Hello all,
Xin Nian Kuai Le!
This is both early and late as a greeting as it means Happy New Year. I
am a few weeks late for the Western New Year and almost two weeks early
for the Chinese New Year. Hedging my bets in the middle.
Anyhow, I do wish you all a wonderful year. I hope that you find much to
revel in in your own lives.
Shanghaied
From Nov 14 16 we had a lovely weekend in Shanghai visiting with a
couple of former students of ours (from our Weihai days -- they
graduated and are now working in Shanghai). We were prompted to take a
weekend vacation by the announcement that the power would be off
everywhere on campus (including our apartment) on Saturday and Sunday
from 5am to 5pm. Seemed like the right time to go away for the weekend.
All That and a Movie Too!
We had a delightful time. The weather cooperated and was reasonably
mild. It rained before we arrived and as we were leaving, but not while
we were there. Wandered some of the downtown streets Saturday then went
to a touristy area called Yu Yuan with lots of traditional buildings and
shops selling all kinds of stuff. I got yet another nice Chinese shirt
(this one reversible!), a pashmina shawl of my own to wear with my red
Chinese dress and a few gifty things. LvMin (pronounced Lew Meen, the
'v' in Lv represents a 'u' with an umlaught over it you know the
double dots) and I then went to the Shanghai City museum while David
went back to our hotel for a rest. He and LvMin's boyfriend, Simon,
joined us for a movie (Chinese with English subtitles) in the early
evening and then we all went out for a late dinner. Sunday it was visit
at their apartment and look at photos, go to an art gallery area and
then off to the train station to take the fast train (only an hour) back
to Wuxi. I think we spent longer in the line-up for a taxi at the Wuxi
train station than we did getting there from Shanghai. Whenever it rains
taxi's become scarce.
Chinese Plumbing Adventure
All in all it was a great time and a nice break. I didn't bring any
school work with me. Of course Sunday night at home I was drowning in
writing assignments to mark, but it was sure nice to be away from
everything.
The only downside was the plumbing in our hotel room was a little too
Chinese. When the bathtub drained water ended up backing up from a drain
in the floor and flooding our bathroom. An annoyance, but hardly life
threatening.
Chinese Experience
We had a very Chinese experience Saturday, December 8. On Friday we had
been invited to be judges at a speech competition to be held Saturday
(advance planning seems to be a somewhat foreign concept). So Saturday
(Dec 8) we took a cab downtown to the Bank of Communications to meet the
other University staff who had made the arrangement with us.
Speech Competition Section 1
It turns out this was an event for the bank employees, the final round
of an English speaking competition. It was quite an interesting and
extensive event. The 30 finalist were divided into 6 teams of 5 and
there were 5 tasks to be judged. The first was a Cross-introduction.
Each team of five came on the stage together and then person A did a 1
minute intro of B, B did a 1 minute intro of C and so on 'til E introed
A. They had prepared these intros in advance and some used PowerPoint or
sang or put their introduction in the form of a riddle.
Section 2
Section 2 was sheer bank promo. Each contestant selected a question at
random that they had to answer. Most the questions were about the bank
history or policies, with a few general business questions thrown in for
good measure.
Section 3
Section 3 was 'Look and Say'. The contestants had one minute to prepare
an up to 1-minute speech about a randomly selected picture and caption.
Section 4
Section 4 was a Debate. They paired off the 5 person teams and had them
debate each other. Each person on the team had a chance to speak
(alternating back and forth between the teams) and then there was a
cross-examination time capped off with a summary statement from each
team.
Section 5 With Feeling
The 5th and final section was a Talent Show. The added twist on this was
that each team of 5 did a group presentation in the talent show but
during that presentation each member of the team had some focused time
-- singing, dancing, reciting. It was a neat idea and resulted in some
clever and entertaining presentations (in amongst a few tone deaf
singing spots).
Good Work if You Can Get It
It was about 8 hours commitment in total (they fed us lunch in the
middle) which we quite enjoyed. And to make it even better, we got paid
-- quite well as a matter of fact (1/5 what we make in a month -- not
bad for a day's work).
Transition to winter
The cold weather, zero degree temperatures, held off until pretty much
the end of term. My feet were only cold in class on a couple of days.
