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Published: September 27th 2014
Just resting...
Spotted at one on the businesses just down the street from my apartment...Fuck-Off
No, not you, dear reader…that’s what it announced on the tee-shirt of one of my more demure, butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-her-mouth students, (Maggie, I think).
Uh-oh…do I have a closet rebel in the class making a ‘statement’ or…?
Better nip ‘it’ in the bud, whatever ‘it’ might be.
I wandered over to Belinda, my lovely and indispensable translator, and quietly pointed out the naughty word, indicating that we should really have a chat with Maggie.
Belinda flushed with embarrassment: apparently walking around with naughty words is not the done thing in China…not at all the done thing...
“Hi, Maggie” (me being all semi-stern, but not really…)
“Hello, Mr. Jefferies?” looking quizzical, with that
‘what have I done?’ look.
“Maggie, er…do you know what your tee-shirt says?”
“What?” totally confused.
Belinda steps in for the heavy lifting:
“Your tee-shirt says
fuck-off…”
“What? Really? I am SO sorry!!!” Maggie’s turn to be totally embarrassed.
It turns out she had bought the shirt because it had Japanese script on it as well, which she thought looked cool, and hadn’t realised it also said what it said in English. Apparently,
Military Training Week
Eight thousand first-year students do a week of basic training on campus... she was also quite surprised that anyone would actually sell a shirt that said fuck-off on it at all….
Roll-call is always a bit of a hoot, especially as I am getting to know who the students are and working out who the ’interesting’ ones might be. It is standard practice that Chinese students take an anglicized name so the foreign teacher has a fighting chance of remembering their names in some form or another. This, of course, opens the door for some creative appellations.
My first Roll-Call of the semester:
“Good Morning everyone!”
“Good Morning!” “OK: let’s do roll-call.”
“Scarlett?”
“Here!” “Good Morning, Scarlett.”
“Snake?”
“Here!” “Good Morning, Snake.”
“Bolt?”
“Here!” “Good Morning, Bolt.”
“Sixgod? Sixgod?? Really?”
“Yes: Sixgod. Really…” “Oh. OK then. Good Morning, Sixgod…”
Of course, after a couple of weeks I don’t even really notice that I have an Avatar, an Only, an Enricon and a Wind in the class…(Please note: all the names related here are real—I couldn’t make them up…seriously…)
It’s Freshman Week, so the new intake of first-year
Jinhua Bentley dealership...
...just opened a couple of blocks away from my apartment...there's a bit of money here... students are here, which means Military Training…all first-year students have a week of military basic training with full-on camo fatigues and Regular Army Infantry Drill Sergeants instructing the whole square bashing thing, and by the end of the week the students are ‘parade marching’ in the basketball courts and baseball fields. However, it is a
bit unnerving watching eight, yes, EIGHT, thousand teenage girls and boys all goose-stepping in perfectly synchronised platoon formations.
Of course, this opens up a big can of worms about rampant militarism in China and all that, but the curmudgeonly side of me is wistfully envisaging some of our more entitled little darlings on a rainy parade ground at 8:03 a.m. on a chilly Monday under the gimlet eye of a rather flinty looking Chinese Drill Sergeant….
I have my official college ID now, which is my key-card for the card-lock on the PC stations in the classrooms and is also a smartcard pre-loaded with currency that I can use in the various cafeterias dotted around the campus. I can also load with separate money for the bus system, but I haven’t bothered with that, as I always seem to have a bucket of
Downtown scooters...
...at the other end of the Bentley spectrum: outside one of the department stores on Friday morning... change. In one cafeteria building there are three floors catering to students and faculty, as well as at least a dozen apparently private enterprises operating under the same roof—amazing! The food is good and tasty and is served cafeteria style; in just one of the serving areas there is usually twenty or so dishes ranging from stir-fried vegetables of all kinds, tofu dishes, dumplings, soups to a few meat/fish dishes. It would not be difficult going ‘vegetablist’ in China: not so much out of ethical and philosophical considerations, but more like the (very) old joke:
“My dog doesn’t eat meat.”
“Oh—why not? “I don’t give him any…”
(Drum roll…)
I usually have two or three vegetable dishes, a meat dish and rice, of course. The portions look quite small, but I can
never finish all of it…total cost five yuan if I have three vegetable dishes; seven yuan if I have two: that’s 90 cents and $1.25 respectively…it’s interesting that food services at Canadian Universities and Colleges operate as ‘for-profit’ enterprises, whereas in China they are subsidised by the Chinese (Communist) government as a ‘service’…
As I mentioned in a
City Bike program...
...in action...one of the many bike stations around the city... previous post, Jinhua has a city-bike program that is quite intriguing: this is not a new concept by any means, many European cities have them, as well as other Asian cities, but it is interesting to see it working in practice. There seems to be bike-stations all over the city and I don’t know how many actual bicycles are in operation, but it muts be in the hundreds, I would think, and seems to be very well used. The user can pick up and drop off at any of the completely self-serve bike station in the city, so really very flexible.
The system works like this: you apply for and are issued a swipe card that is good for any bike-station in the city, for which you pay a deposit of 300 yuan, about $50. The first hour is free and then 2 yuan (35 cents) an hour up to a maximum of 24 hours, which would cost 20 yuan ($3.50). You can also use your bike card on public transit and get a 20% discount…eminently sensible.
Next week I will have been a month in China and also the Autumn National Holiday, so I get a week
Downtown Intersection...
...one of the busier intersections: note the tent for the scooter riders to shelter from the elements... off, which is very welcome, particularly as the temperatures have thankfully started to moderate. The entire country apparently is on the move during the holiday and the transportation systems and anywhere remotely bordering on being ‘touristy’ are totally mobbed, so I will be staying put and working on my own school work, prepping for 2015 (yikes!) Spring Semester at VIU, as well as grading almost eighty essays—it will be interesting to see if the plagiarism is any worse than when I was here last time…oh well…
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LizzieKatz(aka Anne)
non-member comment
Holy Moly!!
As we heard over and over, "we want to come to Canada, big country and not very many people!" I now understand completely.