So this week has been exceptionally good for three reasons....
1) I found MILK in Tesco. Real milk (kind of), with a actual picture of an actual cow on the box. For about 30p. This might not sound too exciting, but China just doesn't do milk. Even in Starbucks.... they just use a sour tasting milk replica that just doesn't do the job at all. So for a tea addict like me, finding something that actually tastes enough like milk to pass off as the real deal in a cup of tea.... this is life changing stuff. I can actually function at school after a morning cuppa now. So that made me very happy indeed.
2) This was the week that I discovered the true wonders of ... THE WORDSEARCH. I really don't know how I survived teaching up until now without them. Wordsearches keep even my rowdiest grade four classes entertained for a good half an hour, which is nearly the whole lesson taken up. The kids are strangely competitive too, so when you make the wordsearch into a race to who can be the first to finish, they shut up completely and keep their heads down all lesson, which is great for me as a teacher as I can just walk around pretending to care while in fact enjoying the peace and quiet (doesn't happen a lot in class). If I can find a 5 month supply of wordsearches, life will be good.
3) As we started teaching literally the day after we arrived here (which is not actually in our contracted days of working), we received our first pay check for the extra days we worked in February yesterday. In cash. It was beautiful. It only equates to about £40, but that will go farrrr here, so it was a very welcome surprise and now means we can have a good few weeks until our first proper pay day!
So things are pretty good today. I have a general 'I'm in China and I am LOVING it' attitude this week. But just wait until the wordsearches run out.....
Wednesday, 13 March 2013
Monday, 11 March 2013
This post is about food
I had ITALIAN last night. Real proper Italian. It was Louise's birthday so we headed to an Italian restaurant owned by real Italians about 10 minutes from our apartment that we had spotted earlier. I had red wine and spaghetti carbonara and I was actually in heaven for a while. It cost the equivalent of about £15, which is really expensive for here... so this may not become a regular thing. But I can tell you one thing... I will be going back! I haven't missed western food too badly yet, but the one thing that just doesn't exist here is pasta. Or cheese. Or bread. Luckily I quite like noodles so I don't think I will starve to death here. But I will still be going back!
Saturday, 9 March 2013
Guangzhou
So sunday has rolled around again and what a weekend it has been. My flatmates decided to go to Guangzhou to meet up with some other interns, which is the biggest city in Guangdong and only an hour or so away from us, so naturally I decided to tag along to see what this place had to offer.
We got the bus which cost about £3 for an hours journey (national express is going to seem such a rip off when I get home) and found our hostel which was right along the riverfront on their "bar street", and had a little look around at our surroundings. To say I felt a bit depressed about where I've been placed in Dongguan would be an understatement. Guangzhou is beautiful.... lots of skyscrapers, water and bright lights... kind of like a Chinese version of London or something. Of course our first priority was to see what Guangzhou's nightlife had to offer after some drinks on the riverside overlooking the main city. Sean's googling had found him an address to "the best club in Guangzhou", so we headed in taxi's to find this magical place. An hour taxi ride later, we wound up instead at a strange Chinese dingy hip hop club which was showing weird japanese cartoons on big cinema screens in the bar. Another thing about China... even if you have an address, unless you know how to direct yourself in perfect Chinese, it is very likely your taxi driver will have no idea where you want to go. Of course we made the best of it... and the cheap drinks helped. A club was round the corner, so we headed there afterwards for our first experience of what I think must have been Chinese trance music. Very strange to say the least. After talking to several Chinese locals (who each asked me why on earth I would choose to live in Dongguan.... and laughed a lot when I said I didn't actually choose to be there at all), I met the club's owner who proceeded to let me into the VIP area and ended up with a lot of free champagne. One experience I did not imagine when I signed up to live in China.
