So... Saturday night, I was in my kitchen, finally getting my act together to feed myself and looking forward to having a "real meal", when I lost power in my apartment. The lights suddenly went out. I opened the door and could hear voices so I yelled out and got no response, but did manage to ascertain that it wasn't just my apartment that had lost power- it was the whole building.
Went back to the kitchen to turn off the gas and realized that while I own two flashlights, neither one had batteries- note to self, buy batteries and candles. I grabbed my cellphone and by its not-so-powerful backlighting I unplugged my computer and turned off the fan in the kitchen. Then I went to the balcony to see what was going on. Dave outside in front of the building with a friend, was apparently just returning from dinner when he saw flames coming from the electrical counter box downstairs! At this point, notice the "fire safety" configuration of B6: the fire alarm pull-thingie is just inside the door to the building, the fire extinguishers are also by the door (on the wall with the power box), there are no smoke detectors, no fire escapes planned, no foldable fire ladders or smoke masks in the apartments. Admittedly the building is concrete so it would not burn down, but we all have gas stoves and hot water... The only possible exit strategy is a well-aimed leap out of the window and I live on the 5th floor.
There were only 2 other people in the building, I believe- both on the 6th floor. So, here I am, on the balcony, yelling to find out what's going on when I see smoke coming out of the front door and flash back to the email from my friend Beth who was here at the time (not rendered verbatim, but I think the general feeling is there): "Don't worry, there was a fire in B6 a couple of days ago. The electrical box was in flames and they are working to fix it. No big damages, but smoky smell and sooty walls. One of our colleagues ran downstairs through the smoke and she suffered some smoke inhalation problems, but the rest of us are fine. Power should be back in a couple of days. We're being housed in ACC until we can go home."
At least I knew that running down would be a bad idea! I paced back and forth and onto the balcony a couple of times to see gradually more campus security people arrive and crowd around. At one point one of them ran to another building and got a fire extinguisher and appeared to make use of it. Another guy tore open a smoke-mask package, put on the mask and dashed in, making me realize that those would be handy little gadgets to have inside the building on fire/ filled with smoke. Dave had called one of the office assistants and she in turn had called in the "professionals" (though when I called a little later to try to find out how they were going to help us out of the smoky, possibly-still-on-fire building she seemed remarkably unconcerned by the situation- might be a Chinese thing).
The fire got put out and I got a phone call saying to stay put and put a towel under the door to prevent smoke from getting in, though by then I'd been stupid and opened the front door again to see if it was indeed smoky all the way up or if I could get out- it was smoky- and I already had smoke in my living room. I shifted to the bedroom to get cleaner air and leaned out the window so they'd see I was there. Of course, since I am "foreign teacher", they didn't try to talk to me, merely shining their light up at my face and telling each other that there were 2 foreign teachers in the building (and possibly a family above me). No explanation of how we were getting out... still!
I was about to jump in the shower, get soaked, grab a scarf and run down when I heard voices coming into the building and got another call saying they were coming to get us with flashlights. I grabbed keys, shoes, trusty lighting-up cellphone and waited by the door for the knock and the light. When the security guy came and I started coming down the stairs, I saw that from the 4th floor down, the banister and floor was completely covered in fine grey ash and, while the smoke had mostly cleared, there was a strong smell of burning, which, obviously, was worse the further down you went. When I passed the electrical box, I saw a mess of burnt metal, ash and melted plastic... awesome...
Outside, it took a while to get information. Another office assistant/ friend, Daniel had come over to help interpret and calm us down. The people had no idea if we could stay there for the night, though they seemed to be on the "find alternate accommodation" side of the fence. Since the keypad on the door wouldn't work, they promised to leave someone in front of the building and Daniel was volunteered to stay until midnight to help people get stuff and make sure other B6 inhabitants knew what was going on. I thought they said something about the locking the door overnight, but it seems that the family in 602 refused to come out so they couldn't lock them in. Gradually, we managed to get in touch with our other colleagues who would be homeless for the night and I started trying to figure out whose couches and beds we could all shanghai until the next day. More and more workers/ security people crowded around the charred remains of our power supply looking perplexed and slightly overwhelmed... great start.
The last time this happened, they were put up in the ACC hotel until power was back. This time, our liaisons seemed to think that camping in other people's houses should be our priority. I was mostly interested in getting away from there and with a few things I'd gone back to get (not reasoned out things, since I forgot a towel and a change of clothes, but stuff), finding where I'd be sleeping, because no matter what others preferred, I was not excited about breathing smoke and ash all night, without a fan or AC to ward off the heat. I think I was making it too easy for our confused liaison. Maybe I should have yelled and freaked out and demanded a hotel room at ACC since they own the building that has caught on fire twice in less than 2 calendar years. Maybe I should have kept silent and just gone to pass out on Erin's couch. I really don't know what to do in these situations and I think I talk a lot to ward off the potential panic, because I felt really calm and kind of like things were unreal all evening, through explanations to others about what had happened, through phone calls and text messages to stay on top of things, through our director eventually getting us some hostel rooms at the Network Centre Hostel, through possibly having to share said room, then finding out I wouldn't have to but that they did have smoke masks and fire alarms and two stairwells there so if there was another fire later in the night, I'd be able to get out. I joked my way through those observations and the fact that I was actually cooking for the first time this semester and my food would probably go bad (I shoved the pot of pasta into the fridge and covered the sauce with a cutting board). Basically, I thought I was handling it really well, except for a little lack of coordination.
