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".

China, the good,the bad, the good and the Gu Zheng

I knew that coming to China would be heading down a new path to unknown adventures and who knows what. I have a very distinct memory of my brother saying that to me at the airport at 1.00am in the morning before I jetted off to the "Middle Kingdom". Something along the lines of "You're off on a life changing pathway, but you don't know where that pathway will go yet"...yes, very nervous and exciting times. I really had no idea just what a huge impact China would have on my life. I still don't know where the courage came from to get on that plane, why I came to Yichang (a strange little city) out of the millions of places in China that I could have picked? That has since become very clear!
China of course can be very challenging and along with many other foreigners living here, I too feel the complexed mixed emotions of a love for this country and it's people and the times of dispair and disillusionment. Infact, I think one of the big things that China has taught me is that "You just never know".Things are never what they seem. At a time when things seems like disaster and chaos, well this is when the most unexpected and best things can follow. They say that life is suffering followed by happiness on a perpetual cycle.
ANYWAY...this post has gone in a different direction to what I originally intended. What I was going to talk about is one thing that I do love about China, it's rich culture and history. Before I came here I didn't know what would happen, but one thing I did have in my mind to do was learn a Chinese instrument. Up until know I have had little time. Last year was mostly spent adjusting to the lifestyle, the job, the language etc....BUT this term I have managed to enrol and start lessons to learn how to play "GuZheng". It really is very exciting for me and I think I have fallen in love with the instrument almost instantly. Having majored in Drumkit at University, this is of course a completely new direction for me to take but one that i think will give the blocked musical creativity within me a chance to burst out:-)lol
Because it is such an old traditional Chinese instrument, it also gives me huge opportunities to learn more culture...AND...because the teacher only speaks Chinese, more opportunity to learn Chinese.
Hey, even if it bores you, I'm afraid you may have to put up with lots of Guzheng information in my up and coming blog posts

The Cup Game

These are some great kids and myself playing the cup game I showed them...Looks cool I think :-)

Shanghai

Hard to know where to start when talking about two weeks in Shanghai. I really am not a huge fan of big cities, so I went not expecting anything too different, but there is really a very unusual and interesting vibe about the place. I could talk about the amazing architecture, fascinating buildings (new and old), the great shopping, the temples, the coffee, the technology such as the magnetic "MAGLEV" train (which took us over 30 kilometers in 8 minutes at a speed of around 300 kmph), the view from the top of the Oriental Pearl Tower.






I could also talk about the fascinating European mix that I have not yet seen in any other mainland city in China, yes there is a big European influence in the businesses, the fashions, the food and drinks available, the buildings old (such as the French Concession area and the Bund)






and the new.


There is also still old China in some Hutong areas and of course temples etc. Unlike Yichang food (Hot and Spicy)the food in Shanghai is very sweet. The transport system is amazingly good especially when you consider that there is well over 20 million people in this city.

I was suprised at how clean everything was....Apparently much is being done to make sure that Shanghai looks perfect for the world Expo which they are hosting later this year, if it's to do with that, I'm not sure. Overall the people there seemed very friendly and helpful, all willing to happily help when I asked for directions to places. I was suprised at the amount of English that most shop assistants could speak, in Yichang most people shy away from any English even though they all learnt it at school.
Of course I must mention Nettie's family who were kind enough to let me join in with their Spring Festival celebrations, her sister and brother in law who warmly welcomed me and happily showed us around all the sights.

HangZhou, Suzhou and ZhouZhaung

So we arrived in Shanghai on the 6th, had a quick look around the following day and headed of on a 3 day tour of HangZhou, SuZhou and ZhouZhuang on the Monday. Chinese tours are VERY tiring as they fit as many sights and shops into the limited time that they can. The tour operators make most of their money generated on sales at certain places, like a commission basis, so lots of specific shops are on the schedule.

HANGZHOU - I'd heard a lot about Hangzhou and West Lake but although it was beautiful, it didn't strike me as the amazing place I'd heard all about. It may have been because of the very rushed tour we experienced on that day due to a 2 hour delay in which we sat on the coach on the highway because of fog. The whole day after that was spent rushing from sights to shops....very tiring!




SUZHOU - is not far Shanghai and we headed back to Suzhou to spend the night and then sight see the next day. This tour was much better, not as rushed and I thought Suzhou is really quite beautiful. The vibe of this city, is cool and the many canals that run through the place makes people call it the "Oriental Venice". The city is also full of many temples and special gardens. We had beautiful, warm sunny weather for our day in Suzhou.

ZHOUZHUANG - interesting little town about half an hour from Suzhou. Full of canals like Suzhou some of which run through the houses. It's now very tourist orientated in this town and every shop we walked past I was greeted with "Hello, come in". They tell you a price and when you walk away they ask you how much you want to pay for it. It drives me crazy!
A busy Three day tour then back to Shanghai!