Shifu (Master)

The name here in China for a master tradesman, someone who is very skilled at what they do is "shifu"...For those of you into Kungfu movies...there is always a "Master" who guides their young apprentice. Well I visited a very skilled Shifu yesterday. Years of playing Goals in Hockey and throwing myself around sometimes comes back to haunt me and a few days ago it visited in the form of lower back and hip pain that became so sore, it was difficult to walk. The time had come to face another "China Experience".
Yes, I've tried the foot massage but really that's just what the Chinese do to relax. This time I was going to see a Massage Shifu who has 40 years experience to back him up.
A little nervous "YES"...From my experiences here, the Chinese love any chance to massage, beat and hit, prod and pull, pick and poke. I also knew that this place not only did massage but also "Cupping"(sucking your skin up into little glass bowls) and "Scraping"(scraping with a piece of horn over your back, bringing all the blood to the surface)both of which can be very beneficial but 1)look a little painful and 2)leave you looking like you've just been beaten up.
Upon my arrival the Shifu rearranged his schedule to treat the "Waiguoren"(foreigner). This kind of preferential treatment does happen quite a lot here. Not many foreigners in "Yichang" and people love the opportunity to be with you. I 99% of the time don't mind the inquisitiveness and am always happy to talk. When I have someone with me who can interpret both ways, it's often fun for everyone:-)Nettie came with me and we all had a great laugh with the Shifu who was indeed full of character and stories and very funny. My Chinese can still only pick up parts of information and my vocabulary is limited so when visiting a place like this for the first time, a fluent Chinese/English speaker is a safe option :-)
ANYWAYYYYY The massage started with an apprentice working on my neck and shoulders before the Shifu worked on my back. Yes it did involve the usual hitting and beating (That even happens when they wash your hair in the hairdressers here)but my back feels sooo much better today than yesterday, much less pain and it really wasn't that bad.
It's always interesting to see how different things are here and this was no exception. Many people who do massage here in China are actually blind. This was the case yesterday. They believe they have a gift for this profession because their other senses are so heightened with their lack of sight. Makes sense!
So now I have also found a great place for natural Chinese massage and therapies.
Will I try the Cupping and Scraping? I think so? Some things the Chinese really do exceptionally well and I believe these treatments could be very beneficial...a little painful maybe??? You never know until you try.

Foo Lun Cha

I've decided that it is indeed a useless task trying to forecast Yichang weather...we are back to about 20 degrees and sunshine this week after around 0 degrees and snow last week. Sooooooo....to change the subject, today I went off on another jaunt to give some lessons to another school in Yichang. This time not far away, just over in the city. As part of the "keeping good relationships with other schools" My school put me on loan every now and again, just to give some students and teachers that don't have foreign teachers at their schools a few lessons and a chance to speak with a native English speaker. Today I had two classes (40 kids in each) with some Junior One students. It was VERY HARD WORK!The students at this school only had very, very basic English. They couldn't speak or understand much at all. I often get told "our school(Y.C.F.L.S) is the best, has the best students, has the best teachers, has the best grades, best work ethic" etc etc etc. Today maybe I came to realise that it is infact, Very True! How lucky I am to have such great kids to work with. YES, some days they can be frustrating, but, they are great kids! Even the most troublesome seem to have BIG hearts and are more over excited than naughty. I'm so grateful to have come to "Yichang Foreign Language School."
I must make mention of a funny thing that happened whilst teaching one of the classes at the other school today, which is what inspired the title of this post. One child came up to the front to have a go at the "Taboo game" which I was playing with the kids...His word was "Bread"....I cant remember the taboo word...He desperately started telling his team "foo lun cha, foo lun cha!"Everyone looked puzzled. I said to him "NOOOOO...you can't speak Chinese in this game, ONLY ENGLISH...NO CHINESE!"He looked at me and said "Wo shuode Yingwen" which is "I'm speaking English"
It was then I realised along with everyone else, he was saying "For Lunch, For Lunch"
All everyone could do was laugh :-)The teachers took me out for dinner after classes and we were still all laughing about it. Ahh the joys of teaching English in China!!!

Very COLD!!

The sunny warm pictures around the fountain in Yiling square last Saturday (in my last post),well, I think they've gone for the year now. The weather has turned bitterly cold this week. The forecast is for snow tomorrow night and Monday. The temperature is clocking in around 4 degrees give or take some...down to the minus range at night. 28 degrees last Saturday, I put that at quite a big jump, don't you?

Yiling Square Fountain

I was in "Yiling Square" on Saturday. The weather was stunning and I sat for a while with my Chinese book trying to learn this language which seems equivalent to walking the length of "The Great Wall". I sat with the women doing their knitting and the people playing their card games and even the young couples cleaning each others ears out with ear spoons :-)
Here in Yichang, Yiling Square is a great place to just hang and watch all the different activities that Chinese people like to do. Of an evening, it is full with people dancing, mornings many people exercise there and in general anytime you will find kids playing, skating or whatever the fad game happens to be at the current time. It also has a wonderful fountain that (I think) only goes a couple of times a day on Saturdays (for about 20 minutes)I'm never sure what time of the day and although I've seen it in it's full glory a few times now, I've don't think I've ever had my camera with me at the time and taken pictures of it, but on Saturday I did :-)
Here's some photos for you.

So much excitement with the kids and after it's finished they all love to play where it was spurting ferociously just a minute before.


