Classroom antics and other things...

Today is an easy day for me, just one afternoon class. However, the day began as my Tuesdays usually do with a run through the fields, scaring the farmers and trying not to be scared by the dogs (they're harmless, but I do feel a bit nervous as they trot towards me...)

I did consider giving the run a miss today as I went to the gym yesterday. Yes, that's right, a gym. In Pingxiang. And a clean one at that. Yippee! It's a Powerhouse gym, which is an American chain, so I suppose it works on a franchise basis or something. Anyway, it's empty during the day, spotlessly clean and has all the normal machines etc you'd expect to find in a gym. They also do aerobics, spinning and yoga classes, so I may well try some of those too. Now I'm not a big fan of gyms. In fact I'd even go as far as to say that I actively dislike them, but we decided it was necessary as we're not getting enough exercise in. My plan is to put some Chinese listening on my mp3 and make it a learning experience as well (though I'll probably just end up switching to music as I sweat and curse!!) Ooh there's also a squash court. Looking forward to that, though no doubt I'll be bruised and battered.

Back to my class. It's a speaking class - 60 first years and a bit noisy. No, acutally, a lot noisy. But never mind. At least they're speaking and as far as I can tell, most of it's in English.

I'm not sure if I've written about him before, but I have a mature student in this class. It's quite commical to see him at the back, squashed into a bench amongst the youngsters. I really don't know what he thinks of my class - I'm sure it's a far cry from his English lessons at school and university (?) In fact, I was told that he wanted to improve his English in order to be able to read more articles etc related to his job, so I'm not sure why he's coming to an oral English class.

I was preparing them for their mid-term exam today and so I told him that it was optional for him. But he was quite keen to come along and take part with one of the groups. So, we'll see.

As I was walking back from class, enjoying the sunshine, a smart white VW drove past me and there he was leaning out of the window: "Bye bye!" Made me smile.

On a different note, R has bought a motorbike (125cc only) which makes it a lot easier to get out and about - even doing the shopping is more fun!! It also means we can get deep into the heart of the countryside, and you really don't have to go far to do that. Promise I'll post some photos soon so you can see how it is - like stepping back 50 years or more.

Well, the weather's fabulous. Maybe just time for a quick spin before tea...

Brass, Bacardi and Being Beautiful

The nice weather is back. Clear blue skies yesterday and today, warm but not too hot and a pleasant breeze - mustn't grumble!

I went into class yesterday afternoon wearing a skirt, a skirt I hadn't worn before and was surprised (though a little pleased!) to hear choruses of 'beautiful' from my students. That's why I'm teaching in China and not in the UK...

Anyway, enough of my ego. What's new?

Not much. We still haven't been paid (two weeks late now), though this has never happen to R before, both times he's taught here. We have been told we'll be paid tomorrow, but we were also told originally we'd be paid on the 12th. Hmmm.

Went out on Saturday night for the birthday of one of the other foreign teachers. We went to a bar called 'Brass', of which there are two branches in PX. It's a Western-style bar, or as close as you get to it in this part of China, serving coffee and waffles, amongst other things. We went there for dessert (waffles) and drink. Actually, we drank their Bacardi supplies dry. Now this isn't as bad as it sounds - they only had one bottle and you tend to buy spirits by the bottle here and share them. Oh well... The other branch of Brass didn't even have a single bottle last time they went, but have since phoned to say they've got plenty in...

One interesting thing, we started off in a kind of booth by the window on massive comfy chairs. We then bumped into a former PXC teacher and his girlfriend, so had to move to a bigger table. We ended up in what was more like an alcove room with curtains that you could pull across. Every time a waitress came with food / drinks, she closed the curtains. And then we opened them again.

