Christmas Pictures

Just some Christmas pictures from China.

CHRISTMAS TIME

It has been a while since I have posted. Some of the delay is because things here have settled into a routine for me, most of the things I used to see with wonder are now common place. Other reasons are final exams, lack of internet in my residence and a more sedentary life because of the weather. Enough excuses.

I have pictures of Christmas in China and will post them later this week.

I am amazed at the prevelance of Christmas here in China. Most major stores, including SchlockMart, have Christmas displays. It seems that the Chinese believe that all foreigners celebrate Christmas. I do not think they realize the correlation of Christmas with the purported birth of Christ (I will not activate the comments for this entry). I have received numerous boxes of Dove chocolates as Christmas presents and, I have not opened a single one. My new pig out food are peanuts, can't get enough of them.

There are Christmas displays everywhere, most of them bad. Some of the trees are hilarious. And, you have not laughed until you have seen a 130 lb Chinese man dressed as Santa Claus.

The spirit of being nice to others is one of the good benefits of being in China. Everyone seems to be in a better mood. No bad attitudes from shoppers however, I have not been in SchlockMart on a weekend in three weeks. Things may be different in that pit. I will not say I do not go there, they have bottles of Johnnie Walker for about $16.00 US, I am lucky I don't live down the block.

Things may change for me. I have job offers to go to other schools, one of them would double my salary. Until this afternoon I was not giving them serious consideration, today they changed the way I am reimbursed for expenses. I can afford them now but, they change the rules in the middle of the game: Why should I show loyalty and honor the remainder of my contract?

I have to cut this short. Some students want to meet me and give me a Christmas present; I hope it is not more Dove chocolate. A huge Snickers bar would be GREAT.

Hope everyone has/had a good Christmas. If you do not get a call from know that I am thinking of all my friends.

Terry

I am working Christmas Day

Nan Chang








Nan Chang






























Hong Kong
Hong KongHong Kong

Hong Kong


Disregard what I have written about the order of the pictures. When I uploaded them, the order was jumbled. Figure them out.

Here are some more pictures of Hong Kong. The city is so clean, the indigenous people are no nicer than mainlanders but, the city is so clean. When I was in Hong Kong, I got lost. Three Chinese people were unwilling to help me, luckily there are a lot of westerners I was able to to talk with and get help from. I have asked several Chinese people about this and have been told that it is common in China, people do not help strangers and, they may help people they know but it is uncommon. Life is so hard here they will deliberately not help anyone. And, when it comes to westerners (I think that should be treated as proper noun) they are afraid of using the English skills they have learned so, they do not try.

The pictures I am posting are of the harbor area and downtown. I will return to Hong Kong during spring festival and take more pictures and, I will go to the top of the mountain on which the island derives.

Back at school.

None of the Westerners have heat. This building was originally built for students so the wiring is not capable of handling large electricity demands. (the story is that Mao Tse Tung decreed that parts of China south of a certain line did not require heat and that parts north of that line did not require any cooling systems) Every time a heating unit is turned on it activates the circuit breakers. This makes it tougher because all of the buildings here are built from concrete and have no insulation. Those of us that have space heaters use them, those without use more blankets and heavy clothing. A space heater only heats its immediate area.

Finals are coming up. LOL. I was told to have my final exams AND retests ready by the 17th of December. They will be ready and I start reviewing with the students on the 10th of the month. Reviewing is telling the students exactly, yes exactly, what is on the test. Otherwise they will fail and the teacher must give a retest in February. 20 percent of my test can be answered by reading the remainder of the test, I have been told that it is still too hard.

I am a klutz but not bad enough to break a key of in a lock that works correctly. That is what happened to me yesterday. Three time I have been told that it is not that persons job to find someone to fix the problem and, our minders are not answering their cell phones and text messages. This is not an “I love China” day.

The foreign community lost 2 of their numbers this week. Turstin and Amir returned to Germany this week. However, we have met other ones to take their place. The more Westerners I meet the more gay people I find. And no sex for me, the Finnish girl made a show of being with a Chinese guy when I saw her last week.

