May Holidays

Awesome!

If you are "doing the China thing", and you haven't done the "Three Gorges thing" - because maybe you are not sure if its worth it - then

DO IT!

Its well worth seeing.

The mountains are spectacular, the gorges are awesome, the river is relaxing, and the whole dam thing is mind boggling. Its a place where the Chinese are very proud of themselves, and with good reason.

We took a Chinese 4-Star Cruise. We saw other tourists on the 5-Star foreign cruises ... and sometimes felt a little jealous (our cruise was booked on our behalf and we probably would have gone for one of those if we had been making the choice) ... but really when you come to see China it makes sense to be surrounded by Chinese people rather than a bunch of overbearing "foreigners" - ay?

We had wondered whether we would be able to understand the tour guides - sometimes its better (more relaxing!) if you can't! - but at every place we were provided with a bilingual guide. Here (with the microphone) is "Dexter" who was the "River Guide" on board the ship, and when we went on shore excursions we had a "Local Guide" who had some English.

And everywhere we turned there were the Chinglish signs explaining things and keeping us safe.

(that says: Climbing the Cloud lader can exercise your body but Please care security)

We weren't really sure what boat we would be on - we had a printed itinerary but it was in Chinese - we just knew we had to meet our guide at Hongqiao airport and show our letter and we would be taken care of. Except they weren't there, so we just got on the plane and went to Yichang. There we met our guide and our group - mostly Chinese, including a family from Wuxi, and two Japanese women - and we were taken to a restaurant and a small tour of Yichang before heading to our ship.

When we finally arrived at the dock about dusk there were several ships tied up. There was a very exciting looking ship shaped like a huge dragon, and another quite high class ship, but we were told ours was not visible as it was moored on the other side of these. So we were led onto a pontoon and through the lower deck of another ship and then onto ours, so we didn't get to even see the outside of it until the next day.

The following day I was standing at the rail watching a whole lot of foreigners stepping off our ship onto the shore, and wondered why I hadn't noticed them on board before - then I realised they were coming from their ship which was moored next to ours, walking through our lower decks to reach the shore.

The Oriental Emperor is not a very big ship, but comfortable enough. We had a nice little cabin,

with all we needed, including TV (and CCTV 9, just in case we were missing those exciting programs while we were away from 'home'). No fridge, just a flask of hot water twice a day.

And our own ensuite.

There was a nice big bar / ballroom where onboard activities took place.

And the dining room was like a fancy Chinese restaurant with tables for ten or eleven and a 'lazy susan' in the middle of each.

These are our new friends from Wuxi. Its funny, no one seemed to have names ...

And the food. All Chinese, but good quality. Only about one spicy dish at each meal. Breakfast ... the meal that most causes contention between east and west ... was buffet style and had at least some concessions to the 20 or so foreigners aboard: There was toast, and coffee, and 'orange juice' (well, "Tang" really).

Holiday Expenses

My life is a holiday. At least I try to keep it that way. We decided when we came to China we would not work too hard, just enough to keep our heads above water. Primary School teachers in Western Australia are not well-paid in terms of how hard they work, nor in comparison to teachers in other states, but with both of us slaving away week by week you'd have thought we could have been "comfortably off". So as we watched ourselves sliding further into debt year by year, we hoped that running away to China would at least put a stop to the endless spending. We would just need to work hard enough to get by.

So 51 years old, and 30 years married, we declared ourselves "semi-retired" and spent a glorious year working 10-days-on then 4-days-off, but only 15 (or less) lessons a week, and travelling around China on those long weekends.

This year we have stepped up the pace a little: we are now each working up to 20 hours a week. We earn a little more money and even save some. But now with only two days off each week, and rarely two consecutive days, and only one day off together (if we're lucky) ... we are missing those long weekends of last year.

May Holidays

Everybody says its best not to travel on the national holidays, everywhere is so crowded and everything is so expensive. But we are doing it anyway.

