Blogs from Guigang, Guangxi, China, Asia

Guigang in the morning is wonderful. Life is a lot slower, the air seems to be cleaner and there is a relaxed smile on peoples faces. A morning stroll is well worth while. But within the school grounds it is go, go, go. The students get up for a quick wash and some hot noodles for breakfast, then they have 2 lessons and it is time for morning excercises. The kids look like they hate it, but I think they are just trying to be cool in front of their friends and pretend they dont like it. Every morning from our apartment we hear Yi, Er, San, Si, 1,2,3,4..... coming from the permanent speakers around the school in a military style voice. The evenings are the opposite. Neon lights flashing from every building, music blarring ... read more

There are 5 stages of culture shock. 1st stage is the honeymoon stage where people enjoy the excitement that arises from being in a new place where everything is interesting, one is constantly experiencing a mild ecstasy, traveling to new and interesting places. Then there is the 2nd stage, this is the actual shock. Realising that one is REALLY living in a new country. With patience I hope to jump quickly into the 3rd stage of culture shock which is plunging into the life of the new country and immersing oneself into the new way of living. Fourth stage is the assimilation characterised with full participation in the way of life in the new country. This takes around a year. Fifth stage is reverse culture shock when moving back to homeland. I have been in ... read more

When we first arrived at Buckland Teachers College we were taught a few Chinese phrases to get us by like 'how much?', 'too expensive!', 'Hello, how are you?' and 'I am a teacher, I have no money' so shopkeepers dont think just because I am a foreigner that I have lots of money. Soooo.... I have been happily going along saying..wo shi lao shi saying it exactly as it reads, but the first shi is pronouced shi and second is prounced tsi.. instead of saying I am a teacher, i have been saying... I am a mouse........!!! Chinese have 4 tones and the only difference in the 2 shi's is the second is a very quick tsi. Yep, i have been walking into shops trying to bag myself a bargain telling people that I am a ... read more