It’s been over a week since I last wrote, so there’s some updating to do. Last week Wednesday evening, after class, I headed out back to Chengdu, as the paperwork for my residence permit hit another glitch. Oh the joys of bureaucracy! At least in India, a bit of “baksheesh” worked wonders; doesn’t work that way here. So I had to go and get some of the medical tests redone, apparently they weren’t clear enough. So from Wednesday night I had to fast til Thursday morning when the Xray was retaken, more blood was drawn, and then they wanted to take a urine test. Yeah sure, after telling me not to eat or drink anything, then they want me to produce urine on demand! So I sat downing cup after cup of water in the sitting area trying to ascertain exactly how long it’d take to drain down to bladder level, wondering in amusement how many other people throughout the world had spent time at that same occupation. With me were Fiona, the girl from the agency in Chengdu who had employed me, and one of their other teachers, a girl called Gina from London. Eventually did manage to provide the aforementioned sample, and we left for the panda base. Fiona and I had been, but with little time to spend, and Gina, though she’d lived in the area for over a year, had never been. Fortunately, I had Marco in tow this time, as I suspect he and the girls would never forgive me if I left him behind again! So he rode around in my pocket much to the amusement of the school groups visiting the pandas. Returned to school Thursday evening. It’s a two and a half hour drive, which I quite enjoy, as it passes through villages and the town of Deyang, where there’s a beautiful hilltop temple. One day, I’ll have to get off in Deyang and check it out, climb all the stairs to the top and accumulate some more merit towards the next lifetime, and get some good cardio exercise at the same time!
Every square inch of land in this area seems to be in use. Even the patches of earth along the roadsides are planted with vegetables. Between the towns and villages, the hills are terraces of rice and vegetable fields, in which the farmers crouch, gathering or planting, dots of colour in a green and brown sea of fields.
Mixed among the traditional homes with black-tiled roofs are newer concrete structures, much uglier, and in common with India, everywhere there are crowds of people. On bicycles, in three-wheeled rickshaws, shopping in the markets or sitting outside tea shops playing cards and mah jong. Driving along in the bus is like watching a play, a panorama of life being acted out as one sits apart in the audience and watches. As we near home, I can pick out the characters for “Santai”, and amuse myself with seeing how often I can spot it on the signboards and shop names.
Friday morning, had a leisurely cup of coffee (or what passes here for coffee, I’m not convinced there’s been a single coffee bean used in it’s creation, but it’s hot and smells like coffee, so it’s all good!) and meandered down to the teacher’s office, where I discovered that there were actually classes being held! I had been told that Friday and Saturday were to be the monthly tests, so I’d have no class, but apparently that had been changed on Thursday to take place on Monday and Tuesday. So apart from my Saturday efforts at teaching the young kids, I was free until Wednesday. Unfortunately, without a passport, one can’t travel as foreigner in China, or I’d have gone to visit Leshan or somewhere else for a few days. But my passport is still in Chengdu, so instead, I decided to spend the days wandering around Santai, see if I can work out which road goes where. Not as easy as it sounds, as, though the roads are clearly named, both in Chinese characters and pin-yin, several roads have more than one name. So my method is to get thoroughly lost, and then try to find my way home. Since I can say the name of our school in Chinese, at least if I get completely lost, I can take a rickshaw back.
So far, I’ve managed to get back on my own, though I am sure by a very circuitous route! Those of you who know what my sense of direction is like (!) know that my directions are based on the surrounding landscape. The other day, I carefully took note of the shops I passed, and felt quite sure I would know the way back without problem. This was an excellent philosophy, and I am sure would have worked very well, except that at noon, the majority of shops close down for two hours, and pull large shutters across the shop fronts. So my theory failed abysmally, but I wandered along giggling to myself at my feeble attempt. Will try a trail of breadcrumbs a la Hansel and Gretel next, see if that is any better!
Now that I’ve recovered from the shock of having to sing in public one day, run a 100m relay mere days later, and then take part in a volleyball tournament (all of which runs very much against my genetic capabilities) the next thing which I am growing slightly stressed about is having to not only take part in, but lead an upcoming teacher’s conference! It continues to both amuse and perturb me that people think I am a “real” teacher. I am expected to lead a day’s seminar for teachers from the whole district, in the morning, discussing teacher training and methods in the West, and in the afternoon, talking about my own teaching style, methods and experience. Little do they know that my teacher training consists of a 5 day ESL course, and my experience comes from making it up as I went along for 10 years in a monastery school! Ah well, I guess at this point I speak authoritatively, gesture imperiously, and continue to make it up….!
