Last weekend I went with another teacher from XYNU and Ju Hai Ying (Julia) to Zhengzhou in order to take the standardized medical exam. This was at the place I took my first exam, and Zeneta took both of her exams, at.
Julia was a bit tired form having just finished her second stage Graduate exam in Shanghai. It seems that the procedure is to first take a national exam to see if one can even advance to the graduate level in their chosen field. Then, they go to the individual school, that they intend to study at, and take a battery of tests there. The first test is an all day test. The second stage, at the chosen school, takes about a week.
The other teacher was just being himself. By nature he is very short tempered and was upset from the start. He was not happy about going to Zhengzhou for the physical. Last year the end of year physical was done in Xinyang and he refused to understand why the physical, this year, could not also be done in Xinyang; this, relieving him of the need to travel.
The reason was simple. The school was fined quite heavily for doing that last year. The physicals are required to be done at the entry/exit medical examination facilities. Before a Chinese national is permitted to travel abroad they are required to undergo a medical exam and receive a battery of vaccinations. Then when they return they are also required to take an exam, primarily to be tested for AIDS.
It is at these facilities that foreign experts are also required to be tested. It is that simple, and that inflexible.
The next issue, one that I will expand on in my trip to Xian with He Zhi Qing, is that Ju Hai Ying did not get the tickets we asked her to. We asked for "D" Train, or "soft seat," tickets. She got is hard seat tickets on a "K" train. Yes, the seats are padded, which is an improvement; but, they are not "soft seat" which is the first class carriage. To someone who does not travel in China this sounds like a small issue; but, remember that the "hard" carriages are also the standing room carriages with all the chaos and crowding I have described in the past.
We arrived in Zhengzhou late, upsetting the other teacher further, and got a snack; which, due to issues with stomach problems, the other teacher could not eat. We than got to the hotel and discovered that Ju Hai Ying had gotten a single room for the other teacher and I. She had never given this a second thought, or mentioned it to us previously. To many Chinese, sharing rooms is common and normal.
The other teacher again got upset and demanded to be returned to Xinyang. I think this was the third time he made that demand on this trip; and, we were still on the first evening.
After getting the room issue straightened out (the other teacher and I did not share a room; but, Ju Hai Ying spent several hours walking aground Zhengzhou looking for a room that night) Ju Hai Ying wanted us to go to dinner with her and a friend of hers (a man, which was why she was not able to stay at the friends place); however, the other teacher said, "no." (really, he said a lot more than "no;" but, it distilled to, "no.").
I let Ju Hai Ying pick the place for dinner. It was Chinese, very Chinese, but good.
The next morning went fine, other than having trouble getting a cab. It was rush hour and we had a lot of trouble finding a cab that did not already have a passenger.
The medical went as expected. They had a few words about someones blood pressure, not mine, and that was about all. I did tell Ju Hai Ying to make sure that they were aware of my problem with blood draws. She really did not understand; but they did. She started trying to explain what I had told her and they almost immediately interrupted her (which was good, she really did not understand the problem; but they did) and asked if I needed to lie down as the blood was being drawn or after. I told them after and they put me in a draw chair that was right next to a cot that was set low to the ground. I almost didn't make it to the cot.
Ju Hai Ying tried to get me to get my feet off the cot and lie properly and the staff there stopped her and told her that I knew what I needed to do. As I have said, it is simply a case of lying with my knees high, or legs elevated for about five minutes and I am fine; but, if I don't do this after a blood draw, I wont make it those five minutes. I have lost more blood, than is taken in those draws, in accidents and been just fine. Like the doctor in America said, its just needle effect.
We left there and got a snack then wet to the hotel room where the three of us discussed the plan for next year. As you can guess, I said that the other teacher's favored workbook was not suitable as the sole text.
After that it was time for lunch, the need to move fast in the morning through the three-meal-a-day Chinese time schedule off. As a result the other teacher did not eat with us (us being Ju Hai Ying, her friend, and myself). We had western food, steak, for lunch and I tried to coach Ju Hai Ying a bit on western utensil usage.
After this we went to the western food store in Zhengzhou. The purpose was to get some breakfast cereal and cheese. I was not impressed with the cheese selection. Zeneta, later, told me that they had been cutting back on the cheese selection, even, while she had been shopping there.
We left Ju Hai Ying at that point and went back to the train station where we waited for the D-train to Xinyang. I did notice that the train was more crowded than it had been in the past. I think that the D-train has been a big hit here. Along with the improvement in speed, the cleanliness and standard of service is something that is not normal for China; and, the D-trains success shows that there is a demand for it.
Showing posts with label Ju Hai Ying. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ju Hai Ying. Show all posts
Friday, 2 May 2008
Sunday, 6 January 2008
New Year parties
Following the Christmas parties, there were several New Years parties. Keep in mind that while Western New Year has already taken place, Chinese New Year is yet to come. What is more, the school will be closed down on Chinese New Year.
As a result, we had a couple of New Years parties. The first was with the administration for XYNU and the foreign affairs office. The second was at Hau Rui.
The dinner with the administration was at a restaurant that I had been to before; however, it turned out that most of the other foreign teachers had never been to it before. As usual we went to a large room with several others. About half way through I realized that Ju Hai Ying, Mrs. Jhang, and another person who had come with us were not present. I discovered that they were eating in another room and, considering that some of our party had left, heaving plenty of room for them, found them and asked them to join us.
