Time for a change

I guess I've been blogging here on blogger for about 4 years now, but, it's time for a change.
I do most stuff from my Android phone and blogger just doesn't support this application well at all, so, if you want to catch my new blog...head on over to www.livingthemiddleway.tumblr.com
The new title "Living The Middle Way" is also a shift....I guess in attitude. I think the "middle way" is a much better option than the "great way" and in a funny way, it reflects how my life has always gone along.
Anyway same kind of thing but will probably get back to a few more posts because of the ease of use on my android.
Go have a look!....go on :-)
If you're already following this blog, please follow on the new one too.
Cheers
Sue

All Running Like Chinese Clockwork

IMAG0085.jpg, a photo by sooy2 on Flickr.

My first day back at school today was full of the normal confusion and more.
I even went to school yesterday to check everything was ok in my classroom after the long holiday. I wanted to run a video I put together of photos from my holiday in Australia so I wanted to make sure the smart board and computer was all ok etc. Other than no internet connection, it was fine. What I wasn't to know was that gremlins would come later than me...more about that in a while. So today is in fact THURSDAY but at school it is MONDAY (schedule) tommorow FRIDAY becomes TUESDAY and we have to work SATURDAY this week but it is disguised as WEDNESDAY. So nothing much different there, Sunday and Monday become our weekend this week and then next week Tuesday is infact Tuesday and so on. So after my check yesterday, computer worked, video worked, cleaned up the classroom, rearranged the desks....all AOK. I rock up for my first class second period today, turn on the computer....NOTHING. I can't believe it, I try and get the computer expert to come but he is too busy, he said every computer was checked yesterday afternoon and my internet/modem didn't work but the computer will work if i press the esc button?????ANYWAY, some friends come and try and help me find the problem. The stress of the impending class has been released as I have just been told the kids have to watch something for the next two periods, so my classes this morning cancelled...YAY. back to the computer, we find out that the experts have taken the leads out and put the connections back in the wrong places???UNBELIEVABLE! So we put it back together and get it and the sound working...HOORAY and now I can go home for the morning....UH OH, why are all the kids going to classes? Oh the thing they had to watch has been cancelled, you've got the next period again. Soooo I went from 2 classes this morning to no classes this morning to 1 class this morning within 1/2 hour.
Come to China test your patience :-)

Play hard

Must be something about the dogs I have in my life, they love to play to the max! Here's Mo, enjoying her two new toys from Australia.

Pick yourself up and dust yourself off...

Coming back for my fourth year has been a lot like the front of my apartment looks. If there's a hole, I fall down it. In a way even harder than my first year because then it was all new, lots to see and take in. The other couple of returns not much problem...but this one...Lets just say ^$#%^. I'm guessing that when  I came to China, it was hard, I challenged myself and learnt many lessons,then over the years maybe I've become complacent with my achievements. Climbed the steep mountain, got to the top, enjoyed the view, and now someone has kicked me off and decided it's time to climb again. It really (for a few reasons) has not been what I expected this year, my fault for falling into the trap of expecting anything. "This too will pass, This too will pass".

The demolition here is quite spectacular. The only good thing is this is the first area of the road they started, so hopefully it means it will be the first area to  be finished. Not very pretty, is it! If they try and find another teacher to come work at this school with me this semester....wow I can only imagine how I would have felt in my first year if I arrived to all this. Some nights they work till midnight outside and some days they do nothing?? I took these photos today, as you can see there is not much activity, just mess.

Ahhh the parallels with life !

励志警句

It's not life that's hard, It's thinking about life that's hard.


Ajahn Brahm


How true! 

Dragonfly Delight

 I mean't to post these pics earlier. On the morning of the day I was flying from China to start my journey back home for my holiday, I was laying on the couch near my lounge room window when I looked outside to see this family of Dragonflies. I took these two photos and noticed that there were actually many dragonflies, huge dragonflies, that were flying around filling the sky. Very beautiful :-)

Breath

Today I was sitting back for what was to be either a relaxing meditation or an afternoon snooze. I was following my breath when I noticed that little space, the space between the in breath and the out breath. I like this space between the breath, I find it relaxes me. Whilst I was pondering the space, it struck me that it is very similar to the beautiful space that you can find within music. When I trained as musician, studying drum kit at University, the space (the emptiness) was what I always focused on to make the drum beat FEEL good, the space between the notes that I played around the kit was for me, my secret to making the music feel great. I was never one for filling the music with as many fancy chops as I could pull out. Both of these empty spaces (Within the breath and the music) give me an internal feeling that I can't really describe. It's like connecting with an internal life force. Interesting!

