Living the high life

Although things have kind of fallen into some sort of pattern, the random factor still comes into play with surprisingly regularity and no two weeks are ever the same...

On Friday I went with my friend, Patty, to Golden Temple Park in the north of Kunming. As it cost a whole 20 RMB, we spent 4 hours there to get our money's worth!! It was quite enjoyable, especially running into a camel. Fortunately it has not yet adopted the Chinese habit of spitting...
Then, yesterday (having had not quite enough sleep and a morning aerobics class) I went with a couple of my students to Dian Chi - the big lake to the south of the city. We went in one student's car which included a driver, and on the way we passed her father's factory. No shortage of money there, then. We fed the seagulls first and then went to a very fancy spa (which I was treated to!) All very nice.

It also seemed to be a good day for wedding photos (you can see it's very sunny) and I captured an interesting picture of one happy couple.

The random factor

One thing that I will miss in a weird kind of way and that will take some getting used to once I am back in Europe is the sheer randomness of life here sometimes.

Some random events this week:

Last night walking through the city [ok, I admit it, I got a little bit lost!] a Chinese woman struck up a conversation with me. In Chinese. Now, my Chinese is still distinctly lacking and her English wasn't much better (or at least as far as she was letting on!)

Today in the canteen on campus a Chinese man said to me 'Can you use chopsticks?' To which I replied, 'I am in China. Of course!' His response 'Very good!' [with a big grin and a surprised air!] It doesn't take much to achieve approval here.

A fun time in Carrefour this afternoon when I managed to jam the locker door (my bag strap got stuck in it!) I had to wait a while until someone came along with a key and a password to access the electronics etc. Unfortunately, neither of these were much use and he ended up levering open the locker with a screwdriver as I apologised, several times, a little red-faced. Fortunately, I didn't draw too much of a crowd.

And if things weren't bad enough, just then it started... SPITTING! [Thanks to Peter Kay].

No, not really. Still dry as a bone here. But an old guy on his bike treated me to a cheery 'halllloooo!' as he cycled past. A rare(?) treat.

Well, I'll finish this as I sit here enjoying my new Christmas lights. Obviously they work really well. It doesn't matter that only half of them flash and the rest stay on all the time. I'm sure they're supposed to do that...

What part of 'no' do you not understand?

My friend and fellow teacher, Lois, has had her friend, Karen, visiting from the USA this week. On Thursday we went to a restaurant for Peking (or Beijing) Duck. It was really tasty and the meal was only slightly marred by the fact that the staff stood round the table waiting for us to finish and leave and also made Jared pay for a plate he accidentally broke!

On Friday Lois, Karen and I headed to the Stone Forest - a local tourist spot. We set off early and soon encountered the first hurdle - finding the bus station!! A woman touting for business tried several time to get us to take an expensive private car instead of the bus we were looking for. She was very slow to catch on (or possibly accept) the fact that we wanted to go the cheap way!

Anyway we were finally on the bus. Lonely Planet had warned us to avoid tourist buses which apparently stop at every pillar and post between Kunming and Shilin. We thought we had more or less managed this - after all, we were told that there would only be 2 stops on the way there. The first ended abruptly when our minibus returned from getting more fuel, but the second dragged on interminably and I thought there was going to be a mutiny against the driver!

However, we finally arrived and though it was a bit like Disneyland the rock formations were impressive and we managed to find some genuinely quiet corners of the park. We even helped out a Chinese couple who admitted to being lost!! I would like to go again as we didn't really have enough time to explore the place fully. Here's a link to a website about it: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/yunnan/kunming/stone_forest.htm

Hope you enjoy the photos. I'm off to bed, having done a 3 hour dance class this afternoon...

Ganpodwer Splot

Thanks to one of my students, Jack, for the title of this post. It was his headline for a newspaper article on... yes, you've guessed it, Guy Fawkes!

Things of note that happened recently:

The buses in Kunming are mostly good, if a little crowded (especially the number 84). There are 2 versions of the number 9 bus. There is the regular bus, which looks like all the other buses in Kunming, and there is the little one. This one (as its name suggests) is smaller, dirtier and looks like it has come from the countryside, which it kind of has. Taking this bus always involves a lot more staring that taking the other buses. I learnt on Friday that it can also involve an impromptu aerobics session. There I was on my way back from Carrefour with, appropriately, a baguette in hand, contemplating an evening watching a dvd and drinking a well-earned glass of red wine. Suddenly, as we approached a junction, everyone on the bus who was standing, squatted down. When we got past the junction the conductor said 'Keyi le!' [It's OK!] and everyone stood up again. I was a little bemused, but the explanation was suggested to me by another foreign teacher - they cram the buses travel to over-capacity and so at junctions people crouch down to avoid detection by the police! Random...

Yesterday I went to a normal aerobics class and on the way home I cycled past a man on his bicycle towing a trailer piled high with pink stuff. Closer inspection (a little too close for comfort as it turned out) revealed that it was in fact a huge pile of pigs' heads. Yuck!

Then yesterday evening I went to a Christmas fair and concert at Nordica.

Pretty much a normal Friday & Saturday then.

Hasta luego!