Life so far in Tai'an, China

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Hi all, There will be fewer pictures this time.

Well we have been here for 2 and a bit weeks now and China blows Vietnam and Malaysia out of the water as far as friendliness goes. I am not sure about the bigger cities but if you wanted to see an Asian country which has not been affected by the internet and television come here to China and check out some of the smaller country cities. They do not have much to offer as far as huge iconic structures for photo shoots but if you spend some time here you will find the people are friendly and they do not rip you off. We sit in the Dio coffee shop and now the staff often approach us trying their best to talk in English. When we first arrived we were accorded the same hospitality but with much less conversation. Now they offer gifts and translation assistance. This, of course, will diminish over the next few years as the influx of tourism begins to taint their quiet balanced lives. As you can tell by now we have developed a fondness for their way of life and their attitude toward us.

We live in a community village on the north end of Tai'an. All the services are available to us at the entrance to this community. Most nights we collect dinner on the way home. Chicken, breads stuffed with vegetables and meat, cake or biscuits for dessert. There is a BBQ style mobile stand that produces some fantastic 'bacon' and eggs burgers. Each single item may cost about 2 or 3 yuan (around 75 cents). There is a hairdresser, greengrocer, 3 convenience stores, 2 bakeries, a cheesemaker, a blind masseur (I know how to locate them quickly) and our source of drinking water. We have a water dispenser at home that holds 19litre bottle. Each bottle costs from 7 - 10 yuan depending on whether David carries it or we have it delivered. There is a larger department store under Taishan Square but they tend to be more expensive. Supplies are limited. Stationery items and foodstuffs we are used to are not available in this city but I'm sure we can find things in Jinan or Beijing. Hoping to go to Beijing the first chance we get. Only 3.5 hours by fast train.

Oddity - The locals call their babies penguins...because they have so many layers of clothing on that they can't move and their arm and legs stick straight out. Their pants have a split in the rear for obvious reasons ( i mean if you have 4 pairs of pants on it can take a while to get em off and children do not usually give that much notice).

I made an urgent phone call today, NO, not to a hospital in Australia but to the coffee shop we used to visit in Queensland (Roasted/Octane Coffee in Zillmere, needless to say he was surprised to hear from me!! Best Coffee in the world!!). We are in desperate straits. The coffee here is “average” without being impolite so hopefully our main man (that's you Garth) will be investigating the necessary procedures to export coffee to us here.

Well Valentines Day has come and gone and the Dio coffee outlet we frequent had a big special dinner arranged. It wasn't in English and we were having trouble understanding what was on offer. We decided to go there anyway and check it out. One of the waitresses slipped us a piece of paper and it read as follows:

“At first you may have a wonderful Valentines day! On the day you may have a romantic sweetheart barrel extension. At first you will have two glasses of red wines. Secondly you will have appetiser called dipsy roseate salmon. It contained Kiwi fruit, rose and so on. Thirdly you will have the thick soup. The soup contained chicken deer velvet and salt meat. The rice-vegetable is sirloin steak. There is whisky in it. The main course is lamb chops it contained abalone, garlic deer velvet. The dessert is two breads, but there is strawberry jam spreaded on them. At last you may have two cups of coffee. All of these have the happy implication if you cost 299yuan. All these together for you two. These are enough for you two. May you share every day of life together till forever.”

Barrel extension? Try getting that kind of service from a restaurant in Aust. Here VIP, means VIP. Not just that you go there often. We are greeted by name from all the staff and they make a point of trying to say bye bye when you leave. Needless to say we need to help these girls with their translation.

The cold days continue, and today i cracked the ice on some puddles as i left for the gym, i called Lynne and she stuck her head out the window to watch, then pulled it in again real quick!. The long range weather forecast shows snow from time to time but the ground is too warm. The snow just floats down and melts as it touches the ground, if we are awake when it happens it will be the only way we can see it.

We had our first classes during an Open Day weekend. David went to another venue (a government school) while I was thrown to the wolves at our school. David gave his first class to 3 children and their parents but due to office politics (there is another English school on the same premises and the owner is very good friends with the principal of the government school...make sense?) so all his other classes were canned for the entire weekend. So instead, he went into sales mode and cornered all parents with children and sent them to me at 'Always'. So I had totally full classes all weekend. We signed up 60 new students out of 85 new attendees. Many of the students already signed up joined in too just to check out their new teachers.

Not bad for a first timer! It was so much fun. I made up a hello goodbye song with actions and the kids, and their parents, loved it. Gee, we hate being centre of attention. Not! We are having so much fun so far.

We travel by bus everywhere. And every time we see ourselves on the bus tv. People look at the screen, crane their necks to us, look at tv again, and back to us again. They look like those noddy dolls sometimes. Then for some reason, like they think we can speak fluent chinese, they start talking to us. We smile and wave, shake our heads to indicate we don't understand them but they continue to speak. We have now learned to say, I don't understand or I don't speak chinese. Somehow I doubt that would stop them.

We have our first official classes tomorrow (21st Feb) and it has been a bit stressful getting into the groove, 8 different books to work from trying to come up with the ideas to keep the class interesting and yet stay in the guide lines of the school. Active and fun they cry! I am teaching the little un's and Lynne has the older students. Well I guess I get to let loose my inner child! Those who know me will say it was never kept in captivity...lol. Well I am as prepared as I ever will be but a distinct lack of decent alcoholic beverages did slow the creative genius ...ha ha hah! More about our 'real' classes in the next blog.

Still yet to find another westerner.....

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Photos

The motley crew
Of native English foreign teachers.

Our sister school in Jinan.
Open day, fun and games with the teachers and the parents.

Me
Playing with my webcam.
I'm getting into character for my classes.

The kids.
Ready....set.....go!!!!!

Talk about ingenuity
Take the fan head off add a heater element and BAM! you have a great heat dispenser!!!

Reece on the phone to his sister in NZ
He's in Jinan.