.

We will be kicking off with an introduction class and then just some basic games and activities for the remaining weeks(maybe even an easy video class!) seeing we're finishing up teaching on the 26th.

I don't know how I feel about returning to teach. I mean we haven't done it for 2 months or so, so it's like jumping back in the deep end again. I can't really say whether I enjoyed it or not for the first semester. It had it's perks I suppose, some of the relationships you form with the students is really enjoyable, but we have never really felt like part of the teaching environment here at the school.

As we have been saying since day 1, the other teachers have never made any effort to get to know us, and within the school we feel completely isolated and alone. I expected it to be different - completely different, when we came to China. I expected to be involved in considerable numbers of things, making friends left right and centre, but there has been none of that. We have been completely devoid of workmates and the like and well I am just glad we are only doing this for another four weeks then it is OUTTA HERE.

As an example of this - our classes tomorrow will be delayed by approximately two classes as being the first day of semester, the students have a 'meeting' with the parents and so on located at the sports stadium next door to our apartment. Now I assume this is the culmination of all their military cadet training over the past week or two - a final show to start the year off. These will be our students involved in this and as per usual, we're neither told what it is, what it's for, nor are we invited to attend. This is just one of many such scenarios.

They may have treated us well and have kept everything above board - ie wages, apartment issues and the like, but from a personal point of view, they have really failed in every way possible in my opinion. I will not miss working at this school other than the interactions with some of the students. The 'life' at this school, if you can call it that, just isn't there, at least, not that we have ever been allowed to be involved in.

Shangri-La (Courtney)

Our last instalment in our China 2008 tour!


Shangri-La was one of the highlights, especially of the tour we did. It was one of those sleepy towns, which almost felt like a ski town, just a few main streets, a small town square...and that's about it! It was so tranquil, it kind of made me wish we could spend a couple of months in a town like this, just being away from it all.


Shangri-La used to be called Zhongdian, but it's name was changed after a book was written by some white guy about a lost paradise. The Chinese govn changed the named to Shangri-La to boost tourism. Whilst I'm sure tourism has definately increased as a result, it was still the quietest place we visited. It's about 3,500 above sea level and is surrounded by mountains. The air was pretty thin up there...so maybe that's why we found it so peaceful!

The hotel we stayed on was on this little street. Down the end of this road was the local square..

..which was BBQ heaven by day, dancing hotspot by night.

Look at that pitiful little face!

Whilst we had an afternoon snack of skewers, we also got involved in a very tense skewer sword fight with one of the local kids!

Nothing to see here...

Local Tibetan dinner, of course involving Yak Butter Tea. It was actually nowhere near as bad as we had imagined, even with my rather dubious face.

Local streets by night.

We stopped off at a local bar for a drink after dinner. Not quite sure who Gompo is, or why he needs a defence fund, but I like it!

The following day we headed to a Lamasery, the largest outside of Tibet. See those stairs? Well normally, these wouldn't pose much of a problem. But due to the altitude we were all wheezing and about to keel over by the time we got to the top.

Sadly the place was overrun with children beggars. We gave a couple of them a couple of coins, this little fella because I had taken his photo. Mind you, he tried to barter with me, which is just infuriating as these kids just should not be in that position.

Monks!

Don't try and take a photo near a yak. You get into trouble.

Another local street, they were so beautiful to wander around.

Some local ladies waiting for the music to start so they can get down and boogie! The local square turns into a dance area at night. What was fantastic about this was it was not a tourist thing, like so many other towns. It was just the locals, of all ages, dancing to the local music. This place had such a great community atmosphere. The crowd would grow as it got darker, to the point where the whole square was full, all moving in time to the songs.

Panda Fight! (Marcus)

Yes finally after several weeks of being nagged by dear Courtney to upload them, here are some of the videos we took of well Panda's fighting! We were told that we were extremely lucky to see this as they normally only rouse for food, eat, then go back to sleep.