I ended up eating something that did not set well with me and spent the next week with a sour stomach. These things happen on occasion...
Later in the week several of us attended a New Years celebration at Hau Rui. It was in H2, the new building, on the fifth floor in the new sports room. Last year, the place that this room is now, was an empty, open air, patio.
The master of ceremonies was one of the English teachers.
Of course, the head administrators needed to speak.
The teachers chior provided the singing.
And, there was dancing.
There were also games.
The goal of this particular game was to push hard enough to pop the balloon without knocking your partner over. Near the end, we, the foreign teachers were asked to go up and sing a song for the other teachers. In all it was a good time; however, several of the western teachers were glad when it ended, simply because it was getting cold ( remember, no heating).
Wednesday, 26 December 2007
Christmas Parties
What a day, first an all schools English teacher (and any other foreigners that could be roped in) lunch. Then a big activity planned evening and formal dinner with the city outdoor activity club.
I barely have the energy to sit down
(added to the 5 kilos that I have probably put on today)
The plan was actually worked out well in advance; pretty much as soon as it started getting cold we began over-planning the Christmas dinner. For the Chinese this is a reason to have more loud parties.
When the Western New Years and Christmas parties were combined, there were a total of nine parties that I was expected to be at. Zeneta misunderstood one of the invites and thought that the fourth was intended to be a business meeting, it was no business meeting.
All but the second were very Chinese; however, only the third, the one with the bike club, was truly Chinese, more of which I will explain later. The first party was hosted by Hua Rui College, which is a division of XYNU and is where I teach (and is the correct spelling, according to Ju Hai Ying, aka, Julia).
Most of the college leaders were there already when Julia walked us over to the restaurant on campus. It is one of the two main restaurants on campus, not counting the canteens, and is well within the old residential section (as I have said, this "small campus" is a city of over fifty thousand residents, many of whom live here year round).
The meal was very typically Chinese, served on a large revolving table and featured a great deal of toasting. One of the harder things for westerners to become accustomed to is the Chinese hesitance to drink alone; they will toast someone when they intend to drink, which leads to, what seem to be, loud, uproarious, meals.
It was also at this meal the we gave Julia her Christmas present, in order to insure that we got something proper we assigned a few of our aids to help shop for her (One teacher's idea was to get her some satin sheets, it was at that point that I decided to ask some of our girls to be the Julia shopping sub-committee). We ended up getting her a silver necklace.
The party was pretty much normal. One thing I noticed was the older man next to me was putting water in his bi jiu (a Saki like drink) cup. By doing this he was able to get away with drinking a lot less because, as one of the main leaders, it seemed that everyone wanted to toast him at least once. It was a good, if sneaky approach. My approach was to just tell them that I did not drink bi jiu (Wo bu he bi jiu).
There were no real shocking stories from this party. We all had a good time and the westerners all left sober.
The next was one held at one of the coffee shops in town and was hosted by the westerners. It was attended, not only by the teachers here, but also by teachers from the Agricultural College (Don't expect much from the Agricultural College, it is no Davis. It has a very small campus in the center of town and has no farm. The Ag project is a small, trash strewn, concrete pond in the center of the campus. [here is a List of Higher Education Institutes in Henan Province]).
The Coffee shops are not what an American would think of as a coffee shop. They are a chain of restaurants that serve western style food and are generally very plush. Due to some confusion we were not given a room but combined some tables in the front of the restaurant. The main confusion was caused by our attempt to reserve. The Chinese seldom reserve for dinner so they did not understand when Ken went to reserve several weeks in advance. We all took a guest so there were also a large number of Chinese students, I took Gao Jing and Zeneta took Huang Yun. It was necessary for both Zeneta and I to take an aid because I was going somewhere else after the dinner and Zeneta still has trouble getting around town by herself; so, Huang Yan was there to insure that Zeneta made it home.
From there Gao Jing and I caught a cab over to the bike shop. The bike shop was hosting a Christmas dinner and activities for the outdoor club. The first things done were a couple of skill challenges. There was the standard cone weave and there was a track-standing, or slow riding, competition. I was not on my own bike and ended up borrowing a bike from the shop. As a result, I did not do as well as I would have hoped; however, I did not do poorly. I could not even get Gao Jing to try to compete, she was busy talking to a Chinese club member who had been to Nebraska, USA, to study American farming techniques.
It surprised the people there that I did not hit a single cone. There is a trick to the cone weave; it is simple, do not look at the cone that you are coming to. You have already set up your angle, either you will hit it or you wont, look at the next cone.
After the contest (where I won both the foreigner class and the foreigners over forty class) we went to a nearby restaurant. I was surprised at the number of people there and we used quite a few tables. The food was very Chinese and I ended up next to my doctor who at least understood my eating preferences and habits. Of course, the toasting was de rigeur here too. As an interesting variation on the pattern, many people wandered from table to table pouring drinks and, by way of a common toast, leading the table in the making of a loud roar. I asked Gao Jing if we were supposed to be forming any particular word, she told me, "no, just noise, but it is important to be loud."
After the dinner we went outside for the fireworks; in China, any excuse is a good excuse for fireworks. This is the first time I have really looked at the launching of the mortars. A common method is the use of a prepackaged box. The box has a single fuse that is lit then there is no longer any timing or operation issues. Two boxes were lit off and then we went back inside.
