They are completely silent, and at night will
Don't be daft - the light uses electricity, and then they won't run for as long.
Thus exist the silent
Thursday, 27 December 2007
Cars, bikes, and what the hell?
We have, on the roads of Huizhou, a fascinating mode of transport - the electric scooter - in rich supply.
They are completely silent, and at night willkill really bloody hurt you if they hit you. So, watch out for them, I hear you say. HAHAHA.
Don't be daft - the light uses electricity, and then they won't run for as long.
Thus exist the silentkilling bruising machines of Huizhou.
They are completely silent, and at night will
Don't be daft - the light uses electricity, and then they won't run for as long.
Thus exist the silent
Fear Factor
Let's talk a little bit about fear. I like to think that I am not generally a man filled with fear, certainly not in a superficial and easy to observe way (bring on the future filled with psychology).
So when I have a moment where the fear hits me good and solid, it's a refreshing and enlightening experience.
I am talking, here, about a mode of transport often used here, on these troubled streets - bike taxies. Basically, you sit on the back of a bike, behind a guy who then drives like any taxi driver in Jozi. They're cheap, they're quick, and they are in good supply.
I've taken quite a few, and the first few times, it was really exciting. Then, one day, the rider gave me a helmet to wear (the thought never even crossed my mind prior to that). It was basically a miner's hat, and it didn't come close to fitting. So I held it on my head, as he weaved (wove?) in and out of traffic, often oncoming .
It was the first time that I really thought about what would happen if we went pear shaped. In truth, it's probably not that bad - we're not going very quickly, and I reckon at worst, a couple of breakages and a lot of soreness.
Still, getting on one since then has made me very aware of fear and mortality.
It makes me understand why people do extreme sports - It's a good feeling to get out now and then.
So when I have a moment where the fear hits me good and solid, it's a refreshing and enlightening experience.
I am talking, here, about a mode of transport often used here, on these troubled streets - bike taxies. Basically, you sit on the back of a bike, behind a guy who then drives like any taxi driver in Jozi. They're cheap, they're quick, and they are in good supply.
I've taken quite a few, and the first few times, it was really exciting. Then, one day, the rider gave me a helmet to wear (the thought never even crossed my mind prior to that). It was basically a miner's hat, and it didn't come close to fitting. So I held it on my head, as he weaved (wove?) in and out of traffic, often oncoming .
It was the first time that I really thought about what would happen if we went pear shaped. In truth, it's probably not that bad - we're not going very quickly, and I reckon at worst, a couple of breakages and a lot of soreness.
Still, getting on one since then has made me very aware of fear and mortality.
It makes me understand why people do extreme sports - It's a good feeling to get out now and then.
Merry sheme sheme Christmas
After my promises of a deluge of blogarific posts... what happened? Well, I have a great excuse, which starts with Merry, ends with Christmas, and has an "I can't remember when last I was sober" thrown into the middle for good effect.
In summary, Christmas in China is pretty much just another day. A couple of shops aren't open, and a lot of others have big misspelt Merry Christmas signs up, but that's about it. For an intrepid band of westeners however, this was not sufficient.
Our group of 20 split for the weekend (Monday and Tuesday being our weekends), with about half heading off to Hong Kong and the rest staying here. I was in the latter group, and so will only tell you what we did (although the most interesting stories for that evening come from Hong Kong...)
Everybody spent the 24th pretty much bimbling about, doing some last minute Christmas shopping, and not really getting up to very much. Christmas eve, we went for a really good dinner at a little place we've discovered. This was followed by a night of not very heavy drinking, and a reasonably early night. (I was in bed by 1).
Christmas day started late, with most people only really surfacing around 11, but it started with a real fire that was going to keep raging yea unto the wee small hours.
The kindergarten staff all came around for lunch around 12, and made what looked like an amazing meal. Myself and a few of the other Westerners wandered off for a more traditional Christmas meal, which after a great deal of walking and arguing (apparently in most families this is traditional for Christmas), we found at a newish restaurant. I got a Christmas hat! Hehehehe - YAY!
Around 5, the rest of the Chinese staff came through for a "few" drinks and snacks. We did our gift exchange, and a merry time was had by all.
From there, rejoined now by most of the guys from Hong Kong, a group of us drifted off to a club we've found, called Happy Hour, which has a bloody great big car in it. It makes my happy just thinking about how happy that hour was. Wait, we left there at 5am - does that make it a happy hour, or a happy happy hour?
I'm afraid that the stories I remember can't be shared, and the stuff that can be shared, I don't remember.
Now, I shouldn't say this, but Wednesday was not a day filled with the useful moulding of young minds. It was in fact a day filled with the useless speaking of old crap.
To the point where my supervisor's approach to checking a lesson plan of mine was to say "are you happy with it?", and my lesson with the 6 year-olds quickly degenerated into a "Here kids, draw a nice picture for Mr. Wood" , the day was a write off for all concerned.
Ok, back to topical blog posts - this one is boring the hell out of me.
In summary, Christmas in China is pretty much just another day. A couple of shops aren't open, and a lot of others have big misspelt Merry Christmas signs up, but that's about it. For an intrepid band of westeners however, this was not sufficient.
Our group of 20 split for the weekend (Monday and Tuesday being our weekends), with about half heading off to Hong Kong and the rest staying here. I was in the latter group, and so will only tell you what we did (although the most interesting stories for that evening come from Hong Kong...)
Everybody spent the 24th pretty much bimbling about, doing some last minute Christmas shopping, and not really getting up to very much. Christmas eve, we went for a really good dinner at a little place we've discovered. This was followed by a night of not very heavy drinking, and a reasonably early night. (I was in bed by 1).
Christmas day started late, with most people only really surfacing around 11, but it started with a real fire that was going to keep raging yea unto the wee small hours.
The kindergarten staff all came around for lunch around 12, and made what looked like an amazing meal. Myself and a few of the other Westerners wandered off for a more traditional Christmas meal, which after a great deal of walking and arguing (apparently in most families this is traditional for Christmas), we found at a newish restaurant. I got a Christmas hat! Hehehehe - YAY!
Around 5, the rest of the Chinese staff came through for a "few" drinks and snacks. We did our gift exchange, and a merry time was had by all.
From there, rejoined now by most of the guys from Hong Kong, a group of us drifted off to a club we've found, called Happy Hour, which has a bloody great big car in it. It makes my happy just thinking about how happy that hour was. Wait, we left there at 5am - does that make it a happy hour, or a happy happy hour?
I'm afraid that the stories I remember can't be shared, and the stuff that can be shared, I don't remember.
Now, I shouldn't say this, but Wednesday was not a day filled with the useful moulding of young minds. It was in fact a day filled with the useless speaking of old crap.
To the point where my supervisor's approach to checking a lesson plan of mine was to say "are you happy with it?", and my lesson with the 6 year-olds quickly degenerated into a "Here kids, draw a nice picture for Mr. Wood" , the day was a write off for all concerned.
Ok, back to topical blog posts - this one is boring the hell out of me.
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
Re-energising through change
First, thank you to everybody who mailed me/posted on Facebook/sent me messages about my blog.
The key driver behind abandoning it was simply that I lost... something. I found each post becoming more and more long-winded, but saying less and less. It finally came to a head a couple of weeks ago, after a long walk. I had about five topics I wanted to talk about, the first of which was the building industry here.
Unfortunately, that very quickly turned into a (b)ramble from which I, being no Brer Rabbit, could not extract myself.
The problem, I've realised, is that as the posts get longer, I spend ages fiddling over how to move from one topic to the next, while still maintaining some sense of storyline or chronology.
So enough fiddling - I am going to start posting again, on a topic by topic basis.
I know this takes a bit away from the idea of this being an account of my travels, but I think it's the way to do it.
Once again, thank you to those that sent messages - it's nice to know not everybody thinks it's as bland as I often do. Except for this post, which has broken records.
I am quickly going to post a couple of the drafts I've put together, without editing, just so that there's something fresh up there (although they refer to the last couple of weeks).
What, you were expecting an ending? No.
The key driver behind abandoning it was simply that I lost... something. I found each post becoming more and more long-winded, but saying less and less. It finally came to a head a couple of weeks ago, after a long walk. I had about five topics I wanted to talk about, the first of which was the building industry here.
Unfortunately, that very quickly turned into a (b)ramble from which I, being no Brer Rabbit, could not extract myself.
The problem, I've realised, is that as the posts get longer, I spend ages fiddling over how to move from one topic to the next, while still maintaining some sense of storyline or chronology.
So enough fiddling - I am going to start posting again, on a topic by topic basis.
I know this takes a bit away from the idea of this being an account of my travels, but I think it's the way to do it.
Once again, thank you to those that sent messages - it's nice to know not everybody thinks it's as bland as I often do. Except for this post, which has broken records.
I am quickly going to post a couple of the drafts I've put together, without editing, just so that there's something fresh up there (although they refer to the last couple of weeks).
What, you were expecting an ending? No.
Tuesday, 11 December 2007
Blog posts and insomnia
It's 03h45 here now, and the first time since I arrived that I have been unable to sleep right through. I'm not sure why this is, but I'm going to blame it on Jacob Zuma.
For those who have been wondering where my latest post is, and why I'm becoming such an irregular contributor to the world of the internet, I must apologise. I have a post which I started, but that ended up losing its way, and quite frankly I spent too long on trying to save. Still, lesson learnt.
So this one is a short post, just about general rubbish, before I try to re-enter my newly re-discovered world of really wonderful dreams.
Life continues well.
Mike and I had a chat about this the other day - one of the difficulties with writing witty and interesting posts all the time (or in my case just long ones), is that of course life here is simply life. Although I probably see things every couple of days which would make great stories if retold, they have become so much The Norm, that I don't even notice them any more.
Hence, herewith follows a summary of life, with no anecdotes.
At the moment, we are preparing frantically for Christmas.
For those who have been wondering where my latest post is, and why I'm becoming such an irregular contributor to the world of the internet, I must apologise. I have a post which I started, but that ended up losing its way, and quite frankly I spent too long on trying to save. Still, lesson learnt.