After staying with people as long as possible, watching a buffered episode of Bones on my laptop and cleaning off the dust, I sat there and didn't want to turn out the light. I suddenly realized that I was scared it would happen again, like some stupid coincidence. When I finally turned out the light and calmed down enough to fall asleep, it wasn't too long before a huge thunderstorm work me up, but I was too drained to go watch it. Before I fell asleep again I thought I heard someone whisper my name through the door and thought maybe it was Jenica coming to sleep in the A/C and away from the panicked meows of Elliot (Boy Cat now has a name)... nope, just my crazy imagination!
When morning came, we were kindly invited up to have 'breakfasty beverages that require electricity' at Jenica's house, after which I checked out, then headed back to see that progress was being made on the disaster that was the B6 lobby- they were spray-painting the metal casing yellow. Why? Maybe because the color would distract us from the fact that there had been a fire, or maybe because it was some sort of flame-retardant paint. I'm still hoping it's the latter. Megan and I decided to leave behind the smoky smell and head downtown to pamper ourselves (pedicures and massages) before dealing with the reality that we had no idea where we'd be sleeping that night and no one had told us anything. I did get a flashlight- pocket-sized and powerful.
At 7pm, there were people installing electricity counters in the shiny-yellow box but no cables and a whole mess of random electrical paraphernalia littered the ground.
At 7:30pm, after showering and getting ready by tiny flashlight, I headed over to EAC for the opening night of the clubs (which I'll blog in less detail tomorrow).
At 10pm or so, they told us the power was back on! Hallelujah!
At 10:05pm, Karen called and told me that it was only back in the stairs, not her apartment. Fuses all on? yes. I ran this info by a couple of people and it was run by others until eventually someone fixed it.
At 10:30pm, I walked to B6 and saw light! In apartments! More than one! Turns out they hadn't flicked the apartment switches and were waiting to know who lived where to do so and check that it worked. When I got in, I saw that I'd left lots of lights on and that a spider had already started making its home between my stove fan and the cutting board above my sauce... evil creature!
By 1am, I was ready to go to bed, but didn't want to turn off the light in case there was another fire and I didn't notice because I wouldn't see the power go out and would be asleep. Reason was nowhere to be found.
After some reassurance and talking to people as long as possible, I finally gave in at around 4:30am and climbed into bed. I did not fall asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
Today I noticed there's ash all over my living room and kitchen floor.
Tonight, I'd better sleep like the dead... though not the "burnt-to-death" dead...
Thus is concluded the epic of "the second time B6 caught fire and how nothing changed at all after the first fire". I feel like this is a sign that I should get out of here this year, regardless of how well it goes!
Monday, September 21, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Creatures
Not too much has happened since grading finished that is not related to animals in one way or another (other than my ever-worsening addiction to Bones).
Firstly, on Thursday, I went with J to meet and maybe take home a ball of white fur. We had heard of 2 kittens at the home of the father of the boyfriend of a friend that were up for adoption. The idea was that J would take one home and I would or wouldn't fall in love with the other and have something to wreck my house and keep me company once again. I've been telling myself I should get a pet since it might keep me on some sort of eating/ sleeping/ being a reasonable human schedule (feed the cat= feed self, go to bed earlier as cat will wake me up at 4am regardless of what time my head actually hit the pillow). In theory it seems like a good idea, but I'm having enough trouble getting motivated to take care of myself, that having something else to care for might not have been ideal. It turns out that that was a good thing.
When we got to the apartment, the kitties were nowhere to be found, though after a while the mother was found and picked up, something which she kicked and screamed her way through until I was forced to just let her climb onto the roof. After a much longer while, the little female kitten was found and placed into the crate we had brought... she was NOT happy! There was miaowing, hissing, clawing, twisting and when she realized that no amount of running into the door of the crate would free her, she settled into the corner, made herself as small as possible and vibrated with fear and indignation. The boy remained hidden the whole time we were there.
Kitty 1 stayed where she was for the ride back to STU and for most of the afternoon even with food and water placed within easy reach. Clearly, she wasn't going to forgive the evil humans any time soon! As I hung out with J a good part of the afternoon we threw around names for the quivering ball of fur. When I left to go make banana bread later, she still had no name and we still hadn't seen head, tail or even tip of ear move.
One delicious banana bread made later, E and myself introduced D to Twilight, though our sarcastic peanut gallery-ness may have ruined the movie for him (if the acting, makeup and story didn't). I'm still practicing my "always in pain" face in case they come to Shantou to cast a future movie...