The next day 5 of us woke up in our double hostel room, which was cozy. that's a lie actually, I slept curled up at the end of the bed by Phil's feet. After finding the nearest McDonalds (we really embraced the culture), a short ferry ride on the river and a mooch around the shops as Guangzhou is "the shopping capital of the world", we decided to call it a day and head back to Dongguan. As I said before, Chinese taxi drivers are likely to get lost even if you have an address... so while me, Iris and Jen waited at the bus station for what seemed like eternity, the boys were taken on a tour round Guangzhou and surrounding cities while the taxi driver searched for the biggest bus station in the city. A few hours and a few hundred quai later, they arrived with minutes to spare and we made it onto our last bus of the day.
We all felt a bit depressed about the amazing city which we had just visited. Yes Dongguan is a huge city too, but kind of notorious for the less glamourous aspects... well, to put it bluntly we live in the crime and prostitution capital of China. Houjie, our little suburb of residence, is also a bit shabby around the edges compared to somewhere like Guangzhou. We all rather sulkily made our way out to get some dinner.
This is when I realised that in fact I am living exactly where I want to be and am getting a real Chinese experience like I wanted when I decided to do this. We have an amazing night market about 5 minutes walk from our apartment which is filled with stalls of people making the most amazing fried noodles, barbequed meat, freshly made breads and dumplings, as well as any fruits, vegetables and homeware that you could possibly want. It's huge. And not touristy at all. The locals dont stare at us, but we also don't get special treatment or get ripped off like in some other places (being white gets you varying degrees of service in China)... so you pay about 50p for a massive plate of food and another 40p for a beer. A stick of meat will set you back around 20p. And its all so tasty! So I decided then and there, while sitting with our noodles listening to the Chinese laugh and talk and smelling all the different foods being cooked, that this is the Chinese experience I was after. Guangzhou is great, but a little bit too western for my liking. A lot of people speak English, and there is a McDonalds on every corner. Don't get me wrong, I'm so glad we are close enough to pop there for the weekends. And while Houjie is a bit rough around the edges, it's got charm. So next time someone asks me in shock "WHY do you live in Dongguan?!?!", I will reply "because I want to." :)
We got the bus which cost about £3 for an hours journey (national express is going to seem such a rip off when I get home) and found our hostel which was right along the riverfront on their "bar street", and had a little look around at our surroundings. To say I felt a bit depressed about where I've been placed in Dongguan would be an understatement. Guangzhou is beautiful.... lots of skyscrapers, water and bright lights... kind of like a Chinese version of London or something. Of course our first priority was to see what Guangzhou's nightlife had to offer after some drinks on the riverside overlooking the main city. Sean's googling had found him an address to "the best club in Guangzhou", so we headed in taxi's to find this magical place. An hour taxi ride later, we wound up instead at a strange Chinese dingy hip hop club which was showing weird japanese cartoons on big cinema screens in the bar. Another thing about China... even if you have an address, unless you know how to direct yourself in perfect Chinese, it is very likely your taxi driver will have no idea where you want to go. Of course we made the best of it... and the cheap drinks helped. A club was round the corner, so we headed there afterwards for our first experience of what I think must have been Chinese trance music. Very strange to say the least. After talking to several Chinese locals (who each asked me why on earth I would choose to live in Dongguan.... and laughed a lot when I said I didn't actually choose to be there at all), I met the club's owner who proceeded to let me into the VIP area and ended up with a lot of free champagne. One experience I did not imagine when I signed up to live in China.
The next day 5 of us woke up in our double hostel room, which was cozy. that's a lie actually, I slept curled up at the end of the bed by Phil's feet. After finding the nearest McDonalds (we really embraced the culture), a short ferry ride on the river and a mooch around the shops as Guangzhou is "the shopping capital of the world", we decided to call it a day and head back to Dongguan. As I said before, Chinese taxi drivers are likely to get lost even if you have an address... so while me, Iris and Jen waited at the bus station for what seemed like eternity, the boys were taken on a tour round Guangzhou and surrounding cities while the taxi driver searched for the biggest bus station in the city. A few hours and a few hundred quai later, they arrived with minutes to spare and we made it onto our last bus of the day.