When we returned back inside the tables had been cleared of the meal and snacks, such as nuts and oranges, were placed on the tables. At this point the show started. It was an interesting observation; for a people who do not plan much of anything, they do plan their parties. The schedule was full with presentations and dances. I received an award that essentially says, "foreign friend."
Later I was asked to present some gifts; however, I had trouble understanding what they were asking. I was to select five names and read them out. I was then to give them awards of the Olympic mascots. As stared, I was having a bit of trouble understanding just what it was that I was being asked to do. So, there I was on stage, they thrust a microphone in my hands and the first thing I said was, "Jing Jing, where are you?" She promptly waved, smiled, laughed at me, and returned to taking pictures of me, up on the stage.
It is noticeable how the whole country is excited and proud of the planned Olympics. It was not like this the times that the Olympics were in America. I hope I am wrong; but, I foresee disaster.
When the program ended, like most Chinese events, everyone quickly filed out. The people here do not linger and mingle. Gao Jing and I quickly found a cab and headed back to the college. The rule is that students are not to ride in cabs onto the campus; so, I rode the cab through the gate, where the cabbie told the guard' "I have an American in the car," and we were flagged through. I then sent her, and the car up to her dorm. It was too late for her to be out walking alone; particularly considering that a couple of students, both girls, had been killed walking through the woods, on campus, at night in the previous month.
Friday, 1 June 2007
Shopping in Wuhan
06 Jan 07
As many of you know, I ended up working this weekend. The reason really made no sense to me, or the other westerners; however, it seemed to make perfect sense to the Chinese.
We worked Saturday and Sunday so that we could take Tuesday and Wednesday off, following the holiday on Monday. The thought, on the minds of all of us westerners, was, why not just take Saturday and Sunday off? Instead, this goofy approach messed up all of our schedules, their schedules, and, undoubtedly, the schedules of millions of people across the country. I really think that the reason was just to do something different; whatever the reason, I worked Saturday.
I would have also had to have worked on Sunday, except that I traded classes with another teacher. Julia has several of the same classes that I have.
Remember, the students are assigned to a class group at the beginning of their college life and that class group is given a number (easy enough, I have classes one through five). They then attend all of their classes, and many out of class activities, as a group.
Because she, Julia, also has classes one through four, we were able to make a trade in the classes. This left us both with classes on only one day, I did Saturday and she did Sunday. (And no, Julia is not her real name. However, her family name sounds a bit like Julia, it is a name that I can pronounce, and the students know who I am talking about when I say, "Julia." [Even if they do laugh when I say it]).
An example of the, out of class, activities, that are attended as a group include the Friday that immediately preceded this weekend, in which I had to work. The student classes reserved large rooms at the college and held various parties. As a teacher I moved between the groups that were, generally about two classes, or about a hundred students. Some of the parties focused on, student produced, skits and dances. There were a lot of song and musical instrument recitals. Some of the classes got together and watched movies on the large, projection screens (there is a… um… "Free" web site there in China that allows a person to watch any of hundreds of movies, there is a reason that this site is unusable for my classes; however, it allows anyone with web access to watch them. So, the students start the projector and the movie, and then they enjoy free theater.).
On Saturday I then showed Titanic. I used some discs that were purchased here in ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />
I ended up showing the film twice, this allowed me to show it to four of my classes; like I said, I was doubling up my classes. I first showed it at
On Sunday, because I had made the arrangement, I had no classes. Instead I went to the usual meeting with some of the westerners, which we hold on Sundays and then returned to my flat in order to do some writing; I also did quite a bit of lounging around and reading. (Wow, it is hard to type this, my fingers are cold; thus I am producing a lot of typos. Therefore, my usual, very slow, typing, is slowed even more by the number of corrections I am making.)
Monday was a rather normal shopping trip. Ellen, a female student of Michelle's, went with us and provided quite of bit of help. It is always funny when you ask for help finding something. All I wanted was some spices and vinegar. I ended up being brought vegetables, soup mix, and other things that I can not remember or identify (they seem to be food), in the pile were my spices and vinegar; so, I did not complain.
It was at that time that Michelle and I discussed the possibility of an upcoming trip to Wuhan. We are both considering purchasing backpacks for our, upcoming, winter break. We were initially planning to purchase them when we arrive in Xian, while we are on vacation, and still may do that. However, there is some logic in purchasing them ahead of time so that we are not left carrying two pieces of luggage. I would also like to visit the museum in Wuhan. One thing that has disappointed me, in
That night I went to dinner with He Zhi Qing and some of her dorm mates (There, a real name for those of you who complain that I do not include real names. She tends to ask me to call her HZQ because I often mangle her name so badly.). Even though her roommates are not English majors, instead they are majoring in Chinese, they speak English well enough to communicate.
We did not go where we had planned because the place was full. Instead, we went to another nearby restaurant. From her I am learning to identify restaurants (not always as easy as it sounds) and going to more "authentic" places. She is the same student that took Debra, for several hours, and showed her what the student dorms look like.
We (He Zhi Qing, her roommates, and I) made plans to go on Tuesday and walk around the city; however, it was snowing so we called it off. In all, the vacation was too cold to enjoy.
That night, I had a slight problem. The house phone rang, I differentiate that from my cell phone, which is used for almost all communication. The house phone is primarily used for calling people on campus, and in the dark, while stumbling to answer it; I stepped on the power supply for my computer. Not only was it a wrong number, as most of my house phone calls are, but I broke the power supply. Breaking the power supply prompted me to write this letter to my good friend from High School; and all around Mac Genius, Mike.
