End of Term 1

Well, im all packed ready for Beijing and I am flying back to England this Sunday. I have a few posts ready for the blog, with videos and pictures, but I am going to wait until im home to post them as the internet is still not working at all here. Brock, Meredith, Becky and Hilary are heading to the sunny beaches of Thailand; Charlie is travelling around China, with stops in Shanghai and Chengdu; I however have spared no expense and Seaton Carew in delightful Hartlepool is the destination of my choice.

Mother, get the pork pies ready!

The Starbucks

Bloggers threaten to forbid Starbucks a place in ancient city Half a million protest at plans Museum agrees to a rethink

A Starbucks that occupies a tiny corner of the Forbidden City faces closure after an online ba cklash against a foreign franchise in the former home of the emperors of China. Half a million Chinese internet users have rushed to agree with Rui Chenggang, who sparked the controversy with his blog Why Starbucks needs to get out of the Forbidden City, posted on Janu ary 12. Mr Rui wrote that a Starbucks was obscenely out of place amid the 178-acre (71-hectare) complex of throne rooms, pavilions and gardens that was home to 24 emperors before the end of imperial rule in 1911. “This is not globalisation but an erosion of Chinese culture,” said Mr Rui, who is an anchorman on CCTV9, an Englishlanguage state television channel. Now the c ultural mandarins of China are considering closing the coffee shop. Most comments agreed with Mr R ui’s view that a foreign café was inappropriate inside a 15th-century building that is a symbol of Chinese civilisation. Some attacked its presence as a disgrace, while others criticised the Palace Museum, which administers the Forbidden City, as a “slave of money”. At first the museum defended the coffee shop, saying that it had done no damage and blen ded in well with its surroundings. “We allowed it because we wanted to have a more international service available,” it said. There were nearly nine million visitors to the sprawling palace last year, including 1.6 million foreigners. Yesterday, however, the Palace Museum appeared ready to b ow to online opinion. Feng Nai’en, a museum spokesman, said: “The museum is working with Starbucks to find a solution by June in response to the protests. Whether or not Starbucks remains depends on the entire design plan that will be released in the first half of the year.” The Forbidden City branch is low-ke y, occupying barely 20sq m. It is in a small corner of a giftshop that visitors come upon only if they seek it out, about halfway through their tour of imperial pavilions. Many Chinese coffee shops and snack bars are also scattered around the Forbidden City and about a third have already been ordered to move out in a reorganisation of services. Mr Rui told The Times that he was astonished at the response to his blog and at the power of the internet. “I’m not attacking Starbucks. It’s not that. Personally, I welcome Starbucks to China and hope they will be successful but I just think it’s not proper to open a Starbucks in the Forbidden City. There should be a limit to protect our cultural traditions.” The outlet opened in 2000 amid a media furore so severe that the museum authorities considered revoking its lease after two months. Eden Woon, Starbucks vice-president for Greater China, said that the company has no plan to leave the site.

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Yes, but they do make great coffee!

Last lesson of term

As a way of rounding off the term, this week I got the students to write letters to my friends and family in England. They jumped at the idea and now I am having to sort through them all, choosing the best for when I get home (bringing 600 is not an option thanks to the 20kg of luggage im allowed!). I was a bit worried at first, as one student put her hand up mid-lesson and asked - 'How do you spell Iraq?', but things turned out just fine. China yet again succeeded in throwing up some interesting moments -

One student asked - 'Which boy is the most handsome?'. The student in question was a boy, who considered himself to be very handsome and wished to discuss that with someone.

Another student asked which friend liked Formula 1, so I gave her Andy's name, telling her he simply adores F1. (Sorry Andy, I lied knowing full well you hate F1).

I made my weekly gaff, when a girl asked me 'Can you show me how to write joined-up?'. A bit of a wierd request I thought, given that a lot of her words were all ready written so. However, being the good teacher that I am, I duly showed her a few ideas on how to do it. After about 2 minutes of this, she stopped me, and said 'No, I mean the actor out of Pirates of the Carribean'. I quickly wrote Johnny Depp and hurried away.

I often say to my students - 'I know your tired, so if you finish your work early, feel free to go to sleep' - and they do :-

Its all over

Well after nearly five months its pretty much all over, finished. I can still remember with fondness those very first hours, all that time ago. Starting open eyed and full of optimism, new friendships were made and hopes were high. Things were not always smooth running though, arguments often occurred, especially between the Americans and the British, as is to be expected when the Americans mistakenly begin to believe that they are far superior to all. A number of incidents however made clear this obviously is not the case. During the middle months, time did drag and interest started to disappear. However, towards the end and especially during this last month, excitement has returned. Yes, its been great, but finally – Charlie and I have finished watching all seven series of The West Wing.

