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Published: November 23rd 2005
Farmer
One of the many men who have found me fascinating over the past few days.Including the following experiences:
A multitude of Chinese banquets
A trip to the Yellow Sea
Signing autographs for schoolchildren
Teaching English to six year olds
A haircut in a Chinese salon
Hanging out on the corner after dark
Watching women sew in a textile factory
and a visit to the local “Dicso.”
Right now I’m sitting in Mum and Dad’s apartment, eating some Lay’s chips and trying to decide whether I like lemon flavour or not. I don’t think I do, but I still have Green Tea and Cucumber to try, so I’m sure I’ll find something I like.
On Sunday morning we left Shanghai on a nice new bus and made our way to Haimen, the "tiny town" of one million people where Mum and Dad have been living for the past four months. Considering Shanghai has a population that is more than the whole of Australia put together, I guess a million people does sound small, but it seems pretty big to me.
My memory card was full by the time we arrived, so we made a quick trip to the Kodak shop to buy a new one, before meeting the ex-principal of the school and
Chinese, anyone?
The first round of plates at one of the many banquets we have enjoyed. his wife and daughter, who took us out for a seafood banquet. This was the first of my many banquets in Haimen, in all of which way too much food has been presented for the number of people consuming it. The banquet photo shows only some of the dishes we had, and there were only six of us eating.
After the lunch, we were driven on a tour of the local countryside, including the “Haimen Beach,” which had been described to us by another foreigner as a “Mud Flat,” and which looked to us more like a plain of grass. It was interesting to see life outside of the "city" though, and we met some very interesting farmers and fishermen, including one man who sold us a bag of live fish that we ate as part of our dinner that night. Being out of the city, many people had never seen a foreigner before, so we were pretty good entertainment. We also stopped off at a couple of country schools, where we were shown the grounds and met the principals. At the last, we were given ten seconds' warning that we would be making a speech to a group
The Beach
Not much sand in China. The Yellow Sea. of around 150 Chinese teachers about “Education Techniques in Australia,” so we got that over and done with and then made our way back to central Haimen.
Mum and Dad’s apartment at the primary school where they teach is basically like two separate large hotel rooms. One is their room, with the bed, computer and TV, and the other is a living area with a table and chairs, fridge, bench top and a mattress on the floor where I’m sleeping. Each has a small bathroom with a shower, basin and toilet. The apartments are on the tenth floor of the school, so there are some great views over Haimen, and we see all of the boarders when we go up and down in the lift. About 450 kids board at the school, ranging from a few two year old kindy kids to 12 year olds in Grade 6. Those that do stay at the school from Sunday night to Friday after school and only see their parents on weekends.
That night, many of the teachers from the school had planned a party for me. A group of them had come to Australia earlier in the year and enjoyed
Local Transport
Somewhere on the outskirts of Haimen. the “Free Style” party that we’d had at our house. It was basically a serve-yourself meal where everyone could wander around and sit where they liked, but it was a big difference to the formal Chinese banquets, and they wanted to do the same for me. All of the group (around 15 teachers) brought a plate to share, and we tried lots of different food, including some drunken crabs that would have been dead many times over if they’d consumed the amount of alcohol they were drenched in when alive. After the “free style” section of the party, the school chefs started bringing in plates of food, and we realised that there would be a traditional banquet as well. For the twenty of us, there were two tables, and each table had around thirty plates of food. So when combined with the pot luck meal, there were over 75 plates, and as you can imagine, a lot of leftovers.
After dinner, I tried my hand at table tennis against some of the teachers. I lost all of my three games against the ex-principal with scores around 9-11, but I have a feeling he was being nice, because he looked
Junk on the Canal
These boats are everywhere in China. a lot better against the teacher he played next.
Over the last couple of days, I’ve been attending some of Mum and Dad’s English classes, which have been a lot of fun. The kids are generally really well behaved during class time, but as soon as the music starts playing to signal the end of the lesson, they run up and mob us. Mum and Dad are major celebrities at the school, with every single kid we walk past saying "Hello Jon, Hello Jenny," or sometimes even "Hello Jelly." They have started to learn my name now as well, and it's pretty cool to have kids calling out your name wherever you go. They all try to practise what they've been taught in their lessons, so I have had a lot of questions and comments. The most common has been "You are very beautiful," which is excellent to hear, but it usually comes after something like "You have big nose," "Your chin is big," or "You are very long," which are much less flattering. They seem to think they're compliments though, so I don't mind too much. One boy in Dad's class was trying adamantly to tell me something
Kindy Girls
Kids younger than these two board at the school and only go home on weekends. and I couldn't hear it, so he wrote it on the blackboard for me: "Your jeans are too long."
The lessons have been fun. They basically learn by repeating things, so every lesson starts with a conversation: "Good morning everyone," "Good morning Jenny," "How are you?" "I'm fine thank you, and you?" "I'm fine thank you," "Nice to see you." "Nice to see you too." Then they have practice conversations about what they like and dislike, where they have been, what they did on the weekends etc., sing songs like "Miss Polly Had a Dolly" or "The Hokey Pokey" and play games like "What is It?" "What is it?" involves Mum or Dad giving a series of clues so that the kids can guess what they are talking about. One funny example from Dad's class was when he said "It is a big building. You can go there to get money," and they all looked confused. One kid said "School!" and the next one said 'Monkey!" Seeing as no one could guess, he then wrote letters up on the blackboard. B got no response, but as soon as he got to "B-A," every single hand in the class shot
How to Order at McDonalds.
