Tuesday night was Ghassan's last night in Qingdao (I believe he is back in Germany at this very moment) and so we all had dinner together at a small restaurant. So small, we had to sit outside in classic English BBQ weather-threatening to rain at any moment. The food was alright- although we ordered a lot of spicy dishes which didn't do me any good. After that we headed off to Dairy Queen although slightly haphhazardly. Daisy saw a 125 bus and raced it 200m to the bus stop while the rest of us stared bemusedly after. As we were 5 we still needed 2 taxis and in the confusion I ended up in one and the other 4 got in their own. My taxi driver ran a tactical race and instead of turning right up Ningxia Road turned left and went down Donghai Road. The conventional route is to turn right but my guy went for the right strategy and we won.
Then we said goodbye to Ghassan. Rather sad as he is the first to leave and it brought home how short a time I have left- fewer than 2 weeks.
Then we went to see the revamp of Le Bang. I'd heard from a friend of mine it was shit. It has gone from dingy, dark, grungy hole to a light and airy, bourgeois restaurant/cafe. My friend, I think, perferred the former...
I'm tired, and cannot wait for exams and teaching to finish.
2011-06-30
2011-06-26
EW
Qingdao does a stout beer. As in one that doesn't taste like diluted water. Who knew?
Yesterday was both Boram's and Julian's birthdays. Boram's was celebrated on Friday evening and Saturday morning and Julian's in the evening, which fitted nicely. For Boram's we went to a bar and tried to get her drunk on absinthe (I have a video of her and Becka drinking it and someone obnoxious ok me is boorishly shouting encouragement from the safety of a qingdao beer bottle). We also had a cake fight outside. Chinese cakes are mostly cream so they make for great missiles. Then we had a beer fight. And so, covered in cream and beer, we proceeded to the hole named 夜潮 (Night Dynasty) which is a nightclub. Becka and I got hit on within 5 minutes and thus left in another 5. Rather disturbingly outside were a collection of 12 year old girls in pretty dresses selling roses. I asked one where she was from, (Anhui- a poor inland province) and when I asked about her parents she ran off. Julian asked another when they slept if they worked all night and she said they slept in daytime so no school there then. Today's flower sellers, tomorrow's prostitutes.
I had to work early the next day (because I'm stupid) and after blearily washing the cake from my hair and dragging myself to work and back, it was time for dimsum with Boram. Dimsum can be nice, but it is rather oily and greasy at times. I had a mango pudding that was rather eggy. All Chinese desserts seem to be based on egg. There was not much conversation. Whilst I had retreated at 2am, the others had been at KTV until 5am+.
Then to Taidong for Julian's bash. We ate at a Xinjiang restaurant and once again wondered why the muslim owners didn't sell pork but they did sell alcohol. We ate various bit of chicken and cow. Then we wondered what 羊宝 (lamb treasures) were. So we ordered and along came lamb penis and balls on sticks. Poor lamb. For those who are interested, the penis was very, very hard (basically gristle) and the balls were very soft with the texture of tofu. You could see veins and things.
When I bit off a bit of a penis it took me a while to swallow, because every time I tried, I gagged.
Ghrassan and Dongmin, the two guys there apart from Julian, declined to taste and looked a bit queasy.
Then we went to watch Kung Fu Panda which we enjoyed far more than GrownUps should. It is also a genuinely beautiful film. The animation is fantastic and the design gobsmacking. It was also slightly depressing as the China in the film is beautiful and serene and exquisite, which is not like the China outside my bedroom window. Which is a bit grey.Which is a shame.
Yesterday was both Boram's and Julian's birthdays. Boram's was celebrated on Friday evening and Saturday morning and Julian's in the evening, which fitted nicely. For Boram's we went to a bar and tried to get her drunk on absinthe (I have a video of her and Becka drinking it and someone obnoxious ok me is boorishly shouting encouragement from the safety of a qingdao beer bottle). We also had a cake fight outside. Chinese cakes are mostly cream so they make for great missiles. Then we had a beer fight. And so, covered in cream and beer, we proceeded to the hole named 夜潮 (Night Dynasty) which is a nightclub. Becka and I got hit on within 5 minutes and thus left in another 5. Rather disturbingly outside were a collection of 12 year old girls in pretty dresses selling roses. I asked one where she was from, (Anhui- a poor inland province) and when I asked about her parents she ran off. Julian asked another when they slept if they worked all night and she said they slept in daytime so no school there then. Today's flower sellers, tomorrow's prostitutes.
I had to work early the next day (because I'm stupid) and after blearily washing the cake from my hair and dragging myself to work and back, it was time for dimsum with Boram. Dimsum can be nice, but it is rather oily and greasy at times. I had a mango pudding that was rather eggy. All Chinese desserts seem to be based on egg. There was not much conversation. Whilst I had retreated at 2am, the others had been at KTV until 5am+.
Then to Taidong for Julian's bash. We ate at a Xinjiang restaurant and once again wondered why the muslim owners didn't sell pork but they did sell alcohol. We ate various bit of chicken and cow. Then we wondered what 羊宝 (lamb treasures) were. So we ordered and along came lamb penis and balls on sticks. Poor lamb. For those who are interested, the penis was very, very hard (basically gristle) and the balls were very soft with the texture of tofu. You could see veins and things.
When I bit off a bit of a penis it took me a while to swallow, because every time I tried, I gagged.
