Chinese driving licence - a simple procedure (!)

Almost there.... after several months, lots of paperwork and many trips to the police station with my patient co-teacher, tomorrow I go to collect my Chinese motorbike driving licence. Phew!

On Monday I took the translation of my UK driving licence and finally got the UK to convert it into a Chinese one (getting to this stage had been far from easy!) So my co-teacher and I filled in some forms, got some special photos taken (with my passport number on them) and had my eyes tested for colour-blindness. There was a guy asleep on the sofa in that office! The man who tested me managed to say 'one, two, three, four, five' in English, so I returned the favour by saying the numbers I could see in Chinese to him. Someone made up my eyesight(!) and my height(1m70 apparently - I must have grown!!) I had to pay money several times for various things and then I got a piece of paper to say I should do the theory test.

We took a taxi out of town to the place they told us to go to, but when we got there everyone seemed to be leaving. A random guy gave us someone's phone number, so we headed off to meet him on a street corner. Turned out that he was a policeman and if I paid more money I wouldn't have to do the theory test. After lots of phone discussions it transpired that as I was a foreigner I wouldn't be allowed to bribe anyone(!) Haha.

Today we managed to find out where to do the test (finally) and I stepped into a corridor full of Chinese men all staring at me. How I hate those moments. We queue-jumped wildly and got into the test room. When the supervisor turned up he looked at my documents and assigned me to a computer to the do the test. My co-teacher and I began.

There were 100 questions, all in Chinese. Some were just road signs, some true / false questions and some multiple choice. Even with her good English, and a handy book that the invigilator gave us (with all the answers in!) it took us ages and we didn't manage to finish in 45 minutes (the allowed time). We only got 59 and needed 90 to pass...

So then we waited a while and another batch of people came in. This time I was re-assigned to a computer at the back of the classroom. We started the test and before long the invigilator came along and did a load of questions for me. After a while he went away so my co-teacher and I tried to do some more (slowly!) Then the invigilator sent over his colleague who finished off the answers for me and checked the previous ones - result. 95!!!

Now if that's not dishonest I don't know what is, but I'm happy. I passed.

Just need a motorbike now....

PS - I didn't post this the other day when I wrote it, but I duly collected my licence the following day and you'll be pleased to know that my nationality is actually Chinese!! Apparently there was no facility to change it..

I've bought a bike and am just waiting for the paperwork to be finished. Photos to follow.

Out of my comfort zone

The title of this post could apply to my life here in China and to be honest, sometimes I am tired of being outside my comfort zone: the constant staring and 'hallloooooo's, the lack of the usual leisure facilities, the lack of other foreigners (nice as my Chinese friends are, it's not the same), the lack of cheese, pizza and other western food, the difficulties of teaching and the poor facilities, missing family.... I could go on, but I don't want this to turn into a complaining post. What I really want to write about is last weekend.

As I write this, the sky has briefly brightened between torrential rain storms, but last week was quite warm and at times sunny.

Last weekend was a long weekend as we had Monday off as well. On Saturday and Sunday we visited Nanchang, the provincial capital of Jiangxi. We don't offen go there, as Changsha is closer and has Carrefour (for Western food!) To be honest, I prefer Changsha anyway. Nanchang still has the feel of a small city and Rick says it hasn't changed much in the last 9 years.

The weather wasn't great, so we spent most of the time in the shops, Pizza Hut and MacDonalds - never mind!

We found - quite by chance - a nice hotel. It was carpeted, which is never a good idea in China, but the carpet hadn't yet become filthy! Generally, it was of a good standard and a bit cheaper than the last one we stayed at in Changsha. We also met a really interesting guy there. He was a young Chinese guy working as a porter in the hotel. He showed us to our room and generally helped us out and his English was really good. Much better than a lot of my students. His accent was clear and his understanding was also good. Amazing. I asked him where he'd learned it, thinking he was maybe a university student with a part-time job, but no, it was just high school English and then practising as much as he could since then. It really makes me think when I meet people like that. Someone who obviously had a talent for English and was really keen. When I compare him to some of the students I teach who have the opportunity to spend time studying and really improve their English, but who just seem to be complete disinterested, it makes me feel a bit despondent.

Then on the Monday we went out all day on the motorbike. We ended up on some tracks that were really just wide footpaths, often quite bumpy and / or muddy and full of puddles. Quite exciting and a bit scary at times. I had to get off and walk sometimes because it was too much with the two of us on the bike. We went right up into the hills and saw lots of children walking down the track. My guess is that they were heading back to school after a weekend at home. They live so far from the school that they probably have to stay there during the week and just make the long trek back at weekends - poor things! Some of them were quite small as well. We got to one village which was completely in the middle of nowhere - only really accessible my motorbikes. It looked as if the road had been prepared so that it could be concreted, but either the money had run out or had been appropriated...

I have never been so glad to reach concrete again. Phew! My whole body was aching the next day from hanging on. Still, it was a good trip. Photos attached.