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Published: August 12th 2012
Comparison, Grand Buddha, Lingshan
These are pretty much at the same scale.Photos on:
http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/draftwrite/ …..the video is a result of playing with my new smart phone. The sound quality is not great but I hope the picture gives some impression of the amazing illuminated dome in the Buddha Palace at Lingshan, near Wuxi. Since the end of the last blog there have been 2 weeks of school summer camp, farewell gatherings, George's birthday, a visit to meet Miss Piggy's new love and being prevented from visiting our old mate Peter, now back in China, due to being stranded in Wuxi by typhoon Haikui. I'll probably take a short trip to Anhui province next week but, first things first.....
…..well done Lisa. A teacher here a couple of years ago now living in Hong Kong she is the dean for one of the 2 Elementary School Summer Camps. It's much better organised than last year with the art, dancing, pottery & other classes actually taking place rather than the foreign teachers being left for the whole morning to entertain classes of kids, some with minimal English abilities.....
…..I discover the Chinese teacher, Hua, (Flower in English), sharing responsibility for my class is the mother of the impossibly cute little girl
Jessica, Flower and daughter
Our student helper, (L) with Flower and her daughter in the opposite block who often plays near our apartments! Because the Chinese teachers often speak very little English each class has a student helper. Our helper, Jessica, from Chongqing, is great company, very helpful & so we have a great team to deal with 18 nine & ten year olds. I'd forgotten just how much energy they have. We survive the hot, humid weather, a few minor frisbee related injuries, the food in the school cafeteria & manage to spend some time with the motley collection of teachers who for the most part come to China from overseas to stay at the school for 2 weeks of the camp then go straight home. A pity really, having only school cafeteria food by which to judge Chinese cuisine.....
…..not much rain so far this summer but cold showers & change of shirt & underpants sometimes twice a day. A t-shirt will not last more than an afternoon in class or a cycle trip to the Da Run Fa supermarket.....
…..George arrives back from England in time to celebrate his birthday with us before Mike goes to the USA for a couple of weeks. It turns out to be
Summer Camp class
my students with our class flag a riotous party at Laoma, despite Paul having to go out to find some cold beer after they provided the usual Chinese lukewarm beer, despite a request in the morning to make sure that “bing pijiu” would be available. 54. Ah, I wish I could remember that far back.....
…..I have promised an eager Miss Piggy that I will visit her family in Jiangyan, near Taizhou, about an hour east of Yangzhou. She is keen for me to meet her new love. (I should really use her real name, Fei Fei, which means “fragrant”), but she likes the nickname)! I have learned to keep the visits short, despite pleas to stay longer. The old house in a Jiangyan back alley where she lives with her parents is not geared to extended stays though at least in summer the bathroom is operational. As usual the Chinese ensure their guests do not go hungry, to the extent of piling things in the guest's bowl while themselves eating more modest amounts, with the implication that it would be rude not to to eat up.....
…..Ling Yu, her boyfriend, doesn't speak English but I know enough Chinese to get by if everyone
speaks slowly. It goes without saying now, but I'll say it; he looks so young. He works for a company that, (pause to turn on the dictionary!), drills wells in Jiangsu. He's somehow involved with transporting the drill rigs to their location. Sorry, we're at the limit of my linguistic abilities.....
…..Miss Piggy's young cousin, Li Tian Zhi, whose batteries never run down, is there too, unstopping & unstoppable. We finish lunch crouched, Chinese style, on tiny stools around a small laminex table in what used to be Miss Piggy's bedroom. Despite the peeling walls they have installed an air conditioner & it's more comfortable there. After the obligatory visit to sing bad karaoke at KTV I find I am to sleep there, on a bamboo mat on the bed while my host, her father Mr Sha, & Li Tian Zhi sleep on another mat on the floor.....
….in the morning I discover that Miss Piggy has heard her father snoring from the room where she & Ling Yu are sleeping. She lost sleep worrying that I, the honoured guest, might be disturbed. I didn't hear anything, I was asleep!.....
…..Grace will be off to Canada next
At Miss Piggy's
Ling Yu, Li Tian Zhi, Miss Piggy and her dad month, to study there for a year. Lorenzo is going back to Italy soon. It's a season of farewells, although hopefully they'll both come back.....