Ghrassan and Dongmin, the two guys there apart from Julian, declined to taste and looked a bit queasy.
Then we went to watch Kung Fu Panda which we enjoyed far more than GrownUps should. It is also a genuinely beautiful film. The animation is fantastic and the design gobsmacking. It was also slightly depressing as the China in the film is beautiful and serene and exquisite, which is not like the China outside my bedroom window. Which is a bit grey.Which is a shame.
2011-06-21
Widening Access to Universities
After reading this article http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jun/20/oxbridge-access-poor-students I have one or two musings.
The article is worrying about how to get more students from poor backgrounds into Oxbridge, namely by countering the stereotype of Oxbridge as an extension of boarding school for the rich. The problem is that this is what 50% of Oxbridge is. Admittedly the other half of good teaching and research combines to provide the material for state school kids' eulogies of their time at Oxbridge. However they all mention the Others, the students with black tie suits, wine cellars and surefire careers ahead of them in law, media and politics thanks to their family connections. The Upper Class. As though they are somehow above us, as though that is what we are supposed to aim for when we are told to better ourselves.
In my opinion the answer lies not in changing Oxbridge. Leave it to the rahs. Rather, why do we have this mindset that the UK has only two great universities? If you want to improve underprivileged students' access to an Oxbridge education, why don't we improve the universities they already go to? Rather than thinking being surrounded by gothic architecture and drinking malt whiskies is where our inner cities kids should aim to be, we should be investing in universities such as Manchester, UCL (which curently only has classic British snobbery and the all too convenient acronym Oxbridge stopping it from being counted as equal. Ucloxbridge anyone?) and Glasgow. Perhaps even Edinburgh. What if we had 5 universities in the UK as good as Oxbridge? We wouldn't be worrying about access then, as those students would just not be in Oxford or Cambridge. And by having those 5 top universities the old boys network might be broken up as well. It's very easy to do all the networking needed in two small towns so close to each other, not so easy when one is in Scotland and the other in London. Wonder if our Oxbridge educated government will think of doing that. Probably not.
Well, this is what I would do if I was in charge.
We could probably finance improving the other universities from charging high fees to Chinese students.They'd pay ;)
The article is worrying about how to get more students from poor backgrounds into Oxbridge, namely by countering the stereotype of Oxbridge as an extension of boarding school for the rich. The problem is that this is what 50% of Oxbridge is. Admittedly the other half of good teaching and research combines to provide the material for state school kids' eulogies of their time at Oxbridge. However they all mention the Others, the students with black tie suits, wine cellars and surefire careers ahead of them in law, media and politics thanks to their family connections. The Upper Class. As though they are somehow above us, as though that is what we are supposed to aim for when we are told to better ourselves.
In my opinion the answer lies not in changing Oxbridge. Leave it to the rahs. Rather, why do we have this mindset that the UK has only two great universities? If you want to improve underprivileged students' access to an Oxbridge education, why don't we improve the universities they already go to? Rather than thinking being surrounded by gothic architecture and drinking malt whiskies is where our inner cities kids should aim to be, we should be investing in universities such as Manchester, UCL (which curently only has classic British snobbery and the all too convenient acronym Oxbridge stopping it from being counted as equal. Ucloxbridge anyone?) and Glasgow. Perhaps even Edinburgh. What if we had 5 universities in the UK as good as Oxbridge? We wouldn't be worrying about access then, as those students would just not be in Oxford or Cambridge. And by having those 5 top universities the old boys network might be broken up as well. It's very easy to do all the networking needed in two small towns so close to each other, not so easy when one is in Scotland and the other in London. Wonder if our Oxbridge educated government will think of doing that. Probably not.
Well, this is what I would do if I was in charge.
We could probably finance improving the other universities from charging high fees to Chinese students.They'd pay ;)
2011-06-20
Changes and Carrefour
I remember when I arrived in Qingdao (golly what a lot has happened since) and it was a city gently moulding under constant high temperatures and rain. Due to the crap drains the water would just cover the smaller roads in a never ending flow. Everywhere was wet. And green-that bright, fat green I associate with humid places. Right now, however, the monsoon has yet to arrive and the high temperatures haven't shown up either. All these leads to a rather pleasant climate- warm but never stifling- and the weather contentedly follows its pattern of clear, smoggy, smoggier, smoggiest, WINDY WINDY, clear, smoggy etc. The roads are lined with a few feet of grass, trees and recently planted flowers which give the concrete skyscrapers a leafy screen. The Chinese girls have got out their flowery maxi-dresses, or wedge sandals and shorts. Stools and tiny tables have appeared outside all the hole-in-the-wall restaurants and at night these are full of people eating and drinking Qingdao beer. Well into the cool night, Xinjiang Chinese (the Muslims from the West) set up by the roadside with a couple of their own tables to sell BBQ cooked over embers kept hot by constantly waving their bamboo fans. Even at 2am they are there. I wonder when they sleep.
What has changed in Qingdao since I've been here? The skyscrapers near the university are beginning to get a skin. Others have windows. The roads leading to them are half-finished. No markings or pavements, just a river of tarmac with rubble and the odd stubborn, little stone house on the side. The house always has someone inside. If they come out, the skyscraper builders will probably demolish it to make room. There are some solar powered buses on some Chosen Routes. The 321 gets more crowded by the day. The university has some new embellishments such as a electronic sign to cover up the peeling paintwork, and a big sign in Korean saying something about international cooperation. A bowl of rice is now 1.5 RMB, up from 1RMB. The dirt road opposite Qingdao Yi Lu has been badly bricked over and the fruit stalls have gone. Taxis are 9RMB to start with, not 7RMB. The metro has the odd green shoot of a station above ground.
