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Welcome 2004
2003 was a great year. I found a suitable man to spend my life with, I finished my degree and left education for a while, and I came to China. I only hope 2004 can be as good. New Years Eve was a slight let down but a good night nonetheless. We started off with pizza and pasta (and a glass of red wine) in a little Italian restaurant. We then met up with everybody in a bar and played some drinking games. The new year was offically seen in in the Football bar. Bizarrely but gratefully, the beer was free between 11-12pm, so everyone was quite happy. It was not a bad place to spend new year but the sound system was kinda crap and they only had two cds, however we did have a large boogey. Also they didn't really have a proper countdown so at about 12:05 people were thinking is it new year or is my watch wrong? Then a 5 to 1 countdown left us with no doubt.
We left about 2:30 and decided to get food. I knew that Yong He's (a fast food dumpling place) was open 24 hours but I hadnt been there at night before. When we arrived we were shocked by the amount of people. There were no seats and we ended up sitting with some students who thought it would be fun to practice their english on 3 very tired, slightly tipsy girls! Is there no break for teachers???!!! Anyway a decent night all in all.
After waking up at 11am today I returned home for a quick shower before meeting Xie to go to her uncles school friends house to make jiaozi (dumplings) and watch his wife paint. I have made jiaozi once before but it is not as easy as it looks- i managed to produce one that got the comment of 'hao kan' (good to look at) and took the picture as evidence.
I ate so much it was excellent.... much better than the 'banquet' yesterday. Then mrs ruan started painting. She paints flowers (especially peonies) in one particular style of painting. It usually has one or two large red flowers and some leaves. Anyway, she painted me one and gave it to me along with about 5 others. Presents on returning to England I think. Also, because only Xie spoke English I practiced Chinese a lot and it really helped. You learn best when there is a desire to communicate.
I'm off to have a rest now before talking to JimmyK. One year today since me and him became an indescructible force. Ain't love grand...
7 days till I head off into the sunset!!!
After realising that I only have 5 days of teaching left, I also realised that shortly after that I will be leaving for my month long trip around China! Ahhhhh! So, its time to get into gear and start preparing. Yesterday I bought a backpack, a new jumper and read a few chapters of the guide book so thats a start.
Had a long Chinese lesson today and we concentrated on 'getting trains'! I've got quite a few to catch to it is a necessary necessity that I learn how to do it (as best I can obviously). I am a little worried about not understanding regional accents, not that I can understand much of what people say here! I'm going to spend the next week learning chinese as many hours as is possible in preparation!
Had a great experience yesterday. As I was walking home, I stopped into a little shop to buy a phone card. Inside was the usual couple, and this time their daughter. She was very cute and colouring a poem she had copied,
'Good Morning to you, Good morning to you, Good morning dear teacher, Good morning to you'.
After reading it out to her, I ended up staying in there for 20 minutes helping her read from a textbook. That's my bit for the community!
4 Days of Teaching Left
After a meeting with the woman who is my contact at school today, she said the school has decided that I have to stay here and mark exam papers on the 12th Jan. There goes my plan for getting away from Beijing asap. I'm not gonna get annoyed about it though as its only 2 days and I can use the extra time to learn Chinese and apply for Masters courses.
She also informed me that the Public Security Bureau has my passport, which is somewhat worrying. There is no reason why they should have it and not the school, and all the other teachers I know have their passports. Something dodgy is going on. Hopefully I'll be able to get it back before I go travelling otherwise I may cause myself some unneccesary problems.
On a positive note, classes today were good and I even heard a rumour that Wednesday is the last day of teaching. Kinda got a headache, so will end here. But roll on the holidays and some warmth!
Two Grade 2 boys made me laugh
They never speak a coherent sentence, they never write anything down, they talk when other people are talking.
Today:
A: I have a problem. I don't like going to English class.
B: You should go outside and play basketball.
A: Good idea.
B: I have a problem too. I don't like English class.
A: Let's go and play basketball together.
I may have been offended had I not been laughing so much.
The Best of the Beatles
What can I say? I needed another CD for my epic (slight exaggeration but never mind) journey across China and I figured that whenever I get depressed that I have to sit on a hard seat for another 10 hours or have nowhere to sleep and have to curl up in a doorway, I can listen to this, sing along and all my troubles will float away.
I have a sore throat from singing along to it all afternoon. Fantastic! And all for about 1.50. The best purchase ever me thinks!
Trip Blog No. 1: Xi'an
K Coffee, Xi'an. 24th January, 1:30pm.
After leaving Beijing in a hurry because of ungrateful Grade 3 teachers whose exams papers I had marked, I was finally on the train. Thankfully I quickly found my seat and discovered it to be next to the window, which became a definite advantage when it came to sleeping.
As the train pulled away from the station and I watched Beijing disappear, I realised that even with my desperation to get out of the city I was still going to miss Beijing. Especially the familiarity which helps you in your struggle through the strange world of China.