"Learn English" poster. Fast food appears to be very expensive in China. up, and they all shouted "BANANA!" Most of them are pretty good at English though, and I've had some pretty fun conversations with the kids, lots of hugs and handshakes, and have signed more than my fair share of autographs. I have literally been mobbed on many occasions and not been able to move because I've been surrounded by too many kids.
One funny thing about China is that everyone seems to want an English name. I guess it makes them cool or something, but it is great for us because it's so much easier to remember them. Some of the English teachers at the various schools around town are called Cecelia, Judy, Fish and Eleven, and the most popular name for the kids at the middle school is Harry Potter. Mum has made things easier for herself in the younger classes by giving all of the girls in a class one name and all of the boys another. One class is named Ben and Emi after my cousins, and there is another class of Kirsty and Deans, which is pretty cool.
On my second day in Haimen, I decided to take the plunge and have my hair
New Haircut
This is the guy that cut my hair. Blame him if you think it looks like an Asian mullet. cut by one of the guys in a salon on the main road. Dad had previously had his hair done there and it apparently went quite well, so I figured if I told them how long I wanted it there wasn't a whole lot that could go wrong. The whole salon of hairdressers (about 7 in total) were extremely excited to see me, and I got the star treatment, including a wash, head massage, cut, blowdry, shaping and style. Everyone in the salon had a badge that identified their ranking as a hairdresser, and the man that cut my hair was the "Number One." He was also the same man that cut my Dad's hair, so obviously it's only the best treatment for the foreigners. After cutting my hair straight around and completely blowdrying it, he then went through and thinned out all of my hair the whole way around, so that if I gather it all up there is barely anything there, but it still looks quite long and nice. The whole process took about an hour and a half, and for the whole time we had the undivided attention of all of the hairdressers, and had a lot
Textile Factory
These women are paid 90RMB ($A15) for a ten hour working day. of fun. I'm really happy with the cut because it's much easier maintenance than usual and looks great. And the cost.... 15RMB, or only $2.50 Australian. Unbelievably cheap... almost worth flying to China everytime I want my hair done.
After my haircut, we went down to the "tents," which are made of those stripy plastic shopping bags, and are set up on the street corner in downtown Haimen. They're basically a streetside food stand with a few tables, where you can get kebabs and other dishes along with 1 litre beers for 5RMB (80c). We met up with Jeni and Rhys, who teach at the middle school and are from England and Wales and stayed there for an hour or so, swapping stories of the past week. While we were there, Dad and Rhys had their shoes polished by a shoeshine boy and they looked great. We also set off our own fireworks in the middle of the road, and that was a lot of fun. Unlike Australia with all of its regulations, here you can buy your own fireworks in one of many shops and set them off wherever you like. Pretty cool, if I do say so myself.
Yesterday morning we were driven to the edge of Haimen, where we went to a big area that is "famous in China for its fabric and textiles," according to Shen Min, the lady we went with. Once again, most people hadn't seen a foreigner before, and I got many stares and comments. One thing I find really funny is that if I don't understand something (and with only my newly-acquired three or four sentences in Chinese, that's quite often), the men write it down for me to make it easier to understand. The only problem is that they write it in Chinese characters, so I just nod and smile and go "Ohhh," and they seem pretty happy that I agree with everything they're saying. The fabric market had stalls and stalls of embroidered quilts, sheets and other manchester, as well as the fabrics used to make them, so it was pretty interesting. It was like a small town full of fabric shops, rather than a market. We then went to one of the factories where they make and embroider the quilts, and the women there were doing some pretty amazing work. Apparently people aren't normally allowed to go in, but seeing as the owner's kid is in one of Mum and Dad's English classes, he was pretty happy to accommodate us. As I've heard often since arriving, it was "one of the best in China," but I believed it this time, because there were pictures on the wall of the owner with various political figures, including good old Johnny Howard.
When we got back to Haimen, a guy riding past on a bike was looking at me, and kept looking, and looking, until his head was twisted almost backwards and he ran into the gutter and fell off his bike. Haha.
Last night we went with Rhys to the local club, which has a sign out the front proudly proclaiming it as a "Dicso." Rhys has been here for about a year and gets special treatment, so we got free entry, as well as the special table surrounded by couches that is normally reserved for those who pay extra. The Dicso was pretty cool as far as discos go. They played a wide range of loud, thumping music, including Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out of My Head" dubbed into Chinese. It had a giant dancefloor with hydraulics so that it moved up and down, but it wasn't as exciting as it sounds, so don't worry that you're missing out on too much. We only stayed for about an hour to see the floor show, which included a couple of singers, a whip cracker, a unicycle rider and a guy all dressed in leather with long, wavy hair halfway down his back who had a terrible voice but put on a pretty funny act complete with headbanging.
The memory card I bought here has been playing up, so I've lost probably twenty or thirty of my photos, but I've been back to the shop a couple of times and they've finally swapped it for a new one, so all should be fine from now on, with lots more photos to come. Stay tuned for the next episode, and just so you know, the cucumber chips are no good either.
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Mr and Mrs Dim Sim
non-member comment
Wow
Everything sounds amazing Kirsty. Wish we could be there with you to share it all. Hang on a minute, we ARE!