Hello all,
I got back from my Spring Festival holiday and set to organizing my
photos from that trip right away. Between that and class prep I have
only just gotten round to actually writing up my Spring Fest holiday
adventures. So here they are.
Getting There is Half the Fun
We left for Kunming on January 23 made it safe and sound. The only
trouble we had was in Wuxi when the airport people wanted to put GouGou
(our dog) through the x-ray machine they put luggage through and we
would not let them. We said they could put her crate through, but not
her; we would carry her around the machine and put her in the crate on
the other side. She is a living thing and shouldn't be exposed to that
radiation. We had a half hour of the airline staff alternating between
trying to convince us to put her through (it is the rules they said) and
trying to ignore us in the hopes we would go away. Finally, a half hour
before the flight was to take off and they want all of the passengers to
board, the airline people got one of those wands they use on people to
detect metal. They then did a security check on our dog that did not
involve the x-ray machine and we were able to finish our boarding. It is
really quite funny thinking back on it, but it was rather stressful at
the time.
Dog Gone Strange
GouGou seemed to survive the flight with no ill effects and what with
the stress of whether we would be able to get her onboard at all there
was no time for separation anxiety on either side. When we got to
Kunming they sent her crate out with the luggage on the conveyor belt.
She was glad to see us and didn't seem traumatized at all which was
particularly nice when we realized that someone had to have opened her
crate after we handed her over to the airline because the cage door on
the crate was on backwards with the clamps facing inside her cage. Quite
strange.
Foreigner Street
We landed on Foreigner Street (as it is affectionately called by the
locals) in Kunming. As one might guess, there is a very high
concentration of foreigners in the area. And with that come a lot of
coffee shops and pizza joints. We liked the area as it was very close to
the biggest park in the city, Green lake Park. The outer part of the
park was very dog friendly and GouGou had a chance to play with other
dogs there numerous times. There is also lots of activity at this park,
people playing games (majong and Chinese chess), food vendors, street
artists, low tech carnival games (throw a hoop over a prize and you get
it; knock over the stack of rusty tin cans and win a prize), massage
while you sit (David got one of these for only 20 RMB). There was also a
movie theatre, a multiplex just down the street letting us take in a few
movies while we were in town.
Off to School
We had a very good experience with the Chinese language school we
attended. The student affairs rep from the school, Jackie, picked us up
at the airport and made hotel arrangements for us. Actually, it turned
out that the school was on the sixth floor of the hotel. With GouGou
with us this made things very convenient.
A Tale of Two Teachers
We had two teachers. Our morning teacher (10 -12 each weekday), Chen
focused on more oral Chinese and we often got him sidetracked out of the
book with our questions about different Chinese structures. He is a
twenty-something young man was very nice and helpful to us. He was very
responsive to our questions and language interests. Perhaps a bit too
responsive. We may have learned more with a bit firmer hand. We often
had to remind him to slow down while he spoke Chinese but I did notice
that over time I needed that less and less.
Our afternoon class (2-4pm) was with a thirty-something woman named
Shang Fang. She taught us a comprehensive course, which means grammar,
pronunciation, writing (as in the Chinese characters) and reading. We
zoomed through the first two units on our first day, but then slowed to
one unit a day after that. I really enjoyed it.
The Pen is Mightier than the Tongue
We had about 3 and half weeks of Chinese lessons altogether, 4
hours/day, 5 days/week. It was really good for my Chinese, though my
oral Chinese didn't improve that much (but my pronunciation is
continuing to get better). The biggest improvement I saw was in my
Chinese writing. I can now write a couple of hundred characters and I am
now writing actual sentences. I find that I really like writing
sentences in Chinese. It feels like its real and useful, not just trying
to remember individual words. It seems pretty remarkable to me as well
that I am actually writing in Chinese! This is helping my reading too. I
expect it will eventually help me speak better too as I am getting
better with the proper sentence structures.
Well, you can probably tell from my talk of writing progress that I am
really enjoying the focus on Chinese learning that we got. We devoted a
lot of time to learning Chinese outside of our class time and it felt
really good to be tackling it seriously. I need to push myself to speak
more but I am really happy to be so enthused about writing.
