Slippers

A blog entry without a picture seems boring, so I decided to upload a picture of my latest purchase - asian slippers. True, a blog entry about slippers also seems boring. Anyways, lately I'd been noticing that my sheepskin slippers are far too warm for springtime. So when I saw these bad boys at the supermarket on for $1.50 I couldn't resist. They're rubber soled for a quick garbage run and there's also a bear on the front for style. 

Cuts may have to be made on items returning home to Canada - these slippers are far from relegation. 

I'm also in China...

This weekend has been quiet (as per usual). I take over 100 percent teaching load on Monday so things will most likely get out of hand... a few things to look forward to are a staff vs. students basketball game, and another staff vs. students soccer game (at a real field where I can use my cleats for the first time!)

I watched 'The Watchmen' last night and was kind of disappointed - maybe because it was on a small crappy TV. Either way, if you've come to my blog looking for movie reviews, you've found one, and its a disappointing 'not recommended' for the Watchmen. However, the microwavable caramel popcorn I accidentally purchased was quite good. I recommend it.

 

I am BUSY

My correspondence, blog entries, journal entries, and social life have definitely suffered these past few weeks. I feel incredibly busy, at the end of each day I come home around 430pm and really enjoy climbing into my sweatpants. Or occasionally my jeans to walk into Manjitan and do some grocery shopping. 

It's not a physically demanding day, but having to be so mentally alert and organized all day is something I still need to get used to. The good news is, I am happy to be a teacher. Tomorrow my Social Studies 10 class will write their first chapter test since I have taken over... I wonder if I'll still want to be a teacher after marking 60 tests and paragraphs. It will be interesting to see student results ie. how much of my lessons they are absorbing. 

There are not too many highlights to talk about, so I thought I would describe my weekly routine for those interested: 

Monday - Friday at school (teaching, planning, photocopying, meetings). I eat most lunches at home, usually pasta leftovers. Occasionally I eat at the school cafeteria which has a huge selection of dishes... I just don't have any idea what they are. Most of the time I discover what I'm eating once I begin eating... seems logical... but thats only most of the time. 

Tuesdays and Fridays after school I play hockey unless I have a meeting with a student... I do tomorrow (disappointing because the weather is finally turning... maybe I can show up late for hockey). On Saturdays I take the sky train for 30 minutes into Kai Fa Chu to play basketball with some teachers. Then for the rest of the day I usually grocery shop at the big supermarket, and pick up some new illegal DVDs. One of these weekends I am going to get a suit tailor made: you just bring in a photo of a suit, pick your own fabric, and they make it for around $70. Stephen for the next music video we can do Puff Daddy and Mase beautifully. 

Sundays is usually more planning, however this past weekend some students had asked to play basketball so that was my afternoon. Its awesome that being able to slam dunk is automatic respect and cool points from all the students... cause I can slam dunk (I enter contests).

And thats basically my week(s). Being so busy the weeks are flying by now, its hard to believe there's just over a month left. I am looking forward to coming home. I miss my girlfriend.    

I have an Office

... which I share with 11 other teachers but nonetheless I have an office. 

Now that I am settled in Jinshitan, scenic and exciting photos will probably be few and far between. But life here is far from dull - on Tuesdays and Thursdays I am playing ball hockey, on Fridays there is a bowling league, and on my way home from the OFFICE today I was invited to play basketball on Saturday morning. This is all on top of teaching 2 social studies and 2 PE classes. 

I have been planning a ton for my Social Studies class so I am excited to begin teaching, and my PE block is doing soccer right now so that's running smoothly. Cooking my every dinner is time consuming, but I have been happy with results. Tonight I will fry up some shredded beef and make some form of a burger, with Gioza on the side. 

The photo posted is of my sponsor teacher and one of his Grad Transitions classes which I will take over. During the class I had the students make name tags and pose in the hallway for a photo - I hope to learn all their names sooner than a week before I head home...

This weekend I have my heart set on buying a phone. 

Its already the end of February... half way done. 

My Place

For the first time in my life I had the feeling 'this is my apartment'. But unfortunately, this is my apartment which the previous owner did not clean before moving out. It was embarrassingly exciting buying things like clothes hangers, garbage baskets, dish soap, and towels. It even felt good cleaning... for about an hour - then it got boring. However, now I sit in an ordered apartment with spotless floors and a fridge that no longer smells odd. The grocery store was an interesting trip - it took me about an hour to spend $25. The most expensive thing was cooking oil ($10 for a big jug... I have no idea why) while every thing else was rather cheap: loaf of bread $1, canned peaches $1.50, big bag of oatmeal $2.50, 2L of water $.60, and more. Dinner last night was average as I don't know where to buy vegetables or good meat yet, but breakfast this morning was delicious - oatmeal with canned fruit, and bread and jam.

