So there are officially less than 6 teaching weeks left before I leave Daoming Foreign language School on to bigger and better things... I am going to miss my students so much and even might miss Houjie, it's kind of grown on me with all it's 'quirks'. I've never been much of a planner but with a lot of time on my hands right now I've set out (for me) a pretty detailed itinerary of what comes next... so for anyone who is interested.... here is my plan for the next few months before returning home to jolly old England and a much needed cup of tea....
Goodbye Houjie!
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Hanzhong, Shanxi Province (aka. Linda's hometown)
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Xi'an
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Shanghai
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Macau (aka. Chinese Las Vegas)
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Hong Kong
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Bangkok & 5 weeks in Thailand....
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Kolkota, India
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Dehli
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Agra (home of the Taj Mahal, to get my 'Diana' pic)
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Jaipur
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Mumbai (BOLLYWOOD BABY!)
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Goa
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London Heathrow
So now begins the boring task of trying to organize visas and transport (why are planes so expensive and train tickets so hard to purchase this side of the world...??!!)...
Wednesday, 29 May 2013
Saturday, 25 May 2013
A week of firsts....
So the weekend rolled around again and when on Friday I didn't have any plans, I jumped at an invite from Linda to go to KTV with her and some other teachers from school. Just for anyone who isn't familiar, KTV is a Chinese karaoke chain that Chinese people go absolutely MENTAL for. I've never been, let alone with Chinese people, so I was pretty excited to see how the other teachers unwind after a hard day imparting valuable knowledge on young minds (in their case, maybe not so much mine... I've just been singing Incy Wincy Spider with my classes all week).
We got to KTV and were shown to our own private booth where we could relax and sing to our hearts content... and before I'd even sat down, taken in the surroundings and plucked up the courage to sing, a microphone was being thrown at me to sing first in front of everyone... because apparantly I am the 'guest', and therefore it is up to me to embarrass myself first (my words not theirs). Now here I should mention that Linda was the only teacher there who was really able to communicate with me as none of the others spoke any good English, and my Chinese still isn't really up to scratch, but nonetheless they managed to shout 'Justin Bieber' at me repeatedly until I sang Baby for them. Being the only foreigner also meant I had to compensate for the lack of English speakers and sing enough English songs to balance out 10 Chinese people singing Chinese songs... I think it's fair to say I felt no shame at the end of the night. To name a few, I busted out great renditions of Jessie J 'Price Tag' (the only word they understood was 'money', but they loved it), Adele 'Rolling in the Deep' (3 times...by request), Backstreet Boys 'Everybody' (everyone knew this one from our morning exercises) and Beyonce 'Single Ladies' (in which I taught the female teachers how to dance like Beyonce and they LOVED IT). I officially feel like a superstar. The only downside to the night was all the Chinese songs which sound exactly the same... so every time they asked me 'do you like?' I would just have to nod a lot when my real response would be 'Yes, because it sounds EXACTLY like the last one'....
On Saturday I carried on the weekend of firsts by going with Jen for my first Chinese massage. With 4 months sleeping on rock hard mattresses I was feeling desperate and for an hour full body massage for £10, I couldn't say no. However, what must have been in the Chinese small print was just how 'full body' this massage was going to be.... they really did not hold back, all my English prudishness has definitely been knocked down! They were pretty brutal too, but without learning the word for 'softer' first, I had to kind of grin and bear it. I think my back feels a lot better now though... only my dignity has been stripped away but for £10 you can't complain.
This week I also found my first cockroach. A massive one that woke me up it was so loud scuttling around on my floor. I killed it with my mandarin book and first thing the next morning bought a massive can of Raid in an attempt to prolong the inevitable invasion that is going to come as the weather gets hotter and hotter....
I'll end this post with an example of Chinese pop music... complete with dodgy Chinglish and bad Chinese haircuts... they tried to teach me to sing this on Friday night and failed badly. Enjoy...