Yesterday morning came with the delivery of Boy Cat at J's house. Apparently he really missed his sister and cried until she was found hiding under the couch. Last night, I got to hear these cries for myself when I went over there to visit- it was heartbreaking! The girl (now named Fizz) ran under the couch as soon as the humans entered her territory, but her brother didn't see her, hidden under the curtain as he was. When the curtain was pulled back he freaked out and tried to claw his way up the wall towards the unfortunately slightly open window and onto the balcony and succeeded in reaching the ledge after several failed attempts, determined little furball! J then spent about 20 minutes trying to lure him back inside and away from the ledge of the balcony and potential death 2 floors below (boy cat appears to have bad eyesight and lack a few brain cells... poor dumb kitty!). My diagnosis of his cries: fear of being abandoned. Poor thing miaowed the whole time, but sounded almost desperate when J wasn't in sight. When he finally came in, we breathed a sigh of relief and promptly closed all windows to avoid a repeat performance! Eventually (after feeling more lost and miaowing even louder- J legitimately feared he'd damage his vocal chords) he finally was reunited with Fizz under the couch while we watched Harry Potter try to survive his way through the unaptly named "Triwizard Tournament".
I'm sure eventually Fizz and Boy Cat will learn that J is friendly and wants to help them, but when I left, they'd shifted their safehouse to a spot under J's bed behind a suitcase- they may not have liked the movie!
This all makes me want a cat and also be glad that we didn't separate them! I can't imagine how loud and unhappy Boy Cat would have been if he'd been adopted alone. I always suspected that kittens would be more fun in pairs, but this proves it beyond doubt: kitties are much like heads!
In other news, we have discovered a new inhabitant of the reservoir. We were joking about the existence of Rezzie, a friendly monster, but yesterday when E and I had reached and were resting on our favourite rock, I looked down to see something come out of a crack and aim towards the surface. It was like a thick plant with a bulb at the end. Then it disappeared back the way it came. A few minutes later, we both saw it and I was sure that it was actually a snake- coming out for air, fish or our lives, I couldn't be sure. E tried to lure it out of its hole by throwing little bits of twig into the water (logic of this is unknown by all parties involved) and while that didn't work, it did peak out later, long enough for us to agree that it was indeed serpentine in nature and to make us a little warier about getting back in. Let's just say that we wasted no time in aiming for the steps and way out once we carefully got back in. I think I'm glad I didn't know what was below me in there, but all the same, I may use the pool instead for a while! Shudder!
Firstly, on Thursday, I went with J to meet and maybe take home a ball of white fur. We had heard of 2 kittens at the home of the father of the boyfriend of a friend that were up for adoption. The idea was that J would take one home and I would or wouldn't fall in love with the other and have something to wreck my house and keep me company once again. I've been telling myself I should get a pet since it might keep me on some sort of eating/ sleeping/ being a reasonable human schedule (feed the cat= feed self, go to bed earlier as cat will wake me up at 4am regardless of what time my head actually hit the pillow). In theory it seems like a good idea, but I'm having enough trouble getting motivated to take care of myself, that having something else to care for might not have been ideal. It turns out that that was a good thing.
When we got to the apartment, the kitties were nowhere to be found, though after a while the mother was found and picked up, something which she kicked and screamed her way through until I was forced to just let her climb onto the roof. After a much longer while, the little female kitten was found and placed into the crate we had brought... she was NOT happy! There was miaowing, hissing, clawing, twisting and when she realized that no amount of running into the door of the crate would free her, she settled into the corner, made herself as small as possible and vibrated with fear and indignation. The boy remained hidden the whole time we were there.
Kitty 1 stayed where she was for the ride back to STU and for most of the afternoon even with food and water placed within easy reach. Clearly, she wasn't going to forgive the evil humans any time soon! As I hung out with J a good part of the afternoon we threw around names for the quivering ball of fur. When I left to go make banana bread later, she still had no name and we still hadn't seen head, tail or even tip of ear move.
One delicious banana bread made later, E and myself introduced D to Twilight, though our sarcastic peanut gallery-ness may have ruined the movie for him (if the acting, makeup and story didn't). I'm still practicing my "always in pain" face in case they come to Shantou to cast a future movie...
Yesterday morning came with the delivery of Boy Cat at J's house. Apparently he really missed his sister and cried until she was found hiding under the couch. Last night, I got to hear these cries for myself when I went over there to visit- it was heartbreaking! The girl (now named Fizz) ran under the couch as soon as the humans entered her territory, but her brother didn't see her, hidden under the curtain as he was. When the curtain was pulled back he freaked out and tried to claw his way up the wall towards the unfortunately slightly open window and onto the balcony and succeeded in reaching the ledge after several failed attempts, determined little furball! J then spent about 20 minutes trying to lure him back inside and away from the ledge of the balcony and potential death 2 floors below (boy cat appears to have bad eyesight and lack a few brain cells... poor dumb kitty!). My diagnosis of his cries: fear of being abandoned. Poor thing miaowed the whole time, but sounded almost desperate when J wasn't in sight. When he finally came in, we breathed a sigh of relief and promptly closed all windows to avoid a repeat performance! Eventually (after feeling more lost and miaowing even louder- J legitimately feared he'd damage his vocal chords) he finally was reunited with Fizz under the couch while we watched Harry Potter try to survive his way through the unaptly named "Triwizard Tournament".
I'm sure eventually Fizz and Boy Cat will learn that J is friendly and wants to help them, but when I left, they'd shifted their safehouse to a spot under J's bed behind a suitcase- they may not have liked the movie!
