Almost ready to start another year

I went riding again this weekend. I have been having some trouble contacting the bicycle group's message board; however, on a ride, at the 10Km point, I ran into a teacher at the university. He told me that on Saturday was going to be a women's ride, but that on Sunday would be a general group ride that was leaving at eight am. He estimated about 100km (it turned out to only be 90) and stated that the route had some strong hills.

Gao Jing is in the green and white shirt on the right, Zhang Pei is the third fom the Left, looking at the camera and wearing glasses.

Gao Jing was not able to go on this ride (in truth, she has no intention of going on any of the long rides) because she got a job for the weekend. She was selling convenient noodles, these are what we call ramen noodles, in front of a market. Several of her roommates were also selling noodles at this market, and another market in town.

The ride was supposed to start at eight so I headed off, a bit behind schedule and I ate some bread as I was riding. Eating while riding, or driving, is not common here; however, talking on the cell phone certainly is (and in a nation where no one has any sense of social responsibility, it can be scary). As a result I did manage to arrive a few minutes early.

A few people noticed that I did some stuff to my bike. Because I am having some trouble finding an affordable shipping company to return it to the states (UPS quoted about 3500RMB) I am hesitating on getting a road specific bike; so, I started looking at what I can do to this bike. There are two issues that I wanted to address. The first was rattles. The second was weight. When I got it, it was what I wanted for certain tasks. I wanted a quality bike for trips to the store, this necessitated racks and carrying capacity. The second thing I wanted was a touring bike. For long rides, like the one I made in the summer. For these tasks the bike I have is close to ideal.

However, I am now using the scooter for trips on campus. And, simply, the increased carrying capacity makes the scooter well suited for trips to the store. This leaves the bikes main use as a sporting bike.

With this in mind, I removed the front rack and basket, which was a lot of the rattles. I also removed the kickstand, which was over a kilogram by itself. Being as I am riding it in, generally, good weather, I also removed the fenders. Removing the fenders took care of the occasional maladjustments' that caused tyre rubbing, noise and friction. I left the rear rack on. This was because I needed a place to put the lock. That may eventually go to, as I do not stop anywhere on my recreational rides.

Doing all this made my bike more suited to the type of riding that I am now doing. The weight removed, particularly on the front, made the bike more responsive and with the fenders gone, there was nothing for road debris to get hung up on. Of course, everything done was fully reversible; so, if I change my mind it is a simple task of bolting it all back on.

The front runners and some of us taking a break (the guy in the red shirt also teaches at XYNU)

Of those of us who were there on time, there were about six others that were present and ready to go. So, we simply left while the others were assembling, we did tell them that we were leaving. All six of us were relatively fast riders and kept a strong pace, which lead to a lot of spreading in the pack. We stopped at one spot, about 25Km down the road to insure that all were present, and then we kept going. At about 303Km we turned off the main road onto a mixed pavement road the quickly led to a village that was not noticeable from the road.

It is fun going through these little villages. We all enjoy the look of the small children when we go through their streets. It is not like automobile, or airplane, or even motorcycle racing. We are on bicycles. This is something that they can relate to; yet, when we go through faster than they have ever seen bicycles go, in formation, and with riding gear that basically provides an identifiable uniform, their eyes light up. It is something that they know is a realistic thing to think about doing.

After leaving the village we were on a narrow road, about three meters in total width. Many people were drying their crops on the road and the only way through was to ride right over. It did not seem to be a problem with anyone as we did so.

We went through one little village and something surprising happened. In general, the dogs in China do not chase bicyclists. They grow up around them and are broken of chasing at an early age. Well, this dog was an exception to that rule. It just happened to be an exception to the "dogs in China are small" rule also. I was in the back of the pack and a police officer I sometimes joke with was in the middle. When this dog came out we all went to full power. What was funny was the way I just shot through the pack from the back. Because of the admonition that I am not to ride fast, I was intentionally loafing near the rear and had a lot of energy to burn. The police officer (that is right, I forgot his name) also pulled to the front. Then another dog came out and we kept pushing (It was like the old joke that ends with "I only have to outrun you"). In a few moments we looked back and we were over a hundred meters in front of the others. We both got a good laugh over our little sprint. When we came across dogs that would bark, later in the day, we both made like we were going to sprint.

This rolling single lane of mixed pavement and dirt continued until we got to the last four Km. then it turned into a narrow, about 3 meter wide, road that was well paved. It was just outlandishly steep. There was one spot we measured; it had more than a meter of rise for four meters of run. Some of it was rideable. However, we all had to make the walk of shame. I was not the first, and I was not the last to start walking.

When we got to the top of the road there was a large, rather new, roadhouse. We all went in to watch the Beijing World Cup Triathlon (Spain won) on television and wait for the others. It was sort of embarrassing when they arrived and asked us when we had gotten there. We had been there for over an hour when they arrived.

We then walked to the top of the mountain. The climbing was not hard but I really need to start wearing something other than sandals for these activities. The view from the top was blocked by trees but there was a great rock shelf that offered a great look at the road we had just ridden and the rest of the valley.

