Hey, don’t you just love holidays? Of course, Australia’s holidays are over and everyone is back at work, but we are just in the middle of it.
Today is "New Year" here. Firecrackers have been going off all night. Everyone visits their family and gives presents.
We have just returned from a trip to Beijing and Qingdao. Bea has been really sick for a few days, but she finally seems a little better today. I am so relieved, because I was beginning to think we should take her to hospital, and Chinese hospitals are really scary places.
All of the foreign staff here decided to take off for holiday at the same time, so I couldn't ask anyone to mind hamster "Happy" - I had visions of coming back to find her cold and stiff (dead) and smelly. So I took her with me. Sounds simple if you say it quick!!
I crocheted a little bag to pop her little cage into, so I could walk nonchalantly into hotels and onto trains...! I made a nest for her (in the cage) out of a cut-down Pringles-type tube. And I enclosed the cage in a custom-made cardboard box, and put the whole thing into my little bag.
The thing went really well, at first. She (oh, yes, now she's bigger she's obviously a girl) slept quietly for the first train trip, 8-hours to Beijing. Then we booked into a 4-bed dormitory in a youth hostel. Each bed had a big wooden locker - which looked like an ideal place for a hamster to live. I put her cage in there, open, locked the door and went to sleep on the bed directly over the locker. I was so tired that I didn't pay much attention to the sound of workmen hammering and sawing and dragging stuff around ... somewhere. But it kept Peter awake, and he woke me up. Of course the wooden locker acted as a great sound magnifier of Happy's activity. I thought she would just want to run around (they apparently run about 8km a night), but she had decided to remove everything from her cage and build a nest in the corner of the locker, and then set-to chewing and gnawing at everything. She had made quite an impression on the corner of the locker door.
So then I put her (and her nest) back in her tiny cage, and sat it on an easy chair where it would be quieter. I fell back into bed listening to her scritching around in her cage ... and suddenly realised she had gone quiet. Sure enough, there she was running across the chair. Opening a cage is hamsters'-play, apparently. After that I tried putting various things on top of the cage so she couldn't open it. A jar of honey we had just bought seemed like a good, heavy, option - until I awoke again to the unmistakable sound of honey-jar smashing on floor! I had to creep down the hallway to find a mop in the cleaner's room and get it all cleaned away while the world slept.
Then we went on a sleeper-train to Qingdao. We had "hard sleepers", six tiny bunks in each cabin; bottom, middle and top on each side of the room. All very squeezy, and no chance to give Happy a run. She was a bit upset about this and chewed away the cardboard box around her cage almost completely, and even managed to chew a hole in the crocheted bag.
The time in Qingdao was easier. We had a nice big hotel room, and I had a chance to put her in her wheel and give her a run-around each night. (Her wheel is totally enclosed, so I can't leave it for her to get in and out of.) Then we had another sleeper-train ride, Qingdao to Zhengzhou, 2.30pm to 8am. That wasn't much fun for any of us!
Zhengzhou is a really grotty place at the best of times, but it never looked so good as when we arrived back here on Monday! It is snowing again, so it actually looks fairly pretty for now.
Here at our apartment I have adapted a big, strong cardboard carton for a play area for Happy. I inserted cut-off Coke-bottles into the sides that she pops in and out of like tunnels. I was sitting here at the computer after the others had gone to bed half-listening to her scritching around in her box and ... yep, suddenly realised it had gone all quiet. She had somehow climbed right out. I found her near the desk, looking like a tennis ball with ears - her tiny feet were so cold when I picked her up. She is very tame, and was quite undisturbed by her little adventure.
The next night I left her in the cardboard box overnight, and got up about 4.30am for a drink - peeped into the box and couldn't find her. I discovered the neat, round hole she had chewed right through the side of the box. Then I heard a tiny noise in the corner by the huge split-system air conditioner. Remembering how one of the college classrooms had been evacuated after a mouse had made a nest and been incinerated in (causing a bad smell) one of those ... I got straight to it then and there with a screwdriver and took the front off the thing to look for her. I couldn't find her in there, and then I heard a noise behind the heater - in the wall. There is an old, defunct radiator system throughout the building, and the radiators are hidden behind wooden paneling, with a slatted section that easily pulls out. Sure enough, in behind the radiator in the deepest darkest corner ... I could see her dark little eyes and her twitching whiskers.
Peanut butter almost enticed her out; she came halfway, and then changed her mind. I went to find a broomstick to poke her along a bit, and came back to find she'd gone ... she was just exploring around a bit. And I reached in and picked her up. She seemed glad enough to see me, quite unperturbed by yet another adventure.
I was just relieved to put the panels back on the walls, screw the front back onto the heater, and fall back into bed! No more cardboard-box play times!