We went to a Brazilian barbeque last week, it was great. 12 of us ate animal flesh for an hour before we realized there was a salad bar. LOL. Lamb, chickenr pork, beef and salmon. Te salmon tasted old, it was sushi style, so, it was only tasted. Now we are back to eating leaves, roots and rice or noodles. Hey I weigh less than 100 kilos, at this rate I am going to need a body lift. My clothes are sagging, I feel like those teenagers that run around in baggy clothes but, I keep my ass crack covered. Nice mental picture, huh.

There is a bar here that gives free Heineken to Westerners, our group of twelve was given a case. And, as I walked around the bar, Chinese people with whole bottles of Johnnie Walker Black kept refilling my glass. I like that bar.

If you come across the movie Bicycle Thieves, it is Italian from around WWII, watch it. It is a good movie and seems to correctly portray life at that time there and current life here. Life is harder in a lot of places. Times have not changed.
In spite of Bush, America is so very, very good.

I will add to this later.

A blanket and space heater only stop some of the cold. Cold weather, concrete walls, wood vinyl flooring and wet air are hard to handle.

It is 10:00 Saturday night and I am going to bed. Exciting life here in China. LOL, there is fun to be had if you go out. Funny thing is the Chinese go home by midnight, so few of them and mostly Westerners (140 or so in town) are out later than that. That can mean trouble, stuff I can’t/won’t write about here.

The pictures following this are of Nan Chang. Some are of sculptures by the river, the others are of the central part of the city. The pirate ship is in central Nan Chang and is in front of a new building. To prove Americans are nuts, I rode my bike down the path between the stairs. Scared the shit out of me.


Terry

Happy Birthday Dad

Today, November 30th, is my father’s birthday. He is 85 years old today. Happy Birthday Dad.

On to the boring Blog.

This past Sunday I went to Hong Kong. I took an overnight train 793 kilometers to Shenzen, China. It had 17 cars, 13 of the cars have a seating capacity of 118 people. The other cars were sleepers or “soft seat” cars. Those had a capacity of 50 to 100 people. The train was full.

The only thing worse than an airplane bathroom 9 hours into a 12 hour flight is a Chinese train 4 hours into a 12 hour trip. It was, the only word that is appropriate, horrid.

First thng that happened was that I was accosted by a 7 year old beggar, he could have been 10 or 12 (Chinese people are small). He was filthy and acted as if he was deaf and mute. He was filthy and kept touching my arm and leg trying to pester me into giving him money. Of course, he got no money from me. After he left me I went to wash my hands to rid myself of every germ, bacteria or infectious disease he probably has, then I went for a walk.

When I came back from my walk, I saw the young beggar talking with another child and counting his money. People/beggars are the same everywhere.

As I was boarding the train, a young western appearing woman tried to push past me. I have learned Chinese custom and she did not get past me. However, when I got to my seat she was right behind me, her seat was in the same row as mine. I had the window seat. In Chinese, she tried to convince me that the window seat was hers. You know what happened. Later, during the train ride she started to complain to the other passengers in our area about me taking her seat. I explained to her, with hand signs, the seating configuration and showed her and the group my ticket number. She swore and sat down and began mumbling to herself. I looked and pointed at her and made baby crying noises. Everyone laughed at her and she switched aisle seats with another passenger.

On the train, I had a dinner plate. The food was ok however; I immediately noticed that it was not spicy. The food in Nanchang and Jiangxi Province is known for its spice. They use lots of hot peppers in this region.

To cut this short: At 1:00 a.m. I left my seat and found one in another car where I could stretch out and sleep. I did not sleep.

The train arrived in Shenzen at 6:30, over half an hour late. As I was walking along the platform, I saw another westerner and asked if he could tell me how to get to customs and the cabstand. He asked where I was going and told me the route supplied to me was stupid. He led me to customs and the mass transit system. At customs, the agent actually looked at my passport picture and me several times. To a stranger, I no longer look exactly like my picture.

The subway system in Hong Kong is GREAT. It is clean, fast and efficient. It is also expensive. I was able to take the system to within two blocks of the immigration office. I got lost a couple of times because I tried to follow
the directions the office here gave me: I finally did what the westerner said to do.

