It has almost been a week that I’ve been in China, and the puzzle pieces seem to be falling into place nicely. I now have a Chinese name: Da Zhi. I can even write the characters by myself, but I do struggle a bit with the pronunciation. Even that thought is getting better and better, and I can say Ni Hao (Hello) and xie xie (thank you) so perfectly that the people continue with long strings of Chinese because they think I can say more.
Anyway, so from the previous post just to fill in a few blanks. At Wuhan airport, my final airport of arrival in China, I met Jack, a Chinese English teacher from the school where I am teaching. Friendly fellow, very helpful and courteous and refused every time to let me carry my 16kg bag which was about as big as him. I guess strength doesn’t always follow size as he managed well without breaking a sweat in the Wuhan humidity.
As I missed my intended connection in Guangzhou, I arrived quite late and it was too late for us to start with the mammoth trek to Shiyan. A taxi took us to the far out reaches of Wuhan (or it could have been the centre for all I know, quite a big place actually) where we found a hotel to crash for the night. Quite possibly the first time that a foreigner has ever stayed at this hotel, because as the doors opened on the floor our room was on, the attendant, of which there is one on every floor, nearly sprained her eyebrows as her eyes stretched as big as they could upon seeing me get out of the lift.
After a quick shower in a room which was no different to any western hotel, we headed downstairs for some much needed dinner. After a short discussion about what I do and don’t eat, he ordered a beef dish, a chicken dish and a vegetable dish with a side order of rice. It was massive portions for two people and I didn’t manage to eat as much as I would have liked to. I’m sure my stomach shrunk in Malaysia, as I ate as little as possible from the large variety of fried foods there.
Jack also introduced me to some Chinese beer which game in a ridiculously large bottle at an insanely low price. I drank with vigor as the beer was crisp and refreshing. I would regret this for the next two days as all the traveling, walking and not having any money to buy water dehydrated me a bit more than I realised, and I am convinced there are some illegal chemicals in the beer and I suffered a pounding headache until I managed to rehydrate myself properly again. Nevertheless, sleep that night, came easily.
The next morning we woke up early to go to the train station where we had to still buy our tickets for the trip to Shiyan. We took a short taxi ride as the morning traffic hadn’t started and soon headed into what looked like a residential area with lots of high rise apartment buildings, before we turned a corner and suddenly found ourself on a big square which was in front of the train station. Big squares seems to be quite popular in front of areas where people would gather, such as bus and train stations, shopping centres, etc. Usually tiled or paved with brick, but vast and often empty.
We waited an hour or so for our train to depart and when we finally moved through the narrow crowded tunnels below the platform and crammed into the coach, we found and occupied our assigned seats. The train was packed with not a single seat available. The seating configuration I guess was not unlike trains anywhere else in the world – one row with 3 seats left, and one row with 3 seats right. The seats where configured so that 3 face 3 back to back with the next 3 that face 3. The spaces where narrow which forces you to sit pert for the whole journey. And the journey took… 7 hours. This was longer than the two flights I had to take from Malaysia to China put together.
The train went annoyingly slow at times and I wondered whether this was really necessary, as the track was straight and on flat ground. The scenery was at least mildly interesting and slowly changed from very urban to suburban to rural and we even traveled through some farm land. Shiyan is in the mountains, and after what felt like forever, we finally reached the mountainous areas, passed through some long tunnels and arrived in Shiyan. From here, it was another short taxi ride until we made it to the school.
I was taken to my dormitory, or apartment, I guess, depending on your point of view. I have a living room, a kitchen, a bedroom, and a bathroom. Like the squares, big and empty. The bathroom and kitchen was a bit of a mess, and I should really be cleaning it as I sit here now, but I had a go at the bathroom this morning, and for all the trouble and chemicals I poured onto the dirty floor, toilet, bath, it didn’t have much effect. So i’m goofing off a bit typing before I go back to try again.
The bedroom is nice and big with a double bed and new bedsheets. This is of course greatly appreciated, but I haven’t slept on a double bed since my separation from the Ex. This leads to lots of rolling around at night searching for someone… subconscious programming I guess, I have quite a bit of that going and and need to occupy my mind with something else really.
Anyway, then I met Prince. Fellow foreign language teacher from Ghana. He’s been here for 3 months and took me under his wing to show me the ropes. He’s also thankful for a colleague, as apparently his workload has been a bit crazy with him being alone. He also gets the short end of the stick as even the Chinese are a bit racist towards black people from Africa, and he was happy that a white face has arrived, because this means they will now treat him better too.
Nevertheless, I spent the last few days sitting in on his classes and he is a very good teacher. He teaches all ages from the very young and very cute kids averaging around 4/5 in age, to the slightly older and almost teenage kids averaging ages of about and 11 and 12.
So, I learned a lot from him and on Thursday I taught my first 3 classes. The first class I went a bit fast and used words that the kids didn’t understand. Then I adapted the lesson a bit for the 2nd class and it went better, but still too fast with too many new words and too little repeating, so they struggled to remember the words. Then in the 3rd lesson I guess that was the best. I went really slowly and repeated the new words a lot and the kids enjoyed it better. I based the lesson around my introduction and told them where I’m from…. the people here do not know where South Africa is, so I also worked in the continents into the lesson.
The kids have never learned the names of the continents in English, so even the words Asia had to be repeated multiple times. After words, I thought them how to sing The Lion Sleeps Tonight, which my first class sang so beautifully I thought I should record and send to a label. Yesterday, Friday, I loafed the whole day as the schedules hadn’t been worked out yet. Monday, hopefully, I will be in the full swing of things.
Right, it is now 11 o’clock – let me go and try to clean the rest of my apartment before lunch time. I overslept on purpose this morning but also missed breakfast, which isn’t so bad – as the whole week they have been serving steamed bread with some sort of watery substitute for porridge and I haven’t been to keen on that. Lunch is normally the best meal of the day, and I’m famished.
Oh, i also bought some cleaning gloves just now as the chemicals I use are indeed very powerful and would ruin my hands if I let it lie on there for too long. Back to the bowels of the bowls I go.