The Colours of Perth

We took a ride out to Bells rapids the other day, had a picnic lunch and enjoyed the beautiful surroundings. I have not edited these photos and they were just taken with the android phone. The colours here are always so vivid. The sky is amazing. When you spend much of the year in dull grey, haze and drizzle, it's so refreshing to breathe the fresh air and see the palette of colours. The other photos are on the Quairading road.

Playing with Picasa and Picnik

Took this photo the other day and played with the Picnik photo program , now associated with Picasa...I think it looks kinda cool.

10 things I have learnt whilst living in china

Ok, I thought I would try and think of 10 things I have learnt to do whilst living in China, that  I wasn't able to do before living here. These things are a mixture of fairly trivial things to life changing things, I'll try list them in some kind of order
10) O.k maybe I can't catch a fly with them (though I haven't tried) but I am pretty adapt at using chopsticks now. I can pick up even some of the most difficult things like Soup Baozi, Jaozi, Noodles (in hotpot, very difficult), toasted peanuts....I think just about anything now.
9)I've overcome my fear of eating most dishes here now without fear that they will kill me, except the fish. I just can't handle the amount of bones in the river fish here, I cant enjoy it all.
8) Still on the subject of food, I'm no longer afraid of "La"(Spicy hot). I have always enjoyed a bit of hot, spicy food, but nothing prepared me for what I encountered on my arrival in Yichang. Even the K.F.C and McDonalds are spicy. In fact my "la" endurance level is now higher than some of my Chinese Yichanger friends.
7)My fear of hospitals and in particular Chinese hospitals, well I can't say has totally gone, but is certainly 95% of the way there. In fact I much prefer some procedures done here in Yichang than Australia now. It's quicker, cheaper, in some cases like MRI the machine, is much more people friendly and the doctors have a very matter of fact attitude. 
6) I can hold basic conversations in Chinese. Whilst you may think, so you should be able to after 3 years there, believe me, Chinese is very very hard to get a grasp on. I must also mention here that I've learnt big time about cultural differences and the effort involved in understanding misunderstandings.
5)With the improvement in my Chinese I can now do some tasks which in my own country are absolutely nothing tasks but here become a "great wall" to climb over, such as....Ring the water delivery man when I need to order new bottles of water, catch a taxi, tell him where I want to go  and where I want to stop,order food at restaurant, fast food shop and school dining room, top up phone cards, bus cards etc, ask for products I can't find in the supermarket, find my way to different parts of the city on numerous buses, get around the airports and find my flights...must be more things but can't think of them now.
4) Learn not to judge. It is true that you can't always tell a book by it's cover and I've learn't that both ways around here, so, you really can't judge.What seems bad can actually be good. I've been in situations here (especially when I first arrived) that were scary and seemed like the end of the world, those things turned out to be the best things that have ever happened to me. At the end of a week when you are sick and tired of being stared at by everyone in the street and that one person on the bus gazing at you pushes you over the edge....the amount of times I've broken... and glared at them with my best "keep looking at me and I will  punch you in the nose look" only to be met with suddenly a warm friendly smile. How easy it is to misunderstand, not only people but also a country!
3)It's a small world (even if it feels like sometimes China is an entirely different planet). The internet I guess is majorly responsible, but I really don't feel the distance with my home country like I did when I travelled 10 or so years ago.Video calls, cheap phone calls, sms, text, email, social networks all keep my family and friends close.
2)I can do and be whatever I want. I can move to another country, learn another language, love, enjoy life, face challenges and grow from them.
1)Let Go, I believe to a great, great extent I have learned to let go. It is impossible to control anything living here. Everything is in a constant state of flux. Work days and times change in the blink of an eye, the restaurant you ate breakfast the day before is gone the following morning, the ferry suddenly stops running for a few months and do the people here question anything....NO...they just go along with life.  Living here has taught me to let go of the control over people, situations and things and I believe I'm a much better person now for it.
Thanks China, I'm sure you will keep me on my learning path :-)

What has improved my Chinese?

Whilst I look to many things to help with learning such a complicated language and culture as Chinese, such as Pimsluer Technique, Chinese Pod, Byki, various books C.D's,Immersion the list goes on and on. I can easily say that the thing that has got me talking  more and more to the people (and understanding more and more)  is....."Having a dog".....
Where as before, going out was mostly a journey of stares and whispers of "waiguoren"（外国人）The only people out and around the streets that would usually talk to me were people wanting to try their English out. Now it is much more common to hear "ahhh xiao gou, hao keai (小狗好可爱）, which is then often accompanied by a host of questions...What's her name? How old is she? What type of dog is she?, What does she eat? Does she understand English or Chinese? Is she from China? Does she bite people?........This is then usually followed (once they know I understand them) with... Where are you from? Where do you work? How old are you? Where do you live? Do you have children? Do you have friends here? Do you like Chinese food? How long have you lived in China? and on and on...Last weekend on the ferry I even ended up in a discussion about the exchange rate of Australian dollars and Chinese rmb.
So it is easy to see that the absolute best Chinese learning tool that I have found is my dog
 "Mo li hua" 茉莉花。

All the latest

Been so busy living I haven't felt like blogging so I'll try and do a quick report to catch up. Thanks to an Easter parcel from Mum and Dad I had some glorious Australian Chocolate and got to give Carol and Annie an Easter egg hunt. The kids really love trying the western cultures and look forward to Easter, Christmas and even Mothers day gave Carol heaps of joy this year. We organised a Mothers Day cake from Eliville bakery and I took Carol to buy a little treat for her mum.