For class I generally wrote with a pencil in a notebook or a Chinese
character practice book (which has boxes with dotted lines to help guide
your character writing). I am not interested in learning the calligraphy
which uses a brush and ink. David however is interested in that and has
a brush, ink and paper to practice with. Now he just needs some lessons
in how to do it right.
GouGou Goes to School
We took GouGou to our classes with us (it was just David and me so there
were no other students to worry about). I had fun playing fetch with her
during the breaks. Since we were at the school during their Spring
Festival Break time they didn't have their regular courses running (it
was between terms). Normally they have a couple of hundred students
there. While we were taking classes though there were very few other
students around. So the school let us have GouGou running loose in the
halls before and after classes. GouGou had a great time running full
tilt down the hundred metres of hallways. David and I would play catch
with her with one of us at each end of a hallway calling her back and
forth between us.
Organic Heating
Kunming is known as the city of eternal spring so we were a little
disappointed our first week in the city when the temperature stayed in
the single digits (Celsius). It even snowed there one day which we were
told it rarely does. Now this wouldn't be so bad if the buildings here
were heated, but in general, they aren't, and even when they are,
everyone opens up the windows and doors so the heat doesn't stay anyhow.
Not surprisingly, the classrooms were unheated (and there was at least
one day when I could see my breathe inside). In the first week or two we
never took our coats off in class. I often wore my gloves while I wrote.
So sometimes our dog made a very nice lap or hand warmer. :~)
Dog Talk
As a matter of fact she has been just a great dog all around. As you can
probably tell I am enjoying having a dog again. Most of the time when we
were in Wangbas (Internet Cafes) in Kunming she would sit on my lap
while I typed, sometimes with her head resting on my left wrist which
did make it a tad challenging to type, but it beat having her snout on
the keyboard. She is very cute and is mostly a wonderful dog
Two Thumbs Up
We went to a Chinese movie our first Friday in Kunming. The English name
of it was "Getting Home". It had English subtitles so we were actually
able to follow it and we enjoyed it very much. I even understood a
little bit (a very little bit) of the Chinese speaking. It was about a
man taking the body of his dead friend back to his home town in the
Three Gorges to be buried. It was definitely a road movie, quite funny
and also touching at times. It had some great cinematography of areas of
China too. We liked it enough that we picked up a copy (probably
pirated) of it at a DVD store the next day.
Checking out the Pizza
In our first week in Kunming we went to the pizza restaurant next to our
hotel a few times. The owner of the place was from Italy and has been
running a restaurant in China since 1999. It was a treat to have such
tasty pizza (and quite reasonably priced). And the restaurant was very
dog friendly so we could bring GouGou in with us with no hassles.
Local Chow
After about a week we discovered two excellent local restaurants that
were just the sort of 'slightly above hole in the wall' places that we
love. There was good variety, the food was great, many local dishes, and
they were very reasonably priced. There was a broccoli and goat cheese
(xi lan hua he ru bing) dish we are quite fond of and a potato dish (lao
nai tudou) that was just wonderful. Now if only they had been heated...
and opened over the Spring Festival week. We had to resort to eating in
the coffee shops, which catered to the foreign crowd, during holidays as
the local places were all closed just like Christmas day back home.
Contraband
It was quite lovely and spring-like in Kunming most of the time in the
afternoons, but it did get rather cold overnight. And inside, out of the
sun, it could be fairly cold. So, as noted, our classroom was pretty
chilly. And so was our hotel room (also no heating in the hotel room).
So we bought a little heater that we smuggled into our hotel room. We
were pretty sure that the hotel would not approve so we kept it hidden
when we were not in the room. It never actually got the room warm, but
it did take the edge off of the cold.
A Moving Experience
Some time in our second week in Kunming we moved from the hotel into a
space in an apartment that was almost next door to the school. The
landlady, Tingting, was a teacher at the school (though not one of ours)
and was quite friendly. We had a roommate there, a young man from
France, named Jimmy. He was a non-smoking, vegetarian and was set to
start taking Chinese classes at the school after the holidays. He
already spoke some Chinese (and very good English) so we even got in
some occasional Chinese practice with him. The move saved us about 20
RMB/day and gave us access to a fridge, washing machine (which we made
good use of) and a kitchen (which we never used), but the real reason we
decided to move was for the conviviality of the living arrangement.
