Photos from Golden Week jaunt

I had trouble uploading these last time I tried, so fingers crossed...

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...

Photos only

Here you go...

I have of late...

... but wherefore I know, not lost all my... hang on a minute! It's OK again.

Thanks, Hamlet, but I don't need to borrow your words just yet. Last week when I thinking about writing my blog, I was feeling kind of fed up and tired of everything Chinese. It was all part of feeling homesick, I guess - something which doesn't really affect me often. But fortunately, it seems to have passed. Yippee!

So, Sally's visit was great - we did lots of stuff in Kunming, visited Dali, did a bit of hiking and even went to a maths lesson at a secondary school (that was for Sally). Things are now back in their usual pattern, with less than a week until the May holiday. It remains to be seen exactly which days will be holiday, but no doubt we'll find out the day before the holiday starts.

Friday we had a great burger party at a friend's house (thanks Jared for the bacon cheese creations!)

Now, I'm sorry [not really!] to mention spitting again, but as anyone who has lived in China will know, there's a lot of it about. Last week in one of my classes I heard one of my students making the horrible 'hawking' noise that usually precedes spitting. I looked around, but couldn't work out who had made the noise. Then it came again. And finally, a third time. This time I spotted the culprit and invited him to go to the toilets to do it. I was kind of shocked. I had got the impression that the younger generation didn't tend to spit. Then later, a child who couldn't have been more than 2 years old, and who seems to hang out in the copy shop made the nasty sound and spat. Being a child he hasn't yet mastered the whole projection thing, and the spit ended up down the front of his clothes, but still...

The word from Beijing is that the Chinese are trying to clean up their act (literally) in time for the Olympics (thanks, Rachelle): http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/world/asia/17manners.html

A few snapshots from yesterday:

(1) Me sitting in a Chinese friend's car with a pile of 50 or so of students' CVs and covering letters on my lap, a red pen in my hand and the beautiful Yunnan countryside rolling past.

(2) In a restaurant in Gejiu with my friend, a ten-year-old and a couple of Chinese men I had only just met, eyeballing a plate full of what I think were grasshoppers and dragonflies. (Yes, I did try them!)

(3) My friend saying I would be back home by 11.30pm [famous last words!]

(4) Driving along, suddenly hearing a funny sound and trying to persuade my friend to pull over.

(5) Sitting at a toll gate just outside Yuxi waiting for a Chinese surgeon to arrive in his Buick and see whether or not his wheel would fit on my friend's car.

(6) Wandering round a Volkswagon garage at midnight while a mecanic did his stuff and the rest of us watched.

(7) Going to bed at 3am and getting up again at 8am for my busiest day of the week...

On that note, I'm off to bed! zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

School trip

Kunming has been looking lovely the past few weeks with the blossom out everywhere [and hordes of people taking photos, but I can't blame them and I have indulged a little myself as well...]

The weekend before last, several of the foreign teachers, plus a load of people from the Foreign Affairs Office departed for a trip to Xingping (to the south of Kunming). Though we did spend quite a lot of time on the bus (and a very nice bus it was too), we visited some really spectacular mountainous areas, ate some nice food and stayed in a couple of reasonable hotels (shame about the karaoke place on the floor below us in one of them!) It's probably a place I wouldn't have gone to had I not been taken there, so that's an added bonus. We also had a police car with us the whole time as the Head of Security for the university decided to come with us on a jolly. His flashing lights came in handy one evening when we were following him to find a performance place and he pulled off down a side road...

Still hot and dry here - especially in my apartment. I like the way I get the extremes of temperature up here. It's not enough that I have to climb four flights of stairs several times a day, but I also freeze or fry depending on the weather... Hey ho.

'Frustrating' or a variation thereof is definitely the word of the last few weeks. I like teaching. A lot. But I find it difficult and frustrating trying to teach students who blatantly would rather be anywhere other than in an English class.

However, I have my first visitor from Britain here, so thank you, Sally, for making the effort to come and see me and for bringing Cadburys chocolate with you!!!

Communication

Never easy, though it is getting better and some days I feel like I am really getting somewhere.

Still trying to get over a Chinese friend who wanted to do a language exchange with me, telling last week my speaking in Chinese was not very clear! (This is despite hardly ever having a problem being understood as long as I know the words for what I want to say...) This was followed by her daughter completely not understanding my trying to ask her 'Is the food nice?' (in Chinese). Now this is something I have said about a million times and up until now never had a problem being understood. Though it is of course possible her daughter thought that I was speaking to her in English!

