An amusing conversation

I have been playing Chinese music in the background this week, while the students complete a few Christmas puzzles that I found for them (Yes, another difficult week for me). I am slowly but surely starting to like the music, though it still sounds to me like the Spice Girls on speed. Anyhow, one song was playing, quite loudly and a student came up to my desk –

Student - ‘Do you know this singer?’

Me - ‘No’

‘It is a girl’

‘Oh, ok’

‘She is famous because she has big ____’ (I couldn’t hear this)

‘She has big what?’

‘A___’ (I could only hear the first letter)

‘She has a big ass?’ (Said very loud, just as the music stopped)

‘She has big EYES’

‘Oh, yes, of course, how silly of me’

She then sat back down, quite quickly. In my defence, she spoke quietly, I am slightly deaf and mildly stupid.

Back from Xi'an

This weekend, Charlie’s parents took us both to Xi'an for a chance to see the Terra-Cotta Army. Something I was very happy about as Xi'an is quite a pain to get to and had I not been invited to fly there with them, I probably wouldn't have gone there at all. This was to be our first internal flight in China and given our past experiences we were slightly worried at the prospect. Imagining a cargo plane, with a drunk as a pilot, we were all relieved to find a relatively new commercial airliner (I’m not sure which, but quite possibly a Boeing?). One hour, a coffee and a pack of nuts later we landed in Xi'an.

Arriving at the hotel, we were upgraded to 'Horizon Club' rooms, which meant access to the Horizon Club, surprisingly. We later found that this offered free snacks and soft drinks round the clock, with free alcohol between 5 and 7.30pm. Its surprising how I came to enjoy Beefeater's Gin and Tonic when it is entirely free.

The first afternoon we arrived, we visited the Bell Tower, which is right in the centre of Xi'an. It does exactly what it does on the tin. One interesting thing I liked was the McDonalds and Starbucks that surrounded it. I should have taken a picture of every Starbucks I can find near to a popular tourist attraction in China.

I also enjoyed taking this video of the traffic around the Tower. Driving in China is as crazy as you can imagine, with total disregard for road markings, other drivers and pedestrians.

The next day, we went to see the Terra-Cotta Army, or tried to anyhow. Fuelled by a huge buffet breakfast and a dip in the Spa, we left in our hired taxi. Forty five minutes later, about the same time we should have been arriving and after persuading Allison that we were not in fact heading in the wrong direction, we arrived at the airport. Our trust in the taxi driver had been misguided. Four westerners in a taxi, where else could they possibly want to go? It was then another hour or so to the Terra-Cotta Army, which was not that far from our hotel in the first place.

The soldiers themselves were definitely worth seeing. There were over 6000 in one pit alone (with three pits in total) and every face is different to the next. They call it the ‘Eighth wonder of the world’, I am not sure about that, but it was quite a sight –

The remainder of the stay was spent relaxing. I ate more than I ever thought possible, had a great sup of lager whilst playing pool and darts and nearly fell asleep in a red hot bath (No I didn’t use bath salts - Honestly!).

My third and favourite trip to Beijing so far

Well it’s been a busy weekend that’s for sure. In three days I have visited:

• The Great Wall
• The Summer Palace
• The Forbidden City
• The Ming Tombs
• Tiananmen Square

I have eaten at our favourite Chinese restaurant in Beijing, the amusingly named ‘Fuku’, had two amazing breakfasts including all my Western favourites such as cheese with bread, cereal with milk and a good old fry-up. I have relaxed in a swimming pool complete with accompanying Jacuzzi, had a bath for the first time in over three months and drank beer whilst looking out over Beijing in winter. All of this has come about because Charlie’s parents are visiting for a week and very happy about it I am for sure.

Following a trip to New Zealand, his parents (Hello to Allison, I am sure you will be reading this at some point!) arranged to fly to Beijing to meet up with Charlie and I was lucky enough to be invited along for the trip. It has been getting a bit repetitive for us lately, teaching then sleeping and nothing much else. So it has been a great chance to unwind, especially in a swanky hotel in Beijing!

We took his parents to a more forgiving part of the Great Wall, not too far from Beijing and not including a 12km treck in the freezing cold. We went to the Badaling section of the Wall, slightly remodelled for tourists such as ourselves. One thing of particular interest – can you guess how the Chinese have made it easier to get up to the Wall from the roadside? A trail of donkeys for you to ride up, a cable car or even an escalator of some sort maybe? Nope! A kind of rollercoaster is their chosen mode of transportation. A slow but steep ride up the side of the Wall, followed by a quick decent once you have finished your walk. See for yourself:-

The highlight for me had to be The Forbidden City – ‘A Ming dynasty masterpiece, built as the political and cosmic centrepiece of the Celestial Empire’ is what the guide book describes it as. I’m not sure about that, mainly as I don’t understand what that means. I would describe it as a hideout in the very centre of Beijing that completely shuts out the hustle and bustle of the outside City. It is really very impressive. It is also a museum, the biggest in the world, that when you stand right in the very middle, is completely silent. We sat in chairs, on a fresh winters day, relaxing in complete silence. Considering there are some 20 million people all very happy to make lots of noise outside makes it even more incredible. It is also quite amusing to find that it has a Starbucks slap bang in the middle. Nothing like a Café Latte whilst you walk round looking at all there is to see!

The Summer Palace was very relaxing, a place to chill. It is especially so considering it was absolutely freezing! The entire lake had froze over. Where it not for Allison giving me pair of possum gloves, I think my hands may have fell off. In case your wondering, The Summer Palace ‘has served as a royal summer home since the Jin Dynasty, but it assumed its present shape in 1750, when Emperor Qianlong remodelled it for his mother’.

