I think I'm in love.

Apart from not being able to speak the language, and waking up sticky with sweat every morning (without a good excuse), I think I am quickly falling in love with this place.

Yesterday (Monday) was our day off, and we decided to go out to Red Flower Lake, which is an incredibly scenic reservoir where the three hundred odd people in the water are absolutely not allowed to be there under any circumstances. It's pretty cool. Apparently.

What actually happened was that everybody got planted (drunk, for the rest of you) on Sunday night, and only started moving around 11am. Not me, I'm used to dragging carcass (hangovers), so I spent the morning wandering around trying to buy a bicycle. More on that later. We finally got everybody to the taxi at around 2pm... ooh, which leads me to a slight diversion. Traffic.

Traffic here is... incredible. Take Johannesburg, remove any remaining attempt to follow rules of the road. Then, make everybody drive really slowly, and chill them out. People drive along the main road, with the ubiquitous bicycles and scooters meandering between the cars, at a very gentle pace. Robots are mostly adhered to, but lanes are there for decoration, and hooters are there for everything. Not aggressive hooting though. It seems to me that they only hoot to tell you that they're coming, or passing you, or can see a westener, or can see a Chinese person, or forgot what they were doing, or want to warn people to get out of the way because they're about to do a u-turn across SIX LANES OF TRAFFIC.

Which brings me back to our taxi, who did just that, apparently unnoticed by anybody except for the four westeners screaming in his car. Everybody just kind of slowed down and drove around him.

Anyway, long story short, he took us to the water park, not the lake. Nil desparandum, we went into the water park. Obviously China isn't big on private swimming pools, so they have these really cool swimming parks, which aren't anywhere near as crowded as the pictures you've seen back home. This one was fantastic - a long swimming canal which ran around a central island that had slides and whatnot. There was a refreshment shop built so that you can sit in the water and have your drinks (although I don't know how you pay).

Also, as westeners, we were the stars of the show. I am sure I have already mentioned how we get "Hello" shouted at us quite often, occasionally from across the street. Well, in the pool, I felt like a superstar. I suspect this was helped by the fact that Chinese people are not hairy, and I am. Very. So everybody spoke to me while staring at my chest. If I've ever done that to any girls, I apologise.

We were then all very rapidly cleared from the water and made to swim in the indoors pool while a thunderstorm ran through the area. At this point I have to make a diversion to laugh at British people.

A number of our teachers had managed to get to the lake, knowing the area better than us. The storm arrived, and, London apparently being deviod of water or sense, they decided that the best place for them to be was in the water, so they would at least keep warm. Of course, Thor has a great sense of humour about that kind of thing, and so lightning struck the water. They describe an incredible jolt passing through all of them, followed by a very quick decision to exit the water and stand on the island, now far away from their clothes and freezing. No comment.

I went for my first really decent walk this evening after school (left my digs around 19h00), and had an amazingly good time. The streets are pretty busy while the shops are open, which seems to be forever. In truth, shops close some time after 22h00, at a more or less random choice made by the owner/shopkeeper/whoever seems to be standing around at the time.

Most of the shops are little hole in the wall vibes, most with a really friendly shopkeep who either stares blankly or speaks rapid and fluent Chinese in response to my tentative Ni hau (hello). There are however a couple of malls that make Eastgate look like a hole in the wall, with really friendly shopkeepers who either stare blankly or speak rapid and fluent Chinese in response to my tentative Ni hau. What it comes down to is that I haven't bought a hell of a lot so far, unless I could find it myself.

On that note, I am going to bimble off to sleep. For those wondering about the actual teaching, it is going well so far. I will need to make an entire post about it, as there is a lot to tell. Chinese kids are amazing - really hard working, and generally pretty cool. Most of them have taken to having a new teacher with a minimum of fuss, and all seems to be moving along well. I'll update more on that tomorrow.

Last thing - I cannot access my blog from here, so please don't post comments to me. By all means laugh at me behind my back if you want to, but if you want me to see something, please email it to me.

Cheers.

New views on China

Wow. I have been here (In Huizhou) for 5 days now, and I'm not sure where to start this post.

A lot of what you've heard about China is wrong. Not just incorrect, but wrong. Ok, I need to qualify that statement. Huizhou is one of the richer areas of China, and as such is probably not a fair reflection of the entire country.

Firstly, everybody is friendly. That may be simply because they don't often see westerners (It is not unusual to have somebody shout "Hello" to us while we walk down a street, and then grin for ages because they know an English word. Also, Chinese people are champion queuers. The only place I've seen them not queue so far is at McDonalds (Which I admit I had for supper last night, and served as a great reminder of why not to go there any more. Yuck).

