Wugong Shan tent festival

Last weekend we were invited to go to nearby Wugong Mountain for a tent festival. As expected, it was a load of Chinese people (and three foreigners) all camping on the mountain. Not such a strange thing you might say, but it was a tent festival with Chinese characteristics for sure:
1. Many people looked as though their rucksacks, tents etc were having their first ever outing.
2. Camping is still not a big thing in China, so for so many people to be doing it at once is unusual.
3. Some people found the whole experience of heading up a mountain with a big rucksack a bit too much and soon gave their bags to a handy porter to carry (see photo). [Some also used porters to carry their bags back down again...]
4. I must've written so many time about the amount of litter that is casually dropped here in China. Wugong Mountain is a prime example. A beautiful place that people go to to escape from the city, but which is being ruined by litter (see photo).
5. A tent festival in China requires a stage and evening entertainment - mostly singing and some dancing and also a bit of flag-waving.
6. Tents were pitched soooooooo close together - I felt a bit claustrophobic!
7. The 'squawking' went on until quite late and started up again at about 4.30am. Sadly, we had forgotten our earplugs.

It was interesting, but not sure how enjoyable we really found it. I like to go to the countryside for peace and quiet. There was none of that! We met a couple of young Chinese people who spoke good English - one had studied in Britain for a while. We also met another foreign teacher who'd been taken there by his students.

We spoke to a middle school teacher, who was from near Lu Shan, and who thought Wugong Mountain was very dirty! We also met another teacher in a restaurant on the way back. She was also an English teacher, but it took her a while to summon up the courage to speak to us.

We had many many 'halllooo's and 'laowai's during the weekend, and these have continued a bit back on campus with the new first years being let loose from their army training. Ah well, it'll pass...

The good and the bad

At the start of this semester we were giving a book called 'Teaching English in China'. It's really useful and a great read for anyone new to teaching and China. It's quite useful for those who've been here a while as well. There was one part of the book which talked about 'culture shock' and also 'culture fatigue'. I think that sometimes, despite being here now for more than year, I still find myself suffering from culture fatigue. The book describes it as 'the "little things" that wear you down' and things do still wear me down sometimes [though living in PX does seem easier since our summer roadtrip].

Anyway, an example of one of those "little things":

I got a call the other morning from DHL. I worked out [after a bit] that the guy was Chinese. His English was very good and I couldn't really place his accent at first. He asked me if I was expecting a parcel from DHL. I wasn't. He then said it was from the University of Birmingham and it clicked - it was some initial paperwork for my distance learning MA that I'm embarking on this year. So, I confirmed that it was for me and he asked me for more information about my address, such as the street name. Embarrassingly, I didn't know. So I said I'd find out and call him back. In the meantime, he managed to find enough information and phoned me back to say it was sorted. I told him to send the van to the Foreign Languages Department office.

A little while later I happened to be looking out of the window and I saw a DHL van drive past. I got Rick to check later with the FLD office, but no parcel had arrived. I couldn't understand it. One response was that mybe the parcel wasn't in the van(!!!) So it had come all the way from the depot in Nanchang with no parcel?!! Hmmm... Anyway, they seemed to think that it would turn up the next day. I was far from convinced and not a little annoyed. I thought that if they came too many times and couldn't deliver, then they would just send the parcel back to Britain and I'd end up having to pay for it again. Grrr...

But it turned out well in the end. DHL reposted it through the Chinese EMS (express mail service) and it arrived the next day. Culture fatigue [just about] averted. Things just seem so difficult sometimes.

But luckily there are usually things to counter-balance the bad stuff.

Today in China it is Teachers' Day. Unfortunately we don't get a holiday. However, in my class this morning the class monitor had organised all the students to say "Stephanie - Happy Teachers' Day!" which was great. And then, at the end of class, one of the students, actually one of the quiet ones, gave me a bunch of flowers. I was so touched.

Happy Teachers' Day!

Prison Break!!!

I did, for a short while, enjoy the first series of the American series 'Prison Break'. I started watching the second series, but my DVD was a bit dodgy and somehow it fell by the wayside. Maybe I'll try again some time. Anyway, it's hugely popular in China and my students in Kunming always used to tell me how handsome they thought the main character was.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch... We were taking the two new foreign teachers our for dinner last night. We've been trying to show them some of the restaurants we like and helping them a bit as they have virtually no Chinese. We went to get them from their apartment at about 6.15pm or so. Where we live there's a wall and a gate which we have to go through to get out. Apart from scaling the wall, there's no other way to get out of the 'compound'. There's an oldish guy who acts as 'gatekeeper' and keeps an eye on the place. He also stops students and other people he doesn't know from coming in. He's had his orders, and he's sticking to them. Fair enough, I suppose. He also locks the gate at night and sometimes during the day when he goes out.

We got back from our motorbike trip to find that a new padlock had been put on the gate [can you see where this is going yet?] We asked for a key, but none has been forthcoming as yet.

As we tried to leave last night, we found that the gatekeeper had gone out, locking the gate behind him. Yes, we were locked in!!! Lovely. I tried to phone a number of people who might have been able to get us out, but the only one who answered my call was my co-teacher who was in Changsha. Ha. Eventually I wondered if the gate could be lifted off its hinges and indeed it could. Freedom at last.

The two new teachers were a little worried that we'd lifted the gate off its hinges and that someone would be annoyed with us when we got back. In fact, the gate keeper apologised for not giving us a key, but said it wasn't his fault [which was really the point!] and one of the young Chinese teachers helped to explain to him that it was us and not burglars who had left the gate like that. We fixed it again, of course.

So now there's talk of getting a new padlock, even getting a new gate. I don't really care as long as I can get in and out in the way you would expect to be able to...

PS - we have to go for our medicals today. As far as I understand it, anyone who stays in China for six months or more has to have one. We had one this time last year and despite not having left the country since, now have to go for another one. It's because we're dirty foreigners, you see...