I'm not quite so lost in translation as I was. Which is a change!
In exactly 5 weeks I will be leaving China, on a train for Outer Mongolia.
Before then I have a trip to Shanghai to collect Sara and my Russian visa and then we are off to Somewhere Not Tibet But Just As Interesting (I shan't tell you where- that's a surprise for when we get back. Or If.), then roll into Beijing to collect parents for a week there before leaving the Middle Kingdom.
But annoyingly before that I have exams. Grrr. This 4 month term is too long. I still have 2 more weeks left of class. Everyone else has packed up and graduated!
Also, interestingly, pretty much every website is blocked at the moment (except the Daily Mail. It's always left alone for some unfathomable reason). I'm wondering why the government has been reinforcing the firewall. Maybe they are worried about the effects of the Arab Spring. Oh well, time to switch on the VPN! The original Great Wall didn't work against the Mongols so god knows why they thought the Great Firewall would work better against students in bedrooms. Tsk.
Random Product Information of the Day: Carrefour doesn't sell lamb. Apparently normal Chinese don't like- it's what the minorities in the north and west eat. They only have beef and pork along with duck and chicken. I don't understand why they are so adventurous with seafood but turn their noses up at roast lamb!
What has changed in Qingdao since I've been here? The skyscrapers near the university are beginning to get a skin. Others have windows. The roads leading to them are half-finished. No markings or pavements, just a river of tarmac with rubble and the odd stubborn, little stone house on the side. The house always has someone inside. If they come out, the skyscraper builders will probably demolish it to make room. There are some solar powered buses on some Chosen Routes. The 321 gets more crowded by the day. The university has some new embellishments such as a electronic sign to cover up the peeling paintwork, and a big sign in Korean saying something about international cooperation. A bowl of rice is now 1.5 RMB, up from 1RMB. The dirt road opposite Qingdao Yi Lu has been badly bricked over and the fruit stalls have gone. Taxis are 9RMB to start with, not 7RMB. The metro has the odd green shoot of a station above ground.
I'm not quite so lost in translation as I was. Which is a change!
In exactly 5 weeks I will be leaving China, on a train for Outer Mongolia.
Before then I have a trip to Shanghai to collect Sara and my Russian visa and then we are off to Somewhere Not Tibet But Just As Interesting (I shan't tell you where- that's a surprise for when we get back. Or If.), then roll into Beijing to collect parents for a week there before leaving the Middle Kingdom.
But annoyingly before that I have exams. Grrr. This 4 month term is too long. I still have 2 more weeks left of class. Everyone else has packed up and graduated!
Also, interestingly, pretty much every website is blocked at the moment (except the Daily Mail. It's always left alone for some unfathomable reason). I'm wondering why the government has been reinforcing the firewall. Maybe they are worried about the effects of the Arab Spring. Oh well, time to switch on the VPN! The original Great Wall didn't work against the Mongols so god knows why they thought the Great Firewall would work better against students in bedrooms. Tsk.
Random Product Information of the Day: Carrefour doesn't sell lamb. Apparently normal Chinese don't like- it's what the minorities in the north and west eat. They only have beef and pork along with duck and chicken. I don't understand why they are so adventurous with seafood but turn their noses up at roast lamb!
2011-06-18
No T for Me
Whilst I was travelling in Yunnan in January there were occasional whiffs that I was able to pick up of an ancient civilisation, hidden high up on a lofty plateau. Bare rock, high winds, and flags fluttering above isolated monasteries. One of the last, real exotic places on Earth. Everytime I looked up the mountains in Yunnan I could see them leading me up and drawing me on.
I am of course talking about Tibet. Or the Tibetan Autonomous Region. I want to go. I want to see the almost alien looking, conspicuously uninhabited Potola Palace. I want to see crimson-robed nomads living in air so thin I'd be sick. I want to see the tallest mountain on earth.
So back in March I'd put out feelers to plan a hideously expensive trip there this July. Hideously expensive as all Foreigners need a guide and cannot use public transport. However 60 years ago Tibet was "liberated" by the PRC (how does liberation=conquest???) and the government fears that the Tibetans will celebrate this anniversary so hard they will throw things at Han people and thus be shot in return. And they don't want blonde students like me wandering around with my pink point-and-shoot seeing this. They hadn't announced in it in March but as they were holding the celebrations in July I figured better to spend my time and money planning a trip to some other Equally Interesting Place.
And my suspicions have been confirmed. Foreigners are not allowed in to the Tibetan Autonomous Region for several weeks from June 25th.
I want to go to Tibet before the influx of Han (majority of Chinese are Han) turns it into another identikit province, just like all the others. Glass skyscrapers, McDonalds and KTV. If the Chinese government was serious about preserving Tibet they'd limit Han immigration. Tibet could be modernised, if that is desirable, without destroying it. However the more Han there, the less Tibetan it is and thus the calls for independence just melt away...
I am of course talking about Tibet. Or the Tibetan Autonomous Region. I want to go. I want to see the almost alien looking, conspicuously uninhabited Potola Palace. I want to see crimson-robed nomads living in air so thin I'd be sick. I want to see the tallest mountain on earth.
