Great Company, Excellent Food !!

Last night was a great night ! I was invited to dinner at Nettie's apartment. Her parents cooked up a beautiful meal, a feast of many different traditional Chinese foods and I think she is correct in saying that her Dad makes the best Jaozi in town. It was delicious. The company was great, Nettie had also invited her two good friends Jess and Carol (Carol is also an English teacher from our school) and their daughters Annie and Mary. There was much to talk about and much laughter to be had and it was nice for me to be able to speak English freely for the afternoon and evening. The children all know a little English and performed some songs which was great. So much fun!

Nettie's Dad cooking Jaozi

Nettie's husband and Mum with a feast of good food.
Heads and shoulders, knees and toes :-)

So Let The Sun Shine In :-)

Just a report to say that the weather this week has been absolutely beautiful. It went from stinking hot to very cold within a few days and now (Hopefully for this week at least) it has settled on "Perfect". It has been good timing for me because this week I have been feeling the homesickness a tad and it's almost like the weather is saying "hey c'mon, how can you feel anything other than happy when you have such beautiful sunshine" Today after I had finished my classes I took this bit of footage...please excuse the squinting but it was sunny and I didn't think to take the sunnies of my head and put them on my eyes:-)

As I walked past one of the locals she offered me an orange...I was also asked to sit out the front of a cabin and chat with another local resident (but I find this difficult when my Putonghua is limited)and was also stopped a couple of times by other residents of this laneway, who were mostly all out attending to their vegetable gardens, they wanted to find out if I could speak with them...They had a good laugh at my limited vocabulary anyway. Here's some more pictures from my walk.

You've Got Mail !

Milk Mail to be exact :-) With all the carry on here about the milk...Mum and Dad have sent me some glorious "Full Cream Milk Powder" from Australia. THANKYOU...I have to admit, when you have had Dairy all your life and suddenly you're told not to eat or drink any dairy whatsoever...it is a bit of a bugger. I have been a little worried about the effect on my body....Maybe it's all just blown out of proportion...but you can't get a direct answer from anyone on whether it's safe to have or not. Anyway, for the moment I have Milk...YAY...
"I will not form attachments...I will not form attachments" :-)

A Brake In Routine

I don't particularly even notice when I do it, but somehow I get into set routines very easily...You know things like... Eat dinner at a certain time, clean up, take a shower then go on the internet etc. Tonight (fueled by the desire not to cook and clean up) I went to the school for dinner. The meals there are pretty good...a lot of the dishes are fairly spicy and mostly I don't really know what I am ordering, I just pick what looks good. I ended up with spicy potato and pork, some kind of chopped up fine noodle,bean,vegetable and beef dish and of course rice. Many of my students were all saying hello and I decided I should sit by myself so as not to look like I was picking favourites to sit with. I didn't take long for many to move to my table anyway :-) I don't mind at all....I enjoy speaking with them. They ask questions but also tell me much about their country..and...It is really good to hear them speaking English and practicing...some are really very good and they maybe don't get a lot of opportunity to show me that whilst in the classroom.
After dinner I was going to go straight back to my apartment ...but I decided to turn the other way and head down to the river. I was going to go for a walk but I got to where the ferry arrives and departs from and decided I would sit quietly and just watch and listen. It was so great! I watched as day turned to night and the city on the other side of the Yangtze lit up in all it's glory. I watched the ferry go back and forth and the bigger boats with their bright spotlights cruise past. I saw some unusual kind of insects(a moth I think) that had a neon green glowing body..there was a few of them flying past..I watched a Chinese junk boat pull in and tie down for the night.I watched and listened as the water of this grand river lapped against the banks. I watched and listened to the Chinese people arriving home to our district from the city across the water and also those departing for the city.. I watched and listened and enjoyed every moment.
This is a very beautiful place!

