Backdoor Street

At one side of campus in an exit onto ‘Backdoor Street’.  Apparently every college has a road like this; it’s basically a place where loads of street sellers congregate and you can eat really cheaply and buy most things.  It’s incredibly useful and fairly vital for the students.

Unfortunately the college tried to stop students getting out of college during school hours by putting up a gate.  So the shopkeepers had a big strike and tore down the gate.  So the college put up a bigger gate.  Then they decided to lock it.  We can’t quite work out the schedule of when it’s open and when it’s not so often have to use the happy shortcut, which gets more and more dangerous as it’s gradually overused.  A wall was put up to stop people getting through one way, and a fence was put up in another place, but the students are very resourceful.

So here’s our current route:

Over the torn-down fence and across the clay track with the sea of rubbish from a boys’ dorm flowing down the side...

Over a wall...

Through some gardens...

Down a precarious clay hill (see the students queue to experience the thrill of getting back up)…

Round the back of someone’s house…

And here we are on Backdoor Street, or, as Jav and Chrissy have affectionately named it, Filth Street.

We love the Filth, we really do.  There’s printing lady who often lets us foreigners jump the queue, ‘Punk’ a new restaurant owner who has promised us an English menu and fried-food lady who always has a smile for us.  Then there’s plenty of cheap restaurants where we have to write out our order so often just pick the characters that look most appealing, fruit stalls, amazing pizza-esque fried bread stand, shops that sell everything from phones to nail polish to inappropriate lamps, and, right at the bottom on the main road, the supermarket and the fake KFC with the dodgy electricity.  What more could anyone want?

At least when the gate is open we fully appreciate it.  Nothing like clambering up clay banks surrounded by rubbish, in the dark, trying to hold a torch in one hand and a pile of photocopying in the other, wearing flipflops and narrowly evading death to make you appreciate the joys of an open gate.

Mid-Autumn Festival and Moon Day

Today we began the mid-Autumn festival.  We have been given 3 days of holiday!  Of course, we have to make up all missed lessons at the weekend so the whole point of holiday is somewhat defeated.  Very cunning of China, that.

Last night we had another college-funded banquet, though couldn’t eat much for all the toasts and, of course, the moon cakes.  Ah, moon cakes...  We have been inundated with them but are struggling to find an adequate level of appreciation for them.  There’s no way of telling what flavour they are before you’ve started eating one and we keep ending up with the really sweet fruit flavoured ones which aren’t very nice.  Then there are the ones that taste like prunes.

Today, on the happiest of days, Moon Day itself, we met up with Taz, Jav’s brother, who works at the other college in Pingxiang.  After traipsing round the city and trying, in vain, to find an open DVD store, we decided to seek out the fantastical ‘ice-cream moon cakes’ that dwell deep in the depths of Nanchang department store.  After trying to work out exactly what was in said moon cakes, we bought one of each colour to try.  Don’t they look pretty.

They were not pretty on the inside.  Turns out one was chocolate-ish, one orange, one green tea and one a sort of yam flavour.  And the ice cream was not so much ice cream as a sort of rice jelly.  It was half hilarious and half distressing.

“It makes me sad”.

It made us all sad, Jav.

In a very bizarre and I suppose a coincidental way, the weather abruptly changed today.  Rain, cool wind, temperatures in the low 20s.  Something like an English summer.  All the humidity has left the air and it almost feels cold.  Clearly mid-Autumn day has magical powers.  Moon powers.

Freshmen!

This week the freshmen year started lessons, having completed their military training.  I’ve enjoyed meeting them: since they’re new I’m their first Western teacher so I feel like they’re properly my classes. 

Also I got to name them.  They all need English names for class so I handed out lists upon lists of names for them to choose.  Most picked ones off the list and I helped a few find ones which sounded a little like their Chinese names.  Of course, some had their own ideas.  I couldn’t convince Seven to change her name but Purple became Sophie half way through class.  Of course, Joyce became Happy, so it sort of balanced out.  I also have a Cloudy.  But the prize for best name goes to Dragon Knight.  He was adamant that he wanted it, even when I told him he’d have it for 3 years.  Brilliant.  Later on he tried to change it to ‘Luffy’, but I was having none of it.