So back in March I'd put out feelers to plan a hideously expensive trip there this July. Hideously expensive as all Foreigners need a guide and cannot use public transport. However 60 years ago Tibet was "liberated" by the PRC (how does liberation=conquest???) and the government fears that the Tibetans will celebrate this anniversary so hard they will throw things at Han people and thus be shot in return. And they don't want blonde students like me wandering around with my pink point-and-shoot seeing this. They hadn't announced in it in March but as they were holding the celebrations in July I figured better to spend my time and money planning a trip to some other Equally Interesting Place.
And my suspicions have been confirmed. Foreigners are not allowed in to the Tibetan Autonomous Region for several weeks from June 25th.
I want to go to Tibet before the influx of Han (majority of Chinese are Han) turns it into another identikit province, just like all the others. Glass skyscrapers, McDonalds and KTV. If the Chinese government was serious about preserving Tibet they'd limit Han immigration. Tibet could be modernised, if that is desirable, without destroying it. However the more Han there, the less Tibetan it is and thus the calls for independence just melt away...
2011-06-16
Bus Races and Opinions
I'm starting to wonder if the bus drivers of Qingdao have a competition going as to who can drive their route the fastest. My bus today, the 125, was speeding along as fast as the orange lamborghinis Qingdao is littered with. We'd heave out of the bus lane, accelerate in a cloud of rubber, racing nexk and neck with the other bus before ours rocked ahead before cutting in front of the hated foe and screeching to a halt at the rapidly approaching bus stop. As mine was quite popular, we were handicapped somewhat by lengthy mounting/dismounting times and the 317, our main rival, was able to pit quicker and nip ahead. But the 125 would bravely lumber up to over 40mph and we'd screech in front. We were both impeded slightly by the 301, a knackered 80s style bus that was probably being lapped. Eventually the quick turn around and lower weight helped the 317 nip through some traffic lights and the heavily handicapped 125 had to wait, thus losing sight of the competition. We still beat the 301.
The speed we reached showed how awful Qingdao's roads are as we were bouncing all over the place. Which was fun. There was one corner where I wondered if we were going to wheelie round it. But the driver chickened out. Maybe next time, if he wants those 2 seconds cutting off his time.
We have a 20 minute break at 19:50 between classes. I hadn't had anything for breakfast so I reasoned pancakes at McDonald's were due. In the UK they stop breakfast at 10:30. Here, as I found out at 10:03, they stop at 10. I shall go tomorrow.
Interesting developments at work. The boss foreign teacher has left, after 2 years there. Now 2 years is a mighty long time in an English school. Normally us foreign teachers last 4 months before moving on, for various reasons. This guy was also rare in that he was a proper good teacher and team leader, not like most of us who are just taking the money. So a company with any sense would keep him happy at all costs. But not this one. A tendency here I've noticed is to treat staff not as part of your team, but as somewhere to save money. Visas that were promised are not delivered. They find any excuse to cut pay. They offer a very low start rate that some unfortunates take without realising. They withold pay on any pretext. So this particular teacher was sick last week and did not teach, The school then wouldn't pay him for that week. I haven't spoken to him and there may be more to it than that but as of Monday he left. So the school has lost a valuable teacher and gained some bad publicity as the students notice something's wrong. Plus they also notice how quickly the turnover of staff is. I've been there the 2nd longest. Nearly 3 months so not so great... I only have 3 weeks left at the place and then I NEVER HAVE TO TEACH AGAIN HAHAHAHA
Sometimes I enjoy it and I've learnt a lot through talking to so many different Chinese people. I've earnt some cash to fund some travelling that I otherwise wouldn't be able to do. I'm now much more comfortable with standing up in front of people. But the fact remains that it is rather boring work most of the time and there is nowhere to hide. In a desk job I imagine you can autopilot if you're tired. If you're teaching you have to be happy and loud and outspoken. Tomorrow I have the three worst classes of the day- Threshold salon class, free talk English Corner and Children's beginner class. With the Threshold the difficulty lies in that their English is so poor, they don't understand my explanations. So if I explain how to do an activity, we are mostly unsure of what we are doing. So it can be difficult getting them to understand. English Corner involves talking about something interesting enough the fill an hour and make them talk. This is hard as noone wants to volunteer to speak in a class full of people. So I speak. Which is tiring. As for the kids, they've been at school since 7:30am, it's now 6pm. It's Friday. Do we want to learn English? No...
In other news my Chinese tutor said something very kind- that my Chinese was actually quite good- the best she teaches which is a compliment as some of her Korean students have learnt Chinese for 4 years in Qingdao.I suspect the problem there is that as a Korean you live a Chinese-free life in Qingdao whereas I have to use Chinese every day. She was impressed I knew the two different meanings of 鸡不吃了.(Either I can't eat any more chicken, or the chicken didn't eat.) I'll miss my tutor, she's cool. She represents the growing number of Chinese who aren't fooled by the government. A still depressingly small number, but growing. A student of mine today wasn't overly positive about Mao and said her father thinks the Chinese government is the worst. Hooray for opinions!