So this one is a short post, just about general rubbish, before I try to re-enter my newly re-discovered world of really wonderful dreams.
Life continues well.
Mike and I had a chat about this the other day - one of the difficulties with writing witty and interesting posts all the time (or in my case just long ones), is that of course life here is simply life. Although I probably see things every couple of days which would make great stories if retold, they have become so much The Norm, that I don't even notice them any more.
Hence, herewith follows a summary of life, with no anecdotes.
At the moment, we are preparing frantically for Christmas.
Wednesday, 05 December 2007
It's bloody cold... and more walking
Last week flew by like a dove on speed, with a hawk chasing it. And they're both inside a plane. I'm all about great analogies.
So I think I've spoken before about the amount of building going on in Huizhou, if not directly then at least through my pictures from last week. I'm not sure that I fully conveyed the sheer scale of it, largely because there's no way I fully appreciated the sheer scale of it. I went for two more walks this weekend, which by my calculations (5Km/h avg walking speed, 8 hours total walking time) should have covered a little more than 40Km between them. Ooh, this brings me to something, a quick digression from the building...
Cartography. Now as far as I know, the Greeks invented cartography, but the Chinese were not far behind. Somewhere along the line though, these guys lost the plot. See, I've got a map of Huizhou, which shows that the place I stay is more or less in the centre of the city. Last week, I walked north for about 2 hours, and was nowhere near the edge. This weekend, on both of my walks (south east on Monday, and westish on Tuesday), I was in "countryside" within 90 minutes. Phft.
Back to building. You truly cannot believe the sheer volume of building that is going on. Around every corner, there are buildings going up that would dwarf pretty much anything in Jozi. And I'm not exaggerating. The building I live in is 31 stories high, and is probably just about in the ten tallest buildings that I can see from here. The real size though comes in in the wealthy areas, where there is also more new building going on. I did a little test - Every now and then, on my walk, I would try and find a place I could stand where I couldn't see any construction going on. It's just not possible. Words fail me.
Then there is West Lake. A large part of Huizhou is built around West Lake and South Lake, which are actually two parts of one lake, separated by a walking bridge.
I'm not sure what they are doing at West Lake, but about three weeks ago, they blocked off the ends, and drained the lake. They now have a bunch of diggers and bulldozers in there, and doing stuff.
But now, there's a problem. I see these massive constructions going on, and they are mindblowing in their complexity and size (for my non engineering mind). Then, right next door to the school, they have just built a wall to front a new bar, which is mindblowing in the lack of any sort of thought that's gone into it.
I need to explain this properly, so please bear with me. I'm not an engineer, nor a builder, so I may speaking out of turn here, but my understanding of a wall is that it has to have something to hold it up. Such as pillars that are thicker, or being attached to another wall at an angle, or something. If you just pile bricks, one on top of the other, they are really a pile, and will eventually fall over, no? But that's what they've done - there was a shop next to us with a glass front. In front of this glass front (so right at the edge of the... granite... step, they began a wall, which is one brick deep at any point, and is attached to... nothing. There aren't even poles going into the old wall to hold the new one up. And no, it doesn't reach a roof of any sort to attach to either.
We've all taken to walking into the road to pass it, but there's a tacit understanding that when they open the bar they're building there, we're going to get a guy to lean against it from the inside, just for a lark.
So I think I've spoken before about the amount of building going on in Huizhou, if not directly then at least through my pictures from last week. I'm not sure that I fully conveyed the sheer scale of it, largely because there's no way I fully appreciated the sheer scale of it. I went for two more walks this weekend, which by my calculations (5Km/h avg walking speed, 8 hours total walking time) should have covered a little more than 40Km between them. Ooh, this brings me to something, a quick digression from the building...
Cartography. Now as far as I know, the Greeks invented cartography, but the Chinese were not far behind. Somewhere along the line though, these guys lost the plot. See, I've got a map of Huizhou, which shows that the place I stay is more or less in the centre of the city. Last week, I walked north for about 2 hours, and was nowhere near the edge. This weekend, on both of my walks (south east on Monday, and westish on Tuesday), I was in "countryside" within 90 minutes. Phft.
Back to building. You truly cannot believe the sheer volume of building that is going on. Around every corner, there are buildings going up that would dwarf pretty much anything in Jozi. And I'm not exaggerating. The building I live in is 31 stories high, and is probably just about in the ten tallest buildings that I can see from here. The real size though comes in in the wealthy areas, where there is also more new building going on. I did a little test - Every now and then, on my walk, I would try and find a place I could stand where I couldn't see any construction going on. It's just not possible. Words fail me.
Then there is West Lake. A large part of Huizhou is built around West Lake and South Lake, which are actually two parts of one lake, separated by a walking bridge.
I'm not sure what they are doing at West Lake, but about three weeks ago, they blocked off the ends, and drained the lake. They now have a bunch of diggers and bulldozers in there, and doing stuff.
But now, there's a problem. I see these massive constructions going on, and they are mindblowing in their complexity and size (for my non engineering mind). Then, right next door to the school, they have just built a wall to front a new bar, which is mindblowing in the lack of any sort of thought that's gone into it.
I need to explain this properly, so please bear with me. I'm not an engineer, nor a builder, so I may speaking out of turn here, but my understanding of a wall is that it has to have something to hold it up. Such as pillars that are thicker, or being attached to another wall at an angle, or something. If you just pile bricks, one on top of the other, they are really a pile, and will eventually fall over, no? But that's what they've done - there was a shop next to us with a glass front. In front of this glass front (so right at the edge of the... granite... step, they began a wall, which is one brick deep at any point, and is attached to... nothing. There aren't even poles going into the old wall to hold the new one up. And no, it doesn't reach a roof of any sort to attach to either.
We've all taken to walking into the road to pass it, but there's a tacit understanding that when they open the bar they're building there, we're going to get a guy to lean against it from the inside, just for a lark.
Wednesday, 28 November 2007
A quick note on the weather
Just a very quick post to talk about weather.
My director of studies, who has been here for three years now, keeps talking about the coming winter, and how cold it gets. I, of course, man that I am (and well protected by my Perma-Jersey (TM) and Insu-Blubber (TM)), have poo-pooed all of her warnings.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, alarm bells rang that a pom, from England, home of the world's shittiest weather, doesn't like the winter here. But I, being a real man of amazingly real manly stature and whatnot, have ignored said bells.
Today, China decided to send a different, and altogether more effective, portend of the comingdoom cold.
There was a wind which blew in from the river, that carried with it a cold such as I have never felt. It was a normal wind, nothing overly dramatic, but there was on it - like the first smell of sulphur before a massive storm, or the soft hush of the crowd before a pianist starts his first piece - a definite indication of things to come.
I hope you are all enjoying the warm weather back home.
My director of studies, who has been here for three years now, keeps talking about the coming winter, and how cold it gets. I, of course, man that I am (and well protected by my Perma-Jersey (TM) and Insu-Blubber (TM)), have poo-pooed all of her warnings.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, alarm bells rang that a pom, from England, home of the world's shittiest weather, doesn't like the winter here. But I, being a real man of amazingly real manly stature and whatnot, have ignored said bells.
Today, China decided to send a different, and altogether more effective, portend of the coming
There was a wind which blew in from the river, that carried with it a cold such as I have never felt. It was a normal wind, nothing overly dramatic, but there was on it - like the first smell of sulphur before a massive storm, or the soft hush of the crowd before a pianist starts his first piece - a definite indication of things to come.
I hope you are all enjoying the warm weather back home.
Tuesday, 27 November 2007
Walking
Today, having decided that I am getting properly bored of Xia pu (the suburb I live in, whose name I can never spell the same way twice), I decided to go for a walk around the rest of Huizhou today.
It turns out that when they call something a city, there are reasons, despite how much it may feel like a village because you've been living in a small 3 square kilometer portion of it.
Anyway. Tristan (An English guy here - see pics of him in the Shenzen album) and I set out around 9:30 this morning, with no real target in mind, other than to go to the other side of the island.
At this point, as is my wont, I will digress a little, to explain the shape of Huizhou to you. It is... An enigma, wrapped what may be one, two, three, or four rivers. There is a large island in the middle of the city, which may or may not be an island, depending on who you ask or which map you look at.
Ok, more seriously - There is a really large river which runs through what I always thought of as the northern part of the city. Apparently this is actually the middle of the city. There is then another smaller river which runs parallel to the large city, but a couple of KM south of it, before curving and joining the big river. We live just south of this little river, and every day I see it on my way to school, and makes me wish, about 7 days out of ten, that I could row on it.
The bit that gets confusing is how they both link up, and that's where there could be one or two or seven rivers, and the island may or may not be an island.
Regardless, we walked to the other side of the big river today, and it was good. I've posted a number of photos
Now, some stuff I swore I wouldn't do. When I said I was going to write a blog, in my head it would be filled with exciting stories of thrilling events in China, of truly life-changing epiphanies, and of witty anecdotes about life in this crazy country that I, the intrepid westerner, had struck out to discover.
It would never, of course, be filled with trite comments about my daily life, or even worse about stories of the kids I teach. (Again, a digression... After realising how terrible a rowing coach I was because I got too emotionally involved about it, these kids will never be "my kids", but only "the kids that I teach". Which is better.)
Back to the story. I'm going to tell a story about the kids that I teach. Because I'm all about breaking rules, YEAH! That's the way I roll! Cough cough.
The other day, one of the classes was doing a project on something or other (the topic eludes me now), and two of them were humming a little tune to themselves. It sounded vaguely familiar (as so much of China does - more on that later), and I asked them what it was. Turns out it's a song called "Lemon Tree", which is a big hit amongst young kids in China now. The thing is, I remember dancing with Beth Dickens to this song at my Matric farewell. In 1996. And it wasn't new then.
This brings me back to a comment I almost made earlier. So much of China seems familiar, but isn't.