But yesterday was good. I had a really good chat with a taxi driver who works on ships and has been to Britain and Ireland amongst other places. He also knew a few words of English, which helped matters enormously. I managed to answer quite a few of his questions in Chinese, understand what he said to me and even asked him a couple of questions of my own.

Then I had a brief chat with the woman who puts credit on my mobile phone for me. I can say much more to her than I could back in September, though that's not really saying much! It generally ends up being about the weather or something equally scintillating. Conversations tend to run their course fairly quickly when I have exhausted my limited vocabulary and selection of phrases. Oh well, it's still not bad. It's all progress, I guess.

A litany of mini-disasters and / or near-misses

Well, it's been an interesting day. The morning was quiet enough - doing preparation for the rest of the week. I should maybe have seen it coming when a [I presume] student kindly (!) told me when I could cross the road in front of the university. (Don't know how I've managed to cross roads by myself all these years). He then asked me where I was going and if I needed any help. Of course it was very nice of him, but completely unnecessary!!!

And so a list of what followed:

1. Lost a piece of paper on which I had written the information needed to buy a plane ticket for a friend who is coming to visit me.
2. Said piece of paper also had on it the names of recommended running shoes (I was planning to buy some later).
3. Handcream top came off and the handcream splodged out all over the inside of my bag.
4. Nearly got my arm stuck in a bus door as the driver tried to close it just as I tried to go through it.
5. Someone tried to rob me and actually had their hand in my bag - gave him what for when I realised!!

OK, so it's maybe not quite a litany and on the plus side I survived yet another day crossing the roads here, managed to buy both the plane ticket and also my trainers. Yippee! But I did end up walking home cos the buses were just too full.

Felt like more people than usual were staring at me today, though it might just have been that I was noticing it more. Seems worse when I have my hair down. When people staret I still often wonder if I have something on my face like a dirty mark, but I never do. Ah well...

Thinking about how my day has gone, it might be a good idea to move my mouthwash off the shelf on which I keep all my cleaning products.

What is it they say about life and a tapestry and something about rich or something...?!?

Working again...

I survived my first week back after a long holiday (it's ok, I'm not looking for sympathy!!) Classes went really well actually, though by 9.30am on Friday morning I was ready to drop. Luckily I have a long weekend - no classes now till Tuesday morning.

Thursday was the most crazy day: I started at 8am and taught till 11.20am, then again from 2.30-4pm. After that I went to collect my 'new' bike from a Chinese friend. It's fine - pink and the saddle is far too low, the handlebars far too high and it has no gears. However it was also free, so I'm not complaining. Came back here for dinner at a Korean restaurant, then a concert performed by a symphony orchestra from Hanoi (which of course we were only told about earlier the same day!) It was very good and made me realise how much I miss listening to live music.

Oh, and I found someone to go running with, which is cool cos Kunming is a great place to run - lots of sunshine and the high altitude makes it good training. The only difficulty I've had is finding somewhere to run. My new running partner runs by the massive lake here, Dianchi (where he also lives). It's flat, the roads are wide and relatively traffic-free and there are plenty of stalls selling water. What more could you want?

I think leaving this place may be harder than I thought...

'Humor is reason gone mad. ' Groucho Marx

Chinese New Year in a blur of baijiu.

So, I arrived back in Kunming on Monday evening to clear skies and much warmer temperatures. I had spent Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, with my Chinese friends in Pingxiang, Jiangxi Province. I had a great time, though it's a very different experience being in Pingixang than being here in Kunming, and it was nice to get back to my own place.

Having found it difficult
to buy a train ticket, I decided to fly from Kunming to Changsha. I then took a bus directly from the airport to Pingxiang. As usual, I managed to make a friend on the bus - a guy from Pingxiang who's now working in Shanghai (I think!) and who was happy to chat and practise his English. In fact, I spent the whole holiday chatting to people who wanted to practise their English. It's nice to be in a place where you're kind of special and where people are always friendly and welcoming. Though of course the flipside of this is that I have to put up with lots of staring and comments of 'laowai' ['foreigner']. I am much more used to this now than I was when I first arrived in Pingxiang in 2005 and sometimes I even make jokes with people about it. The interest is always based on surprise and curiosity and not hostility, so smiling and saying 'hello' seem to be an appropriate response.