We got to KTV and were shown to our own private booth where we could relax and sing to our hearts content... and before I'd even sat down, taken in the surroundings and plucked up the courage to sing, a microphone was being thrown at me to sing first in front of everyone... because apparantly I am the 'guest', and therefore it is up to me to embarrass myself first (my words not theirs). Now here I should mention that Linda was the only teacher there who was really able to communicate with me as none of the others spoke any good English, and my Chinese still isn't really up to scratch, but nonetheless they managed to shout 'Justin Bieber' at me repeatedly until I sang Baby for them. Being the only foreigner also meant I had to compensate for the lack of English speakers and sing enough English songs to balance out 10 Chinese people singing Chinese songs... I think it's fair to say I felt no shame at the end of the night. To name a few, I busted out great renditions of Jessie J 'Price Tag' (the only word they understood was 'money', but they loved it), Adele 'Rolling in the Deep' (3 times...by request), Backstreet Boys 'Everybody' (everyone knew this one from our morning exercises) and Beyonce 'Single Ladies' (in which I taught the female teachers how to dance like Beyonce and they LOVED IT). I officially feel like a superstar. The only downside to the night was all the Chinese songs which sound exactly the same... so every time they asked me 'do you like?' I would just have to nod a lot when my real response would be 'Yes, because it sounds EXACTLY like the last one'....
On Saturday I carried on the weekend of firsts by going with Jen for my first Chinese massage. With 4 months sleeping on rock hard mattresses I was feeling desperate and for an hour full body massage for £10, I couldn't say no. However, what must have been in the Chinese small print was just how 'full body' this massage was going to be.... they really did not hold back, all my English prudishness has definitely been knocked down! They were pretty brutal too, but without learning the word for 'softer' first, I had to kind of grin and bear it. I think my back feels a lot better now though... only my dignity has been stripped away but for £10 you can't complain.
This week I also found my first cockroach. A massive one that woke me up it was so loud scuttling around on my floor. I killed it with my mandarin book and first thing the next morning bought a massive can of Raid in an attempt to prolong the inevitable invasion that is going to come as the weather gets hotter and hotter....
I'll end this post with an example of Chinese pop music... complete with dodgy Chinglish and bad Chinese haircuts... they tried to teach me to sing this on Friday night and failed badly. Enjoy...
Sunday, 19 May 2013
day trippppppp
So in my Saturday job this week (aka the easiest-most-overpaid-for-what-it-is job ever) we took the students to a Chinese pottery shop to "teach them English words to do with pottery", which is hilarious when a lot of them still don't know the correct response to 'how are you'. It was fun though, even though the people in the shop spent the whole time staring at me waiting to see what the white girl was going to do next... something I've got very used to here! Also now my students know the word 'kiln', which I'm sure is definitely going to benefit their day to day lives.
Aside from that it's been a pretty quiet weekend. I had some beers with our new Chinese friend Andy last night and when Chairman Mao came into conversation he got very emotional and I think he started crying. Lesson learnt: never ever bring him up in front of Chinese people... I mean I love our Queenie as much as the next Brit but the feelings they have for Mao are incredible. Interesttttinnnnngggg..
Anyway... back to pottery...
Bobby and his 'pot'
This guy owned the calligraphy shop next door, he didn't speak any English but apparently was quite taken with me.....
Saturday, 18 May 2013
Sports Meeting
So this week was Daoming Foreign Language School Sports Meeting.... so please let me introduce the 'referee team' aka token foreign teachers....
The opening ceremony (thats right, opening ceremony) was epic. Every team including us as the referees had to march around the track and do a small performance in front of where the principle was sitting as they passed him. There were speeches, balloons being set into the air, a raising of the flag.... definitely a bit better than my sports day memories which I think include an egg & spoon race and a few flags. The events themselves were pretty familiar; running, jumping, tug of war etc, but obviously the Chinese students are amazing at everything so it was quite interesting to watch. So proud of some of my little grade one students as well! The pressure put on them is so intense. I'm not really sure how seriously the school takes the results of the day, but some of the class teachers were so aggressive when their classes weren't performing very well, even the really young children.