Also, interestingly, I've heard calls for either the deputy or real leader of the Labour Party to be female. Some have moaned about tokenism but I think it is more to ensure the Party is run well... Women are far less likely to have affairs, my female students work much harder than my male ones, and women don't take silly risks. If we weren't handicapped by having babies we'd rule the world! As it is, it is becoming increasingly evident that the best way to free a community from poverty is educate the women, give them control of family planning, and let them control the finances. So really, the call should be to let a token man into the leadership!
The speed we reached showed how awful Qingdao's roads are as we were bouncing all over the place. Which was fun. There was one corner where I wondered if we were going to wheelie round it. But the driver chickened out. Maybe next time, if he wants those 2 seconds cutting off his time.
We have a 20 minute break at 19:50 between classes. I hadn't had anything for breakfast so I reasoned pancakes at McDonald's were due. In the UK they stop breakfast at 10:30. Here, as I found out at 10:03, they stop at 10. I shall go tomorrow.
Interesting developments at work. The boss foreign teacher has left, after 2 years there. Now 2 years is a mighty long time in an English school. Normally us foreign teachers last 4 months before moving on, for various reasons. This guy was also rare in that he was a proper good teacher and team leader, not like most of us who are just taking the money. So a company with any sense would keep him happy at all costs. But not this one. A tendency here I've noticed is to treat staff not as part of your team, but as somewhere to save money. Visas that were promised are not delivered. They find any excuse to cut pay. They offer a very low start rate that some unfortunates take without realising. They withold pay on any pretext. So this particular teacher was sick last week and did not teach, The school then wouldn't pay him for that week. I haven't spoken to him and there may be more to it than that but as of Monday he left. So the school has lost a valuable teacher and gained some bad publicity as the students notice something's wrong. Plus they also notice how quickly the turnover of staff is. I've been there the 2nd longest. Nearly 3 months so not so great... I only have 3 weeks left at the place and then I NEVER HAVE TO TEACH AGAIN HAHAHAHA
Sometimes I enjoy it and I've learnt a lot through talking to so many different Chinese people. I've earnt some cash to fund some travelling that I otherwise wouldn't be able to do. I'm now much more comfortable with standing up in front of people. But the fact remains that it is rather boring work most of the time and there is nowhere to hide. In a desk job I imagine you can autopilot if you're tired. If you're teaching you have to be happy and loud and outspoken. Tomorrow I have the three worst classes of the day- Threshold salon class, free talk English Corner and Children's beginner class. With the Threshold the difficulty lies in that their English is so poor, they don't understand my explanations. So if I explain how to do an activity, we are mostly unsure of what we are doing. So it can be difficult getting them to understand. English Corner involves talking about something interesting enough the fill an hour and make them talk. This is hard as noone wants to volunteer to speak in a class full of people. So I speak. Which is tiring. As for the kids, they've been at school since 7:30am, it's now 6pm. It's Friday. Do we want to learn English? No...
In other news my Chinese tutor said something very kind- that my Chinese was actually quite good- the best she teaches which is a compliment as some of her Korean students have learnt Chinese for 4 years in Qingdao.I suspect the problem there is that as a Korean you live a Chinese-free life in Qingdao whereas I have to use Chinese every day. She was impressed I knew the two different meanings of 鸡不吃了.(Either I can't eat any more chicken, or the chicken didn't eat.) I'll miss my tutor, she's cool. She represents the growing number of Chinese who aren't fooled by the government. A still depressingly small number, but growing. A student of mine today wasn't overly positive about Mao and said her father thinks the Chinese government is the worst. Hooray for opinions!
Also, interestingly, I've heard calls for either the deputy or real leader of the Labour Party to be female. Some have moaned about tokenism but I think it is more to ensure the Party is run well... Women are far less likely to have affairs, my female students work much harder than my male ones, and women don't take silly risks. If we weren't handicapped by having babies we'd rule the world! As it is, it is becoming increasingly evident that the best way to free a community from poverty is educate the women, give them control of family planning, and let them control the finances. So really, the call should be to let a token man into the leadership!
2011-06-12
You've Used Google Translate Haven't You
Today I was a judge in my English school. In a rather Chinese ceremony, students who want to move up a level in the school give a presentation and then perform a talent before either being passed or failed by me and a Chinese teacher. Every time a female student came up to talk the host would rapturise about how beautiful she was. Comparisons with summer streams were made. I cringed every time. Each student would then mumble something about David Beckham or France being the most romantic country in the world ("as everyone knows"). Some would either read determinedly from a script, others recite something learned by heart asquicklyaspossiblewithoutbreathing. Almost without exception they faced anywhere but the audience. Then they would sing a song or tell a joke as a talent. I'm not sure why this was required to change levels in an English school but hey. Each joke was, without exception, mumbled so much I did not understand a word. I still laughed. The singing was mostly Justin Beiber or similar emo drivel.
One of the students talked about the internet and said it was good foreign websites were blocked. This rather infuriated me as I can forgive ignorance of the truth, but not willing collusion in it.
One of the students had translated his entire presentation using google translate. It was painfully obvious.
I may have mentioned this before but my god you get some weirdo expats out here. Some really pathetic human beings.
I was teaching about prefixes and suffixes today and I taught them antidiestablishmentarianism, and what it meant. They were impressed.
One of the students talked about the internet and said it was good foreign websites were blocked. This rather infuriated me as I can forgive ignorance of the truth, but not willing collusion in it.
One of the students had translated his entire presentation using google translate. It was painfully obvious.