As I had free time this weekend, Sunday afternoon I met up with one of my students, a 16 year old girl with the odd name of Fishel who wants to learn to draw. Her English is quite good, and we actually had quite a long and involved discussion about life.
Most of the kids ask me things like, “Are you married” or, “Are you going to the Olympics in Beijing?” This girl’s first question was, “How can I find out the meaning of life?” And on it went from there. We wandered down to the river, sat on rocks drawing, talking and eating oranges. I asked her about her unusual name, and she explained that the Fish is her astrological sign, and to make it a bit different, she chose the suffix “el” as it was the ending for most angelic names.
Couldn’t fault her reasoning, sounds like something I’d dream up! Back to school in time for her evening classes, and for me to go help coach a student who is to go this week to take part in an English competition in Mianyang, representing our school. The competitors are given 4 words, a noun, a verb, an adjective and a phrase and 30 seconds in which to come up with a coherent story using the 4 words. Not easy even for a native speaker to do, but this boy did an excellent job, and I’m looking forward to hearing how he does. Students from Mianyang have an edge though, as it’s a much bigger city with many foreigners, whereas most of our students in Santai come from the countryside, and most had never met a “real live” foreigner before.
With still more free time yesterday, I met up with my “chinese sister” a girl whose English name is now Kerry! She told me she was my sister, and asked me to give her an English name, so the logical name was Kerry. She was thrilled to hear that she now has the same name as my sister in Canada. She’s only been in Santai for a few months herself, and knows the city little better than I do, so we wandered around lost together, chatting away with use of her dictionary until evening.
En route home, I stopped at my local supermarket for eggs and milk, chatted for a while with the shopgirls, as we entertain each other with our inability to communicate. A week or so ago, I tried to buy soy sauce, and stood gazing at the large display of bottles, all written in Chinese characters, trying to figure out which would logically be the right kind. Finally decided (by the infallible eeny-meeny miny-mo method) upon one, confidently paid for and took it home, happily splashed some of it into the noodles I was making, and discovered that it is most certainly NOT soy sauce! Don’t know what it is, but it’s very fishy tasting and extremely hot! Ah well, once this bottle’s gone, I will venture forth on another attempt, see what I get next time!
Monday, November 19, 2007
Sunday, November 11, 2007
and my athletic career begins and ends with one race...
I spoke too quickly when I said in the blog yesterday that I'd escaped having to take part in the sports activities! I was innocently minding my own business (as I ALWAYS do...!) standing with a bunch of students to watch the teachers' 400m relay and cheer them on, when I was spotted and discussed by a group of teachers. not that I'm fluent in Chinese by any stretch of the imagination, but I can usually pick out my name and "Janata" (Canada in Chinese) and figure I'm being talked abuot. Happens fairly frequently. So I smiled cheerfully at them, and continued chatting to the students. A few minutes later I was dragged off, had a number tied on me and sent off down the track at a jog to take part in the race. It was arranged that I was part of the final leg, finishing in front of the grandstand of course! They just don't know the limitations of the Ouwehand genes! They've had me singing and running in public...
However, to my own amazement, I came third, behind the male teachers, but first in the women, running in jeans and leather shoes no less. However, it was the beginning and end of my athletic career...until of course, I was invited roller skating with a group of students. I'd not been rollerskating since grade 10, and even then my strategy was to go until I had to crash into something to stop. However, off we went, to the local "rink" about a quarter of the size of our usual skating rinks, with an uneven wooden floor. Having said that, it was packed, mostly with students from my school, to my mortification. Got off to a wobbly start, trying mainly to stay upright and not fall over my own feet. Of course, had an instant audience! But after half an hour or so, could at least get round fairly well, still have to stop with the aid of a wall or other such inanimate object though! Had loads of fun, and some of the students were excellent, performing all sorts of acrobatics. Ended up being dragged along in a few "conga" lines, whizzing roudn the room and doging pillars and other skaters at an alarming speed! Good thing I've got medical coverage. Hope it includes the breakage of limbs.