We all felt a bit depressed about the amazing city which we had just visited. Yes Dongguan is a huge city too, but kind of notorious for the less glamourous aspects... well, to put it bluntly we live in the crime and prostitution capital of China. Houjie, our little suburb of residence, is also a bit shabby around the edges compared to somewhere like Guangzhou. We all rather sulkily made our way out to get some dinner.
This is when I realised that in fact I am living exactly where I want to be and am getting a real Chinese experience like I wanted when I decided to do this. We have an amazing night market about 5 minutes walk from our apartment which is filled with stalls of people making the most amazing fried noodles, barbequed meat, freshly made breads and dumplings, as well as any fruits, vegetables and homeware that you could possibly want. It's huge. And not touristy at all. The locals dont stare at us, but we also don't get special treatment or get ripped off like in some other places (being white gets you varying degrees of service in China)... so you pay about 50p for a massive plate of food and another 40p for a beer. A stick of meat will set you back around 20p. And its all so tasty! So I decided then and there, while sitting with our noodles listening to the Chinese laugh and talk and smelling all the different foods being cooked, that this is the Chinese experience I was after. Guangzhou is great, but a little bit too western for my liking. A lot of people speak English, and there is a McDonalds on every corner. Don't get me wrong, I'm so glad we are close enough to pop there for the weekends. And while Houjie is a bit rough around the edges, it's got charm. So next time someone asks me in shock "WHY do you live in Dongguan?!?!", I will reply "because I want to." :)
Thursday, 7 March 2013
Tuesday, 5 March 2013
a few recent Chinese observations
- chinese people aren't as small as I thought they would be.
- however everyone is about a size zero; the "fattest" teacher is probably about a size 8.
- HOWEVER, some of the kids are enormous. adding a whole new meaning to the phrase puppy fat.
- you can't ever get too used to something as normal as it can be shot down in the blink of an eye. for example, one day you may have perfectly working internet and the next it is gone (perhaps for good) with no apparent explanation.
- but, things can also go from bad to good in just a few seconds. earlier today, I walked out of possibly the worst lesson I've taught since I've been here. the class wouldn't listen and when they did I just could not get anything through to them. walking through the school grounds (sulking), three of my lovely grade one students ran from the other side of the forecourt towards me screaming "Raaaaachel! Teacherrrrr How are you!" and gave me a running hug from all angles. It's pretty difficult to be in a bad mood after that :)
- a large, tasty meal can be bought 5 minutes from our apartment for the equivalent of 30p. goodbye, awful canteen food.... hello dumplings!
- although we are living in a "tiny suburb village" of Dongguan itself, we have 3 McDonalds, Starbucks and KFC all within walking distance. not to mention tescos on our front doorstep!
- MANDARIN IS REALLY HARD. we started our mandarin lessons with the school last night and I'm still completely lost by it all. but I'm determined to master it at least at a conversational level by the time I leave!
Saturday, 2 March 2013
one week down... 4 months to go!
So I've managed to survive my first week of being a foreign teacher in Houjie without being eaten alive by chinese children (but have been munched to bits by about a million mosquitos... but that's a different matter altogether). And despite still not being able to find real milk to satisfy my desperate need for a giant cup of tea, I've come to the conclusion I think I'm going to like it here :)
When Friday night rolled around, me and my fellow teaching buddies decided to head to our local English bar for a relaxing drink to let off some steam. We met Annie, who taught at our school last semester, who gave us some great words of wisdom and introduced me to "the king of Houjie".. a mad old Iranian man who kept my glass full all night. After a few too many free drinks, me, Annie, Sean and Phil met a group of Chinese men who wanted to practice some of their English on us... which then lead to them taking us to the only nightclub in Houjie for some more free drinks. In China, they have a tendency to shout 'Gambai' at you if you have a full glass, which essentially means DOWN IT. Twenty million gambai's later, we decided to call it a night and jump in a taxi back to our flat. This all seems very good and simple until we realized we had no idea how to explain to our taxi driver where we lived as he spoke no English and our Chinese was a little shaky to say the least.