These pictures are an attempt to describe my apartment... there are 2 bedrooms, one bathroom with shower and laundry (crowded), a kitchen, a corridor with a fridge and cupboards, a sun room (for drying clothes), and a living room with couch and TV. It is a good size, and it is warm enough! The picture of the boy making the Red Star with thread is above my bed - my first piece of wall art. It is painted... but it is mass produced... don't ask me how. 

Today I will continue to work on my lesson planning. The school is rather deserted right now, but thats ok because I have plenty to do and I will actually be able to concentrate. 

Forbidden City and the Olympics

The Forbidden City was amazing. I got there first thing in the morning and rushed through the larger areas trying to get some photos without hundreds of people in them. Then I got an audio guide and spent another 4 hrs wandering... some very interesting stories. *Stephen those creatures on the corners of the roof are there to fend off evil spirits, and depending on the importance of the building there are more or less present (9 is the most). The first picture is of a wall made up of many tiles, and showing 9 dragons. Emperor's were apparently reincarnations of dragons. And 9 is the strongest number (also my soccer number...)

I'm at a new hostel now, it is fine but there aren't many people staying here so it's not very social. I did however meet a German on the subway and we (along with 5 others, 2 of whom I'd met the night previous) went out for dinner and drinks last night. I saw dead Mao... sort of an eery experience - being 10 feet away from a man who is so historically important, considered by some a hero and by others a monster. Just like most of my opinions, I am open to a grey area. Not to say I believe he was a good man, but there are a lot of political leaders who have done a lot of bad things. Bored?

Today I went to the National Olympic Stadium. I loved it - I walked around the track and imagined Husein Bolt's perspective after he broke the 100m record, and then I sat down in the first row where only the coaches were allowed to sit. Now I am back at the hostel, tired. I will go for a simple dinner, maybe Bjorn is around again.

Beijing - Stephen's long weekend

After a nice nap at the Beijing airport, Stephen arrived. The first night was a beer and trying to stay awake as long as we could - we made it until 11pm. A free bike rental at our hostel let us explore the area the next day and really blend in with the locals (see picture). Our days in Beijing have consisted of a mixture of exploring the major sites and finding character restaurants that have and have not gone out of business (ask Stephen). I think for both of us the highlights were hiking 10km along the Great Wall, and spending a morning in the local park juggling and twirling ribbon amongst hundreds of people (see photo... of Stephen looking not a day older than 19). Stephen leaves today so I will make my way to another hostel on the other side of Tiananmen Square. I head back to Dalian on the 15th (found a flight cheaper than the bus!) so for the next 5 days I will visit some of the other sites and do some shopping. I am looking forward to spending some serious time in the Forbidden City - although there are restaurants and a Starbucks inside... a shame. However, Stephen has just walked in the door from a visit there and said it was amazing (I didn't go because he only had an hour to visit) so I am further excited.

Guilin to Weizhou

After my last entry my plan was to make my way to Hainan island - a 16 hr ferry ride into the South China Sea. However, the boat schedule was different (again because of the Spring Festival) so I decided to stay in Beihai, the port city. My first day I went to the beach and met Xiaolin - a very friendly local - who eventually invited me back to his family (*see picture) home for dinner after spending the afternoon talking at the beach. Such a good experience, I went to the market and watched them barter for dinner ingredients (a dinner for 7 ended up costing probably $5). Xiaolin was the only member of his family who spoke english but everyone was very welcoming, offering me fruit and local snacks the entire time. The next day I went to the local park where a fair was happening - lots of small rides and carnival games. I won a small stuffed animal in the ring toss, but gave it away (as my backpack is rather stuffed). After dinner I took a picture in the park (see picture...) Now I have arrived in Weizhou (see 3rd picture) which is a beautiful island 1 hr from Beihai. Today I will rent bicycles with a Chinese guy named Lancer who speaks very little english... it will be a challenging day, but I am sure to get a good price on anything I buy. To give you an idea of the size of the island, I am not sure if there is a restaurant on it, and I hope to circumnavigate by bike.

Only 5 days until I catch my flight to Beijing to meet Stephen. Jealous?

Happy New Year!

