Moving out

I am moving out the of the house sit today.  Just for a few weeks as the owner is coming home.  I meet her at the airport in the morning. 

I took knickers to Ipswich yesterday. I am pleased with my little effort to help those disadvantaged with the floods.  It has been quite a moving experience.  I had been to Ipswich just days before the big flood.  In fact the Bremer River was already in flood - but I saw for myself some of the damage it did later on when the river broke it's banks and poured the dirty sludge through the city.   Coles supermarket is being completed cleaned out - and will need a complete refit.  One can see other buildings around - shops, offices, etc closed - some are being rebuilt and others sport a notice - 'due to floods we have relocated to......"

I went to Ipswich early, then went to Wynnum. Met with a guy doing work on the history of the professional fishermen in the Wynnum area, and then eventually headed back to Paddington.

I had seen views of the Brisbane River and the city from the top of the cliffs of the Brisbane River at Kangaroo Point.  It was the site of what was Southbank TAFE - one of the very early TAFE colleges in Brisbane.  Recently it had been demolished and parklands developed there.  A nice looking cafe sits on the top of the cliffs giving diners a fantastic view up and down the river.  One day I will go there.

From the cliffs to the city.

I had time though to stop and take a few photos from the top of the cliffs.

Looking upriver from Kangaroo Point

From Expo 2010 - some of the farewell performance.

This is quite amazing!  Look at the musicians sitting on the invisible chairs.  How do they do it?

China? Not in 2011.

I had been procrastinating about going to China.  How I wish I could - but I had too many issues home in Australia to deal with, so here I will remain for 2011. Still though I can keep in touch with everyone, and with any luck can have one or two students stay with me later in the year.

My study will keep me going - and I may try to get some of my m/s finished/published this year.  As well I have a long to do list.  I don't make resolutions - but I have a lit of things I wish to accomplish during the year.  One of course is to do well at all subjects for Swinburne (Masters)  Perhaps by end of February 2012 I will be finished.

It looks like I could have some long term house sitting adventures, so I will wait and see - and save my dollars. 

Meanwhile I am reading a fantastic book about China.  Peter Hessler is a journalist in China, and has written several books.  The one I am reading now is "Country Driving" and he tells the tales of his driving around China.  It means a lot more to me having been there, and having some understanding of the complex Chinese culture, and while it is a big book, I am slowly wading through it - as well as coping with my studies.

Other teachers wanted.

While I am determining if I will go back to China in 2011 - I've been helping another lady with her C/V etc to prepare for an application to China.    And my friend in China has come down with Bell's Palsy.  The latter is of concern as it is not easy to feel confident with medical treatment in China.  Mainly language and culture, and their insistence on their own style of medicine - which differs from ours.

I guess I also have to consider that she (for whom I am house sitting) will need to come back to Australia - and I really will be of "no fixed abode".  

It is a reminder to anyone taking on an ESL role to have Travel/Medical Insurance. 

Meanwhile, back in Oz, I am preparing to go to Adelaide to see my folks.  I love Adelaide, my home city, but it is too cold to live there, although IF I did, I'd install reverse cycle airconditioning.

Will I go back to China?

I have been asked this several times lately and I'm not sure.  I could possibly go for the next semester, which will start some time in February 2011, but it depends on my family.  My mother is in a nursing home, and Dad is not well, so I am keeping my options open.  I suspect it will be my last time to go to China to teach, so I have mixed feelings about it all, but I don't have to make a decision yet.

Chinese dissident wins Nobel Peace Award but..............

The weekend newspapers in Australia reported that Liu Xiaobo, had won the Nobel Peace Prize.  Sadly he has been in prison since December. 

It is reported on the ABC's website that his wife, Liu Xia was going to visit him and tell him, but the reports are that she is now unable to be contacted.  There are reports too of extra ordinary security surrounding the prison in Jinzhou, in the north east province of Liaoning.

Of course, the fact that this Chinese dissident has won the Nobel Peace Prize is of great embarrassment to the Chinese government, and all reports of this award have been censored so that the ordinary Chinese will not know of this award to one of their own.

Here are some articles about the award here and here.

Watch the videos.

Lunch with a friend

I had lunch with another ESL teacher friend on Wednesday.  We both worked together here in Brisbane.  We talked about the changing scene in the ESL teaching industry.  It is hard not to get disillusioned with it.  

At the college we worked at we used to get paid for teaching hours - and none for all the documentation, planning etc.  It has a hard slog.  It was working almost full time but getting paid for only half of it.  The DOS was a difficult person too. 

To make things more difficult the government changed the rules and there are less students coming to Australia at the moment - and more schools too.

Anyway neither of us work there now.