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Published: March 13th 2011
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Women's Day at school
Teachers at an evening performance Photos:
….winter is hanging on & when it's grey here it's really grey. Not only the sky but the very air around us is grey. The visibility is such that anything more than fifty metres away is noticeably faded. The new building developments on the far side of the New Bridge are just a ghostly outline, dark grey against a light grey sky as I ride along the road, a mid-tone grey. Even a northern English industrial city in winter doesn't boast so many shades of grey. Roll on spring.....
…..ask & ye shall receive. The next day is beautiful & clear, a blue sky almost to the horizon & the sun visible almost until it actually sets. The first blossoms are coming out. Bring it on.....
…..Fu Nu Jie or Women's Day is a big event here & at the school there is an extravaganza prepared for Tuesday evening. I managed to keep a low profile while a few foreign teachers were recruited to take part, the men deliberately not told what was being planned. While I could have taken a video of the first half, long speeches in Chinese which in some cases had even
Women's Day at school
Teachers at an evening performance the Chinese teachers playing with their mobile phones or dropping off, I have refrained. Instead I have included a few photos of the second half which is much more visually appealing, lots of colour & movement. The (male) foreign teachers are in the end set up to learn what it involves to be a woman. Bret applying makeup & Steve doing his best to do up a bra & of course Mike's attempts to follow Rainy's dance moves a la Lady Gaga are worth waiting for.....
…..it's probably an indication of the size of the school that, while all the performers are teachers there are still enough left over to make up an audience almost filling a large auditorium. Teachers, like policemen, appear to be looking younger all the time.....
…..special classes are organised, to help both the remedial students, some of whose English is virtually non-existent, & advanced students, who are about to start the annual round of English competitions. “Organised” may be too strong a term for classes where students don't turn up at the agreed time but do arrive the following morning, resulting in a call to ask where I am. Australia has an expression
Women's Day at school
Teachers at an evening performance for it; “she'll be right”.....
…..I'm aiming to go to Nanjing on Friday, after morning classes finish. It's only an hour or so on the bus, excluding the half hour to get to the West bus station. Peter is going too, a n Australian little day out. We're only aiming to stay overnight then return to Yangzhou on Saturday afternoon.....
…..we'll miss the tree planting memorial service for Corey, an American teacher at the high school here, who left the school last year to start a bakery in Shanghai with his brother, who was also working in China. The bakery was by all accounts doing well from reports brought back by visitors carrying bags of produce. He was diagnosed with a brain tumour & died, during the Spring festival holidays, at age 33. I didn't know Corey well but every time I'll remember him for his southern drawl & for being a real gentleman.....
…..the Nanjing trip is uneventful. Two seats on one of the school buses, booking into a hotel room, two single beds & all basic mod-cons for ¥168, or about Au$12.50 each. Two trips to the Fuzimiao district leaves me with some presents I
Women's Day at school
Carrie tries to sing without laughing at a pretty funny male teacher in drag wanted to get plus a jumper on sale for ¥39, Peter with virtually a new wardrobe. We also manage to find a small live music venue in the 1912 district, called the Don Qixote. I am trying to figure out the Chinese characters to check that it's the place whose name I carefully wrote out. Peter informs me the picture of the guy in armour on the horse with Sancho Panza standing next to him is something of a giveaway. Doh! Tony, a Philipino singer guitarist has invited us to come back with instruments next time. I think we will.....
…..Peter & I return from Nanjing on Saturday afternoon, in time to go to Shao Kao, the barbeque restaurant across the bridge. It was the first place, for some foreign teachers, that they were introduced to, by, when he was here & so a suitable place for a memorial dinner, with the usual rickety tables erected in the car park, blue plastic stools& small metal plates covered in cling-film & masses of food on wire-thin steel skewers. I'm sure he'd be happy to know we all remembered him fondly in this way.....
…..Miss Piggy has indicated the link
Miss Piggy's Wedding
From a link she sent during a QQ exchange. for her wedding photos. Non-Chinese readers will probably find they are very different to the photos they are used to seeing from weddings, (I've included one here):
…..nothing to do with China but doctor's slang & acronyms for things they can't say openly about patients. An area of the English language I haven't explored before. Thanks to my sister Sylvia for this:
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