However, to my own amazement, I came third, behind the male teachers, but first in the women, running in jeans and leather shoes no less. However, it was the beginning and end of my athletic career...until of course, I was invited roller skating with a group of students. I'd not been rollerskating since grade 10, and even then my strategy was to go until I had to crash into something to stop. However, off we went, to the local "rink" about a quarter of the size of our usual skating rinks, with an uneven wooden floor. Having said that, it was packed, mostly with students from my school, to my mortification. Got off to a wobbly start, trying mainly to stay upright and not fall over my own feet. Of course, had an instant audience! But after half an hour or so, could at least get round fairly well, still have to stop with the aid of a wall or other such inanimate object though! Had loads of fun, and some of the students were excellent, performing all sorts of acrobatics. Ended up being dragged along in a few "conga" lines, whizzing roudn the room and doging pillars and other skaters at an alarming speed! Good thing I've got medical coverage. Hope it includes the breakage of limbs.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Am beginning to recognize individual students now out of the general masses, but am struggling with the names. They of course, all know my name, but don’t seem to understand that there’s one, very distinct me, and several thousand of them! Many of them have given themselves English names though, which makes life slightly easier. Have pretty well settled into the school life, hang out with the teachers between classes, and don’t get lost on the way back from market as often!
This week the whole school has been a flurry of activity and excitement getting ready for the Arts Festival, held every three years. It’s a combination of art, calligraphy and poetry exhibitions, sports competitions, and an evening programme of songs, skits and dances. Friday morning was the official opening ceremony, with the students parading in class by class to music, assembling in a great horde on the school playing field. Then the games began, mostly track and field events such as various lengths of races, shot put, long jump and high jump.
All students had to choose at least two activities in which to participate, and points were added up for each class. Interestingly, most of them did their sport in their normal clothes, running 800m, for example, in jeans and a jacket! As each student took part in an event, the rest of their classmates rallied round to cheer them on, shouting Jai-o, jai-o (come on, come on!) to encourage them.
Not only the students, but the teachers were also each required to pick a sports event to take part in. Fortunately, as the newcomer, I was excused. With my luck, I’d end up running the 3km race or some such thing. I was less lucky, however with regard to the programme. A mere two days before, I was told I should perform, and was urged to dance. Yeah right. I don’t dance, at least not sober, and certainly not in public, so I opted for the slightly safer option of singing. Now, I have survived such trials before, in Mundgod, but learned the hard way from that experience that it is far better to sing badly in the language of the locals, than to sing badly in English. I’ve found that foreigners are all expected to be amazing singers and dancers, a fairly logical conclusion as the knowledge most of these kids have of westerners is via Hollywood movies and pop singers. So I’ve developed the defense of learning a short song in the local language, which at least amuses the audience, and they give you credit for trying, rather than focusing on my off-key voice!
However great the plan, I’m always literally quaking in my boots before and during being on stage, but once it’s over, my contribution made to display the foolishness of the foreigner, I can settle in and enjoy the rest of the show.
My chosen song this time round was “happy new year” in Chinese, (to the tune of “Oh my Darling Clementine”!) For all those who wish to have a go, here are the words in pin-yin:
( a system adopted in 1958, where Chinese characters were to be replaced by the adaptation using the Roman alphabet. The replacement never happened though, and apparently the use of pin-yin is even starting to die out)
Xing ni Hao, xing ni hao, zhu fu da jia xing ni hao
Wo-men chang-ge wo-men taio wu zhu fu da jia, xing ni hao!
The programme last night had been in planning for two months, and the sound and light equipment was all hired in from the nearby city of Mianyang, so it was quite posh, with strobelights, clouds of dry ice smoke, fireworks and the occasional burst of soap bubbles, not to mention all the other technical gadgetry which seemed to fascinate whoever was operating it all, as there were frequent and startling displays of flashing, spinning and whirling coloured lights and smoke, and bursts of flame from spouts at the front of the stage.!
Each class had prepared at least one performance, complete with elaborate costumes. Unfortunately, I t was to dark to take photos, because it was an extremely colourful affair. Performaces ranged from Indian-style dances, with girls got up in glittering saris to skits taken out of the Beijing opera, with the traditional costumes and elaborate makeup, headresses, fans and martial arts demonstrations. There were English rap songs done by groups of guys, who did all sorts of athletic feats of breakdancing a la Michael Jackson (who’s still something of a hero here) and even a skit of Sleeping Beauty (in English, bless them!) and flamenco dancing.
There was a “fashion show” in which all the clothes were made out of plastic, paper and tinfoil, and were modeled by the students who’d created them to the pounding beat of a modern pop song. The whole thing took about 2 and a half hours, and was very professionally done.