This all makes me want a cat and also be glad that we didn't separate them! I can't imagine how loud and unhappy Boy Cat would have been if he'd been adopted alone. I always suspected that kittens would be more fun in pairs, but this proves it beyond doubt: kitties are much like heads!
In other news, we have discovered a new inhabitant of the reservoir. We were joking about the existence of Rezzie, a friendly monster, but yesterday when E and I had reached and were resting on our favourite rock, I looked down to see something come out of a crack and aim towards the surface. It was like a thick plant with a bulb at the end. Then it disappeared back the way it came. A few minutes later, we both saw it and I was sure that it was actually a snake- coming out for air, fish or our lives, I couldn't be sure. E tried to lure it out of its hole by throwing little bits of twig into the water (logic of this is unknown by all parties involved) and while that didn't work, it did peak out later, long enough for us to agree that it was indeed serpentine in nature and to make us a little warier about getting back in. Let's just say that we wasted no time in aiming for the steps and way out once we carefully got back in. I think I'm glad I didn't know what was below me in there, but all the same, I may use the pool instead for a while! Shudder!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Because the STU possess many forigener teacher
Grading this morning was as speedy as predicted and not nearly as painful as feared! In barely 3 hours, we normed, graded and giggled over quite ridiculous samples of freshman writing. The group I was put in for norming was led by our assistant director and everything went quite smoothly. We only had disagreement once and it barely mattered. We quickly got down to the fun business of searching for juicy quote-wall material, while occasionally writing down a number between 0 and 5 on the paper (it was actually more scientific than that but where's the fun in writing "we read and graded some essays"?).
As usual, I wouldn't want to be the only one to derive entertainment from required grading, so here are today's contributions to your new and improved methods of communication (be sure to use at least one of these today, preferably complete with awkward spelling and random extra letters):
- "To tell the turth, I did pulzzed" (rearrange these letters to make real words)
- "I believe I can fly because of my new heaven- STU" (in stark contrast to 90% of the essays that claimed STU wasn't really a place they wanted to be and definitely NOT their first choice)
- "Genious is 1 percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent prespiration" (yes, I know this isn't an original quote, but to me, the spelling just made it that much more delicious)
- "We can learn english from the forigen doctor. We can join the ELC and make some difficult friends. More important, it can teach me to be." (yeah.... henceforth, I would like to be referred to as a "forigen doctor")
- "through my effort to service other people and provide envience to people, I [...] want to make the world more beautiful" (no comment)
- "STU owns many exerlant teacher and student"
- "it is so butifull" (yup, full of 'buti's)
-"It is said that Shantou University is a beautiful school. Because there is rounded with a little hill so all kind of trees where and there. This make me such expect." (this one had many, many more good tidbits!)
- "We have a large and a amazingliberty liberary."
On the other end of the scale, there was one that successfully used "diligent" and "acquire". There is a whole essay that deserves to be immortalized, but I think I'll have to photograph it rather than typing it out so no part of the overall effect is lost.
Finally, as you read these, and future "quotes posts", please remember that I'm not making fun of the students, but merely enjoying the strange things that come from language learners! I'm sure I've said way worse things (case in point, as the cleaning lady was leaving yesterday, I said "你好，谢谢"... I realize that thanking her was good, but I think saying "hello" after she'd been in my house for 30 minutes may have struck her as weird!).
Anyone have any good/ awkward language learning stories?
As usual, I wouldn't want to be the only one to derive entertainment from required grading, so here are today's contributions to your new and improved methods of communication (be sure to use at least one of these today, preferably complete with awkward spelling and random extra letters):
- "To tell the turth, I did pulzzed" (rearrange these letters to make real words)
- "I believe I can fly because of my new heaven- STU" (in stark contrast to 90% of the essays that claimed STU wasn't really a place they wanted to be and definitely NOT their first choice)
- "Genious is 1 percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent prespiration" (yes, I know this isn't an original quote, but to me, the spelling just made it that much more delicious)
- "We can learn english from the forigen doctor. We can join the ELC and make some difficult friends. More important, it can teach me to be." (yeah.... henceforth, I would like to be referred to as a "forigen doctor")
- "through my effort to service other people and provide envience to people, I [...] want to make the world more beautiful" (no comment)
- "STU owns many exerlant teacher and student"
- "it is so butifull" (yup, full of 'buti's)
-"It is said that Shantou University is a beautiful school. Because there is rounded with a little hill so all kind of trees where and there. This make me such expect." (this one had many, many more good tidbits!)
- "We have a large and a amazing
On the other end of the scale, there was one that successfully used "diligent" and "acquire". There is a whole essay that deserves to be immortalized, but I think I'll have to photograph it rather than typing it out so no part of the overall effect is lost.
Finally, as you read these, and future "quotes posts", please remember that I'm not making fun of the students, but merely enjoying the strange things that come from language learners! I'm sure I've said way worse things (case in point, as the cleaning lady was leaving yesterday, I said "你好，谢谢"... I realize that thanking her was good, but I think saying "hello" after she'd been in my house for 30 minutes may have struck her as weird!).
Anyone have any good/ awkward language learning stories?
