Sue meets China - a battle of wills[EDITOR'S NOTE - Sue's blog is sent via email direct from China and therefore includes any grammatical errors caused by character set incompatibility and/or Chinese government censoring]11jun07Hi everyone, so here it is the final email from China!! Cant believe that its here that I have done the whole contracted time here. its 4/5 months but actually feels longer!! In some ways I just cant wait and in other ways I just know Im going to miss it so, so much¡ This morning, after the cold water agitator known as the washing machine here ate my linen shirt, I thought oh I’ll bin it, but no then I thought I’ll take into town and see the sewing ladies. The sewing ladies squat on very low stools, moving into the shade as the sun reaches its peak, and shout something in very loud but rhythmic voices. what they do is attend to all your mending and altering needs. They hold burberry handbags stuffed with lots of different colour threads and scraps of fabric and they look terrifying! Hanging around in groups of 8 or 10 I feel reluctant to take them on! However, I went down clasping my plastic bag with my shirt in it and began the negotiation without any problems. a man was having something mended too and he helped me out so we agreed a price and she started. I went to sit down next to her smoothing out my plastic bag but she immediately grabbed a piece of newspaper to sit on herself and gave me the little stool!! So I sat next to her watching the world go by and then the melon man turns up. Its very hot so I get a slice of melon on a stick to be going on with, and then a couple engage the man behind me who turns out to be a fortune teller. So there I am having my mending done, squatting 3inches off the floor, eating a melon and watching the fortune teller. Its not the Harlequin is it?! And that’s what Im going to miss, when its great, its really really great and when its not its just so so boring. I think it’s the school & the old apparatus of social control that drives me crazy. Everyone is really really nice but for example I rushed back from town twice this week to do my lessons only to find that they had been cancelled. Oh Sue you can have a nice rest. Well actually with a 2 and half hour lunch hour I don’t need extra rest time! And its been National Exam week. This is clearly the educational event of the academic year, actually in reality its crucial to the kids to get into uni. But in true Xian middle school fashion it becomes a real, real drama. They know that this is coming up every year and as the school is an exam center they clearly have the dates sorted but they only gave me 36 hours notice that in fact the two days the exams would be in the process needed to reschedule my lesson. So work the whole weekend. Then on Monday the event starts & all lessons are moved forward by 30 mins (or it might be 20 no one is really sure) and then during the morning all the desks are scrubbed, before the lunch break men in blue coats are outside (blue collar workers(!)) the classroom ready to rearrange all the desks and suddenly its mayhem while everything is moved. Pictures on the classroom walls of inspiring leaders are covered with brown paper and desks are labeled with numbers, pink notices go up and classrooms are locked with cycle locks (lots and lots of things here are locked with cycle locks¡). Then Tuesday comes, security is out with police tape (literally) zoning off the no go area. Chalk goes down to reinforce the area and very large Chinese characters are written on the floor just in case you hadn’t grasped the idea! Then as the hour approaches everything is still, no alarms, no flag raising, no basketball. Parents gather outside the gate, the ambulance with lights flashing is waiting just in case and there is a heavy police presence!!! It’s 5 mins before go and guess who wants to walk through the area! (Well Im clearly not going to slink upstairs and tell the answers to anyone and in any case it¡¯s a 15 min walk to go all the way round to the back entrance). So as I ran past the parents, past dumbfounded security men, I was nodded through by chief of security, hurdle number one, and then as I approached the chalk line there’s the deputy head and she smiles and lets me go to run across the 30 foot wide area to my apartment! So quite an event but then as its so very important may be it’s a good idea to take security seriously. However, the teachers set the paper, they invigilate the exam, not that they would have a vested interest in helping Xian Middle School maintain its Number 2 status. Actually, this week I was talking to some of the kids about contrasting their lives with that of their parents and a couple of kids said my dad got a place at university but then he had to go out to the countryside because it was the Cultural Revolution and someone else said there was Chairman Mao then, so it was very different. I was getting really defensive about British students but if your life was changed through political situation you’d make damn sure you did everything to make sure your one child got as good a chance as you