One of my new favourite things to do is a Saturday morning walk through Bingjiang Park. Moli and I catch the ferry across to the city side and then take a stroll along side the river, through the park to Netties apartment(about 50 minutes). In the few years I have been here I have only really been to the main areas of the park, but since walking along much of it's length, I have found it to be so beautiful and very relaxing. It brings me back to normality and lets me see many of the varied and different activities that make China such an interesting place. People are busy all along the park exercising, doing martial arts, Qi Gong, Tai Chi, Kite flying, playing Badminton, singing, playing traditional instruments, playing cards, Chinese Chess, drinking green tea.....The list goes on and on.

For something a bit different, there is a new scheme here which requests teachers to do some home visits to some students homes a few times a year, to build the relationship with the students, teachers and families.
The other night I attended a student/parent dinner and after that tagged along for a home visit to one of my students homes. Very, very interesting.

Sunny picnic on Yangtze River Bank

Banks of the Yangtze, Yichang

A couple of days off while the kids take their mid term exams and some beautiful warm, sunny weather made up my mind to make some ham, cheese, lettuce and mayo sandwiches and a flask of coffee and take a short stroll down to the river behind my apartment. 

Very relaxing and interesting to watch all the boats heading down stream loaded with coal, sand and all kinds of different cargo.

The countryside around this area of Yichang really is quite pretty, I'm guessing these cute kids have a dinner appointment tonight though. Spit roasted goat is very popular in these parts.

On the way back we happened upon a group of children doing a favourite Chinese activity for this time of the year, "Kite Flying". My friends here are oftened amazed to hear that I have actually flown kites before and people in western countries also enjoy this pastime...anytime of the year! I was telling them about the stunt kites and things that are around now...they are always amazed and suprised.

Enjoyable afternoon :-)

Now back to lesson planning...oh well!

Smart Board, Smart classroom

This year I was lucky enough to be given my own classroom to teach from (instead of going around to 22 different classes) and this semester I have been really really lucky and had a smart board installed in the classroom. The picture above just looks like a normal black board right?
But look

Fire up the console and slide open the board and TADAA! an interactive touch screen smart board.

Classroom looks a little dark because I pulled the curtains whilst we watched a DVD today.
The next picture is the control desk and looking up to the back of the class where there is still an old blackboard.

Even a microphone pack to  save your voice if you have a noisy class.

Ahhhhh really so cool.

Mass disruption destruction

So Dad, you'll be pleased to know that they are rebuilding Jiangnan road. I know how you love so much taking the number 27 bus, with it's rock hard suspension over the crater ridden road...but next time you may have to settle for a smoother ride. I don't think they will upgrade our wonderful 27's but they are upgrading the road. Check it out, You wouldn't believe the disruption and noise that we have to suffer before we see the benefits. They decided to start right outside our school.
From this next photo you can see the trees have also gone, I have heard to make way  for running the power underground.

You  can imagine what Friday afternoons are like when the kids go home from school.

Still exciting though....a new road....YAY! 

xiao Mo, not so xiao now :-)

So xiao Moli is not so xiao anymore. She is over 10 months old weighs about 3.5 kilos and is an absolute delight. I guess she still is a small dog but compared to the tiny runt of the litter I bought home...she is considerably much larger. She is a  content dog who loves her toys and LOVES to eat. On the days when I must work long hours I always return to see her toys stockpiled on her mat or beanbag, she obviously plays a lot when I'm out. This past week I have had a stomach bug, much better now, but the days I spent in bed, I could hear her throwing her toys around and playing on the beanbag...obviously does this when I am out also.  I wish I had even half of her energy levels.

We have to play this above throw the toys game many times a day...Even her daily walks, running in the school playground or playing crazily with other doggy friends don't wear her out.