I went for lunch on Wednesday, as usual. I decided, though, to try somewhere new, because I could. I walked over to the island. I wandered around a bit. I saw a picture of a waffle, with cream and some kiwi fruit on it. I thought that looked delicious. I went in. I ordered one. All of this is familiar. The bit that was.... not... was when it came. With peanut butter and watermelon slices.
It tasted ok though.
It turns out that when they call something a city, there are reasons, despite how much it may feel like a village because you've been living in a small 3 square kilometer portion of it.
Anyway. Tristan (An English guy here - see pics of him in the Shenzen album) and I set out around 9:30 this morning, with no real target in mind, other than to go to the other side of the island.
At this point, as is my wont, I will digress a little, to explain the shape of Huizhou to you. It is... An enigma, wrapped what may be one, two, three, or four rivers. There is a large island in the middle of the city, which may or may not be an island, depending on who you ask or which map you look at.
Ok, more seriously - There is a really large river which runs through what I always thought of as the northern part of the city. Apparently this is actually the middle of the city. There is then another smaller river which runs parallel to the large city, but a couple of KM south of it, before curving and joining the big river. We live just south of this little river, and every day I see it on my way to school, and makes me wish, about 7 days out of ten, that I could row on it.
The bit that gets confusing is how they both link up, and that's where there could be one or two or seven rivers, and the island may or may not be an island.
Regardless, we walked to the other side of the big river today, and it was good. I've posted a number of photos
Now, some stuff I swore I wouldn't do. When I said I was going to write a blog, in my head it would be filled with exciting stories of thrilling events in China, of truly life-changing epiphanies, and of witty anecdotes about life in this crazy country that I, the intrepid westerner, had struck out to discover.
It would never, of course, be filled with trite comments about my daily life, or even worse about stories of the kids I teach. (Again, a digression... After realising how terrible a rowing coach I was because I got too emotionally involved about it, these kids will never be "my kids", but only "the kids that I teach". Which is better.)
Back to the story. I'm going to tell a story about the kids that I teach. Because I'm all about breaking rules, YEAH! That's the way I roll! Cough cough.
The other day, one of the classes was doing a project on something or other (the topic eludes me now), and two of them were humming a little tune to themselves. It sounded vaguely familiar (as so much of China does - more on that later), and I asked them what it was. Turns out it's a song called "Lemon Tree", which is a big hit amongst young kids in China now. The thing is, I remember dancing with Beth Dickens to this song at my Matric farewell. In 1996. And it wasn't new then.
This brings me back to a comment I almost made earlier. So much of China seems familiar, but isn't.
I went for lunch on Wednesday, as usual. I decided, though, to try somewhere new, because I could. I walked over to the island. I wandered around a bit. I saw a picture of a waffle, with cream and some kiwi fruit on it. I thought that looked delicious. I went in. I ordered one. All of this is familiar. The bit that was.... not... was when it came. With peanut butter and watermelon slices.
It tasted ok though.
Tuesday, 13 November 2007
The best weekend yet
This weekend has been without doubt, the best one so far in China.
On Monday, myself, Claire and Tristan (a couple from the UK) decided to head down to Shenzhen for the day. It's about 90minutes by bus, and pretty cheap, so really easy to pop down for the day. We didn't really have an agenda, just decided to go see what all the fuss was about.
Now I'll tell you, over here, Shenzhen gets a really bad rap. It's supposedly dirty, and noisy, and amazingly busy, with absolutely no greenery. Just a futuristic post-holocaust movie made by some second rate director kind of place. I beg to differ though. And fair enough, we didn't get to see the whole city, and I wouldn't really want to live there, but for what it is, it was awesome. The city is actually amazingly clean. I'm talking, like, freshly washed clean. Everything there is pretty new, remembering that it was little more than a fishing village 20 years ago. The people were all amazingly friendly (ok, that's a constant in China, so perhaps a moot point), and the vibe was actually amazing.
I bought a really nice bone chess set, in a wooden box, for 540Yuan. This was bargained down from a starting price of 1600Yuan, so I felt like I got a pretty good deal. In truth though, I probably could have gone more - no worries though. We did some other random shopping (Tristan got a watch, Claire got some boots, and I got a price on the smallest digital projector you've ever seen), and then went for lunch.
Lunch was at a proper pizza parlour, with actual pizza, that tasted like pizza. Hen hou! (Very good!)
You know, it's funny, writing it all down now it doesn't sound so great. But the day just flowed, there was no pressure, no tension, not even so much as a moment of boredom or.... glitch.
We got back to Huizhou around 7, and then headed with Polly, Axel, and Loretta, off to the revolving restaurant. This is one of the prime restaurants in Huizhou, and I can see why.
The meal consisted of a buffet, stocked with truly amazing dishes. I'm not a fan of buffet's, because they tend to focus on bulk rather than quality, but that simply wasn't the case here. Each station had fresh, amazingly good food. There were oysters on ice (I got stuck in), brilliant salads, and, best of all, steak. The chef did have a bit of a desire to overcook it, but I managed to argue with her until I got about 400g of steak that tasted like happiness.
A good bottle of wine, some pretty magic coffee, and a whole lot of great company later, and I was a very contented man last night.
It's funny, but reading this post, it sounds like an amazingly random day.
Obviously I will need to post more often, and hone my "craft" to the point where I can actually try to describe pure joy.
On Monday, myself, Claire and Tristan (a couple from the UK) decided to head down to Shenzhen for the day. It's about 90minutes by bus, and pretty cheap, so really easy to pop down for the day. We didn't really have an agenda, just decided to go see what all the fuss was about.
Now I'll tell you, over here, Shenzhen gets a really bad rap. It's supposedly dirty, and noisy, and amazingly busy, with absolutely no greenery. Just a futuristic post-holocaust movie made by some second rate director kind of place. I beg to differ though. And fair enough, we didn't get to see the whole city, and I wouldn't really want to live there, but for what it is, it was awesome. The city is actually amazingly clean. I'm talking, like, freshly washed clean. Everything there is pretty new, remembering that it was little more than a fishing village 20 years ago. The people were all amazingly friendly (ok, that's a constant in China, so perhaps a moot point), and the vibe was actually amazing.
I bought a really nice bone chess set, in a wooden box, for 540Yuan. This was bargained down from a starting price of 1600Yuan, so I felt like I got a pretty good deal. In truth though, I probably could have gone more - no worries though. We did some other random shopping (Tristan got a watch, Claire got some boots, and I got a price on the smallest digital projector you've ever seen), and then went for lunch.
Lunch was at a proper pizza parlour, with actual pizza, that tasted like pizza. Hen hou! (Very good!)
You know, it's funny, writing it all down now it doesn't sound so great. But the day just flowed, there was no pressure, no tension, not even so much as a moment of boredom or.... glitch.
We got back to Huizhou around 7, and then headed with Polly, Axel, and Loretta, off to the revolving restaurant. This is one of the prime restaurants in Huizhou, and I can see why.
The meal consisted of a buffet, stocked with truly amazing dishes. I'm not a fan of buffet's, because they tend to focus on bulk rather than quality, but that simply wasn't the case here. Each station had fresh, amazingly good food. There were oysters on ice (I got stuck in), brilliant salads, and, best of all, steak. The chef did have a bit of a desire to overcook it, but I managed to argue with her until I got about 400g of steak that tasted like happiness.
A good bottle of wine, some pretty magic coffee, and a whole lot of great company later, and I was a very contented man last night.
It's funny, but reading this post, it sounds like an amazingly random day.
Obviously I will need to post more often, and hone my "craft" to the point where I can actually try to describe pure joy.
Wednesday, 07 November 2007
Relativity
Albert Einstein famously described relativity thus: "Sit with a pretty woman for an hour, and it'll seem like a minute. But sit on a hot stove for a minute, and it'll seem like an hour".
Now I, unfortunately, haven't been sitting with any pretty woman, per se, but in as far as this whole country (or at least this city) is a beautiful woman, I guess the analogy holds water.
I guess what I'm trying to do here is come up with a really long way to say I know I haven't posted in a while, and for those that have been waiting I am sorry. For those that haven't been, this is going to be a long one, so I'm sorry to you too.
But where to start?
My birthday. My first birthday ever outside of good old RS of A, and my first birthday in a few years without Mike, which was strange. Apart from that though, it was a great day.
Mike phoned me in the morning from S-Korea, and we had a good solid chat, which made my day straight off the bat. Then there were also the tons of emails, wall posts, instant messages, and other best wishes from everybody back home, which were magic.
At school, I had kept it fairly low key, but of course a few days before the day it popped up on facebook and so everybody knew. The day was pretty much filled with congrats on managing to live as long as I have (everybody else is in their early twenties). And then, surprise on surprise, one of my classes threw a party for me. We did a lesson a couple of months ago on the calender, and had been filling in everybody's birthdays. One of the girls wrote mine down, or remembered it, or something, and they organised a surprise party for me, complete with delicious cake and a gift (a bedside lamp). Suffice to say, I didn't give them any homework.
The evening, a few of us went to a restaurant, followed by a couple of drinks at a pub. All pretty chilled, none of the usual debauchery that these sort of events provoke.
Moving on to some debauchery though... Halloween. Now in SA, we don't really do a hang of a lot for Halloween, so it's not a holiday I know much about. But the Americans here (God bless their little cotton socks), really got into it. Anyway, long story short, we had a really Chinese style party, which involves games. One game. Basically, we got divided into teams, and then had to do a treasure hunt all around Xia pu (the suburb we live in), performing various tasks at various venues. Each team had two westerners in, and a varying number of Chinese staff. The reason for the westerners is that Chinese people don't really drink much.
Hang on, digression needed. Chinese people drink a lot, because when they go out, they drink, and they always go out. But a night out for the average Chinese guy would consist of maybe two bottles of Tsing Tao followed by some violent retching in the toilets. I'm generalising here, but not much. We are somewhat revered, and often greeted with wide eyes, for our ability to drink. Which really isn't much.
