Due to the roster change, we have no classes today either - that's two days in a row! But it also means the 4 classes in a row i have to teach tomorrow(christ sake!!) are kids that we have already done our initial intros to. Today we have been at home trying to put together new lessons. We're going to fill in tomorrow with a temporary lesson then kickstart the proper ones next week. It's bloody annoying having to put them together though - at least there is two of us.
Today my lower back, right down near my rear is suddenly feeling really crampy sore. I think it's slowly starting to dawn on my body that i am doing a lot more exercise. We walk absolutely everywhere, and all around the city yesterday - which leads me to - Wuxi City.
As we had the day off yesterday, it was prime time to jump on bus no.42 and head into the city. Mr Pan lead us through a housing community(which we english taught him was called a ShortCut - something he's been dropping whenever he can now - even his english teacher wife didnt know the word) to one of the streets where the bus stop is. The bus is 2 coins in every direction - 2 coins = 2 yuan(chinese rmb) which equates to around 30 cents or so. The bus trip to the city took around 25 minutes.
The bus itself wasnt too bad. There were no seats so we had to stand, and any time a seat opened up, a chinese person would beeline to it like it was their lifes primary objective. The problem here was standing we couldnt really see out the windows without bending half over. We were on the lookout for landmarks and features that would help us identify our stop when we returned. Luckily there's a really large governmental building, and the place we had our medical examinations that are closeby, so they both serve as a good indication.
The trip to the city wasnt anything particularly special. All it really did show us was everything in this area looks identical. You drive through identical looking suburbs, all lined with the same kinds of small shops full of the same crap. All the streets are teeming with people going here there and every other direction, and every place you go is dirty and run-down looking. This is supposedly a wealthy part of China too, so i have no idea what the poorer sections would be like.
It's a completely different world. It's so hard to really explain and do it justice for what it's really like. It gets Courtney and I down quite often as it's a very hard place to feel like we belong here. Our apartment doesnt yet feel like a home to us. Our local area outside the school is really not very pleasant. There's no real nice parks or anything like that like we hoped we would see. There seems to be more of that in the city, but the change of season might reveal more along these lines. Sure the school grounds are nice in their own way, but it just doesnt feel right to me. The thought of spending an entire year in these current surroundings is a very hard thing to deal with. I just cant imagine our day to day life not really being any more than what we know right now. Time might heal this, but I don't know. As i said to Courtney yesterday, we may try and mix it up a lot more on the weekends. Spending weekends in the more touristy areas of Hangzhou and Suzhou which are fairly close, and of course Shanghai. Right now though, they all feel so far away.
On top of this it feels like we don't really have any friends. The chinese teachers don't really make the effort to come and join us when we eat or anything like that. All we really get is a smile and a nod in passing, and a few small items of smalltalk from those we already know. I think if there wasn't a Mr Pan - who is probably the only thing keeping us on the happy side at the moment, it would be a different story.
I saw a english teaching school in Wuxi proper called Hy-Lite. I have seen this before in the blog of a westerner living in Wuxi city and it kindled a lot of these feelings. Here is more of a language mill type teaching environment where you would be with a lot more Westerners, and have you know, work-mates. Here, we feel like it's just us. While of course we love each others company, we long for more. Yeah it's early days, and we'll just see how we go over the course of time. We have only been here a week so we know it's too early to make large judgements, but there's things like this that feel really lacking from our day to day lives. That and the fact we havent yet really taken to the teaching - which doesnt help.
The city itself wasnt as big as I thought it might be. As a city, it's not really as big as Melbourne. The scale of a lot of these places I think isnt by a skyline full of buildings, but by the massively populated dusty suburbs that surround them. Wuxi city itself really didnt impress. Yes we found a few western comforts, such as McDonalds and KFC, but how comforting is that? We only used the McDonalds for it's bathroom, and it was still a grotty chinese squat toilet and packed with people no less. The place didnt even smell like a McDonalds, and if it didnt have the golden arches out front, I might not have even guessed it was one.
We found a large market set in a buddist temple which was quite interesting. In the middle of it it had this weird 5 level shopping centre. But the things that it sold were basically just junky crap. Stacks and stacks of chinese books, dvds, more books, anime type stuff, computer game consoles, stationary - HEAPS of stationary. It was really, really bizarre.
Outside there were shops everywhere in really picturesque streets, some extremely narrow - but again their wares were mostly uninteresting. There were bonzai's and teapots and jewelry and plants and you name it what else. There was one large section that was simply pets. Cages and cages of these tiny white rabbits, miniature turtles, tiny little yapping dogs, birds and gold fish. I have no idea where they get all these turtles and rabbits from, but there were _thousands_. Some of the cages for the rabbits were basically just a fraction bigger than the rabbits themselves - kind of cruel - particularly when I could imagine most of them would spend the rest of their lives in them.