Last night when getting up to answer the phone, it was a wrong number, I broke the connector on my Macally power supply, I long since replaced my Apple supplied one.
This power supply has a plug in the end that connects to the supply; so, the cord that plugs into the computer also unplugs from the supply. It uses a non standard plug. However, I am first going to look for the plug, if I can not find it I will solder the cord directly into the supply.
My question is this; the cord that connects to the Mac has one strand and a shield (thus, two conductors). I am assuming that the shield is negative and the core is +24VDC@2A. Looking at the tip I see it as having three elements, a shield, as is found on an RCA audio connector and a plug in the center that is similar to a stereo headphone connector, just smaller. This very small plug has three elements. What should the voltage be at these various points? (Yes, I checked the apple site, it has no real useful information on this that I was able to find)
I got a response from him that advised that, seeing as the part is made in
The really funny thing is that a lot of the stuff made here is not available. When it is, it costs more than it does, after conversion, in
I did manage to get it fixed. There is no "do it yourself" culture and near all tools are only sold to licensed repairmen. As such, I took it to a computer repair shop and HE ZHI QING (my student, I can not pronounce or spell her name) was having trouble telling them what I wanted done because the idea of fixing something was totally unknown to her.
Finally I walked behind his counter (with permission, if he understood what I was asking) and picked up his solder sucker, soldering iron and Multimeter and started working on it myself. After I had it all positioned I let him solder the parts together (and he did a terrible job of it). She was laughing the whole time; it seems that this is not the way things are done here
I suspect that I will hear about this in class... However, it is now working.
That Wednesday, after we had canceled our plans to wader about the town on Tuesday due to the snow; He Zhi Qing, more of her roommates, and I went to go and get this done. To go into town she first tried to hire a three wheel cab; however, the driver would not budge on the price so we took the bus. We then went to get the repair done, which was the, afore mentioned, ordeal.
After we did that she insisted that I go and eat lunch. While I had not eaten lunch I could have done very well to miss that meal (I have lost about seven Kilos since I got here, then I pretty much stopped loosing weight). However she was very uncomfortable with my having not eaten (she, and her friends had eaten before we met) so I had some soup that she ordered for me at a lunch counter.
[Then people ask why I hate using windows. Here I was typing along and I get a message that the windows OS had encountered yet another error and has closed word. I only lost a little because I save often; however, this does not happen on my UNIX, a real OS, based Mac …oh where was I…]
After we did some shopping, I decided that I needed more long johns, we went for a walk. The only problem with wearing the long johns is that it tends to reduce my level of empathy with my students. After all, I am not freezing, there is no reason that they should be acting like they are (other, possibly, than that the room really is freezing).
The walk we took led through one of the larger city parks and a small bamboo forest that had several footpaths leading through it. It was, obviously, a popular place for young people to stroll.
We then walked along the river; stopping at a playground to enjoy the exercise equipment (me v. them on the teeter totter was funny, if not a bit embarrassing). I took some pictures of the old city wall and we also did a bit of other shopping (I needed some eggs, which are not sold in cartons as they are in the west) and I returned to my flat.
We had walked quite a bit, including the entire return trip, however, it was fun. Even better, when I plugged in my, newly repaired, power supply it worked!
This week was obviously a short one for classes, consisting of only two days. We talked about many of the terms used in Titanic. I discussed the, upcoming, exam in my class. However, I was not able to use the material that I normally use in the second half of my class. I normally use a podcast from a pair of Doctors in Linguistics in
I use the audio skit in their program and then build more lesson material around that. I was not able to do this for one of the very reasons that you have not received these blogs in some time. The internet connection to
I hope that this is repaired soon and I will be able to send pictures of Wohan.
This afternoon, this being Saturday, I got a call from He Zhi Qing asking if I wanted to go on a bike ride with them. They are, of course, her and a couple of her roommates. One of her roommates did not want to ride and, apparently, claimed that she did not know how to ride a bike. So, she rode on the rack on the back of the bike. It is amazing, to me, to see how often people ride on the cargo racks on the backs of the bicycles. They are clearly labeled that they are not capable of holding people; however, many of them are padded and there are often handles and footrests on them. We are not talking of carrying small children, we are talking of full sized (well, fill-sized means something a little different when talking of Asian women) adults.
They generally ride on these racks by riding side saddle and mount after the bicycle is moving slowly. I have a cargo basket on my rear rack so I have not carried any passengers.
So, we rode the three bicycles, with one passenger, to the local lake. However, none of us wanted to pay the entrance charge so we then headed back on the other side of the river to see the construction on the Pagoda that has been in many of our pictures. When finished, it will be a temple.
While riding we noticed that He Zhi Qing's bicycle had a flat tire; so, as I rod off in search of a WC she went and borrowed an air pump from a repairman. I was under the impression that she had the tire repaired until we had ridden several blocks; only to discover that her tire was flat again. At that point we went looking for a repairman and were unable to find one and ended up back at the same person that had loaned her a air pump earlier.
By the time we returned, it was too dark for the repairman to see well enough to find the flat, he was completing the work he was doing by the light of nearby cook fires. I quickly dismounted the tire form the rim, it is normal here to leave the wheel on the bike while going the here, and located the hole by wetting my hands with water he provided me. I than roughed the area of the hole and he put the patch on for her. This was all done by the light of my torch (silly Brits' insist on calling a flashlight a torch). Instead of using the patches we are familiar with, he used a section of tube that one of the girls cut to the shape that we needed, he then poured some cement on the tube and used the cut portion for a patch. All I can say is that it worked.