Back on story. Our team was myself and a French guy, Axel, along with about 8 of the Chinese staff. There were six stations around Xia pu, which we had to run between. This means that at furtherest, we only had to cover about a km between stations. Unfortunately, at each station, in addition to our task, we had to drink three bottles of beer (I may have described before that these are 600ml bottles, not dumpies). Axel and I each took a bottle per station, and the Chinese staff shared the other.
Again, a digression. At the time, that didn't seem like a lot of beer, but now, in the cold hard light of day, my maths is better. The whole trip took us about an hour, and explains a lot about the rest of the night.
Once we reached the end of the race, which was in a nightclub...
That's enough. The next day wasn't a happy one.
And now, suddenly, I've run out of topic. I'm sure that some other stuff happened over the last month, but for the life of me I can't remember it right now. I will re-post in a day or two, once I have mulled it over.
Thanks again to all those who have sent me news and pics from back home - more are always welcome!
Now I, unfortunately, haven't been sitting with any pretty woman, per se, but in as far as this whole country (or at least this city) is a beautiful woman, I guess the analogy holds water.
I guess what I'm trying to do here is come up with a really long way to say I know I haven't posted in a while, and for those that have been waiting I am sorry. For those that haven't been, this is going to be a long one, so I'm sorry to you too.
But where to start?
My birthday. My first birthday ever outside of good old RS of A, and my first birthday in a few years without Mike, which was strange. Apart from that though, it was a great day.
Mike phoned me in the morning from S-Korea, and we had a good solid chat, which made my day straight off the bat. Then there were also the tons of emails, wall posts, instant messages, and other best wishes from everybody back home, which were magic.
At school, I had kept it fairly low key, but of course a few days before the day it popped up on facebook and so everybody knew. The day was pretty much filled with congrats on managing to live as long as I have (everybody else is in their early twenties). And then, surprise on surprise, one of my classes threw a party for me. We did a lesson a couple of months ago on the calender, and had been filling in everybody's birthdays. One of the girls wrote mine down, or remembered it, or something, and they organised a surprise party for me, complete with delicious cake and a gift (a bedside lamp). Suffice to say, I didn't give them any homework.
The evening, a few of us went to a restaurant, followed by a couple of drinks at a pub. All pretty chilled, none of the usual debauchery that these sort of events provoke.
Moving on to some debauchery though... Halloween. Now in SA, we don't really do a hang of a lot for Halloween, so it's not a holiday I know much about. But the Americans here (God bless their little cotton socks), really got into it. Anyway, long story short, we had a really Chinese style party, which involves games. One game. Basically, we got divided into teams, and then had to do a treasure hunt all around Xia pu (the suburb we live in), performing various tasks at various venues. Each team had two westerners in, and a varying number of Chinese staff. The reason for the westerners is that Chinese people don't really drink much.
Hang on, digression needed. Chinese people drink a lot, because when they go out, they drink, and they always go out. But a night out for the average Chinese guy would consist of maybe two bottles of Tsing Tao followed by some violent retching in the toilets. I'm generalising here, but not much. We are somewhat revered, and often greeted with wide eyes, for our ability to drink. Which really isn't much.
Back on story. Our team was myself and a French guy, Axel, along with about 8 of the Chinese staff. There were six stations around Xia pu, which we had to run between. This means that at furtherest, we only had to cover about a km between stations. Unfortunately, at each station, in addition to our task, we had to drink three bottles of beer (I may have described before that these are 600ml bottles, not dumpies). Axel and I each took a bottle per station, and the Chinese staff shared the other.
Again, a digression. At the time, that didn't seem like a lot of beer, but now, in the cold hard light of day, my maths is better. The whole trip took us about an hour, and explains a lot about the rest of the night.
Once we reached the end of the race, which was in a nightclub...
http://picasaweb.google.com/zak.wood/Halloween
That's enough. The next day wasn't a happy one.
And now, suddenly, I've run out of topic. I'm sure that some other stuff happened over the last month, but for the life of me I can't remember it right now. I will re-post in a day or two, once I have mulled it over.
Thanks again to all those who have sent me news and pics from back home - more are always welcome!
Monday, 15 October 2007
More incredibly inaccurate insights
Will they ever stop? Probably not.
So, a couple of thoughts, many of which came about on my cycling trip, but were then confined to that part of my brain I don't use (the part in my head).
Chinese television is really bad. No no, don't misunderstand me - I'm not talking Scandal or Egoli or even (god forbid) 7de Laan bad. I'm only talking really bad. I don't know what it is. It looks dubbed, for one thing. And although I don't understand anything they're saying, for the most part the acting is as bad or worse than on any of the aforementioned shows (where I also don't understand anything they're saying). I guess what we learn from this is that in no country in the world should the government be allowed to sponsor entertainment with our tax money. No, SABC, of course you could stand on your own two feet - absolutely. I would never question that.
Chinese sports fans, however, are awesome. Just like South Africans. And somehow, the one they always interview on telly is a complete and utter spanner. I was watching them interview a guy, and apart from the language and a few facial features, he could have been any drunken bloke outside Loftus or Kings Park - barely able to talk, mates in the background jumping up and down and waving to whoever. We must never underestimate how much these people add to our lives. I only hope and pray that one day, when my fifteen minutes of fame comes along, I don't go and ruin it by being sober.
Selling. Chinese people are, apparently, know for their selling. I don't know. What I do know is that the most popular technique of marketing a product is quite amazing to behold. Think... shouting. Now, think about shouting the same thing again and again. Of course, you want to make it efficient, so you get a megaphone with a record feature, shout into it once, and then leave it on a pile of whatever you're selling. Seriously. I have, for your benefit, used my amazing powers of communication to translate. "BUY OUR SHIT. BUY IT. DON'T JUST STAND THERE - BUY IT!! COME ON. PICK ONE UP, PAY FOR IT, DEAL DONE. DO IT NOW". Repeat.
No need to thank me.
Finally, I want to talk a little but about flavour. I've spoken quite a lot about how good the food is here, yes indeed. And so far, I have found three items that I will quite possibly sell my kidneys for one day if needs be. But that's not important right now. What is important is that it appears colours can also be flavours. I know orange is a colour, and a fruit, and they associate a certain flavour with that. But the flavour "Orange" is actually the flavour of the fruit, not the colour. However, the flavour "Purple" is the flavour of the colour. Don't ask me how. I ate a purple flavoured ice-cream the other day.
It tasted like... purple.
So, a couple of thoughts, many of which came about on my cycling trip, but were then confined to that part of my brain I don't use (the part in my head).
Chinese television is really bad. No no, don't misunderstand me - I'm not talking Scandal or Egoli or even (god forbid) 7de Laan bad. I'm only talking really bad. I don't know what it is. It looks dubbed, for one thing. And although I don't understand anything they're saying, for the most part the acting is as bad or worse than on any of the aforementioned shows (where I also don't understand anything they're saying). I guess what we learn from this is that in no country in the world should the government be allowed to sponsor entertainment with our tax money. No, SABC, of course you could stand on your own two feet - absolutely. I would never question that.
Chinese sports fans, however, are awesome. Just like South Africans. And somehow, the one they always interview on telly is a complete and utter spanner. I was watching them interview a guy, and apart from the language and a few facial features, he could have been any drunken bloke outside Loftus or Kings Park - barely able to talk, mates in the background jumping up and down and waving to whoever. We must never underestimate how much these people add to our lives. I only hope and pray that one day, when my fifteen minutes of fame comes along, I don't go and ruin it by being sober.
Selling. Chinese people are, apparently, know for their selling. I don't know. What I do know is that the most popular technique of marketing a product is quite amazing to behold. Think... shouting. Now, think about shouting the same thing again and again. Of course, you want to make it efficient, so you get a megaphone with a record feature, shout into it once, and then leave it on a pile of whatever you're selling. Seriously. I have, for your benefit, used my amazing powers of communication to translate. "BUY OUR SHIT. BUY IT. DON'T JUST STAND THERE - BUY IT!! COME ON. PICK ONE UP, PAY FOR IT, DEAL DONE. DO IT NOW". Repeat.
No need to thank me.
Finally, I want to talk a little but about flavour. I've spoken quite a lot about how good the food is here, yes indeed. And so far, I have found three items that I will quite possibly sell my kidneys for one day if needs be. But that's not important right now. What is important is that it appears colours can also be flavours. I know orange is a colour, and a fruit, and they associate a certain flavour with that. But the flavour "Orange" is actually the flavour of the fruit, not the colour. However, the flavour "Purple" is the flavour of the colour. Don't ask me how. I ate a purple flavoured ice-cream the other day.
It tasted like... purple.
Sunday, 14 October 2007
A bit on the rugby
Well, it's almost 5am here, I'm busy watching England knock France out of the World Cup (online, text updates), and I am reminded of a joke that did the rounds before the 2003 RWC.
It's an hour before the RSA-ENG match, and Johnny Wilkinson is sitting in the changeroom looking kind of dejected. His team-mates ask what the problem is, and he says he's battling to get himself motivated for the game. He feels that the challenge is gone. So the guys say ok, how about he plays the game on his own, and they all go "down pub". At this obviously he perks up a little.
So a couple of hours later, the lads are all in the pub, and they decide to see what the score is. They flick on the TV, and with 10 minutes to go, it's 6-3 to England. The guys are obviously well impressed, and they head back to the grounds to congratulate Johnny. They get there, final score 6-6, and find Johnny looking very down.
What the hell man, you've just held the whole RSA team to a draw - you should be ecstatic. (they say). Johnny says "Oh no, that's not it. I got sent off in the 12th minute".
Cue laugh tape.
Now that was a bit of a dig at the RSA 2003 squad, but today it could just as easily be a comment about how bloody good this guy is. And he's not any more, really. But for some reason, when he's on the field, England play like real rugby players, not the under-watered daisies we played a month ago.
Obviously we've still got a job to do tomorrow, against Argentina, but if we meet England in the final, I think it's going to be a very different game to the pool stages. Captain Obvious strikes again!