During my holiday I spent some days with Steven (my Chinese friend)'s parents, also making a trip to his grandparents' house in the countryside. I also spent a couple of days with a former student of Rick's - her home is in the deepest countryside and has no running water or gas. Washing is done with a bucket and food is cooked over a fire fuelled with coal bricks. Water comes from a well and is routinely boiled. When we walked about the countryside, whole villages of people were staring at me.

Another highlight was going to Huang Shi Mu (sp?) with Joseph, one of Rick's friends, and some of his friends from the photography club. We had quite a steep climb up the mountain and stayed in a guesthouse near the top - again no running water and this time also no electricity except for a short time from a generator. Good job I took a torch and it was a clear night - the stars were amazing and the moon very bright. The toilets there were across a stream, accessed across a rickety bridge! Kind of puts you off getting up in the middle of the night...

New Year itself was very noisy - many many fireworks and firecrackers going off for days and days. It was incredible - I've never heard anything like it before.

So, the Russians drink vodka, the Chinese drink baijiu. I think it's to do with the cold - houses are largely unheated and so as well as wearing all your clothes a shot of the strong stuff helps keep you warm! We drank a fair bit during the festive period. Some was bought from a shop, but quite a lot was home made from... erm... I'm really not quite sure! At one place it arrived at the table in a soft drink bottle, obviously decanted out from some vat somewhere.

Food... more meat than normal on the table, including the special treat of dog (which I mostly avoided this time - put off by having a live one running round my feet while we were eating, though I did eat some donkey meat). Lots of snacks - fruit, nuts, some sweets. Lots of visitors and trips to other people's houses to eat and drink.

It was cool because this time Steven and Rose's daughter got a lot more used to me and was quite friendly. She's very cute and now learning to speak.

I also started learning how to play Majiang, though I am a bit slow at it still.

Well, that's a very brief version of my trip. Here are some photos.

Teaching starts again next week so I'm looking forward to finding out which classes I'll be teaching...

Perils of life in the Middle Kingdom

I know, I know... I've written before (at least once) about the hazards of being a cyclist here, but sometimes problems come from rather unexpected sources. Yesterday, I was on my way home, using the cycle (for 'cycle' read cycle / pedestrian / moped / though not usually horse) lane when I saw ahead of me what looked like a wet patch. A woman was tipping washing-up liquid on it and a man was also tipping boiling water on it. He shouted 'be careful!' at me (amongst other things which I couldn't understand) and waved his arms about. I wasn't sure what to do? Should I stop? Was is something toxic?!! So I stopped and put my foot down right in the middle of it. Good move, Steph.

Turns out it was oil and so I spent the rest of the journey home trying to maintain my dignity while my left foot repeatedly slid off the pedal. Not ideal.

Another thing... many lights here, particularly in apartment building stairwells are sound-activated. A clap of the hands will usually do the trick, though stamping your foot sometimes works better. All well and good until you trying doing that in your own home (no sound-activated lights there) or, even worse, outdoors when it's dark.

'To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.' Bertrand Russell

I know exactly how you feel...

So... I'm enjoying being on holiday and I haven't quite got bored yet (though there's still time!)

Yesterday I finally visited Kunming Zoo. I'd been putting it off for ages and I was mostly justified in that - it was a bit of a depressing experience with old and quite small cages for the animals and a strange show which included performing birds, monkeys, bears and a dog. It also appeared as if there weren't quite enough animals in the zoo for the Chinese tourists to look at... yep, I got stared at!

As if I didn't stand out enough with my fair hair and blue eyes, sometimes I just have to go and draw attention to myself by doing something stupid!!! Today as I was parking my bike at Carrefour I managed to knock into the next bike and then had to watch in disbelief as a load of them toppled over, domino-style... Despite it all happening in slow motion I was powerless to do anything until they were all on the ground and I had to pick them up again!

The weather has got quite a lot warmer and I am enjoying eating 20p strawberries as I write this - there are some things I love about this country!!! However, I did risk life and limb on my bike to purchase them.

As well as strawberries, the shops are full of things for Spring Festival (Chinese New Year): decorations, special food and gifts... It's a little bit like Christmas back home. It also means that most of the kids are now on holiday, which in turn means that there are more of them wandering the streets and shouting 'hello' [or more accurately 'halllooo!'] at me. Still, I guess I should be glad that they're learning something at school.

And finally, as I am unable to go running here (lack of nice places to go and unwillingness to be stared at any more than is usual!), I have decided to take up skipping. Will keep you posted, but so far about 10 seconds is all I can do.