While we were doing this it was getting darker rapidly. In addition, I received a phone call from Ilwn, a graduate student, reminding me that I had planned for him and Merry, one of my students, to have them over for dinner. So, once repairs were completed, we rode back, rather quickly, in the dark. I will point out that I do not recall seeing a single bicycle light in the country. Other bikers, in the dark, are the real scare when riding this way.
At that point He Zhi Qing and one of her friends joined us for dinner. They cooked, which made it a very easy night for me. However, I was getting a bit tired, and I expect that I was looking it. We also looked at the on-line train schedule and determined what train we wanted for the trip to Wohan.
Today, Sunday, I went to our Sunday meeting. After that, the Browns and I watched a movie, "The Bodyguard." I then went for a bike ride with Walik. I prefer to take my bike to the store and on local trips, instead of relying on the bus service. It just leaves me with a bit more freedom to do what I want.
After returning to my apartment and watching another movie, "timeline," Walik and I went to dinner. It was pretty much a slow day. Most of my Sundays are slow, which is just fine.
Friday, 27 April 2007
Finishing Jigou shan and preparing to leave for Shanghai
At that point we all returned to our hotel in order to dress for dinner. Seeing as none of us had any dinner clothing, we, essentially, returned as we were. I did wash a shirt that I had managed to splatter during lunch and borrowed a spare from Collin.
We then all headed off for dinner. Dinner was standard Chinese fare. The foot of some chicken was sticking out of the soup; it looked shockingly like a little hand.
Because the table was not large enough for us all, the Chinese ended up sitting in a larger, less ornate, room and coming to visit us at our table from time to time.
After dinner conversation seemed to drift to how to go about refocusing the English club. It is our desire that the students spend more time talking to each other, in English, and less time with us, the westerners, talking. On a cultural note, the Chinese do not talk business after dinner; they talk business during the meal. So, if there is a lot to talk about then a lot of food is ordered (remember, all meals are shared) and once the food is done then it is time to leave.
This cultural difference was notable at this dinner because the Chinese finished well after us; but, when they saw that we were done eating and were talking they quickly announced that it was time to leave.
Shortly after we returned to the hotel a storm fell upon us. It was fine all day and walking back; but, within a half an hour of our return to the hotel, a string wind came and, with it, brought heavy rain.
The rest of the evening there was little to do but sit and watch a Chinese horror movie, it did have English subtitles. The balcony on my room was covered however the wind blew the shirts I had hanging outside onto the ground and I had to go and retrieve them the next morning.
By the next morning the weather had not improved. So, after breakfast in the village that Colin, Brawnie and I had been walking toward the previous morning, when we were stopped, we returned to our hotel and waited, drinking tea and chatting, in the hotel lobby, until it was time to return to the school.
After the test I went to dinner with some of the students, something I have done very little of this semester. Before dinner they wrote to the Hostel (in Chinese) and asked them to call me so that I could make a reservation; of course, the call came in while we were eating dinner. That actually worked out well because Sam was able to talk to the woman at the hostel. Then, on Tuesday, which is my afternoon that I have off, I went with Gao, Sam, Lee, and Walick to get my train ticket to Su Zhou, seeing as I now had a confirmed place to stay.
Wednesday, Sam, Lee and I made some scrabble like pieces and a game board; in total, we made three complete sets. A real Scrabble set costs over 375RMB here, if you can find one, and it was quickly decided that if I wanted a scrabble set I was going to make it.
The scrabble issue can up in an attempt to decide what to do during the week after the test. Because the test was followed by a week of classes and then a week of vacation, as stated, a lot of the students left early. I wanted something easy and fun to do in class; however, it still needed to be educational. It is interesting to see how competitive they get and to observe their sense of fairness.
Friday morning I had one class (two sessions) and there were no students at all. Julia came by and told me that all of her students were also gone; so, after waiting a while to see if any stragglers came in I left to start packing for my trip.
Friday, 20 April 2007
Visiting Jigong Shan
The students have finished their big test, the TEM-4. This is a test to be taken during the sophomore year. If the student fails they receive one more opportunity to pass it, during their junior year. The then take a compressive exam in their fourth, or senior, year.
These tests place a tremendous amount of stress on the students but are one of the few workable alternatives to the cartel approach to education that is used in the west. One thing that I would expect to have done different if the west were to ever adopt a similar system would be an approach that allowed more than a single retest. A second difference would be an effort to rein in the rampant cheating.
The test highlights one of the problems with the visiting, or guest, teacher system. The facts are that by the time we, the guest teachers, understand what we need to be doing to help the students it is time to leave the school, or even the country.
Being a little aware of this impending test I often, during this semester, asked the students if there is any thing that I could be better doing to help them prepare for the test. Like most students, they had no idea what to say; so, they said, "no." I also asked my head teacher, Julia (a.k.a. Ju Hi Ing), the same question and was told that, "no, the students prepare for the test on their own."
I was still not satisfied with this answer. So, I met with some of my class monitors on a Saturday to discuss the same issue. I was again assured that the students prepare for the test on their own (It seems that preparing for the test is also an acceptable excuse for missing class; as attendance in both my and Julia's classes has been deficient this semester). Of course, as these things happen, two days before the test I get students coming to me saying that they needed help. Of course, I gave what help I could; however, it was too late.