Registers are going to be entertaining.

My second lot of freshmen were great: really excited and keen to learn English.  Although it turns out the main reason they all want to learn is to marry a foreigner.  They are confused as to why I don’t have a boyfriend/am not married to Terry.  But then they also confused about why I don’t have blue eyes.  Chrissy, who also has brown eyes, asked her class what colour her eyes were.  They said blue.  Maybe they think we’re trying to trick them.

The girls wouldn’t stop trying to take photos of me on the sly with their phones so eventually I gave in and ended up having photos with most of the class.  It meant I got one of them too.

That’s Heaven in the middle.  She had already picked her name before I handed out the sheets.

Here’s me with a few of the most excited ones.  Blending right in there.

Freshers are fun.

The College

Since I spend most of my time on campus I thought I should put up some photos of the college.  Pingxiang college has about 10000 students, so it’s pretty sizeable!  Here’s the front of the college.

It looks quite impressive.  Interestingly this is not where we teach.  Or live.  Or ever really go.  The middle building is the library and the one on the right is administrative.  We think the left one is some sort of science or engineering block.  And this is the view from the same spot in the other direction. 

Not sure what the point of such a long drive is but I like to run up the steps and pretend I’m Rocky.  While all the students take photos on their phones which go up on QQ, a sort of Chinese facebook.

There are 3 big teaching buildings where all the subjects are taught.  This is building 1, with fancy lecture rooms and multimedia equipment that actually works.

I only teach here once a week but it was too hard to get a photo of building 3 without being trampled on.

There are quite a few sports grounds including an athletics track, basketball courts, tennis courts and badminton courts.  Here are the freshers out doing their military training on the track last week.

There are also a few shops and stalls which include a post office and a ‘place where post goes’.  I am hoping that’s where I can pick up things sent from England but so far the only thing that has happened there was an impromptu photoshoot for all us foreign teachers.  Noone knows what has become of the photos that were taken.  Yet another confusing happening to avoid dwelling on.

There are 2 canteens but we only use one of them.  Here’s one of the students’ areas.

Fortunately there’s a separate eating area for teachers and we get free lunch.  I think the food is alright though it’s always a bit of a gamble and I generally avoid the meat.  And it doesn’t please everyone.  Here is Terry, actually texting home in dismay at being served carrots, cabbage and some kind of ear-shaped mushrooms all in one go.

The college is built up into the hills so backs onto countryside.  I’ve had a couple of exploratory runs and as soon as you leave the back of the college it’s just rural village and paddy fields.  There was even a chicken strike.  The close proximity of the countryside reveals just how quickly the city has sprung up; it was good to glimpse a bit of rural China.

Later on we ran past a man wearing only his pants, and I decided I had glimpsed enough.

Overnight a massive poster sprung up on one of the buildings.  Only one line of English on the whole thing, but it was quality translation.

I think they try too hard.

Teacher's Day!

Today was randomly Teacher’s Day.  Even though I had new classes (as it’s still, unbelievably, only the first week) I was given a card in my first class by Ben, my class monitor.  It was really quite sweet.

And at the end of class someone came in from one of my previous writing classes to give me a present!  It was a mug with some great well-wishing Chinglish on it.  As you can see, the Chinese are big on happiness.

The only other thing of note about teaching on this happy day was that I ended up singing Abba’s ‘Our Last Summer’ to my 3^rd year writing class.  Mamma Mia style.  I had intended to play them the track and get them to try and write down any lyrics they could pick out as the theme was holidays but, naturally, the computer didn’t want to play it.  All the girls were pretty excited by this point so I didn’t want to let them down.  In my mind it was a great experience for all, although I had to make use of the microphone at the front of the class which hindered the sound quality somewhat.  But I did get 3 rounds of applause.

Here’s a sneaky photo I managed to take of a class when they were all busy working today.  Of course as soon as the flash went off they all looked up so I had to pretend it was a secret camera only for secret use.  But observe the total control I am clearly exerting.  Not a single phone or mp3 player out and no one is trying to sneak out the back by crouching low and making a dash for it.