It's an hour before the RSA-ENG match, and Johnny Wilkinson is sitting in the changeroom looking kind of dejected. His team-mates ask what the problem is, and he says he's battling to get himself motivated for the game. He feels that the challenge is gone. So the guys say ok, how about he plays the game on his own, and they all go "down pub". At this obviously he perks up a little.
So a couple of hours later, the lads are all in the pub, and they decide to see what the score is. They flick on the TV, and with 10 minutes to go, it's 6-3 to England. The guys are obviously well impressed, and they head back to the grounds to congratulate Johnny. They get there, final score 6-6, and find Johnny looking very down.
What the hell man, you've just held the whole RSA team to a draw - you should be ecstatic. (they say). Johnny says "Oh no, that's not it. I got sent off in the 12th minute".
Cue laugh tape.
Now that was a bit of a dig at the RSA 2003 squad, but today it could just as easily be a comment about how bloody good this guy is. And he's not any more, really. But for some reason, when he's on the field, England play like real rugby players, not the under-watered daisies we played a month ago.
Obviously we've still got a job to do tomorrow, against Argentina, but if we meet England in the final, I think it's going to be a very different game to the pool stages. Captain Obvious strikes again!
Photos, relink
For those not able to see my facebook photos (Sorry Mom), here is a link to Picasaweb - http://picasaweb.google.com/zak.wood/HolidayCycleTrip
Many many thanks to F-Spot for supplying the upload feature while the functionality is being built into Picasa.
Many many thanks to F-Spot for supplying the upload feature while the functionality is being built into Picasa.
Thursday, 11 October 2007
Pictures
Photos from my recent mountain trip : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=59519&l=d0bfb&id=745530541
Friday, 05 October 2007
Wilderness, wild eyed stares, cramps, and communication
Herewith follows the account of the inaugural May Wenty MTB Club cycle tour, which included some good humour, much cycling, more walking, and a whole lot of charades.
Three intrepid cyclists set out in excellent spirits from Huizhou on Tuesday morning, aiming for a city called Bolou, about 40km away, where we had been told we would find good camping, because it was in the mountains.
It's not.
Bolou is actually a poorer and smaller version of Huizhou, but clearly a city on the move. Many new buildings going up all over the place, and a great deal of rushing around. It's about the size of East London, and in terrain like Bloem (For those who don't know, Bloem is so flat they say on a clear day you can see the back of your head).
None the less, it was a lovely cycle there, and only took us a couple of hours, so we felt no worries about carrying on regardless.
My legs, however, were not happy about the situation, and about an hour out of Bolou, started cramping. At first, I ignored it assuming that it would go away, and I could handle the pain (Me big man, me strong, me hair on chest. Me idiot). When first the left leg, and then while I was trying to elegantly fall off my bike the right, cramped to the point of locking up, the matter became more serious. The trip turned into an 8 hour ordeal, with surprisingly good humour on the part of my two companions, and remarkably poor humour on my behalf. Still, I must give my hugest thanks to them in retrospect, for so vociferously refusing to do as I asked and leave me.
We didn't find a campsite, but we did find a little hotel in a small town, where we stayed the night. We had a most excellent meal with some kind of meatballs (no, not dog. But also not something I knew), followed by a massage, which I need to describe.
It's, um, not for the shy. Or people who can't handle a little pain. My massage consisted of about 50 minutes working on my back, doing amazing things which I won't describe right now. However, all my physio friends, you need to visit China and learn a thing or two. She then move onto my legs, which obviously was pretty important for me. Now, it turns out my legs go right to the top floor, as it were, and I was a little nervous when she started pressing with her thumbs either side of my bits. The nervousness turned to anguish though when she shifted her weight, and managed to catch a bit of my important bit under her thumb. Perhaps she didn't notice, perhaps she didn't care, but certainly she didn't release the pressure. Still, pain can be good for us, I hear. And even if I can't have children one day, at least I could cycle the next day.
The next morning we set off again, in search of our now-illusive campsite. By this time, we were near Loufu mountain, and so decided to stay there. It is a very famous mountain in China, and stunningly beautiful, so you can understand why we assumed there would be a good campsite.
At this point, I have to digress. I am sorry, but it'll all make sense in a bit. It's all about communication. See, me, I know about 12 words of Chinese now. BUT, it turns out you don't need a lot of Chinese to be able to get what you want. It started off actually being a joke - me asking for things, but when I got exactly what I wanted every time, with only a scratching of words, and some charades. Eventually, the joke became a hell of a joke - it seems that from now on, you can call me Zak the linguist.
Off the digression. Loretta, who speaks quite a bit of Chinese, got directions from some park administration types to the campsite. Somewhere, stuff got lost in translation (watch how studiously I avoid commenting on this), and we ended up in a theme park. Yes indeed, on the side of one of the most beautiful mountains in China, one of Taoisms greatest monuments, one of the sacred places on earth... There is a theme park. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about an American style theme park, with people who hate their lives dressed in stupid costumes scaring kids. But there was a definite Gold Reef City feel to the place. Lots of tourists, lots of restaurants, a few hotels, and a cable car. Why the italics?
Those who know me well enough will know that I am not a terrible fan of heights. An unkind soul might even say I am terrified of them. Well, some days I don't think as clearly as I should, and I only realised that I was going to have to sit on a small seat about two million meters above the ground for roughly seventy five kilometers straight up the side of a mountain, once I had bought the ticket and was actually standing waiting for mydeath trap chair to arrive. If anybody thinks I am joking, please feel free to look at the following picture.
All of this was made worse by the fact that I was sharing my narrow plank with the American girl (Loretta) on the trip, who was clearly oblivious to the horrors facing me, and happily swung this way and that while looking at various things. God only knows what - I couldn't see past my white knuckles.
Fact is, it was scary, and not an experience I wanted to repeat, so we had to wait until the sun went down before making the trip back down the cars of hell.
We stayed the night in one of the theme park hotels, where we decided to erect a tent in the middle of the room, just for the look of the thing. It was fun.
Day three dawned, we got up, blah blah blah, and headed out to find a new place.
From the cable car of doom, Loretta (who, God bless her little cotton socks, is bloody lucky to be alive after all her moving around and swinging this way and that) had seen a small clearing in the middle of the forest, and so we decided to strike out for that. I will save you the detail of how we eventually found the place, other than to say that we had to get permission from a very unhappy looking monk (who eventually let us up the mountain only on condition that we locked our bikes in his temple).
A short steep walk later, and we stumbled into this fantastic little clearing, which of course was a lot less clear than from the air (I'm assuming here based on descriptions given to me by the others - I didn't see it from the air).
None the less, we eagerly found a suitable spot, and set up our tents at long last for a little bit of proper camping. After a bite of dinner back down the mountain, we all crammed into Loretta's tent for a little poker. Fifteen minutes later, and I looked like a hairy swimming pool. We carried on trying for a while longer, but eventually gave it up as a bad joke. Perhaps strip poker would have worked better.
The next morning saw a few stiff backs (ok, just mine, but I'm a lot bigger than the other two, so I reckon I count for more), smelly tents (again, just mine, for some reason) and some sore muscles, along with a unanimous decision (not just mine, thank God) to return home.
All in all, the trip was fantastic fun, and ultimately ended on the right day. I think if we'd stayed another night, we wouldn't have been good friends by the end of it.
The cycle home was uneventful.
I do have some thoughts on China that came out of the trip, but since this post has now taken me three days to write, and I'm sure you are at least as bored with it as I am, I will put them up at a later stage. Don't worry, I've got a great memory.
Which reminds me - I've mentioned it before, but please don't post comments that you want me to see - I can't see the blog from here, all I can see is a little "2 Comments" on my dashboard, which leaves me very frustrated. And frustration is something I want to avoid right now.
Three intrepid cyclists set out in excellent spirits from Huizhou on Tuesday morning, aiming for a city called Bolou, about 40km away, where we had been told we would find good camping, because it was in the mountains.
It's not.
Bolou is actually a poorer and smaller version of Huizhou, but clearly a city on the move. Many new buildings going up all over the place, and a great deal of rushing around. It's about the size of East London, and in terrain like Bloem (For those who don't know, Bloem is so flat they say on a clear day you can see the back of your head).
None the less, it was a lovely cycle there, and only took us a couple of hours, so we felt no worries about carrying on regardless.
My legs, however, were not happy about the situation, and about an hour out of Bolou, started cramping. At first, I ignored it assuming that it would go away, and I could handle the pain (Me big man, me strong, me hair on chest. Me idiot). When first the left leg, and then while I was trying to elegantly fall off my bike the right, cramped to the point of locking up, the matter became more serious. The trip turned into an 8 hour ordeal, with surprisingly good humour on the part of my two companions, and remarkably poor humour on my behalf. Still, I must give my hugest thanks to them in retrospect, for so vociferously refusing to do as I asked and leave me.
We didn't find a campsite, but we did find a little hotel in a small town, where we stayed the night. We had a most excellent meal with some kind of meatballs (no, not dog. But also not something I knew), followed by a massage, which I need to describe.
It's, um, not for the shy. Or people who can't handle a little pain. My massage consisted of about 50 minutes working on my back, doing amazing things which I won't describe right now. However, all my physio friends, you need to visit China and learn a thing or two. She then move onto my legs, which obviously was pretty important for me. Now, it turns out my legs go right to the top floor, as it were, and I was a little nervous when she started pressing with her thumbs either side of my bits. The nervousness turned to anguish though when she shifted her weight, and managed to catch a bit of my important bit under her thumb. Perhaps she didn't notice, perhaps she didn't care, but certainly she didn't release the pressure. Still, pain can be good for us, I hear. And even if I can't have children one day, at least I could cycle the next day.
The next morning we set off again, in search of our now-illusive campsite. By this time, we were near Loufu mountain, and so decided to stay there. It is a very famous mountain in China, and stunningly beautiful, so you can understand why we assumed there would be a good campsite.