I have always thought Chicago’s skyline was beautiful. Hong Kong’s rivals it. That city is huge. So many people and, for the most part they are officed and housed vertically.

I arrived at the immigration building 35 minutes after it opened. There were about 50 people in line in front of me. An Australian told me I would be there all day. I was worried I would have to spend extra days in Hong Kong. When I got to the front of the line, an American walked out of the building and handed me his number, I was wearing a Chicago Bears shirt, it was #43. When I got upstairs I was given number 113, the queue was on number 29, I got lucky. All went well with dropping off my papers and passport so I gave my number 113 to a person with number 170.

I spent the next 6 hours wondering around Hong Kong. That place is huge, busy and very cosmopolitan. I was not stared at once, I rather missed the extra attention.

The pictures I posted in this Blog are of Hong Kong. I have also posted the menu from our Thanksgiving Day dinner.

Hope all is well.

Dad, I hope your Birthday is a good one.

Love Terry

Hong King Pictures

The tall monument commemorates the
return of Hong Kong to China. Pictures of Christmas in Hong Kong. Tall Buildings, me and general stuff










Hong Kong Convention center is below.
And a ferry for crossing Hong Kong Harbor.

Long entry

I want to say this country sucks but it does not. I have been getting bored with wherever I happen to be. So it is just a learning experience. However, this place is different.

Because of where and how I was raised, I am used to being different. Here is completely different. I am stared at ALL of the time. I do not know why because there are Africans in this country. I think it is because of where I am living.

Nanchang is anything but cosmopolitan. Many of the people that have come here in the last 10 years are from agricultural areas, farms. Most have seen television but, to actually see someone is different and probably bizarre. I cannot call this place cosmopolitan because of the way the people act; spitting on the floor, picking their noses and doing a “farmers blow” as they walk in public.

You have to see the way they walk down the street. Most streets have sidewalks but people walk along or in the roadway. I was taught to walk with traffic but the people here do not. They walk with their backs to traffic. And, they do not know how to walk straight; in a 5’ wide path they meander between the lines of the path. They do not avoid other people as they pass, they will walk right into you. I was in Wal-Mart (Wal-Mart is like GM, everywhere) and a guy in his late teens or early twenty’s was trying to get down a pathway in the opposite direction of the people flow, he almost knocked me over; I literally grabbed him by the shoulder, picked him up and put him out to the way. He was amazed that someone stopped him from doing what he wanted to do. Everyone here only thinks of himself or herself; they have no concept of giving way to other people. I have almost knocked motor scooters over. The scooters travel down sidewalks here and beep their horns to make people move. I do no move, one was way too close to me and I pushed my left arm out, caught the rack in back, and knocked it off keel. You people know me so. you can imagine how I get.

I have not traveled to other cities yet, I only make $758.00 a month. It is cheap to travel here, in American standards. But, I must save what little extra I make to cover the month I do not get paid in February so I can go west to Chongdong, the largest city in the world.

There are many ex-patriots from around the world here. I do not consider myself an expat because I plan on and want to return to my home country. I have met and hangout with people from India, Australia, Russia, Germany, Finland (the Finnish girl is one) and, Canada. I knew Canadians did not love Americans but they things they think about the states is amazing. I cannot figure out why they left Canada if they think it is so perfect. To irk them I call them unfortunate Americans.

I still have not found a Chinese person that trips my trigger. Some are nice, others giggle and some are just asses. People are the same everywhere. It is funny, when westerners walk down the street we hear hello, hallo and hollo all of the time. When we respond a majority of Chinese people giggle and run away. They want to use their English but are afraid to use what skills they have, they do not realize we will talk and be nice. I should say most because, some will stop and talk, and talk and talk and talk.

The lack of English skills is amazing. For the past 15 years grade and high schools teach English as part of their curriculum. However, the teachers are native Chinese. The students are not confident enough to try to use it. When I am talking with one that has ok skills I try to encourage them. Sometimes they get confused because I speak American English, which is different from the English used by the rest of the native English-speaking world. In the rest of the world, it is ok to use the letter t instead of ed for past tense.

