The Arrival

Picked up my new Guzheng today, isn't she beautiful! Sounds amazing. I feel like I should apologize to her because I'm still learning ;-)



When I improve a bit more maybe I'll let you hear her too ;-)

励志警句

"Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it"

Buddha

Tiptoe through the tulips

Amsterdam? Pinch me am I dreaming? Nope, I'm still in China! Well, that's what it felt like today when we ventured, not very far, infact, stayed in Yichang and even stayed in my part of town. An international flower exhibition that they somehow manage to keep running for something like 6 weeks.

It shows of their agricultural/horticultural skills and shows an amazingly impressive array of famous flowers from different parts of the world.




You could even wander around and check out the water grown vegetables and how the green houses work.

Very interesting, a really HUGE display of many different areas and a massive splash of colour to what can sometimes be a rather grey environment.



Like I said, you could easily be forgiven for thinking you'd somehow entered the twilight zone or teleported to another country...or even at least rocked up to some spectacular in a big Chinese city such as Shanghai or Beijing.
Well done, Yichang. What a breathe of fresh air.

Australian Easter in China

My last post mentioned habits I've formed since arriving in China...I guess it works both ways. Look at the girls enjoying their Easter Eggs whilst watching "The Wiggles" compliments of Grandma and Grandpa in Australia and of course "The Easter Bunny" :-). This morning I walked onto the balcony to see Carol eating Cocoa Pops (She often eats cereal like Cornflakes, Fruit loops etc) for breakfast whilst Nettie ate bread, butter and vegemite ( a taste which as she puts it"her body has now totally accepted" :-)
Back to Easter...The girls seemed to really enjoy themselves searching for Easter eggs and decorating eggs...and of course eating the Chocolate. Most Chinese people have heard of Christmas but very few have heard of Easter.

China habits good and bad?

Actually I'm not sure if I have posted about this already at some time, but I often think about it so it maybe warrants a mention, in case I haven't :-)
As I was skipping over the wet areas on the pavement yesterday, it made me think about what other Chinese habits, good or bad, that I have taken on.

The avoiding of wet areas on the pavement thing may sound a little strange to those not accustomed to life in China but it becomes kind of obvious why when you live here. The same logic also sees me take of my shoes and don a pair of slippers upon entering the door of my apartment, which of course is probably a much more familiar custom for you to read about :-)

Unfortunately along with the Chinese people I often wash my hands much more regularly than is probably considered normal. At first I found it funny that no-one in Macca's would touch their hamburgers etc with their hands, always holding everything in the wrapper, but now, I fear I follow suit...BUT...If I go to Macca's I usually order a big Mac, which comes in a box, not wrapped and I use a little bottle of sterilizing soap (the kind that you don't need water)...BUT....failing all that(if I forget the soap)...I don't worry about it as much and just eat the food :-)

Still on food, I now drink soup from the bowl instead of using a spoon (sorry mum ;-) and I too spit any bits of bone etc onto the table near my bowl if there is not little plate provided to put it on.

I can't bring myself to eat the skin on fruit and vegetables anymore...ie apples, pears,potatoes, tomatoes etc. They just won't do it here, which makes me think...why??? is the fertilizer and pesticides really that bad that it doesn't even wash off?When in Rome... but let me tell you peeling grapes is not my idea of fun and unfortunately I'm lazy enough that it puts me of eating much of the stuff when i know there is so much preparation to get it in your mouth.

I use old traditional Chinese folk remedies for minor ailments...often turning to steamed pear and rock sugar for coughs or brown sugar water for women's problems :-)

I seem to sometimes come out with strange mixtures of Chinese and English when I talk.

I'm a little obsessed about if I'm warm enough, people here are always constantly say "Make sure you keep warm". The weather here in Yichang is so changeable that it's not unusual to see people walking around in a down coat when the weather has hit 25 degrees +

I'm sure there are many many more, which I can't think of right now. Ahhh the things we do!

Guzheng and Note Flight "What a score"

Since I have been learning Guzheng, I've been trying to come up with creative ways to practice whilst I'm waiting for my own actual Guzheng to arrive. It's hard to keep up with a class full of chinese students, even if they are only very young, because I think as most people know, Chinese students work ethics are VERY high. I'm grateful for my background in music because not only am I dealing with learning the instrument but I'm also dealing with learning the Chinese for everything. It adds a few seconds on to my thinking process when I have to first translate in my head what Tu Laoshi has just asked me before I can do what she wants me to do. For example play "bei di yin mi " (very low register "mi" string, as in do,re,mi,so,fa,la,ti,do) or gao yin do (High registered "do" string.)
For those who are musically inclined, the Guzheng is split into 4 registers, bei di yin qu, di yin qu, zhong yin qu, gao yin qu, tuned in a major pentatonic scale and 1 high string "bei gao yin do string". 21 strings which as the teacher calls out (in chinese obviously)or writes, in the unusual way that Chinese write music (with numbers and dots above and below them and dashes for note values)...I have to find...very quickly. What a challenge!
Last week I drew the guzheng strings onto a big piece of card, so I could practice what each string is called and where each string is. This week I hit GOLD on the internet when I found this site
http://www.noteflight.com/info/make_music
Not only is it great for me to practice memorising melodies for guzheng (like the short tune we have to be able to sing and identify the notes for at this weekends lesson) but also at "Noteflight" I can start writing and composing songs again, something I havent done now for many many years. For my Muso mates, I urge you, CHECK IT OUT!

General Report

General report.....
#1 Work
#2 The never ending chore of thinking of lesson plans and making them fun for the kids.
#3 Restaurants, baoziguan and more restaurants.
#4 Learning Theory and basics for Guzheng
#5 Shopping(mostly window) and hanging with friends
#6 Enjoying the sudden change in temperature...last week below 10C... 24C today....31C tomorrow. Bring on the beautiful sunshine :-)

Oh for some reason this semester, many teachers come and watch my classes. Not unusual now for a different english teacher to often sit in the corner and take notes (or I usually try and get them to join in:-) Most of the J1 teachers seem to incorporate many of my ideas and games (and their own) into their lessons now or ask for advice on activities they could do to enhance whatever they have to teach from the text books (which I kind of feel proud about!) UNFORTUNATELY it seems to have morphed into a "teaching the teachers" period once a week and....it seems that the "English Club" (fancy name, just meaning an extra lesson)will also appear on my timetable for a class of the best english students.
All I see my job as here, is to teach the kids to have fun with english, give them an opportunity to listen to a native english speaker and understand and use what they learn. They work sooo hard on grammar and all the key basics in their "real english class", my stuff is just supplementary...Still if they think it's helping...Great!
A lot like life really...seem to need to find a balance of "realising there is some kind of purpose" but also "not taking it all too seriously".