Listen and Learn

Whilst many of you back home in Australia still picture me frantically trying to learn as much Putonghua (Mandarin Chinese)as possible before my arrival here...just hold that image...it hasn't changed :-)
When I am on my own I can speak some basics to help with general things about town...BUT...I feel somewhat itimidated when I am around my Chinese friends. There is no reason to as they are so kind and helpful and have never laughed at my attempts at speaking their language...but I get very shy.
Today it was Lily to the rescue. Lily is a Chinese English teacher at my school and we share an office. She very kindly offered to teach me Putonghua and today was my first lesson in "Essential Chinese" :-) SUCH AS....
It has been really annoying me that when I go into a restaurant, I did not know how to ask for something mild..(some of the dishes here literally almost dissolve the lining all the way down from your nostrils to your stomach) Just kidding...but they are hot..Now I can order more confidently...YAY!
But really. It is very kind of Lily to teach me..she does not have to. She knew I was keen to learn more and just offered to help me out. For that, I am extremely grateful:-)

Life on the "Chang Jiang" (Yangtze)

Yesterday I took the ferry across the river. It is not even a 5 minute walk from my apartment to where the ferry departs from and only took between 5 and 10 minutes for the ferry to cross the river. It arrives at the park which is about a 10-15 minute walk to the square, so I really need to find out which bus I can catch for the times I don't feel like walking. Today I stayed around the park and that area of town..I just wanted a relaxing few hours. It is interesting to watch life going on along the banks of the great "Yangtze River".This is certainly not as crowded as the bus!This was the first person I saw swimming but by the end of the afternoon I had seen about three or fourI took me a few pass by's to work out that these people were actually cleaning sacks of garlic by treading on the sacks whilst in the water..

Exploring

After the busy end to last week and start of this week, I have had a relatively quite holiday. I've still been exploring new parts of the city and finding cool and interesting places. Walking the streets of a strange and foreign country is an unusual feeling and you never really know what you will wander upon. There are indeed some very unusual shops and things for sale here and many different ways of living compared to our culture. I have suprised myself at my ability to adapt and accept many things that I thought I wouldn't tolerate so well. I think the secret is maybe to remember that this is a different way of life here(which seems in somewhat a state of flux)and not to be judgmental.
Anyway back to the shops...Ever since I took my first journey into the city, I noticed that on the way (on the outskirts of town) that there is a shop with Drum kits in the window. I keep thinking of getting off the bus early to check it out but until the other day...have not get around to it. Well yes, on Friday..I pulled myself off the bus in the pouring rain and checked it out. The guy in there was really friendly and spoke some English...Upon hearing I played Drums, he handed me the sticks and wanted me to play..It was great...It's been a while now and I enjoyed it. He said to please come back at anytime,that there's a good noodle shop next door that we can eat at and then come back and play drums...so I will be taking him up on that offer. Also, I think he has some teachers that come in and teach traditional instruments such as "Erhu" and I'm quite keen to learn a traditional Chinese instrument.
Yesterday I ventured down Erma Lu ...The tourist guides list this as the cool street with clubs, coffee places, restaurants etc. I know that some Australians and other foreigners meet at a club there one night each week. I also found DVD alley which is full of little shops selling DVD players, speakers, electrical and of course DVD's and CD's. I bought myself "Bridget Jones's Diary" I love this film...maybe in some strange ways I relate to it :-) I actually can't receive the English channel on my TV and it was a joy to watch last night and listen to some English being spoken.I should also mention it was even more enjoyable as I decided to have a "junk food pig out" and enjoy my Australian "Caramello Koala's", "Freddo Frogs" and some "Lay's Crisps" that you can get here and they actually taste like Crisps from home. I have to ration my chocolate though...so I couldn't go too overboard on the finer things in life. "Bridget Jones's Diary" and junk food...the perfect combination (lol)
There are actually some DVD's here at my apartment but many are not really my scene. There is a "Mr Bean" one here which I watched the other night...funny thing was, it was in Russian :-)It gave me a chance to brush up and remember my Russian language skills (it was "Bean"...so not too much dialogue and had English subtitles) After exploring "Erma Lu" I walked to another part of town (on another side) and found a really great shopping place that Graham (another Aussie here in Yichang)told me about. There is a huge range of groceries...It's a bit out of my way,but not too bad, and I now know the number 1 bus will also get me there from the square.
So nothing too exciting to tell...just looking around :-)