Time once again for my latest update. Sorry!
I was going to tell you all about my week, but I’ve had such an exciting Sunday, I mat as well talk to you about that. After an entire day yesterday when I did absolutely nothing but sleep, watch TV, play on the computer and do some cross-stitch (long story) it was nice to get up early for the first “English Corner” of the term. The sun was out and there were loads of students from the English Association, our classes and other departments around to chat to, about whatever they wanted to. The aim of English corner is to give the students a place where they can go to practice their English, preferably with each other, but today we had the usual arrays of what is your name, where are you from, do you like Chinese food, etc, as well as an in depth conversation with an eight year old boy about Harry Potter. It was so cool – here was this 8 year old that could speak better English than most of my students! I even lent him my Harri Potter book! Goodness knows how he will get along with it! It took him 3 weeks to read the Chinese version! There was also a teacher from the PE department and an old man from somewhere who could speak a bit of English, and loads of passers by, including many parents with their children who came to investigate and listen in. It’s nice when you feel that you are actually here for a reason – when all these people have come to talk to you of their own free will. So that was really cool, as was my first middle school visit.
David picked up a “random” a while ago, who appears about once a week and brings us gifts (hence the cross-stitch!). She is a teacher at one of the middle schools, so this week I went visit her class. I presume the size of the class she usually teaches is about 50 - all the students sitting two to a desk on small wooden benches. All these students kept appearing in the classroom until you physically couldn’t fit another soul in the classroom so some students stood outside and looked through the window, all excited to have a loawei in their school and wondering why. I introduced myself to the 150/200 odd students in the class (the benches for 2 people managed to fit at least four, although it was pushing it a bit!) and got them to ask me questions (who needs a lesson plan?). For those that were shy I took a bag of sweets with me, and people who asked questions got sweets. This only became a problem when I through a jelly to a student and it hit her before exploding everywhere! Afterwards I must have written in about a hundred English books – all the students wanted my signature and I had so many books pushed on me I thought at one stage there was going to be a riot! It was great – I felt just like a film star! I was even sent a car to pick me up from college!
That evening David, Andrew, Nancy and I were invited out for a meal with Kate (the random), the head teacher and some other teachers from the school, along with the driver. It was time once again for pigs’ ears, cicadas (big insecty things – stir fries with spicy and a little crunchy for my liking), some wild rabbit and the usual assortment of fish, sour cabbage soup, intestines and my absolute favourite – sweetcorn! Even after being here since January and having eaten pretty much anything that flies or walks on two, four, six or eight legs I still want to vomit when I see and smell sweetcorn. Some things never change!
The wine we drank at the meal was just a tasted for the amount of alcohol we would be drinking that evening. Returning to the college we called up some of Dave’s students (who I taught last term) for a drinking session. Because they live in dormitories and the dormitories are locked after midnight, they would usually get into trouble returning late, so we accompanied them back to ensure that they had no problems getting back in. The guard was fast asleep with the gates wide open at 2 in the morning, so we all went to say hello to his dorm-mates. One of them was on the phone to his girlfriend, so I did the most embarrassing thing I could think of to him – I had a chat with her, only to discover that she is one of my first year students. Bless them! Most of the students are forbidden to have boyfriends/ girlfriends by their parents, so there’s nothing quite like a bit of matchmaking to end an evening!
Oh yeah – back to Sunday afternoon. Had another meal with Kate today – she had invited us to have a meal with her family when we had mentioned that we might go to the park this weekend. Since she lives in the park her brother met us at the gate, and we met all her family. It was the first time that I had ever been to the house of a “real” Chinese person, and didn’t now what to expect. At first I was a little horrified at the conditions in which they live, then realised that they were quite well-off (it was the one room which we were shown into that was really bare and empty) and that it wasn’t that bad (though must be freezing in the winter) when we had the tour. It was still quite an eye-opener for me though when you realize how fortunate you are, etc, etc. Her father cooked us a big meal and opened the bijou. Being a girl, I managed to avoid the bijou challenge (the challenge being to drink any at all!), but David and Andrew weren’t that fortunate. Nothing quite like hard spirits with your Sunday lunch at one in the afternoon. Kate’s 16 year old brother was poured a glass by their father, but his mother quickly removed it. All mothers around the world are the same! Then out came the photo albums before a stroll around the park.
The great thing about the park is that it’s not just a park, but a museum and an amusement park as well. We had a tour of the museum – a museum about the life of a great soldier from Suzhou who fought against the Japanese but whose life was tragically cut short at the young age of 37 and whose wife is a heroine for being married to such a great hero who did so much for China, etc, etc. Might be in the next edition of the Lonely Planet? Or not! There were a few other people milling about, one of who spoke German so naturally tried to speak in German to us. Bearing in mind that it has been over 6 years since I last spoke any German, my German’s not that much better than my Chinese at the moment! It was pretty cool (and unusual!) anyway.
After our brief introduction to Suzhou’s local historical figures we decided to sample some of Suzhou’s activities. Many of you know about extreme sports – hang gliding, bungee jumping, parachuting, etc. China has its own version – water tractors! They are a bit like the little paddle boats you get on lakes in the UK and on the beaches abroad – you cycle like you would a bike, but you are sitting on a big plastic tractor that is full of holes and rusting, and which you are convinced, is liable to collapse at any moment. Although it may have been safer than the paddleboats we went on – you have to avoid the one that’s sunk in the middle of the river! These activities were just a warm up for doing possibly the scariest thing I have ever done in my life – getting on to a Chinese roller coaster. I really should know better, having lived by a fun fair with one of the worst safety records in the UK for most of my life, but figured that I had insurance if anything went wrong. (Although now I realize that if something had gone wrong it would have meant certain death or at least a trip to the local hospital - not a pleasant prospect!). The rust growing on the supports for the coaster, and on the carriages just added to the excitement, but we were more concerned with the carriage leaving the rails whenever a corner in the track appeared. I still enjoyed it, so much so that I tried another roller coaster – one where my cart actually stopped and had to be pushed! We skipped the house of horrors this time, but went on the bumper cars instead. At least in China you are actually allowed to bump the cars into each other (although the concept of a seatbelt is yet to emerge!) Because Kate and her brother and neighbour live in the park, we got to go on all the rides for free, and then we had our photo taken with a big stone elephant at the gate of the park. There was a couple getting their wedding photos taken in the park – when they moved to another place to take a photo, the bride hitched up her skirt to reveal a black pair of trousers under her wedding dress! Maybe I just don’t get it!
The three of us are having a competition at the moment, inspired by our trip to the park. We all bought fish from the woman who sells fish outside, and are taking bets on how long they will live. I reckon Dave’s might go the whole two weeks – he has a much bigger fish tank than either me or Andy, but we will have to wait and see. Seeing as I don’t have Pippin the dog anymore, at least now I have my fish to talk to – Sushi and Yuki (Yu meaning fish). Here’s to hoping they last a bit longer than Alcon, my last fish who had a watery grave. These ones are bigger, so if they die they might block up the toilet! The taxi driver must have thought we were all a bit loopy, with our fish in bags and tanks, water splashing everywhere while he drove like a maniac over the huge potholes in the road. Or maybe just another ordinary day in the life of a local taxi man?
Next week I should have some lessons, which I am excited about. Last week I taught only two classes, since all of my students had their military training. They spent all day, everyday, marching about the campus, being yelled at by soldiers. Rather them than me! It did look pretty cool though.
Anyway, that just about sums up this week in the life of Jo.
Hope everything is cool wherever you are.
Take care
Love and sunshine
Jo, Sushi and Yuki!