The opening ceremony (thats right, opening ceremony) was epic. Every team including us as the referees had to march around the track and do a small performance in front of where the principle was sitting as they passed him. There were speeches, balloons being set into the air, a raising of the flag.... definitely a bit better than my sports day memories which I think include an egg & spoon race and a few flags. The events themselves were pretty familiar; running, jumping, tug of war etc, but obviously the Chinese students are amazing at everything so it was quite interesting to watch. So proud of some of my little grade one students as well! The pressure put on them is so intense. I'm not really sure how seriously the school takes the results of the day, but some of the class teachers were so aggressive when their classes weren't performing very well, even the really young children.
Sunday, 12 May 2013
Dear Diary...
So after all the excitement that was last weekend with Shenzhen and Guangzhou, we decided to have a quiet weekend in Houjie. But (if you see the common theme of this blog reappearing) this is China so obviously things never go quite according to plan. Friday night we were sat minding our own business having a quiet beer at the night market, playing a few 'getting to know each other' games as we realised after 3 months living together, we still didn't know a lot about each other. Next thing we know, a Chinese doctor comes over and says he and his brother want to join us at our table, and with them they bring a whole load of free drinks. This then lead to a game of truth or dare which saw Phil dancing Gangnam Style in the middle of the market around a whole lot of confused Chinese people (although we're foreign, so I think everything we do confuses them anyway). This dare backfired a little though, as it just meant a load of new Chinese people wanted to give us more drinks and gambai with us... in particular one guy called 'Jeff' who kept appearing at our table shouting at us 'he'.. which means drink in Chinese.
On Saturday we woke up feeling a tad worse for wear and Robert, an Indian teacher also living in Houjie invited us round for some proper Indian food. We jumped at the chance of eating something other than noodles. The only catch was we had to cook a 'typical British' dish to contribute to the dinner party. We chose Yorkshire Puddings, because how can Yorkshire puddings go wrong...? Well seeing as Chinese kitchens are missing ovens, a vital part of this plan, it turns out Yorkshire puddings cooked in the microwave can in fact go very wrong indeed. We settled on making some questionable pancakes instead, but luckily Robert's curry was so good no one seemed to mind that our contribution was a bit (a lot) of a fail. We had a few drinks and ended the night with a game of pool and a few drinks in the only expat bar in Houjie (and a slice of the best Chinese pizza I've ever eaten in my life).
Today was quieter, I went for lunch and a spot of shopping with Linda and tidied my room... hardly worth writing about but I feel like this blog isn't helping the 'Brit abroad' reputation and that I should start mentioning when I do things other than go out and drink with Chinese people (although I can't help that that does dominate most of my weekends these days... being a teacher is stressful so it is very much needed). Also Linda has invited me to her hometown to meet her family and friends which I am more than excited about!
We have our school 'sports meeting' this week, which is essentially sports day so that should be fun. Friday's afternoon classes were cancelled for rehearsals of the opening ceremony, so we happily sat in the office watching the thing out of the window. Next thing we knew, however, we are being shouted at to run downstairs as we were meant to be in the rehearsals, marching round the field with Chinese flags. I'm pretty sure we were actually meant to be the stars of the show... but of course they had neglected to share this information with us sooner! So we bombed it down the stairs and ran straight onto the field to march round (being told off for marching and flag waving incorrectly) on the hottest day I've experienced so far, while all the students pointed and laughed at the funny white teachers making fools of themselves. So next week we have to do that all over again... but wearing matching t-shirts. Plus whatever extra surprises they have in store for us. Joy...
On Saturday we woke up feeling a tad worse for wear and Robert, an Indian teacher also living in Houjie invited us round for some proper Indian food. We jumped at the chance of eating something other than noodles. The only catch was we had to cook a 'typical British' dish to contribute to the dinner party. We chose Yorkshire Puddings, because how can Yorkshire puddings go wrong...? Well seeing as Chinese kitchens are missing ovens, a vital part of this plan, it turns out Yorkshire puddings cooked in the microwave can in fact go very wrong indeed. We settled on making some questionable pancakes instead, but luckily Robert's curry was so good no one seemed to mind that our contribution was a bit (a lot) of a fail. We had a few drinks and ended the night with a game of pool and a few drinks in the only expat bar in Houjie (and a slice of the best Chinese pizza I've ever eaten in my life).