At this point, I have to digress. I am sorry, but it'll all make sense in a bit. It's all about communication. See, me, I know about 12 words of Chinese now. BUT, it turns out you don't need a lot of Chinese to be able to get what you want. It started off actually being a joke - me asking for things, but when I got exactly what I wanted every time, with only a scratching of words, and some charades. Eventually, the joke became a hell of a joke - it seems that from now on, you can call me Zak the linguist.
Off the digression. Loretta, who speaks quite a bit of Chinese, got directions from some park administration types to the campsite. Somewhere, stuff got lost in translation (watch how studiously I avoid commenting on this), and we ended up in a theme park. Yes indeed, on the side of one of the most beautiful mountains in China, one of Taoisms greatest monuments, one of the sacred places on earth... There is a theme park. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about an American style theme park, with people who hate their lives dressed in stupid costumes scaring kids. But there was a definite Gold Reef City feel to the place. Lots of tourists, lots of restaurants, a few hotels, and a cable car. Why the italics?
Those who know me well enough will know that I am not a terrible fan of heights. An unkind soul might even say I am terrified of them. Well, some days I don't think as clearly as I should, and I only realised that I was going to have to sit on a small seat about two million meters above the ground for roughly seventy five kilometers straight up the side of a mountain, once I had bought the ticket and was actually standing waiting for my
All of this was made worse by the fact that I was sharing my narrow plank with the American girl (Loretta) on the trip, who was clearly oblivious to the horrors facing me, and happily swung this way and that while looking at various things. God only knows what - I couldn't see past my white knuckles.
Fact is, it was scary, and not an experience I wanted to repeat, so we had to wait until the sun went down before making the trip back down the cars of hell.
We stayed the night in one of the theme park hotels, where we decided to erect a tent in the middle of the room, just for the look of the thing. It was fun.
Day three dawned, we got up, blah blah blah, and headed out to find a new place.
From the cable car of doom, Loretta (who, God bless her little cotton socks, is bloody lucky to be alive after all her moving around and swinging this way and that) had seen a small clearing in the middle of the forest, and so we decided to strike out for that. I will save you the detail of how we eventually found the place, other than to say that we had to get permission from a very unhappy looking monk (who eventually let us up the mountain only on condition that we locked our bikes in his temple).
A short steep walk later, and we stumbled into this fantastic little clearing, which of course was a lot less clear than from the air (I'm assuming here based on descriptions given to me by the others - I didn't see it from the air).
None the less, we eagerly found a suitable spot, and set up our tents at long last for a little bit of proper camping. After a bite of dinner back down the mountain, we all crammed into Loretta's tent for a little poker. Fifteen minutes later, and I looked like a hairy swimming pool. We carried on trying for a while longer, but eventually gave it up as a bad joke. Perhaps strip poker would have worked better.
The next morning saw a few stiff backs (ok, just mine, but I'm a lot bigger than the other two, so I reckon I count for more), smelly tents (again, just mine, for some reason) and some sore muscles, along with a unanimous decision (not just mine, thank God) to return home.
All in all, the trip was fantastic fun, and ultimately ended on the right day. I think if we'd stayed another night, we wouldn't have been good friends by the end of it.
The cycle home was uneventful.
I do have some thoughts on China that came out of the trip, but since this post has now taken me three days to write, and I'm sure you are at least as bored with it as I am, I will put them up at a later stage. Don't worry, I've got a great memory.
Which reminds me - I've mentioned it before, but please don't post comments that you want me to see - I can't see the blog from here, all I can see is a little "2 Comments" on my dashboard, which leaves me very frustrated. And frustration is something I want to avoid right now.
Saturday, 29 September 2007
Slightly slow
Just down the road from the school, there is a tea shop opening. I'm not sure when it will open, or indeed whether the owner is building it for his unborn children, because I have never seen such a slow shopfitting in my entire life. Now I'm no expert on the matter, and so I would appreciate anybody putting my expectations right if they are wrong, but I would expect a shopfitting, for a pretty small shop, to take not that long. They had started on it when I arrived. They look as though they are maybe half way now, 7 weeks later.
In an almost unrelated vein, I went for dinner tonight, at what is fast becoming my favourite restaurant, for reasons not wholly related to food. Outside, they were putting up a banner, ostensibly to attract business. When I arrived, they were a fair way into this exercise. When I left, 75 minutes later, they hadn't yet finished. This was a banner that would take Mike and I maybe 10 minutes to put up. If we were drunk. And didn't have a ladder.
I'm not sure what all of this means, but I thought I'd mention it and let you draw your own conclusions.
In an almost unrelated vein, I went for dinner tonight, at what is fast becoming my favourite restaurant, for reasons not wholly related to food. Outside, they were putting up a banner, ostensibly to attract business. When I arrived, they were a fair way into this exercise. When I left, 75 minutes later, they hadn't yet finished. This was a banner that would take Mike and I maybe 10 minutes to put up. If we were drunk. And didn't have a ladder.
I'm not sure what all of this means, but I thought I'd mention it and let you draw your own conclusions.
Thursday, 27 September 2007
Apologies and reasons
I feel I must apologise for my pointless, puerile, and ultimately pointless post of earlier. I was rushed, and I thought that my inane ramblings on the events of this week would be suitable. I realise now that I was wrong, and what is needed to satisfy me is the posting of my actual thoughts and deep insights.
Ok, enough bollocks. The fact is that I have, I think, unearthed if not THE, then certainly a very big part of THE reason why China is taking over the world. Everybody talks about work ethic, schooling, and all that stuff, and they are absolutely correct, but there is a principle behind all that.
See, Chinese waiters and waitresses don't expect tips. Indeed, if you leave a tip, they will bring it back to you saying you forgot your change (or the Chinese equivalent).
So what?
Well, the word "tips" originates as an acronym for To Insure Prompt Service. Which is very much not the way Chinese people think.
You see, what ensures prompt service is the fact that IT'S YOUR JOB to deliver promptly.
Therein lies the key. China (and this goes beyond just the waitrons et al), seems to have absolutely zero sense of entitlement. If you want something, you earn it. Nothing is for free, or for more than you have originally agreed.
I really like that. A lot.
I hope it lasts.
Ok, enough bollocks. The fact is that I have, I think, unearthed if not THE, then certainly a very big part of THE reason why China is taking over the world. Everybody talks about work ethic, schooling, and all that stuff, and they are absolutely correct, but there is a principle behind all that.
See, Chinese waiters and waitresses don't expect tips. Indeed, if you leave a tip, they will bring it back to you saying you forgot your change (or the Chinese equivalent).
So what?
Well, the word "tips" originates as an acronym for To Insure Prompt Service. Which is very much not the way Chinese people think.
You see, what ensures prompt service is the fact that IT'S YOUR JOB to deliver promptly.
Therein lies the key. China (and this goes beyond just the waitrons et al), seems to have absolutely zero sense of entitlement. If you want something, you earn it. Nothing is for free, or for more than you have originally agreed.
I really like that. A lot.
I hope it lasts.
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
Walruses... Walrie... The Walrus
¨The time has come¨, the walrus said, ¨to talk of many things....¨
I haven´t, of course, posted since I went to the beach. This is because I am lazy, not because there has been nothing to say. In fact, this has been a week filled with fun and adventure, most of which I forget right now.
So let´s start at the beach. Last weekend (being last Monday and Tuesday, because that´s how I roll), we all squeezed into a bus made for people with little legs, and travelled to the beach. Now, already I can hear statements along the lines of "Beach? In China? Must have been terrible, with millions of people running around."
You are incorrect. Unless you weren't thinking that, in which case you aren't incorrect.
Point being, the beach was fantastic. We rented tents from a little shop near here for 25yuan, climbed into the bus, and drove for about 2 hours South or
East or Southeast. Arriving at the beach was quite something. See, in South Africa you know that you've arrived at the coast for all of the final 100Km before you get salt in your carburettor. Here, we were about 200m from the sea without realising it. I don't know why - I don't know if we can maybe smell the sea from where we live, and so are used to it, or because there are no waves. At all. Barely a ripple. It was like swimming in a big salty bath with your clothes on.
Whatever the reason, we only realised we were at the beach when the driver stopped and said "There's the beach". We then ambled around for a while picking a beach to visit, because they're all really open, and completely lack (thank God) the plague of housing that infests every single kilometer of South Africa's coast.
Eventually we chose to go to a resort type place, where we paid very little to be allowed to camp on the beach itself, literally 30m from the sea. What a fantastic experience. We spent the day playing touch rugby, touch rugby, a little frisbee, touch rugby, and a game called Radball, which involves hitting a ball as far into the water as you can, for the "fielders" to fetch. That may not sound like much, but it entertained us for a good 2 hours.
We ate lunch at a restaurant on the beach, where they served the freshest seafood I've ever eaten (except for the oysters & mussels I ate with Bill straight off the rocks), and then played more beach sports.
The evenings activities involved a bonfire, some beers (hehehe... Ok, lots of beers), and a fair bit of trying to sneak into the water for a swim, followed by getting chased out by a security guard with the patience of Job (Repeat. Many times). Lovely guy, but I wouldn't want to be him.
The long and the short of it is that we had a magnificent time at the beach, and all returned to Huizhou really well rested and ready for the week. Not.
The week consisted of a great deal of teaching (which I am starting to grasp slowly). I had my first observation last week, and the feedback was surprisingly decent. Our training is also in full swing now, so learning a lot on that front.
Outside of school, this week saw the mid-autumn festival, which all of the western staff approached with great enthusiasm after a rousing talk by our fearless leaders. Essentially, as I understand it, the festival is to celebrate the middle of autumn, and the full moon, and some other stuff. It's massive. (cue Chinese people laughing in the background).
Turns out, it used to be massive, some years back. This year, all the Western staff and all the Chinese staff, walked down to West Lake (a beautiful big lake in Huizhou, where the festival is held) with lanterns and mooncakes to celebrate. West Lake, unfortunately, looked exactly the same as any other night, with the exception of a few more people, and more kids than you would expect carrying little lights and things.