We are going on a cruise on the Yangtse, to have a look at the Three Gorges Dam. With a tour group. Well, it was arranged by our office liaison person, and being deaf, dumb and illiterate we just have to do a certain amount of trusting. Whatever happens, and however it turns out, it will be an adventure. And it will be a change from teaching the little emperors. (For a whole week I will not have to sing "5 little ducks" or "Open, shut them". I'm not even going to take my finger puppets with me.)

We booked the tickets and we paid the bill, and when the costs were all added up, there was an extra amount on the bill: 400 RMB each for being foreigners. Because they can, of course.

Five Little Ducks

I was teaching my little emperors again ... and it was the second class of the day.

The kids in the first class were brilliant. I had told the story of "Little Red Riding Hood" to this amazing class of four year olds. One little girl was actually wearing a little red jacket with a red hood, so I chose her to play the main part. I had masks on sticks, and I got kids to come up and act it out, repeating simple sentences - these kids are so good. They loved it when the big bad wolf had to growl, and it was even better when Little Red had to scream. And then 'the worker' in the forest heard her and came running ... I couldn't afford to let him get too violent so he had to say, "Go away, Wolf!" - and they thought that was amusing too.

Then I took a little break in the hallway - I was exhausted after an hour of enthusiastic teaching, and my voice was nearly gone. It sounded like a riot was happening in the class I was headed to next. The 'B' class of four year olds. Last time I took that class I ended up just sitting there staring at them - after teaching them "Open, shut them" (which they found highly amusing) all my other tried and tested ideas had failed on them and I was unable to think of anything else that would "work". And the teachers in this classroom didn't seem to understand what I said, so I couldn't say, "Could you explain to the children that they have to stop laughing and screaming if I am to tell them a story."

I went into the classroom - some of the children were seated ready for me, but there were some boys fighting in the corner, and another little boy was crawling under a bookshelf in the reading corner. I said, "Hello!" as cheerfully as I could muster, and they all laughed, some of them falling off their chairs onto the floor to do so. I sighed and sat down on the tiny wooden chair at the front to wait for the teachers to settle them down. Then I launched into my Red Riding Hood story, with pictures, that had gone down so well in the other room. I couldn't get more than a few words out before the riot started again. I sat and waited, and when things were quieter started again. After several attempts, I thought maybe I'll just shout my way through this ... but my voice just cracked and no one paid any attention. So I sat and thought some more.

I decided to move onto the next part of my lesson. I would try to teach the song

Five Little Ducks

I had some finger puppets in my bag, five little white 'ducks' - well, actually one of them was a bright red parrot, but I figured they might not notice. I slipped the puppets onto the fingers of one hand, held them up and started to sing. To my amazement, things began to quieten down. When the ducks went "over the hill and far away", I put my hand down behind my back, and then while everyone was now watching my other hand being "Mother Duck said, 'Quack! Quack! ...", I flicked one of the puppets off my fingers onto the floor behind my chair. When I brought my hand back out in front with "Only four little ducks came back!" I had everyone's rapt attention. Even the teachers. I realised this may be the first time they had understood me.

One of the teachers said something to the others and came down to the front of the room. She leaned over and peeked behind my chair, and then nodded at the others - clever girl, she had worked out where the other duck went!

I had to repeat the whole song several times - they seemed to enjoy it just as much every time. And then I chose some children to each have a puppet placed carefully on their tiny grubby finger - they seemed incapable of doing it themselves, they expected me to do it for them - and another child who could prove herself capable of saying "Quack!" correctly got to be "Mother Duck". I sang the song and led them around the room and 'far away' where I persuaded one of them to stay (the class teachers soon got the hang of this and came and stood to hold onto the lost ducky) while the others 'came back'. Of course this scenario had to also be repeated several times to allow as many children as possible to have a turn.

I had survived another lesson at the Kindy. Next week its the five year olds. Then its the May holidays. So I don't have to face that class for another three weeks!

Press What?

Due to timetable restraints, it was the first time in weeks we were to have a "DAY OFF TOGETHER", so we were rather looking forward to going somewhere together for a change.