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
As predicted...
grading oral tests was rather painful, "soothingly akin to having one's teeth drilled". The norming was fine and unexciting, though it did contain the first gem of the day: "my goal is to be a journ" (that was all he said in 1:30 mn).
I took notes on the best quotes and, ladies and gentlemen, here they are in no particular order:
- 'Journ boy' also had: "If I plan, I will have a good lung" (mispronounced "luck", maybe?)
- "making them sing is bad" (who or why? I don't know)
- "he is too young and he just globe up"
- "it isn't normal to pick my bum at the meeting" ("it isn't normal to pick up my phone at the meeting"... I hope, since that was the question!)
- "it help me correct my fat"
- "he found himself the wrong/ long loon/ loom" ("wrong room")
- "you can bring some information from his eyes" (please explain this procedure...)
- "wearing the school uniform is clean and clear" ("and under control")
- "Washington, an African president, when he was a boy, cut off his uncle's tree" (something about the lying about it... response to "Honesty is the best policy": discuss)
- "I will success, I will succeess, I will succeed" (just keep on tryin')
- "I don't think it's the right thing because it's the wrong thing" (no logical argument escapes your logic, does it?)
- "devil usually forgot homework, devil make fewer friends" ("they will"?)
- "I think I could be a good future... I want to be a sportsnews"
- "we can know each nother"
- "the phenomenons of the meeting" (noteworthy because the rest of the response wasn't nearly good enough to include the word "phenomenon" to refer to people picking up their cellphones)
- "the peer should try his best to streak the children to watch TV"
- "maybe that student is very hairy" ("in a hurry"?)
- "... it is too big and too long... just like mine" (I tuned it at that point and wasn't motivated enough to find out what "it" could possibly refer to in this girl's answer... all I know is it had nothing to do with any prompt on the list!)
- "my mother told me how to do a man... he's a teacher to Chinese and my Chinese is very good" (considering that "he" could refer either to a man or this guy's mother, I have no idea what this could possibly mean, but it was about someone the student admired)
-"every coin has two, has two, has two... [peels]" (maybe "peels"... unsure about what actually came out, but since everyone knows this saying and overuses it, it's refreshing to find someone clueless about what 2 things a coin could have!)
Then there was the guy who told the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf to explain that honesty is, indeed, the best policy, including the common phrase "the boy was so boring" as a reason for why he called out "Wolf!"
The usual mispronunciations of "room" (loom, womb, loon), "decision" (with an "ai" sound in the middle), "success" ("succex") and "abroad" (as in "aboard") (also misused as in the phrase "get my education in abroad/ a broad..." eek!).
D in the video was refered to as "the room master" several times, which I also found vastly entertaining. Got to find your fun where you can!
In other news, I have been rereading blogs written by former colleagues and entertaining new ones with the contents- hilarious, and such good memories. Today was kind of a "down with here and life alone" day, so hoping that tomorrow is better! Stupid stress and anxiety!
I took notes on the best quotes and, ladies and gentlemen, here they are in no particular order:
- 'Journ boy' also had: "If I plan, I will have a good lung" (mispronounced "luck", maybe?)
- "making them sing is bad" (who or why? I don't know)
- "he is too young and he just globe up"
- "it isn't normal to pick my bum at the meeting" ("it isn't normal to pick up my phone at the meeting"... I hope, since that was the question!)
- "it help me correct my fat"
- "he found himself the wrong/ long loon/ loom" ("wrong room")
- "you can bring some information from his eyes" (please explain this procedure...)
- "wearing the school uniform is clean and clear" ("and under control")
- "Washington, an African president, when he was a boy, cut off his uncle's tree" (something about the lying about it... response to "Honesty is the best policy": discuss)
- "I will success, I will succeess, I will succeed" (just keep on tryin')
- "I don't think it's the right thing because it's the wrong thing" (no logical argument escapes your logic, does it?)
- "devil usually forgot homework, devil make fewer friends" ("they will"?)
- "I think I could be a good future... I want to be a sportsnews"
- "we can know each nother"
- "the phenomenons of the meeting" (noteworthy because the rest of the response wasn't nearly good enough to include the word "phenomenon" to refer to people picking up their cellphones)
- "the peer should try his best to streak the children to watch TV"
- "maybe that student is very hairy" ("in a hurry"?)
- "... it is too big and too long... just like mine" (I tuned it at that point and wasn't motivated enough to find out what "it" could possibly refer to in this girl's answer... all I know is it had nothing to do with any prompt on the list!)
- "my mother told me how to do a man... he's a teacher to Chinese and my Chinese is very good" (considering that "he" could refer either to a man or this guy's mother, I have no idea what this could possibly mean, but it was about someone the student admired)
-"every coin has two, has two, has two... [peels]" (maybe "peels"... unsure about what actually came out, but since everyone knows this saying and overuses it, it's refreshing to find someone clueless about what 2 things a coin could have!)
Then there was the guy who told the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf to explain that honesty is, indeed, the best policy, including the common phrase "the boy was so boring" as a reason for why he called out "Wolf!"
The usual mispronunciations of "room" (loom, womb, loon), "decision" (with an "ai" sound in the middle), "success" ("succex") and "abroad" (as in "aboard") (also misused as in the phrase "get my education in abroad/ a broad..." eek!).