We will be heading back into the city this weekend for another look around. It was enjoyable. We did find a fairly modern looking Myer style department store. At this point, modern, clean and western really does appeal when we're feeling like aliens over here. Mr Pan said he will drive us to a famous park near the city sometime soon, and down to Lake Tai Hu. That will be nice. We miss the convenience of having a car, it makes exploring so much easier - but there is no way in hell I would drive a car around here myself. The roads are just crazy.
Here's some photos from our city trip:
Oodles of bunnies.
Picturesque.
It certainly looked good, no doubt there.
There was a full fledged Buddhist temple in the midddle of the market. All this section was empty and appeared to be getting rennovated. Looking at it made me try and imagine it populated back in the old days of China - it would have looked absolutely magnificent.
The workman on the pagoda wouldnt shut up until Courtney took his photo. You can see him waving on the right. They were laying down bamboo strapped together into mat-like things along the existing bamboo trestle. So privative, yet all construction over here uses bamboo this way.
Some broken tiles. You don't really realize just how many there are on each rooftop.
Yep that's snow alright. It's still around the place in big frozen clumps - likely ice as hard as rock now.
This kind of sight makes us very happy. This was in a weird food court. You paid money to have it changed into plastic chips then you used the chips to buy food. It's extra fun when you have no idea how much each one is worth and no-one can tell you. You get this kind of experience frequently around here.
From this woman we bought 4 conventional dumplings and two large meat stuffed buns. When Courtney bit into her dumpling it sprayed juice all over the table and almost all over me. Had she hit me.... I could feel the thoughts of the chinese people walking by when they looked at us dumb westerners sitting around a pool of dumpling juice. Supposedly the way to eat dumplings is bite them - suck out the 'soup', then eat them. This i learned from our super crap TV channel, CCTV9.
Good ol McPagoda's
Wuxi city is surrounded by Canals on all sides. This was one we found opposite the market, with a really nice garden and chinese covered walkway thing here. On the west side of Wuxi is the Grand Canal which leads indirectly up to Shanghai then all the way to Beijing. We are keen to see this as even today it's still used heavily for transporting goods via barge. The Grand Canal itself if somewhat ancient.
This would have been made for the recent Lantern Festival. The Chinese seem to have a fond affection for disney characters. You see lots of them as stickers on the sides of the blue worker trucks that are everywhere.
This is the city itself. In this photo it actually looks quite impressive and city'ish, but in reality it wasn't that huge. It did look cleaner and more spaced out than anything we have here in the suburbs. We are looking forward to exploring i further. We have since discovered that most roads have a side section as seen above specifically for motor scooters. There are scooters _everywhere_. The riders drive them absolutely everywhere also. They would take them into department stores too I reckon if they could get them up the escalators. The problem with these things is they're almost completely silent. One day you might be walking along then suddenly find one up ya clacker. They have no hesitations just riding into people! Ahhh China.
Rule no.1: Teach the kids lies.
It kind of looks like she's teaching red doctrine. I won't use the 'C' word, as we all know the Chinese Firewall is quite famous ;)
Still smilin'
This western teacher is unshaven.
But don't worry, he will shave soon.
So just how large are these classes exactly?
Pretty bloody big..
Oodles of bunnies.
Picturesque.
It certainly looked good, no doubt there.
There was a full fledged Buddhist temple in the midddle of the market. All this section was empty and appeared to be getting rennovated. Looking at it made me try and imagine it populated back in the old days of China - it would have looked absolutely magnificent.
The workman on the pagoda wouldnt shut up until Courtney took his photo. You can see him waving on the right. They were laying down bamboo strapped together into mat-like things along the existing bamboo trestle. So privative, yet all construction over here uses bamboo this way.
Some broken tiles. You don't really realize just how many there are on each rooftop.
Yep that's snow alright. It's still around the place in big frozen clumps - likely ice as hard as rock now.
This kind of sight makes us very happy. This was in a weird food court. You paid money to have it changed into plastic chips then you used the chips to buy food. It's extra fun when you have no idea how much each one is worth and no-one can tell you. You get this kind of experience frequently around here.
From this woman we bought 4 conventional dumplings and two large meat stuffed buns. When Courtney bit into her dumpling it sprayed juice all over the table and almost all over me. Had she hit me.... I could feel the thoughts of the chinese people walking by when they looked at us dumb westerners sitting around a pool of dumpling juice. Supposedly the way to eat dumplings is bite them - suck out the 'soup', then eat them. This i learned from our super crap TV channel, CCTV9.