Roommates
Jimmy was a great roommate. He is good people, and David even got in
some xiang qi (Chinese chess) with him. Tingting and her 8 year old
daughter, NiuNiu were nice though we didn't see them much as they were
staying with relatives over the Spring Fest holiday time. Niuniu had a
great time playing with GouGou when she was around and GouGou seemed to
like her a lot and was very gentle with her. It was fun to see the two
of them together with Niuniu leading GouGou around (or more accurately,
being dragged around by GouGou).
Cross Cultural Communication Challenges
We did run into a little cross cultural/communication problem with our
move though and it almost didn't happen. We had checked out of our hotel
the morning of the move and even moved some of our stuff into Tingting's
before our morning classes began. Well, after our classes, at the end of
the day we were going over our contract with her (a contract is needed
for registering our location with the police) and she wanted us to pay
for the full twenty-four days we have left here in Kunming up front.
David was not comfortable doing that as we didn't know what might come
up that might make us want to go back to staying in a hotel (as we have
never lived in a Chinese apartment before). We finally negotiated that
we would pay for the first 10 days up front and let her know after five
days if we would be staying the other 14 days (and if so we would pay
for those 14 days then).
It's Breaking Up
That settled, then the subject of a damage deposit came up. This was the
first that we had heard of a damage deposit. We don't deal so well with
surprises around money so our backs went up a little. There were more
negotiations and then we agreed that we would pay a 400 RMB damage
deposit up front. So we thought things were settled. But then Jackie
(who was acting as translator (Tingting's English is quite good but she
wanted to make sure that everything was clearly understood on both sides
so she asked Jackie, whose English is better, to translate) was
reviewing everything before we signed the contract and when he got to
the money we would pay if we decided to stay for the last 14 days he
included an additional 600 damage deposit. This just struck us as very
bizarre and yet another money surprise.
Saving Face
David got a little hot under the collar at this and finally said that we
would just move back into the hotel and he walked out of the office
where we were (we were on the school floor of the building), leaving me
to deal with things in his wake. I was not as ready to throw in the
towel and talked about how our big concern was that we would have a big
outlay (1000 RMB) to be returned to us before we left, but that we were
worried that something might prevent Tingting from making it to the
apartment before we left for the airport (as she would be with
relatives) and then we have to leave and are now in Wuxi with our money
in Kunming. Tingting said she would come the day before we left so there
would be no last minute timing. Jackie negotiated a lower damage deposit
of 800 RMB in total. I knew that David would still think that was too
high. So eventually I sidled over to Tingting and said in conspiratorial
tones that I wanted to make a deal with her -- I would pay the
additional 400 RMB (on top of the 400 that David and I would pay
together), but that I wanted David to be able to save face so she
couldn't tell him. Face saving, especially for men, she could understand
and she agreed. I did tell David about my 'secret' arrangement after we
got the damage deposits back (my extra payment included)
All's Well that Ends with Food
I think that the bit of conspiracy helped to defuse the emotions of the
situation and smoothed things out. After we finished moving in Tingting
and Niuniu, and Jenny (who works in the school office and is from one of
the minority groups in Yunnan, in other words is not Han Chinese), and
Jimmy, all went out to dinner together and had a fine meal.
Where did Spring Go?
It felt like winter camping our first night in the apartment. The day we
moved was the day after it snowed and it was still bloody cold. The
heater didn't end up making the room warm over night, but it did take
the bite out of the cold by morning. My nose stopped being cold. We
didn't take our coats off in the rest of the apartment it was so cold.
And though there was a hot water heater in the bathroom there was no hot
water to the sink and Tingting only turns on the hot water heater an
hour before she wants to shower and then turns it off again. This cold
and cold water situation made us quite grumpy for a few days, but when
it heated up we were mostly happy in our new digs.
Making it Liveable
There was a workaround for the lack of hot water to the bathroom sink.
There are very good large thermoses here just for that sort of purpose.
Two of them can hold enough hot water to last pretty much the day with
the three of us (me, David and Jimmy) using it for hand washing. David
even managed to bend the corrugated plastic hose under the sink so that
it created a trap so there is now less of a smell problem (ah, the joys
of Chinese plumbing). The hole in the floor that the tub drains into
could still let up a bit of smell, but it seemed better than it was.
