Blog 2: Beijing, the great Wall, Ming tomb and randomness

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Edgar in China #2
Tuesday January 27th - Saturday February 7th

Well, here I am in my bed, listening to some music and writing this on what is the first lie in I have had in what seems like forever. The sun is streaming in through the window (but we know not to be fooled by this as it is still very cold outside), so a very respectable way to spend a Saturday morning I think.

I have decided not to give a day by day account as we have mainly been doing school work these past 2 weeks and that would be terribly dull. So you are going to get a general overview and the separate attachments of pictures will hopefully help. I hope you enjoy the new format...

So what has happened since Chinese New Year?

Well, I’ll tell you what HASN’T happened...the fireworks. They are still going off; during the day, lots at nights, scaring the be-jesus out of me every now and then, even though I am being terribly brave I DID have to get escorted into our new favourite restaurant by Claire the other night..The thing with Chinese fireworks though, is that they don’t go very high, thus increasing the likelihood of “fireworkintheface” which I’m sure you’ll agree, no one wants.

We have been fully into our schooling of late. Lessons start at 8.45 and go on till 5pm. We have 2 lessons around classroom management and listening and speaking teaching for 2 lessons with a very nice lady called Margaret from Australia. We have looked at things to do with the kids, singing, rhymes, how to correct speaking and when to do it, all that kind of malarky, all pretty interesting stuff. Then we have a crazy Irish man called Ian who mainly takes us for teaching grammar. It would appear that grammar and I do not get on at all. Not one little bit. It’s quite funny, most of the people in my class are Danes or Swedish and they are really good, they know what everything is called. There are 2 private schooled English boys who know it all, but the rest of us pikeys have no idea. I clearly wasn’t in that lesson that taught us about past perfect tenses or base verbs or auxiliary verbs or prepositions etc etc when I was a nipper at school...rubbish. The moral of this story - English grammar was not made for the English. Anyway, I’m battling through and have managed to get my hands on a couple of books so if anyone asks me anything difficult, I can look it up. (Thanks to mum and Arthur for the Collins grammar pocket guide for making this possible!).

After our three timetabled lessons we have an hours self study and then an hour of Mandarin class. Here is a demonstration of what happens in Mandarin class.
Little Chinese lady walks into the room and writes letters REALLY fast on the board. Then points to the letters with her pen and as a choral group the class has to make the sound. Because of the tones, it is a bit like singing, but the flat pitch is based quite high in the vocal repertoire so it goes like this:
“ah” “aaahhhhh”
“pu” “puuuuuuu”
“chuh” “chuuuuhhhh”
“tur” “tuurrrrrrr”
And then she singles you out and you have to do it on your own. Frightening. Then for the last 5 minutes we are given words to say (who knows what they are!!) and then voice feeling slightly strained we are allowed out.

Phew.

I am collecting short video clips on my camera and will try to capture this somewhat bizarre event as it happens. Stay posted kids, you’ll love it!

We also have 2 cultural classes while we are here. We had the first on Thursday and it was a Tai Chi class which was really nice. I hope I end up in a school that does the Tai Chi thing every morning. I have a vision in my head of a year of being a blade of grass, culminating in becoming some kind of kung fu master. Good times!

Our next cultural lesson may be calligraphy but they aren’t sure yet...In fact, the general way of operating here in China is “be flexible”. No one knows anything and nothing is arranged until the last minute.

So we have been set 3 assignments last week and so after class Claire and I have been going to the coffee shop over the road to do our work like good dedicated students. This place over the road is really nice although they only have one tape to play in terms of background music which is ok, but by the time you get to the 4th loop you know it’s time to go. There are two men who work here, neither speak a word of English but they are very sweet. We go in and find our table round the corner, they run to get the extension lead to plug the lamp in and fetch us a glass of hot water each. Then we order our drinks which always take about 20 minutes to come but they arrive with bows and flourishes and the napkin spoon and packet of sugar is adjusted so it’s DEAD straight. When we went to pay the first time we went, the boy at the till grabbed a couple of ox keyrings (If you have been paying attention you will remember this is now the year of the Ox) and took the price tag off and gave them to us. We were told by our organisers that if anyone gives you anything, you take it with both hands and look really pleased and interested and generally make a bit of a big deal about it. So we oohed and ahhed over these furry bull keyrings and made our way out. Well, that was just over a week ago. We now have 5 bull keyrings and its getting quite hard to oohh and ahhh without laughing every time we go to pay! I have included pictures of these bulls in the photographs...they are very cute but not sure what I will do with all five of them....I have three currently adorning the doorway into our bathroom. Claire is using hers to throw at her students.

