Strange things about China

It seems that winter might finally be on the way. I'm wearing a polo-neck for the first time in a long time and am contemplating putting the other duvet on the bed [we got a new one and it has two parts that you can fix together]. Anyway, it's not bad for the third week in October, I suppose.

So, the new first years (or 'freshmen' as they like to call them here) have been with us for over a month and a half now. Given that their first two weeks were taken up in military training, we could call it roughly a month that they've been 'loose' on campus. Enough time you would have thought [or I would've thought] for them to get used to the sight of foreigners on campus, right? No. Sadly not. I'm sure they got over it much quicker last year, but Rick swears that it went on for the whole year. So we're still being subjected on a daily basis to what I can only describe as 'weirdness'. People suddenly starting to speak English when we're near them. Now, they're not speaking to us - oh no, they're just spouting all the English phrases they know. People shouting 'hallloooo! to us from a distance' - they're not being friendly and they're certainly not trying to communicate with us. It's just some kind of reflex reaction [see a foreigner, 'say hello'] and, I have to say, weird.

Today after class I was checking some students' work and students from the next class started coming into the classroom. Suddenly, I was aware of a few 'hallloooooooo's and 'nice to meet you's from the back of the class. Not normal.

I was reading some comments about this whole thing on someone else's blog. Someone commented that when working in Shanghai she just put such behaviour into a box labelled 'strange things about China' and forgot about it. I reckon it's probably the best (and only) way to deal with it without (a) going mad; or (b) thumping someone!!!

Anyway, the whole point of this is to say that today my faith was somewhat restored. I was walking to class when I student I didn't know started talking to me. She spoke to me in a perfectly normal way and we had a good chat. Phew! There's hope yet...

PS - this week I have mostly been getting my students to write stories about aliens. Some great stories!

The best time of year

As the title suggests, I just wanted to write about how wonderful the weather here is right now. It really is the best time of year in PX. The sun is shining, the skies are clearer than normal and blue, and the temperature is warm. Not hot, like summer, but warm enough to go around in short sleeves still. It's great. It really keeps up your spirits.

Rick's parents and brother were out here just over a week ago and the weather was pretty much perfect the whole time. The photos with this post are some that I took on a day-trip out to a lake. We went on a boat round the lake and had lunch there. It was really peaceful and relaxing.

60 Years of the PRC

Today is National Day in China. The fireworks have just started, which seems remarkably restrained as it's 8.30am (the past few days they've been going off from 4am onwards!) It's a day of celebrations and is particularly special this year as it marks 60 years of the People's Republic of China (and Communist Party rule). Many of the shops have the national flag flying from them and taxis do too. A lady was selling small flags near college last night.

Anyway, in honour of the occasion, Rick and I were invited to Nanchang (the capital of Jiangxi Province), last Friday night for a meal and concert. We were a bit skeptical about joining the celebrations of a communist party and country but we couldn't really say 'no' and we thought it might be quite interesting anyway. And it was.

We took a bus to Nanchang with Bob on Friday lunchtime and arrived in good time to check into Jiangxi Hotel in Nanchang. It was a great hotel - the standard was on a par with some of the best hotels we stayed in on our summer trip. Bob left us there and we settled in.

The meal was at 5.30pm in the same hotel and began with some speeches, which were all translated into English for the benefit of the many foreign experts present [mostly teachers, but some other foreigners working in Jiangxi as well]. One lady on our table spoke a bit of English and we also managed a bit of Chinese. The food was a buffet and very tasty. The wine was also good - a Bordeaux! We drank a bit more than the Chinese people. They tend to drink wine for show and not because they really like it.

After the meal, buses were laid on to take us to the concert which was happening at Nanchang University. We got onto our designated bus, set off and to our excitement(!) we saw that the driver had put the hazard lights on. We were in a leader convoy, complete with police escort!!! I might have mentioned this before, but important people in local government, the police etc. like to drive around in a convoy with their hazard lights on and often their horns blaring - telling people to get out of the way as they are important!! Haha. They also often have a special horn which makes a different noise from the average car horn, so no-one is left in any doubt that someone important is trying to get through. We've mocked these convoys many times, but it was hysterical to think that we were finally in one.

The concert hall seemed fairly new and the concert programme was great. There was some Chinese music, western music (including an excellent Chopin piano solo) a bit of singing and then some acrobatics. They were really amazing. There was one routine where they balanced candles on their hands, feet and heads whilst balancing on each other. Another one saw woman in pointe shoes balancing on a man - on his shoulders, and even on his head! He was tremendously strong (obviously!) with huge biceps and chest. I held my breath for quite a lot of it.

The buses took us back to the hotel afterwards and we had a reasonably early night. Sadly, I forgot my camera, but I've found a couple of old photos to add to this post. I've also discovered how to do links.

Next day we took the opportunity to wander round Nanchang, do some shopping and go to Pizza Hut for lunch. Yum! We caught the fast train back to Pingxiang on Saturday evening. It was great.

This week we've got Rick's parents and brother visiting (more of that later) and only had one day of our weekend last weekend due to the holiday. They give us holiday with one hand and then take it away with the other... So we were a bit tied last night. Anyway, we're now on holiday for eight days - yippee!