But then in one of the boxes (9-11am) on the whiteboard timetable appeared this message:

ALL PRESS.

"Ok, I pressed it and nothing happened", Peter wrote below it. And we were left to wonder what it meant.

Over the next few days, with careful questioning we managed to extract the information that what it was referring to was a

Press Conference

We still don't know whether our Chinese boss

• hadn't yet planned what would happen, or
• had made plans but didn't want to tell anyone, or
• had made plans and presumed we are all mind-readers ...

whichever it is, it is certainly the Chinese disease that leaves us foreign experts so frustrated so often.

We were told to wear ties and dress up a bit, and to be there at 9am ... but it was only by chance that one of us decided to confirm that "there" meant "here" (no where else having been mentioned at this stage, the night before as we were leaving work), only to find that it meant "Oh, no! Of course not! In the hotel down the road and round the corner ..." After some more questions we found out the floor number - which was actually the wrong one anyway.

We dutifully showed up, appropriately dressed, on our day off, but the press didn't. It was about an hour later that they dribbled in with cameras and notepads.

Do we have to say anything? "Oh, no, of course not!" ... and then as the camera turns ..."Ok, now they are asking this question, could you answer it on camera please ..."

Well, it seemed to go well enough, despite all the lack of information and misinformation.

Morroco looks nice

So we were thinking that Morocco might be a place to try next. Some people there must want to learn English and pay us lots of money to teach them.

But information is a bit scarce.

Anyone out there can tell us anything about Morocco?

You know, Casablanca, and all that.

So. What do you know?

Winning at Charades

Its so much easier if you can go into a shop, see what you want, and pick it up and take it to the checkout to purchase it. But here sometimes the simplest of things are not apparent in the big shops, the ones with checkouts.

I have a sewing machine - because being able to sew up a little something, to make or to fix something, has always been part of me, part of who I am and what I do, and I found it very frustrating when I couldn't. Sure, there are lots of little people out there on street corners and in alleys, eager to do my bidding for very little cost on their little treadley machines. But then I have to explain what it is I want, and sometimes I just want to try this or that.

When I came to do my first little sewing task on my new machine it was very difficult because I had forgotten to buy any dress-makers' pins. That, I soon realised, was because I had not seen any in the shops. You can get needles, though, so I completed the task with needles clumsily holding my seams together.

Elastic. I could really do with some of that, it has so many uses. But I hadn't been able to find any of that either. Oh, for a "Spotlight" store! I looked up the Chinese word for 'elastic', and promptly forgot it, and wandered past the big fabric warehouse place in Wuxi. There are lots of little shops all kind of jammed together, and the ones on the outside have a little glass counter with a few small reels of thread and packets of needles.

There was a friendly looking lady at one of these counters, and very eager to sell me something. Everything I looked vaguely towards she dragged out and laid hopefully on the counter. Peter made "stretchy" motions with his hands, and some fine elastic appeared. I tried "bigger/wider" with my hands and the type I needed also appeared from somewhere deep down behind the counter. So we tried for "pins", but kept coming up with needles. I grabbed a piece of paper and drew a pin. The lady and her companion looked a little startled at first, and a discussion between them ensued. Finally the light-bulb came on and they brought out a packet of pins.

A thousand pins. Do you buy them by the "jin" (half kilo) or by 20's or what? She seemed reluctant to break open the packet, so in the end I bought the lot.

Oh, No!

We have a few DVDs. Well, quite a few.

They are not all in this picture, of course. We have some at work that we use for work. And we have given a lot away. And those tartan and raindrop folders are bursting full - its not at all obvious how many are in there.

But we need them, really. The boxed sets are some of our favourite series - the stuff you watch while you have dinner, just something short and light-hearted. The rest of them are movies that you watch once and then tuck away for a rainy day, or else 'bin' them if they are no good at all (a lot of them go that way!)

They are cracking down

And now that rainy day seems to be here, we might have to re-watch some of those movies. All of our favourite (and not-so-favourite) dvd shops have been closed.