At first, this didn't seem to bother us too much so we asked to instead be taken to the nearest Mcdonalds for some late night grub (because everyone in the world knows how to translate McDonalds). We jumped in another taxi from here, who again, could not understand our vague description of where we lived in our broken mandarin. THREE HOURS LATER we were still driving around Houjie desperately trying to work out where the hell we lived. I know it was three hours because I had a little snooze in the back of the taxi and woke up still to be driving around in no particular direction. Finally we found Tesco (god bless you Tesco), so were able to direct ourselves back from here to our apartment, where my hard, uncomfortable mattress has never seemed so comfortable. Lesson learnt... never go out in China without an address written down in chinese. If someone doesn't speak English, they REALLY don't speak English. Apart from McDonalds of course.
Last night consisted in a night of disney movies, recovery and a Chinese takeaway (50p noodles and our favourite greasy bread thing)... well deserved bliss.
When Friday night rolled around, me and my fellow teaching buddies decided to head to our local English bar for a relaxing drink to let off some steam. We met Annie, who taught at our school last semester, who gave us some great words of wisdom and introduced me to "the king of Houjie".. a mad old Iranian man who kept my glass full all night. After a few too many free drinks, me, Annie, Sean and Phil met a group of Chinese men who wanted to practice some of their English on us... which then lead to them taking us to the only nightclub in Houjie for some more free drinks. In China, they have a tendency to shout 'Gambai' at you if you have a full glass, which essentially means DOWN IT. Twenty million gambai's later, we decided to call it a night and jump in a taxi back to our flat. This all seems very good and simple until we realized we had no idea how to explain to our taxi driver where we lived as he spoke no English and our Chinese was a little shaky to say the least.
At first, this didn't seem to bother us too much so we asked to instead be taken to the nearest Mcdonalds for some late night grub (because everyone in the world knows how to translate McDonalds). We jumped in another taxi from here, who again, could not understand our vague description of where we lived in our broken mandarin. THREE HOURS LATER we were still driving around Houjie desperately trying to work out where the hell we lived. I know it was three hours because I had a little snooze in the back of the taxi and woke up still to be driving around in no particular direction. Finally we found Tesco (god bless you Tesco), so were able to direct ourselves back from here to our apartment, where my hard, uncomfortable mattress has never seemed so comfortable. Lesson learnt... never go out in China without an address written down in chinese. If someone doesn't speak English, they REALLY don't speak English. Apart from McDonalds of course.
Last night consisted in a night of disney movies, recovery and a Chinese takeaway (50p noodles and our favourite greasy bread thing)... well deserved bliss.
Friday, 1 March 2013
T G I F
On a bit of a roll with this whole blogging thing and have a bit of time spare as everyone is having a friday nap so I thought I'd write a second blog post in two days (don't expect this to happen alot).
I can't express how happy I am that it's the weekend... literally never felt such a TGIF moment in my life as when I punched out this afternoon. While this week has been a great experience and I've met some of the cutest children in the world, I have spent every waking moment wishing I had pins to keep my eyes open with as I can't get used to the rock hard mattress + early morning starts + recovery from ridiculously long train journey + over excitable children combination that describes this week.