could manage. Which reminds me, since I arrived there has been the promise of the hospitable parents taking the foreign teacher out. Of course it hasn’t happened and then two weeks ago Madam says oh some students want to take you to TaiBei, a local beauty spot. I was staggered. The day dawned chucking it down for a 6.30 am start. Tom (the other teacher) says as the parents roll up in the clearly brand new car “Im not going” and so I get whipped off on my own. I thought it was really nice of them and they give me bottles of water, snacks, then we draw up on the motorway slip way and Madam arrives in another car. Theres me, Madam, Madam’s daughter, daughter’s friend, daughter’s friends dad (who had the other car), student (girl) and father, student (boy) and his mum and dad. Quite an entourage. Off we go to Taibai. First hurdle getting in. dangerous, I need my passport. Many men in uniform engage in lots of conversation with Madam, father, lots of showing of ID finally Im allowed in. So the day continued..everytime I commented on something the dad got out his wallet and paid for me. Hire a coat for the top of the mountain, let me pay, noodles (cos it’s nearly 10oclock) I’ll pay., cable car, No, No I’ll pay. So up to the top, all of us staggering up the vertical steps, and Madam and parents carrying yet more snacks in case we become hungry while more than 10 mins from a snack man, and finally we sit down to eat, again. And Madam tilts her head in that coy way she has. “How can I put this, my English is not good, Sue. Missi and David are going to America for an educational exchange.” That’s nice. “Can you write them a reference?” Yes, Sharyn and you needn’t have made us all climb up this mountain, you could have just asked. So I was out all day, they clearly spent a fortune on me. All for a half page reference which I would have been quite happy to write in any case. But I then realized that if you life opportunities may be few and far between then you are going to grab the chance to make your kids opportunities more certain. How many British parents move heaven and earth to get the right school? So what I wont miss is the inequalities. I thought I was going to teach kids who’s life chances would be changed by learning English. These kids are privileged and will do well regardless. Also they’re not tested in English so its irrelevant what I teach them, they’d rather do their homework ¡or if they do ask me something they only want to know whether it’s an infinitive that’s being modified! I don’t know I only know that you can’t say “I quickly sat down for resting”! I believe that me and other English teachers (or foreigners) are brought in to be photographed, videoed and generally displayed so that the school maintains its status. What I will miss is that on the street there is lots and lots and lots going on. Everyone is nice to me. If I smile I’m in there having a good body language chat, smiles and comments, out come my photos, the whole bit. In contrast to the Western tourists who do everything to avoid your eye. The only westerners I’ve talked to work here too. I’ll miss the way I get to have 5 waitresses ready to take my order 5 seconds after I’ve been handed the Chinese only menu, stopping to examine every ice cream fridge that I pass, and having small children and their grannies (all the grannies mind the baby while the parents work) smile, nod and say “neehow”. Anyway its back to Britain and how long before I’m bored with JLs (actually never!). Well, Im off to photograph my apartment so everyone will experience that loo and kitchen by proxy! lots of love Sue
14May07 Click here for Virtual tours of Beijing Thailand was a dream ¨C lots and lots of white sand, blue sea and sky. It was very hot too tropical infact! ¨C It very hot here in China but Thailand hits you with that humid wall the minute you go out in it ¨C of course tropical doesn¡¯t just mean lush greenery but also my favourite form of insect ¨C yes those hard backed things¡- I have become very calm around them because I know that there isn¡¯t any escape so it wasn¡¯t too bad ¨C but my god they can be pretty large and threatening¡.On the wild life theme, we had the most amazing outdoor shower, very Conrad, lots of neutral colours and hard wood surfaces¡.This also meant that we had two spiders the size of a small cat in with us and ¡and¡the piece of string hanging round the shower head wasn¡¯t a piece of white string at all but a discarded snake skin!!!! So where is the snake? Pete was also joined by a centipede when he went to the loo but as I dealt with the spiders he had to deal with that. We had a lovely bungalow with the most efficient air conditioning Ive ever come across and the most amazing swimming pool ¨C it had incredible underwater lighting and downlights along the side of the pool ¨C infact lighting in Thailand was pretty stunning, someone had clearly got a copy of one of those minimalist architectural magazines that bare no resemblance to realitity and reproduced it. I loved it so much that I took mountains of photos and now feel its perfectly reasonable to have a swimmingpool at