Fieldtrip #1
We did a couple of fieldtrips with our morning teacher Chen Laoshi, both
of them medical in nature. The first was for our dog. We had her spayed
back in Oct/Nov and there was one spot on her stomach that had still not
entirely healed. It would look like it was going to seal and then it
would start looking sore and oozy again. It had done this a number of
times over the months and we were finally feeling worried enough to want
to take her to a vet. So we had one of our classes with Chen Laoshi on
the road. We took GouGou to two different vet clinics, Chen Laoshi
acting as our translator when we were there. Neither place seemed too
worried about the sore and both told us to bring her back when the sore
opened up and they would prod around and see what they could find. So we
didn't feel we needed to be overly anxious anymore. The sore never did
open up while we were in Kunming. (The conclusion of this tale came
after our return and will be later in this email.)
Fieldtrip #2
The second fieldtrip was to a hospital so that David could have his
shoulder x-rayed and checked over. You may remember that he injured it a
couple of months ago when he was knocked off of his bike. It was (and
is) still causing him a lot of pain so hence the check-up. The x-ray
showed no bone damage, and the doctor recommended exercises to loosen it
up. He said that the tendons are bound to each other and they need to be
stretched apart again. So David is stretching and swinging his right arm
with abandon now. It is nice to know that he should be trying to stretch
it out but this healing process has been so long that it is a bit
discouraging.
Lost with Translation
The holiday wasn't all studying. One night we joined our afternoon
teacher, Shang Laoshi, her husband and son, and two of her former
American students for dinner at a Muslim restaurant. It was quite the
feast and Shang Laoshi's husband insisted on picking up the tab. We had
been given instructions on how to get to the restaurant, the bus to
take, the stop to get off at and the like. We accidentally got off one
stop too early and therefore didn't find any of the landmarks we had
been told to look for. It ended up being a nice practice session for our
real world Chinese though as I got to ask a number of people if they
knew where the restaurant was (in Chinese of course).
After Dinner Casino
After dinner we picked up tickets for the late showing of Casino Royale
at the movie theatre near our place and fit in a bit of Chinese study
before the show. We got a showing that was in English with Chinese
subtitles. We were having fun reading whatever Chinese we could make
out. Both of us thought it was pretty good for a Bond movie. It was
certainly a nice change of pace.
Kunming Critique
Kunming was certainly a nice place. The air there was much clearer than
anywhere we have lived in China. We have seen a fair bit of blue sky
(and I mean blue, not the sort of grey-blue that often passes for sky in
Chinese cities) and even stars at night. We often walked down to Green
Lake park (the big park close by) and sometimes ventured downtown. One
day we stumbled on to the Bird and Flowers market (which has little of
either, but was a neat place none-the-less) and a pedestrian mall area
downtown. We did very little actual touristing in Kunming, though I did
get to the provincial museum one day on my own, and together we checked
out the Minority Museum (which was well worth the trip).
Spring Fest Pizza
On Spring Festival eve (which is as big as Christmas in the West) most
of the stores and restaurants closed down (some for as long as a week),
but we did find a place that was open on our street, one of the pizza
joints.
Starting the Year with a Bang (not a Whimper)
Well, GouGou was whimpering. Fireworks is a big part of the Sprig
Festival tradition. It isn't strictly legal in Kunming for people to
have private fireworks, but all through the evening I could hear a
regular snatches of fireworks going off. There was a scattering of
fireworks visible wherever I walked. GouGou was getting very agitated at
the bangs so we took her home before we went to Green Lake to watch the
city fireworks in the late evening. It was nice in the park. Strangely
peaceful with only a few pockets of people wandering about. It was the
least crowded I ever saw that park. And we did get a pretty good view of
the fireworks going off somewhere downtown. Chun Jie Kuai Le (Spring
Festival Happy!)
Dali'ing in Yunnan
We did manage to get to visit another town in Yunnan province, Dali,
which is about 4 hours drive from Kunming. We hadn't really planned on
leaving Kunming during our Spring Fest visit, but we met this very
interesting American and his family who are renovating an old Chinese
mansion to make a retreat for conferences and the like just outside of
Dali and they invited us out to check it out. They were real salt of the
earth people and the project sounded very interesting so we hired a car
to drive us and GouGou to Dali. We had heard that you can't take dogs on
the buses or the trains, hence the car.