But, back to our trip and how the rest of the family fared!
I was amazed how homely grotty old Zhengzhou looked after ten days traveling...
Beijing was like a money pit. We stayed in a Youth Hostel because it was the cheapest place we could find - 50yuan per bed per night in a 4-bed dormitory. We were in a fairly new place, actually the "workers stadium" - they have rooms on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors all around the outside of the stadium. We were on the 4th floor (no elevator, or course) looking out over a frozen lake. Everyday they used a steamer-thing (or something) to make a smooth circle on the ice, and people would ice-skate and stuff. One enterprising gentleman had made these skating seat things (see Bea on ice picture) which you could hire for 10yuan and push yourself around. Not as easy as it looks!
The Youth Hostel arranged tours, and you could put your name down for it and their guide would pick you up at the door and look after you. We went to an acrobatic show one night, that was good. And then we decided to try their trip to the Great Wall. Of course, there are many parts of the wall you can visit, and this one was chosen for young hikers! We drove three hours north east of Beijing, and they dropped off the hardier walkers at a village where some guides would take them on a 9km walk of the wall, parts of which are quite crumbling and decrepit. The rest of us took the "easy" way, they took us to Si Ma Tai village where we walked a section of the wall and waited for the others to join us. I didn't expect it to be so steep, and the steps varied from a few inches wide (too small for you foot to sit safely on) to several feet wide, sometimes shallow, sometimes so tall you needed hands and knees, and tipping forward, back, sideways ... It was quite an experience, and very, very cold. Three women showed up to "help" us, quite annoying really, having someone holding your hand when you are trying to climb. We should have been less polite, of course, we just put up with them. And then at the end they wanted us to buy their souvenir goods. Understandable - I am sure their story about being poor farmers who have been in brought for three years is quite true.
We also visited the "Forbidden City", regrettably. It was so, so cold, about -16 degrees and a very strong wind blowing. It was miserable, we could hardly stand up, and all the other (Chinese) tourists were miserable too. It cost us 40 Yuan each, and when we got to the other side we just wanted to get back to the hotel. We tried to hail a taxi, but these motorbike taxi-chaps kept getting in our way, and were most insistent that we went with them. Our motorbike taxis here in Long Hu are excellent, so we gave in - and forgot to arrange a price ahead of time. (In taxis you don't have to of course.) We needed two of them for the three of us, and we seemed to travel a very long way even though we knew we were only about three blocks away. When we got out, they wanted 100yuan ... each! And they wouldn't bargain about it. Peter offered them 20, but they wouldn't take it out of his hand. So he dropped it on the taxi seat and we shot upstairs. One of them followed us, and physically restrained me on the stairs. We argued some more, and he "agreed" to 30, so I gave him another 10 and had to push my way away from him because he still wanted more. It was not a pleasant experience.
We did a lot of walking around – and it was so cold! I found a foreign doctor clinic a couple of blocks away from the stadium, and I went and had my necessary blood tests done - that cost me a week's wages. But they did have a nice (free) coffee and hot chocolate dispenser at the clinic, which Bea and Peter made good use of! And it was so pleasant to talk to an Australian (doctor) and to be treated in the way we are accustomed to. (Don’t get me started about Chinese hospitals…!)
On the last day we had to check out at noon, but our train wasn't until 8pm. So we decided to leave our bags at a left luggage place. We thought the "State-Owned" one would be safest, even if they can't spell! But they wanted 100yuan each. Once again, we had handed over our bags without negotiating first. They refused to give the bags back, but we did talk them down to 40yuan. We then spent a long, slow 8 hours trying to find a warm place to wait for our train.
Like I said, it just seemed like everyone in Beijing has the idea that foreigners are fair game for their money. We were glad to be out of there!
Next stop, Qingdao...
So then we went on the sleeper train to Qingdao. As we were approaching the city, Peter was just commenting that we had nowhere to stay, and no ideas, when a lady came down the train with a folder advertising a particular hotel. We "discussed" with her and were offered two double rooms at 80yuan a night each - sounded good and we agreed. When the train arrived she led us off the train, through a side door into the street and to our hotel right next door - lovely.
We are not sure if the "Tong Da" has any "stars", but it was spacious and cheap. We found that the bed-lamps didn't work because there were no bulbs. In fact, there was only one bulb in the whole room, and the same in Bea's room. Way to save money! And the hot water was great - but only on occasionally. There were towels, well, hand-towels ... we were glad we had brought our own. No fridge (or mini-bar), no water purifier - but they filled a large flask with hot water each day, and bottled water is only 1 Yuan a bottle in Qingdao (not like Beijing!).
