Better using joppa-disk

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…..Kelly & Liz are going out tonight (Tuesday), with a friend, English name Daisy. They are teaching her some English in return for learning some Chinese. It's only a trip to the Da Ren Fa with a quick bite of something included but as I'm passing by they ask me along. Daisy is good value (ordering the food!). She tells of how she is engaged & hoping to get married next year. Her fiancee is working in Guangzhou, the centre of Chinese manufacturing in the south, formerly known to the English as Canton. He hopes to move back to at least be based in Yangzhou.....

…..the restaurant is a little like a fast food takeaway but specialising in steamed & fried Chinese dumplings & noodles. Kelly gives the girl on the checkout ¥100 & I see ¥71 displayed. I give him ¥18 for my share but then he tells me that's the change! For four people it's only ¥29 or about Au$1.00 each. The only problem (for me)is that they only come with zhu rou (pig's meat) fillings so I just end up with the noodles. Still, you can't really complain at the price & the Da Ren Fa bakery is only a few steps away.....

…..I discover tonight, after I notice that the character for Da Ren Fa above the supermarket entrance are not what I thought. The Character for 'Da' & 'Ren' are not the ones for 'Big' & 'Person' so, sorry, Da Ren Fa doesn't mean 'Big People's Market'. I'm still trying to figure out what it DOES mean.....

…..we have a meeting at Kelly's & Liz's place with the Chinese English teachers Roger & Suzy. Suzy has been shopping & presents Kelly & me with a pair of socks each, both with 'toe-fingers', like gloves. They're a bit tight. Even the biggest Chinese shoes & socks appear to be smaller than Kelly's or my feet. It is another example the little gifts we get to make us feel welcome. I'll often get offered lollies, biscuits & fruit in class, from the children or Chinese teachers. The trick is not to eat any unwrapped item the kids offer.....

…..there are frequent, concerned requests to “look after your health”, “you must-a wear warm-a clothes”, “not ride bicycle, today too cold”, etc.....

…..Wednesday morning, only 2 classes today & usually a good day to catch up on lesson planning or, in this case, planning for the kou shi or oral test, coming up in the third week of January. We learned some lessons from the last one. The main one is that, while Kelly & I were trying to do a comprehensive test of the kids' abilities & ended up with around 20 questions in total other teachers were only asking about 5 or 6! That explains why I was running behind schedule that week. I can't believe there is no coherent overall plan for testing. It is left to the teachers to decide how & what to test. There are fewer questions in the next one.....

…..I also manage to cycle into Yangzhou on this freezing but beautifully clear, blue sky day as Dr. Wei has time for a late breakfast & some English practice, which also means I get some Chinese practice. After cycling in I am quite warm & even take my gloves off. We walk down Taizhou Lu, try one place but they don't open until 10.30am. After a long walk there is a suitable place, at least, I hope it is, I don't have a clue. It is strange to me, having lived & worked in Australia with people from every corner of the world, to talk to someone who has only one foreign friend!.....

…..Dr. Wei is buying a house & should be receiving the keys soon. Not really a 'house' in English. A 'unit' in Australia, a 'flat' in England or an 'apartment' in the USA. How's that for a common language? The term for house is commonly used in China to describe a unit (or flat or.....). I prepare to get on my hobby horse regarding passive solar design & the total lack of common sense in subdivision & building I have seen in Australia. “Which direction do the windows face?” After only a moment's thought the floor plan, with its north / south orientation, is described. I reply that at least half the people I speak to in Australia don't even know which direction their windows are or should be facing. I also say that in Australia many people have no idea that such a simple consideration can make a house many times more comfortable to live in & cost far less in energy bills. The surprised response? “Everyone in China knows THAT!”.....

…..the cafe is well heated. Too well for my new jacket. Dr. Wei is from Jilin, in the north, where it gets bitterly cold in winter (frequently below -20C) but I'm told it feels colder in Yangzhou because, being sub-tropical (hard to believe at the moment), it's not really geared for the winter, a bit like Adelaide. Homes & offices are not generally heated, certainly not to the levels people in the west often insist on. In class the windows are often open as the kids sit in jackets, multiple sweaters, gloves, earmuffs & scarves watching their breath condensing into clouds before their eyes. Not life-threatening, just uncomfortable.....

…...breakfast starts with a large bowl of hot soy milk. I'm a bit wary as the stuff in the long, thin, plastic bag I tried in Nanjing wasn't an encouraging introduction. This was much better. A selection of shredded do fu (tofu) & beansprouts, rice noodles, all accompanied by spicy sauces, & thick doughy (I hope that's actually a word!) pancakes are probably not to everyone's taste but suit me fine. I've had cereal for breakfast for so many years it's time for a change.....

…..I find out a little more about how the doctors are treated in the hospital system. In over three years in Yangzhou Dr. Wei has had 7 days of annual holiday. You are allocated 20 days a year but if it's too busy to take time off you lose it. The allocation to the Emergency unit, the most intensive work, is rotated. Around 4 months, with constantly changing shifts, little time off &, as I've mentioned before, 50, 60 or 70 patients on a busy night shift. The reward appears to be a spell on ward duty. Of course someone has to be there while the rest of China is going home to see family & friends in far away home towns.....

