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Published: July 29th 2011
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Summer Camp
Jeff, my star student, and Joe Summer Camp photos in 2 albums, mainly for the teachers who were here but feel free to browse:
…..unseasonally we revisit Halloween during the camp. I resurrect my Gu Tou (skeleton) costume. Along with some inspired outfits from the new teachers, including Paul, a huge American from Rhode island, in a blood soaked facemask carrying an axe, & Michael, an African American leaning out of windows in the corridor in attire similar to mine. Even some teachers & helpers are scared witless & there are reports of one boy needing to change his wet underpants.....
There are some photos from the darkened corridor on the school website, on this page:
…..my class, B3, is chosen to open the closing ceremony with our Skit Night medley of Hello, Goodbye, Waltzing Matilda & The Jungle Book song, the only student performance required. The kids are quite stoked about this & are happy to rehearse outside while the recently mopped classroom floor is drying.....
…..giving out contact details to young students would, I'm sure, be frowned on in most western countries, if not an indictable offence. In China swapping phone numbers, QQ & E-mail addresses,
Summer Camp
Halloween in July is normal practice, with anyone really, however casual the meeting. I don't want this to be seen as a handbook for deviants & I try to avoid letting young students know my contact details because they have free time to make life hell with constant requests to know, “What are you doing now”, or, “have you eaten?...” I did relent for a couple of insistent kids at the camp & during dinner I get a phone call from – Peta? It sounds like a girl's voice but the restaurant is noisy & I can't hear too well. I don't get it until his father, with a little English, explains that Peter, the very bright but not very communicative little boy at the camp had just arrived home &, “miss you veeery much”.....
…..Miss Piggy calls to say not only, “I miss you veeery much.....”, but also, “my father miss you veeery much.....” She's visiting her family in nearby, (an hour or so by train to the east of Yangzhou), Jiangyan, having not seen them since she moved to faraway Guizhou to be with her boyfriend, now husband. I may go to visit the family on Saturday but not to
Summer Camp
My attempt at a Halloween mask stay long. I have a train ticket to go to Xi'an on Monday.....
…..after all the students finally decamp from the Summer Camp a few of us are invited to a fantastic dinner in a restaurant at Shi Dai Guan Cheng, (Times Square, in the centre of Yangzhou, to you foreigners!), a treat from some of our Chinese teachers & helpers at the Summer Camp. Afterwards I'm left to return to the school by myself. Although the no.32 to the school only runs until about 7pm the no.26 goes to the far side of the bridge, only a short hop from home. There's lightning & distant thunder but the road is still dry. However it's still summer in Yangzhou, with tropical rainfall &, tonight, colossal thunderstorms, rather a rolling series continuing unabated well into the following day. By the time I'm halfway across the bridge it's literally like standing under the shower fully clothed. At least it's warm rain I tell myself as I pour the water out of my shoes when I get back.....
…..Barry, the African American teacher from Yangzhou University, who is at the Summer camp, introduces me to Beyonce. No, not that Beyonce, a
Summer Camp
Patrick, the Curse of the Mummy Chinese student who can apparently sing well & may be a useful addition to the lineup for Friday nights at Gloria Jean's coffee house.....
…..talking of singers, I have recently discovered messages from friends I thought had been long lost, Dave from South Africa, when I was there in the 1970's &, separately, his ex, Alison, who I believe now lives in Belgium. They're both still playing music. I knew music was a better life choice than gymnastics, why, even at my advanced age I can still crank out a tune.....
…..I spoke too soon about enrolling for an online degree course. After all the crazy blocking of the internet in the lead up to the Party's 90th birthday, which put back the whole process several weeks, came the complex process of planning course, getting to grips with academic acronyms, then the relentless programme of the summer camp which was not conducive to sorting out issues with the university when having to wait at least a day for an answer to each point, especially about ordering course materials from Australia. I also took a while to realise that, of course, in Australia, the first semester courses are the
Summer Camp
Kalyn & a teacher's assistant on a tiring excursion ones that start in February, not September! Maybe it's just nature's way of telling me I should do a shorter diploma course instead, the Chinese I want to study without all the extraneous elective units to pad it out for a degree. At least I should have time to sort all the issues out before February.....
…..Xi'an, the ancient capital of China, is in the central Shaanxi province,slightly north of west from Yangzhou, about 20 hours on a slow sleeper train, & south west of Beijing. Shaanxi is confusingly located just west of another province called Shanxi, with only one 'a'. It's a metropolitan area of, depending on your source of information, between 6 & 8 million, very rich in history, in a country already home to one of the world's oldest civilisations. The city centre is still surrounded by the old city walls, started in 194BC, 25km in total length & up to 16 metres thick. The Terracotta Warriors were discovered here & there are a number of other places to visit, in & out of the city. Watch out for more news in a couple of weeks or so.....
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