I think it is only fair to comment about this on the blog, as The West Wing has literally been the main source of amusement for Charlie and me. With little else to do in our spare time, after teaching and in the long periods between the opportunities to go and travel around China – The West Wing has been our saviour. Seven series’, twenty two episodes a series and 40 minutes per episode – you do the maths! But yesterday we finally finished it, leaving me with the question as to what I will do with my spare time when I return from England, with no Charlie or The West Wing. I could always turn to the Sopranos – or even learn to speak Chinese. Nah, that’s probably going to be too difficult!

I would just like to add that we have tried to pick up as much Chinese as possible by ourselves, but even with persistent requests from us, the school has only organised one Chinese lesson since we have been here. I shall be purchasing the necessary books during my break in February and I will make every attempt by myself to pick up the lingo!

Looking forwards to February

Well January is turning out to be a less than exciting month. With February offering us the chance to have an entire months holiday, everyone has organised to leave Shijiazhuang. Brock, Becky, Meredith and Hilary are all leaving for Thailand; Charlie is travelling around China, meeting up with his girlfriend in Shanghai – for Valentines Day (how romantic); and I booked the first flight back to England. This has meant though that we are all now looking forwards to February, rather than enjoying January as much as we might have otherwise.

This also means that daily life in Shijiazhuang is more repetitive than ever, with nothing of any interest to you occurring. China never fails to offer at least something to amuse me, every once and a while. This week for my lesson, I downloaded (Charlie downloaded and I stole) numerous pictures of different places to visit in England. Most were of London, but I did my best to promote the North! One picture in particular was of a London bus, a picture I managed to talk about for a surprisingly long time. On Monday, after I finished talking about the bus, I was attacked –verbally.

The Chinese students are taught to speak English phonetically, thus they pronounce ‘bus’ as ‘bas’ – how Hyacinth Bucket might pronounce it. The students decided enough was enough, and they were going to correct my pronunciation. ‘Its not bus, its bas’ the little buggers shouted. I fought back. I wrote ‘bass – bas – bus’ on the board, informing them that the first word is the name of a fish. I then got the whole class to read the words out loud – and yup, they were exactly the same. So I asked them if when they visit London, they really wanted to have a ride on a fish? But this was lost on them. So we left it at that, both believing the other to be wrong. I have made a promise to myself though, from now on I am going to try and get them to say ‘Shut’ as much as possible, even try for ‘I shut it myself’. Ah the fun.

How China works

Just to highlight the way in which China seems to work and the way in which it never ceases to amaze me, here is a little story regarding my lost train ticket.

On New Years Day, Anthony decided that he was going to return to Shijiazhuang, as he didn’t fancy sleeping on the floor of the hostel for two nights in a row. So as Charlie and I headed for the Hotel, he left for the train station.

About 11:00pm that evening, whilst sat in Soccer Club watching the Liverpool game on TV, I realised I had lost my train ticket for the following day. It is always difficult to get a ticket and usually needs to be purchased about three or four days in advance to guarantee a seat. Given that it was New Years Day, this was particularly unlikely.

Back at the Hotel, I was advised by a staff member that the concierge may be able to get me a new ticket the following day. So cancelling my planned long sleep in, I met the concierge at 7:00am on the 2^nd of December. I was told that it would be unlikely that I would be able to get a ticket, due to it being the same day as I wished to depart. However, a few hours later and at a price twice that what I paid for my original ticket, I was told that they had been able to buy me a ticket.

There must be about 20 carriages on the average train in China, each holding about 80 seats that are usually ALL filled. Now remembering that I purchased my original ticket the day before I got my new one, you can imagine my surprise when I found that the new ticket was for seat 29, with my old seat number being 13 (both in carriage 9). How that works is beyond me.

China though, had one last little trick up its sleeve. We knew that there would be an empty seat where I would have been sat originally, plus another one where Anthony would have been sat had he not decided to return to Shijiazhuang a day early. After the train had departed, a Chinese guy came over to us, trying to explain to us that we were sat in his seat. This couldn’t be possible, we had bought a group of tickets together! But what we didn’t realise was that Anthony had swapped his ticket for a new one and the station had then sold on his old ticket. The solution? We swapped tickets. He went and sat in seat number 29, and I continued to sit in the seat Anthony was supposed to be sat in.

So I returned to Shijiazhuang, in a seat that I had paid three times the price for and that Anthony had paid for yet not sat in it either. It also leaves me with the slight doubt as to whether the Chinese man did in fact buy Anthony’s old ticket, or in fact was lucky enough to find my ticket on the floor.

Sorry if that is a bit confusing, but that is what happened and it was just as confusing in first person.