We wandered around and looked at the beach - cold, but lovely to be near the sea again. The buildings have a real Bavarian look, strong German influence. There are even a couple of big old churches, apparently still functional. It’s just a whole different sort of place from Zhengzhou.
We were trying to follow our map (all in Chinese) to catch a bus up to a hill where you can get a great view - there's a revolving tower at the top. A young lady stopped and asked to help us. She has just graduated from university and is about to start teaching in Qingdao. She wanted to be our guide, because she was just plain bored. So she went with us and showed us around a bit, it was really great.
We managed to get train tickets to Zhengzhou, despite the hoards of people trying to travel everywhere just before the New Year. We watched people buying these boxes, special things you give as gifts at New Year. And of course fireworks.
Last night (back here in Long Hu) the fireworks went all night, and still going spasmodically today. It really sounds like we are in a war-zone. Sometimes we see pretty displays rising above surrounding buildings, but mostly we just hear loud bangs and pops resonating off the buildings and see flashes of light reflecting off the cloud and smog.
Our holidays are not over yet. Just for now it’s advisable not to travel while the New Year celebrations are on. The weather is pretty unfriendly anyway – it snowed the day we returned, and it’s all murky-looking like its got some more snowing to do. And it’s very, very cold.
Tuesday, February 8, 2005
Monday, January 31, 2005
Semester End
We are going up to Xi'an again today - that's where we visited this time last year! We had a train ticket booked, for the three of us and George and his Chinese girlfriend, to go yesterday afternoon. We thought Lucy (George's girl) would be an asset in translating stuff for us ... but she was so slow and indecisive when we were trying to get to the station that we missed the train!! So we are trying again today. We will (hopefully!) be leaving soon to catch the bus(es) to the Zhengzhou railway station.
My students have all left. They went about 3 days earlier than anyone expected. We suspect that burst water pipes in the students apartments and the general discomfort there may have had something to do with it. (They reckon we are having a colder winter here than usual.) They have gone off to have their medicals and all the rest before they leave. And I have just been hearing about the fires and stuff in SA! I have no idea what will be expected of me for the next 10 days of lessons before the semester actually ends.
Peter is very excited because the students in his class (many of whom are also about to leave) have just given his a Chinese name ... but I have no idea how to spell it. Its something like "Wei Da Zhi". Wei is an old dynasty name - so no one can complain that he stole their name. If/when I get a Chinese name I would not have the same family name. The two given names mean "intelligent" and ... I can't remember what the other one is.
My hamster has become very tame. We have so much fun watching himj stuff his pouches. We give him peanuts and sunflower seeds and count how many he can get in each pouch! The other day he picked up a whole burnt match-stick and put it in his pouch - he's only a baby yet!
For reasons they have not told us about - probably the burst water-pipes that we aren't supposed to know about, but the students told us about (despite being told not to) because we kept nagging them about why they all suddenly became extra tired in class - the semester is going to end earlier than expected. So we get 4 weeks holiday instead of 3 over the winter. We haven't yet decided what to do with it all!
My students have all left. They went about 3 days earlier than anyone expected. We suspect that burst water pipes in the students apartments and the general discomfort there may have had something to do with it. (They reckon we are having a colder winter here than usual.) They have gone off to have their medicals and all the rest before they leave. And I have just been hearing about the fires and stuff in SA! I have no idea what will be expected of me for the next 10 days of lessons before the semester actually ends.
Peter is very excited because the students in his class (many of whom are also about to leave) have just given his a Chinese name ... but I have no idea how to spell it. Its something like "Wei Da Zhi". Wei is an old dynasty name - so no one can complain that he stole their name. If/when I get a Chinese name I would not have the same family name. The two given names mean "intelligent" and ... I can't remember what the other one is.
My hamster has become very tame. We have so much fun watching himj stuff his pouches. We give him peanuts and sunflower seeds and count how many he can get in each pouch! The other day he picked up a whole burnt match-stick and put it in his pouch - he's only a baby yet!
For reasons they have not told us about - probably the burst water-pipes that we aren't supposed to know about, but the students told us about (despite being told not to) because we kept nagging them about why they all suddenly became extra tired in class - the semester is going to end earlier than expected. So we get 4 weeks holiday instead of 3 over the winter. We haven't yet decided what to do with it all!
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Blood Test
Just bought some eggs and fruit and ready-cooked sweet potatoes, and devoured one of those! Went down there and back in a "bam-bam cart" - little covered cart drawn by a motorbike. Most of the time we walk, but we wanted to be quick this time.
The weather has been remarkably kind the last few days, in the positive range, even up to 6 briefly during the day. But there is a forecast for snow for the next four days. The last lot (from a few days before Christmas) is still lying around in many places, though the roads are pretty clear now. Still piles of dirty ice along the streets - which melts into a puddle then re-freezes into a slippery patch!
