Getting to Houshan Was an Adventure.

I've posted about the Toffee Man at Houshan, but the story of how we got there deserves some space.  Another Aussie teacher and I were invited by a group of high school students to go on their outing one Sunday, not long after I arrived in China, and we duly met them at the West Gate and caught a bus into town.  I thought I knew the right bus out to Houshan as I had been before, but one of the students spoke to the bus driver (why, I don't know!) and for some reason that I  will never know the bus driver told him it was the wrong bus.  So we walked through the city streets to another bus stop, and again there were conversations with bus drivers and other on how to get to Houshan.  We eventually got on a bus - that clearly was the wrong bus so we got off after travelling some kilometers, and waited by the side of a busy road as they phoned another student who they thought could help.

Eventually taking long strides and panting for breath this student arrived and we followed him through a village, through the drying vegetables on the side of the road to another bus stop and there we waited.  No bus came, but Large (yes, that was the student with long legs!) raced off in another direction.  More phone calls were made.  Then a tiny van appeared and Large leapt out of the vehicle and herded us in.  There were two little wooden seats for the Aussie teachers, but the other students crouched and sat squatting in the back of the van.  It appears it was Large's uncle, a government official, and this was a government van.  

It was quite a hair raising ride as every time we went around the corner, the students all fell over into one laughing heap as we two teachers looked on in amazement wondering what our safety officers in Australia would make of this.

Eventually we reached the roadway entrance to the park, and we all climbed out the of the vehicle and walked into the park.

I had been in the park some two years earlier, but in that time it had taken on a new life.  There were more new gardens and it was now very commercial with the weirdest things.  There was a freak show with two headed children, and other strange mistakes of nature.  It was a very busy park, and we followed the students through the park like a small flock of sheep.

We wandered through the park exploring different places, and we saw the entertainers.  We climbed the mountain - I'd done it before, cement steps taking us higher and higher up the mountain towards the inevitable Buddhist temple.

The views back over the farms was worth the trip with the yellow flowers of the rapeseed visible for miles.

On and on we went until we reached the temple.  We spent some time atop the mountain taking photos before we made our way back down, this time coming a lot closer to the peach blossom.

We had lunch in a tiny room which was part of a very strange restaurant.  It was just so small, and so, well crappy I suppose.  No one in their right mind would enter such a place to eat, but we did.  Food was OK - just.  Filled us as we were all hungry from our running around all day and climbing the mountain.

The boys wanted to play on with some of the strange sideshows, but the girls had had enough so we caught the bus home.  Yes, it was THE bus that should have taken us on a very quick trip earlier in the day to Houshan.  Still, it wouldn't have been near as much fun as our journey there turned out to be.

Summer holidays = more emails.

About which I am delighted I might say! The students with no worries about study have been sending me emails. I love to keep in touch with them - and give the occasional English lesson as well, correcting their minor errors.

You know the good students - the ones that are keen to keep trying their English - and don't mind sending messages and getting the occasional advice on their grammar or spelling.

One delightful lady has been able to gain a place in a higher education facility - she was only doing Diploma but now will start a university in Hangzhou where she can get a Bachelors degree. I so love to hear those stories. It is very competitive and I remember getting a Skype message from this young lady who was so worried that she had not passed the examination.

She was quite desperate - and I had to convince her that "she had done her best" and that there was little to do but feel positive and await the outcome. Of course all her worry was for nought, as she did manage to upgrade her skills.

She sent me photos of her classmates - all young people who attended my classes - so it was good to see them. My, how some of them have changed - hardly "grown up" as they were in their twenties when I knew them, but they do change hairstyles, some feaures etc.

So wonderful to be able to keep in touch.

The "bake"

One of the students prefers to "pose" for photos.

The eating continues.

Trying to cut the beef with a blunt knife.

Waiting for the hot coals.

The area for the "bake" - and one of the many chickens.

It might take me several posts to tell this story. On Thursday some students invited me to go with them to Lanting. I had been to Lanting before, but did not know that there were two parts to it. I was about to discover the other part to it.

They asked me to invite another foreign teacher which I did, but she declined as Saturday is our sleep in day, and we were required to be at the West Gate at 7.40 am. So I agreed to go alone.

There were several text messages between me and the student, and on the Friday night I went out with a group of foreign teachers (I'll report on that, later) and left my cellphone back at my apartment on the charger.