Possibly in an effort to control cheating, the weekend of the test we, the western teachers, were taken off campus and observed most of the time. The one time that we went for a walk by ourselves we found the local director of police to be shouting at our guide because he was not with us.
We were taken to a local resort. It was a very beautiful place filled with resort hotels, one of which we stayed at, and a number of pre-W.W.II and pre revolution buildings. This was the primary residence of Chang Ki Chek during the war and features a number of historic buildings. It also contains an undeveloped (in Chinese terms) hiking area, a small lake within the park, and the local prominent mountain,
I was contacted, regarding this outing, only about two days in advance. We then assembled in front of the school at about
By Chinese standards the hotel was a good one. The rooms had their own hot water heaters (geezers) and drinking water dispensers. [as I write this I am looking at a canal in
It was after checking in that I decided to go for a walk and ran into Collin and Brawnie preparing to do the same. As we wandered through a set of single lane streets toward an area where new hotels were being constructed we were "invited" to come to the local police station for tea.
As we sat on the balcony that ran along the upper floor of the station (and I have to admit, it was very comfortable and had a great view; but, this was not a good time to have been taking pictures) we enjoyed our tea with the director of police in this resort. The common Chinese snack at these mid day meetings are sunflower seeds. They also had a miniature rabbit in a small cage on the balcony that we played with by giving it seeds to chew on. About this time Mr. Zhang arrived and it seems that the director made it clear that we were not to be wandering around unsupervised; there was a "danger" if we were to become lost... not all to clear who would be in danger...
While we were there we were also invited back to the station house for dinner. From the balcony we saw what looked like the first stage of dinner preparation, a couple of police officers killing some rosters.
From there we walked, with Mr. Zhang and several others, to lunch. On the way to lunch we saw several of the historic buildings at this resort including a school building that had been built for the children of western missionaries.
There was a poisonous snake on the walk way to the restaurant. This snake prompted some discussion of the role of the snake in the Genesis story. It was surprising to all of us how many of the bible stories they are familiar with.
After lunch, and a short rest, we began our planned walk around the resort. One of the places that we went to see was a monastery that was under construction. Clearly, the first part that was constructed was the interior of the temple and the incense burners. While most of the construction was made of concrete, including trim portions that I had, previously, thought to be made of wood, there was some wood in use. The lumber was made on the spot using trees that were delivered the site. The scrap from this process was then used by the construction crews for cooking and heating.
From the monastery we headed off toward the peak of the mountain. The mountain is called
From there we began to return, with some detours. We gave some consideration to taking the cable seat down to shortcut across the lake. However, most wanted to see the ballroom used by the wife of ChangKi Chek during WWII so we continued walking. It was at that point that we noticed the round trip cable car, similar to a ski lift. Unfortunately, it had just closed operation for the day; so, we put that of for Sunday, along with the cable across the lake.
At that point we all returned to our hotel in order to dress for dinner
Monday, 30 October 2006
Two warnings for travelers
There are two issues that any westerner considering spending part of their life in China must be aware of. The first is the driving, I have alluded to the suicide taxi rides in the past, I will elaborate; the second is the practice of trying to drink the guest under the table.
The driving I will discuss in more detail as I describe the visit to the high school. The second I will also discuss in that trip; however, it is common to many of the formal dinners that we have had in China. It seems to be a bit of a game here to try to get the guest drunk. This is accomplished by a plenitude of toasts directed toward the guest followed by the, ever common, "bottoms up." There is an expectation that the guest will down the entire drink, along with the host, that is, generally, some form of vodka. However, one must consider that there are, generally, at least four hosts to each guest; thus outnumbered, the guest will generally loose this game.
Following our return from the park, and an afternoon of rest, several of the teachers met for dinner. Instead of going to one of the usual places, we allowed some of the students that were with us to make a selection.
They chose a small restaurant. However, this restaurant did not have an upstairs dining room. So, instead of eating inside of the main, and public, dining room, at the restaurant, we had our tables and chairs set up on the sidewalk in front.
The next afternoon, on Sunday, I went for another of my long bicycle rides. I followed the route that the bus generally takes into town, stopping at a store near the base in order to get some shoes and to price a pair of boots. I then rode into the main part of town and past the point where the bus turns. This route took me to the opposite side of Xinyang City. At that point I turned back and rode, following a very indirect route, back to a bookstore that I had seen earlier in the week.
The thing that I had noticed about this bookstore was that the signage was in English. It was clearly marked as a bookstore. I was interested, considering that they had taken the trouble to put up an English sign, if there would be a good selection of English books. This was in no way a sure thing, considering that many of the buildings sport English signage; however, it was definitely worth checking.
I had first seen the bookstore when Michelle and I were returning with our new bicycles. However, at the time it was not convenient to stop so I simply filed it away, mentally, as a place to return to. I am reaching the point where I can, generally, go to the places that I want to within Xinyang. Riding around on my bicycle, instead of relying on cabs and buses, has definitely helped me in learning the town.
In the bookstore I discovered that the English selection was very limited. There was one, small, wall that contained about a dozen older works and texts. All of the books were clearly intended to help the reader learn English language and culture. An example of this would be Mark Twain's book, "The 1,000,000 Pound Note." The book contained the story along with study exercises and insert pages describing clothing in the 1870s and how they differ from common western clothing today.
