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Hi everyone,
I haven't updated in a while - so sorry! I have been busy with school planning, and exams etc etc... (no excuse, I know). This blog should be mega packed as I have just been away on holiday and I have other recent thoughts and plans so I will keep you all updated here!
KIDS: The kids are progressing so well, I am so proud to see them using English that I have taught them - and they all did fantastically in their exams (maybe that was because I made them too easy!) haha. It is incredible what these children are taking in, last semester most of them could barely say a dicky bird to me - now they are able to communicate most feelings, thoughts and needs. Its amazing the difference!
EXPLORING BEIJING: We had a new teacher for 7 weeks, a 19 year old Australian named Chelsea. She lived at school, and was always eager to get out and explore.. so she became my little travel buddy and I took her to all the tourist attractions that I had loved. I also went to some that I hadn't already; for example: The Old Summer Palace ; a ruin of a place now. Its huge - but deserted.. as the English and the French came in and stole all the artifacts which are now housed in museums in Europe :S This is a story that it commonly taught to all Chinese in their history lessons, but I was naive and hadn't heard of it at all - oops!
Weather - The weather changes so fast over here! Over the space of a week, it turns from Winter to Summer again!! I remember arriving here, and in October there was one week that I was wearing a dress on Monday with no sleeves, but by Friday I had to wear a jumper, t-shirt, scarf and coat. lol. Now it is happening the other way around!
Meeting More People - I have been meeting alot more people, and spending time with more of the teachers. My chinese co-ordinator (in charge of the chinese section) invited me over to her family house, that she shares with her mother, husband, father and daughter. They cooked traditional soup for me, and I got to spend time with her 3 year old daughter (english name - Joy-Anne). She was so scared of me at first, until I started singing ABC to her, which she proudly then sang in perfect key! haha.
HOLIDAY - We just had 3 days off for QingMing Festival (English name - Tomb sweeping festival) where the chinese celebrate those that have passed away. It is a public holiday, so everyone gets the time off ! For this reason, we decided to book a tour in advance... and Me, Gina, Lillian and Mark (three other teachers) decided that we would explore the province of Shanxi.
We boarded the bus at 5:00 in the morning, and took a three hour speed train from Beijing to Taiyuan. We then boarded the coach that would take us around the sights. As soon as I got on, I remember the last Chinese tour I took. They talk way too much - and all in Chinese.. so I can only understand a little! But I cannot complain, as it was cheaper than with an English tour.
My impression of Shanxi (means Mountain West) is that it is far windier and dustier than Beijing. All the cars are covered in a layer of dirt.. which is also the case in Beijing - but in Taiyuan - you couldn't see through the windows in the morning! ha.
The first place we went to was a famous business man's house and gardens. It was nearly 500 years old, and very grand. The Chinese teachers at my school Gina and Lillian loved taking pictures of themselves, and me and Mark decided we were going to secretly try and jump in and ruin as many pictures as we could. hahha!
After this we reached the ancient walled city of Pingyao. It is 2,700 years old and absolutely amazing! All the buildings inside the walled city are in the traditional style, and the dust makes it feel as if this area has just been found - although that is not the case. It is a little run down, but that all adds to the beauty - as it doesn't look modernized in the slightest. At this point, I really believed I was in CHina:) haha.
We stayed in a beautiful traditional guesthouse, which was very old and had such character. It was situated right in the middle of the hutong (hutongs are common all over CHina, and they are traditional one-storey houses, with small alleyways in between. Pingyao really felt like stepping back in time!
After Pingyao we went to Jin Temple (a huge temple in front of the mountains) and Qiao Family House and Gardens which is a very famous place in Shanxi as many movies and films have been made there. I really cannot express the beauty of these places, and I hope that when you see my pictures on here - you can get a vague idea... but I am not even sure that my pictures do the place justice either!! On the train to Shanxi I was getting annoyed with China (not helped much by the squat toilets , which are all the Chinese use - even on a fast high speed train - I mean, come on!!!) but on the way home I realised that China is frigging magnificent and I definitely want to see and explore more..
This leads me nicely onto my plans for next year:: They change often, but at the moment I am thinking about coming home and moving to London. My mother thinks this is a silly idea, as it is expensive - but I really would like to work and live in London... although we will have to see if I can afford it. haha!! If I really do not get on with working there, then I have given myself a deadline of January - where I can always apply for international teacher jobs again. I get e-mails daily about different options, and I know there are many teaching jobs in January - so I can always come back or onto another country then!!
Me and Sheriic still really want to be together, and he really wants to move with me. He has said he is happy to go wherever, but we have to see if he can get a visa for UK. Not sure really how easy that will be!! We definitely want to stay together, as we both say we are so happy at the moment, and many of our friends comment on how happy we are... so I hope you will all get the chance to meet him! :)
Anywho, I think that is all for now!!!
Love you all !!! :) xxxx
- comments
Helen Hi Emma good to read your blog. Love to meet with you when you are in the uk and catch up. Good to hear you are happy- hopefully we will get to meet Sheriis-?is he on any of your photos?
Valdir Interesting to read your perspective from your visit. For what it's worth, Guangzhou/Guangdong has alayws felt more distinctly Cantonese than Chinese to me, although it's admittedly hard to put one's finger on what that means. Obviously there is a language difference, but there is also a long legacy of political and economic autonomy in Guangdong. Canton was a major center of international trade for centuries and was cosmopolitan long before Shanghai or Hong Kong began to develop Guangzhou was the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road and the locus of much of Indian Ocean inter-Asian trade. In addition, the foundations of the ROC run deep in Guangzhou, and the KMT consolidated their power base in Guangdong before joining the United Front. Deng Xiaoping certainly recognized the unique history and status of Guangdong when he launched his Southern Tour, harnessing Guangdong's advantages to push for broader, faster economic reform across the country.At the same time, the CCP realized that Guangzhou (and then brand-new Shenzhen), with it's distinct language, proximity to British Hong Kong, history as a base of policy innovation, and (physical and cultural) distance from Beijing, could not be firmly trusted to toe the party line and thus was not suitable as China's flagship economic center. Assuming the Party's interests would be better served by annointing a directly-governed municipality as China's economic alpha city, the Party launched plans for the revitalization of Shanghai, centered on the development of Pudong as an SEZ and financial center. To some extent, then, Shanghai's ascendancy is a byproduct of the fact that Guangdong was not Chinese enough; the province was clearly useful for its economic contributions but not politically reliable. It's still not, and Guangdong's officials have maintained a streak of independence. There certainly remains a level of freewheeling capitalism in Guangdong (especially in Shenzhen, which was created out of thin air and created a stock exchange without central government approval) that is possibly unrivaled in China, or maybe unrivaled anywhere in the world for the last 20 years, save for Silicon Valley. All that is to say that I'm not so sure that what happens in Guangzhou will or can spread to the rest of the country. The city and the province are outliars and I think Guangdong people look to Hong Kong and the rest of the world before looking to Beijing.You also forgot to mention Guangzhou's brilliant and fascinating expat population. Cheers.