The kids here have such a heavy schedule of classes and study, that they very rarely have free time to themselves. So when they do, they make the most of it.
A typical day for a student here begins when the first bell goes at 6:20am. This is followed by all the lights going on in all the dorms, and loud music being played over the school speakers. The kids have 10 minutes to get up and clothed before they have to head down to the sports field for morning calisthenic exercises done to the beat of blasted music and some extremely annoyingly loud person with a megaphone. Then off to breakfast, and to first class at 7:30. Classes continue til 12 noon, then a 2 hour break for lunch. Classes again all afternoon til 6pm, then dinner. After dinner, evening classes go from 7:30-10pm, during which the students have time to do their homework, and back to the dorms before the lights go out at 10:30. This goes on 6 days a week, and Sunday morning. They have Sunday afternoons off, but many students stay in the classrooms and cram for the exams.
There is a monthly test/exam held monthly in each subject, after which there are parent-teacher meetings. It’s a hectic schedule, but there is immense pressure on students here to pass the university and college entrance exams held each July. Because of the huge population in China, competition for spots in schools is fierce, and more so for a good job afterwards. Once one has taken a job, apparently, you pretty much stay there for life, as there’s no guarantee of finding another if you decide to leave the one you’re in. Many of the students have told me they envy me my life and wish they could travel, but the way life is set up here, they’ve very little chance. If they wish to have a secure future of any sort, the way lies through university and connections to find a good job. So the results on their entrance exams pretty much determine the course the rest of their life can take. Scary thought at 17!
The way the educational system is set up is hard on teachers as well. Chinese teachers are responsible for their students’ performances in the exams, and their salaries are affected by how well their students do. I can see the basic logic in this, trying to motivate the teachers to teach well, but if one is unlucky, and has a class with less academically gifted students, it makes life hard. Also, the best teachers tend to be given the better classes. As I wrote before, the students are sorted into classes according to their grades, with classes 1-10 the highest in the school, and ranking downwards from there to 30. There is a huge amount of material to be gotten through in the term as well. So both students and teachers are extremely pressured to do well. This explains why the students were so excited to have the arts festival, and three days “off” in which to play and decompress. I spent much of my time hanging out at the playing field, because it gave the students a chance to talk and practice their English. They are so busy with classes otherwise, I never have much chance to meet them other than in class. Good for me to practice my Chinese too! My vocabulary is growing in leaps and bounds, though I forget as fast as I learn. I know how to ay all sorts of useful words: peanut, relay race and cheers, and that always useful phrase, "I don't understand"!
This week the whole school has been a flurry of activity and excitement getting ready for the Arts Festival, held every three years. It’s a combination of art, calligraphy and poetry exhibitions, sports competitions, and an evening programme of songs, skits and dances. Friday morning was the official opening ceremony, with the students parading in class by class to music, assembling in a great horde on the school playing field. Then the games began, mostly track and field events such as various lengths of races, shot put, long jump and high jump.
All students had to choose at least two activities in which to participate, and points were added up for each class. Interestingly, most of them did their sport in their normal clothes, running 800m, for example, in jeans and a jacket! As each student took part in an event, the rest of their classmates rallied round to cheer them on, shouting Jai-o, jai-o (come on, come on!) to encourage them.
Not only the students, but the teachers were also each required to pick a sports event to take part in. Fortunately, as the newcomer, I was excused. With my luck, I’d end up running the 3km race or some such thing. I was less lucky, however with regard to the programme. A mere two days before, I was told I should perform, and was urged to dance. Yeah right. I don’t dance, at least not sober, and certainly not in public, so I opted for the slightly safer option of singing. Now, I have survived such trials before, in Mundgod, but learned the hard way from that experience that it is far better to sing badly in the language of the locals, than to sing badly in English. I’ve found that foreigners are all expected to be amazing singers and dancers, a fairly logical conclusion as the knowledge most of these kids have of westerners is via Hollywood movies and pop singers. So I’ve developed the defense of learning a short song in the local language, which at least amuses the audience, and they give you credit for trying, rather than focusing on my off-key voice!
However great the plan, I’m always literally quaking in my boots before and during being on stage, but once it’s over, my contribution made to display the foolishness of the foreigner, I can settle in and enjoy the rest of the show.
