Autumn Holiday

Back from our one week Autumn break, and "hard" at work again, Peter came down with his third bout of diarrhea. He doesn’t really need anyone to translate for him when he goes to the Chinese doctor now, she knows as soon as she sees him! After going through all the pantomimes for headache, joint pains and sore throat, he was glad that he knew the word for diarrhea!

We had a good holiday. Peter was feeling very adventurous; I not so much so. We had been warned about crowds on transport over the holiday period. Also, the college likes to send a staff member as minder with us when we go anywhere ... some find this useful, but some foreign staff get tired of being baby-sat! Peter was keen for us to break out on our own for a change, but this is never easy. We announced (as per instructions) we would be traveling to Luoyang, 3 hours away by bus, and of course 2 Chinese staff suddenly wanted to go there too.

On the way there I faced my nemesis - a genuine Chinese back-shed toilet. After paying “point 5 kwai” (50c) I went out the back, past the dog and cat and through the mud, into the door-less shed marked with the Chinese symbol for “woman”. No internal walls, no door (just as well, it would be pitch black with a door) and there were six cement slots in the floor, and a bit of a smell, of course. After that, I figured I can go anywhere! I have been a lot more adventurous and tolerant of crowds since then.

Anyway, we had a nice overnight in Luoyang at a hotel. Then they took us out to show us the "Grotto" - 15000 Buddhas of various sizes carved out of the sides of the hills, at various levels. And millions of Chinese climbing up and down stairs to view and photograph them. After an hour and a half of these stairs and jostling crowds and Buddhas, we announced to our college minders that we really had had enough! They were staggered - this had cost 80 kwai each to see, and we haven't seen it all yet! There was a temple to see too, and another one down the road all included in the cost. But no, we were insistent that we were too tired and had seen enough temples and Buddhas.

After that we told them that we had really had enough and wanted to return directly to college. Again they were surprised, and we ended up coming back on the bus by ourselves, and then getting a taxi from Zz city back to the college, feeling quite adventurous.

The next day we headed off into Zhengzhou city again and successfully bought ourselves a DVD player and Chinese SIM cards for our mobile phones - quite tricky, but we found that grunting and gesturing and waving money usually works ... and in this case an assistant showed up in the DVD shop who knew a few words of English! We asked this sweet little girl for directions to a phone shop and she accompanied us (carrying our newly purchased DVD player for us) across a busy intersection and down the road to a phone shop, and then stayed there with us for half an hour to make sure our purchase went smoothly - talk about service!

So, feeling very clever, the next day we headed off again into the city (without a minder) to catch a train to nearby Kaifeng, about an hour away. We had a student we knew in Kaifeng, but had to catch a train first. There were long queues at the station, and lots of confusing Chinese signs. The place was huge, like an airport. Finally, in frustration, we approached a policeman and just said "Kaifeng?" He spoke excellent English, and went to the head of a very long queue and purchased us "soft sit-up" (numbered seats) tickets! After that it was easy.

We met our friend in Kaifeng. And then, suddenly, a college staff member turned up! They always know where we are! We get the impression that the college staff worry about us getting lost, mugged or breaking some law. Still, we had a good time. They took us to a very nice park and in the evening we ate in the amazing "evening snack market" - literally hundreds of little snack carts turn up to the central square in this town every evening to sell their wares, Chinese foods of every variety all being cooked right there on the spot and served as takeaways.

And over all, the strident sound of a Chinese opera singer was blaring out from a restaurant directly overhead from where we dined. It really was quite spectacular. Sights, sounds, smells, tastes Peter just about wore out the camera. He even took a couple of minutes of video. What a shame it couldn’t record the smells and tastes too. We sat upstairs in a restaurant that opened onto the square, (the same restaurant that had the opera singer on the top floor) eating dumplings and other delicacies!

The next morning we returned to the spot to find that everything had been dismantled and removed. Traffic now flowed across the same area. By 6pm it would all be back, ready for another busy night.

The next day we looked at another park then decided to head home. But the train was all booked. We were told there was a bus that came directly here to LongHu (“Dragon Lake” where the college is) without going to Zhengzhou ... but that was booked too. So then we had to go back on the regular slow bus via Zhengzhou. And the staff member came too.

When we got to Zhengzhou we tried to get a taxi to the bus station to catch the LongHu bus, but they were very busy and had upped their prices because of that. Finally one guy with a mini-bus said he would take us for a reasonable price ... and proceeded to pile another three people and their sacks of rice into the same taxi.

As soon as we set off he said he thought the LongHu bus would be very crowded and persuaded us to let him take us all the way. We agreed on a price and set off, through the little back alleys to the home of the other people. After we dropped them off, the Chinese teacher with us argued with the driver and got a lower price because of the extra passengers.

But then he got his own back. He continued on through the back alleys and picked up his mother. And then he went somewhere else, stopped the car again and ran off into the distance and returned with his little daughter. Putting her in the car, he disappeared again for ages and came back with a bag of food! We didn't mind too much - it was all interesting and quite relaxing, but the Chinese teacher had a bit of a grizzle!

So now we are back, and back into the routine, if you can call it that. Our first day back, a Friday, was a Thursday schedule. And then Saturday was a Monday, and Sunday was a Tuesday. It’s so hard to keep track of what day is which, especially Sundays! The next few days - Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - were (naturally) a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday schedule. Thursday is a Monday, Friday is a Friday of course, and the next day (Saturday) will be another Monday, followed, I think, by another Sunday which is actually a Tuesday ... Because of recent holidays and stuff, things are a bit messed up and we have to work 13 days straight - really hard on the students! But at least we don't have too much to do on any one day.