D in the video was refered to as "the room master" several times, which I also found vastly entertaining. Got to find your fun where you can!
In other news, I have been rereading blogs written by former colleagues and entertaining new ones with the contents- hilarious, and such good memories. Today was kind of a "down with here and life alone" day, so hoping that tomorrow is better! Stupid stress and anxiety!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Welcome, freshpeople!
Last night was the Freshman Orientation shindig for ELC. In honor of this, every year, we foreign teachers have to find a way to make fools of ourselves onstage. By Friday night, no one had come up with anything, though our fearless leader was under the impression we would be putting together some sort of Michael Jackson tribute, including the Thriller dance and moonwalking... I think she was being optimistic about our combined talents!
Yesterday, 3pm found a small contingent of foreign teachers in my apartment, bouncing around silly ideas, such as the Potter Puppet Pals (my personal preference... might try to include it in EF somehow), the Total Domination song with weird hand motions, a self-referential 'laowai are people too' skit, Old McDonald Had a Farm (complete with charades of animals), and many more. If nothing else, I think we learned that, as a group, we have unlimited potential for B.S. After much debate and dismissal of awesome yet impractical ideas, we landed on charades of animals, hobbies and famous monuments (preplanned and NOT involving getting students up on stage) and then a group performance of "Yellow Submarine". There would be silly acting, guitar music, shaking of pill bottles, air-trombones and trumpets and out-of-tune singing from the laowai... it couldn't fail to get the fresh(wo)men excited about English!
The actual Orientation had its ups and downs, as usual! The band was excessively loud, and I think I may have lost a fraction of my hearing. I got to see the ELC video for the 10th time, at least, and have now resolved to make a new one, provided I am still here Spring Semester. The students learned not to fear their English classes, but to dive in with enthusiasm, while we tested our pronunciation and understanding of Australian English and words like "chilly bin" and "esky"... don't ask! We were impressed by the "th"s of the students who volunteered to read tongue twisters onstage. We all introduced ourselves more or less creatively- there are a couple of ABCs who introduced themselves as such, prompting one of our not-so-Chinese American colleagues to quip "before anyone asks me, I am NOT Chinese-American". We gave pop culture and other references to help students situate where we came from ("I am from Maryland, close to DC where Obama lives", "I am from Washington State, NOT Washington DC. Obama does NOT live near my house... I do live nearish Bill Gates though", "I am from Alabama, where Forrest Gump is from"... it went on and on). Promises were made about classes being fun and/or tough and advice was given about how to tackle the next 4 years of their lives. It was quite inspirational... at least in parts!
Then, came our performance. Before the start, I'd had to round up a few more people to participate, and participate we all did. There were clucking, wing-flapping chickens, a kangaroo that hopped around the stage, a monkey that waved back and forth, scratched and beat his chest, a fish blowing bubbles, an elephant who was disappointed not to be able to use the cries he'd practiced all afternoon. We mimed reading, painting, swimming, running, basketball, baseball, ping pong. The Statue of Liberty was posed in front of by tourists taking each others' pictures (complete with 'peace sign' hand action) and then, for our charade finale, we joined forces and made The Great Wall. I'm pretty sure a few people ran away before we started our slightly tuneless, but not unenthusiastic rendition of Yellow Submarine, aided by a Powerpoint peppered with little submarine pictures. E and I rattled our Aleve and Vitamin C bottles, accompanied by M on the Altoid box. D guitared it up and E and I provided the funky echoing voices in the last verse. It was comical, if not actually good. I felt like we should have apologized to both the audience and the Beatles!
Good thing we didn't do Michael Jackson, also, because after we ridiculed ourselves, it was time for the extra-curriculars show. EL parodied their way through various song snippets to tell of the virtues of the Reading Room (Jingle Bells), the TV Room (Hakuna Matata) and the conversation room (I forget what that was). EC has many, many new programs that were also introduced in song, through rapping in tiny shorts while the couple presenting Cocktail Party chugged glasses of wine most efficiently. CEC's performance was quite strange, but seeing a student perform a very impressive Michael Jakson impression (complete with moonwalk- see below) was the highlight of the evening. Even the Debating Society (STUDS or EDS for short) couldn't surprise us more when they uttered the words "red hairy ass" as a reason why a pig was a better choice of mate than a monkey... again, don't ask!
It was great to see students I love up onstage impressing people with their English, though I could have done without the contributions of a few, including singers who may have rivaled the 'ELC gang' for awfulness!
Finishing the night with smoothies and wine just seemed right!
Today the freshpeople (one of the older students awkwardly called them that) take a placement test, and we grade it for the first half of the week... Oh, I can't wait for my very own 90 or so samples of "my fadder, my fadder, my my my, fadder, she she she... suppor me".