So I have finished my time in Yangshuo, I spent my last night with an American, and a French family - we went for drinks at a local pub. Very nice people. Last night was the Chinese New Year's Eve, but apparently they do not do any sort of countdown or parades like I had expected. Myself and an Englishman George went out for a self-cooked hot pot meal (I tried Chicken foot, well just the toe and nail - it was like eating chewable bones) and then bought a few beers and some fireworks to set off. We stumbled upon some locals (see picture) who had much better fireworks and also invited us in to play some cards and have a beer. They were very friendly and all spoke english because of University. So New Years was nothing like I expected but it was great nonetheless. The other photo is from a cave we went to during the day. It was completely lit up with (typical chinese) neon lights which looked very cool reflecting off of water. The names and stories given to stalagmites and other rocks were hilarious - centipede frightened by magic mirror was my favourite... Tomorrow I'll take a long bus ride and an even longer ferry ride to reach Haikou - hot weather!

Today I rented a scooter for $15. It was so much fun to be amidst the traffic - vehicles on the road range from old-fashioned wagons traveling 10km/hr to buses traveling quite a bit faster. I got off the main road pretty quick and found a winding paved road that went into the hills all through orange fields and tiny villages. I climbed off the road up a hill and tried out my new watercolor paint set - the lid of my water bottle served as my water dish... pretty makeshift. These two photos are looking either way from the bridge out of town. Postcards basically. Tonight I will try and find some cormarant fishers (they fish using birds whose necks have been tied so they cannot swallow the fish...) They take you out on the boat and fish while you watch, should be interesting.

No need for words

We exchanged hellos, took a photo, laughed, then parted

View from the top of sketchy stairs

Wednesday

This morning started off with another bike ride through the country roads. I got more adventuresome this time and wound up lost in the middle of an orange field on a path no wider than both my feet. So i picked an orange and made my way back to the road. Cycling back into town I noticed some kids playing basketball. Shooting around turned into a 5 vs me game - they were very impressed that I could slam dunk.

Afterwards I found an internet cafe and after some technical difficulties I was able to talk to Holly over Skype. Perfect way to cut the day in half. Then I went to the local park and found some Chinese labelled stairs that actually went to a great lookout at the top of a hill - I'm hoping to post some photos but it doesn't seem to be uploading right now... On my way out of the park I saw some kids practicing Martial Arts so I sat down for a moment to watch. An eldery man asked the instructor if I could participate, and after some gesturing I did. I stopped when they began some moves that required crazy flexibility but I got a few good pictures and a video. There was a band a woman singing in the background so if the audio comes through its a perfect video. I have since come home and because I was the only guest around for dinner I got to eat with Wei and his family. Their main dish was pork foot (which apparently is great for the liver) but I pretty much stuck to the dishes they prepared for me. Now I will wander into the city to do some night shopping - I am hoping to pick up some paints and a paintbrush. I am getting artistic in my free time...

Afternoon bike ride

Guilin to Yangshuo Province

I have arrived safely in Yangshou at Wei's Culture House. It is a family run hostel, amidst family homes (the picture is a view from my (shared)balcony). Last night was interesting - arriving at 12pm in Guilin I assumed I would have to take a taxi to my hostel and probably be overcharged. However, on the plane I met a student Jack Allen and he and his friend basically walked me to the door of my hostel after taking the local bus with them. Its amazing the pleasure I'm getting out of not being ripped off yet, I guess it makes me feel a little bit less like a tourist. Arriving in Yangshuo, I called Wei and he came and picked me up on his scooter - that was fun. This afternoon I am going to rent a bike from the hostel and take it along some country bike trails. The weather here is warm, but there is overcast today so the view is not as beautiful as it could be. I am hoping to get some good pictures this afternoon, it should be fun on a bike with no backpack - I guess there is no possibility of blending in so this is as close as I'll get.

Maybe I'll do a blog

So I've been in China for 8 days now. For the moment I have decided to try a blog rather than sending group emails. I'll probably end up doing both inadequately. 

What have I learned so far... I can count (once you can count to ten you can count to 100), I can say: do you speak English? I want to go to the skytrain, I don't want, waitress, and a couple kinds of meat. Although so far all the meat tastes rather similar, I don't know what part of the animal the cuts are but it is consistently 90 percent fat. 

I've met some helpful people around the school. I'm living with the vice principal (temporarily) who has been very generous - taken me out for dinner etc. The school librarian Stan is great, he also owns a western restaurant in the local village. So far he has lent me another book to read, and offered to take me out golfing eventually. Apparently the top golf course in China is nearby, we will however be playing on a oceanside 9 hole course. It does have an island green though...

It's been pretty quiet so far, I'm leaving for Guilin on Sunday then heading to Yangshuo province - if you google image it the pictures are amazing. There I plan to rent a bike for a few days and relax - where I'm staying offers tai chi, calligraphy and painting. After that who knows, my only plan is to fly back to Beijing at the start of February. I'll try to post a few pictures soon...