When I arrived "home' I looked to see if there was a message, and sure enough there was. It read "Teacher, I am Ellen. Sorry. I put off the time on the sunday. Because it will rain heavily in tomorrow morning. The food will be prepared. And there are two another English teachers going with you. Ok? I will phone you with the detail time."

It was 11 pm. Too late to phone her, but I assumed that the "bake" to which I had been invited had been postponed. She will let me know when it is on. It has been raining heavily for several days, so a postponement was not out of the question on weather grounds.

So when I awoke in the morning, I wandered around doing a few things of little importance in my apartment , and made my usual "instant porridge" and was about to eat when the phone rang.

"Dianna, where are you. The bus is here."

"What?!!!!!"

"We are waiting for you."

"OMG. Er, I'll hurry."

So I raced into the shower, ate some of my breakfast, dressed, and raced out of the door all within 15 minutes. And ran to the West Gate.

There the whole class of nearly 40 students was sitting in a bus waiting for me. They had hired a bus (which as it turns out had been late.)

So in the pouring ran, we travelled to Lanting. When I arrived, I saw it was different to where I had been before, but apparently the part that I had been - the more famous part - was close by.

We trekked for a while past lakes, picnic areas, through beautiful forests. Apparently tigers used to roam there, but I am assured that there are none now, just venomous snakes, but I think the cold and wet would keep them in their holes. Along the way, one of the students gave me a gift. An extra ordinary gift as it turns out. She asked "Do you know Edwin Mayer?" Of course, I do. Despite the fact that my TV seldom works, I do know him as the guy from Australia (who was a newsreader in Victoria for the ABC) who is the newsreader/anchor man for CCTV9 in Beijing. It is the only English TV station here.

She handed me a book, written by Edwin, called "My China Daily" which chronicles his struggles with the language and culture when he came to China, which is a collection of stories from his column in the China Daily. In a strange way the gift was going to have a greater impact on me that either of us realised, although I suspect she may well have read it and knew.

Eventually we came to an area beside a lake. There were cement tables with tiled tops with holes in them. Little bench seats surrounded the tables. There was much confusion, chaos and loud shouting until we eventually sat down in our "families" I think we would say "groups" but that is OK. I didn't count the girls, but there were three of the four boys in the class with the girls.

Shortly a piece of paper was thrust into my hands - with Chinese characters and English as it turned out. I had to choose what food I wanted. It included pigs gizzards, duck tongue, and dog meat. All of those I said I would not eat, but at the end of the day I have an inkling that at least some of that passed my lips! Not the dog, hopefully!

Soon the girls brought trays to the table with two awful looking wooden handled pastry brushes, a small stainless steel bowl with oil, and another with spices and a dozen or so metal skewers. Soon there were trays of meat - chicken wings and legs, a slab of what they said was beef, which we all had turns at trying to cut with a knife that was so blunt that we couldn't make much headway. The meat had an unpleasant odour about it - it was not as fresh as I would have liked!

Shortly after a man came with a pole across his shoulders and hanging from each end was a box of burning charcoal. Each box was carefully placed in the hole in the table, a metal frame was placed over it, and we all sat around and started the cooking process. Each table had two boxes of coal, and we had to fan the coals to keep them going initially. I was surprised that each group had a supply of flattened boxes that they used for fans. Soon another tray of food came with octopus, prawns, and other strange small pieces of meat on skewers. There were buns, and cobs of corn, and more chicken.

I helped - in fact we all played a role in cooking the food and then putting it on the top of the rack so people could take it if they wished. There was so much food - typically the Chinese people tend to get more than they can possibly eat.

We had a lot of laughs doing it, as we played with the fire to keep it going. The man returned with other pieces of charcoal to add to the fire later on.

Meanwhile other groups of students had joined us - two or three other colleges with their groups somehow fitted under the roof, and all prepared and cooked their "bake" just as we had done.

The rain continued, several dozen "chooks" or chickens ran in and out of our legs picking up what ever fell to the ground, and there were groups of girls attached to MP3/4 Players, others on their mobile phones, and others still cooking and having loads of fun. This continued for about 4 hours. Students were still eating, and the rain certainly restricted any outdoor activity.

Eventually though the cooking and eating was over. I think for an hour of this I was the most photographed blonde in all China, as students had photos taken of me with them. Some silly photos when I was getting sick of it and hammed it up for the cameras.

The mess left behind was awful. The tables and floor underneath were littered with food scraps, paper, corn cobs. I said "Aren't we going to tidy up or clean?" "No, the waiter does it." It seems that the staff at the establishment clean up all the rubbish.

