Dragon Boat Festival Holiday

I should make mention of the fact that we have had a few days National holiday for "Dragon Boat Festival" I got to spend a wonderful day celebrating this with Netties parents...we ate all my favourite food and the traditional "Dragon Boat Day" food of "Zongzi" (sticky Rice with different fillings wrapped in leaves). The pair of us then took off to do some shopping in "Walking Street", then back again for dinner of Jaozi..I'm very spoilt!
Today I am still not working (being Saturday) but many of the teachers are working supervising and marking exams for our school entrance exams. SO many cars and people, kids everywhere this morning. Of course there are only a limited amount of spaces and our school is very, very popular...so many children trying to get accepted for next term.
I don't think that China has quite got the hang of "Holiday"...I got Thursday and Friday off but have to teach Thursdays classes on Sunday and the other teachers also got Thursday and Friday off but had to work today for the entrance exams and also do the same as me and teach tomorrow!

Evenings outside my apartment

I guess that on this blog you see alot of MY experiences here in China but I don't take much footage or photos of everyday life around me. The main reason for this is I don't want to intrude or seem overly interested in the way the Chinese live and the things they do that fill their days BUT for the last few weeks I've been watching the ladies from around here where I live, partaking in one of the most favourite pastimes here in Yichang...Dancing...You can see people dancing of an evening all around this city...In Yiling Square there are hundreds of people dancing every night.
Last night Nettie gave me a lift home and whilst I wasn't game enough to video the ladies (most of whom I say hello to everyday, some of them also teachers) Nettie said she would take a video...they wouldn't mind. SO here is life downstairs outside my apartment of an evening. The small shop is where I buy a lot of bits and pieces shopping...It is right next door. A light comes on part way through the video so it gets much brighter :-) I actually did a little dancing too but only for a couple of minutes AND NOT ON VIDEO :-)

Putting my kitchen to use :-)

It's no secret that I'm really not much of a cook and add to that the fact that the ingredients that I have cooked with most of my life are not on the shelves here in China(or I just don't recognise them on the shelves...lol)well it adds up to some pretty unimaginative cooking on my behalf. They don't have ovens here in China (other than the little bench top ones)I bought myself one of the small ovens but I only ever really cook Chicken wings in it...or toast :-)
On Sunday my friend Jess turned up with the intention of cooking some western food at my apartment, in my oven...She was determined to make croissants (difficult by any ones standards)and a mixture of other baked goods plus some salad. I stayed away from the kitchen and babysat the kids in the lounge room...:-)
She did a great job ...check it out ! Maybe now I will be inspired to branch out and try some more different things ? Maybe it is a gentle persuasive shove to say "GET YOUR BUTT INTO GEAR AND COOK US A WESTERN MEAL" LOL..
Mum, when I come home for the holiday in a few weeks...can we work on some things that I can cook to impress with???We can buy a mini oven and limit our ingredients to pretend we are in China :-)



While the gourmet cooking was going on...I built cubby houses and drew pictures :-)

ChangYang and the Qing Jiang

Thursday we went up the road...about one or two hours away to the county of "Changyang". Mr Zhou (Jay) was going to go on a guided tour for the day with his work mates and invited us along. The day was long but the scenery in the area whilst cruising along the Qing Jiang was very beautiful. I didn't actually do much climbing and took the option to laze about in the shade and cool breeze at "Wu Luo Zhong Li Shan" . We cruised the river, saw some wild monkeys having a drink at the waters edge and took in the spectacular scenery...Very Beautiful!I really enjoy getting to see the different counties in Yichang. So far I've been to DangYang, Yidu, Shennongjia, Wufeng and ChangYang. Yichang is a GREAT place! I think it's kind of a well kept secret...SSSHHH
don't tell too many people :-)





Many of the mountains take on shapes of things like tigers etc...This last picture is a Buddha...hard to see in the photo, but it really does look like a Buddha when you are there!

22-05-2009 Qing Jiang

Will I ever get the Hang of the Chinese Language?