I had a coat tailor made. It’s big and long (below my knees) and padded, with a padded, fur-lined hood. I feel quite invincible wearing it - and often too hot! The padding is actually down - feathers - I know because every now and then one slides out through a seam. Peter persuaded me to go bright, and so I got it made in red. It looks even brighter in the photos, kind of glows! Peter has bought one of the "Chinese Russian hats", with fur lined flaps that come down over his ears, and a Chinese army-style coat, so he is quite warm now too!
They keep extending our holidays more and more. My students left earlier than expected, and then they brought forward final exams and holidays, so we actually finish up this Sunday, 23rd, instead of the end of January as originally in the plan. They decided not to give me more lessons when my class finished up. I have been asked to work on a book about Australian Expressions to be used in the school Suits me!
And we start back at work on Feb 28th I think, so a longer break than we were originally told.
I decided it was time to get my haemachromatosis tested. Our liason person took me to the number one hospital for blood tests .(.. I really don't want to ever get sick in China!!) First they said the machine was broken -! Then we called in some "guanxi", family/relationship favours. The mother of one of my students is a doctor at the hospital. So she pulled some strings, and we were to return the next day with all the necessary paperwork in my hand to have the test done. I lined up, took my place on the little stool in front of the window, with my arm through the hole resting on the little cushion ... and they started making a fuss. We don't do this test, etc etc. So she got on her mobile phone and called our special doctor from the other end of the hospital to come and sort them out. So then they consented to take the blood. No results yet ... But I was told that the one and only doctor who does these tests has a dying husband, and therefore is finding it hard to be motivated to work. I guess that was the "broken machine". I am not sure how things will go when I have to start having venesection here (i.e. having blood taken to reduce my iron).
Happy continues to delight us. He is growing quite fast, looking a bit fat ( ... I keep wondering whether he is an already-pregnant female instead of a male). He is very tame, stays happily on a shoulder or in a pocket while you walk around, loves to share the sofa in front of the TV. I can't help wondering what happened to his brothers and sisters.
The weather has been remarkably kind the last few days, in the positive range, even up to 6 briefly during the day. But there is a forecast for snow for the next four days. The last lot (from a few days before Christmas) is still lying around in many places, though the roads are pretty clear now. Still piles of dirty ice along the streets - which melts into a puddle then re-freezes into a slippery patch!
I had a coat tailor made. It’s big and long (below my knees) and padded, with a padded, fur-lined hood. I feel quite invincible wearing it - and often too hot! The padding is actually down - feathers - I know because every now and then one slides out through a seam. Peter persuaded me to go bright, and so I got it made in red. It looks even brighter in the photos, kind of glows! Peter has bought one of the "Chinese Russian hats", with fur lined flaps that come down over his ears, and a Chinese army-style coat, so he is quite warm now too!
They keep extending our holidays more and more. My students left earlier than expected, and then they brought forward final exams and holidays, so we actually finish up this Sunday, 23rd, instead of the end of January as originally in the plan. They decided not to give me more lessons when my class finished up. I have been asked to work on a book about Australian Expressions to be used in the school Suits me!
And we start back at work on Feb 28th I think, so a longer break than we were originally told.
I decided it was time to get my haemachromatosis tested. Our liason person took me to the number one hospital for blood tests .(.. I really don't want to ever get sick in China!!) First they said the machine was broken -! Then we called in some "guanxi", family/relationship favours. The mother of one of my students is a doctor at the hospital. So she pulled some strings, and we were to return the next day with all the necessary paperwork in my hand to have the test done. I lined up, took my place on the little stool in front of the window, with my arm through the hole resting on the little cushion ... and they started making a fuss. We don't do this test, etc etc. So she got on her mobile phone and called our special doctor from the other end of the hospital to come and sort them out. So then they consented to take the blood. No results yet ... But I was told that the one and only doctor who does these tests has a dying husband, and therefore is finding it hard to be motivated to work. I guess that was the "broken machine". I am not sure how things will go when I have to start having venesection here (i.e. having blood taken to reduce my iron).
Happy continues to delight us. He is growing quite fast, looking a bit fat ( ... I keep wondering whether he is an already-pregnant female instead of a male). He is very tame, stays happily on a shoulder or in a pocket while you walk around, loves to share the sofa in front of the TV. I can't help wondering what happened to his brothers and sisters.
Monday, January 10, 2005
Watered Down Electricity
I would normally have lessons right now ... but I have just attended a very tearful goodbye meeting with my class and now they are all gone. Its amazing to look at that bunch that seemed like such "sweat-hogs" a few months ago, and now they are such fine young men and women about to leave for Australia. I feel a bit weird about it ...sort of sad and sort of happy - for them at least. Its so different from kids graduating from year 7 at primary school. I have only known them since September and yet I am very fond of them. It was quite a wrench to say good-bye to them.