That brings me almost by coincidence on to food. Let me just say that you have not eaten until you've eaten Chinese. Cooked in China. You can walk into any little hole in the wall dodgy looking place, and eat a meal for about 10-15 Yuan (R8-12) that would make any restaurateur in SA close his doors and cry for his mother, it's that good. Of all the meals I've had so far, and we eat out twice a day most days, not a single one has been anything but spectacular. Except the McDs, which was horrible.

There also isn't a lot of begging, which surprised me. I would always have expected more beggars in richer areas, but I have seen only three so far since arriving. And I know about the thoughts that they're just being hauled off and arrested, but I don't think that's the case, because they do beg quite out in the open and freely.

Enough about life here though, and on to the school.

The school is pretty fantastic. There are about 18-20 western teachers there, each with our own classroom. We teach, at the moment, three classes a day, six days a week. This will increase once we are more comfortable with the teaching and preparation (in a week or two). I have a range of ages from 7 (one class) to high school which I assume to be around 15-16 (one class). The bulk of my classes however are 11-14 years old, which is apparently pretty challenging but I'm looking really forward to them.

The kids aren't actually placed in classes according to age, but on some other system of age, ability, time at school, and something else. Nobody's quite explained it yet, but I'll refer to them as P,M, or H (Primary, Middle school, High school) and a number afterwards, increasing with age.

I taught two classes yesterday (one P3 - 9-10 years old, and one P4 - 9-11 years old). The youngsters really seemed to take to me, and I had a great time with them. The old ones I battled a little bit with - I think they were a little uncertain with the whole new teacher idea. Still, tempus fugit, so I'm sure they'll adapt quickly.

I will try keep the blog updated more regularly going forward, although some of it may be pretty banal. Everything here seems incredibly familiar and comfortable - I feel as though except for the language I may have been here for years already. And the language thing isn't that bad - I've picked up one or two words, and can at least get what I want 40% of the time now. Chinese lessons start in September, and I'm looking really forward to them. Most of the teachers speak a little Chinese, again just enough to get the message across, and it's great to listen to.

My last comment, just quickly... PJ O'Rourke once described China as the land that rhythm forgot, based on a trip to a karaoke bar. I do hear that they're pretty bad, but I haven't been yet. However, Chinese traditional music is like listening to the best opera you have ever heard. There is a tyre fitment centre across the road from the school that plays it at top blast all day, and I love to sit and listen to it.

In short, beautiful music and magnificent food. All it needs now is some South African girls.

Trip to Hong Kong

---IMAGES TO FOLLOW - Technical apathy---

First, I’m here. Safely.

I landed in Hong Kong yesterday afternoon, around 14h30 (HK time), which took roughly 23 hours of travelling from Jozi.

Where to start? For anybody who doesn’t know me, this little escapade of mine has taken a bit under a year of planning. If you need to know more about that, feel free to mail me, but the poor folks who lived through it don’t want to read about it.

So let me start with a quick description of the trip. I left OR Thambo at 12h55 (SA time), on a Quatar airlines flight. We flew to Doha, in Quatar. Stopped there for 6 hours, then flew to Hong Kong. Yawn.

Turns out, Doha is hosting the 15^th Annual Asia games, which is a hang of a lot bigger than Africa Games, or at least better publicised. If you look at the tail of the plane, you’ll see the little mascot for the games, which appears to be some kind of bear/rabbit/kangaroo hybrid. Whatever it is, Doha are very excited about the games, and have signs all over the place telling you just how excited they are.

How anybody is going to do any sport in Doha is beyond me though, since when we landed there, around 22h15 local time, the temperature was 36deg C, or 1 billion deg Far, for those still on Imperial. The difficulty is not so much the heat as the humidity, which surprised me a bit for what is essentially a desert. The air is thick and muggy, and the two minutes spent walking from plane to bus to airport left everybody more than a little light-headed. The condensation that forms on the windows of the bus (aircon on inside, Hell on outside), should give you some idea of the issue.

Anyway, sat in that airport for a few hours, and learnt a few things. For one, all airport lounges (from my vast experience) are the same, only the colours change. The general feeling is one of boredom and hope, mixed up with a fair smattering of impatience. It’s decidedly odd. Fortunately, there is always the professional travellers pose to provide a couple of hours respite.

Somebody kept passing wind on the plane, and I hope that person feels ashamed of themselves, because they stank.

Finally landed in Hong Kong, which I could only describe as…. Well, there is no description for it from the air, especially not for somebody on their first trip, coming in during rain and unhappy weather. We do land about 5 m from the sea, which is quite fun.