It's something different about China. In restaurants you'll have the main seating area and then private rooms. When I'm with other foreigners we always just go for the main area, but with Chinese people we'll offen end up in one of the private rooms. Not sure what the attraction of them is really. In fact, the whole Chinese dining experience is different. Many more people are able to eat out here as it is much more affordable. It's also much noisier. You go into a restaurant in Britain and people will generally speak fairly quietly and not draw attention to themselves - right? Well here, the volume tends to be much louder, with shouting being the norm, alcohol is drunk, but quickly and in the form of 'toasts', and when it's hot the men roll up their t-shirts and get their stomachs out (to cool down, presumably). Maybe that's why they have private rooms...

Didn't you read the notice?

Information vacuum (again!)

Today was the first day back after seven days' holiday to celebrate China's National Day.  I won't even go into the fact that we had to work Saturday and Sunday prior to starting the holiday so that we could have a seven-day holiday...

We had prior notice (amazing!) via R's co-teacher that afternoon classes start at 2pm now instead of 2.30pm.  I was preparing for my evening class as usual, when I got a text message through at 7.06pm from the class monitor to tell me that the time of the class had changed and that they were all waiting for me!!!  I have written and ranted about this in the past (the lack of information, that is) so I won't rant again.  I also have good reason to believe that the Chinese teachers didn't know about the change either...  I just took my time and pottered off to class when I was ready.  My class (bless them!) were sitting quietly looking through their textbooks etc.  Yay.

Recycling - Chinese-style

On a slightly different note, one of the other teachers was talking the other day about 'Toothy the Bin Raker'.  Of course we all knew immediately who he was talking about.  He's a tall, skinny man who carries a sack around campus, going through the bins for plastic bottles which he gets money for.  The 'toothy' bit of his name refers to the fact that he is actually a bit lacking in that department.  It's a pretty horrible job, but he's not the only one.  Near our apartment is the rubbish area - basically an open bit of concrete where people throw their rubbish bags.  There are often old ladies there, going through the rubbish, sorting out what they can take away for recycling (and therefore money).  It also gets periodically set on fire.  Lovely.

Wugong Mountain

We thought we had done well to get on a trip with a photography club to Wugong Mountain.  We had contemplated doing it solo, but it does require a lot of effort, particularly without our own transport.  However, things slowly became less good as we realised that most of the rest of the group were students - argh!!!  We need a break from them sometimes.

Anyway, it wasn't too bad, once you got used to their shouting, rubbish-dropping, mobile phone music and generally behaving like kids on a school trip.  I took quite a few photos, got a little wet in the rain and sheltered in a fake 'yurt' somewhere in the fog and rain (that didn't provoke any interested in the other random [Chinese] people who were also there...!!)  The 'hotel' we stayed in was of a slightly lower quality than the ones I've stayed in previously up there, but perfectly OK.  The food was tasty and we had some beer before and after dinner.  The students entertained themselves by playing a game where you  had to try to NOT guess the number a student had typed into their mobile phone.  If you did guess it, you had to do a forfeit - fairly tame things such as singing a song, telling a story etc.  It was quite interesting as well, actually, as the student singing only had to start the first few bars of their chosen song before all the other joined in.  They're good at doing things together, these Chinese.

We declined the offer to join in [spoilsports!] and played cards instead.  I ended up being the 'Donkey', 'Scabby Queen' or whatever you want to call it twice.  Poor me.  There wasn't much more to do and so at about 8pm we went to bed!  Sadly, the lights were on a single circuit and so we couldn't turn ours off until the generator went off at 10pm.  Didn't stop me falling asleep, though...

We managed to get to the top in the morning and could see a little, though not the views I've been able to see from the top before.  Coming down the next day, down the steps (remember, this is tourism with Chinese characteristics) was agony for tired legs and I can barely walk today!  We saw a couple of people (including one tubby Chinese boy) who couldn't even managed to walk up the mountain and were being carried on chairs with long poles attached.  Yes, that's right, carried up by other people, namely Chinese men with huge calf muscles.  Ridiculous!  We also saw men carrying up rocks and bottles of gas, amongst other things.  Not the easiest way to make a living.

I think that's all for now.  Photos this time.  Enjoy...