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Published: September 12th 2010
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Lotus flower
in the creek that runs through the school Photos: …..I am trying to learn the names of another crop of students. I didn't do at all well last year & there were a number of average students whose names never quite made it to my memory bank. Already some have, the bright & lively ones like Max, Garrett & Evan, ones with distinctive or odd features, like Dabe, Chet or Nick. The girl next to Nick is called Nikki, so I can remember her name too, though sadly not the face yet. The ratbags. They can remain anonymous for the time being. The occasional chubby kid stands out, Noah, Jessica. As for Ranker, Darek, Blade & See - well, they are names to remember. They all enjoy talking but sadly not in English.....
….I have dinner with new teachers Mike & George also Xi Lu, Mike's “adopted daughter” in China. She is from Hunan, home province the Great Helmsman, Mao Zedong. It seems her mother had an eye for Mike but her attempts to drink him under the table & complete lack of each other's languages may not have been basis for future happiness. Mike still keeps in touch with Xi Lu & she is
happy to visit the school & take advantage of the cheap guest room here for a few days....
.....I hear from Wenyi, my student friend from the train trip to Harbin in February. Back in Nantong from Qiqihar in the far north, where she spent the holidays with her family, she is now looking for work after majoring in Human Resource management. I introduced Wenyi to Shen Yue when I was in Nantong, as the latter is often there visiting her sister or parents. They now appear to be the best of friends & apparently refer to each other as big sister & small sister.....
.....I organise another lesson for Shen Yue's son, JJ. She is amused to have just spotted the name displayed in very small letters on her generic brand mp3 player. When examined closely it's not an I-POD but an I-POO.....
.....it still doesn't appear to be all that hot but the humidity is the killer. Three showers a day, (cold water is fine). Take off damp clothes, have a shower, dry self in damp towel, stand in front of fan for a few minutes, put on dry clothes. They won't last in that
condition more than halfway to the classroom. After dinner with the teachers I walk from the restaurant, less than one kilometre the other side of the New Bridge. I pass a lot of people, a group of older women dancing synchronised with fans, en masse in a forecourt, people walking small dogs or just out for an evening stroll. The Chinese male cool guy in this weather stays cool by rolling his t-shirt up to form an unconvincing looking tank top, the rolled up portion just above the midriff. Thankfully Australian-style beer bellies are not common here but it's still not - well - cool.....
.....it starts raining but only a scattering of huge, lukewarm raindrops. I am rather hoping to get soaked but it doesn't happen......
.....teaching; an opportunity to engage in conversations of five word or less sentences with thirty to thirty five people, most of whom would far rather talk to their friends, very loudly, in their own language. I am also getting to know Chinese teachers, Susan & Paul, the English teachers in my office, Nadia, Linda, Charlie, Li.....
.....or I have been trying to teach the new third grade students to say
Dinner with the Chinese Teachers
(b) Dave, Jacky, Tom, George
(f) Susan, Bret, Mary "Can I go to the toilet please", if they do need to go. Some still haven't got it. One comes to the front of the class &, with elaborate, unmistakeable gestures & pointing says, "Niào niào" I play dumb. Even if I knew no Chinese the meaning would be clear. I also know that niǎo sounds similar & means "bird", so I draw 2 birds on the board & look puzzled while the rest of the class gets a laugh & the one who wants to take a leak finds a student who has been listening & knows how to ask in English.....
.....the foreign contribution to the Teacher's Day show is a skit suggested by Bret, one of the three "Hanson brothers", Brandon, Landon & Bret. They have done it before. There is a water conservation element to a sketch that is mainly intended to, in US English, "gross people out". A bucket of water on stage is used by a procession of people to clean their teeth, wash underarm, clean socks etc. The last person is an innocent passer by (Bret has volunteered), who just wants a drink. The Chinese teachers are suitably amused & appalled.....
Cloudy sky
School Auditorium on the right .....the act after the foreign teacher's is a musical performance that starts with an awe inspiring roll of thunder & a dimming of lights. It's soon after we realise it's real thunder, a colossal storm with lashings of rain. Even with umbrellas most are wet before we arrive after the show at the Elementary School cafeteria for a selection of the best the catering department has to offer. With the number of teachers we have at this school (several hundred) plus a few children & catering staff it is certainly convivial, if not a culinary tour-de-force.....
.....by Saturday morning the storm appears to have dissipated the unbearable humidity. The start of autumn maybe? .....
.....our first birthday party of the year already. A student from last year's class 3/8, the brightest & best, now 4/8. The birthday boy is probably the bluntest instrument in the educational toolbox of this class. Bret, his new English teacher, the class teacher, maths teacher & I are chauffeured by parents to a restaurant somewhere south of the school, along some rural backroads to a (need I say it?), large restaurant with around twenty four tables of eight to ten people each. It's
hard to keep up with the dishes without making notes but there is goose, duck, chicken, fish, turtle, (or terrapin). There is tender, cold beef with a dark sauce. The slippery, translucent stuff made from bean powder, boiled dry then cut into slices or strips, (fenzi), & various mushrooms originally appeared to be the internal parts of some unidentifiable animal. Now that I know what they are they are much more palatable.....
.....there is a tremendous fireworks display across the road, nothing to do with the birthday party. It goes on for about fifteen minutes & includes a stray incendiary that lands under a nearby van on the opposite side of the road. Nothing is set ablaze & I only notice one car alarm going off.....
…..by Sunday morning is is definitely cooler, though still pleasantly warm, there is a blue sky & the power station, that great smog indicator two kilometres away, is clearly visible since the easterly breeze seems to have cleared the air. Barges stacked full of coal are queuing on the Great Canal in groups of ten. While some buildings have been completed & the cranes dismantled the clear air reveals many more on
Soft Shelled Turtle
Cooked whole. It's a little chewy... the new, expanded horizon.....
…..after his English lesson & before lunch Tianyi (George), my Sunday morning English student, decides he'd like to try out the boomerang I brought him from Australia. We find a grassed area big enough in the 1912 district not far away & are starting to get the hang of it but spend around twenty minutes throwing stones into a tree where his father has got it stuck. I finally get it down. We decide it's time to go back when he spots the flat tyre on his e-bike. It's one of those days....
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sylviah
non-member comment
Turtle!!!!
oh puh - lease!!! No!