This evening we went out for a banquet with the rest of the staff from the English department.  It was full of ‘toasts’ and much merriment and gradually descended into chaos.  You couldn’t eat much because as soon as you started someone would come along with another toast.  We are just that important.  Here’s the 4 of us important Westerners.

Henry, on the far right, is now our ‘best friend’, because he could fill our glasses the most full.  Apart from his slightly creepy factor, he was hilarious.

Bob, who this week has been my nemesis, goading me with the promise of a computer and a proper internet connection with his incessant ‘no problem, no problem it will be fixed tomorrow’ policy, had a little too much ‘liquor’ and was extremely happy.  Here he is, extremely happy.

Soon after this photo was taken he introduced the ‘juice challenge’ because we ran out of beer, and then sang ‘My heart will go on’ and ‘It’s a long way to Picadilly’ (he was aiming for Tipperary...).

After we’d tried to put Bob in a taxi we headed home to play cards and try some of Chrissy’s ‘Teacher’s Day’ cake.  She was pretty proud of it, as you can see.

Then she dropped it.

All in all, Teacher’s Day was a great end to our first week in Pingxiang!

First days on the job

If I thought teaching was going to be a big enough experience, teaching in China is something even bigger.  It’s not just the sheer size of the class (up to 50 students, for 2 hours at a time) or the massive variation in the standard of the students’ English but the fact that you can’t predict how things will actually work.  For one, I can’t work out the timings of the bells.  So I’m just giving my classes breaks and letting them leave when it feels right.  And secondly, the ‘multimedia’ system available in the classrooms we use is extremely temperamental.

As I found out in my very first class.  We couldn’t get the computer to work, so I couldn’t show my powerpoint presentation or make the course VCD work so my entire lesson plan was basically void.  Somehow I managed to ad-lib for 2 hours and in the second class we got the VCD working and I showed a Queen video 4 times, which they loved.  It was entirely topical.

I thought the classes went alright although I think the good behaviour of the students was probably down to their initial excitement at having a foreign teacher.  I get a lot of awed sighs when I walk in and one class even applauded.

It is difficult trying to start acting like a professional in an environment that feels so completely unprofessional but I think it’s probably a matter of adapting to the system.  And I’m quite happy to be creative.

Here’s a photo of the studes leaving one of the teaching buildings.  The umbrellas are to keep the sun off them; they really hate tanning.

 

It is extremely hot in Pingxiang at the moment so the classrooms themselves are exhausting enough; there isn’t any air conditioning and I had to close a few windows to stop the curtains (large strips of bin bag style material) blowing up so the students could see the screen.  It is a little like teaching in a sauna, except you’re fully clothed and there are Chinese people everywhere.  All part of the experience I suppose.

I couldn’t get any photos of the classroom yet as the students get way too excited about cameras and I am trying to start off as a respectable teacher.  Even though I am the same age as some of them.  It might not be long before I start rewarding their work with photoshoots and cranking up the karaoke.  They like music.

So here’s a photo of Jav on a bus instead.  There was a row of small children standing just behind me looking for a seat but as Jav put it, ‘each man for himself’.

Accommodation at the college

After another futile phone call to Bob I decided to give up waiting for him to help me and sort out the apartment myself.  Jav and Terry helped me move the wardrobe into my bedroom and I repaired it with surprisingly minimal effort.  I also fixed the broken drawer of my desk (which really didn’t need replacing) and after a small kitchen flood alerted me to pipes that weren’t properly attached under the sink me and Chrissy repaired them with some tape.  And a box and some books.  Like so.

I have also managed to adjust my shower so it doesn’t burn my skin off.  I am now a fully fledged handyman.

Now I’ve finally unpacked it is starting to feel like home!  Here is the dramatic transformation of my now bedroom.

And this is my little living room (plant purchased at the cost of about £2 and 9 mosquito bites).

Even the bathroom is pretty decent now I’ve cleaned it up and bleached the toilet about 20 times.  I’m lucky though, my toilet actually flushes substantially; some of the others in the building are not so accommodating...