From there I went to the computer shop where I had gotten my power adapter several weeks prior. I needed a particular computer part (it didn't do what I wanted; however, I wanted to try) and while the shop owner ran to get what I wanted I sat, in the shop, and had the tea that was brought to me. They also provided me with an extra network cable at no additional charge.
From there I returned to the bicycle shop and had my brakes adjusted. They were not working well and I was able to show this to the people at the shop by holding the brakes and moving the bicycle forward. By doing this I demonstrated that the brakes were not holding, thus stopping, the bicycle. Having recently purchased the bicycle, this maintenance was preformed at no charge (cable adjustments are normal after a bicycle has been ridden a while initially following purchase).
From the bike shop I continued riding around town making semi-random turns that took me through several plazas. I then followed the road that runs along the river that is near the campus. This road sees very little traffic and runs next to several parks including one that we had previously taken pictures at when Zeneta and I visited it with Summer and some other students. There is an alleyway that runs between this road and the road that is in front of the campus. This alleyway ends almost directly across the street from the main gate of the school and is how I returned to the housing area.
On Wednesday my routine was altered somewhat. Normally, I show a movie for my students. However, I, and the other English teachers, were invited to dinner. So, I did not stick around a watch the movie with the students. Instead, I showed them how to operate the projection equipment, and I ran off.
The source of the dinner was rather unexpected. It turned out the Colin was asked to be in an advertisement for a furniture store here in Xinyang. As a way of thanking him, the English teachers were invited to dinner at one of the nicer restaurants here in town.
With us, the western teachers, there were also several nonwestern English teachers, the director of teaching, the chair of the colleges board of directors and his sister, the director of the finance department. There was also the host and his immediate family.
We started the evening by watching Colin's commercial. In it he spoke Chinese. He had been thoroughly coached on the lines that were necessary.
After the showing of the commercial, and some time spent chatting, we had dinner. Wendy, one of the teachers, sat next to me in order to insure that I did not do anything to embarrass myself. Her advice consisted of translation, telling me which foods were to be eaten with which utensil, how to properly respond to toasts, and the like. She has assisted me at several formal dinners and has also been a great help at work. She teaches one of my classes (fifth class) in their grammar class. She has reported that my students enjoy my class and consider it to be of great value for them, which is something that I was glad to hear.
The dinner was the typical Chinese arrangement with a large round table with a large rotating platform in the center of the table. The platters are then placed on the rotating centerpiece. Each person then takes a small portion off of the platters and eats it. There is a small bowl that is used for soup and most of the other food is eaten with chopsticks.
Later in the evening we were served some small crabs. It seems that these freshwater crabs are served as a token of esteem and are considered to be delicious.
After the dinner we all stood for pictures. The way that we managed to get the entire party into the picture was to have the waitress operate the camera. At that point, the drive home was provided by the chairman of the board in his Volvo wagon. Zeneta and one other rode in the back, Wendy and three other English teachers (yes, that is a total of four) rode on the middle seat and I rode in front. It turned out that the director is a great fan of western classical music and has a great investment in high-end audiophile equipment (I have to compliment Wendy for translating from the center seat, with someone sitting on her lap, while speeding through Chinese traffic at night).
Thursday I had arranged to have dinner, after English club, with two of my students. On of these was Warlik, whom we have invited for dinner in the past, and Mary, a student who had asked me a question after class. On our previous dinners with Warlik Zeneta has assisted him with some of his English poetry and he has given me permission to include his work here, in my blog.
The Lord Of The Ring
--Light the Dawn
Highly stand you at the top of the mountain
Surveying the starry sky of hometown far away
May be you could have fall in sleep now
But the duty on your shoulder makes you forget the tired
How sad the eyes in the darkness
And the undiscribed pain floated little by little
Who will hold your hand
Go along with you even the future is unknown
God won't leave you
And your weak heart will go longer feel lonely
Stars will round you
Even comes the dark clouds and the heavily snow
Gently breeze whispered
Take your missing to the friends in the hometown
Received the regards from there
The voice of storm are not so terrific
Stars glaring your journey
The earth welcome you with her broad chest
You buried your own happiness
In order to light the dying candle of the mankind
You get on the way far from home
You get on the way full of danger
You never be hesitated although the road is rough
You never afraid of the great length of return journey although back may become
A dream that will never come true
But your faith will lead your direction to go ahead
And your heart will never lost in puzzle
Only you
Fighting with the difficulties
Debate the chanllenges with your wisdom
With the weak shoulder you carried the heaviest duty
The duty to save the world
Your beautiful wish is to built a bridge
Between the painful reality and the wonderful paradise
The songs from your heart heard happily
Your faith will lead you sailing to the dawn
Lofty mountains murmured under your feet
And the fate lead you to the highest height you ever touch
Difficulties ,sadness, loneness and the lure
Everything you conquered as they are just weeds
You'll surely go ahead
For the old men in the ruins calls for your determination
For the women and children crying for their helpless calls for your hope
You'll sure go ahead
Although the road full of horrible storm and heavily blow
But the colorful clouds will make up your destination
And every waiting for your return to crown you
Every bloody track will blossom flower after enter the heaven
The thing hidden in the frightened shaking every time is a beautiful
Forget the under feet thorn and
Stare at the starry sky upon to go ahead
The running river will guide your way
And the flower in the shadow of the trees' will mark your road
Carry on with the friendship ,sincerity and trust
What go away is the passed sadness
The wonderful world you'll see in dawn is created by yourself
Zeneta also arranged to go shopping with Mary. It seems that Zeneta has had trouble finding pants here, in China. Mary told her that she knew of places that would suit her, both in size and in style. My only concern was that she would not miss any classes to assist Zeneta.
