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Published: November 12th 2011
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So for the younger crew in my subscriber list and all those that want to hear about nights out in China here goes. To start with it whoops anything back home, Townsville’s vomit and piss smelling drinking holes have nothing on China’s futuristic party places.
Basically nights out can be divided into two sections. First you go out to a hostel bar where the vibe can either be pumping or mellow. Our crew usually frequents a Belgian Bar run by a Polish Aussie called Bart. Bart is a pretty cool bloke from Melbourne and if you getting yarning enough he will swing you a few free beers. From there we head over to the raving hostel bar. This place is something to behold. You buzz yourself in before walking down a long corridor and down a hatch into the basement. From there you open glass double doors to be greeted a raving international party scene, standing room only. The bar does mad drinks all for about $5 aussie bucks, Adios Motherf&%$er has been responsible for a few sore heads and some memory loss with the younger volunteers. Here you can meet people from all the over world. You go
from drinking with the German brothers and yelling Prost! (cheers in German), talking to the Spanish girls and being offered a job teaching English by an old Canadian guy. The bar is super funky with terracotta warriors, low set tables, prayer flags, beer towers and hanging candles. Basically I’m having trouble describing the place but we are all in love with it. From there if we decide to get out groove on its time to hit the clubs and feel like a celebrity!
The Chinese love Westerners! You rock into Salsa (nightclub) and jump up onto the dance floor to wiggle. The dance floor features a video screen as big as your house and video balls instead of disco balls. A massive laser and lightshow that doesn’t stop with two Dj’s spinning huge decks. From there the floor lights up underneath you and Eastern European go-go dancers come on stage in Lady Gaga inspired outfits and gyrate away. Then a guy with a video camera comes and films the crowd so the image is projected up onto the screen and the video balls for more party madness. Also these clubs are for the super rich. Outside Ferraris and Lamborghinis
are parked on the curb. After dancing hard it’s time to grab a table. You slowly wander through the crowd until one smiling group of Chinese welcome you to their table. There you are offered as much as you can drink and eat for free, they seriously don’t let up. Some of my best experiences have been where I literally just opened my mouth, tipped my head back and a girl just kept feeding me chicken wings. At another club that is done up in old Victorian Era style I was given a whole bottle of Chivas Whiskey. Pure Party Madness! Well enough of that and my poor mother is probably having a heart attack but it is truly good stuff.
MY NEW SCHOOL
I decided to ditch the kindergarten for sanity’s sake and head over to a new placement. I am very, very happy with my new primary school. The kids understand a bit of English and I can actually teach and I feel that I’m imparting some knowledge. Although the teaching is very uninspired and there is lots of chanting and repeating it is still good fun. I teach from Grade 1 to 6 and all my students are a cheerful bunch. I am greeted by every single student I pass with a hello Zin or a hello teacher and a funny half kind of arm wave/salute thing. My day starts at a leisurely 10:30 and I usually knock off around 3pm. I share the office with 5 lovely Chinese teachers, all ladies. They find me extremely funny, (I’m not that funny) and we have great times teaching each other Chinese and English. The vibe is actually really good, we all have a big lunch together then I might go for calligraphy lesson, watch a movie or play basketball together. One of the teachers also has a daughter and sometimes I teach her some English and in return my dishes are washed for me. The school is also freaking huge! It has roughly 2000 students and each class is 50+, something that you wouldn’t see back home.
Moving and literally moving out of Xi’an next Sunday the 20th! I am heading down to Chengdu on the train, my first ever train journey. For $45 dollars I get a shared cabin, access to a Western toilet and apparently a soft mattress! For those of you that don’t know in the apartment we sleep on a layer of cardboard, followed by a layer of rubber mat before a 2cm thick mattress. Me being a fan of comfy sleep nicked a mattress and pillow off a Spanish guy who was leaving the day I arrived. I was well ahead when I also had another blanket from another volunteer before Mumma found out and stole it back. In Chengdu I plan on seeing the Panda’s, eating some spicy food and maybe travelling into Tibet. From there Hong Kong for visa before heading down to sunny Sanya on the Island of Hainan. The weather is a tropical vibe with white sandy beaches and Russians by the plane, train and boat load. Life is definitely looking up in China.
On a side note I have had another great cultural experience. I have a chinese name. I am known as Wang Long Fei which means King Dragon that Flies. Mumma doesn’t like that name and calls me Wang Long Hur or King Dragon Tiger in English. Either way I have some pretty banging names and it is fun to introduce myself to Chinese people with my Chinese name. Well that’s it from China at the moment, stay cool boungies and only 3 months and a bit to go!
Zai Jian,
Wang Long Fei (Zin)
P.S Again I’m sorry for my lack of decent pictures, next blog update I promise to have some good ones.
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