epic #5

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!