Good ol McPagoda's
Wuxi city is surrounded by Canals on all sides. This was one we found opposite the market, with a really nice garden and chinese covered walkway thing here. On the west side of Wuxi is the Grand Canal which leads indirectly up to Shanghai then all the way to Beijing. We are keen to see this as even today it's still used heavily for transporting goods via barge. The Grand Canal itself if somewhat ancient.
This would have been made for the recent Lantern Festival. The Chinese seem to have a fond affection for disney characters. You see lots of them as stickers on the sides of the blue worker trucks that are everywhere.
This is the city itself. In this photo it actually looks quite impressive and city'ish, but in reality it wasn't that huge. It did look cleaner and more spaced out than anything we have here in the suburbs. We are looking forward to exploring i further. We have since discovered that most roads have a side section as seen above specifically for motor scooters. There are scooters _everywhere_. The riders drive them absolutely everywhere also. They would take them into department stores too I reckon if they could get them up the escalators. The problem with these things is they're almost completely silent. One day you might be walking along then suddenly find one up ya clacker. They have no hesitations just riding into people! Ahhh China.
The Chinese really peg us with traffic lights - check out the arrows and how there's an actual timer telling you how long it will be on that light for. So simple yet so effectively. Increases pedestrian life expectancy believe me.
This is one of the two close range supermarkets to us - about a ten minute walk away. Unlike the other one, this one doesnt have a huge fresh food outdoor market like the other. We buy a few odds and ends then usually get snacks from the street cart vendors out front. There's one that sells this sugared bread that is just the best stuff ever.
Apartments like this are everywhere and all along them are tiny little shops. Half of them are dark inside but all of them open and selling random things. I think they conserve power and save money keeping the lights off. There's been a few shops selling safety gear like witches hats and reflective vests for workmen which has us boggling a bit. 
Another example of the tiny shops that line all the streets around here.
The supermarket sausage hotdog thing section. Mmmh mmm.
Kind of fugly rock displays that are in the traffic islands around here. Most trees and bushes are wrapped in plastic to protect them from the cold.
Shops and restaurants everywhere.
These weren't just good, they were lovely.
Typical street scene. The roads are very wide, making crossing them interesting. There's usually a constant stream of people. It's not packed to the rafters as such, but there's stuff going on everywhere. It feels so utterly foreign out there.
I wanted to have my photo taken with an intersection behind me. Who wouldnt?
Apartments and more shops.
Dong Ting district's answer to Chadstone, The Fashion Capital.
Some lovely Chinese brickwork. Keep putting bricks into it until there's no more hole.
Lots of places around here have security guards(or police) in little gate houses like this, with these weird roll out metal gates. If you look closely at the full sized image you will see a whole bunch of chickens just inside the gate.
The kids hit the basketball courts straight after their last classes. I believe it's like a set period - sport/exercise. The school treats exercise as a very important function of their day to day activities.
Here's the students coming out of class in their droves. That's their living quarters on the right. If you look closely at the larger photo, there's a security guard/policeman pointing at us and coming towards us on the right hand footpath. He obviously hadn't seen us around the school before and didn't know who we were. He got nods of they=ok from the other guards in the gatehouse behind us though. We haven't once been stopped, i think we're pretty much known now.
Lao shi Courtney on her way to teach the extra class whilst Lao shi Marcus wriggles about inside in the warmth.
The view from our built in balconey - yes, it really is as warm as it looks. Oh and we found out that the massive building in the middle of this shot is actually the school library and computer labs. Pretty cool huh? We might explore it later - the lovely weather isn't exactly conducive to..giving a shit :)
Our first real view of China, the good ol stitched Australia car seat covers. Dont worry, every seat in the minivan had one!
Think this kind of view the whole trip. Not non-stop skyscrapers, but non-stop..STUFF.
Our door. They asked us which sign we'd like out front, either double happiness(which I think can mean marriage or something) or fortune. I gave them a resounding fortune request. I think what we ended up was a version of luck anyway - shucks. Interesting note, we are on lvl 2, which in reality is lvl 1. They count the ground lvl as 1, the first floor as 2 etc - just like the Americans do, i'm told.
Our particularly comfortable couch - pre gaudy cushions.
Courtney demonstrating one of our initial favourite Chinese pasttimes.