A Chinese Winter Wonderland

Wow - it's snowing! Apparently this only happens once every few years in Kunming, so we're very lucky. It does make me nostalgic for the Alps in winter.

Speaking of which, I just recently got back from a trip in Yunnan. I visited Dali, Lijiang and Tiger Leaping Gorge. Although I wasn't that keen on Dali when I arrived, it grew on me and I think it would be a nice place to hang out for a few days. I stayed the first two nights half-way up a mountain, Cang Shan to be precise, at a height of around 2600m. I stayed at a place called Higherland Inn (www.higherland.com) and it was wonderful. Being Winter, it was especially quiet, only a Chinese girl and I, plus two Frenchmen who seem to spend a lot of time there. The owner, Li Ping cooked really good food and it was great place to chill out and escape from people (not an easy thing in China!) In the evenings after dinner we sat around the log fire reading with a couple of dogs and a tiny kitten for company.

I spent the following two nights in the town of Dali, which was also quite relaxing, mainly because I didn't do very much! However, I hired a bike and cycled to Erhai Lake and visited a village called XiZhou (only 18kms each way!) Dali is quite attractive, though far too full of shops and tourists for my liking! I also spent some time with Amanda, my new Chinese friend, which was cool.

After Dali, I moved on to Lijiang. Now, if I thought Dali was bad, Lijiang was a hundred times worse! As one of my friends described it, 'Disneyjiang'!!! Oh well. So, I found a bed for the night, visited Black Dragon Pool Park, ate some pizza and planned my escape... When I was staying at Higherland I got chatting to the Frenchmen and told them I was heading to Lijiang. They asked me if I was going to Tiger Leaping Gorge. I had thought about it, but wasn't too sure about making the trip and doing the hike by myself etc., so I had kind of decided against it. However, they told me that it was really worth it and, not wanting to spend 3 more days in Lijiang, I threw caution to the wind and got on a bus headed for Qiaotou.

I was a little apprenhensive, but I met some Germans when we arrived - a couple called Maite and Christoph, and also a guy travelling by himself, Gerhard. We decided we would all walk together and it was really lucky for me that we did as they proved to be great people and I had a really cool time with them.

The walk itself was amazing - my photos are good but you can't really imagine how spectacular it is unless you have been there. The peaks tower above you and the water gushes along way below. Dry and bare hillsides give way suddenly to bright green terraces. Amazing. We stayed at the Halfway Guesthouse the first night - a wonderful place far away from the main road. The stars were something else. The second night we stayed at Sean's Place in Walnut Garden, also cool, but not quite as 'in the middle of nowhere'.

The second day we walked down the gorge to the river and then alongside it for a bit. We were stopped at regular intervals by people asking us for money to use the paths they had created and/or were maintaining, but I guess they needed the money more than us. On the way back up we met a man called Mr Xia who invited us in for tea at his house. He showed us his business card and gave us some of his corn alcohol to try - blimey, it was strong!!! He takes people hiking, horse riding etc and was really friendly. Communication was a little difficult, but I got by fairly well with my poor Chinese. We ended up using his and his friends' ponies the next day to go up the mountain. Wooden saddles and everything...

All in all, I'm very glad I decided to go to Tiger Leaping Gorge. Unfortunately, there is a plan to flood the valley and use it for HEP - see Sean's website for information on this: www.tigerleapinggorge.com.

I arrived back in Kunming last Friday in one piece, but managed to pick up some sort of stomach bug on the way back and was in bed on and off for most of the weekend. Business as usual once more in the stomach department, however, and it didn't do my waistline any harm!

Still snowing...

The festive season Chinese-style

Happy New Year!

Our Christmas party / performance organised by the Foreign Affairs Office for foreign students and teachers went off without a hitch. We performed 'T'was the Night Before Christmas' and also 'Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer' and hammed it up sufficiently, I feel. The rest of the evening went on a little bit too long, but was generally enjoyable, especially the bursting balloons game! Don't ask.

I spent Christmas Eve at the apartment of a foreign teacher at the Forestry College in the East of the city and met some very friendly students and had a cool time. On the way up to her apartment we passed a man and his herd of goats. Of course. As you do. (See picture of this an also a picture of one of the many horses that pull carts around the city).

I wasn't overly impressed to be teaching two classes on Christmas Day, but luckily my nice Accounting School class had arrived early and decorated the classroom for me. They also gave me a present, which was very kind of them. In return I let them perform a Christmas version of 'Blind Date'. The cultural references were a little bit lost on them, but they seemed to enjoy the drama and I even persuaded one of them to wear some cardboard antlers from our Christmas performance!