The school I am at is a third tier Chinese school. In China, students must pass standardized tests to go to college. This school allows students in if they have the money. I cannot get a straight answer, I have been told this is a private school and I have been told it is a public school. If it is a public school they would have to pass the test to attend, not so for a private school. No test scores are required here.

The inability to get the truth is common here. It is either because they do not know the true answer; if that is the case most of the time, they will not answer or tell you what the “party-line” says to say. If they do know the truth, they will cloud it or try to deceive you.

I have told Chinese people things that are common knowledge in the “free world” (that term still applies, as does the phrase third-world country, no matter how many Canadian expats object to it) and they have been surprised I know it. It is as if they think there are a lot of secrets. Chinese do not know how to or think of looking for information themselves. What they are told is the only thing that exists.

I have a student, his English name is Shawn. I told him I feel bad for him and he asked why. I said because he is a free spirit: Mind you “free spirit” here is different from home. I had him look up the term. He came back to me not understanding what I meant. I told him that he thinks for himself and does what he wants to do and, that Chinese leaders and teachers probably do not like him. He agreed but, he really is not a free thinker they way Americans use the term.

Getting the Chinese to think is very, very hard. I have given up. I told my students why. They have never been taught critical thinking skills. They are taught to listen and when the test comes, they are told what to remember and spit back to their teachers. It is frustrating. Now my students like me, want my phone number, stop me on campus and eat lunch with me.

Ok, that is it for now.

Terry

Let me know what is going on at home. I miss it yet, I don’t miss it. I am so glad Bush’s’ former press secretary came out with the story on Valerie Plame but I don’t like that it was for making money and not to divulge the truth about those guys in office.

I am sitting here watching sports on tv. So, I will tell you about Chinese sports on television. Most of the time they show events where a Chinese person wins.

Here, badminton is considered a legitimate sport. I am watching badminton. There is a lot of what the rest of the world calls football (soccer) on tv. I do not like soccer and like the fact that a lot of Chinese do not like it either. Television is different here...most things (almost all) are not at the top or bottom of the hour. If you think commercials and infomercials are a pain back home, they are worse here. The things the pawn off here are amazing but, as I think about it, things home are weird too. They have underwear ads that kill germs that inhibit penile function. And, one of the ads I find most annoying is a body suit for women that makes them smaller: They show a female with body fat and show how it makes them slimmer. As I watch more I will write it down. Part of this exercise is so I remember for a book I want to write when I come home.

Ping pong just came on. Asia loves ping pong, since that is a proper noun it should be capitalized but I refuse to do it. One thing about the Asian body, male or female, there is so little fat that they almost always look taught. Girls here have no breasts, well little ones, at best. Wow they take ping pong seriously. The quickness with which they move is cool. OMG boredom has set in. I was warned that the boredom leads some to drinking all day, don’t do that ,,,,,,,yet.

Watching tv, they have a lottery here. LOL. It takes 7.50 RMB to equal a U.S. Dollar and like home some people play it religiously. Oh, the channel numbers have no correlation to the number on the tv. CCTV 8 may be on channel 47 or CCTV 3 may be on channel 74 and so. Cell phone ads are rampant here. This place is amazing. Chinese soap operas are on all of the time and I do not get it. I watch the pictures and understand part of the show but, they are different. Someone is always dying, getting in a fight or having lover problems. Wait, that is just like home. One thing I don’t get is the children shows at 11 at night. Little Mermaid II is coming on at 2300 hours on Thursday, why. The Chinese are immature. My college students act like high school freshman. And, news, the same broadcast comes on at 7 p.m. (that may be information control) I think most if not all tv stations are government controlled or run.

An aside, I had to explain what that meant to my students, I HAVE NEVER SEEN A CHINESE COUPLE KISS, NEVER. I don’t get it. Was watching tv and a couple got close but did not kiss and that was on tv.

Cartoons are rampant here. A lot of cartoons are on tv. Maybe I should call it animation. But at any time of the day or night a cartoon is on tv.