Its 2007

Well i’m now up to date with the posts, its Wednesday the 3^rd of January – 2007! We arrived back from Beijing yesterday evening, tired and out of pocket. Not wanting to spend New Years Eve in Shijiazhuang, everybody headed to Beijing on New Years Eve, after teaching until lunch time. There were 14 of us in total, which made organising transport even more difficult than ever, but finally, at about 7 o’clock, we arrived at our beloved Hostel – The Jade International Youth Hostel.

A bit of advice for anyone wishing to ever travel to Beijing, take your passport, or a photocopy thereof. Anthony, our French friend, photocopied his when he arrived in China, but hadn’t photocopied it since updating his travel visa to a residence permit. Therefore, the receptionists would not let him check in to the hotel, even though he lived two hours away, it was New Years Eve and there was little or no chance of him getting a room anywhere else. The problem was solved however, by him sneaking up to one of our rooms and simply sleeping on the floor. Ah China.

We had planned on seeing the New Years in, on the roof of the hostel, overlooking Beijing. Quite a romantic idea, one that didn’t materialise when we found, at 11:58pm, that the roof had been locked. So it was a mad dash down the stairs, were we congregated outside. A few cheers later, it was over and we were back inside, downing the beers again. The rest of the night was spent at Browns, of which I can remember very little!

The next day, Charlie and I checked into the Shangri-La China World Hotel, catchy name I know. After our great stay in the same chain in Xi’an, this hotel was equally as good. I won’t bore you with more details of random hotels, but compared to our day to day life in Shijiazhuang, this was like being in heaven for 24 hours. Unfortunately, I have returned from heaven, with nothing but a bag full of hotel products. The slippers are exceptionally comfy!

Tis the season to be merry!

Well its over, Christmas has come and gone in Shijiazhuang (that rhymes if pronounced correctly!). My lesson this week has been to compare my Christmas in China to a normal Christmas in England and I’m happy to report that with a few exceptions it has been relatively similar.

I have spent most of the last week or so either drunk or hung-over. I have eaten like a pig at numerous restaurants, coffee shops and hotels. Christmas day involved opening presents around the Christmas tree we had in Charlie’s living room, then continuing to drink while we watched the West Wing. Nothing much has changed there really.

The highlight has to our Christmas meal. A six course extravaganza, including lobster, smoked salmon, turkey, mashed potatoes, gammon and lots besides that. We had the entire restaurant to ourselves, something I must say I have never experienced in England before.

For Boxing Day, we had organised a 9-a-side football match against some of the students from one of my classes. Fed on nothing but carbohydrates, these nine 17 year olds were a tough opposition. Add to this the obscene amount of alcohol we two larger louts had consumed the day before and I think we did very well to finish the game 5 a piece. My inability to play football was never an issue. I spent the best part of the time trying my hardest to stay well clear of the action, only to accidentally get involved towards the end of the game, thus losing us our two goal lead. It has now snowballed into a weekly fixture, something my beer belly is not happy to hear!

I thought I might miss being in England far more than I have done these past few weeks. But the fact that teaching resumed on Boxing Day made it feel like any other week, rather than making us feel that we were missing Christmas at home.

Im no Van Gogh!

About four weeks ago, Sandy asked all the foreign teachers if we would like to have some painting lessons. A chance to try our hand at Chinese culture, so to speak. Imagining drawing Chinese characters of some description, I was quite looking forward to the chance. When it transpired that I would be drawing a cabbage, with chillies around it, I was less than impressed. Given it is a very traditional vegetable in China, it’s not exactly what I enjoy painting for fun.

However, we now know that this is exactly the reason we were asked to learn to paint in the first place. Our school had entered us in a Province wide competition, representing the School, to show how much Chinese culture we had learnt so far during our stay. I was fuming. The plan was for Kristina to sing a Chinese song, something she is very capable of. At the same time, four of us were to draw our pictures and show them to the audience at the end of the song.

I can honestly say that I never imagined drawing a cabbage in front of an audience of approximately 100, accompanied by Kristina singing opera in my ear hole, with the pride of Sandy and the reputation of our school on the line. My painting was as shoddy as you can imagine, but to our surprise, our placing was not. We came home a very respectable second.

The next evening, all the entrants were invited to a Christmas party, with complimentary buffet and drinks. Half an hour in and our table was undoubtedly the most drunk, knocking back a shocking amount of free wine. We did ourselves proud. We were expected to repeat our performances for the benefit of the Mayor of Shijiazhuang, so I think it was lucky, given how drunk we all were, that Sandy sent us to a painting performance – without any paper. For once I was relieved by the lack of organisation in China.

Late Posts

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, but I have a good reason this time other than laziness. You may have seen in the news that there has been an earthquake off the coast of Taiwan about a week ago. Well this wiped out some of the cables connecting China to foreign internet sites. Things are slowly starting to get back to normal, but its still a pain to use. I have continued to write posts on my computer, ill just post them in the right order.

So Happy Christmas, Happy New Years and on with the posts.