怎么办，没办法！

The beautiful warmer weather shone through today. Today is "Womens Day" and all women teachers at our school were given the afternoon off, so there was time to take the dog for a walk and enjoy the warmth. I also parked myself on the window seat in my bedroom, in the sun and had a coffee and studied Chinese language for an hour or so. This semester has been so busy it's difficult to find time to do anything much. It was refreshing this morning to speak to a couple of Junior 3's (who constantly complain to me how much work they have to do...all students complain about this here) but these two girls greeted me with a warm smile and whilst they said they are very busy, they feel happy and not stressed, even though this semester will decide which senior high school they will go to. Here in China it starts from kindy...If you don't get your child into a good kindy, hard for them to get into a good primary school, then hard for them to get into a good middle school, then senior school, then university....it's a big problem.
Being here in China though the changes are occurring every minute of everyday and changes will already start to take place next semester. The girls today gave me a refreshing answer saying you can't look at the negative and must see the positive, no point in being stressed and unhappy.
The kids here do have to work so hard but constantly complaining can't help them. I too work extremely hard and this semester have 22 classes per week, Monday and Tuesday consuming 14 periods of that week between them, it's exhausting, but Is there any point in complaining, definitely not here...没办法 ! So if you can't change it, why suffer by making yourself unhappy. It's not the thing or the situation that makes you unhappy, it's how you think or view that thing or situation that has the ability to make you feel one way or the other.

励志警句

I love this one,

"It's imperfection that is the cause of beauty"
Ajahn Brahm

新年快乐 Happy Chinese New Year/The art of making Jaozi

The closest equivalent to our Christmas in China is Chinese New Year/Spring Festival. Today is Chinese New Years Eve and I am enjoying the day with my Chinese family :-). So far we have had an amazing home cooked lunch of things like Chicken Hotpot, Mushroom and Pork, Jellyfish, Pig Liver, Chinese green vegies, Bamboo, Tangyuan, home made soy milk and Jaozi...All very delicious. The video is of Netties Dad making Jaozi and making it look easy, If you can see some not so pretty Jaozi on the tray, that would be my attempt
 :-) Very tricky getting the little folds. If you really can't handle loud noise this is not the time and place to be in China. Crackers go nonstop ALL DAY.You can hear them in the video. Tonight at midnight is something that can't be explained , it's a definite have to be here kinda thing. The sky lights up bigger than any sky show in Australia and the noise is so loud you can't hear anything at all. Every New Years Eve there is a Chinese new year festival gala on TV, showcasing the countries biggest stars. The country will all watch this in between eating and letting off fireworks and crackers. You really are lucky if you can get to experience this event in China, nothing else quite like it in the world.

These photos are us not really enjoying setting off fireworks and crackers on the roof last night :-)

Too funny :-)

励志警句

 “By believing passionately in something that does not yet exist we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.”Nikos Kazantzakis

Snowed under

 The cold winter has been biting hard this week. It is amazing for me when it snows during the night and totally transforms the landscape outside your window. Like someone put a coat of white paint over everything.

  It looks very beautiful but I have been thinking lately about how peoples actions can seem to lay as heavily as the snow.

Why does the person that does an unkind act such as deliberate racist or prejudice action effect the mind more than the person who then does something really kind, like offer you their seat on the bus. If I encounter many good people why is it easier for the mind to ruminate about the unkind people, usually rolling like a snowball gathering as many bad thoughts as it goes?

  I recently read something that said the secret to happiness is choosing to be happy, no matter what...It seems sometimes this is an easy thing to practice but the majority of the time it is most challenging for the mind to get around.
It seems a little unfair to use bad similes about the poor snow, it really does look beautiful and I really enjoyed spending an afternoon walking around the city with the snow falling all over me....WOW i'm Zen I think? :-)

The more I Learn

The longer I live here in China, the more I see just how much I don't know about this place and the Chinese people. In fact it often feels like the more I learn the less I suddenly realise I know.

renewing my faith in human nature

Had a bizarre ferry ride home today. About 10 huge buckets of live catfish were on board with us, of which I thought "I guess the poor things are going to the restaurants for tonights dinners". Then something strange happened, half way across the Yangtze, the boat slowed down. At first I  thought it must be going around passing ships or avoiding bad currents, which they do sometimes but then something totally amazing happened.Everyone on board started tipping the fish into the river to freedom, Hundreds of small Catfish...saved....for now anyway :-) then the ferry turned around and went back to where we left??? I was just going home from a lazy afternoon meandering around "Walking Street" with Moli...I'm not sure what happened but I just stayed on the ferry(  after everyone collected their buckets and got back off) which proceeded to take the normal route second time around. Some of the people were singing some Chinese buddhists chants at one point. ANYWAY...So lucky I got to witness it, not everyday in China you see such a thing. Wonderful ! I did speak to a lady to try and find out what was happening but Yichang dialect even harder than mandarin to understand. I think it was a "World in Crisis" kind of group but I'm pretty sure I did understand her when she said something about many people around these areas just don't understand The good thing is there was a whole boat load (well 20 or so) who did understand today and a Ferry willing to participate.