So we have been studying hard, getting our work in early and then going for some dinner about 9 at night. We have found a place just up the road tucked back off the main drag called Sim King. It’s a spit and sawdust kind of place, everyone in there is Chinese and smoking, there’s a glass window where you see the chef eating out of a bowl on the floor and preparing food. We go there and have honey roast pork, chicken wings, beans, egg fried rice, bbq garlic, toasted buns, eggplant and a massive bottle of beer each and it comes to around Y30 depending on what we have had. That works out to be about £1.50 each folks. Not bad. There is also a guy who works there who speaks English really well so he likes to come over and practise on us and we taught him how to say “Awesome”. He was very pleased. The toilets are very smelly and Claire saw a mouse running across the floor the other day but we really like it.

Toilets.
What can I say about the toilets? They are generally smelly holes in the floor. And that’s it. Interesting times. I am waiting to fall into one. That won’t be very good. I may take a picture the next time I go there...

Colds.
I haven’t been particularly well. Very chesty, cold, coughing, although it is on its way out now. This has spread through our teaching classes like wildfire and it also would seem that the whole of China, (at least in Beijing) has a cold all the time. Perhaps it’s because it’s winter, perhaps it’s the pollution. Who knows. It is rubbish.

The Great Wall.
We had a trip out on our day off last Saturday. We went to the Great Wall and had a couple of hours walking around there. It’s really very steep in places and was a great experience but I have to say, it didn’t blow me away in the way I had thought it would. I mean, it’s very impressive don’t get me wrong, and if you’re in this neck of the woods you have to go and see it, but once you’ve gone up to a turret and back, that’s kinda it. Mind you, we were the only westerners on the wall, but it was really busy. We got stopped so many times and had to have our photo taken with people it was hilarious. I have some video clips of this also..but people love us. So many see us and then go and grab their children who are pushed rather reluctantly in front of us to have their picture taken with us while grandma beams from behind the cameras and they get so excited. I feel a bit sorry for them as I take a dreadful picture (as I am sure you have noticed) and so can only imagine their disappointment when they look at their pictures and there is my big white moon face beaming out at them. Never mind...

Anyway, after the great wall we got taken to a factory shop for lunch where I found the same bracelets my mum bought me when she was in Beijing. I didn’t get any more though, they were quite expensive. It was a government approved place where tourists get taken for lunch and then walk through this massive shop to get out in the hope we spend a fortune. Some lovely lovely pots and things but very expensive.

After lunch we went to the Ming Tomb which had some lovely buildings and I developed the latest photo obsession. I have moved on from lanterns, they are SO last year. Now I’m all about Chinese rooftops and in particular the corner pieces. They are beautiful. So yeah, you will be seeing a lot of those...

We then got dropped back at the birds nest for an hour which we weren’t too pleased about as we had gone there ourselves the week before, but by the time we got there it was dark and all the lights were on and it looked really pretty so took lots more pictures which I have also added. And yeah, got a little carried away with some more lantern shots, but I promise these will be the last ones and its only because there were no roof corners there...we also got asked for our photo again a lot here. At one point this old lady came over and we had our photos with her and she went off happy to show her husband and then came back to show us the picture. It is mental.

So apart from general mincing in Beijing and working hard and visiting the wall, that was pretty much all of last week. Yesterday was our first day off (this is the first time we have had 2 days off in a row) and so a few of us went to the forbidden city. We caught the tube there which was pretty exciting and really easy to navigate. A lot of signs are written in English as well as Chinese, (which is lucky for the others as I am virtually fluent in reading Mandarin characters now), so its fairly easy to get around. The Forbidden City is gorgeous. Is a massive expanse of building after building where the emperor and his concubines lived so you get closer and closer to his palace as you walk through and every gateway and temple is more impressive than the last. Then you reach his gardens and everything is outrageously lavish and must have taken ages to put together. And then you’re out the other end and it’s all over. Before we even got into the place there are a million Chinese buzzing around, did we want a tour guide, can they take our picture etc etc. This is where I spotted the soldier with a big line of shoes to clean and took those two pictures. But we got talking to a history teacher who was offering his services as a guide but chatted to me and Marion while we were waiting for the others. He was telling us about how awful China was 20 years ago with everyone in uniform and not being allowed to do anything and how many people died. Now he says China is free and life is much better but still there are many many poor people. He was a really nice guy and I would have like to have talked to him for longer but that’s what happens when you’re with a big group of mincers! So I have included lots of pictures taken from the Forbidden City but there isn’t really much else I can say about it.

