Curry and Flying Tigers

When you think about eating at a restaurant in China, the first word that springs to mind is probably not 'curry'. In fact, it could well be the last... But yesterday I had my first taste of Indian food in nearly 9 months and certainly the first time in China, and it was worth it! A recently opened Indian restaurant in Kunming, with branches in Xi'an and Chengdu, proved to be a good place to find a decent curry and I know my tastebuds enjoyed the different flavours.

Another first last night - going to the cinema in China. We went to watch the new Spiderman film, which wasn't bad. The cinema was nice, though the whole viewing experience was marred somewhat by people holding full-scale conversations on their mobile phones during the film. Of course, I shouldn't be surprised, knowing the extent to which mobile phones rule here (it's not considered rude to break off in the middle of a conversation with someone in order to answer your phone and I'm sure that most people are unaware of where the on/off button is located on their phone...) The lack of an advert at the start of the film, politely reminding cinema goers to turn off their phones, should also have alerted me to what was ahead, but honestly! What is so important that it can't wait till the end of the film? What makes people think that other people in the cinema want to listen to their conversation when they have paid 30 yuan for the pleasure of watching a film on the big screen with full stereo surround sound?

OK, rant over. For now.

Anyway, so, Golden Week was interesting. I went with Rachelle, another foreign teacher at YUFE, and a couple of Chinese families to a place called Tengchong in western Yunnan. It was a really interesting and beautiful drive there - lots of mountains, trees etc. We had hot springs and a big pool just outside our hotel room at one place we stayed, we visited a museum about the Flying Tigers and the Hump during World War II and also climbed a volcano. We ate some wonderful food... but, I found the experience a little frustrating. First of all, we had three children with us. Now I like children, but having someone else's child come into your room first thing in the morning and say 'Get up! Get up!' [albeit with very good English pronuciation] is not ideal. I also found that we spent a lot of time driving round, asking for directions, trying to find somewhere with 'hao chi' ['good food'] and not so much time doing things I would have liked to have done. Oh well.

Photos to follow.

Today I am mostly sheltering from the rain and marking a mamouth pile of exam papers. Lucky me. Fortunately there have been enough random unsollicited comments on them to keep me amused - extra points for any student who makes me laugh as I am marking their paper!

Can't wait for the end of the month - a visit from friends and my birthday...