It was a beautiful drive through foothill sized mountains passing many
fascinating looking villages. I would have thought I was in BC if not
for the Chinese roof architecture and the plethora of terraces being
farmed.
Just Like New
The car we hired looked new, even had plastic over the seats and the
sticker still on the front window, but the speedometer wasn't working.
David finally surmised that this was a new car and they had disconnected
the speedometer so that they could run the car for a while and then
still sell it as new. They will have to wipe paw prints off the doors
and dog saliva off the windows now before they can carry that off.
Being Taken for a Ride
The trip was a little strange at the beginning too. Just out of Kunming
our driver left the main road and was twisting and turning through back
roads stopping folks every now and then, seemingly asking for
directions. We were a little concerned he didn't know his way to Dali
and then finally realized that he wasn't trying to find Dali, he had
another agenda, an errand to run on the way. He finally found the place
he was looking for, pulling into what looked like an artisan's compound.
Then he emptied our stuff out of the trunk, piling it around GouGou's
crate which already filled half of the back seat and proceeded to
measure the trunk. Then he and another fellow heaved and dragged what
looked like a solid cube of stone that was over a foot square and turned
out to be a safe. They tried to maneuver it into the trunk, but it
didn't quite fit. So our enterprising driver had to content himself with
a few smaller packages from this fellow. Then he moved our stuff back
into the trunk and we were off to Dali.
Tourist Town
Old Dali, where we stayed, is a charming tourist town filled with Spring
Festival tourists -- some foreign, but mostly Chinese. We met up with
our new friends at the Yu Yuan hotel, where they had managed to squeeze
us in -- this town is full to the brim with people. We had a nice dinner
of Papaya fried chicken, Bai spicy and sour fish and some sumptuous tea
tree mushrooms, then left our dog to be dragged around by our friends' 8
and 12 year old boys and went for a walk in the very picturesque
pedestrian area of town.
Xizhou
The next day we joined our new friends, Brian and Jeanee, on a day trip
to nearby Xizhou to see the old mansion that will become their
conference centre. You can check out some pictures of the place on my
flickr site. I think it will be pretty amazing when they are done,
especially because they will be furnishing it with Chinese antiques
(which they currently sell in a gallery in the States so they will have
a lot to choose from)
Neat Places
Old Dali and Xizhou were wonderful places, lots of older Chinese
architecture, nice atmosphere, t-shirt weather in the day (though quite
cool at night), clear blue, blue skies and a mountain backdrop. They had
a different feel than Kunming, in part because there were a lot more
minority peoples in traditional garb wandering around (though most of
these were selling things and so wore the garb to make themselves more
visible). I particularly liked the Bai architecture and decorative
design on the buildings. It was just stunning.
Expressing Ourselves
We returned to Kunming on the express bus. It seems we had been
misinformed about buses and dogs. GouGou rode on our laps the whole 5
hour trip and had no problems with the ride. She is a great travelling
dog. Well, actually there was one problem. At one point in the trip she
had her head between the seats in front of us and something set her off
and she let off two loud barks in succession. Well, the young woman who
had been asleep in front of us nearly jumped out of her seat. Other than
that incident, GouGou was a model dog.
Getting Home is the Other Half of the Fun
We had more bureaucratic hassles at the airport coming home. They
initially talked about needing a certificate for GouGou from a vet that
had to be done three days before flying. They also wanted to put her
through the x-ray machine, but eventually the supervisor said that only
the crate had to go through. After they ran the crate through the x-ray
machine we put Gougou in it and then had to have plastic strapping put
around the crate. They didn't want us to have any food or water in the
crate with her either. They were afraid that then she would pee or poop
on other passenger's luggage (yes, break out of the crate, through the
strapping, just to soil the virgin clean baggage). David even had to
sign a waiver that if she did crap on someone's luggage that we would
pay for it. Since the flight was less than 2.5 hours we decided to give
in on this point and removed her water dish, giving her a final big
drink. GouGou tends to pull the dish off the crate door herself and
spill it so this wasn't a big change. Once that was all sorted out then
it was down the luggage chute for GouGou, at a 45' angle on the conveyor
belt.