I had a break from Chinese class on Christmas Day and 'shared' Christmas Day lunch with my family via the webcam instead. Isn't technology brilliant?

Finally did my dance performance at Nordica last Saturday. We went from being seriously under-rehearsed to doing one of the best performances we'd ever done. Lois recorded some film of us dancing, but I think I will not be following Jared's suggestion to put it on Youtube!!

For New Year's Eve I went out for pizza with Jared and Lois, following a couple of cheeky vodkas before leaving the house! Lois then called it a night and Jared and I met up with a couple of my students, another foreign teacher and a random Dutch couple and did some dancing at Speakeasy. Midnight itself was actually a bit of a non-event as they just played some recorded 'bongs' and we weren't even sure they played them at the right time!!! Never mind.

I wonder what 2007 will bring...

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!

East meets west

I can't remember the start of the week - it's too long ago, but Wednesday saw me judging a speaking competition for the journalism and accounting departments. Luckily for me it was a Chinese and English speaking competition, so I only had to give a mark to half the students (not being able to judge the students speaking in Chinese, of course!) All the judges were introduced at the start and the others, being Chinese, gave a small bow of the head while I found myself standing up and giving a cheery PM-style wave! Oh well.

During the competition, the teacher next to me and I kept having sneaky peeks at each other's marks for comparison, then pretending we weren't!! All good fun, even getting up and giving a short speech at the end for everyone's benefit.

Thursday was Thanksgiving, so I celebrated in style with the other foreign teachers here. It was really good - turkey and pumpkin pie. Carlota and I went to a restaurant called the 'Wicker Basket' to collect the cooked turkey and other food. Unfortunately, I managed to show the taxi driver a business card for the other branch of the Wicker Basket in a completely different part of the city. Fortunately, I realised the mistake and managed to phone a handy Chinese friend to explain matters to the taxi driver. He of course thought it was hysterical and has probably been dining out on the story ever since.

Yesterday I went to my first aerobics class here in Kunming. The directions I had been given were very good right up until the last part, when I wasn't sure if I was in the right place. Fortunately I was able to 'ask' a nearby security guard. [For 'ask' read: me saying "wo yao..." ('I want') accompanied by a vague mime of someone doing aerobics. But it worked!!!]

Last night we went to a jazz concert at Nordica, which was very good, though I am still off the alcohol (4 weeks now) and so I ended up drinking too much coffee and getting a little bit hyperactive...! Never mind.

Dance class this afternoon and more marking of newspaper articles... joy!

Photos to follow.

Kunming in the sunshine

This morning I went with Patty, a Chinese friend of mine, to Black Dragon Pool Park. It was really beautiful and not at all crowded. The autumn colours are just coming out and it was great to walk, get some fresh air and experience a bit of nature.

The highlights were a school teacher asking his class of small children to say hello to the 'foreign auntie' and a man in one of the temples saying hello to me and telling me I was 'beautiful'!!

The weather is glorious at the moment and perfect for take photos, so here are a few.

Are these your own words? Part II: the sequel

Unfortunately, my students seem still not to have grasped the concept that I can't actually give them a mark for copying verbatim. The brick wall has a large dent in it and my head hurts. A lot.


YUFE (Yunnan University of Finance & Economics) is currently in a minor state of turmoil thanks to the looming visit from university inspectors. This place was given university status last year, so I guess they are checking that the university is adhering to the necessary standards. However, as well as giving us advice on dressing correctly, being on time and having a lesson plan and materials with us in class, rumours are going round of students being made to sit in classrooms late at night to look as though they are working hard! It remains to be seen whether or not I will have the pleasure of a visit to any of my classes.

I have started playing tennis and there is a possibility of an aerobics class not too far from here. So as well as climbing the local 'mountain' sometimes on a Saturday, I am kind of doing OK for exercise. Oh, and teaching of course - nervous energy, pacing round the classroom, doing elaborate mime...

Highlight of the week: a student asking me if I had 'put off weight'.

Adventure of the week: getting my hair cut. Though I cheated and took a Chinese friend of mine with me for translation assistance.

Low point of the week: talking to a student who had wanted to study psychology, but whose parents were not in favour, so she's studying business now and hating it. It's a common story. Hardly any of the students here seem to have actually chosen to do their course. It really breaks my heart, me who gave up being a solicitor in London simply because I didn't like it.

On that note, I will leave you for now.