My chosen song this time round was “happy new year” in Chinese, (to the tune of “Oh my Darling Clementine”!) For all those who wish to have a go, here are the words in pin-yin:
( a system adopted in 1958, where Chinese characters were to be replaced by the adaptation using the Roman alphabet. The replacement never happened though, and apparently the use of pin-yin is even starting to die out)
Xing ni Hao, xing ni hao, zhu fu da jia xing ni hao
Wo-men chang-ge wo-men taio wu zhu fu da jia, xing ni hao!
The programme last night had been in planning for two months, and the sound and light equipment was all hired in from the nearby city of Mianyang, so it was quite posh, with strobelights, clouds of dry ice smoke, fireworks and the occasional burst of soap bubbles, not to mention all the other technical gadgetry which seemed to fascinate whoever was operating it all, as there were frequent and startling displays of flashing, spinning and whirling coloured lights and smoke, and bursts of flame from spouts at the front of the stage.!
Each class had prepared at least one performance, complete with elaborate costumes. Unfortunately, I t was to dark to take photos, because it was an extremely colourful affair. Performaces ranged from Indian-style dances, with girls got up in glittering saris to skits taken out of the Beijing opera, with the traditional costumes and elaborate makeup, headresses, fans and martial arts demonstrations. There were English rap songs done by groups of guys, who did all sorts of athletic feats of breakdancing a la Michael Jackson (who’s still something of a hero here) and even a skit of Sleeping Beauty (in English, bless them!) and flamenco dancing.
There was a “fashion show” in which all the clothes were made out of plastic, paper and tinfoil, and were modeled by the students who’d created them to the pounding beat of a modern pop song. The whole thing took about 2 and a half hours, and was very professionally done.
The kids here have such a heavy schedule of classes and study, that they very rarely have free time to themselves. So when they do, they make the most of it.
A typical day for a student here begins when the first bell goes at 6:20am. This is followed by all the lights going on in all the dorms, and loud music being played over the school speakers. The kids have 10 minutes to get up and clothed before they have to head down to the sports field for morning calisthenic exercises done to the beat of blasted music and some extremely annoyingly loud person with a megaphone. Then off to breakfast, and to first class at 7:30. Classes continue til 12 noon, then a 2 hour break for lunch. Classes again all afternoon til 6pm, then dinner. After dinner, evening classes go from 7:30-10pm, during which the students have time to do their homework, and back to the dorms before the lights go out at 10:30. This goes on 6 days a week, and Sunday morning. They have Sunday afternoons off, but many students stay in the classrooms and cram for the exams.
There is a monthly test/exam held monthly in each subject, after which there are parent-teacher meetings. It’s a hectic schedule, but there is immense pressure on students here to pass the university and college entrance exams held each July. Because of the huge population in China, competition for spots in schools is fierce, and more so for a good job afterwards. Once one has taken a job, apparently, you pretty much stay there for life, as there’s no guarantee of finding another if you decide to leave the one you’re in. Many of the students have told me they envy me my life and wish they could travel, but the way life is set up here, they’ve very little chance. If they wish to have a secure future of any sort, the way lies through university and connections to find a good job. So the results on their entrance exams pretty much determine the course the rest of their life can take. Scary thought at 17!
The way the educational system is set up is hard on teachers as well. Chinese teachers are responsible for their students’ performances in the exams, and their salaries are affected by how well their students do. I can see the basic logic in this, trying to motivate the teachers to teach well, but if one is unlucky, and has a class with less academically gifted students, it makes life hard. Also, the best teachers tend to be given the better classes. As I wrote before, the students are sorted into classes according to their grades, with classes 1-10 the highest in the school, and ranking downwards from there to 30. There is a huge amount of material to be gotten through in the term as well. So both students and teachers are extremely pressured to do well. This explains why the students were so excited to have the arts festival, and three days “off” in which to play and decompress. I spent much of my time hanging out at the playing field, because it gave the students a chance to talk and practice their English. They are so busy with classes otherwise, I never have much chance to meet them other than in class. Good for me to practice my Chinese too! My vocabulary is growing in leaps and bounds, though I forget as fast as I learn. I know how to ay all sorts of useful words: peanut, relay race and cheers, and that always useful phrase, "I don't understand"!
Monday, November 5, 2007
message for the girls from Marco
Hi small lunatics! Aunt Kristel took me with her to visit a temple today, up on a mountain overlooking the city we live in. So I forgive her for forgetting to take me to Chengdu with her to see pandas. We walked around the temple, and sat for an hour talking to a really old man who didn't speak any english. So we drew pictures, and laughed alot! Then two of Aunt Kristel's students came to the temple, and translated for us, so we saw many things.