Here's a short video!

My Little Casserole Dish!

Anyone that knows me also knows I'm not really very domesticated, mostly when it comes to cooking :-)I did make efforts last year (a few times a week) to find some similar foods and cook some similar meals to those I would eat back home in Australia, but this year I seemed to have become more integrated in the Chinese lifestyle and I have been eating mostly Chinese food. I eat at the school food hall quite a lot because my meals are provided for free and as I have mentioned a few times before, the lifestyle here involves much eating out for breakfast, lunch and dinner so restaurant eating is very common and a normal part of life here.
Because of my Stomach cold last week, I decided I had better try and get into a bit of home cooking again, the biggest trouble is that I really don't enjoy cooking very much at all and of course the other trouble is finding the right ingredients.
I decided I wanted to make "Bread Pudding". Whilst I can get butter here, it tastes very unusual and I don't like it very much so I just used Bread, Sultanas, Milk (kind of:), Eggs and Sugar. I searched and searched for some kind of bowl that I would be able to use in my little oven. Because they don't cook with ovens here in China, It was a hard task. I finally found the perfect Casserole type dish that would withstand high temperature and I'm loving it!! My first bread puddings I had to make in some muffin cases that Mum sent over to me, but now the casserole dish makes the perfect bread pudding it even fits perfectly in my little oven.
My little casserole dish has inspired me to greater heights (with some inspirational ideas from my mum) LOOK a "Roast Pork Pot Roast" (kind of :-)Complete with crackling.It must have been tasty because Nettie didn't feel compelled to add from her trusty jar of Chinese "HOT Spicy Relish", which she must keep handy on my shelf for emergencies :-)
Who knows what will be next???
Any ideas gratefully accepted :-)


Bread Pudding

Giving Thanks

I've spent quite a bit of time in the Chinese Hospital again :-( Tuesday I felt so ill that I didn't see, notice or care much about what they said or done or what went on around me. After blood tests etc, I was told "Stomach Cold and a Bacterial infection" hence why I spent the whole previous night with my head in a toilet bowl (that is when my Butt wasn't occupying the space) It really was very nasty, I can't remember a stomach virus that made me feel so unwell..anyway without going into the details to much... I could only just walk on Tuesday and because of this, I ended up on a bed with an antibiotic,saline,glucose drip for three hours (first part of a three day course)The next two days the drip was much quicker only an hour visit each time as I was now stronger and they could feed the drip through more quickly.
The second and third days I got to observe the goings on around me more. People everywhere, A big room for people to sit in and hang their drips up for an hour or so, guys coughing and spluttering with drips in while they still puff on their cigarettes. Girls yelling at their boyfriends (a sign of affection I'm told...apparently shows they care :-)Babies through to old people, all sitting around with drips in their hands. On the third day we walked back to the room where they had been giving me my antibiotics and the room was empty....The twenty or so beds, chairs, patients, Doctors and Nurses....ALL GONE! So for the third day I joined everyone else on the chairs and observed all that I have mentioned. It is very interesting. I have to say I am truly grateful to the hospital and the staff for making me feel better, I really felt so ill and they were very efficient and good. I think good Nurses must be the same the world over, they should be held in very high esteem. Whilst things are different here, they still do the best with what they have and in many situations seem more efficient, especially when you think of the pure number of people they have to deal with everyday.

Sea Change in Xiamen

A week long holiday for the combined celebration of Moon Festival and National Day saw us visit Xiamen for a 6 day change of scenery. I still don't know how they figure that it is a week holiday when we have to work two weekends to have it. Today I'm back to school(Friday) and I have last Mondays classes...tomorrow I have last Tuesdays classes and Sunday I have last Wednesdays classes...Before the holiday I had this Thursdays class on the Saturday and this Friday's class on the Sunday. Then of course this Monday...back to normal...and I have Today again on Monday....DID YOU GET ALL THAT :-)
ANYWAY...for this sacrifice we had a week long break and I went to Xiamen for 6 days with Nettie and her family. We drove to Wuhan (4 Hours) and then a short plane trip to Xiamen for a sea change. The weather reminded me a lot of Perth. Being on the coast it was very windy and warm. We took in the sights of Xiamen, Gulang Yu island and Jimei. Xiamen is infact itself an island that is connected to the mainland by a 5 km long causeway with a train line and footpath.
We visited Nanputuo Buddhist Temple...very, very busy and I couldn't help thinking what a different lifestyle the monks in this temple have compared to the monks in Bodhinyana Monastery back home in W.A.


We went on a two hour boat trip to get a closer look at neighbouring Taiwan (Jinmen Island)...this saw most of the boat load of passengers reaching for the sick bags as the water got more rough...after that we headed to Gulang Yu island...very pretty and interesting. It is full of old colonial style architecture and used to be the home of all the European Consulates. Easy to get lost in the maze of small streets and alleyways everywhere giving much to see and do.
Since I have been in China...I have never seen so many people as I saw throughout our holiday in Xiamen. As they say here "People mountain, people sea". It was also clear though that the locals lived an oceanside lifestyle much the same way as we do when living near the coast in W.A. Of course there are obvious differences but essentially you could feel the same vibe. I enjoyed being near the coast for a while and soaking up the warmth and the sea air.



There are many more photos, some of which are uploaded on my flicker account.. click on flicker link in my blog to see the rest :-)