Video of the Summer Palace

Seeing as I am in an informative mood and I have just purchased a guide to Beijing – ‘What are The Ming Tombs?’ I hear you ask. For your information – ’13 of the 16 Ming emperors are buried in this picturesque valley of rolling hills and orchards. Adhering to fengshui principles, each tomb is backed by a hill to the north’.

Were back teaching for a few days, until we leave for Xi’an on Thursday for a chance to see the Terracotta Army. A nice hotel is awaiting us there too and we are flying to and from the City. It’s a difficult life!

Experiencing the culture first hand

I read in ‘A Rough Guide to travelling for the first time’ that one of the things you must always try and do is ‘burst out of the travel bubble’. The idea that you can travel all around the world and never really ‘experience’ the places you visit, rather just have everything provided for you as if you were back home. Charlie and I made two attempts to burst out of this bubble last week.

The first, was to go to a students house and eat with her family. A very intelligent student with a great grasp of English made for an easier experience it has to be said. Her parents were very nice indeed, mother a business woman and father a builder of some description. We ate a hotpot with all different kinds of meats, vegetables and fish mixed in – delicious. We sat and watched TV and played with their 5year old son, who was overly excited at seeing two foreigners in his house. It was an eye opener to see quite how much they went out of their way to make sure everything was just right for us. They had only just moved into their new apartment the very day before, had only just finished work and yet were nothing less than eager to make it enjoyable for us. A big thank you to Shirley for inviting us to the meal!

The second chance to experience China fully came when Charlie organised a cooking lesson with one of his friends, a Chinese teacher at our school called Nancy. One of our favourite Chinese dishes is a chicken dish called ‘Gung bow ji ding’ (not sure of spelling!?). So we thought it would be a good idea to learn how to cook it for when we come back to England. Nancy took us to her friend’s house and we were shown by a nice chap, who used to be a chef prior to becoming a teacher, how to cook the dish. It was relatively easy and we got to eat the entire meal once it was all finished. Hats off to the chef and his wife (I have forgotten their names I must admit) and to Nancy, we had another great night.

Funny quotes cont....

Two conversations on different days, exactly the same response, from two different American girls :-

Firstly -

Charlie: Are you going to turn your air conditioning off?
Meredith: What air conditioning?
Charlie: The one on the wall!
Meredith: The heater?

Secondly -

David: Can I put the air conditioning on?
Hilary: What air conditioning?
David: The one on the wall!
Hilary: You mean the heater?

Now a month ago, the exact same machine was called the 'air conditioning', when it was pumping out cold air. Change the setting to hot air and suddenly it changes name. So much so they were not even sure what on earth we were talking about.

100 Days and couting

December the 2nd was officially our 100th day since we arrived in China. We celebrated by going out for a meal, back to Anthony's for some fantastic French food - Crepes and then on to a nightclub that has just opened. All in all it was a great night, the nightclub rounded off the celebrations by letting us drink for free all night as a promotional offer for just opening. I can't remember the last few hours exactly but I do know that we eventally got home at 5am. I would call that a success.

 

I would like to say that after 100 days we have become fully integrated with Chinese culture and in some respects we have. However, it would be more true to say that we have now finally got everything as close as possible to how it is at home. We have a selection of dishes that we eat on a very regular basis, that are Chinese, but are as close to things we might eat at home as possible. We spend a lot of time watching dvd' s that are still showing in cinemas and I download TV shows that are currently airing in England. I drink Nescafe coffee every single day. We have joined a gym that is nearly as good as any you find back home, complete with sauna and massage chairs. English posters cover our walls. All my toiletries are English brands. I could go on. If you closed the curtains in our appartments and ignored the fact that we shower whilst sat on the toilet, you could mistake our location for any student digs in England.

Teaching is now routine. I know which students need to be constantly watched otherwise they start to set fire to things and which students will work whether you tell them to or not. Its getting difficult to think of topics to teach, but thankfully the Christmas period should provide a few options.

100 more days will take us to March sometime. It will be interesting to see how things are by then!

Three, two, one..... Action!

Well we finally did it. We got ourselves on TV and were not entirely sure how it happened or why? Kristina asked yesterday if I would join her with some students as they carried out some kind of 'demonstration' regarding the environment. Suspicious as to what the hell it was, I said yes and told her I would bring Charlie.

So at 12.30p.m we met outside the school. There were a few students who didnt really know what was going on. Then a teacher turned up. We slowly started to piece together that the teacher had set up some kind of environmental society for the students. They collect disgarded batteries and hand out leaflets, things like that. But today the TV were coming, he had organised a little trip to a housing etstate and we were going to be interviewed. Charlie wanted to kill me and I wanted to kill Kristina.

We turned up at this housing estate and the students set about handing out leaflets and looking busy. Then we were told we would be asked questions such as - 'Why do you think what the students are doing is important?' and 'Why did you feel it necessary to take part?', things like that. We planned on joking that we were only there for the free biscuits and that we we believed that Save the Whales was a good cause. But we bottled it. Instead, we answered the questions as if we were seriously interested.

One quote from Charlie stands out - 'I may not be able to understand the Chinese writing on the leaflets, but I certainly agree with the sentiment'. Thankfully none of you will ever see our ridiculous attempt at sounding as if we knew what we were talking about! (Though we may be getting hold of a copy, unfortunately).

I think the pictures show quite how surreal it all was -