It turns out it's compulsory for the Chinese staff to go (and semi-compulsory for us), but they are all bored stiff every year, because they know it's rubbish. And they laugh at our eagerness.
In the end, we didn't have a bad time - we hired a couple of peddle boats, which brought out my competitive streak (I knew he was hiding in there somewhere), and resulted in a race over about 200m. The key problem here is that the peddle boats are made for Chinese people, and while I may have mentioned that they don't seem that much smaller than me, they definitely have shorter legs. So I kept hitting my chin with my knees. We won though, which is what counts.
On the bicycle saga, good news. Unfortunately it covers bad news. Next week we have a ten day holiday, which everybody is of course very excited about. My plan, when I heard about it, was to fly out to see Mike in South Korea. Unfortunately, my passport only got back from the Chinese visa office yesterday, and there is no possible way to get a Korean visa in time. So I will have to do that another time.
You may be asking how this links up to the bicycle, and I'll put you out of your misery (and the ongoing misery of the longest bloody blog post in the history of forever) - I am going on a cycle tour. I don't know where just yet, but somewhere into the mountains. At the moment, I'm planning it, and rallying the troops (which is not going well). Still, it will be 5-6 days outside of Huizhou, in the fresh mountain air, cycling around, camping, eating at dodgy little restaurants, and all in all having a great time.
On that note, I hereby end this long and somewhat rushed ramble, because I'm supposed to be at school planning lessons.
Send news from home. (Email, no comments - I can't see them).
I haven´t, of course, posted since I went to the beach. This is because I am lazy, not because there has been nothing to say. In fact, this has been a week filled with fun and adventure, most of which I forget right now.
So let´s start at the beach. Last weekend (being last Monday and Tuesday, because that´s how I roll), we all squeezed into a bus made for people with little legs, and travelled to the beach. Now, already I can hear statements along the lines of "Beach? In China? Must have been terrible, with millions of people running around."
You are incorrect. Unless you weren't thinking that, in which case you aren't incorrect.
Point being, the beach was fantastic. We rented tents from a little shop near here for 25yuan, climbed into the bus, and drove for about 2 hours South or
East or Southeast. Arriving at the beach was quite something. See, in South Africa you know that you've arrived at the coast for all of the final 100Km before you get salt in your carburettor. Here, we were about 200m from the sea without realising it. I don't know why - I don't know if we can maybe smell the sea from where we live, and so are used to it, or because there are no waves. At all. Barely a ripple. It was like swimming in a big salty bath with your clothes on.
Whatever the reason, we only realised we were at the beach when the driver stopped and said "There's the beach". We then ambled around for a while picking a beach to visit, because they're all really open, and completely lack (thank God) the plague of housing that infests every single kilometer of South Africa's coast.
Eventually we chose to go to a resort type place, where we paid very little to be allowed to camp on the beach itself, literally 30m from the sea. What a fantastic experience. We spent the day playing touch rugby, touch rugby, a little frisbee, touch rugby, and a game called Radball, which involves hitting a ball as far into the water as you can, for the "fielders" to fetch. That may not sound like much, but it entertained us for a good 2 hours.
We ate lunch at a restaurant on the beach, where they served the freshest seafood I've ever eaten (except for the oysters & mussels I ate with Bill straight off the rocks), and then played more beach sports.
The evenings activities involved a bonfire, some beers (hehehe... Ok, lots of beers), and a fair bit of trying to sneak into the water for a swim, followed by getting chased out by a security guard with the patience of Job (Repeat. Many times). Lovely guy, but I wouldn't want to be him.
The long and the short of it is that we had a magnificent time at the beach, and all returned to Huizhou really well rested and ready for the week. Not.
The week consisted of a great deal of teaching (which I am starting to grasp slowly). I had my first observation last week, and the feedback was surprisingly decent. Our training is also in full swing now, so learning a lot on that front.
Outside of school, this week saw the mid-autumn festival, which all of the western staff approached with great enthusiasm after a rousing talk by our fearless leaders. Essentially, as I understand it, the festival is to celebrate the middle of autumn, and the full moon, and some other stuff. It's massive. (cue Chinese people laughing in the background).
Turns out, it used to be massive, some years back. This year, all the Western staff and all the Chinese staff, walked down to West Lake (a beautiful big lake in Huizhou, where the festival is held) with lanterns and mooncakes to celebrate. West Lake, unfortunately, looked exactly the same as any other night, with the exception of a few more people, and more kids than you would expect carrying little lights and things.
It turns out it's compulsory for the Chinese staff to go (and semi-compulsory for us), but they are all bored stiff every year, because they know it's rubbish. And they laugh at our eagerness.
In the end, we didn't have a bad time - we hired a couple of peddle boats, which brought out my competitive streak (I knew he was hiding in there somewhere), and resulted in a race over about 200m. The key problem here is that the peddle boats are made for Chinese people, and while I may have mentioned that they don't seem that much smaller than me, they definitely have shorter legs. So I kept hitting my chin with my knees. We won though, which is what counts.
On the bicycle saga, good news. Unfortunately it covers bad news. Next week we have a ten day holiday, which everybody is of course very excited about. My plan, when I heard about it, was to fly out to see Mike in South Korea. Unfortunately, my passport only got back from the Chinese visa office yesterday, and there is no possible way to get a Korean visa in time. So I will have to do that another time.
You may be asking how this links up to the bicycle, and I'll put you out of your misery (and the ongoing misery of the longest bloody blog post in the history of forever) - I am going on a cycle tour. I don't know where just yet, but somewhere into the mountains. At the moment, I'm planning it, and rallying the troops (which is not going well). Still, it will be 5-6 days outside of Huizhou, in the fresh mountain air, cycling around, camping, eating at dodgy little restaurants, and all in all having a great time.
On that note, I hereby end this long and somewhat rushed ramble, because I'm supposed to be at school planning lessons.
Send news from home. (Email, no comments - I can't see them).
Friday, 14 September 2007
1 month on
Chinese painting, bumps on cars, and no rugby.
It's been, unless my maths fails me pretty badly, a month since I arrived in China. Well, a month and two days.
I made a decision, the week before last (or around then) to try and fill my spare time with something other than watching DVDs or walking myself to death and getting lost. So I have taken up the ancient art of Chinese painting, basing my learning purely on a book I downloaded from the internet. This is not going as well as you may have expected, thanks to my well known artistic streak, and other factors to follow.
I have also started Tai Chi (Or dzjaaid sneeze, as I believe it's called here). Many people (myself included until yesterday), see Tai Chi as a beautiful, slow, balanced and graceful martial art. This is incorrect. In a one hour session, we spent 30' doing stretches that would make my physio cry with happiness (at the money she could make repairing us), 20' practising kicks and jumps and lifts of sorts (The lifts were particularly special - my partner was a great guy called Tristan, who weighs about 60Kg. Suffice to say I remained firmly on the ground), and a final 10' of doing one Tai Chi step. All of these moves were surprisingly complex, and if it weren't for my unmatched physical fitness and legendary coordination, I might have seriously hurt myself.
For those that can't read between those lines and don't know me well - I hurt myself.
I have also started formal Chinese lessons, and been given my Chinese name: Shu Lin (The u is a flat tone, and the i is a 4th tone) - it sounds like Shoe lee-en. This is a crucial moment in any man's development, and certainly I like the sound of it. Shu Lin - mighty wood who stands tall as a pine tree and is strong like an oak. No, that's not what it means. It means (cue the jokes) Forest. I am starting running tomorrow.
Enough about my new hobbies though, and on to more wildly inaccurate but all encompasing observations of China based on my limited experience in a very un-Chinese city.
In an earlier post I mentioned how appallingly Chinese people drive, but on this count I believe I was mistaken. Although they park anywhere, drive through non-existent gaps, insist on turning across oncoming traffic, and are generally an absolute menace to my mental health, I have not seen a single car with a scratch on it. I mentioned this fact to a couple of the other teachers, and we've all been looking - Chinese people simply don't make mistakes when driving. It amazes me. I come from a city where any car without a scratch is being driven to go get one, and so this lack of unintended ornamentation is surreal. I can only put it down to one thing - There are very few women drivers in Huizhou.
I also went to a police station the other day, which was interesting. I have not been arrested yet Mom, don't worry - we had to be present to get our working Visas. We arrived, and sat in a little huddle while one of the guys from the school did the admin work. I was called up first, and given the Spanish Inquisition about when I arrived, what I did before I came here, was I ever a criminal, how many marshmallows I could fit in my mouth at once - all the usual. I returned to our group, and wished the next person luck. Nobody... NOT A SINGLE OTHER PERSON... got asked anything. NOT A SINGLE QUESTION. Bloody police. I digress though - what was interesting was that the police stations are almost exactly the same as in South Africa. Two people doing all the work (slowly), and a hundred standing around behind looking thoroughly bored, but conscientiously avoiding anything that might be construed as effort. I hypothesise that these people are there as bouncers, lest anybody suddenly get so fed up with the absolute bloody minded inefficiency of the whole place and go nuts. Read that last sentence again, and it'll tell you everything you need to know about my thoughts on bouncers.
On the school front, things continue to go well.
My classes are, for the most part, magnificent. I'm not going to go into detail about each kid, and what this one or that one did that was cute, or clever, or whatever. Suffice to say, they are mostly great kids, and the ones that aren't I'm working on. I think I might be able to get into this teacher vibe.
Upcoming attractions - This Monday/Tuesday (those are our days off), we're heading down to the beach. We rent tents and camp on the beachfront, as I understand, which should be a great experience. More than that, I cannot tell.
- My long awaited cycle is absolutely going to happen some time in the next month. I have so far ridden my beautiful little bicycle all the way from the shop home. But wait!!