I had one lesson this morning with the class that (I assume) will be my next class, the group that goes to Australia this time next year. Now there's a bunch of sweat-hogs! George (our Canadian colleague) teaches them at the moment, and they are really giving him a bad time. They were awkward and restless this morning for me too, especially a bunch of the bigger boys. (George is counting down the days til he leaves at the end of January.) Somehow I never saw myself teaching high school, especially the older kids. But it has very special rewards, I am discovering.
In between sentences here I am having a second go at breakfast. I tried to cook myself some porridge this morning but the microwave just wouldn't heat it. So I tried cooking toast but the toaster was only luke-warm. On a morning when the temp is about 5 below, somehow a cold banana for breakfast just doesn't cut it! It seems that besides the trick of turning off our electricity periodically to share it around, sometimes they just kind of water it down. I don't know if that makes sense scientifically, but it sure happens. We really do put things in the fridge to stop them freezing. We have found that it is not good to buy fruit in the street markets after a few very cold days because the fruits are frozen inside. Now I finally have a bowl of steaming-hot porridge.
Bea is still here. She is a bit limp these days, just getting over a cold. I know she is lonely and a bit bored - she is finding it hard to know how to fit in and what to do. They have offered to let her work here, but its hard to teach people your own age and older when you are only 17 and inexperienced. There is an offer of a job teaching younger kids, classes of 60 or so, at a nearby school - but she is understandably apprehensive about that because she has no idea whether she is capable of it or not. She also has an offer of work in Beijing teaching younger kids - we may go with her during our winter break (soon) to investigate that. And there is a job teaching English to pre-schoolers at a school about three hours from here. She wants to return to Australia in early May before her 18th birthday.
So this morning I woke her up as I usually do to ask if she wanted to come to class with me - sometimes she does, sometimes she'd rather lie around at home and watch videos - at least its warm inside. But this morning I handed her a 100yuan note and told her to go "fly solo" and spend some money, after all it’s a fine day although its still cold. So it looks like I gave her $100, and she can buy about $100 worth of stuff with it, but in "real" (Australian) terms it is only about $16! There are some lovely little shops full of Chinese trinkets she's been itching to have a better look at. She is quite familiar with how to get a motorbike taxi-ride, how to ask in Chinese, she knows her Chinese numbers and hand-signs, and how to get home again - it’s walking distance to the nearest little shops anyway, and she has her mobile if she gets into strife. I saw a bit of her old spark return to her eyes when I handed her the money, so maybe it will give her the motivation she needs to get out and about a bit. And once she starts to really enjoy spending money she may get more of an urge to get adventurous and earn some too.
I had one lesson this morning with the class that (I assume) will be my next class, the group that goes to Australia this time next year. Now there's a bunch of sweat-hogs! George (our Canadian colleague) teaches them at the moment, and they are really giving him a bad time. They were awkward and restless this morning for me too, especially a bunch of the bigger boys. (George is counting down the days til he leaves at the end of January.) Somehow I never saw myself teaching high school, especially the older kids. But it has very special rewards, I am discovering.
In between sentences here I am having a second go at breakfast. I tried to cook myself some porridge this morning but the microwave just wouldn't heat it. So I tried cooking toast but the toaster was only luke-warm. On a morning when the temp is about 5 below, somehow a cold banana for breakfast just doesn't cut it! It seems that besides the trick of turning off our electricity periodically to share it around, sometimes they just kind of water it down. I don't know if that makes sense scientifically, but it sure happens. We really do put things in the fridge to stop them freezing. We have found that it is not good to buy fruit in the street markets after a few very cold days because the fruits are frozen inside. Now I finally have a bowl of steaming-hot porridge.
Bea is still here. She is a bit limp these days, just getting over a cold. I know she is lonely and a bit bored - she is finding it hard to know how to fit in and what to do. They have offered to let her work here, but its hard to teach people your own age and older when you are only 17 and inexperienced. There is an offer of a job teaching younger kids, classes of 60 or so, at a nearby school - but she is understandably apprehensive about that because she has no idea whether she is capable of it or not. She also has an offer of work in Beijing teaching younger kids - we may go with her during our winter break (soon) to investigate that. And there is a job teaching English to pre-schoolers at a school about three hours from here. She wants to return to Australia in early May before her 18th birthday.