Well these three 3-4 year old Panda's were brawling before we got to them, for at least 20 minutes or so while we watched then continued as we left...all in their thick warm Panda suits in what was a really really hot and muggy day. I don't know what they put in their bamboo this day but sheesh they were feisty. They kind of reminded me of dogs fighting the way they were biting each others paws and other miscellaneous bits.



It seemed they had a clear game plan as far as what was going on. They were trying as hard as they could, with their clumsy unco Panda combat styles to push each other down the slope into the ditch that separated them from us. Several times they did a full slide down the slope landing with an unceremonious thud as someones head clocked the ground.



And down he goes!



Despite the disgusting humidity that day, and mosquitoes the size of something you would find in Jurassic Park, I was actually pretty impressed with the overall enclosures they kept the Panda's in. They were jungle thick and on the most part very large. Despite the air being thick with pollution(that looked like lovely mist if you forgot which country you were in for a few moments) all in all it was quite an impressive location. On top of this, to actually get to the Panda's, you had to walk through the grounds for what seemed like a good 10-15 minutes. They were way way way back from the noise of any cars and so on, which is a good thing. Now if they could just do something about that disgraceful air quality...

Tiger Leaping Gorge (Courtney)

We really had no idea what Tiger Leaping Gorge would hold, water obviously, but we weren't too sure what else. We knew that you could spend a couple of days hiking the area and that once upon a time a tiger had supposedly jumped the gorge, but that was about it. I'm glad we really didn't know what to expect, as it was one of the most amazing things we have seen in China. The below wont really do it justice, but hopefully you get an idea of the sheer force of this water in the videos.

The Gorge is reputed to be the deepest in the world. We had imagined we would just be looking down on it, not realising we would walk along the side of the river. The water moved quite quickly, but it was very serene....here at least!

Hard to see in this pic, but along the top road there is a snaking queue of buses on the opposite side to us. This looked so horrible, each bus would have to wait, once you got to the front you were finally allowed off the bus to see the gorge before being driven away. We were very glad to be on the other side away from this.

All along the path were wonderful Chinglish signs. You had to walk right up against the rock wall, which initially I couldn't work out why...

...here's why.

If the walk got too tough though, in true Chinese style you could always get someone to do the hardwork for you!

Here we have the actual point where the tiger leaped as it was being chased. You can just see a bronze sculpture of a tiger on the right. You start to get an idea of how big this gorge is when you look at how small the pople on the left are. The water by now was moving faster than we could have ever anticipated, it was so strong. Of course, once we rounded the corner, we could never have imagined the sheer force of the water. Hopefully the two videos below give you a feel for the place!

Done and dusted (Marcus)

If you take a look at Courtney's bag of late, you'd realise what has been on our minds recently...or this might be a direct result of 99.9% of Chinese people assuming we're American. For the record, NO WE ARE NOT AMERICAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I guess it was quite hard watching the Olympics and not feeling patriotic when the Chinese were whipped into a rabid frenzy of excitement over all their games achievements. Well done to them but we truly didn't share that joy. By the end of the games we were somewhat sick to death of seeing the Chinese team period. Every channel that broadcasted the games here was unfortunately only in Chinese, so we really missed out on commentary. It's not normally such a big thing, but we missed all the little backstories, he did this, she did that, he's going for his 3rd world record etc etc.

On top of that the only stuff they showed was Chinese events. Fair enough - in Australia all we see are Australian events(predominantly anyway). Diving, Table Tennis, Volleyball and Gymnastics..I am surprised they didn't invade my dreams. It was hard to tell which channels were broadcasting live, which were replays. The replays were a waste of time as you just know, China won that particular event. I did find a good way of looking at the countdown to an Aussie event on news.com.au then channel surfing until I saw what appeared to be that particular event - ie swimming.

Anyhow the real point of this post is to report that we have successfully negotiated our departure from the school and will be finishing up here on the 26th September. After a brief holiday in Shanghai - where we will be meeting with Mum whose coming over - we will hopefully bring her back to Wuxi for a few days - show her around - show her all the things we have been calling home for the past 6 months, then it's back home to the world of good indian, mexican, japanese and vietnamese cuisine.