This is the kitchen area with the really safe canister of gas in the corner.  The smell of gas comes and goes so I’m sure it’s fine.

One of the blocks of student accommodation is opposite ours and they sometimes call out over to us or watch us from their windows.  But they are living in tiny dorms without any air conditioning so at the moment I feel for them more than I’m annoyed by them.

On the ground floor lives Grandpa; he’s sort of our guard and got quite upset the other day when all the students came up to my room.  He doesn’t speak any English but is quite friendly, though notable for his loud spitting, a fairly permanent smell of alcohol about his person and the sparseness of his clothing...

My apartment looks out over the sports grounds.

I don’t understand how anyone is playing sport at the moment, it is ridiculously hot.  Now it’s finally stopped raining it’s fairly unbearable to be outside.  We walked to the shops earlier and nearly died.  Though we were taking a short cut down a really slippery clay landslide so that didn’t help.

Basically the accommodation is simple, but it covers all the necessities.  And it’s free, including all bills, so I really can’t complain.

Pingxiang City

We’ve been into Pingxiang a couple of times now to get various things we need (such as oversized house plants, floor cleaner and tiger-shaped speakers) so I thought I should describe what the city is like.  Pingxiang has been developed quite rapidly so although it qualifies as a city now it probably wouldn’t have just a few years ago.

It’s easy to get to the city from the college campus – there are loads of buses and fares are 1 yuan (about 10p).  Of course you have to put up with a lot of staring but then even as we were walking to the bus stop from our accommodation a truck driver almost ran Chrissy over trying to stare at her whilst turning a corner, and then crawled along beside me for a few minutes until I turned around and went the other way for a bit.

Here’s Terry on the bus.  With his newest purchase, a flowery bin with loving Chinese messages on it.  There isn’t an awful lot of room, as you can see.

This is one of the central urban areas of Pingxiang.  And a photo of a street I took yesterday. 

Don’t be fooled by the rain on the ground, the streets are really dirty.  But the city has most things you need – supermarkets, pharmacies, mobile phone stores, even a KFC!  Supermarkets and department stores are a little noisy and stressful but you can buy everything you’d find in England and much cheaper.  Except they actually don’t have any chocolate, which will be distressing once my extensive British supply runs out...  We bought cheap Chinese mobile phones to use for the year and our Chinese friends bargained down prices for us where they could.  I still don’t fully understand what I’ve paid for but I seem to have stacks of free credit and a free gift thrown in when they didn’t want to take the price down anymore.
 

The roads in the city are literally TERRIFYING.  There are zebra crossings but they don’t mean anything.  According to Fiona, one of our Chinese co-teachers, they mean ‘slow down’ but all that means if you should prepare to be run over slowly.  You can’t predict where the cars are coming from so traffic just goes wherever there’s space.  Chinese driving tip no.2:  Cars drive on the right here, so turning left can be a bit tricky.  But don’t worry, all you need to do is beep your horn really loudly as you swerve quickly into the stream of oncoming traffic on your left.  If the car approaching you is coming at you too quickly, just beep louder and he’ll dodge round you wherever possible.   

Chinese driving tip no.3:  If you’re not sure where to go, just use the other side of the road.  Sure, you’ll soon meet traffic head-on, but that’s their problem now.

We took a few more buses round the city and had a stroll through a little park in the centre.  I didn’t expect there to be much greenery in Pingxiang so it was a nice surprise.  There is a river that runs right through the city so the areas that havn't been fully ubansied are quite pleasant. 

I’ve spent some of this evening beginning to plan my lessons since I start teaching on Monday and have had absolutely no training or guidance.  Luckily we’ve been given textbooks for each year group but they only really work for the freshman and sophomore groups as the 3^rd years are doing a writing course and my ‘teacher’s guide’ is almost entirely in Chinese.  So that’ll be interesting.

 

I’ll finish with my favourite sign in China so far.  There are quite a few intriguing translations around, known as ‘Chinglish’.  The Chinese for this one reads ‘Please keep off the grass’.  I guess they got the gist.