.....during the “Wet 'n' Wild” water sports day at the school I leave my cheap, basic but reliable phone in a ziplock bag in the desk I'm using as a station for the balloon tossing game I'm supervising. By the time I realise I've left it behind the desks have been cleared from the oval & the phone is nowhere to be found. I've been thinking about buying a more upmarket model. Shen Yue has some time one evening to help me. I get a Lenovo touch screen with more bells & whistles than are probably required. Still, if I can learn how to use it.....
…..within a few days my new phone is out of credit. It had ¥180 last week, as I always put extra credit on when I'm travelling. China Mobile can't tell me why. It's the beginning of the month & the accounts have to be completed first. I reluctantly buy another ¥100 of credit, (about Au$16),, which normally lasts around 3 months &, in my most ominous voice,
promise, “I'll be back”.....
…..George still hasn't been to Wuxi. We decide to visit the huge Buddhist centre at Lingshan then proceed to Lin'an, a small town further south, near Hangzhou, to visit our Peter, recently returned to teach in China after a year in Australia. It's still not easy to get tickets. Only one ticket available on one train tomorrow to Hangzhou. We go back through the cavernous tunnels to Wuxi's 3 storey bus station, (I mean the buses pick up & deliver to 3 storeys, you need to know not only which of the 56 gates but from which floor to catch your bus) & buy 2 tickets to Hangzhou tomorrow.....
…..I believe George is pretty impressed by Lingshan. It's hard not to be. I've been before so I won't describe all the wonders again. After a hot afternoon we go back to the hostel to meet Steve, my new singing partner, who will arrive with a friend this evening. I'll call him now. What! My phone is out of credit again. After 4 days! Luckily George has a spare phone, inherited from Jenna, as China Mobile can't fix the problem with mine. Why not? I
George, Lingshan, Wuxi
...giving a sense of scale to a replica of the Grand Buddha's hand bought the SIM card in Yangzhou. Is this “China Mobile” or “Wuxi Mobile”. I go outside for a long, theatrical look at the sign outside before waiting for the answer. “China Mobile, but you bought the phone in Yangzhou”. Yes, but, I..... luckily profanity in Chinese is not my strong point & it's not the lady's fault that their system is such a disorganised, parochial piece of..... OK, ¥50, the minimum possible credit top up, for Jenna's old phone. George needs it too as his credit is swallowed up answering two calls from Mike in the USA!.....
…..we arrive the bus station to find that all buses to Hangzhou have been cancelled due to typhoon Haikui. We get a refund, go back to the hostel & book in for another night. The tail end of the typhoon turns our umbrellas inside out as we go with Steve & Simon for an Indian curry at an Indian restaurant & Jazz bar (!), a quick visit to the Red Lion bar where we played at last night's open mike session, then back to the hostel for a jam with the staff & some Chinese guests as an enthusiastic audience.....
…..Simon,
Summer Camp
Opening Ceremony by the way, is still limping. He's the young teacher from England who was hit by a car not AT but IN McDonald's in Yangzhou. A drunken driver drove straight through the window & pinned his leg to the counter. Truth makes for better stories than fiction in China.....
…..George & I are both being lazy. We now look like real itinerants, having not shaved for a while, having seen no valid reason for doing so this past couple of weeks.....
…..as a postscript, Grace has some time on her hands. She's back in Yangzhou so I ask her if she'll help me with this phone issue. We meet at Gloria Jean's. She has already called China Mobile & established the credit loss has been due to internet use. “I HAVE NOT BEEN USING THE INTERNET”..... OK, stay calm, turn the caps off, I have not been using the Internet ….. The lady at the main China Mobile, (Yangzhou Mobile!), office is very helpful & I let Grace do the talking for the most part. They establish that, although I was careful to turn off the wireless connection & a Bluetooth switch for which I have no use,
there is some other mechanism by which the phone searches the 'Net for all sorts of junk which chews up credit like crazy. They disable it & agree to reimburse ¥200. OK, I'm happy to settle for that. I always like a happy ending.....
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