So this morning I woke her up as I usually do to ask if she wanted to come to class with me - sometimes she does, sometimes she'd rather lie around at home and watch videos - at least its warm inside. But this morning I handed her a 100yuan note and told her to go "fly solo" and spend some money, after all it’s a fine day although its still cold. So it looks like I gave her $100, and she can buy about $100 worth of stuff with it, but in "real" (Australian) terms it is only about $16! There are some lovely little shops full of Chinese trinkets she's been itching to have a better look at. She is quite familiar with how to get a motorbike taxi-ride, how to ask in Chinese, she knows her Chinese numbers and hand-signs, and how to get home again - it’s walking distance to the nearest little shops anyway, and she has her mobile if she gets into strife. I saw a bit of her old spark return to her eyes when I handed her the money, so maybe it will give her the motivation she needs to get out and about a bit. And once she starts to really enjoy spending money she may get more of an urge to get adventurous and earn some too.
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Wedding Anniversary and a Hamster
We went out to dinner last night (celebrating our 30th) in a very classy western restaurant in Zhengzhou, one with a chef from US. We had steak, and spaghetti bol, and pizza, and cheesecake, all that kind of keen stuff! It was a very pleasant experience. Bea came with us and George too.
While we were wandering around town waiting to meet up with George (who came on a different bus) we came across one of the many street vendors with caged animals for sale – and she was selling baby hamsters!! Peter told me to listen to my conscience, the decision would be mine … I chose one that was running in a wheel, rather than the one the vendor pulled from its mother’s teat to show me! He’s a cute little chap (pretty sure it’s a boy) and of course I have called it after my childhood pet hamster in England: Happy (II)! The lady gave it to me in one of the tiny cages – they are about 5” x 5” x 10” – and I also bought one of the exercise wheels – they are completely enclosed, he can’t go in and out at will. She had him in the wheel hanging off the side of a cardboard box, running for his life in the sub-zero weather! But they originate in Siberia or somewhere, don’t they? Or maybe it was Syria …
So when we went into the restaurant I wrapped him, wheel and all, in my scarf, and put him on the seat next to me. He really enjoyed the bread-stick I slipped to him – the rest of the time he curled up and slept. When we got home I put him in a nice big box with paper, and a little box for a nest, and a toilet jar. By this morning he had chewed up all the paper and stuffed it in his nest, and made good use of his jar!! How do they know? This morning I watched him stuffing tissue paper into his cheeks to take into his nest. I went down to the local market and bought him some bok choy, which he is rather keen on, along with carrots and oats, and of course Corn Flakes (I decided we could spare a few from the precious box we recently bought at the Western Food shop at the other side of town.)
While we were wandering around town waiting to meet up with George (who came on a different bus) we came across one of the many street vendors with caged animals for sale – and she was selling baby hamsters!! Peter told me to listen to my conscience, the decision would be mine … I chose one that was running in a wheel, rather than the one the vendor pulled from its mother’s teat to show me! He’s a cute little chap (pretty sure it’s a boy) and of course I have called it after my childhood pet hamster in England: Happy (II)! The lady gave it to me in one of the tiny cages – they are about 5” x 5” x 10” – and I also bought one of the exercise wheels – they are completely enclosed, he can’t go in and out at will. She had him in the wheel hanging off the side of a cardboard box, running for his life in the sub-zero weather! But they originate in Siberia or somewhere, don’t they? Or maybe it was Syria …
So when we went into the restaurant I wrapped him, wheel and all, in my scarf, and put him on the seat next to me. He really enjoyed the bread-stick I slipped to him – the rest of the time he curled up and slept. When we got home I put him in a nice big box with paper, and a little box for a nest, and a toilet jar. By this morning he had chewed up all the paper and stuffed it in his nest, and made good use of his jar!! How do they know? This morning I watched him stuffing tissue paper into his cheeks to take into his nest. I went down to the local market and bought him some bok choy, which he is rather keen on, along with carrots and oats, and of course Corn Flakes (I decided we could spare a few from the precious box we recently bought at the Western Food shop at the other side of town.)
Monday, December 20, 2004
Winter Days
Its very, VERY cold here. We have a thermometer hanging outside the kitchen window and we go and peek at it regularly - especially first thing in the morning. The last four days has been our four-day break, and it’s been hovering between 2 and 4 all day, and down to -1 overnight. Today it crept up to 6. And the humidity it shows too, it’s been 100% almost every day for a while now. So it’s cold and damp, and murky looking. We keep hoping that we will see some snow soon to make up for the cold.
So we are all into long-johns - winter underwear! I don't usually feel cold, but even I am glad to be wearing long leggings under my jeans. You should see the babies around here. They put so many layers on them they can't bend or move.