By the time everything was sorted out with GouGou it was ten minutes to
our flight time and we didn't even have our own boarding passes yet. It
was then that we were told the flight was delayed for an hour (not
because of us... I think). I'm not sure we could have made it through
the airport bureaucracy if one of our teachers, Chen Laoshi, hadn't come
with us to airport to help us out with just such things. Real above and
beyond the call of duty.
Wound Follow-up
March 2, a piece of a stitch pushed its way to the surface on GouGou's
stomach and we were able to cut it and remove it. Since then the wound
has completely healed.
Do the Shuffle
I've had a few changes in this terms' course schedule. First I had 3
Speaking and Listening classes, 3 Listening (different than Speaking and
Listening) classes, and 1 Western Culture for English majors. Then they
traded Western Culture for Practical Writing. Then I acquired a 4th
Speaking and Listening. Then they are giving my Listening classes (all
three of them) to a Chinese teacher as they want to be preparing the
students from some national exam they have to take this term and the
Chinese teachers are familiar with the exam. They have replaced the
Listening classes with a new Western Culture class to be taught to
non-English majors. This course will only go for 14 weeks, they gave no
direction as to what they want covered and the students have no textbook
for the course (Thank goodness for the Internet and PowerPoint). Then to
even out our respective course loads I acquired a 5th Speaking and
Listening class from David. It's just life as usual on a Chinese campus.
The Practical Writing course is another one where the student's have no
text book so I have been creating handouts for that class. It keeps a
body busy.
Going on a Boat Hunt
So that's the work end of my life right now. The second Saturday in
March David and our neighbours, Hanhan and Gary, and I went on a boat
hunt. David and Gary are both interested in boats and I like to see the
sights. We hired our favourite van driver, Chen, for the afternoon and
went off, taking GouGou with us for the excursion. Our first stop was a
place on the lake with some old boats docked on rickety bamboo and wood
wharves.
So Many Smells, so Little Time
We let GouGou run loose as we tromped around the shore taking in the
scene. It was a grey, moody sky, some men were burning reeds or bamboo
stalks on the fingers of land that reached out into the lake. There were
old fishing boats in various states of repair along the shore. GouGou
had a ball tearing around. She also discovered that the green algae
covered ground is not solid like grass is. She sank into the mud to her
knees but kept trotting merrily along. She scored big when she found a
dead fish on shore and celebrated by rolling around on it. What it is
with dogs and dead fish I can't quite fathom, but there certainly seems
to be joy in the rolling. She got a bit of a surprise when David picked
her up, carried her over to the edge of the lake and then tossed her in.
Her dog paddle to shore churned off most of the mud and muck and then we
had a little drowned rat of a dog tearing around. By the time we left
she was half covered in ash from the burned out sections of land so she
got another dunking before we piled back in the van.
Note to self: bring a dog towel on all dog outings.
Getting Warmer
We then drove to what looked, at a distance, like a pagoda on the end of
a long wharf. It turned out to be a building on the end of a water
intake pipe for the city's water supply. We could not go down the
'wharf' as it was gated and locked up to keep out non water works folks
I suppose. Our van driver, Chen, just traipsed along with us as we
walked about and at some point she called around to friends with some
boat connections trying to find out where to take us to find boats. The
answer was inland. You'd think the lake would be a good bet, but I guess
authorities have cleared most of the boats off of the lake -- heaven
knows why. So then we were back in the van meandering through villages
and countryside. It was a wonderful rambling drive that ended at a canal
with barges docked on its shores.
Barging In
We ended up visiting with a family on one of the barges. These are live
aboard boats so, in essence, we were invited into their home. David has
a write-up and photo of this on his web page (www.themaninchina.com) if
you want to check it out. To get to the boat we had to cross a plank
onto another boat and then take a very long step from that boat to the
barge. I carried GouGou for this part as she was bit nervous about the
plank (and she had been in the water already twice that day). On board,
GouGou visited with the ship's dog while we visited with Mr. Ding (the
owner) and his grown up son. David's love of boats matched Mr. Ding's
own and the two hit it off despite the language barrier.
This Too Can be Yours
We found out you can buy a used live aboard barge like that one for
about 20,000 RMB (about $3000 Cdn) and about twice that will get you a
brand new one. That includes the three motors it has (3 for when it has
a particularly heavy load to haul I imagine).