You can see in one of the pictures, me with a big stone pot of water. There is a story that many years ago, a famous scholar came here, and cured a sick person using water from that pot, so now it is said that this water can cure any sickness. But I don't know, I had a look and it didn't look very clean!
Then we climbed up the hill, and Aunt Kristel took a picture of me looking at the city. You can see a little of the temple roof in the picture. There was a garden on the hilltop too, and I climbed up in some bamboo to see if I could find any pandas, but didn't see any. Now I am trying to learn to speak and read Chinese but it is very difficult! Look at the picture and see how different the letters here are from English! Did you know that to write Chinese really well, you have to use a paintbrush, not a pen or pencil!
I looked all over the temple, and found a small statue of Mary and Jesus on a Buddhist altar. Don't know why it was there, but I wanted to eat some peanuts anyway, so went and had a look.
Aunt Kristel's students showed us the big bell, and told us that all the writing on it is names of people and families who have sponsored the temple over the years.
After about an hour, we walked home again, but I had quite a fun day, and now I am writing to tell you about it, and so you can see some of the photos we took!
You can see in one of the pictures, me with a big stone pot of water. There is a story that many years ago, a famous scholar came here, and cured a sick person using water from that pot, so now it is said that this water can cure any sickness. But I don't know, I had a look and it didn't look very clean!
Then we climbed up the hill, and Aunt Kristel took a picture of me looking at the city. You can see a little of the temple roof in the picture. There was a garden on the hilltop too, and I climbed up in some bamboo to see if I could find any pandas, but didn't see any. Now I am trying to learn to speak and read Chinese but it is very difficult! Look at the picture and see how different the letters here are from English! Did you know that to write Chinese really well, you have to use a paintbrush, not a pen or pencil!
I looked all over the temple, and found a small statue of Mary and Jesus on a Buddhist altar. Don't know why it was there, but I wanted to eat some peanuts anyway, so went and had a look.
Aunt Kristel's students showed us the big bell, and told us that all the writing on it is names of people and families who have sponsored the temple over the years.
After about an hour, we walked home again, but I had quite a fun day, and now I am writing to tell you about it, and so you can see some of the photos we took!
Saturday, November 3, 2007
November 1-4
It turns out that each month, I get two extra days off in addition to my Sunday holiday, because the Senior 3 students have monthly exams, and since there are several thousand of them, all the classrooms are used. So in that time, I made a trip to Chengdu to wander round on my own, see how I got on with the language!
The bus trip was easy and uneventful. I learned the characters for “Chengdu” and “Santai” (the city I live in) so I could read the bus destinations, and off I went. Strolled round Jinli street, a reconstructed section of road near Wuhou Temple and the Tibetan area of town. It has been rebuilt in the old fashion of Chinese buildings-lots of dark carved wood and latticing, and full of shops selling all manner of traditional crafts and foods. Some examples of the traditional crafts are shadow puppets, scroll paintings on bamboo, folk toys, carved lucky gourds and masks (!! And no, I have not yet purchased one, Mom!) The kids would have loved the stall with the man blowing candy animals. He wadded up a translucent blob of stretchy candy gel, folded it into a tube, stretched a long piece and as he blew into it, pulled and pushed at various parts of the blob to create pigs and dragons, horses and birds. The whole process took no more than a few minutes.
I strolled along, camera at the ready, and let myself be carried along by the crowd. Incense wafted in the air, along with the smells of the open snack stalls selling traditional foods, very colourful and aromatic, and swarmed by hordes of Chinese tourists from various provinces in China. There were also some very westernized eateries, Starbucks and TCBY no less, looking quite out of place in among all the cared wood and lanterns. I had also forgotten that it was Halloween, and was jolted back into the western calendar by jack o’lanterns on the tables of a bar, and pumpkin lanterns hung among the bright red paper ones for good luck and prosperity. Couldn’t resist photos of those!