But, despite the fact that it's winter, there is still plenty of fruit for sale, cheap too. The nicest fruit we have here is nashi pears - they call them "apple pears", I think. They are huge and juicy and sweet, much better than the ones we had in Australia. The bananas here are beautiful too - they must bring them from south China. Lately we have got some really nice mandarins. We have found some nice tomatos recently too. They are big and pink, and they stay firm and ripe and delicious for ages - you would expect them to go off quickly if you bought them that coloured in Australia. Sometimes we get nice carrots, and celery (but I hate celery). But greens ... they put their lettucey stuff out to dry. We don't know what the point of that is. Anything green we do get in our food is soggy, or its seaweed - bleh! I just don't like black plasticky seaweed, or frilly sea sponge, or sea slug ... or any of that stuff!
Bea is not keen on the food! Despite telling us she was looking forward to a "full on" experience, she's a typical teenage wimp when it comes to food. "I can't help what I don't like!" she says. The only thing we have found she is comfortable eating regularly is toast (even though all the bread here always has that strange sweet taste) with "tiny cheese" - the only cheese we can get is little foil-covered squares of cream-cheese designed for little kids. We can't get margarine, and butter is occasionally available at 2yuan (Chinese dollars) for one of those little individual serves..., so the tiny cheese (also 2yuan for a slightly bigger square) helps. Our friend from Beijing visited recently, and brought some Vegemite as a special treat. You can't get it here, but in Beijing its 52yuan for a little jar!
We are getting better at using buses, and have been further a field this weekend. We purchased a map of Zhengzhou city - all in Chinese, of course - which we found has bus numbers (tiny little red numbers!) in between the Chinese characters. We also found that just standing on the pavement looking at the map is really useful, people come from everywhere who know a word or two of English and want to help.
I've always hated bartering. But the other day Bea saw a little jade bottle she wanted for a gift for a friend, and Peter told me to go ahead and bargain. The lady wrote down the number 160(yuan), so I turned to walk away - way out of my range! But the crowd that had begun to gather shouted for us to come back and write down an offer. Feeling very bold, I wrote '30'. She came back with '50'. (So much for the 160!) This was when I realized that 30 was probably above what I wanted to pay in the first place, and I wasn't about to go higher, and I should have been more bold. So, we walked away. But they called us back and said they would accept the 30! Well, in the end I paid 30, pleased that I got it down from 160, but feeling that I still paid way too much. Us white guys must have "sucker" written all over us!
They are offering Bea work here. I am not sure that she is ready for that, though her father is keen for her to try. Between finishing high school, and culture shock, I don't want to push her to hard.
The power went off twice yesterday. And our (reverse cycle) air conditioner in our main room has totally died. And my bike is un-ridable and needs fixing. And our remote control is broken - which matters because without it we can't watch DVDs in colour, only black and white, because for some reason that feature only works with the remote. And just now I plugged our portable blow-heater into a powerboard ... and the powerboard went up in flames. And our main door-lock is broken - Peter got a key jammed and now it won't work at all.
So we are all into long-johns - winter underwear! I don't usually feel cold, but even I am glad to be wearing long leggings under my jeans. You should see the babies around here. They put so many layers on them they can't bend or move.
But, despite the fact that it's winter, there is still plenty of fruit for sale, cheap too. The nicest fruit we have here is nashi pears - they call them "apple pears", I think. They are huge and juicy and sweet, much better than the ones we had in Australia. The bananas here are beautiful too - they must bring them from south China. Lately we have got some really nice mandarins. We have found some nice tomatos recently too. They are big and pink, and they stay firm and ripe and delicious for ages - you would expect them to go off quickly if you bought them that coloured in Australia. Sometimes we get nice carrots, and celery (but I hate celery). But greens ... they put their lettucey stuff out to dry. We don't know what the point of that is. Anything green we do get in our food is soggy, or its seaweed - bleh! I just don't like black plasticky seaweed, or frilly sea sponge, or sea slug ... or any of that stuff!
Bea is not keen on the food! Despite telling us she was looking forward to a "full on" experience, she's a typical teenage wimp when it comes to food. "I can't help what I don't like!" she says. The only thing we have found she is comfortable eating regularly is toast (even though all the bread here always has that strange sweet taste) with "tiny cheese" - the only cheese we can get is little foil-covered squares of cream-cheese designed for little kids. We can't get margarine, and butter is occasionally available at 2yuan (Chinese dollars) for one of those little individual serves..., so the tiny cheese (also 2yuan for a slightly bigger square) helps. Our friend from Beijing visited recently, and brought some Vegemite as a special treat. You can't get it here, but in Beijing its 52yuan for a little jar!
We are getting better at using buses, and have been further a field this weekend. We purchased a map of Zhengzhou city - all in Chinese, of course - which we found has bus numbers (tiny little red numbers!) in between the Chinese characters. We also found that just standing on the pavement looking at the map is really useful, people come from everywhere who know a word or two of English and want to help.