- Not really an upcoming attraction, since there is no attraction to the fact that I STILL CAN'T WATCH THE RUGBY. I hate Australians. If nobody had told me that they were getting the rugger, I would have continued in my state of having written off watching it, and gotten on with my life. However, since the Aussie bastard said he would be getting it and showing it as his pub, I have been more excited than a basket-full of puppies on speed. He has, of course, utterly failed to deliver on his promise so far, but now I have all this hope with nowhere to go. I have spent incredible time and energy, and misused a number of school resources (luckily the principle is a rugby nut), trying to find anywhere in Huizhou that is showing it. It appears though, that I will have to revert to my original plan and go to Hong Kong to watch us beat New Zealand in an epic final. No Aussies are invited. I hope you lose to Wales. And Canada. And Fiji.
It's been, unless my maths fails me pretty badly, a month since I arrived in China. Well, a month and two days.
I made a decision, the week before last (or around then) to try and fill my spare time with something other than watching DVDs or walking myself to death and getting lost. So I have taken up the ancient art of Chinese painting, basing my learning purely on a book I downloaded from the internet. This is not going as well as you may have expected, thanks to my well known artistic streak, and other factors to follow.
I have also started Tai Chi (Or dzjaaid sneeze, as I believe it's called here). Many people (myself included until yesterday), see Tai Chi as a beautiful, slow, balanced and graceful martial art. This is incorrect. In a one hour session, we spent 30' doing stretches that would make my physio cry with happiness (at the money she could make repairing us), 20' practising kicks and jumps and lifts of sorts (The lifts were particularly special - my partner was a great guy called Tristan, who weighs about 60Kg. Suffice to say I remained firmly on the ground), and a final 10' of doing one Tai Chi step. All of these moves were surprisingly complex, and if it weren't for my unmatched physical fitness and legendary coordination, I might have seriously hurt myself.
For those that can't read between those lines and don't know me well - I hurt myself.
I have also started formal Chinese lessons, and been given my Chinese name: Shu Lin (The u is a flat tone, and the i is a 4th tone) - it sounds like Shoe lee-en. This is a crucial moment in any man's development, and certainly I like the sound of it. Shu Lin - mighty wood who stands tall as a pine tree and is strong like an oak. No, that's not what it means. It means (cue the jokes) Forest. I am starting running tomorrow.
Enough about my new hobbies though, and on to more wildly inaccurate but all encompasing observations of China based on my limited experience in a very un-Chinese city.
In an earlier post I mentioned how appallingly Chinese people drive, but on this count I believe I was mistaken. Although they park anywhere, drive through non-existent gaps, insist on turning across oncoming traffic, and are generally an absolute menace to my mental health, I have not seen a single car with a scratch on it. I mentioned this fact to a couple of the other teachers, and we've all been looking - Chinese people simply don't make mistakes when driving. It amazes me. I come from a city where any car without a scratch is being driven to go get one, and so this lack of unintended ornamentation is surreal. I can only put it down to one thing - There are very few women drivers in Huizhou.
I also went to a police station the other day, which was interesting. I have not been arrested yet Mom, don't worry - we had to be present to get our working Visas. We arrived, and sat in a little huddle while one of the guys from the school did the admin work. I was called up first, and given the Spanish Inquisition about when I arrived, what I did before I came here, was I ever a criminal, how many marshmallows I could fit in my mouth at once - all the usual. I returned to our group, and wished the next person luck. Nobody... NOT A SINGLE OTHER PERSON... got asked anything. NOT A SINGLE QUESTION. Bloody police. I digress though - what was interesting was that the police stations are almost exactly the same as in South Africa. Two people doing all the work (slowly), and a hundred standing around behind looking thoroughly bored, but conscientiously avoiding anything that might be construed as effort. I hypothesise that these people are there as bouncers, lest anybody suddenly get so fed up with the absolute bloody minded inefficiency of the whole place and go nuts. Read that last sentence again, and it'll tell you everything you need to know about my thoughts on bouncers.
On the school front, things continue to go well.
My classes are, for the most part, magnificent. I'm not going to go into detail about each kid, and what this one or that one did that was cute, or clever, or whatever. Suffice to say, they are mostly great kids, and the ones that aren't I'm working on. I think I might be able to get into this teacher vibe.
Upcoming attractions - This Monday/Tuesday (those are our days off), we're heading down to the beach. We rent tents and camp on the beachfront, as I understand, which should be a great experience. More than that, I cannot tell.
- My long awaited cycle is absolutely going to happen some time in the next month. I have so far ridden my beautiful little bicycle all the way from the shop home. But wait!!
- Not really an upcoming attraction, since there is no attraction to the fact that I STILL CAN'T WATCH THE RUGBY. I hate Australians. If nobody had told me that they were getting the rugger, I would have continued in my state of having written off watching it, and gotten on with my life. However, since the Aussie bastard said he would be getting it and showing it as his pub, I have been more excited than a basket-full of puppies on speed. He has, of course, utterly failed to deliver on his promise so far, but now I have all this hope with nowhere to go. I have spent incredible time and energy, and misused a number of school resources (luckily the principle is a rugby nut), trying to find anywhere in Huizhou that is showing it. It appears though, that I will have to revert to my original plan and go to Hong Kong to watch us beat New Zealand in an epic final. No Aussies are invited. I hope you lose to Wales. And Canada. And Fiji.
Wednesday, 05 September 2007
More pics
More pics, of more random stuff, up at my picasaweb site (link available in an earlier post).
We move to our evening timetable today, which means I only start work around 12, and should finish around 21h30. In anticipation of this, I have bought a Chinese Painting set, in order that I may finally release my internal frustrated genius through the medium of art. More to follow.
We move to our evening timetable today, which means I only start work around 12, and should finish around 21h30. In anticipation of this, I have bought a Chinese Painting set, in order that I may finally release my internal frustrated genius through the medium of art. More to follow.
Tuesday, 04 September 2007
Well, I didn't get to go for my cycle this morning, because we went out last night, ostensibly to go bowling, but actually to play a bowling drinking game. The upshot of this though is that I now know the exact level of sobriety needed to bowl perfectly - I got 4 strikes in a row, but then started sobering up and bowled terribly for the next 3 frames. One quick beer, and back on form.
I have now started uploading my photos - you can see them on http://picasaweb.google.com/zak.wood. There aren't many, and they aren't great, but I'll spend more time with the next batch and label them. For those wondering what the hell I was doing taking all the pics of scaffolding, you need to look closely at it. It's all made out of bamboo, and you will see some structures there that are quite amazing.
Stay well, stay strong.
I have now started uploading my photos - you can see them on http://picasaweb.google.com/zak.wood. There aren't many, and they aren't great, but I'll spend more time with the next batch and label them. For those wondering what the hell I was doing taking all the pics of scaffolding, you need to look closely at it. It's all made out of bamboo, and you will see some structures there that are quite amazing.
Stay well, stay strong.
Monday, 03 September 2007
The delays of real life
I think can now safely say that I have entered the "real life" zone here. I have fallen more or less into a routine, which involves many long and very relaxed hours at school, followed by many long and relaxed evenings at home post. That is going to change from Wednesday, as we move onto the evening timetable. I will start teaching at around 17h00, and finish around 21h30 each night. This means we only need to get to school around 13h00 for planning and whatnot.
Which leads, of course, to me having to fill my mornings, preferably with something other than hangovers. In that line, I have now bought a bicycle, the purchase of which was but a single afternoon's work, wandering around the city for 4 hours walking into every bicycle shop I saw in the hopes that they would have one my size. To explain if you are confused - a bicycle has to be a certain size to make comfortable to ride. The shops selling bicycles clearly are catering to the majority of their market, and there aren't a lot of Chinese over 6 foot. Eventually I got one to fit an extra long seat-post, and so alhough the handles are too low, I can at least almost straighten my legs. I am planning my first big ride for tomorrow morning, and will let you know how it goes.
Teaching is improving almost every day, as I get more experience, and find out what works and what doesn't. Asking the kids to read and follow and recite, does. Asking them to be creative, doesn't. Although, I am pleased to report, that a couple of my classes are starting to realise that I'm not giving up on whipping this creativity horse, and so they're making inroads.
There is a part of me that is desparate to teach them about Coleridge and Tennyson, and imbue them with a love of the English language which will carry them through long, dark, and lonely nights. But it does the heart good to sing about "I can hop, I can jump, I can do some other stuff that I can't really but it's fun to watch Mr. Wooo do."
I do have my first 1-to-1 student starting next week, and from what I understand they are generally more interested in talking about the world, so that could be fun.
I suspect I've rambled on quite enough today, I apologise for not updating the blog sooner, and I will strive to do it more regularly.
Which leads, of course, to me having to fill my mornings, preferably with something other than hangovers. In that line, I have now bought a bicycle, the purchase of which was but a single afternoon's work, wandering around the city for 4 hours walking into every bicycle shop I saw in the hopes that they would have one my size. To explain if you are confused - a bicycle has to be a certain size to make comfortable to ride. The shops selling bicycles clearly are catering to the majority of their market, and there aren't a lot of Chinese over 6 foot. Eventually I got one to fit an extra long seat-post, and so alhough the handles are too low, I can at least almost straighten my legs. I am planning my first big ride for tomorrow morning, and will let you know how it goes.
Teaching is improving almost every day, as I get more experience, and find out what works and what doesn't. Asking the kids to read and follow and recite, does. Asking them to be creative, doesn't. Although, I am pleased to report, that a couple of my classes are starting to realise that I'm not giving up on whipping this creativity horse, and so they're making inroads.
There is a part of me that is desparate to teach them about Coleridge and Tennyson, and imbue them with a love of the English language which will carry them through long, dark, and lonely nights. But it does the heart good to sing about "I can hop, I can jump, I can do some other stuff that I can't really but it's fun to watch Mr. Wooo do."
I do have my first 1-to-1 student starting next week, and from what I understand they are generally more interested in talking about the world, so that could be fun.
I suspect I've rambled on quite enough today, I apologise for not updating the blog sooner, and I will strive to do it more regularly.
Tuesday, 21 August 2007
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.
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.
Saturday, 18 August 2007
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.
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.
Monday, 13 August 2007
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 15th 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.
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.
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