Beside the winding alleys of Jinli lies the Wuhuo temple enclosure. No longer used as a temple, it is now a museum with a beautiful garden and fishpond. Since Mao’s time, of course, religion of any flavour has been discouraged, and most of the school kids I talk to say they are not of any religion, though many say their parents or grandparents are Buddhist. Still, there are working temples around, just yesterday, a couple students invited me to go with them to see the Buddhist temple in Santai, which is a gem of a place set up on a hilltop, with about 100 monks. I hadn’t even realized it existed, as most of my tour guides have been concerned with showing me the shopping and eateries of the town! I’ve spent more time in restaurants in the past two weeks that in the 10 years I spent in India I think! The temple here is from the Tang dynasty, and is in the process of reconstruction, as it is admittedly a bit tatty looking. But it made me all nostalgic to hear the temple drums and gongs, and smell the incense in the chapels. I even recognized some of the deity statues, which quite impressed the two girls I was with. Lots of drawing potential, and I plan to head back up on my own sometime for a few hours. The draw also is that there is a small restaurant attached to the monastery, and it’s vegetarian, glory be! I have become used to the food here, not hard, as it’s delicious, and very spicy. Apparently Sichuan is renowned through-out China for it’s hot and spicy food. The huoguo (hotpot- like a fondue with a bubbling pot of spices and loads of plates full of various vegetables, meat, mushrooms and seaweed bits which get dumped into the pot and one fishes them out with chopsticks) that I went to last night was a pigeon soup full of all sorts of mushrooms and fungus of different types, as well as all the squishy meat bits, this time, I was told, including dog tails, which as a delicacy, were mounded on my plate…Not bad, a bit like dark chicken but very bony.
But I digress…that was last night, and I’ve yet to write about the highlight of my weekend! After I returned from Chengdu on Thursday night, I got a phone call from the office there which was in the process of arranging my residence permit, telling me that I needed to come to Chengdu! So back I went again on Friday, a 2.5 hour trip by bus each way, to go to show my face at the PSB office. That done, the office worker, Fiona, and I went to visit the panda breeding base on the outskirts of Chengdu. She had never been there, and was as eager as I to see the pandas. Cost 30 yuan to get in, which works out to about 7$, and the park was huge, cobbled paths wending though tunnel-like towering stands of bamboo to the various areas of the park: the museum and research labs, and panda movie, all of which we skipped to head straight to the nursery! There we saw a 3 month old panda, about the size of a 1 year old child fast asleep in a wooden crib, paws and stubby tail twitching in its dreams. We were of course spellbound, and uttered all the usual cooings over its cuteness, before heading outside to the play enclosure for the panda “kids”. There were about 10 of them, in a big open-air area with trees and a jungle gym of logs and bamboo. The pandas acted just like kids, playing and fighting and rolling around, climbing and falling, chasing each other around. Could have stayed there all day, and used up all my film!
Unfortunately, we didn’t have as much time as we’d have liked to stay, as we had to get back to have lunch with the rest of the agency workers, so we made just a quick trip to have a look at the red pandas, which look nothing like pandas to me, but rather more like large red cats with slightly fox-like faces and bright orange-red fur. Next time I’ve a day off, I could spend a whole day just watching pandas…!
Now I’m back in school, taught a few primary classes on Saturday, which didn’t enthrall me particularly, never having taught so many small kids before. They of course didn’t know any English at all, so the class was pretty much chaos. Ah well, have to come up with a different strategy for next week. Play games and sing songs, I guess. Or tie ‘em all down and gag them! After dinner last night, I was taken out to learn to play Mah Jong, the national pastime of the Chinese, and particularly in Sichuan. Apparently people win and lose huge amounts of money at theis, and can play non stop all night. I threw in the towel at midnight, and retreated to my room, though as a beginner, I wasn’t expected to make any wagers, fortunately. It’s a fiercely fast and competitive game, and the players get all worked up and excited about it, slamming down the pieces and shouting at each other.
The bus trip was easy and uneventful. I learned the characters for “Chengdu” and “Santai” (the city I live in) so I could read the bus destinations, and off I went. Strolled round Jinli street, a reconstructed section of road near Wuhou Temple and the Tibetan area of town. It has been rebuilt in the old fashion of Chinese buildings-lots of dark carved wood and latticing, and full of shops selling all manner of traditional crafts and foods. Some examples of the traditional crafts are shadow puppets, scroll paintings on bamboo, folk toys, carved lucky gourds and masks (!! And no, I have not yet purchased one, Mom!) The kids would have loved the stall with the man blowing candy animals. He wadded up a translucent blob of stretchy candy gel, folded it into a tube, stretched a long piece and as he blew into it, pulled and pushed at various parts of the blob to create pigs and dragons, horses and birds. The whole process took no more than a few minutes.