home!!! When I showed my work colleagues the photos they just cant understand this English madness ¨C they want to know where the photos of the Ladyboys are!!! Truly, people stopped me in the street and said ¨C oh what were the ladyboys like in Thailand! It was a wonderful rest and I thought Id find it horrific to come back to this concrete jungle ¨C which it is of course but its not too long til I go home and I went for a walk along the road leading up to the Mossie resturant and I had a couple of nice chats in the beautify salons ¨C they have promised me the looks of a 20 year old ¨C the greengrocer said Neehow (Hello), the ¡®clean¡¯ supermarket had a good selection of icecreams and the little shop has a NEW icecream fridge (icecream is very good in china and very cheap ¨C 3p to 28p for a magnum for those who are interested). I also had a nice chat with a lady who has a clothing shop¡so I feel I can bare it a bit longer. Yesterday however, I was seriously pissed off..I couldn¡¯t get to sleep it was so hot and I had all the windows open and then around 4am I woke up again to the sound of loud voices¡of course its like they¡¯re in the room with you cos the concept of privacy just doesn¡¯t seem to exisit and we¡¯re all on top of each other anyway¡so this went on and on and on until I finally got up to look and there was a group of people outside pointing and shouting so eventually I went out¡5am ¡and joined them..I was looking up like everyone else but I couldn¡¯t see anything. But the chat continued¡.I did a bit of washing, yoga, had my breakfast¡6.30 a.m when the official alarm bell goes¡.everyone disappears only to return at 7oclock.. Im in work by 8 and find out that there was 4 apartments burgled in my block!!!!! The chaps (Im assuming) scaled the 20 foot wall into the campus and then climbed up the cages that enclose the windows to get to the 4th floor and cut through the metal bars and got into the apartment while the people slept¡and then did it 3 more times!!! I still cant believe it¡And Im on the ground floor and every single window is open¡.These apartments are not large believe me so how they did it I just cant imagine. Now of course its like fort Knox but if they have metal cutters I just don¡¯t know how to keep it secure. This really is a high crime area¡Ive been here three months and thank god nothing has happened to me but Jill has been mugged, stalked (I thought he had mental health problems though) and now these robberies!!!! And the other day I was on the bus and the bus driver ran someone over!!! Yes and they didn¡¯t call an ambulance just put her on the bus!!! And drove to the next stop!!!!¡I hope I can get through the next weeks without coming to harm!! I just wander around trusting everyone and strolling down unlit streets late at night convinced that my new Thai bag with the secure zip will prevent any possible crime!! Im continuing to getting fatter and fatter and fatter ¨C I eat out every night cos I cant cook on the hob but unlike everyone else who travels to China Im yet to be poorly ¨C I met a woman on the plane going to Thailand who said ¨C everyone loses weight in China ¨C No Im keeping up my calorie supply with endless noodles, icecream and ¡.well endless noodles ¨C it¡¯s a bit samey ¨C sometimes I have spicy bread too! Please tell me how these Chinese girls are a size 4 to 6 while eating vast quantities of fried stuff¡In Thailand I ate fish every night ¨C it was amazing ¨C they h ad huge huge prawns and we ate them on the beach laying on these triangular cushions and eating off low tables lit by candles ¨C ah so romantic! Prior to the Thai trip Id only been out for the weekend once here in China ¨C its so so hard to travel. Anyway, Jill and I met this couple down at the pavement caff ¨C well its more some stools on the pavement ¨C infact that night there was a potential police raid and we had to switch out the light and crouch on the floor ¨C However, we started talking to a couple who work as architects in the building next door ¨C neither like their job and I guess if you saw the average modern Chinese architecture you¡¯d feel pretty dispirited too. Anyway, they were very very nice and invited us out in a borrowed car on the following Saturday to a ¡®mountain¡¯. We all went me, Jill and Tom the Fin. Now I have to say Jill was much keener to go to a local beauty spot called Taibay so on the way Taibay came up and ¡®Oliver¡¯ the chap says (I thought reluctantly) well we could go there instead. Yes, Yes says Jill, No No says me¡It was miles away and I wanted to get home again ¨C also we¡¯ve only just met these people we¡¯re in a borrowed car on some dirt track and we¡¯re just asked a girl with a goat in her arms the way¡we might never return. So that forced a bit of conversation. Shi Yuen (the girl) says oh it is very dangerous ¨C the Chinese say everything is dangerous and now I realize they are being truthful! ¨C Oh whats dangerous says Jill ¨C Well say Shi Yuen its easy to get lost ¨C and my friends were lost for 5 days and its good that they had so much water and food¡the police and the army finally found them¡..Ive