Eating in the canteen

I have been learning to eat with chopsticks. The ones they give you here at the college canteen are in a long thin paper bag with "sterilized" printed on it, but the bag is open one end, and the chopsticks are wooden and usually still wet, so you can't help wondering!

We were so worried about trying to be polite here, but that hardly seems an issue any more. Ok, so you don't put your fingers in your mouth. If you find a bone or something icky in your mouth (and the "meat" is mostly bone with a little something wrapped around it) you can very delicately take it from you slightly parted lips with your chop-sticks - not too hard (with practice) if it is something big like a chicken head, but it can be tricky with fish-bones. So in a case like that you just open your mouth slightly (not too much now) and go "phlew!" and spit it onto the table. Or the floor, though that is a little insensitive because it makes it slippery for others. Only things like tissues and chopstick wrappers generally go on the floor.



So, about noises! It's ok! Especially with noodles. Just slurp away. Pick a few up with your chopsticks and start slurping. And as for managing with chopsticks... its really, really easy. You either hold your bowl up near your mouth - right under your chin or lips is ok - or you put your mouth down near your bowl or dish. In our canteen they use those big metal trays (like in "MASH") with little compartments, and they give you a little metal bowl as well. You can use it any way you wish. I like to have my rice in my bowl. Most people get some soupy stuff in their bowl and drink it straight out of there. So I have seen people sitting there with their chin or lips down at table level trying to slurp straight from the tray because its too hard to pick the tray up.

Then there are the big things. They always have these steamed buns - they just look like a lump of uncooked dough, but they are actually quite light. Sometimes they are shaped like a big lump, other times they are all sort of twisty. These things you can pick up with your fingers and bite, and dip it into your gravy on your tray or whatever. Or you can spear it with your chopsticks and pick it up and bite bits off, or delicately hold it between your chopsticks and bite bits off. Then there are things like greasy fried pizza base, and they give you big triangles of it. That's nice, although its greasy - a bit different from everything else! Some people manage that with chopsticks, others use fingers.

Oh, and about the chicken head. I wasn't kidding. Peter was staring at the bits of chicken on his plate one day, and suddenly realised one of them was a head. Not much meat on that, but a tasty little eyeball or two if you want it and maybe the comb part isn't too bad - he didn't try it! He’s such a little favourite, the next day he was served up with a foot. And sometimes he even gets a couple of heads – but I’ve never had one.

Mood Festival

We had a memo from the college saying this is the "mood festival" - it certainly has put my class into a funny mood. They are all really frisky, grabbing each other and throwing things and changing seats all the time - fortunately I know who they all are now!



Actually its the autumn moon festival, and there was a big yellow moon last night. The days are really hazy and humid, it looks smoky but you can't smell smoke. Everyone is eating "moon cakes" - they are like little pies with special things inside. Some of them are really nice. Some have like a thick fruity jelly-ish paste inside, I think its lotus paste - I think they are the best. Others have like fruity, crunchy, nutty sweet stuff - the kids reckon they are 'disgusting' (I said 'that's a good English word to use'). Then there are the surprises, like a fish filling when you are expecting something sweet …

But at night there are lots of fireworks - not the pretty ones, just the loud bangy ones. And last night it sounded like they were launching them through a pipe so they exploded high in the air.

Starting off

The day of flying here was fairly harassing, but now we are here, and over our initial bewilderment.

Everything at this college was apparently once very grand - huge majestic buildings - but now all a bit decrepit. We are told they are planning to build and move to a new campus next September. (Well, we’ll see.)

Our apartment is on the third floor (my knees are gradually adjusting!) and quite large ...but sort of big and empty and strange. The Chinese understanding of shower and toilet and kitchen are a little different from ours... but it's quite livable.

Everything is very secure with big heavy metal burglar-proof doors. It takes three keys to get into our place. The college itself has a guarded gate, and is in a complex called New City of Long Hu (Dragon Lake) which is walled, gated and guarded. There are other organizations in the complex such as a police academy - the place is crawling with dozens of police cars.

We eat in the student canteen, and the food is "delicious and nutritious" and very Chinese. I can't get used to drinking a (metal) bowlful of bland "porridge" with every meal like they do. It’s like a very runny tasteless hot porridge/soup which they ladle out of a huge pot. But most of the other food is ok, and not a bit like "Chinese" in Australia.

We are about 45mins out of the big city - Zhengzhou. We went there the other day in our college bus to buy a few essentials. The foods and delicacies available in the shops were amazing and different (and the ones we tried were delightful).

We have our timetables and start work tomorrow. I only have twelve classes a week and Peter has fifteen - but we work on a two week rotation: two five-day weeks then four days off. Tomorrow I only have one class, and it’s in the afternoon. The next day I have one double lesson in the morning then nothing for the rest of the day. Some days are like that! But on Thursday I have five classes. (wow!) Our first classes are at 8.10am. Then each class goes for 45 minutes followed by a 10min break. There is a longer break between periods 2 and 3 when the students do enforced exercises. Then after period 4 its lunch, followed by a siesta break until 2.50pm!! Then there are three more classes before tea. I have classes in the afternoon on some days, but only in periods 5 and/or 7. Then there are two more periods after tea - but we never have to do any of those.

Our classes are very small. My main class is the largest with 23. I have them for 3 double lessons a week. It is a second year English immersion class - they call in "All Subjects In English", and I do "Listening and Speaking" with them. The first year ASIE class has only 15 students. Peter's main class, which he teaches for a double lesson every day, is the second year IELTS class ( that's preparation for the international English language test). There are 12 students in his class, and only 6 in the year one IELTS class. I have each of these four classes 3 times a fortnight for "Communication" That's a syllabus-free open-ended type course that I am really looking forward to. There are other classes in the school that we don't teach, and there are Chinese teachers who teach them Social Studies, Maths, and Reading and Writing (in "English") as well.

There is a Sri Lankan chap who has been here for 11 years and does the IT and teaching computer. Poor guy struggles away with very old Pentium 1 computers, and he hasn't really been in the outside world to see what is going on these days. Like the buildings, nothing gets replaced or properly repaired, just patched up. Our apartment is a mass of odd wires and cables sticky-taped up walls and along edges - some still in use and some defunct, but all very dusty...

The students are all in their late teens or older and seem very nice so far. Today is a day off and some of the students have gone for a walk to a local vineyard because they have never seen one. Peter has gone with them, but I stayed because the food has begun to disagree with me and I didn't fancy a long walk in the present heat and oppressive humidity. I came up to our office to check our emails on this beaten up old computer ... we have been promised a better one in our apartment "tomorrow or the next day".