Yesterday, 3pm found a small contingent of foreign teachers in my apartment, bouncing around silly ideas, such as the Potter Puppet Pals (my personal preference... might try to include it in EF somehow), the Total Domination song with weird hand motions, a self-referential 'laowai are people too' skit, Old McDonald Had a Farm (complete with charades of animals), and many more. If nothing else, I think we learned that, as a group, we have unlimited potential for B.S. After much debate and dismissal of awesome yet impractical ideas, we landed on charades of animals, hobbies and famous monuments (preplanned and NOT involving getting students up on stage) and then a group performance of "Yellow Submarine". There would be silly acting, guitar music, shaking of pill bottles, air-trombones and trumpets and out-of-tune singing from the laowai... it couldn't fail to get the fresh(wo)men excited about English!
The actual Orientation had its ups and downs, as usual! The band was excessively loud, and I think I may have lost a fraction of my hearing. I got to see the ELC video for the 10th time, at least, and have now resolved to make a new one, provided I am still here Spring Semester. The students learned not to fear their English classes, but to dive in with enthusiasm, while we tested our pronunciation and understanding of Australian English and words like "chilly bin" and "esky"... don't ask! We were impressed by the "th"s of the students who volunteered to read tongue twisters onstage. We all introduced ourselves more or less creatively- there are a couple of ABCs who introduced themselves as such, prompting one of our not-so-Chinese American colleagues to quip "before anyone asks me, I am NOT Chinese-American". We gave pop culture and other references to help students situate where we came from ("I am from Maryland, close to DC where Obama lives", "I am from Washington State, NOT Washington DC. Obama does NOT live near my house... I do live nearish Bill Gates though", "I am from Alabama, where Forrest Gump is from"... it went on and on). Promises were made about classes being fun and/or tough and advice was given about how to tackle the next 4 years of their lives. It was quite inspirational... at least in parts!
Then, came our performance. Before the start, I'd had to round up a few more people to participate, and participate we all did. There were clucking, wing-flapping chickens, a kangaroo that hopped around the stage, a monkey that waved back and forth, scratched and beat his chest, a fish blowing bubbles, an elephant who was disappointed not to be able to use the cries he'd practiced all afternoon. We mimed reading, painting, swimming, running, basketball, baseball, ping pong. The Statue of Liberty was posed in front of by tourists taking each others' pictures (complete with 'peace sign' hand action) and then, for our charade finale, we joined forces and made The Great Wall. I'm pretty sure a few people ran away before we started our slightly tuneless, but not unenthusiastic rendition of Yellow Submarine, aided by a Powerpoint peppered with little submarine pictures. E and I rattled our Aleve and Vitamin C bottles, accompanied by M on the Altoid box. D guitared it up and E and I provided the funky echoing voices in the last verse. It was comical, if not actually good. I felt like we should have apologized to both the audience and the Beatles!
Good thing we didn't do Michael Jackson, also, because after we ridiculed ourselves, it was time for the extra-curriculars show. EL parodied their way through various song snippets to tell of the virtues of the Reading Room (Jingle Bells), the TV Room (Hakuna Matata) and the conversation room (I forget what that was). EC has many, many new programs that were also introduced in song, through rapping in tiny shorts while the couple presenting Cocktail Party chugged glasses of wine most efficiently. CEC's performance was quite strange, but seeing a student perform a very impressive Michael Jakson impression (complete with moonwalk- see below) was the highlight of the evening. Even the Debating Society (STUDS or EDS for short) couldn't surprise us more when they uttered the words "red hairy ass" as a reason why a pig was a better choice of mate than a monkey... again, don't ask!
It was great to see students I love up onstage impressing people with their English, though I could have done without the contributions of a few, including singers who may have rivaled the 'ELC gang' for awfulness!
Finishing the night with smoothies and wine just seemed right!
Today the freshpeople (one of the older students awkwardly called them that) take a placement test, and we grade it for the first half of the week... Oh, I can't wait for my very own 90 or so samples of "my fadder, my fadder, my my my, fadder, she she she... suppor me".
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Just to check...
I set up this blog when Blogspot was available in China but Livejournal was not so I needed a new place to write if and when the fancy struck me. Now, Livejournal is available but Blogspot is not (other than with a proxy).
Does anyone care which I use? Should I revert to Livejournal or stay here and transfer previous material? Would a whole new place be even better?
Thanks for the feedback, whoever may be reading this!
Does anyone care which I use? Should I revert to Livejournal or stay here and transfer previous material? Would a whole new place be even better?
Thanks for the feedback, whoever may be reading this!
Friday, September 11, 2009
A new year, a new resolution to keep up with this blog!
So... I'm back in Shantou, kicking and screaming all the way back once again! I seriously need to take the hint and maybe consider NOT signing another contract this spring. Remind me of this if you hear me utter anything along the lines of "well, at least it's something, it's a fallback"- it is no longer a fallback. It's a good place, there are good people, friends, students, support for teaching, opportunities for advancement etc, but 4 years will be more than enough.
That said, we started the year quite brilliantly with a professional development retreat to the beautiful island of Hainan. There was the awkward first faculty meeting and group picture, this preceded by the medical "body check" tests downtown which I joined once again this year to hold hands while blood was drawn, meet the new people and get a free ride to and from WalMart with all my stuff. New people are all sort of lost for the time being, but I'm sure will all know their way around faster than I learned to get around town. I still stick to my usual haunts and hope that La Kaffa will not be closed indefinitely, thereby depriving me of my favourite caffeine-providing locale.
