Advertisement
Published: August 22nd 2011
Edit Blog Post
Exotic Dessert
A gift from Dr. Wei. I challenge you to find a more exotic one Photos:
…..after the trip to Xi'an a shorter Yangzhou Yingwen Weekly this time, though still with a lot of things going on as the new semester approaches fast. Sunshine is an aspiring singer who is keen to perform with me at Gloria Jean's. She is also a text editor at a China-wide travel magazine. After visiting the branch office in Yangzhou & speaking to the boss, as best I can as usual, I have not only been invited to submit an article but also to spend the weekend with the editorial team at a historic & picturesque tourist town near Suzhou this weekend. Maybe it's my undeniable, irresistable charisma or, perhaps more credibly, my status as a rare, friendly, accessible foreigner. Still a novelty in this small town.....
…..Dr. Wei is required to pay the price for inviting foreign friends to her wedding. Because of this her boss assumes her English is better than it is & has honoured her with the post of guide for a visiting Israeli paediatrician working in South Africa. I have told her she will not be able to speak fluent English using medical terminology in 2 weeks. The aim is to just
The Barbecue from Hell
It all turned out OK in the end converse in English as much as possible, clean up some obvious pronunciation & grammar errors as we go & ensure that she knows the names of basic internal organs in English. I've lent her my electronic dictionary until the visiting doctor returns to South Africa. Her confidence is increasing, which will be her greatest asset.....
…..I think that is the main reason I seem to be making some, very slow, progress in Chinese. I have no qualms about making a fool of myself by making mistakes. There is no issue of “losing face”, such a problem with many Chinese. Why, I sometimes even learn from my mistakes, often after the fifth or sixth repetition. After the trip to Xi'an, where I had to make do with Chinese a lot, there is a noticeable improvement in fluency & I am BEGINNING, (after two years!), to understand a little more. The reading & writing is still a struggle but I notice SMS messages & anything typed on the computer, where the software gives more prompts & displays likely matching characters to make up words, are getting longer & more complex than the first attempts, (“Be there at 3pm” etc...).....
…..Sunshine
arrives at the school for the foreign teachers' first barbecue for this season, before rehearsing for Friday night's gig. What a monumental mess. After the fires are finally lit, an hour long process involving coals & a photographic negative image of a snowstorm as charred newspaper embers fill the air & cover the downstairs corridor, the food is finally put on to cook. With hindsight, the small barbecue should not have been put on the glass topped table. The glass finally gives way in a shower of hot coals, charred newspaper & prawns. I believe Sunshine thinks it's all part of some arcane, foreign ritual, & finds it all amusing, especially as the chicken, at least, is delicious when it's finally cooked.....
…..the weekend out with the magazine staff is, for the foreigner, (me), a typically Chinese outing where it is necessary to go along with whatever happens, with no expectations whatsoever & relax into the role of visiting VIP for two days. As an example, we arrive at the first, picturesque canal town, Nan Xun. It's hotter & sunnier than Yangzhou. Having foolishly not brought my wide brimmed hat I spot a similar, & by now less battered
Conversation at GJ's
Sunshine and Mike at Gloria Jean's one, at a roadside stall. ¥20, or less than Au$3. Between my asking the price & reaching for my wallet, Mr. Wang, the manager at the office, has paid for it & won't hear of my paying. For the next two days there is no possibility of paying for accommodation, food, an ice cream, a bottle of water.....
…..it turns out that Mr. & Mrs. Wang's daughter, English name Susan, is a student at our school & was my old mate Peter's student the first year we were in China & last year was taught by Mike. What a small country this is! Sunshine is my translator but her English is pretty sketchy so we manage mostly with my Chinese with a little help with a few words here & there.....
…..the towns we visit have been plastered with multiple, fading, cracking coats of quaint. Nan Xun & Xi Tang are both obviously very old, Jiangsu canal towns that have been sacrificed to the tourist industry. While foreign visitors are thin on the ground, (I saw possibly half a dozen between the two), Chinese tourists are there in thousands, along the tiny pathways along the canal, which has
Danny and Suzanne
Part of the rich tapestry of music at GJ's no barrier between the heaving masses & the murky water in which the locals fish & several kids are swimming with some inner tubes &, one would hope, a tetanus jab,for support. A business in China doesn't need much in the way of premises. If a room 2 metres wide is available & you have clothes, notebooks, artwork, food, (cooked or fresh), drinks, jewellery or anything else to sell, it's more than adequate. If not a rickety table on the footpath or the back of a flatbed trike will do.....
…..if I were a local resident the sight of an apparently endless flow of curious tourists looking & in some cases photographing through my windows would be an invasion of privacy that might lead, if not to murder, at least a ducking in the canal, which might amount to the same thing. There are people with badges preventing people from investigating certain streets without buying a ticket until Sunshine challenges one, physically, by just pushing him out of the way! Just hope you don't meet her in a dark alley. It appears they are just trying to cream a few kuai out of the tourist boom & have no
Nan Xun, Jiangsu
Sunshine showing the way official status. She tells me the money doesn't go back to the community anyway. It appears we're better off buying some goods from the local businesses, a method of recycling money with which the Chinese are entirely familiar.....
…..I get a room in an incredibly old hotel opposite my hosts' room. Many of my readers would baulk at a night on the bed, a bamboo mat on a blanket on a solid wooden base. I prefer a firm bed so it's no problem for me. The room even has an air conditioner & a fire extinguisher, both looking decidedly out of place.....
…..I was asked to bring my guitar & after dinner we all return to the hotel & cram into the Wang's room. I fish around for some suitable songs but in the end, after Sunshine & I have both sung some the younger members of the group leave. This follows an observation that there may well be more people in the room than the structure will safely support! We play a few more songs then end up in discussion with a young couple that have remained. There is, amazingly, enough vocabulary between us to have a
New hat, old bridge, Nan Xun
An old tourist near an even older bridge quite wide ranging discussion about war, peace, the price of food & the state of the world. Having put everything to rights we retire at about 11.30pm. Be ready to get up at 5.30am for a photographic expedition around Xi Tang.....
…..as usual, have a look at the photos. I'm sure they will paint a more comprehensive picture than my inadequate prose. I don't get any photos from the restaurant where, after a search through numerous, fully booked, eateries we finally find enough space for about 16 people. A busy Chinese restaurant is something virtually impossible to experience in another country. Because each diner has a bowl, plate, cup, (for tea), & glass, (for cold drinks), dish for vinegar, chopsticks & soup spoon then so many dishes are brought to the table, the traffic in a totally crowded, two or three storey establishment, with diners looking for a space & dozens of waiters bringing or taking dishes, often up & down narrow staircases, it's an awe inspiring example of how humans are distantly related to ants.....
…..back to school, after a stop in Zhenjiang on the way back for lunch, yet another banquet & a quick excursion to
New Friends, Nan Xun
The staff from the magazine pose the old part of the city then back to school to prepare for another year of teaching. I have been informed I will be teaching Grade 8 this year. I'll miss the little horrors in Grades 3 & 4 but it's time to get some experience with the older kids, who, I'm sure, have completely different, but just as effective, methods of driving me insane.....
Advertisement
Tot: 0.169s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 10; qc: 56; dbt: 0.0807s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Tony Schick
non-member comment
Autocorrect - a happy enhancement?
"…..the towns we visit have been plastered with multiple, fading, cracking coats of quaint" LOVE it!