I probably didn't do justice in my last post describing my new students, but in a word.... CCCCUUUUTTTEEEEEE. Teaching the first grade means a lot of chubby Chinese children with equally as adorable English names.... Banana, Flower and Ceiling to name a few. When I walk into the classroom they all run up to me with a chorus of 'Hello' 'What's your name' 'Beautiful' and high five and hug me. Cute when it's one, but after the 40th high five I have to shake them off my legs and arms so I can actually teach them something. My three 4th grade classes have even been a bit more bearable today as I get to know them a bit better... still can't turn my back for one minute though or they will literally be dancing all around the room chanting my name. For most of my classes I have a Chinese teacher assistant, who shouts random orders at them in Chinese (I assume translating what I'm saying if they don't understand) and disciplines them for me so I don't have to deal with their sad little faces. Unfortunately this means I have to watch while they beat them in front of me for talking while I'm talking or for getting too exitable when we play a game. As helpful as they are to have around, I hope they don't stay in my classes for the whole few months as I don't know how much of that I can watch without getting annoyed.
I also had a surprise lesson last night with the PE and music department of the school. I turned up as asked to a "meeting", assuming I'd be sat in the corner while they spoke mandarin just to show my face. No no no. I was put at the front of the class while they tried out their English on me and had me correct their pronunciation, as well as acting out sports and singing to me and asking me to translate what they were doing. They said they would help me with my mandarin in the same way... shame I only know how to say Hello and thank you, not really worth asking for help on... but good to know they are happy to help if I need it. They also gave me a Chinese name which they now shout at me around school. It's slightly embarrasing that I can't pronounce it, but nice all the same.
This weekend hopefully we will get a chance to explore our area a bit more past Tescos and the street markets, as well as let of some steam and have a good old relax. Apparently there's a beach not too far from us which is good to camp on, so tracking that down would be handy too. It's so hot here somewhere to lay would be perfect.
Enough for now, a well deserved Tsing Tao is calling me.
I can't express how happy I am that it's the weekend... literally never felt such a TGIF moment in my life as when I punched out this afternoon. While this week has been a great experience and I've met some of the cutest children in the world, I have spent every waking moment wishing I had pins to keep my eyes open with as I can't get used to the rock hard mattress + early morning starts + recovery from ridiculously long train journey + over excitable children combination that describes this week.
I probably didn't do justice in my last post describing my new students, but in a word.... CCCCUUUUTTTEEEEEE. Teaching the first grade means a lot of chubby Chinese children with equally as adorable English names.... Banana, Flower and Ceiling to name a few. When I walk into the classroom they all run up to me with a chorus of 'Hello' 'What's your name' 'Beautiful' and high five and hug me. Cute when it's one, but after the 40th high five I have to shake them off my legs and arms so I can actually teach them something. My three 4th grade classes have even been a bit more bearable today as I get to know them a bit better... still can't turn my back for one minute though or they will literally be dancing all around the room chanting my name. For most of my classes I have a Chinese teacher assistant, who shouts random orders at them in Chinese (I assume translating what I'm saying if they don't understand) and disciplines them for me so I don't have to deal with their sad little faces. Unfortunately this means I have to watch while they beat them in front of me for talking while I'm talking or for getting too exitable when we play a game. As helpful as they are to have around, I hope they don't stay in my classes for the whole few months as I don't know how much of that I can watch without getting annoyed.
I also had a surprise lesson last night with the PE and music department of the school. I turned up as asked to a "meeting", assuming I'd be sat in the corner while they spoke mandarin just to show my face. No no no. I was put at the front of the class while they tried out their English on me and had me correct their pronunciation, as well as acting out sports and singing to me and asking me to translate what they were doing. They said they would help me with my mandarin in the same way... shame I only know how to say Hello and thank you, not really worth asking for help on... but good to know they are happy to help if I need it. They also gave me a Chinese name which they now shout at me around school. It's slightly embarrasing that I can't pronounce it, but nice all the same.
This weekend hopefully we will get a chance to explore our area a bit more past Tescos and the street markets, as well as let of some steam and have a good old relax. Apparently there's a beach not too far from us which is good to camp on, so tracking that down would be handy too. It's so hot here somewhere to lay would be perfect.
Enough for now, a well deserved Tsing Tao is calling me.
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