Here you go...
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Thursday, April 19, 2007
I have of late...
... but wherefore I know, not lost all my... hang on a minute! It's OK again.
Thanks, Hamlet, but I don't need to borrow your words just yet. Last week when I thinking about writing my blog, I was feeling kind of fed up and tired of everything Chinese. It was all part of feeling homesick, I guess - something which doesn't really affect me often. But fortunately, it seems to have passed. Yippee!
So, Sally's visit was great - we did lots of stuff in Kunming, visited Dali, did a bit of hiking and even went to a maths lesson at a secondary school (that was for Sally). Things are now back in their usual pattern, with less than a week until the May holiday. It remains to be seen exactly which days will be holiday, but no doubt we'll find out the day before the holiday starts.
Friday we had a great burger party at a friend's house (thanks Jared for the bacon cheese creations!)
Now, I'm sorry [not really!] to mention spitting again, but as anyone who has lived in China will know, there's a lot of it about. Last week in one of my classes I heard one of my students making the horrible 'hawking' noise that usually precedes spitting. I looked around, but couldn't work out who had made the noise. Then it came again. And finally, a third time. This time I spotted the culprit and invited him to go to the toilets to do it. I was kind of shocked. I had got the impression that the younger generation didn't tend to spit. Then later, a child who couldn't have been more than 2 years old, and who seems to hang out in the copy shop made the nasty sound and spat. Being a child he hasn't yet mastered the whole projection thing, and the spit ended up down the front of his clothes, but still...
The word from Beijing is that the Chinese are trying to clean up their act (literally) in time for the Olympics (thanks, Rachelle): http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/world/asia/17manners.html
A few snapshots from yesterday:
(1) Me sitting in a Chinese friend's car with a pile of 50 or so of students' CVs and covering letters on my lap, a red pen in my hand and the beautiful Yunnan countryside rolling past.
(2) In a restaurant in Gejiu with my friend, a ten-year-old and a couple of Chinese men I had only just met, eyeballing a plate full of what I think were grasshoppers and dragonflies. (Yes, I did try them!)
(3) My friend saying I would be back home by 11.30pm [famous last words!]
(4) Driving along, suddenly hearing a funny sound and trying to persuade my friend to pull over.
(5) Sitting at a toll gate just outside Yuxi waiting for a Chinese surgeon to arrive in his Buick and see whether or not his wheel would fit on my friend's car.
(6) Wandering round a Volkswagon garage at midnight while a mecanic did his stuff and the rest of us watched.
(7) Going to bed at 3am and getting up again at 8am for my busiest day of the week...
On that note, I'm off to bed! zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Thanks, Hamlet, but I don't need to borrow your words just yet. Last week when I thinking about writing my blog, I was feeling kind of fed up and tired of everything Chinese. It was all part of feeling homesick, I guess - something which doesn't really affect me often. But fortunately, it seems to have passed. Yippee!
So, Sally's visit was great - we did lots of stuff in Kunming, visited Dali, did a bit of hiking and even went to a maths lesson at a secondary school (that was for Sally). Things are now back in their usual pattern, with less than a week until the May holiday. It remains to be seen exactly which days will be holiday, but no doubt we'll find out the day before the holiday starts.
Friday we had a great burger party at a friend's house (thanks Jared for the bacon cheese creations!)
Now, I'm sorry [not really!] to mention spitting again, but as anyone who has lived in China will know, there's a lot of it about. Last week in one of my classes I heard one of my students making the horrible 'hawking' noise that usually precedes spitting. I looked around, but couldn't work out who had made the noise. Then it came again. And finally, a third time. This time I spotted the culprit and invited him to go to the toilets to do it. I was kind of shocked. I had got the impression that the younger generation didn't tend to spit. Then later, a child who couldn't have been more than 2 years old, and who seems to hang out in the copy shop made the nasty sound and spat. Being a child he hasn't yet mastered the whole projection thing, and the spit ended up down the front of his clothes, but still...
The word from Beijing is that the Chinese are trying to clean up their act (literally) in time for the Olympics (thanks, Rachelle): http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/world/asia/17manners.html
(1) Me sitting in a Chinese friend's car with a pile of 50 or so of students' CVs and covering letters on my lap, a red pen in my hand and the beautiful Yunnan countryside rolling past.
(2) In a restaurant in Gejiu with my friend, a ten-year-old and a couple of Chinese men I had only just met, eyeballing a plate full of what I think were grasshoppers and dragonflies. (Yes, I did try them!)
(3) My friend saying I would be back home by 11.30pm [famous last words!]
(4) Driving along, suddenly hearing a funny sound and trying to persuade my friend to pull over.
(5) Sitting at a toll gate just outside Yuxi waiting for a Chinese surgeon to arrive in his Buick and see whether or not his wheel would fit on my friend's car.
(6) Wandering round a Volkswagon garage at midnight while a mecanic did his stuff and the rest of us watched.
(7) Going to bed at 3am and getting up again at 8am for my busiest day of the week...
On that note, I'm off to bed! zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
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