Compared to Winnipeg where I am from this isn't that cold, but then, in
Winnipeg the building are heated in the winter, while here, our
classrooms are not heated and neither are many of the businesses. Even
places that are heated will often have a door or window open (for the
fresh air don't ya know). Our apartment does have heaters, (one in the
bedroom, one in David's office and one in the living room), but it isn't
insulated at all so there is always an edge of cool in the place, and
the drafts are bad.
Low Tech Heating Solution
My office space has no built in heater and I have been using a portable
heater to take the edge off the space. I found that my feet would still
get really cold though and that would make the rest of me feel cold.
Well I have hit on a solution to this problem that seems to be working
for me. I bought a couple of mid-sized water bottles and now I sit at my
computer with my feet resting on hot water bottles (filled with nice
radiant hot water). It has been keeping my tootsies toasty and the rest
of me takes the hint.
Giving Changes
Somewhere in here was Christmas, but as it fell on a work day it didn't
stand out a lot. I taught for 6 hours that day. The school did host a
very nice Christmas dinner for all of the foreign teachers and the
following day (Boxing Day for the Canadians) David and I had our friends
Elaine and Judy over for a day after Christmas dinner. Instead of giving
each other presents this year, David and I decided to give that money
away, in the form of bursaries for students in need here at the
University. The process of getting applications from students (sometimes
one student asking us to give money to a friend from a poor family) and
deciding among them was an experience that brought me both joy (at being
able to do even a little bit to help) and humility (realizing how much I
have compared to so many). This kind of hands-on charity feels more life
changing than any I have done by giving to an organization that then
helps others. It has definitely been a good Christmas.
End of Term
Classes done, exams done, marking done and handed in. It must be end of
term. Yeahhhhh!!!!
Focus on Learning Chinese
We're in the midst of our term break/Spring Festival holiday. We have
just completed our first week of 4 hours/day tutoring from William (our
Chinese teacher). For the couple of weeks before we restarted classes
with William we have been working on our own. We have been using lessons
from the Internet. These lessons include a great audio component which
has given us the chance to keep up our Chinese listening even without
William. Now that he is back with us we are working with transcripts and
vocabulary from the online lessons in the morning (with William adding
more layers of meaning) and in the afternoon we are working at learning
a Chinese crosstalk. Crosstalks are a Chinese performance medium sort of
like a two person comedy routine (think Smothers Brothers). They are
very popular here (crosstalks, not the Smothers Brothers). We are
finding that working on learning one is giving us a much better feel for
the rhythm of Chinese speech as well as introducing us to new
vocabulary. As we come to understand what each of the lines mean I am
also enjoying the humor of it. It may take us a while, but once David
and I have it worked out I think we will have a lot of fun performing
it.
Spring Festival to Look forward Too
Our big excitement is that we have now booked our tickets to go to
Jiangxi province this coming Friday (Feb 1). In keeping with the
craziness of this holiday season for travelling we were not able to get
train tickets to go to Ji'an city (our friend Jenny's hometown) so we
have booked plane tickets from Shanghai to Nanchang (the capital of
Jiangxi province). From Nanchang we will take a taxi for a couple of
hours to get to Jenny's village in the Ji'an region. Now we just need to
arrange getting to the Shanghai airport. We have heard rumour of a bus
that goes from Wuxi to the Shanghai airport, but have no solid
information on it yet.
We Won't be in Kansas Anymore
Jenny has said that her home town is a village in the mountains and that
we will be the first foreigners who have ever gone there. That's a
little mind blowing. As it is just a village there are no hotels there
and so Jenny's family will be hosting us at their house. I am expecting
it to be a bit like winter camping as the house has no bathroom (there
is a public washroom close by -- probably little more than a multiple
person outhouse) and is heated with wood. It will be an adventure. We
will be there for eight nights, coming back to Wuxi on Saturday, Feb 9.
We will be there for all the lead up to Spring Festival and for the
three big days of the Festival, Spring Fest eve, Spring Fest day and the
day Spring Fest that. I am really looking forward to experiencing a
Spring Festival with a Chinese family.
GouGou Gets a Break (From Us)
We have a young woman named Yang Juanjuan who will be looking after our
apartment and GouGou while we are away. She is a student from the far
west of China. It is too far for her to travel home for the holiday so
she is staying on campus. I think that she is looking forward to the
company of our GouGou. She has a dog back in Xinjian province (the North
western most province in China). Her and GouGou hit it off very well.