We decided to teach for a further month which assists the school in finding new teachers. They wanted us to teach until November, where there are mid-semester exams, but we firmly stated we would only remain here one more month. It's time to go.

Courtney is again sick with some kind of flu where I am positive deep down she's really just a factory for phlegm. I don't think I have ever seen anyone blow their nose as often as her over the past few months. I am sure her sickness's are environment related. She was sick on the holiday with almost the same illness, and voila, she's got it again, some two weeks later. Being sick here is one way to get you down, and I feel for her. She's currently having a middle of the day nap as she barely slept last night, being unable to breathe properly and constantly coughing.

When we get home however, I think our lungs may just explode - what's that, fresh air?!?! It will be comparable to quitting smoking at any rate - there'll be much goodness to cough up; been there, done that.

Feeling the Love (Courtney)

Firstly, an update on where we are at....

Yesterday we had a meeting with the principle and the head of English. We spoke for about an hour, it was very nerve racking but was such a relief to just get it all out in the open. We basically just spoke about how we feel in the district, how it's no longer culture shock etc, the isolation we feel, and the lack of interaction with the other teachers...all of which is affecting our experience. We said we hoped to be released early from our contract. Of course they came back with it's all culture shock, we have experienced that in when we have gone to western countries. Fair point we said, but this is almost 7 months in now, not 2 weeks or a month as they have travelled. Where we live is seriously getting to us, and the thought of being here for another 6 months just to fulfill a time obligation just no longer seems possible.

So as was to be expected, they countered with "We want you to see out the contract." We reiterated again our wishes, so then they came back with "This is not good we will have to speak to the education department." We said that's fine, we are happy to talk with them but we still aren't staying. Then they came back with "we respect your decision". So we got the point across eventually!

The school wants us to teach until November, which we really aren't prepared to do. We realise we have left them in a sticky situation, but it is the start of a new year, and prior to last semester the kids hadn't had foreign teachers before. Not only this but we are teaching new students this semester so there is no impact to their studies if we don't begin to teach. We truly don't see the point in starting to teach, only to disrupt their studies etc when we leave. The school's intention is to get new foreign teachers, so then the kids will have to get used to a new teacher, new teaching method mid term, which we can't see them benefiting from.

So to try and leave with some goodwill, we have decided to give them 4 weeks notice. This will see us through to the National Holiday, which is the same time Marcus' mum is coming to China (which eases a whole lotta guilt we were feeling about that!) This means we will teach for the 4 weeks, then go to Shanghai then return to home.

Return home...it sounds so good! We've absolutely no regrets in coming to China, we've had an amazing experience. But at the same time we have gotten everything out of that experience that we think we can. We've lived in a local area, learnt so much about ourselves teaching and have spent considerable time travelling around the country. Staying for another 6 months isn't going to enhance our experience at this point, it's just seeing us filling in time. By the time we return home we will have been gone for 8 months, which is a long time, and we are both really excited about what home has to hold for us.

Secondly, what a way to feel loved! Nothing like putting up a bit of a blogpost talking about how we want to come home etc to have you all whipped up into a frenzy. In the last couple of days we have gotten emails, texts, skype calls, you name it...all saying the same thing - Come Home. (And an offer of a room at Matt and Abby's incase the school kicked us out!!) These have been wonderful to receive and has helped us to cement our decision and to know we are doing the right thing.

Next stop Melbourne! Well, Shanghai, then Melbourne =)

The end is nigh? (Marcus)

Possibly. We are looking into various options currently to possibly return home sooner than planned. Nothing has happened, nothing bad at any rate, though we feel we have reached a turning point in the whole venture in which we feel we would prefer to return home.

