March 13-21, 2010

March 13-21
For the first time since being here I have decided I REALLY miss traffic lights. As much as I like being able to cross the road wherever and whenever I want, I do miss being able to cross the road with no fears of being hit by a car, bike, bus, wagon…well you get the point.

I've heard that the traffic in Wenzhou is worse than many other cities in all of China. I 100% believe it. I took a taxi home the other night and half my trip was spent on the sidewalk or in the oncoming traffic lane. As thrilling as this sounds, I must admit that I am getting used to it being a part of their culture and barely blinked an eye when he proceeded to take his bizarre route to my house.

Ha ha, one of the things I find humorous are the street cleaners. These trucks play an elevator-style-music as they creep along the streets just the same as an ice cream truck does back home. One of my friends was explaining to me that they do this as a warning to anyone in front of them so they can get out of the way before being sprayed. I guess he's seen some people get sprayed by the truck because they couldn't pedal out of it's way fast enough.

As crazy as the traffic is here it seems to work. Everyone is aware all the time and are ready for anything to happen. So instead of slamming on your breaks if someone is crossing the road and creating a traffic jam, they just go around. It sort of reminds me of the way a river moves around a rock that's sticking out of the water. No one is skittish and they will drive around you if you're going to slow or will squeeze into a spot in the next lane. The buses are the same way. They are pretty aggressive and have no qualms about cutting anyone off to get where they need to go. Riding a bus is funny because I feel like a giant. The roofs are lower, I can reach the handrails that hang from the roof, if I'm sitting my knees hit the seat in front of me and if you're sitting in the back of the bus the windows open right down to the seat and are wide enough for you to fall through if you are too careless.

I've been to a few more massages and am going to find it very difficult to go back home and not be able to do them on a weekly basis anymore. They're reasonably priced and a cool way to hang out with friends. When you first go in for your massage you tell them what you want and they will bring you to an appropriate room; there are different sizes of rooms for different types of massages and different sizes of groups. We usually have two to four in our groups. They bring you tea and fruit and you can request other things to eat and drink as well; like sweet dumplings mmmmmmm. Our particular room had three beds lined up so that there was enough room for the masseuses to work and three sinks at the end of the beds so they could wash your feet for you too. We didn't get that done though, just our backs. It's fantastic.

I got my hair cut. It's just above my shoulders and I have bangs that go straight across my forehead. It's funny because it's a very typical hairstyle you see here and it makes me look twelve years old. Ha ha ha.

Frances is finally moving out, I'm not sure on the exact day but a whole bunch of her stuff is packed and sitting around the living room. I don't think she's too happy with me because she was so nice and told me I could use anything and make myself at home etc. etc. etc. and I still went ahead and asked Romanty how the apartment search was going. When the answer pretty much came back that there wasn't any yet I asked how I would go about looking for an apartment instead then and by the end of that same day Romanty was calling me back saying Frances would be out by the end of the week. Either way, I'm happy because this means I can have private lessons at my house instead of running all over the city to do them. :-)

My Chinese has kind of come to a stand still. I haven't progressed much further but have noticed I've been able to pick out a few more words here and there so that's reassuring.

I started Tai Chi; I've done three classes so far. The instructors say that within two months I should be able to do all the steps and by the time I go home I should be able to teach it. ^_^ I'm hoping I stay dedicated enough to follow through till the end. I wake up at 6am so I can be there for the 7:30am class and head to my classes to teach afterwards.

Ok, maybe that's enough to read for one blog.
Until next time…

March 7-12, 2010

March 7-12

Wow, where to start?

Lessons are still good. I have a few classes that are now consistent but my schedule is still changing on a weekly basis. At this point in time I have a few of Collin's classes but I don't actually know which ones are his and which are mine. Maybe the school just decided they would all be mine and Collin won't have to teach those ones anymore. Story Forest is supposed to be on Thursday, Friday and Saturday according to my schedule but Thursday's class never seems to happen and apparently Saturday's are their days off . I went at 1pm one Friday and was dismissed by 3pm. Monday's are supposed to be my day off but I now have to go into Story Forest this coming Monday to rehearse for a play. I am so confused at how the schedules are made, I don't think Effie (the girl who makes them) actually checks what she does because this is a regular occurrence for all of the foreign teachers. It's not uncommon to come into a class for a lesson and be told you weren't expected. Either way, I'm hoping that in the next couple weeks my schedule becomes a little more firm because never knowing what is coming is really a pain in the butt.

I've talked with a few other school owners in Wenzhou and from what I've gathered it seems that Jordan's is a good first year school; a good first step into the ESL world. They are decent for most things but other schools can offer a more organized system. For example: the pay and benefits seem to be pretty standard, Jordan's is good about paying you on time with no hassles, it's a laid back teaching environment, they're decent about helping the foreigners when they ask, and like I said; the schedules are all over the place. But that is just my opinion.

