vacation and lessons

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I’ve been on vacation now since the twenty-third of February. I started out with ten days in Guilin and Yangshou, which was nice. Yangshou was particularly good fun. Now I’m back in Kunming, taking intensive Chinese classes at Keats school. I studying Chinese with a private teacher for four hours a day, and I’m also learning Tai Chi for four hours a week. The Chinese lessons are really good, and I think I’m improving much more quickly than when I took the lessons last year -- mostly because last year I was a horrible student, and couldn’t be bothered to study. Now I’m spending about four hours a day studying to match my four hours and class, and progressing quickly as a result. As for Tai Chi, I expected it to be traumatic given my lack of co-ordination, but it really isn’t. It’s one on one lessons, so the teacher goes at my speed, and he’s very friendly and patient despite my lack of talent.

I’ve had the last few days off, due to Chinese New Year. One of my friends from Wuhan was passing through the city on her way to see the rest of Yunnan Provence, so we spent about two days doing a walking tour of the city. The weather was beautiful, and it was quite fun. I also got to properly experience Chinese New Year, something which I didn’t do last year, as I spent the entire first two days of the holiday on an epic forty hour train ride. It was fairly interesting. Yesterday in the morning there were about as many people in the streets as their usually are, and many shops and restaurants were open. My friend and I kept stumbling upon surprise parades and the like as we walked. Then, suddenly, at five or six o’clock the streets became absolutely deserted, and everything was boarded up. We hardly even saw any cars, which is unheard of in a major Chinese city. Although it was still broad day light people were setting off loud fire crackers. At one point we were walking down an empty street full of dilapidated wooden houses, and the fireworks sounded like gunfire, and the atmosphere was very much like being in an old western.

We spent the evening at a hostel bar, and watched people set off fireworks, and send out these miniature candle-powered hot air balloons.

This morning I walked back into town again, and the streets were so full of families celebrating that it was difficult to move. The whole city had a sort of carnival atmosphere, with venders selling cotton candy, and sugared fruit treats, while others offered a variety of games. Fountains that had been empty the whole time I’ve been in Kunming were suddenly filled, and brimming with goldfish that children were catching to take home. It was a good day to people watch, and see how close the local families are with each other.

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Comments

[Bruce Jones]

Chinese New Year sounds wonderful and Good Luck with your lessons...........Bruce