…...last week around 3 students from each class could say the word 'chopsticks' in any sort of intelligible way. This week I was overjoyed to find that (apart from 3/9) all BUT 3 or 4 in each class could manage, not without considerable effort in some cases. So when Dr. Wei compliments my increasing skill level with the implements I can't help but laugh out loud when I am told, “you much better using joppa-disk”... I explain my way out of it with no offence intended or taken.....

…..when genetic engineering gives us the ability to create a hybrid from a slug & a chicken I believe all who eat at the Chinese cafeteria at the school will be heartily glad. Imagine the tender chicken meat, no beak, (in fact, no head), no dangerously splintered shards of bone to pick or spit out &, of course, no claws pointing accusingly from the platter as you sit there wishing for bones that you can actually use to pick up a chicken leg (they do those too on occasion). So long as they can edit out the slime genes from the slug I think they'll be onto a winner.....

…..learning a new language for me progresses at a glacial place. Sometimes, when you don't think you're making any advances there is a slight shift & new words are dislodged &, like shards of falling ice, drop into your consciousness. I pick up more words in conversations & when people ask me questions & I can sometimes find the words I want without having to look in the pocket dictionary. I still wish it wasn't so slow.....

…..I get a call from Miss Piggy. Just to check on how things are in Yangzhou & to tell me that study here is a serious business. It seems that classes don't finish until around 9pm & include Saturdays. I'm still not clear exactly what the university course is going to be (the English is a little vague) but the aim is to eventually get into TV. I think she has the right personality to be a TV presenter & her work ethic should do the rest.....

…..the Grade 3 Chinese teachers fulfil their promise for us all to go out for a meal together. It's one thing to pick a restaurant where the Chinese people prefer to go to get good food but going with a group of them to a hot pot restaurant where they know how & what to order, that's even better. The only thing I am a little uncertain about is the duck's blood, a delicacy about the consistency & texture of thick yoghurt but deep purple in colour. Someone has picked some out of the pot for me already & put it in my bowl. It's not that bad, though there are others among the many things on offer that I prefer. Suzy explains some of the conversation to me. I'm happy to make limited contributions & enjoy the food. They won't even let me share the cost of the meal.....

…..I cycle to the Da Ren Fa in the morning to get some chocolates & prints of some of the photos from last night's meal to distribute among the teachers as a thank you for their generosity & hospitality.....

…..there are plans afoot to see the film Avatar tonight in Yangzhou. There is a 3d version showing though it may be too crowded for us to get tickets. I understand it's a film loaded with special effects but a little light on narrative & plot so the fact that it will be in Chinese shouldn't matter all that much. I get Suzy to help me work out what times the film is showing in Times Square, just south of Wenchang Ge (what we used to call the Pagoda before we knew better). The best plan appears to be ; go to Times Square as soon as possible after 4.30pm to get tickets, go & find something to eat then return to the cinema to watch the film.....

…..as usual the urge to complicate such a clear & simple idea plan overwhelming. Peter says Nelson & his girlfriend, Qian, are going to eat at 6.30pm so we could all go with them. Seven of us finally get to Wenchang Ge a bit before 7pm. I say we should get the tickets first but no, others are for eating first then... But... Toss a coin... Eat first.....

…..with at least two people hotpotted out this week we find ourselves in the street full of hotpot restaurants. We then wander round to find another vast, 3 storey palace & find a table on the second floor. The food is laid out on a central counter in individual servings in a dazzling variety, most of which we can't easily identify. Then there is the display cabinet with beautifully presented plates of sample meals, plus another display which I think at first might be some sort of entrail delicacies but which turns out, thanks to Qian's invaluable aid to all of us in interpreting it all, a huge selection of various mushrooms.....

…..we end up, to the combined amusement & frustration of the staff, with a selection of dishes, eel, including the kidneys & some other organs, (not a huge success), chicken wings, (very nice), rabbit, (very rich & tasty), spicy lamb, (also very good) & a few vegetable dishes. Thanks again Qian, we couldn't do it without you.....

…..too late for the film, we get to the cinema & Qian translates the notice outside the cinema complex. I learn that I can get in for half price as a 'senior'. I am torn between pecuniary pleasure & the despair of dotage. Also they would have to accept an Australian driver's licence as ID.....

…..we finally go back to the school & Paul offers his rooms as a makeshift cinema for himself, Nelson, Qian, Patrick & I to watch a Mel Gibson movie, Payback.....


Great gastronomic delights or disasters this week:
Bad.
…..School cafeteria; chicken feet appear in the mix twice this week.

…..Eel, including internal organs, at the restaurant on Saturday night.

…..whatever street food Kelly ate in Shanghai last week that rendered him sick for a day.

Good.
…..the large, sesame seed biscuits I discovered at the Da Ren Fa. At less than Au$1 for about 6 packs of 3 I could end up with a habit.

…..the whole hotpot meal with the Chinese teachers on Friday.

…..fresh hare for Sunday for lunch, cooked by my student George's grandma. Rich, dark meat in succulent sauce. As usual in China you learn to cope with the splintered bones. I ask if they bought it whole or already cut? The answer, “Live”. Now that's fresh.

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