After the short hike we returned to the roadhouse for a typical Chinese meal. They have their large meal at mid day; so, the meal consisted of eight dishes and two soups, along with rice and rice crust. This meal went well for me because I did something. I asked Gao Jing to contact the ride leader and let him know what I do eat.

In the past there has been a lot of concern that about all I was eating at lunch was rice and broth. Well, I just can not get into floating head and foot soup. As most of you know, I do not eat really fatty food and avoid pork. I also do not like eating food that leaves me spending more time spiting bones onto the table than I spend eating. Yes, I am picky but I will not starve (just to be sure, I put some bread rolls in my pack before leaving).

After the meal we went on another hike. This one was boulder hopping down a hillside. I did not go all the way down. I came to the conclusion that everything I hopped down, I would have to climb back up. I went back up to the pools by the small waterfall and waited there.

We then returned to the roadhouse, where they had moved our bikes to keep the seats out of the sun; however, that made mine hard to get to. We then got some water and prepared to leave.

Leaving was harder than it seemed. Not because of all the photo opps that took so much time (trying to get that many people in a single picture is not always easy, particularly when the person taking the pictures wants to be in them and does not have a tripod). Instead it was because of the hill that had tested us as we rode to the roadhouse. Going down it was its own challenge. Several people's brakes were barely up to it. I even had some problems with over heating, this was a place that the disk brakes, that some of the bikes were equipped with, showed their worth.

The ride back was quick and easy. We regrouped once; however, I was one of the first into the rest point, and, as such, I was also one of the first out. Having actually eaten lunch helped my riding a lot.

Just another rest stop, only about half the riders are in this picture.

I was asked by a person what it was like living in China. I pointed them at my, rather lengthy, blog. I think if it were ever printed out that it would come to a couple hundred pages; and, I do hope that, somewhere, in this mountainous haystack of, largely repetitive, diatribe are a few needles. So, if you are reading this, make a few comments now and again so I will know that, at least, someone is reading it. Also, comments help me to zero in on what people are interested in hearing about.

Later in the week I went to take part in the evening fitness ride instead of going alone. I was under the impression that they leave at six thirty. However, I discovered at they leave at six. So, I ended up riding alone anyway.

I went back the next night and went riding with the mechanic and a girl. I then had all kinds of bike trouble. Either, it was a good thing the mechanic was with me, or, he was bad luck. He ended up taking my bike back to the shop where we determined that the derailleur was not repairable. I ended up taking a cab back.

While we were at the shop, we saw a bike that Zeneta liked and we added another to the stable. I will post some pictures of her riding soon.

I was planning to go, with the other teacher, Ken, and visit a coal mine and power plant during the past week. As we understand, the coal mine is an open mine; as such, it should be entirely safe. We were then to travel on the route that the coal takes to a power plant. We are told that this plant has been in service for over one hundred years.

The problem is getting there. This shows one of the cultural differences between westerners and Chinese. As westerners, we insist on a plan. We have worked out the itinerary and the trains that we will need to, both, depart and return. However, train tickets are, generally, not available in advance. It is simple; if you do not plan then purchasing tickets in advance is not a problem because you do not do it. Like I have mentioned, if a Chinese Citizen needs to go somewhere they wait until they are ready to go and then go to the train station and try to see what kinds of tickets are available. If they can only get a standing ticket, then they stand.

For us, this is a last option, not the plan. So, I first look up the trains on the internet and find the time and cost. At that point I go to the advance sales ticket office. The problem is that I then am told that the first train on my list is available, but the others are not. The suggestion is, as expected, to take that train and try to get tickets when I get to the next town.

Part of the problem is the ticketing system. It is a holdover from the pre-computer days. Each city is permitted to sell a certain number of tickets for each train. If they sell those tickets, then the train is sold out. This is another part of the problem that leads to people being told that there are no tickets on a train that is running practically empty. It made sense in the mail pouch days when stations were mailed tickets. However, now that they all use terminals that are tied into the same ticketing computer, it makes no sense.

The D train, being an entirely new system, does not use this method of ticketing; they use a unified ticket management instead of a city based ticket management system. As such, it is easy to get a ticket on that train. However, the D train only takes us as far as Zhengzhou and does not get us back.

The new plan is to go during the October holiday instead. We are still trying to work out the tickets and to be sure we can get them. To add to the confusion, tickets can only be sold ten days in advance. While this does help prevent unexpected problems from throwing the entire system out of whack, it makes it hard to travel for people who insist on planning

I got my class schedule last night, about nine p.m. on the Friday before classes are scheduled to start on Monday. I still do not have my books. I am told that they will be delivered later today.

Last Wednesday we had a meeting to discuss what we will be teaching. By this, I mean the pedagogy, or the method of teaching. We had some proponents of teaching through films. Others wanted to use the dialog book. It appears that the dialog book people won.

One difference this year is that all of the foreign teachers will be teaching freshmen. There are about 2000 new freshmen at Haurai College, which is a small art of Xinyang Normal University, and it is where I, and four other foreign teachers, teach. The plan is that all new freshmen will have a foreign teacher for their English class. Some of the teachers still have a couple of classes of sophomores; however, I have, as expected, all freshmen.