I've always hated bartering. But the other day Bea saw a little jade bottle she wanted for a gift for a friend, and Peter told me to go ahead and bargain. The lady wrote down the number 160(yuan), so I turned to walk away - way out of my range! But the crowd that had begun to gather shouted for us to come back and write down an offer. Feeling very bold, I wrote '30'. She came back with '50'. (So much for the 160!) This was when I realized that 30 was probably above what I wanted to pay in the first place, and I wasn't about to go higher, and I should have been more bold. So, we walked away. But they called us back and said they would accept the 30! Well, in the end I paid 30, pleased that I got it down from 160, but feeling that I still paid way too much. Us white guys must have "sucker" written all over us!
They are offering Bea work here. I am not sure that she is ready for that, though her father is keen for her to try. Between finishing high school, and culture shock, I don't want to push her to hard.
The power went off twice yesterday. And our (reverse cycle) air conditioner in our main room has totally died. And my bike is un-ridable and needs fixing. And our remote control is broken - which matters because without it we can't watch DVDs in colour, only black and white, because for some reason that feature only works with the remote. And just now I plugged our portable blow-heater into a powerboard ... and the powerboard went up in flames. And our main door-lock is broken - Peter got a key jammed and now it won't work at all.
Saturday, December 11, 2004
Where the sun don't shine
The students/my kids here are really nice. I am going to miss them too when they go to Australia in January. Then, I suppose, I will have to start on the next class. Peter’s 'kids' (students) are a lot older and not so cute and helpless as mine. Mine are like teenagers back in the 50s, back in "Happy Days" or something - not in the way they dress, but in their innocence and naiveté.
We were standing outside the college front gate today, talking about the little section of grass there (rarely see lawn here) which still had snow on it four days after the rest of the snow had melted. That's because the sun never shines there. So now we know, we have found 'it', that mysterious place ... you know! When someone tells you they will "stick it where the sun don't shine" ... its here! All we need to do now is find the land of missing pens and pencils. I think that might be in China somewhere too.
The babies here are so cute. They look really fat, but that's mostly because its cold and they put layers and layers of clothes on them ‘til they can hardly move. Over the top they usually wear like a little back-to-front shirt, tied at the back, to stop them getting their clothes dirty. And pretty well everyone wears sleeve protectors on their arms - like a sleeve just from the elbow to the wrist - so you don't get the sleeves of your winter clothes messy. Clever little Orientals!
We have a saying here - "Nothing is ever as it seems". We keep proving that over and over. Like you buy some pretty foil-wrapped lollies, and find little meaty things inside, and what looks like colourful malteesers are soy nut things. There are so many things to taste and try, because you don't know until you do.
And all the time people are chattering at you in Chinese. It just never occurs to them that you don't get it. And then if you make dumb hand-signs at them they assume you are deaf and first shout louder, and then write it down in Chinese for you. Of course, Peter delights in saying all sorts of silly things back to them, "That's easy for you to say!" and the like. The poor taxi driver who brought us home from the city, Zhengzhou, last night had some thoughts about the unfairness of the fare he had agreed on ( by hand signs) with us before we even got into his taxi ... we can only guess what they were!
We were standing outside the college front gate today, talking about the little section of grass there (rarely see lawn here) which still had snow on it four days after the rest of the snow had melted. That's because the sun never shines there. So now we know, we have found 'it', that mysterious place ... you know! When someone tells you they will "stick it where the sun don't shine" ... its here! All we need to do now is find the land of missing pens and pencils. I think that might be in China somewhere too.
The babies here are so cute. They look really fat, but that's mostly because its cold and they put layers and layers of clothes on them ‘til they can hardly move. Over the top they usually wear like a little back-to-front shirt, tied at the back, to stop them getting their clothes dirty. And pretty well everyone wears sleeve protectors on their arms - like a sleeve just from the elbow to the wrist - so you don't get the sleeves of your winter clothes messy. Clever little Orientals!
We have a saying here - "Nothing is ever as it seems". We keep proving that over and over. Like you buy some pretty foil-wrapped lollies, and find little meaty things inside, and what looks like colourful malteesers are soy nut things. There are so many things to taste and try, because you don't know until you do.
And all the time people are chattering at you in Chinese. It just never occurs to them that you don't get it. And then if you make dumb hand-signs at them they assume you are deaf and first shout louder, and then write it down in Chinese for you. Of course, Peter delights in saying all sorts of silly things back to them, "That's easy for you to say!" and the like. The poor taxi driver who brought us home from the city, Zhengzhou, last night had some thoughts about the unfairness of the fare he had agreed on ( by hand signs) with us before we even got into his taxi ... we can only guess what they were!
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