got a litre of water and two apples ¡Sharyn¡¯s going to be seriously pissed off if I don¡¯t turn up¡And then Oliver says Oh yes it is very sad because my friend went in a group and only one returned (or was he talking about the Blair Witch project) They were eaten by the bears!!! No I don¡¯t want to go and then we move on to the snakes (Im in sandles)¡.So we went to the mountain and we had many, many people keeping us company ¨C approximately 20,000 at a rough count! And I spent the last of my money on one of those pulley system things where they strap you into a seat and allow you to travel at great speed down a wire¡I went from one side of the lake and back again. It was great fun and I only got vertigo climbing up- the steps. On the way back we got stuck in a frightful traffic jam and it appeared that there was some kind of dispute with the bus company which involved rocking passing minibuses and turning them over!!!! Im not sure that trade unions are allowed here!!! One of our British Council colleagues came to stay a few weekends ago and she brought with her a guy called Declan who was sharing her dormitory (you strike up the most unusual friendships here). Anyway Declan was telling me all about how he stayed with one of his students over the New Year Holiday ¨C took him two trains, 5 buses and no road for the last mile to get there. He kept touching his ears and it turns out that it was so cold at night that his ears got frost bite!! He didn¡¯t wash for three weeks (except for his feet) and all water was collected from a well. In case you¡¯re interested they had a cess pit loo ¨C you just went over a ledge and the pigs did the rest ¨C of course I asked, I have to add to my loo experiences¡Thailand had western style and flushing water in most cases except for the ones that used a bucket of water¡.I need to go to John Lewis I know!!! Have just got back from my lunch to find that I have the afternoon off ¨C I would have liked to know that 21/2 hours ago and I could have gone out! I went to have a foot massage yesterday ¨C a proper one without extras, well I did have a cup of tea but that doesn¡¯t count. Im desperate to spend some money after being broke for so long ¨C Ive been investigating manicures and underwear ¨C that accounts for about 2 pound! I wont be having a hair cut as Ive just been to watch Jill have her hair cut ¨C he had just the one technique, feathering but as she has very very thin hair she didn¡¯t actually want it any thinner ¨C I have so little hair I haven¡¯t really got much to lose ¨C Ill wait. So it looks like I have a couple of unexpected free hours maybe clean the apartment? No I think its off to find an airconditioned teashop with a English language magazine¡.lots of love to everyone Sue xxxxxxxxxx While Im waiting for the hotmail to load ¨C this week the internet is even more frustrating ¨C Ive been waiting 30 mins to get ¡®new message¡¯ ¨C Kate,the lady I met on the plane going to Thailand whos also teaching in China told me a story that confirmed that ¡®every class has a spy¡¯¡.! Well, this may sound outrageous but Tom the Finn also insists that every class has a spy and I wouldn¡¯t think about it except when I was going to the airport Madam ¨C Sharyn ¨C when she finally got off her two mobile phones and we¡¯d finished the conversation about mobile phone servers (here in China it is considered perfectly reasonable to cut off any conversation with anyone to answer your phone) Anyway then she says to me ¡®Oh Sue your classes are too easy¡¡¯ No I don¡¯t think so¡And then she goes on to tell me how I have to make the children stand up and give me 9 sentences of English¡.Well I wouldn¡¯t think anthing about it except this one child months ago said she wasn¡¯t doing the work cos it was too easy¡So I think well how come Sharyon knows about this ¡and then I spoke with Kate the lady on the plane and then I thought about Tom the Finn ¡..and now I cant get my internet to work, my subscription to the Archers update has not come through ¡¡Its Len Deighton all over again¡¡¡¡¡.. No still cant get an email so Ill send this another day xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 11mar07 Hi Heres an update on life here in China. First pay this week ¨C after lots of calculating and long division we were very excited to be receiving approximately 140 pounds¡.as usual this was not quite what happened with Sharyn the wicked witch of the east. After tracking her down throughout the day ¨C she finally deemed to see us. The wages were ¡®not quite ready¡¯ but could she see our insurance certificates. We showed her but she wanted copies¡.me ¡®wheres the photocopier?¡¯¡small tilt of the head and puzzled look on her face ¡¡¯oh you have to go into town¡¯ pointing vaguely in the city direction¡me ¡®there is no photocopier here in school?¡¯ ¨C cos you wouldn¡¯t expect one would you in a school with 5000 pupils and 400 staff and more electronic hardware than Ive ever seen in my life ¨C greater tilt to the head¡finger to chin¡¡¯oh yes there may be one but you will have to pay¡¯¡I said ¡®you want the copy, you go and get them..