This is a problem; the students will cut a class in order to assist us in activities in order to spend the time practicing their English. While I have no doubt that it is a productive use of the student s time, I cannot condone or assist any cutting of class. It turned out that she did not have any classes on the Friday afternoon that she had scheduled to spend with Zeneta and even had the class monitor with her when they went to go shopping with Zeneta.
Friday morning we, Zeneta, Colin and Bronee, and myself were asked to do something different by Mr. Lu and Mr. Zhang. It seems that they had been contacted by one of their former students, who was now the headmaster of a local middle and senior high school. They were asked if we could come and speak to the students at their school and they, in turn, asked us.
We were all glad to go and speak at the school and assembled at the main gate
One of the biggest things that bothers westerners with the driving is the amount of the time spent on the wrong side of the road; There is the constant expectation that the other driver will dodge. These drivers were no exception. There was the constant passing people by entering the opposing traffic on the four lane road with a double line. Our drivers often found themselves on the wrong side of the road on sections of divided roadway and this is considered normal. The driver will just hug the right (the dividing wall) and keep on going. This is clearly so common here that when we passed a police officer while traveling above the speed limit by over 50% and on the wrong side of a divided road we did not even warrant a glance.
We have adopted the local attitude of fatalism, if the driver kills us then it was our time and if he doesn't then clearly it just was not our time. However, this driving practice is something that a newcomer must be mentally prepared for. It can be a bit unnerving to be in a car that is driven off the road to pass someone on the right; at above highway speeds, or to be passing a lorry that is passing a lorry (leaving you in the #2 opposing lane) with two lanes of traffic ahead and closing fast.
Upon arriving at the town where we were scheduled to speak we turned off of the highway and entered a small town that looked like what we expected; when we agreed to the assignment of the school, that we are now at, we were told that we would be in a small town. This was a town with very few cars on the, often unpaved, streets that were shared with horse drawn carts and lorries with a families riding atop the load of goods in the rear.
We pulled into the main gate of what was, clearly, the most modern and well-kept building in town. Before we even exited the autos we saw what was one of the most surprising differences (however, not the greatest difference) between American and Chinese middle schools (ages 11-17). What we saw was dormitories. Both the students and the teachers (along with most of the administrators and staff) live on campus. There are small shops on campus to supply the students, a canteen, apartments for the staff and faculty, and separate dormitories for the male and female students.
The teaching building itself was a relatively new building, having been built only two years ago. It was a large square with an open central courtyard. In the center of the courtyard was a large water fountain with coy in the moat that was bridged at four places. On three sides were the fifty classrooms; on the side furthest from, and facing, the entrance was the administrative area and the teachers' offices. Each teacher's office was a shared office with six to eight teachers.
This school had over 4,000 students and a combined staff and faculty of about 300. This provided for an excellent student teacher ratio, in terms of schools in China, of approximately seventy students per teacher.
Throughout our entire time at the school we were being video taped by what I suspect were various local news crews and school personnel. They moved from room to room to insure that they recorded some of each of the teachers providing lessons to the students.
I discussed the differences, which I have observed, between American and Chinese schools. I ended up delivering the same lecture three times with it being cut short in one class.
The reason that I was cut short was due to an underhanded trick played by one of the teachers in order to get me into her classroom. I definitely compliment her on her ingenuity and recognize that she was a woman who was willing to go the extra mile for her students.
As I was near the end of my lecture in one class, the first I spoke to, she handed Zeneta and I water bottles and told me to follow her when the bell rang. I did this, not being aware that her class was not the one I was supposed to be going to. I entered her class unaware that there was a fight about to break out between this teacher and the teacher whose class I had been scheduled to go to. They discussed it in the hall so that it would not interfere with my lecture. However, once Zeneta discovered what was going on she called to me that I had to cut this one to no more than five minutes. This compromise satisfied both teachers. It meant that I would not walk out on the class whose teacher had been so enterprising, in providing her students the first chance of their lives to see and hear a foreigner, and that I would still be able to go the class that I had been scheduled to speak in.
While she did not speak to any of the classes, Zeneta was kept busy managing my schedule, which was being developed on the fly. It is interesting that Bronee was doing almost the same thing for Colin as he was also making his presentation before several classes. We really did enjoy the rock star treatment as hundreds of teenagers came to us requesting autographs. Just before the lunch bell rang we were taken to the, waiting, cars so that we would not be blocked in by, literally, thousands of students, all wanting to see and speak to us.
From there we went to a local restaurant for a large lunch with the school vice president, the headmaster, and the teachers for whose classes we had been scheduled to provide lectures. Also present was the party that had accompanied us from the University.
I spent some time before lunch talking to the teacher who was still a bit upset about having me led to a class other than hers when she had been next on the schedule. The time I spent talking with her helped her practice her English and appeared to go a long way to smoothing any ruffled feathers.
The lunch was a typical Chinese business lunch with only one difference; the drink of choice was excellent quality vodka. The food was a typical Chinese fare with a bias, based on our request, toward beef instead of pork. There were still the traditional fish and chicken dishes. Both of these dishes were served complete with head.
After the lunch we were provided with excellent, and unexpected, gifts from the school. In all, it was an unexpectedly good time; even if I did spend the later part of the afternoon in my flat, sleeping off lunch.
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