As for my own integration into China I am about two months in and still have not had my culture shock experience. There have been a couple days that I was just too tired (both mentally and physically) to go out and try to order food so had instant noodles instead, but for the most part I have been doing very well. I'm still finding the food delicious which is a blessing considering I've been eating noodles and rice for two months straight. Oh wait, I lied, I had pizza the other day. ^_^ it was wonderful! Ha ha ha. I know for sure there will come a point where I just want "normal" food and am just waiting for it to happen. I have done a bit of cooking on my own though so maybe that is helping me add a bit of variety. I have made soups, pancakes and even tried to make bannock bread. I wasn't very successful but am going to keep trying. Like I said in my previous blog, I am almost done my first Rosetta Stone CD and should be starting my second one within the week. I have made a whole bunch of new friends in the last week and even have another person who wants to do a language swap with me. His name is Bruce and he speaks VERY LITTLE English, maybe even less than I speak of Chinese, but not by much. Either way, we have set up to meet on Sunday for our first lesson and I am very anxious to see how much I can learn.

I have my first private lesson this coming Monday and am nervous about that. I want it to go well so that I may charge more for any students that come after. The lesson will be an hour long and will be held at the girls house since I am still living with Frances and the school did not approve me doing extra work. I have been trying to create an assessment test to see where this girl's English level is at but have not been very successful. :-S thank goodness for the internet and it's many helpful resources.

The weather seems to be unsure of itself. We've had a bunch of rainy days that blew over into cloudy and cold days; I was even wearing a toque and mittens, and now the sky is clear and the sun is out but it's still a little chilly.

A few more interesting things I've learned about Wenzhou:

• KTV's are EVERYWHERE! These are karaoke places, but instead of one stage for a whole bar it's a bunch of rooms that a group of friends would rent out. I have learned that many business deals will take place at KTV's. Part of this transaction includes some company for the evening. The guy will choose from a lineup of girls who he wants to keep him company for the night. This girl is supposed to make him feel "manly" or special or something like that while they sing their songs and talk about their business. I didn't ask too much more on the subject though and so am unsure of how far the girl's commitment goes.
• Taxi's will be driving along with one passenger and stop to pick up another fare if they are heading in the same direction. I think it's called taxi sharing and actually have no idea how splitting the cost works; it hasn't happened to me yet.
• I saw a semi truck driving along using spare tires as it's front wheels; that was a little sketchy.
• Wenzhou became famous for it's shoe industry, glasses industry, fake leather industry and I've heard whispers of it's sex toy industry but I have not confirmed that one.
• Massage places are also Very popular here. Apparently they are a sort of recreational thing. Some of the more prestigious ones will give you tea and fruit and have a menu for you to chose a few other choice foods (I got sweet dumplings). Some of the really high up ones have a recreation room with ping pong tables, foosball tables, and the likes where you can hang out before or after your massage. I have not been to one like this yet but am interested in seeing it with my own eyes.

Until next time…

March 1-6, 2010

March 1 - 6

What a Fantastic way to start March.

Today was by far the best day I have had in China yet! The 1st of March started as my day off. I slept in a bit and stayed in bed until 11:00am; I would have stayed longer had I not already made plans with Anna to go belly dancing in the afternoon. The class was a lot of fun and really hard so we are going to look for an easier level. We learned that the center where we did our belly dancing also holds classes for traditional Chinese dancing; which we now want to try as well.

After our belly dancing class we grabbed lunch and headed back to Anna's place so I could see all her clothes she's had made by her tailor. I can't wait till I can get mine made. :-)

We headed back out to go for a massage which only cost 65RMB for an hour. It was really good; my head was massaged and he stretched the muscles in my arms, legs and fingers. I want to go back!

After the massages we decided we should pamper ourselves by getting our hair washed. This is quite the routine. You sit in a chair and they put this liquid in your hair and it turns foamy like shampoo, they massage it into your hair while giving you a head massage, you then go to the sink to have it washed out, go back to the chair where they lean you back and clean your ears, massage your arms, hands, shoulders and neck. Once this whole process is done you move to the styling chairs where they dry and style your hair. I chose curly, which might have been a mistake since I walked out with REALLY puffy hair. Ha ha. They didn't use a curling iron to curl my hair though, the guy used a blow dryer and a couple of those round brushes. How much, you must be asking, does this kind of treatment cost? Well let me tell you: it's only 15RMB (2.34CDN) how fantastic is that!?

Now I am home being treated to sweet dumplings and tea from Frances and her boyfriend Alex. They offered me duck feet but I couldn't bring myself to trying it just yet. :-)

I’m still living with Frances but am making the best of it for now. it does have it's positives, for example; the shower tap in the bathroom is leaking and what would normally take a week to get someone to help me get it fixed, only took a day because Frances asked. So far it’s not bugging me too much, but I will eventually get tired of it and ask for my own place. For now I have decided I will use her to practice my Chinese. I haven't been able to put too many sentences together yet, but hopefully I can shed my embarrassment and just take a stab at it. :-)

I was bitten on my cheek bone by a mosquito while I was sleeping the other night and the bite has swollen up and looks terrible. :-S the very next night I saw a cockroach for the first time in my room. I squished it and sprayed raid under my bed just in case. I guess spring is here if it means bugs are coming out.

