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Published: August 11th 2007
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Huko Waterfalls
Oompa Loompa Dopity Do. Erin and I left Xian in hopes of seeing the province of Shaanxi and making a little money as well. We were picked up near our house, with Artemis in tow, by two pretty nice guys, we later named them Elvis and Costello, who spoke absolutely no English. This wouldn't normally be that strange in the region where we live except for the fact that between them they own six or seven English schools. After a three hour drive north filled with uncomfortable silences and each of us feeling out the others' language levels we arrived in Yan an. Yan an is the site of the Cultural Revolution, or at least the site of the Revolution's newspaper, XinHua. There are a lot of places in this region that claim to be the base of the revolution. It became apparent very quickly that our bosses weren't just business owners. They seemed to know too many people and have their run of the town a bit too much for English school head masters, but they were nice enough so we didn't ask too many questions.
The first few days were spent at the Yan an English school in the center of
Yan an. The school was nice enough and the pupils were ok at first but things change. We were also spending about 12 hours a day at the school without going back to the hotel. This wouldn't have been so bad except for the fact that we were only working about 4 hours each all day long and we were only being paid by teaching hours. It was a lot of "hurry up and wait".
On Thursday we left Yan an and headed about two hours south into the mountains to a city called Yi chuan. The city was very small and the locals were very suprised to see us. They were even more suprised that were we able to say anything in Chinese, let alone have a conversation (albeit a broken conversation). On Friday our driver, aptly named "Driverman", took us down to the Hu Ko Waterfalls. This is about a half an hour south of Yi Chuan and a very big destination for travelers. The soil in this region is very loose so the water is very muddy. The river and waterfalls look like they should have Oompa Loompas tending to it. Very Charlie and the Chocolate
Picture Jumping Donkey
Traditional Donkey Clothing for the Region...supposedly Factory. It was really neat to see. Along with the beautiful falls came the mandatory Chinese abuse of any thing cultural. There were about 10 donkeys and 15 men and women standing around in traditional dress, the donkeys were dressed as well, forcing themselves into pictures with you and then charging you for it. But... without this touch it wouldn't be China. Our return trip to Yi Chuan was slowed a little due to frequent stops to pick up huge sums of money from men standing on the side of the road. I'm not really sure what this was but, like I said, we didn't ask too many questions. Also, our bosses had somehow had their car outfitted with the type of police sirens and lights that you usually see on the undercover police cars. Whilst being a little scary to see them flash their lights at actual police cars it did seem to minimize the normal traffic problem that most drivers encounter here.
We taught in the Yi Chuan school for the weekend and then returned to Yan an Sunday night. Our normal day of teaching consisted of being picked up at about 8 or 8:30 and heading
The Falls
Erin and I lookin' good! for a steamed bun or something of the sort before getting to the school at about 8:45. We would teach from 9:20-10:00 then have an hour and ten minute break before teaching anouther 40 minute class. Then came lunch from noon until about 1:00pm followed by another 2 hour break. We would teach two more classes in the afternoon then rest for a few more hours until the bosses were ready to go to dinner. Dinner usually consisted of some pretty good Chinese food and too much beer for anyone to handle. The men here take the drinking competitions very seriously despite a complete lack of tolerance for the stuff! We would usually be back at the hotel by 8:30 or 9:00 very tired and dreading the next early morning. I should note that while this doesn't sound like a good time it wasn't really that bad. There were some days when we were wondering what we'd gotten ourselves into but most of the time it was ok. If nothing else the improvement in our Chinese made it worth it.
The following Tuesday or Wednesday, I can't remember which,we headed north west through the mountains to a town called
Zhi Dan, named after one of the heros of the Revolution. This town is pretty well hidden but because of oil in the area has a lot more money than you would expect. This was one of our favorite schools we visited. The teachers were very nice and the students were wonderful. We stayed there for two nights at one of the English teacher's mother's hotel. The teachers also took us to the memorial site of Liu ZhiDan, the war hero, which was really interesting. The history was a little off and the message a little frightening but the park was beautiful. During dinner one night I was informed that the students were waiting for me. Nothing about where or why, just that they were. After dinner I was driven to the town square where every student the school had ever had was standing there ready to mob me. I don't know where they found all these children because their school wasn't that big. After an hour or so of photos, singing songs, picking up children (because the parents wanted to see if I could), and playing games I was taken back to the hotel. Erin, who wasn't feeling very
Yanan Tower
The stairs leading up the tower. well at the time, had missed the entire thing. The next day we left Zhi dan and headed back to Yanan.
After a few days in Yanan we headed south. But not before stopping at the XinHua (the revolution's newspaper) museum. It was here that our men flexed a little more of their muscle by getting us in. The museum was closed that day but because someone owed them a favor they turned on the lights and gave us free run of the place. It was Artemis' first time in a museum and she didn't like the wax work statues! After about 30 min in the museum we got in the car and headed south to the of Lou Chuan. This town has about 10,000 people and is half way between Xian and Yanan. We stayed in LuoChuan for two days before forcing our bosses to take us home. We had to tell them that we had a plane leaving for Thailand on Saturday otherwise they would have made us work for probably another week! The day we left marked two days shy of three weeks. We were only supposed to be there for two weeks but everytime we would
LouChuan School
Signing autographs for the kids. ask when we were going home they would tell us "In two or three days". It made it very hard to pin them down about our return date.
Finally, we're back home in Xian with a few weeks to rest before heading off to Ireland. Things are pretty slow around here at the moment because all of our friends are off home or working summer jobs. This is probably for the best though because I get the feeling that we might need some rest before, and after, an Irish wedding!
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Mom
non-member comment
So nice to hear from you
It sounds like it has been quite an adventure for both of you. I'm glad you're back home safe and sound -- glad Artemis made it back too! I was so excited to hear about your plans. Hope you find good things in Thailand. Love to you and Erin (and Artemis). Look forward to seeing photos and a blog from your time in Thailand and Ireland.