Chinese Language really is difficult. Tonight young Carol was pretending to talk on the phone. Nettie asked her "Ni zai he shui da dianhua" Well although my Chinese is improving there are only so many words I can still remember and in Chinese they use the same word for many different meanings, depending on the four tones to distinguish between those meanings. I know these words as - He (Drink) Shui(water) Da (Big) dianhua (telephone) "Ni zai" means "You doing"
Well they thought it was very funny when I asked Nettie why she had asked Carol "drink water big telephone" but apparently the tones are different and she actually asked her "whom are you making a phone call to..."
How many years will it take me to learn this language????? It gave both of them especially Carol a really good laugh anyway :-) lol

Wufeng

The trip to Wufeng was very interesting. The journey was long(4 1/2 hours in the car) and the roads were really bad (muddy, full of holes and twists and turns)infact we had our trusty Chinese travel sickness dots behind our ears and other teachers took car sick tablets...but the journey still claimed casualties with a few churning stomachs not able to handle the gruelling journey. In total there was six teachers from our school, a reporter from the "Three Gorges Daily" newspaper and the driver. We arrived for lunch on Thursday and then went to visit the school. City schools have been teamed with a sister school in the country to try and help them whenever possible...Our school has been teamed with the school in Wufeng. Wufeng is really very different to any other Chinese town I have visited...It just had a different feel, I'm not sure why?? It is set in the mountains and the scenery is breath taking. The town is considered quite poor and many of the teachers kept mentioning that it must be the poorest Chinese town I have visited. It may be poor in monetry terms but the people there were very, very friendly and I liked them very much. It is not a tourist town and it is quite rare to see any foreigners there, so I aroused much curiosity...but interestingly enough, there was no "Waiguoren"(foreigner) comments and no "Hello's" followed by giggling...they were just curious and looked at me a lot :-)Much of the town is populated by one of China's minority groups, the Tujia people...their food was delicious and as I mentioned the people were very friendly and kind. Once the kids at school got over the initial shock of seeing a foreigner walking around their school, I was quite literally mobbed :-) Many of the kids worked in teams to construct sentences and then one brave child would come and ask me the question that they had just constructed..They wanted to talk,touch, have photo's taken, ask questions...really an amazing experience. Seems I have a new nickname...xióng māo..means Panda :-) (not big, fat and cuddly lol ...but....precious, valuable and rare)
The class I gave the teachers ended up being ok. I stress before, am fine whilst teaching and then stress after that it was good enough :-) but thats just me I guess.

Fear Factor 10

When I studied at the conservatorium of music, I (and all my class mates) used to say "at least nothing could ever be any worse than the fear we have to face here" We had to play in front of famous musicians, lecturers and our peers, continually being critiqued and pulled apart by these people and then there was also the auditioning processes etc and public performances...they really were difficult times and we all agreed that at least it set us up for life....not many experiences could surely be any worse than some of those fears we had to face. Well tomorrow morning...I will set of early with a couple of other teachers from our school to a town called "Wufeng". It is a rural town in our province and is about 4-5 hour drive from Yichang. We are going to give teaching demonstrations at a school there. I don't know what I was thinking when I agreed to doing this,I was obviously in a happy go lucky mood or something. I have since found out that many teachers from other schools around the area will also come to the school in Wufeng and that I don't have to give my lesson to the students but infact to the Chinese English teachers....about 50 or more of them. I tell ya...It has been one of the days. We were only told yesterday that we are going at 7.25 am tomorrow morning and staying for two days. I really find the spur of the moment living here hard to get used to.

Sanxia Stone

Sunday I went with friends to see Mr Ma and his collection of Sanxia stones. These stones are picked up from here in Yichang in the Yangtze River. The pictures on these stones are naturally formed. As you can see they are very beautiful and they have some very distinct pictures and Chinese Characters on them. What pictures can you see? :-)
Mr Ma very kindly gave me a small piece of Chinese Agate. The stone has healing and purifying qualities. If you put the stone in water it cleans and keeps the water fresh. If you wear it, it is good for your health. It is a living stone and must be kept in water or worn against your body to stay alive. It also brings good luck in a variety of forms. I got to try the water cleaning test (as my water kept going on and off yesterday). When the water was back on I filled a cup with murky water and put the agate in the cup. That afternoon the water was clear and had small bubbles all around the sides of the cup...very cool :-)