Lessons are good so far but nothing too exciting; I don’t even have very many per week. :-) Story forest started up again but for one reason or another I haven’t had to go to any of those classes so far which has left me with quite a bit of free time. I am almost done my first Rosetta Stone lesson then I can start on disk two. Although the program is really cool and does teach you a lot, I haven’t been able to make too many sentences yet. Some of that is my fault though for not really trying very hard.

I might start teaching private lessons soon if everything works out. It will be one girl, two lessons a week and 100RMB/hr so that’s not bad for a starting point. I would have said 150RMB to start but Jeff started arranging it and passed it my way because he didn’t want to lose his free time and he knew I wanted to earn some extra cash.

I get to go to Anna's tailor on Monday (the 8th) to have my dresses made. :-D I'm very excited for that.

Well that may be all for now. Until next time...

Feb 25-28, 2010

February 25-28

Ahhh, the last of February. Anna told me about her tailor who makes all her clothes for her and said that she will introduce me so I can get my clothes made too. We went to the fabric market to pick out the types of materials we will need and it took us almost all day. This place is HUGE; it's not a mall but more like a bunch of little shops on a few (big) blocks worth of space. It's incredible! And Cheap! The most expensive fabric I bought was 15RMB/meter and the cheapest was 5. I have enough stuff to make three dresses now. :-)

Classes have been good, I'm still trying to get into a rhythm with them. I am constantly doing research to learn more games to play with the kids because some of the classes are really young and some are older, and really smart. I start story forest back up next week and there will be a new teacher from Taiwan; I met her briefly the other night.

Well, that ends February; I can't believe March is already here.

Feb 11-14, 2010

February 11-24, 2010

That was A LOT of fun! I met Caleb, Dad and Linnea in Shanghai on the 13th where we checked out a couple temples, the Yu Yuan Gardens and a huge market place. We continued on to Wenzhou on the 19th and pretty much took it easy until the 22nd when they left to go to Beijing. Fangyu (a girl I met in Calgary through Bob; Dan's uncle) invited us to join her family for a new years dinner. It was a really yummy lunch with most foods that were recognizable. I did try turtle soup, pork tongue and ear though.

I don't suggest the ear, it was weird. All the days after that were pretty much us being typical tourists.

The temples were neat but pretty touristy so I don't think I really got the full effect. There was a fancy fire pit in the middle of the court yard where people took incense and prayed, the Buddha was huge and there were smaller statues lining the walls. I'm not really sure what they all represented, but they did look pretty cool. The Garden was incredible! It was so pretty and serene. One day I would like to do something like that to my back yard. There were fish ponds and rock walls, lots of trees and flowers, and little resting houses to sit and contemplate life. It was truly a marvelous sight. The market place was VERY touristy but tons of fun! We learned how to barter properly and ended up walking away with lots of cool buys. I came out with a very pretty tea set, two traditional Chinese dresses, a jewelry box, a kimono house coat thing, a calligraphy set, a stamp that has my name engraved in Chinese, a pearl necklace, some mittens and about 8 scarves. I think we walked 8 hours a day everyday we were there.

Coming back to Wenzhou was nice. We pretty much just relaxed and putzed around a bit. I had my first experience with getting sick. There was a tap in Dad and Caleb's hotel that was labeled drinking water, it was next to the normal tap. Either way I ended up puking the whole night away…:-S lesson learned; don't drink from any tap no matter what it says!

They headed off to Beijing leaving me in my grey metropolitan Wenzhou. I had one day to relax before returning to school. I caught up on laundry, relaxed and read a book. It was one of the best holidays I've had.

School was good; I had a whopping two classes on my first day back and was finished by 10:30 in the morning. My first class was filled with 3 year olds I think there were about 8 of them; a few of them cried the entire time. The second class was better. They were a bit older and half of them were at Jordan's School the previous semester so they knew the drills and were more involved in my games. I wandered around the city after my classes not really doing anything except adding a bunch of stuff to my "I want it" list; like an electric drum set for only 5600 RMB which is $875 CND (they are about $6000CND in Canada) I have to think carefully about this purchase though as it is almost one full paycheck. :-S. There is also a dress I tried on that's sooooo cute I'm having a hard time not running back to the store this instant to buy it. It's 600 RMB but that's fairly expensive. I'm not sure the usual prices for dresses outside of the shopping malls, but I assume it's around 100 RMB.

I have made a new friend named Jody who wants to learn better English so we have decided we will teach each other. I went shopping with her once so far and learned that she has expensive taste :-S ha ha.

I have caught yet another cold. This one is more sneezing though, I think it's the same one dad caught. I can't wait until my immune system gets used to this air and can start fighting all this garbage! Well I guess that is all for now, I will talk to you all soon. Xoxo Julia