Today was quieter, I went for lunch and a spot of shopping with Linda and tidied my room... hardly worth writing about but I feel like this blog isn't helping the 'Brit abroad' reputation and that I should start mentioning when I do things other than go out and drink with Chinese people (although I can't help that that does dominate most of my weekends these days... being a teacher is stressful so it is very much needed). Also Linda has invited me to her hometown to meet her family and friends which I am more than excited about!
We have our school 'sports meeting' this week, which is essentially sports day so that should be fun. Friday's afternoon classes were cancelled for rehearsals of the opening ceremony, so we happily sat in the office watching the thing out of the window. Next thing we knew, however, we are being shouted at to run downstairs as we were meant to be in the rehearsals, marching round the field with Chinese flags. I'm pretty sure we were actually meant to be the stars of the show... but of course they had neglected to share this information with us sooner! So we bombed it down the stairs and ran straight onto the field to march round (being told off for marching and flag waving incorrectly) on the hottest day I've experienced so far, while all the students pointed and laughed at the funny white teachers making fools of themselves. So next week we have to do that all over again... but wearing matching t-shirts. Plus whatever extra surprises they have in store for us. Joy...
Monday, 6 May 2013
You know you've been living in China too long when...
- You double take when you see another white person in the street.
- You also say to your friends 'did you see that white guy?' when you see another white person in the street.
- You think £2 is ridiculously expensive for a beer.
- And paying £10 for a huge Western meal (including drink) is a once in a blue moon treat.
- You cross the street when the red man is showing, because you know that's probably the safest option.
- You speak to everyone using hand gestures for EVERYTHING. Even the English people.
- Squat toilets don't bother you anymore. Well... not really
- You start humming the tune to popular Chinese songs that are played everywhere when you're alone.
- You don't think it's strange that big groups of people just start randomly line dancing in sync in the middle of the street
- ...and you kind of want to join in.
- You chase down people like a loan shark who owe you the equivalent of a few quid.
- You feel a bit insulted when Chinese people meet you and don't say you're beautiful (not because I'm vain, but because 99% of them will... it's a bit of a favourite word here).
- You have a QQ account (but no idea how to use it)
- You forget all about major UK holidays
like Easter and Mothers Day but know exactly when Qing Ming is.
- The noodle man at the food market knows your order.
- You answer the phone saying WAAAIIIIIIIIIII
Sunday, 5 May 2013
labour day and stuff
Luckily we only taught two days last week so we had a chance to recover a bit, and then I started my new weekend job on Saturday tutoring 8 children. I think it's fair to say it was the best lesson I've taught so far. With 8 children instead of 40 it's a lot easier to understand each individuals language level and cater to everyone, so that they end up actually learning something. Me and my new boss, Julia, even took them out of the classroom to the supermarket so that I could show them how to use English in real life contexts which was great! I think they all actually learnt something, which is something I'm not entirely sure if I have achieved with my classes at school yet, so that was a nice feeling. Being paid in cash at the end of the lesson also felt pretty good!
Everyone in my flat was heading to Foshan for the weekend, so naturally I tagged along after work. In typical China fashion though, everyone in Foshan was going to Guangzhou for a night out, so as our bus was passing through there anyway, we got off and hunted down a hostel there for the night. Loads of people ended up coming out so it was great to see some faces again before another week back at the daily grind in school. Also great to be back in Guangzhou, I think it's the best place I've seen in China so far - a really big city like Beijing (I'm definitely a big city girl at heart), but a lot more flashy and just western enough without being too touristy.
A couple of pictures from Guangzhou - night out and morning after ferry
Anyway time is just flying now, our contract with our school ends in exactly two months. Not sure how I feel about that really... the novelty of teaching has definitely worn off but I'm still really enjoying it, as hard work as it is. Either way, I'm so glad I chose to see China this way, I've seen aspects of this country that you just don't experience as a 'backpacker' and I really feel like I've lived in a proper Chinese community. As shabby as it is, I've also really grown to love Houjie and all it's weird residents: Noodle Man, Dumpling Lady, Crazy Landlady, Linda, Stella.... I really will miss them all. All that aside though, I am itching to get out to Thailand now to begin the next chapter of my adventure!
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