Our massive dining table covered with mostly food gifts. Most people we know have in some way shape or form bought us food. Bottom left, the two sticky rice things in cups...didn't taste so flash, came from Mr Pan. The box of 30 individually wrapped oranges came from Mrs Pan. The bowl of mini-mandarins was bought for us, along with some nut things, at a highway stop thing enroute from Shanghai to Wuxi. The popcorn was bought by Raymen in town while we had a little explore. It's really good actually, has been drizzled in honey by some old woman in front of a sort of can fire thing. Special mention to the dried pork with honey snacks and the tupperware container with some of our gigantuan box of cookies inside. The apples and bananas have no tale, nor does Courtney's beloved NW crozzle.
Our kitchen. That kettle has since been binned after I melted the handles off it. I mean christ sake, you'd think they wouldnt put plastic handles on it if it's sitting on a flame!! Or maybe i just made it too hot.
This bathroom has brought us much happiness, and even more sadness. At least there's a nice bamboo outlook through the window.
Our bedroom and luxurious king-sized bed, now in rock hard flavour.
The lounge room is a good size. We'll make it more homely soon, heat was priority no.1. There's a built in balconey off it also.
Our new best friend. We love him...
..so much.
If you look closely, you will see our apartment labled, Foreign Experts. Luckily I managed to persuade this one to stand in front of the shot to add to the authenticity.
Behind our building, and actually all over the campus are highrise apartments such as this. The teachers and their families live in this one. Whenever we complain about being cold or dodgy hot water, we think that they probably have it worse at times, and likely dont complain, like us softy westerners.
Bridges such as this are built to feed diagonally across a space as Evil Spirits can only travel in straight lines. Somehow this one appears unaffected.
A large Urn thing situated in a bamboo forest. I am not sure what it means. The school has a number of such things, including a large stone book, some meaningful looking waterfalls etc. The bamboo was quite lovely, but obviously hit hard by the recent snow. In fact the whole schools gardens were basically browned and flattened by obvious snow cover. It's a shame, but it will likely look great when it's all revitalised. Courtney's main question for the bamboo was, "Why are they using bamboo to hold up other bamboo?" I think she's slowly becoming Chinese.
Situated along one of the main schools roads are these plague things with photos of previous students who have gone on to do big things. There's the unpredictable smattering of military and government looking people in always happy poses. Behind this sign is the canteen.
This is the school's main thoroughfare. It's a huge area dead in the middle of school. I took a movie of the middle which i will see if i can somehow upload to show how big it is. On lamp posts all around it are speakers which blare this totally odd quasi-classical music. It is here that all the students come in the mornings to do their excersises and so on. It happens at 6am we're told - naturally we havent seen it.
This is the schools largest building. I have absolutely no idea what's in it but i guess the audatorium is in here. Havent really seen people coming in or out of it yet.
The school's canteen is massive. Teachers eat on the second level. It's large and sparse, like you'd imagine a prison caffeteria to be. You line up at counters, get served some sloppy looking vegetables, rice, meat (fish heads too if you wish, woot!), then sit down to eat. At the end, you take your tray to these massive bins, scrape off the food scraps(which are numerous as the servings are huge), then throw your tray into a huge pile, and chopsticks into a bin of quite possibly the most chopsticks we have ever seen. Then there old friendly looking cleaner women in cleaner uniforms clean it all up. Lovely job that one!
This path leads around the front of the canteen past the schools huge middle lake. The building you can see in the background is actually our apartment. We have a really nice view. And deservingly so, we're experts on Foreign stuff!!!
This giant golden apple is the schools pride and joy. I think mainly because it's huge, gold and an apple. Here Courtney is showing her new found respect.
It's a little off, but it has to be done.
There's a large canal right beside the school. There are canals all over the place around here. We havent yet found the ones that are busy with barge traffic.
They really look quite beautiful in photographs...
..if you ignore the actual water quality :) But hey, would you put your hands into the Yarra? Didn't think so.
Self portrait time.
In our first venture out into the local town, we found a coffee store. This is actually just across the road and down a little from the school(down that top left road). When we got near the front door, two chinese girls both pulled open the double doors, and they, along with the guy in full chef regalia behind the door all chorused, "Good Morning!!!" It was BIZZARE. They then whisked us away upstairs where we sat watching the comedy that is this intersection. They have to be seen to be believed.
This heavily decorated piano was just opposite our table, isnt it beautiful? I particularly like the glass box it's sitting on filled with fake grass. It just touches me on an emotional level.
And last but not least, this was the coffee I ordered. A cappucino. Complete with dainty english looking china, it came caked in thick sweet whipped cream with a curl of orange peel on the top. Mmmmh Mmmm! After I had eaten the cream and mixed in the remainder, final taste verdict? Average. It was nice to sit back in the couches there though, they at least were comfortable. I think any couch feels comfortable actually after our little baby back home.