I may have mentioned this before but my god you get some weirdo expats out here. Some really pathetic human beings.
I was teaching about prefixes and suffixes today and I taught them antidiestablishmentarianism, and what it meant. They were impressed.
2011-06-05
Why do you want to go to Zibo?
I had the bright idea of going to 淄博, Zibo, yesterday. Zibo is a city in Shandong province and people who don't live there are happy because of it. We decided to go because mid-size industrial Chinese cities which are famous for petrochemicals show a different side to the country.
Zibo is also the birthplace of football.
It genuinely is, according to FIFA. Odd, I always thought it was England.
Zibo has apparently earnt this accolade through having evidence that a ball was kicked for competitive fun in the 3rd century BC. The aim was to get it through a silk hoop. I personally believe that there is far more to football than kicking a ball and with the addition of the silk hoop, this isn't really football. Zibo has a football museum adorned in footballs, but the actual ball used was more like an American football.
It's other claim to fame is as an ancient capital of some minor state. Funny to think Zibo was once a capital.
The day did not start well. I was woken up at 5am with painful stomach cramps that seemed to have no cause. And wouldn't go away. Then, after I'd finally dragged myself out of bed, I slipped on some water on the kithen floor and hurt my foot. Then in the taxi to the station, with me whimpering occasionally, Laura realised she'd fogotten her tickets and leapt out to catch a taxi back home. She didn't make it the station in time and had to buy a new one and catch the later train. Daisy, Julian and I had breakfast at McDonalds but again there was disappointment as they had run out of pancakes... I had a sausage cheese thing. Not good.
However this was a good thing for Laura as she missed Daisy, Julian and I making complete obnoxious twats of ourselves. While on the train we were talking loudly about topics that were rather crude and coarse. Actually really bad. So bad I can't repeat them here. While we were at full steam a girl in front of us turned around and said, in perfect English "I hear you are going to Zibo. My home town is Zibo". Julian went as red as his shirt, which he tried to hide his face in. Daisy paled and I collapsed into silent laughter. I don't think I have ever been so embarrassed in my life. It got worse when the person next to Daisy got up to get off at her stop and said "excuse me", also in perfect English.
Typical. When you need someone to help you, it's all 听不懂 but when you really don't want to be understood you end up surrounded by English Language experts...
So embarrassed.
Zibo is hotter than Qingdao, being inland, and was rather smoggy. I think it was smog but wherever I go in Shandong there is always this heavy haze so maybe it's just dust. Zibo has no McDonalds-can you believe it- and few foreigners. There may be the odd teacher. The buildings are short and old and ramshackle and dirty. Except for the government hall which is grander than Edinburgh's. After wandering around for a bit we caught a bus to 临淄, Linzi, a nearby district, and waited for Laura to catch up.
My tummy still hurt. It didn't seem to be 拉肚子, but I blame the raw beef mixed with raw egg I ate the day before at the God Teppanyaki place.
"I want to eat at a 博山 restaurant. Let's find the nearest one"
"I think the one right in front of us is nearest"
"Oh yeah"
We ate lunch at a 博山 Mount Bo, restaurant which is a cuisine unique to the area. It was a cheap place but bizarrely had a wstern loo. Although the water was brown. And it didn't flush. Which was unfortunate for whoever came after me. The food was ok and we had 豆腐箱 which are boxes made out of tofu stuffed with stuff. We ordered too much however and didn't finish it. While we were eating, the staff ate their lunch and it was interesting to see what they ate. While we had varied food with meat they had a couple of pots of chopped bean and lots of rice.
Then we went and looked at the football museum. I finally took some of Daisy's ibuprofen, smuggled from Britain.
Then we caught a taxi to what we had really come to see. While building the high speed Jinan/Qingdao motorway they discovered some buried chariots and horses all lined in a row. These date from the Spring and Autumn Period (770-400 BC roughly). In order to preserve well the find they built a musuem around them. But didn't move the highway, which runs through the middle of the museum and directly over the chariots. The room in which the chariots are, is not kept at a constant temperature of humidity. So this, combined with the vibrations caused by the several ton trucks rumbling overhead, will ensure this valuable find will be gone in a few decades.
It was a very interesting museum and had quite a lot about chariots and chariot-making. While in Europe chariots were used to approach the battlefield looking swish, normally the soldiers got off to fight. In China they would fight chariot to chariot. Their carriages were also slightly different as you would sit crosslegged inside-meaning that the roof was very low. They must have been smaller in those days as I don't think I could fit even crosslegged-unless I bent my head. Similar designs were still in use 2000 years later.
After our history lesson we went to a nearby reservoir and hired a paddle boat. We paddled around for a bit. I played the Pirates of the Caribbean theme music on my ipod. A dead fish floated past. Zibo is rather industrial.
Then we caught a random bus- after I got chatted up by two Ziboans on a motorbike who wanted to be my friend. I pretended not to understand when they asked for my phone number.
Catching random buses is always fun and we had a tour of Linzi's suburbs. Still mostly two storey, there was the occasional building site with walls covered in artist's impressions of what swanky futuristic skyscraper set in lush greenery is coming to Zibo. The roads were quite leafy and Daisy said she could live in Zibo. I think I'd get bored.
Driving between Zibo and Linzi was scary. Chinese motorways are fairly empty which leaves just massive trucks used to having the road to themselves. They veer all over the place and are genuinely huge. Our bus ended up nearly getting sandwiched by two. It takes a lot for a bus to feel small.