Next it was back along the path that we had travelled previously, but this time we trekked in another direction, which was past more buildings, more lakes, more groups of students having their "bake", two restaurants and lots of people and chickens.

Soon we came to the inevitable steps - slippery stone steps reaching high into the forest. With a wry smile I continued with the students being very careful where I placed my feet on the slippery moss covered steps. We hadn't gone far, when one of the students announced she was tired. Too tired to walk. Then someone reminded us of the departure time by the bus, so we decided to return to the bus area. Thankfully!

So back down the slippery steps - but this time we had to "share" the step with umbrella wielding students from another group coming the other way. I was pleased to arrive safely at the bottom of the steps!

We slowly wandered back to the bus place, but our bus wasn't there, so it was time for more photos and this time a young man who was nearby took the photo of us all. Soon the bus arrived and we were all on our way back.

We had a sing-song on the bus, and students sang "Click go the Shears" in Chinese. For me. The song that had so impessed Edwin Mayer when he first heard it sung by a Chinese family in Beijing.

They are such an amazing bunch of young people and despite the rain I had a wonderful time.

I am still confused about the text message that I thought was "postponing" the event.

A sea of glowing faces.

The students at this college do work hard - the freshman have exercises on the sports field each morning at 6.15 am, and then go to class around 7.15 am.

They do have a break of 2 hours during the day, but are back in class again, until 8.30 pm. When they emerge there is a sea of students walking towards the West Gate where all the street vendors have lined up ready to sell their wares to the always eating students.

Often I watch them from the vantage point of my fifth floor apartment and listen to the voices as they snake their way from the class rooms to the West Gate.

Glowing faces? Most of them are talking on their mobile phones - a constant with the Chinese students. They are always talking on their phones or sending text messages. But when thousands of students walk on mass in the darkness of this time of night, their faces are lit up from the glow of the phones.

It is quite eerie. In less than an hour, and in more of a trickle, the students return as they must be in their dormitories before 10 pm. A few hours sleep before they start the next day.

Exercising in the Fog

Every weekday - Monday to Friday, the freshmen (first year students) are expected to exercise in the morning. From our apartment we hear, from around 6.15 am, the music and the voice of the exercise marshall, as they go through their paces.

Some days, I can see them from my window. There are some 30 students, in their white tracksuits on the stage, and someone on the microphone "one, two, three" I suspect, as it is in Chinese of course.

This morning there is the most amazing fog - we cannot see the building right beside us, so I can only guess how much vision there is on the "parade ground". The fog keeps the sound low - so this morning the music and the commands were clear - but of course we could see nothing.

Today is going to be warm.

The College

This is the view from my apartment window - the college buildings are on both sides of the canal. It is such a grand scale that it is overwhelming.

The college has some 7000 students - mainly girls - who are keen to study and get good jobs. It is a private college, so they have to have supportive parents or family to pay their fees.

The College is on 106 acres of land with impressive buildings with marble staircases, and Grecian columns everywhere.

According to the information given to us there are nearly 400 teachers, most of whom are full time at the college.

It is the biggest college specialising in cultivating foreign language talents in Zhejian Province.

There are four canteens where we get meals. We have a plastic card with our credit on it, and we choose a meal at any of the counters of the canteen. Within seconds you are presented with a freshly cooked meal - you can see it being cooked from the counter. It is put on the plate and handed to you as you hand over your plastic card for processing. We take a pair of chopsticks or a spoon to eat and sit down at the many fixed tables and chairs. It is all so quick. And the students/teachers are in and out in no time.

The meals are good - we have found one place where the description of the meal is in English and we can point to the number on the menu - and we only choose things that seem OK to us. Pigs intestines and vegetables, or similar meals are not on our list of preferences!

There are many street vendors, especially around the West Gate and beyond where you walk through the winding lane ways of stalls all seeming to do brisk business as you dodge cars, bicycles, motor scooters and students and other strange vehicles. One can buy almost anything in the stalls.

The fruit and vegetable stalls look OK - I will buy carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, and some green vegetables there - but I have nothing to cook on. I'm looking for a cheap wok somewhere. But no hurry.

I have quite a list of things I need to get - so bit by bit I will set myself up in the apartment to make it comfortable for the next four months or so.

One thing I find amusing is that it is so cold children are rugged up so well, that they could not possibly bend their elbows with the layers of clothes they have, and women carry the little ones around and they look like dolls with arms and legs extended and unable to bend.

We have found the cold hard to deal with but it will warm up soon. Spring starts next week.