The less fun part was getting my luggage back, and finding out that all of my locks had been cut, and my sleeping bag had disappeared. I’ve lodged a report with the Hong Kong airport, who have promised to look for it, but since it’s only a few hundred rand sleeping bag, and could be in any one of three countries, I don’t hold out much hope. Sigh.

But, to Hong Kong itself. I caught a train and a bus from the airport to my “hotel”, which was pretty easy. Everything here just runs, and runs well, and everybody is happy to help, especially those people who don’t speak any English. The first thought that went through my mind when travelling on the train is that I will never call Durban or Cape Town villages again. Johannesburg is a village. The sheer volume of this place is amazing. The buildings are all massive, the freight terminal we passed is massive, all construction is massive. It’s as though everybody is trying to compensate for something.

It is quite a beautiful city, in a grubby, hopeful, driven, passionate, busy, falling down, being built and re-built kind of way. There are trees everywhere coming in to the city proper, and they are the kind of green we only see at the height of summer.

According to my hotel host, there was a typhoon a couple of days ago, or there is one expected in the next few days, or there’s one in China right now, or these are my room keys. I’m not sure.

On the walk to my hotel, I noticed an amazing number of people outside, meeting in parks, sitting on benches, or walking between the millions of shops, which surprised me a bit until I saw the rooms. I reckon if you want to make people more social, the best way has to be to give them a bedroom of this size.

This photo is taken from the top corner of the room, while I’m standing in the shower. I can just about not lie on the bed – it’s only about 15cm too short for me.

The shower and ablution… worth every cent of the $50 extra I paid for it. It’s one room, space being at a premium, so you can have all three Ss and a W at the same time. If you don’t know what that means, I’ll explain it to you when you’re older.

I dumped my stuff in my room, and decided to explore the city a little bit. Now, let me give a word of advice to those of you planning to explore a foreign city, on your own. Take a map. Or, at very least, remember the name of the street you’re staying in. Write it down or something. Because the other option is to do what I did, and spend 30 minutes walking away from your hotel, and 2 hours walking back. I eventually found the street by pure blind luck, and even then I walked past the hotel.

Every single street I saw in Hong Kong looks more or less like this. Some are wider, most have fewer cars, all have shops. Many many shops. I people here are serious about shopping. I got back to my hotel around 10pm local time, on a Sunday night, and I felt like I was retiring early. The shops were almost all still open, the clubs were just opening up, the streets were seething. Again, I expect this has something to do with the alternative of sitting in your massive room.

Which I then did, and went to sleep. Eventually. Wish I could have stretched out a bit.

There is a ton more I could write about, but I think this is enough for now. I hope everybody back home is well.

Life in Huizhou

Well, I've been in Huizhou for a day and a half now. It is, in a word, warm. Unbelievably warm. Bordering on hot. Muggy. Sweaty. Rainy. All good words, but nothing really describes what it's like.

It is pretty great actually. I am in a digs with 6 other teachers, and there is another digs next door. Everybody seems pretty friendly so far. Learning a few phrases of Chinese, just enough really to ask what something is.

On food, it's an interesting one... I have heard, as I'm sure you all have, about stories of dogs and cats and whatnot being eaten. Well, look, I've only been here a day so far, but there's nothing of that. You definitely can't be squeemish when you walk around, because they are quite open about showing their food - dried fish, squid, some other stuff. But really, the food has been brilliant so far. Portions are pretty large, which isn't going to help me lose my spare tyre, but it's counteracted perhaps by the fact that walking to the corner invokes a dripping sweat.

Without doubt my best purchase in Hong Kong was a couple of hankies, that I use as sweat rags. For those of you thinking "Eeewww" right now, it's better than the alternative, which is to become a walking puddle.

Our digs is pretty cool, although like a real digs. That is, messy, dirty, and with cockroaches (not for dinner!). My room is definitely larger than the hotel room I was in, but my bed is clearly a little shorter than standard length, so I hang off the end.

That brings me to another quick point. The second most asked question before I left (behind - "So, are you coming back with a Chinese wife?") was "Won't you be much taller than everybody else?". I'm not. I don't feel any bigger than I did walking around Sandton or Melville. People here, and particularly younger people, are growing obviously.

I'm not going to go into too much more detail now - about to run off for my first drinking night here (of many, as I understand).

One quick little titbit - a few people know the word "Hello". And they LOVE it. Walking down the street today, three times we had people just shout out Hello and then laugh like drains. It's brilliant.

Thank you to everybody for the mails, I will answer them as time becomes more available, or I stop sleeping for 23.5 hours a day.