Then we hopped on a bus back to the train station before eating at a 鲁菜, Lucai, Shandong cuisine restaurant. Zibo is supposed to have real authentic Lucai food. The owner refused to understand us and this rather annoyed Daisy. He wrote down on paper "Excuse me can I ask where you're from?" which Daisy read aloud. The group next to us laughed uproariously. I said we were from Norway.
(We tend to pick random countries now when people ask where we're from. Just gives us something else to say. Daisy once chose Russia and the guy started speaking fluent Russian at her.)
Our restaurant was on a street containing 4 sex shops. There was a chicken pecking outside.
And then we left for home. While walking up out of Qingdao station I helped an old man with his luggage. When I first grabbed it I nearly made him fall over and a Chinese girl gave me a "what on earth are you doing" look but we made it up the stairs in the end. He said thank you in English and shook my hand. I fled, red faced.
When Daisy bought the tickets the ticket seller said, "why do you want 4 tickets to Zibo?""Because there are 4 of us""no I mean why do you want to go to Zibo?".
It's not going to rank as a tourist destination and it's sad how so many people live their entire lives in such pollution but Ziboans seemed a pretty happy bunch. And Zibo was rather nice. But I wouldn't want to live there.
Zibo is also the birthplace of football.
It genuinely is, according to FIFA. Odd, I always thought it was England.
Zibo has apparently earnt this accolade through having evidence that a ball was kicked for competitive fun in the 3rd century BC. The aim was to get it through a silk hoop. I personally believe that there is far more to football than kicking a ball and with the addition of the silk hoop, this isn't really football. Zibo has a football museum adorned in footballs, but the actual ball used was more like an American football.
It's other claim to fame is as an ancient capital of some minor state. Funny to think Zibo was once a capital.
The day did not start well. I was woken up at 5am with painful stomach cramps that seemed to have no cause. And wouldn't go away. Then, after I'd finally dragged myself out of bed, I slipped on some water on the kithen floor and hurt my foot. Then in the taxi to the station, with me whimpering occasionally, Laura realised she'd fogotten her tickets and leapt out to catch a taxi back home. She didn't make it the station in time and had to buy a new one and catch the later train. Daisy, Julian and I had breakfast at McDonalds but again there was disappointment as they had run out of pancakes... I had a sausage cheese thing. Not good.
However this was a good thing for Laura as she missed Daisy, Julian and I making complete obnoxious twats of ourselves. While on the train we were talking loudly about topics that were rather crude and coarse. Actually really bad. So bad I can't repeat them here. While we were at full steam a girl in front of us turned around and said, in perfect English "I hear you are going to Zibo. My home town is Zibo". Julian went as red as his shirt, which he tried to hide his face in. Daisy paled and I collapsed into silent laughter. I don't think I have ever been so embarrassed in my life. It got worse when the person next to Daisy got up to get off at her stop and said "excuse me", also in perfect English.
Typical. When you need someone to help you, it's all 听不懂 but when you really don't want to be understood you end up surrounded by English Language experts...
So embarrassed.
Zibo is hotter than Qingdao, being inland, and was rather smoggy. I think it was smog but wherever I go in Shandong there is always this heavy haze so maybe it's just dust. Zibo has no McDonalds-can you believe it- and few foreigners. There may be the odd teacher. The buildings are short and old and ramshackle and dirty. Except for the government hall which is grander than Edinburgh's. After wandering around for a bit we caught a bus to 临淄, Linzi, a nearby district, and waited for Laura to catch up.
My tummy still hurt. It didn't seem to be 拉肚子, but I blame the raw beef mixed with raw egg I ate the day before at the God Teppanyaki place.
"I want to eat at a 博山 restaurant. Let's find the nearest one"
"I think the one right in front of us is nearest"
"Oh yeah"
We ate lunch at a 博山 Mount Bo, restaurant which is a cuisine unique to the area. It was a cheap place but bizarrely had a wstern loo. Although the water was brown. And it didn't flush. Which was unfortunate for whoever came after me. The food was ok and we had 豆腐箱 which are boxes made out of tofu stuffed with stuff. We ordered too much however and didn't finish it. While we were eating, the staff ate their lunch and it was interesting to see what they ate. While we had varied food with meat they had a couple of pots of chopped bean and lots of rice.
Then we went and looked at the football museum. I finally took some of Daisy's ibuprofen, smuggled from Britain.
Then we caught a taxi to what we had really come to see. While building the high speed Jinan/Qingdao motorway they discovered some buried chariots and horses all lined in a row. These date from the Spring and Autumn Period (770-400 BC roughly). In order to preserve well the find they built a musuem around them. But didn't move the highway, which runs through the middle of the museum and directly over the chariots. The room in which the chariots are, is not kept at a constant temperature of humidity. So this, combined with the vibrations caused by the several ton trucks rumbling overhead, will ensure this valuable find will be gone in a few decades.
It was a very interesting museum and had quite a lot about chariots and chariot-making. While in Europe chariots were used to approach the battlefield looking swish, normally the soldiers got off to fight. In China they would fight chariot to chariot. Their carriages were also slightly different as you would sit crosslegged inside-meaning that the roof was very low. They must have been smaller in those days as I don't think I could fit even crosslegged-unless I bent my head. Similar designs were still in use 2000 years later.