A crowd had built up on shore while we were on the boat, foreigners not
being a common sight on the barges. So we had a little audience as we
made our circuitous way back to shore.
Shantytown
Our boat adventure ended with us driving to a place where we were going
to be shown boats to buy. Chen had set this up for us while we were on
the barge and she drove to where she would meet someone to take us
there. The someone was a man on a bike whom she followed to a coal yard
on the shore of another section of canal. We got out of the van and
followed the man through the coal yard, over a bridge and into what I
can only describe as a shantytown. There was a burned section in the
middle of the cluster of shacks where there had been a fire recently,
and above the ash a new shack frame was being constructed. Plastic was
being pulled over another shack, protection from pending rain that the
sky was now threatening. It was windy too and getting colder. Dirt
floors, no running water, outdoor cooking areas. It would be like
camping as a way of life.
Another note to self: bring a fleece along next time; it can get pretty
cold.
Sampan
Our goal was a new boat, a sampan style one, of thick rough hewn wood
(imagine a rowboat on steroids). It would be nice in the water, but you
just wouldn't want to portage it anywhere. It was upside down under a
tarp which they pulled back for us to see it. The construction was good
and it was just about the size that David was interested in for
something to paddle around the canals running through our campus.
Driving Off Business
Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your perspective, they saw
foreigners and got visions of money dancing in their heads. Their asking
price on the boat was 18,000 RMB (almost as much as a used barge with
motors). Tai gui le (too expensive). And it was also getting too cold.
So we bid farewell to the shanty town and went back to the van.
Couch Gives Birth
We had a funny dog moment the other day. I was sitting on our couch and
GouGou had crawled under it. This is not an uncommon occurrence as she
likes it under there. I could feel her shuffling around under where I
was sitting so I reached under the couch to pat her and touched material
instead of fur -- it was the material on the underside of the couch, but
there was a definite paw shape to it. As I felt around more I realized
that GouGou wasn't under the couch, she was inside it somehow. Down on
my knees I looked under the couch and saw a dog-sized bulge in the
material lining the underside of the couch. I also noticed a zipper that
was opened. It was oh, so cute when she stuck her head out the zipper,
and it looked rather like a whale giving birth when she slid out of her
loft apartment onto the floor. She has probably been climbing into the
couch for months, but this is the first time that we noticed it.
Culture Come to Visit
Last Sunday night we had 5 young Tibetan women over, 3 of them my
students. One of them gifted me with a Tibetan prayer wheel and then we
sat down to talk and drink tea for a while. Then they asked if they
could borrow the DVD player. They put on a DVD of Tibetan music and got
up and started to dance, pulling me into their circle to learn the
steps. Every time I was starting to get the pattern of steps down the
music would change and it was a whole new set of steps. It was fun. And
I had a moment where the magic of the experience really hit me. Here I
was dancing with Tibetans in my own living room, not something I would
have imagined a few years ago.
Girls with Guns
Had another cultural experience just tonight (April 13). There was a big
dance production about the Long March playing for one night on campus
and the school had given us tickets for the show. Unfortunately, David
came down with some bug today so he stayed home in bed while I went with
Hanhan and Gary to the show. The dance focused on a squad of women
soldiers on the Long March. There were a lot of wonderfully
choreographed group scenes and some pair and single work. The dancing
was very ballet-like (though no point shoes) and I quite enjoyed it. We
had excellent seats, 6th row, close to the centre. The school really
gifted us. I didn't notice the price on the tickets until we were at the
show: 250RMB (~$37 cdn). We made sure to give away David's ticket so the
seat wouldn't go to waste so I had a very grateful seat mate.For anyone who wants to send snail mail, I am told my address here is:
My mailing address here is:
Ruth Anderson
Rm. 202, No. 4, Teacher's Apartment
Lihu Campus, Southern Yangtze University
1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, Jiangsu
China 214122
And yet another reminder that I have photos on the web. You can see them
at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/canadiandragon/
I love comments, so don’t be shy.
Well that's a wrap for now.
Many hugs,
Ruth
Ruth's China Report January/2007
Ruth's China Report June/2007
Ruth's China Report July/2007
Ruth's China Report
September/2007
Ruth's China Report November/2007
Ruth's China Report January/2008
Ruth's China Report February/2008
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