Terry

Great turkey day dinner, great considering where I am. No leaves, rice or noodles. I vegetable based diet makes you lose weight, a lot of weight. My clothes no longer fit but, I am still larger than most Chinese people. Story and pictures later.

At 5:00 Friday evening, I was informed that I must go Hong Kong Sunday. My "papers" were completed so I must go get my visa. Will have to do the trip in 27 hours, not even one night in the city. Will be taking a train, I think. My travel arrangements are being made for me.

UNABLE TO TELL THE TRUTH

Some of us were talking last night and reached the conclusion that most Chinese purposefully do not tell the truth.

The weather has gotten cooler here. I turned on my "furnace" and it blows the fuse. So no heat for me. Luckily my last roommate was frugal and I got used to a CHILL in the room.

Finnish girls are fun. I am not kidding. Scares me too.

I may change blog services. There are too many problems uploading pictures on this site.

Here are some more pictures. Took a while but they were uploaded.

GM is everywhere. What's good for GM is good for the world. The cars they sell here are a little larger than a Mini-Cooper. And, they make them into hearses.

I am going to make Jaeger my friend, tomorrow I am going to Metro. Metro sells western items.

TTYL

Terry

LIFE GOES ON

Things have improved with the students here. I no longer try to get them to think independently, I simply tell them what they need to know for tests and reports. Still they do not take notes. Independent or critical thinking is not part of China. I think it stems from the number of people and their history.

If you allow over 2 billion people to think about their life and how it could be better, you are planting the seeds of unrest. And, historically, the Chinese have always looked to the Emperor or other leader for knowledge and thought.

I learned something quite interesting: A friend was on the bus into town when a pickpocket went to work. When his activities were discovered the bus stopped and the police were called. The entire process took over an hour and almost no one was allowed to leave the bus. Those that were allowed to leave the bus did so after consenting to a search of their person are parcels. Otherwise, the police (PSP) cannot just search people. I was under the impression that the PSP were omnipotent and could do as they pleased. My Chinese friend corrected me and told me that a search such as that is a violation of human rights and is not allowed. Makes me smile. Somethings here are good and that is one of them.

I have a lot pictures. I will continue to post some of them. I am writing (really thinking about writing) a long post. I will try my best to make it interesting. In the meantime here are some pictures.

A little political commentary with one picture. The others are of the main square downtown. The building with the big red star used to be local communist headquarters, it is now an electronics mall. The communists have a new ornate building. I can't take a picture of it to post, that is against rules.

LIFE IN CHINA

The weather here has turned, it is now similar to mid to late fall in Chicago. The one big difference is the humidity. The humidity is almost always high here, it makes the low 60's high 50's feel at least 10 degrees cooler. The sunrises at about 7:10 and sets at about 5:30, and the days will continue to get shorter. This country does not daylight savings time, or anything similar.

I have had a rebellion amongst my students. Almost all of them failed a test. Before the test they asked me to tell them what is on the test; in my way of thinking it would not be a test if I told them the questions. However, that is not the way the learn or are taught here. Seems teachers here will give them a list of questions and tell them 8 of the 20 questions will be on the test. What else makes things difficult is they way the students are used to learning.

The students do not have to think in class. Their teacher stands in front of them and tells them all they are supposed to know. I do not think they even get homework or reading assignments from indigenous teachers. I think my problems began when I began to get to substantive material and wanted them to do outside work and participate in class.

To survive I will have to adapt. And, I do not think I have much time to adapt. They word hate has been used to describe my classes and, since some of these students pay 20,000 a year to be here they have a lot to say.

Ok, on to more pictures. This week was Halloween and we went out. One of the few pictures of me is in this grouping.

All of the pictures were taken along a mall in Nan Chang City. The bar westerners frequent is located in this walking mall. It's name is Escape Club.

The Chinese are indigenous patrons or employees. The close up of the girl is a server at the bar, here name is Jenny. Seems a lot of the foreigners dressed as pirates.

Ask and you shall receive

Some made a request for pictures of the typical Chinese toilet. Here they are.