We left cold, tired and hungry so we split into taxis and while the others went to McDonalds (WHY????) Jonathan, Marion and myself went to a Chinese food place and had cold broad beans, sesame bread and cold peas and it was really really nice! I am craving fresh green vegetables! We get veg here, but it tends to be just the one and he same one in everything and usually in some kind of sauce. It was a delight to have blanched beans that were still bright green. Mmmm. We spotted over the road that some food stalls were being set up and by the time we had finished lunch they were in full steam so we went over to take a look. I have never seen so many creatures and insects on sticks in all my life. You can eat anything from chicken hearts to starfish, grasshoppers, snake, scorpions, centipedes, fish heads, sea snails to fungus rolls. It was amazing. The smell went from tasty to weird then back again as you walked along! It was a shame we had already had lunch so we walked all the way down and back taking pictures and just looking and sniffing, then went home. Oh, we had some banana fritters which were very nice but didn’t taste anything like banana. We did get a bit concerned as the man had accosted Marion and shouted “banana, banana!” and she said, “ooh, very nice, we’ll have some of those” so off he went and as I was looking at the price board, there were fish heads, hearts, silkworms etc but nothing that said banana and as we looked on the stand it was mainly sea-product based, so we were a bit concerned we were going to end up with a fish head fritter, but Marion was very brave and bit right in and lo, it was banana. Or at least some kind of fruit pertaining to be a banana. Good times.

So I have the rest of today to mill around. I may do my legs, I will wash my hair, do my homework and start preparing my lessons for next week. Next week is teaching practise week. Yikes! We are in groups of 5 and my group are going to a high school as we have been given 14 year olds. We have a 2 hour lesson each day divided into individual slots, so everyone watches each other doing the teaching. I’m second up on Monday for half an hour and have to teach them how to talk about themselves, then first up on Tuesday for half an hour where I think I’m doing places and then 3 20 minute slots for the rest of the week. It SHOULD be ok although I will be terribly nervous. Although, one of the main reasons for me doing this year of teaching thing is to conquer my fear and apprehension of standing up and talking in front of large groups of people, for how else will I be able to become Queen of the World? Next week is crunch time for me. I just hope they can understand what I am saying, otherwise we are going to end up playing Simon Says each day!

They have apparently provisionally put our names against the schools we are going to be sent to but it is teaching practise week that confirms our placements for sure, so hopefully, this time next week I will know where I am being sent to. Fingers crossed everyone for somewhere nice! My room mate Claire (who is not my sister as Pam thought)has had to go up to Harbin this weekend with 6 other people who were given the wrong Visa. She had to get up at half 5 yesterday morning to get on a plane and because it is the ice festival up there at the moment (this will give an indication of how cold - apparently -15) they can’t travel back till Sunday night after 8 hours on a train and getting in at midnight, poor things. Still, she has promised to take a lot of pictures of the ice festival for me and I may steal them off her and claim them as my own. I wanted to go but there are no seats on transport and it would have been a bit of a mission. I will therefore update you with her reportage next time.

So this is me for the next week...teaching prep and actually doing it. We have a day off in another week or so and are being taken to the Summer palace, some Hutongs and then a trip to a Chinese acrobatics show, so that should be really good.

For another week, this ends the second instalment of Edgar in China.

**Apologies for what is most likely the incorrect use of “practise” instead of “practice”. I don’t think I even care any more...**

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Comments

[Phil Korbel]

more food
loving this Lucy, really good stuff. But, as our vicarious traveller, what with all the food photo's - and NOT tucking into the 'bush tucker' - oh come on. We need crunchy centipedes eaten and we need them eaten now! Seahorse anyone? ;) Stay warm