¡¯! Later a non-english speaking lady turned up with a bundle of cash which I took but it bore absolutely no resemblance to my wages. Off I went to challenge Sharyn who immediately said she knew it was wrong and it was Mr Way - her leader and a bit of a ladykiller we think, he is certainly very dapper - being generous¡and the conversation continued with Sharyn denying that there were 12 months in a year. I took the cash as I may never see any more. This week has been the week of ¡®forums¡¯ ¨C two forums with teachers and students to discuss western and Chinese education ¨C I tell you all this is going on my cv ¨C and it was all filmed and photographed for prosperity. Also Womens Day ¨C the local Workers Party Leader turned up with gifts ¨C a duvet and cinema tickets ¨C and he was a very charming man. We were meant to have the day off or overtime if we worked ¨C of course Sharon said there in fact had been a ¡®little mistake¡¯ and in fact we had to work but we¡¯d get 40Y for whole day ¨C that’s 2 pounds 80p!! Saw the terracotta army over the weekend ¨C it was amazing ¨C went there on the bus which only cost 5Y instead of the tourist 240Y ¨C so a bit of a bargain. Quite exciting too fighting through the massive mob at the bus station. And when we went past the official toll station everyone who was standing (ie overcrowded) had to crouch on the floor. Also went to the wholesale market which was massive ¨C just indescribably big ¨C I bought a dressing gown and 13 dvds for about 1.50!! This poor guy sorted through his entire stock to find English language ones. Everyone ¨C excepting Sharyn of course ¨C is so nice. On the food front still no poisoning but we are working our way down the levels of luxury. The first night we were here we were taken to a very grotty looking cafe¨¦ on the corner… ¨C this now looks like haute cuisine premises! We have been going to the ¡®Muslim¡¯ (there is a big muslim population here) It is very local place and really really busy. They cook outside and the guy who does the noodles is amazing. He gets the dough and pulls it until it becomes noodles. There is a brasier on the go with a wok on top and every now and then he switches on a fan which blasts air in and stokes up the fire. The food is amazing. But last night we went for the street food up the road. Every time we walk past they are creating what we call the ¡®green lasagne¡± it is actually green noodles. This time it is not a cafe¨¦ at all, just some stools on the pavement and cooking from a brazier and kebabs from a coal fire. Last night we had the green noodles and the spicy bread I really liked it. It isnt really sensible to negotiate the whole shopping and cooking thing. All that bargaining and picking and weighing¡ Last week was sex week. Some of you might have heard this all before but ¡..We have another language assistant here ¨C Tom the Finn. When we asked him out he said he couldn¡¯t go cos he is a vegan. Well last week he asked us out¡where¡¯d we go ¨C yes the local brothel for a foot massage ¨C and extras if you wanted!!! It was very unsettling and additionally that morning I¡¯d found out that the last language assistant ¨C Saint Ben as he has been named by me as he appears to do no wrong with the kids ¨C was actually using the school computer for access to THOSE WEB SITES ¨C can¡¯t say as already had one email blocked but you do know!! It was a bit of a shock hunting for yahoo and finding ¡..just general genitalia!! When we came back from the brothel ¨C as you do ¨C there was a big crowd outside of school. Lots of singing and the most amazing Chinese instruments. I went round the back to have a good look at it all ¨C it was like a tent ¨C like a fair but tiny. Anyway, everyone was on the jo (vodka) and gave me a seat and cigarettes and peanuts and everyone was very jolly bar the old ladies at the front who looked miserable to me. Anyway next day I happened to mention this to the kids who told me it was a Chinese wake!! I have never gatecrashed a chinese wake. In fact I was really privileged cos this particular thing is very rare in urban areas and dying out in rurual areas too. And on Saturday there was more singing and dancing. When we were dropped by a demented cab driver at the city wall we followed a crowd who were singing and dancing traditional Chinese folk songs (I think, frankly it could have been anything but they had red scarves and stuff and looked suitably communist). Then they haul us in and we have to dance (I apparently have ¡®good time¡¯!!!) and then horror we have to sing. Yes the fiddler player insisted ¨C What do you sing in china when you need to be accompanied? Frere Jacques, Happy Birthday and Jingle Bells!!! ¨C see my singing is now known worldwide. And later the evening was finished off by me being chatted up by a 26 year old who was very very cute and very very drunk!! Anyway that is most of my news ¨C I wont bore you with my domestic cleaning which is a major part of my day and the constant bells ¨C no not Notre Dame but those bloody school alarms from 6.30 am. Love to everyone and stay in touch lots and love sue xxxxxxxxxxxx 8mar07 25feb07 |