It's a Marshmallow World
It started snowing yesterday and I think it was snowing all night. The
snow on the ground covers the grass now and the bamboo branches are all
bent over under the weight of the heavy, wet snow. We have snow in the
forecast for the next couple of days. It is great snow to make snow folk
from and maybe I will go out and play later.
My Pipe Dreams Have Changed
All these sub zero temperatures burst a water pipe just down the street
so we have had an interesting few days with no water supply to the taps
in our place. We have drinking water (in the big bottles that double
nicely as drums when empty) so we have still been able to cook and use
water for necessary purposes, but the lack of tap water made flushing
the toilet a once a day occasion, and showers a distant memory. We
figured this was the universe's way of preparing us for Ji'an. We took
to cycling into the campus village and using one of the public washrooms
there when we needed to take a dump. Friday night we heard the water
come back on and had a chance to do the dishes, but when we went to take
showers the water was off again. We figure that they turned it on to
test their fix and it leaked so they turned it back off again. Either
that or they were just toying with our hopes. In the late morning on
Saturday we had water again. This time we filled up various pots right
away in case it turned off on us again. We plugged our water heater back
in and gave the tank an hour or so to heat up. With the water still on I
had a chance to shower and give GouGou a bath. When we still had water
by the time we went out for dinner (splurging on pizza at Papa John's
which does very tasty pizzas) we thought that the problem had been
licked, but then when I went to wash up before bed there was no water
again. It's Sunday morning now and still no water. At least we got
showers and laundry in yesterday. With even colder weather predicted for
Tuesday I am hoping another pipe doesn't freeze. Ah, the adventure of it
all.
Attrition
It's starting to get lonely around the campus with all our foreign
teacher friends now gone home -- some to return after the break, but our
closest friends not coming back to China for at least a term. Many of
the students have left the campus as well, and many of the campus stores
are closed for the holidays. Compared to the usual Chinese crowds it is
a veritable ghost town. Not that we are really noticing that much as we
are spending most of our time in our apartment. With at least four hours
a day spent on Chinese studies and a hour and a half of tutoring on the
week days these last two weeks (a little bit of extra work that fell in
our laps) we were not much inclined to brave the cold outside.
Nanjing Daytrip
Three weeks ago I did go on a day trip to Nanjing though. Elaine, our
Israeli friend, got me a ticket and I joined her, Judy (an English woman
now based in Canada) and Neil (an Australian) for the venture (with
David looking after the home front and GouGou). We had a very mild day
for it and had a wonderful time. We saw a section of ancient city wall,
visited the Memorial hall for the 300,000 victims of Japanese aggression
from WWII (that is number estimated to have been massacred -- many more
were injured), spent some time at a Confucian temple market area and
crossed the Yangtze River on a double-decker bridge (cars on the top
layer, trains underneath). It was a nice day trip.
Well Fed
We've been doing lots of end of term dinners. There was one for the
Foreign Languages department, an informal one organized by and for the
foreign teachers, and then a very impressive one hosted by the
International Office for the foreign teachers of Jiangnan (which is just
a handful of native English speakers, Japanese and Russians). Then we've
also had a few very casual dinners with Judy and Elaine as they each
prepared to leave. Judy may return to China with her husband next year,
but even if they come it may not be returning here. Elaine, however is
currently planning on returning to Lambton college in the fall, so,
assuming we come back here we will see her again. We are very happy
about this as Elaine has been a real treat to get to know. She is
probably in the air somewhere right now, winging her way back towards
Israel.
Wrapping Up
So that has been our life of late. It has been mostly Chinese study.
David and I both feel we are making noticeable progress (still slow, but
noticeable).
Home for Summer
In other news we have decided to forego attending the Olympics. It was
nice as an idea, but the more we thought of the reality of the crowds
and the logistics of accommodations and transportation with the above
mentioned crowds, the less we actually wanted to experience it as a
reality. So that means that we will be returning to Canada again for the
summer.
Many hugs,
RuthFor 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 dont be shy.
Ruth's China Report January/2007
Ruth's China Report April/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 February/2008
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