We have been in China long enough now that we don't feel like we are accomplishing anything further by being here. Our enjoyment of the place goes up and down and in reality we're spending more and more time just sitting around our apartment as we just plain and simple don't feel like going outside and being stared at anymore. It's not a nice feeling being the amusement source for every Chinese person in a 10km radius, I can tell you that much.

Funnily enough with the grand opening of the E-Mart(Korean Supermarket chain - think super big Target with a supermarket inside), we went up to explore it and despite the absolutely thousands of people there, all eyes were as per usual, on us.

We have enjoyed China, it is definitely an interesting place, but we feel that we have now outstayed our welcome and are focusing on other things.

We will see.

Lijiang (Courtney)

Some pics of Lijiang...

The view from our hotel room (above and below).

Trying to take a nice shot of Marcus and this scallywag in the backgroup kept jumping around and dancing.

Traditiona Naxi women dancing in the town square. The white of their clothing represents heaven, the black represents earth.



I ended up buying one of these bells in Shangri-La. Still not sure how I'm going to get it through customs...considering the donger part is supposedly made of yak bone.

In the town square there was a large walkway full of hanging wishes. You walked underneath and ran your hands through them, jangling all the bells. It sounded great and I am sure either brought you luck or activiated the wishes.

Oh look! We found some kitties in our travels too. Sadly they were both tied up.

The streets of Lijiang are very difficult to capture at night. They are beautifully lit, giving the whole place a peaceful, warm glow.

And just for laughs. I was waiting for Marcus and this guy was doing everything to take a sneaky photo of me. Well well, you snooze you lose, as I whipped out the camera and captured him first!!

Dali (Courtney)

Time to get a cuppa!

We never wear seatbelts in China. That's because taxis don't have them. However, this was a new low in our driving experience. What do you do when you have too many people for the van? Just pull out the kiddie camping chair! And no, that hair does not belong to me...it's our tour leader.

There wasn't just one, but two foreigner streets. The first foreigners in the area lived only on these streets.

Local snack - we were told it was a pancake made from milk. If you do the math you realise that means it is cheese. It was interesting.

Whilst Dali might have been completely geared for tourism it was still a very beautiful, tranquil town. All the streets had little canals with running water and everywhere you looked there were mountains in the distance. It was so nice to be away from the city.

There was shopping to be had everywhere in Dali! Sadly it was the same five shops just over and over again, but initially it looked like a shopping haven! These were very funky fish bags, but what really made me smile about these was there was a baby fish coin purse in each one.

Here we have a traditional Bai woman, selling her...uh, home concoction. This lady was fiesty! If she had a theme song it would be R-E-S-P-E-C-T! She was taking no crap from anyone. She spotted Marcus and made a beeline for him and literally would not take no for an answer.

So here is the ever obliging Marcus buying what dubiously looked like half a pound of crack. (In this town, it wouldn't have surprised me) Turns out it was some sort of chewing, flour covered...I don't know, but it wasn't flash.

She might have a bit of a cheeky grin but she is giving me a very firm wave off with her hand when she realised I was sneaking a photo! We have since seen her on a video of Dali (which also featured the illustrious massage centre) and can confirm she is one strong willed woman.

Never tire of the things-on-sticks and beer dinner.

We went to a local Bai market in the morning. Above are the local pizzas. The one at front with the glossy jam like stuff oozing out of it is a Rose Pizza...I'm drooling just the thought these.

Marcus indulging ;-)

Pretty tea cups.

Hmm, remind me how many children are killed and injured in car accidents every year in China? I absolutely hate seeing kids on scooters, it might look cute but it is recipe for disastor.

It's not hard to make food look good at a Chinese market.

A quick stopoff at a tie-dye workshop.

And then onto a local fishing village.

I thought it was hysterical to see so many donkeys everywhere (I just find donkeys funny) and the man with the beard thought it was hysterical that I wanted to take its photo. This little village was just full of friendly, smiley folk.

A boat trip out on Lake Er Hai...so lovely.

And finally, bath time! We found this really amusing because they had only soaped their heads and armpits...does the rest of the body not get smelly too?!