Hot Summer Evenings

It’s done. I've had my last lesson with this crowd ... now we wait for summer camp.

The people came from the college in S.A., where my kiddies are preparing to go. The deal is that in order to get a student visa to enter Australia they have to pass an English test. Normally they have to get a score of '5' in an IELTS test (International English Language Testing System) - quite a difficult achievement, Peter teaches 'IELTS' classes and is familiar with what it takes. But for some reason the Oz government allows this college to set its own little test, and they can get a visa if they get 75% in that. My class last semester apparently all passed, despite many of them not having enough English to hold a conversation with me. So obviously there is more to it than that! So the other day when they had the test with this class I fully expected to find out what goes on and work out how it all happens. But something has obviously changed between last year's crowd and this year's. Of the 18 in the class, only 6 passed. And we had tears and stuff to deal with. I am not surprised about the ones that failed - I would have failed them too. Just curious about what can have happened last time!

So, college is about to shut down for another year. The kids are still writing internal exams today though, and tomorrow I have to mark them. I can't fathom that - those that have passed get to go regardless, and those that have failed should be off home with their tails between their legs re-thinking what they will do with their lives because they don't get a second bite at this particular bikkie. So why are they sitting there writing these exams? Just to give me something to mark?

We worked out what's wrong with our computer. It has no fan! Our computer in Oz would come on with a whirr, and we sometimes used to put a little fan up next to it as well in very hot weather because it was in that corner of the office with very little circulation. The temperature here has been over 40deg by day and over 35deg by night for at least a couple of weeks - and this promises to continue until September or so (yes, this place really goes to extremes weather-wise!!) Even with our air-conditioner working its little heart out, the old Chinese computer wasn't coping. It kept giving us all sorts of weird messages, and sometimes it would even start typing in random words all by itself.

When George left, he left behind a pedestal fan. So we now have that lying on its side at my feet blasting air into the computer. We have it tied to the computer desk with a bit of wire - it's a very Chinese solution ... only the sticky tape is missing! We turn on the computer, and turn on the fan. Occasionally, if you try asking the computer to do too many things in quick succession - like working with a large file - we still get the BSOD (blue screen of death) and it shuts down. But mostly it’s usable at least for the next few weeks.

Ooh, I remember the beach! Looking forward to seeing the big blue wobbly again soon - we get to really missing it here! Every day on the weather forecast (we get on the net) along with the 40 - 46deg temperature forecasts, we read that we are going to have "T-storms" or "severe T-storms" ... and it doesn't happen. I know that Beijing had a lot of hailstorms that ruined crops and cars. And north of here a lot of people drowned including, a school-full of little kids when there was a mud-slide (bet you didn't get that in Australian news), and in the south the usual few hundred have died so far due to flooding. But we only had a bit of a sprinkle a couple of days ago, a bit of a downpour once last week, and some dry thunder rumbling in the distance. It is SO hot here.

Most evenings we go for a walk down to "ShengDa", the area around the nearby big university - there are about 15 000 students there. The local restaurants have all their tables and chairs out on the pavement, and everyone is there. There are fruit stalls, and "meat-on-a-stick", and various other disgusting delicacies available. The little kids are dressed in the front-only type clothing - naked except for an aprony thing covering their chest. The men all have their shirts off, and many of them wear long trousers but roll up one or both legs to the knee or thigh. It’s all very culturey, if you know what I mean. Very relaxed, no sense of crime or danger - not like it would be in Australia.

There are lots of little fridges or freezers out on the pavement, with the most amazing drinks and ice-creams. We haven't seen any rice-pudding ones for a while, but there is a pea one that Peter is particularly fond of. I like the one that goes all bendy as it thaws, its like frozen Turkish delight. Everything is so cheap too. About 20c for an icecream. And there are crowds of people all over the road. And buses and motor-bike-taxis trying to honk their way through the crowds. Its quite weird, with so many young people - 15 000 of them, and its dark and hot and everyone is just meandering and chatting quietly.

There is a park with really fancy poles that have lights inside them, changing colours up and down all the time. People set up blow-up swimming pools with magnetic fish, and kids pay to have a go at catching them on little fishing lines - no prize, just fun. And some people blow up lots of little coloured balloons and stick them on a board, and you can pay to have a shot at them with a little air-rifle that makes a little "pop" noise. Again, no prize, just the pop. And sometimes people have their TVs out on the pavement, and the family sits there on tiny little wooden stools, eating noodles out of a bowl and yelling "Hello!" as we pass.