After our history lesson we went to a nearby reservoir and hired a paddle boat. We paddled around for a bit. I played the Pirates of the Caribbean theme music on my ipod. A dead fish floated past. Zibo is rather industrial.
Then we caught a random bus- after I got chatted up by two Ziboans on a motorbike who wanted to be my friend. I pretended not to understand when they asked for my phone number.
Catching random buses is always fun and we had a tour of Linzi's suburbs. Still mostly two storey, there was the occasional building site with walls covered in artist's impressions of what swanky futuristic skyscraper set in lush greenery is coming to Zibo. The roads were quite leafy and Daisy said she could live in Zibo. I think I'd get bored.
Driving between Zibo and Linzi was scary. Chinese motorways are fairly empty which leaves just massive trucks used to having the road to themselves. They veer all over the place and are genuinely huge. Our bus ended up nearly getting sandwiched by two. It takes a lot for a bus to feel small.
Then we hopped on a bus back to the train station before eating at a 鲁菜, Lucai, Shandong cuisine restaurant. Zibo is supposed to have real authentic Lucai food. The owner refused to understand us and this rather annoyed Daisy. He wrote down on paper "Excuse me can I ask where you're from?" which Daisy read aloud. The group next to us laughed uproariously. I said we were from Norway.
(We tend to pick random countries now when people ask where we're from. Just gives us something else to say. Daisy once chose Russia and the guy started speaking fluent Russian at her.)
Our restaurant was on a street containing 4 sex shops. There was a chicken pecking outside.
And then we left for home. While walking up out of Qingdao station I helped an old man with his luggage. When I first grabbed it I nearly made him fall over and a Chinese girl gave me a "what on earth are you doing" look but we made it up the stairs in the end. He said thank you in English and shook my hand. I fled, red faced.
When Daisy bought the tickets the ticket seller said, "why do you want 4 tickets to Zibo?""Because there are 4 of us""no I mean why do you want to go to Zibo?".
It's not going to rank as a tourist destination and it's sad how so many people live their entire lives in such pollution but Ziboans seemed a pretty happy bunch. And Zibo was rather nice. But I wouldn't want to live there.
KTV
KTV-karaoke- is very popular here. It's rather alien to my British sensibilities. You go into a large hotel like building, along marbled corridors with blacked out soundproof doors leading in all directions. Every now and then you can hear caterwauling through a half open door. Eventually a minion with a black earpiece brings you to your room, which is all neon lights and black sofas with a large tv screen. There is an inhouse alcohol store to fuel your singing. You pick songs from a machine and in theory the accompanying music video then plays. However in cheaper places they just have some random video-bizarrely either of 80's styled western women wandering around some mediterranean city Pretending They Are Not Being Filmed or of some asian school girls crying in the rain over some comatose asian school boy also crying with make up everywhere OH MY GOD THE ANGST.
It is normally rather entertaining although when I went on Friday, I didn't enjoy it as much as I finally actually went with Asian people. This lead to lots of Korean, Japanese and Chinese songs, which I don't know. I can't even try to sing along as I can't read Japanese at all, Korean only very slowly and the Chinese is often done using traditional characters, which again I can't read fast enough. But I had a go with an English song, as none of the others knew them very well it was just me singing and I don't really like solo performances... So I sang a few and, as my throat had been teaching all day, decided to sit back and enjoy my introduction to K-pop (Korean pop music). This then led to one lad, who, however nice he is the rest of the time, is a twat when drunk, deciding I needed to be encouraged to join in and kept trying to make me sing. I didn't like this. Then he finally took my ignoring him for a no and tried to harass another Chinese guy to join in. This annoyed me as people don't like being put in the spotlight to perform. People enjoy things in different ways. The Chinese guy had said he didn't like KTV or singing (rare for a Chinese guy- one thing I've noticed is that most Chinese seem pretty good at singing and take any chance to do it) but he was enjoying being with his friends while they enjoyed themselves. No need to make him so uncomfortable.
I left early. To my untrained ear, K-pop all sounds the same. Plus the random added English phrases everywhere ("bounce it bounce it bounce it") annoy me.
It is normally rather entertaining although when I went on Friday, I didn't enjoy it as much as I finally actually went with Asian people. This lead to lots of Korean, Japanese and Chinese songs, which I don't know. I can't even try to sing along as I can't read Japanese at all, Korean only very slowly and the Chinese is often done using traditional characters, which again I can't read fast enough. But I had a go with an English song, as none of the others knew them very well it was just me singing and I don't really like solo performances... So I sang a few and, as my throat had been teaching all day, decided to sit back and enjoy my introduction to K-pop (Korean pop music). This then led to one lad, who, however nice he is the rest of the time, is a twat when drunk, deciding I needed to be encouraged to join in and kept trying to make me sing. I didn't like this. Then he finally took my ignoring him for a no and tried to harass another Chinese guy to join in. This annoyed me as people don't like being put in the spotlight to perform. People enjoy things in different ways. The Chinese guy had said he didn't like KTV or singing (rare for a Chinese guy- one thing I've noticed is that most Chinese seem pretty good at singing and take any chance to do it) but he was enjoying being with his friends while they enjoyed themselves. No need to make him so uncomfortable.
I left early. To my untrained ear, K-pop all sounds the same. Plus the random added English phrases everywhere ("bounce it bounce it bounce it") annoy me.
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