Unbelievable

We were chatting whilst eating dinner on Sunday evening (at yet another new restaurant). We decided to count just how many different restaurants I have eaten at here in Yichang. People here eat out alot. We worked it out area by area, trying to remember all of the different places. The figure we came up with was 41....41 different restaurants in about 9 months....and we are sure to have forgotten some of them. AMAZING! In my culture that should may be cause to feel a little ashamed...Should I feel ashamed here ? I dont know ? But the food tastes great!

FengHuang (Phoenix Town)

Feng Huang at night (from the hotel)


This last weekend was a long weekend for us here in China for May Day. The holiday was Friday, Saturday and Sunday unlike our long weekends that encompass a Monday. I ended up having a Chinese adventure to a town in Hunan province called “FengHuang”. We (Nettie's family and myself) left Thursday night on the train at around about midnight and arrived about 7 or 8 hours later in the town of “Jishou”..We had ½ an hour to grab a quick breakfast and then met the tour group and took an hour or so ride out to the village of Dehang. A note about the travelling – the train here in China is quite an experience! We had Soft sleepers (A cabin with two bunk of two beds high and a door)on the way to FengHuang and we had Hard Sleepers (two bunks of 3 beds high and no door in a huge carriage) on the way back. The journey was long, noisy and very tiring...but at the same time very interesting. Chinese people are a lot friendlier to each other and don't seem to worry about encroaching into each others space, helping each other, chatting and sharing with strangers they meet on the train. I didn't mind this form of travel much at all and it is so much cheaper than flying...but...I was with Chinese friends and this probably lessened peoples curiosity about me somewhat and made it quite a lot easier for me to travel. I can imagine that by myself it could be fairly stressful.

On the train -


The village of Dehang was in a very scenic spot and is home to a comunity of one of the minority groups here in China called "Miao". The weather was very wet but we still got to have a good look around and see some Miao costumes and performances.


FengHuang is absolutely amazingly beautiful. A very old, historic Chinese town full of atmosphere and things to buy and see.You can meander through cobblestoned streets lined with everything Chinese. It was very busy but suprisingly not many foreigners...I think it is one of the Chinese secrets... I think they keep all the best places (like here in Yichang) secret from foreigners :-)
It was like visiting a dreamland so different from anywhere I've ever seen before.
"FengHuang" means Phoenix, which of course is a legendary mythical Bird like creature, which here in China is very auspicious. We took a ride on a boat, ate good food, walked for hours and hours and hours, rode in a traditional "Jiao Zi"(so embarrasing, the guy carrying me was happily yelling out in Chinese something along the lines of "princess Sue from Australia was here)we saw all the tourist spots with the Chinese tour group including a hilariously funny moment for me when we were guided to a place and told it was a library, only to get taken as a group to a room where we had to listen to a guy trying to commercially sell us a sets of knives, vegetable peelers etc)No one seemed to think this was strange except for me....it is obviously a very normal procedure when you go on an organised tour...VERY WEIRD !
Talking of organised tour...If you ever really want to experience how to fit as many things as possible into a few days...this is the way to do it LOL... by the time I walked back into my apartment I was totally exhausted!


I bought up on many trad' Chinese gifts whist wandering the alleys...It really was a lot of fun. I am going to have to learn how to bargain though, my friends always do it for me...I just find it's not really in my nature to try and buy things for less.
I had a fantastic time and I am so lucky to have found the most amazing friend here in Yichang in Nettie, who gives me opportunities to spend time experiencing Chinese life. To have come all the way to China and found such a wonderful person is very special.











I took so many photo's and short videos and it was difficult to decide what to post. If you click on the picture below it will take you to view ALL of them including great footage on the train ride etc.

2-05-2009 FengHuang

footnote : I've just noticed that the videos at the picasa link have lost a lot of quality and the sound has unsynchronised,You can still see them and I will try and fix the problems when i get time !