I strolled along, camera at the ready, and let myself be carried along by the crowd. Incense wafted in the air, along with the smells of the open snack stalls selling traditional foods, very colourful and aromatic, and swarmed by hordes of Chinese tourists from various provinces in China. There were also some very westernized eateries, Starbucks and TCBY no less, looking quite out of place in among all the cared wood and lanterns. I had also forgotten that it was Halloween, and was jolted back into the western calendar by jack o’lanterns on the tables of a bar, and pumpkin lanterns hung among the bright red paper ones for good luck and prosperity. Couldn’t resist photos of those!
Beside the winding alleys of Jinli lies the Wuhuo temple enclosure. No longer used as a temple, it is now a museum with a beautiful garden and fishpond. Since Mao’s time, of course, religion of any flavour has been discouraged, and most of the school kids I talk to say they are not of any religion, though many say their parents or grandparents are Buddhist. Still, there are working temples around, just yesterday, a couple students invited me to go with them to see the Buddhist temple in Santai, which is a gem of a place set up on a hilltop, with about 100 monks. I hadn’t even realized it existed, as most of my tour guides have been concerned with showing me the shopping and eateries of the town! I’ve spent more time in restaurants in the past two weeks that in the 10 years I spent in India I think! The temple here is from the Tang dynasty, and is in the process of reconstruction, as it is admittedly a bit tatty looking. But it made me all nostalgic to hear the temple drums and gongs, and smell the incense in the chapels. I even recognized some of the deity statues, which quite impressed the two girls I was with. Lots of drawing potential, and I plan to head back up on my own sometime for a few hours. The draw also is that there is a small restaurant attached to the monastery, and it’s vegetarian, glory be! I have become used to the food here, not hard, as it’s delicious, and very spicy. Apparently Sichuan is renowned through-out China for it’s hot and spicy food. The huoguo (hotpot- like a fondue with a bubbling pot of spices and loads of plates full of various vegetables, meat, mushrooms and seaweed bits which get dumped into the pot and one fishes them out with chopsticks) that I went to last night was a pigeon soup full of all sorts of mushrooms and fungus of different types, as well as all the squishy meat bits, this time, I was told, including dog tails, which as a delicacy, were mounded on my plate…Not bad, a bit like dark chicken but very bony.
But I digress…that was last night, and I’ve yet to write about the highlight of my weekend! After I returned from Chengdu on Thursday night, I got a phone call from the office there which was in the process of arranging my residence permit, telling me that I needed to come to Chengdu! So back I went again on Friday, a 2.5 hour trip by bus each way, to go to show my face at the PSB office. That done, the office worker, Fiona, and I went to visit the panda breeding base on the outskirts of Chengdu. She had never been there, and was as eager as I to see the pandas. Cost 30 yuan to get in, which works out to about 7$, and the park was huge, cobbled paths wending though tunnel-like towering stands of bamboo to the various areas of the park: the museum and research labs, and panda movie, all of which we skipped to head straight to the nursery! There we saw a 3 month old panda, about the size of a 1 year old child fast asleep in a wooden crib, paws and stubby tail twitching in its dreams. We were of course spellbound, and uttered all the usual cooings over its cuteness, before heading outside to the play enclosure for the panda “kids”. There were about 10 of them, in a big open-air area with trees and a jungle gym of logs and bamboo. The pandas acted just like kids, playing and fighting and rolling around, climbing and falling, chasing each other around. Could have stayed there all day, and used up all my film!
Unfortunately, we didn’t have as much time as we’d have liked to stay, as we had to get back to have lunch with the rest of the agency workers, so we made just a quick trip to have a look at the red pandas, which look nothing like pandas to me, but rather more like large red cats with slightly fox-like faces and bright orange-red fur. Next time I’ve a day off, I could spend a whole day just watching pandas…!
Now I’m back in school, taught a few primary classes on Saturday, which didn’t enthrall me particularly, never having taught so many small kids before. They of course didn’t know any English at all, so the class was pretty much chaos. Ah well, have to come up with a different strategy for next week. Play games and sing songs, I guess. Or tie ‘em all down and gag them! After dinner last night, I was taken out to learn to play Mah Jong, the national pastime of the Chinese, and particularly in Sichuan. Apparently people win and lose huge amounts of money at theis, and can play non stop all night. I threw in the towel at midnight, and retreated to my room, though as a beginner, I wasn’t expected to make any wagers, fortunately. It’s a fiercely fast and competitive game, and the players get all worked up and excited about it, slamming down the pieces and shouting at each other.
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