As advised, I tried to spend at least the first few hours doing nothing. I watched the built up city of Beijing shrink into the hutongs and factories until it became dark. Then I slept and read, and read and slept and all of a sudden I was there. It was definately not as traumatic as I had imagined and even the 'HARD SEAT' I had envisioned breaking my back, wasn't that hard. It was just like travelling on an average British train... but for tooo long a time.
Anyway, I survived and here I am in Xi'an. When I arrived at the station I was immediately 'greeted' by a tout who wanted to take me to his hotel. He was nice enough but I already had an idea of where I wanted to go and I needed to buy a train ticket to Nan Cheng first.
When I finally got out of the station I saw a couple of people I knew from Beijing (small world yes) and it turned out that they were going to the hostel that I wanted to go to so I tagged along. Its quite a nice traditional Chinese building with little courtyards. By chance I've ended up in a room with the girls I met from Beijing but I'm determined to do this trip alone!
Its the first time I have really gone backpacking before, and the first time I have really done any travelling on my own. So, naturally I am excited and very scared at the same time! When I went to get food earlier I was looking out for the names of chains of restaurants that I like in Beijing- it's weird that I was looking for something I was used to- and at that point I perfectly understood why McDonalds is so popular.
However being on my moral high ground still about Western fast food chains, I walked past McDonalds and KFC and kept walking and walking. I don't know what I was really looking for but eventually I picked up some baozi (dumplings) from a street vendor for a kuai (about 7p). Now I'm sitting here in K coffee where the waiguoren (foreigners) keep flowing in and out. Got to go to the bank now and try and buy some train tickets. I've heard a rumour that its not too difficult, but after my last experience I will believe that when I see it.... wish me luck!
Xi'an- Friday 16th January 12:30
Wednesday 17th January
As suspected, getting a train ticket did not go exactly to plan. I have a ticket to Nan Chang, but just a ticket it is. Not hard sleeper, not hard seat- in fact, no seat reservation at all! As I don't think I can cope with 24 hours standing up I will try and get a seat in the dining car, I will try and get a seat in the dining car, squeeze on a bench with some extra small people or lie on plastic bags on the floor. Desperate times call for desperate measures!
Anyway, in the queue for the ticket office a student started to talk to me and he helped me to buy my ticket. Other than art students who are only after your money, students are pretty safe to talk to as their only ulterior motive is to practice their English. So, when I asked this guy where the nearest internet cafe was, in true Chinese style he offered to take me there himself. First however, we had to pick up some weird light bulb thing and go to his friends apartment to fit it as a favour.
So off we went. Random? Yes. But this is China. After that he took me to a typical internet cafe; smoky and full of guys playing computer games! After that I was getting hungry and I asked him what the traditional foods of Xi'an are. He told me and then offered to take me to try some. I happily obliged and he took he to the Muslim quarter of the city and we ate 'yang rou pao mo'- a dish where you break flat bread into mutton sou. Very nice!
We arranged to meet the next day and go to 'Da yan ta'- the big wild goose pagoda. That nigh I went down to the hostel bar with the girls from Beijing and we chatted about all things English- including a half hour conversation about Eastenders. Oh how great things seem when you haven't seen them in a long while!
Thursday 18th January
I met with Dong Long at 10am and we went to the Shaanxi History Museum and the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. The museum was really interesting and contain many palaeolithic and Stone Age items. There we also many excavated warriors and especially spectacular was a set of 4 half size horses pulling a carriage. Its amazing to think that these items have survived for over 2000 years. At last, some things to see that were not 'reproduced' after being destroyed by Anglo European troops or in the Cultural Revolution!
There was also an exhibition about minorities from Yunnan province. There were beautiful examples of their traditional dress, instruments and crafts. I hope when I go to Yunnan I can get a glimpse of the diverse cultures that exist there. Before going to the pagoda we had an amzingly cheap (20p) bowl of noodles. They were thick and doughy, coated in a kind of meat gravy. Hao chi (delicious)!
The pagoda was also interesting. Although the current building dates from the Qing dynasty, the original temple stood here in AD 648. Of what I could gather from Dong Long the temple was built to house the Buddhist scriptures brought back from India by a monk called Xuan Zang. Although the actual pagoda was a beautiful building the grounds were the most interesting for me, with gardens and small temples. There were also some monks wandering about- it always surprises me how young they are. I guess I expect them to be aging and wise, but most appear to be 30 or younger. I was also surprised to see a basketball court. I could not stop laughing when Dong Long seeing my puzzled face said ' We the monks needs to exercise too'!
After that I was really tired from all the walking and really cold from the snow-like rain that had been falling all day, so I retreated to the hostel and curled up with my book ('The Brethren' by John Grisham- certainly a page turner!). When the girls from Beijing arrived home from their day with the warriors, they coaxed me outside again for a walk to the Muslim quarter. We ate mutton on a stick (yummy!) and made the locals laugh by offering them chesnuts and speaking some Chinese. After it started to snow again we went back to the hostel and I had a plate of chips, a coffee and some red wine (healthy I know) whilst watching 'Hot Chick'. Another quality American trashy movie but made us laugh all the same.
Tomorrow- the warriors and my first day out on my own...