The trip to Hainan started on the 5th, bright and early, with all of us appearing packed and ready for fun, sea, bonding and at some point professionally developing into masterful teachers (for those who have not reached that level yet). Flight was uneventful, apart from a cute airline logo, arrival in Haikou included coconut candy (everything there includes coconut in some form!) and the beginning of the Harry Saga. Harry was the tour guide we picked up in Haikou. He was irritating, clapped his hands to get us to do anything, stated the obvious (as in "ok, stand up now!" after we were told to get off the bus), started every sentence with "OK" and ended with "aah" and was generally more than we could deal with during 5 days of forced interaction in 90% humidity and 35C weather (that's realfeel 110-120F according to Accuweather), with daily wake-up calls between the hours of 7:00 and 7:30AM. After a quick lunch, we were taken to the hotel, which had a very pervasive mold/ smoke smell (especially in the room I was assigned and the dining room- enough to put you off any food!), then bused over to Hainan University for a tour during which we stayed on said bus, swung by Evergreen Park, had some dinner back in the hotel then basically crashed as many of us were still recovering from jetlag.
Next day, after a rather Chinese breakfast, we went off to be professionally developed by listening to various talks about teaching English, one of which, from our fearless leader, involved research carried out on myself and fellow faculty members. Apparently, I am easily identifiable as the perpetrator of quotes involving how the language of foreign teachers begins to include never-used-so-often-before words such as "delicious", "convenient" and "hometown". Several people guessed it came from me, even people who weren't sure I'd taken part in this project (about our Chinese and 'home language' selves). The afternoon session of the day involved us splitting into interest groups and discussing various aspects of ELT in China. I joined the Extra-curricular activities group, which ended up just being a group of ELC teachers talking to one HaiDa guy about what we offered, while he told us they had nothing like that and he didn't really know about what did exist at his school, though he suggested that we come up with a way to evaluate the usefulness of these activities rather than just doing whatever came to us at the time. A valid point, but he offered no suggestions as to how to do that... helpful! Dinner that night more than made up for the unfulfilling sessions, as it included a buffet of sushi and delicious desserts!
Day 3 was made up of a lecture/ workshop about the state of ELT in China given by a professor from Macao who had no problem telling it like it is on the Mainland. He may have been walking a fine line, telling us about which newspapers to take from HK and Macao back into 'China' and which it would be best to leave behind, while making it clear to us what he thought of Chinese policy making. I definitely enjoyed the pictures of lower-ranking political figures sleeping through reform speeches in silent protest, boredom or general disregard of their duties in light of the fact that they would have no say either way. Good to see our colleagues reacting to this and nodding along in a not so "toeing the party line" style.
The afternoon was full of bus-time as we made our way across the island to Sanya, land of beautiful beaches and fancy hotels, and our retreat 3 years ago. This time we stayed on a different beach, but the hotel had a great view of our stretch of sand and was close to a bbq area, complete with pushy little girls thrusting firecrackers and Roman candles at me (5 jiao for 1, 1 yuan for 2!) I ended up wandering down the beach with a few people until we found "cocktails" at a "beach bar": 4 mixed drinks of questionable alcohol content at a table on the beach, overlooked by a tiki lamp. It had atmosphere... kind of! New drink: Sanya Bay.
Day 4- was subversive and refused to get back on a bus and get dragged around to another beach, butterfly village, seashell museum and tropical forest (yup, all that in one day!), when there was a perfectly decent sandy area with beautiful waves right in front of my nose the whole time. An unnecessary 7:30AM wake-up call later, my roommate and I were on the beach with overpriced snacks in hand, ready to bake, swim and generally have a great day, starting at 8:30. We jumped in the waves, lay back down to dry off... then 3 guys decided that right next to our heads was the perfect spot for their sunshine-y day- there was no one else on the beach!! Miles of empty sand and they just had to come park themselves in our personal space and take out their cellphones and (presumably) take pictures of us. We quickly decamped cursing the locals and their lack of beach/ human etiquette and found ourselves a pair of wooden lounge chairs with a tiki parasol for 30RMB/ day. More wave-jumping action and perfect positioning between the two lines of breakage of the waves, a little chit-chat with a couple of new colleagues who also went the umbrella/ chairs route rather than the sand/ sun/ annoying people one and we headed back to go hunt down the Muslim quarter for some delicious, non-Harry-ordered foods. No dice with the taxis- they had no idea what the "muselin simiao (Muslim temple)" was. They did offer to take us to a famous temple 20km away though! We settled on a lunch of fish, tofu and egg, but at least, we ordered it ourselves, with me having to serve as the designated Chinese-speaker! Success- I can now get things done, more or less speedily and accurately! I am a whole new person (especially after amazing a new co-worker when I claimed to be "shy and introverted")!
The afternoon plans for yet more wave-fun were dampened by the threatening clouds and intense downpour, though we did manage to make it back out to "our bar" for after-dinner drinks with a bigger group of people. Much discussion and fun for our last day in Sanya.
Day 5- Breakfast (still not approaching "delicious"), bus to Boundary Island where we could swim or join the "water sports games" (oh, Harry and his Chinglish!) The bus ride was fine, the boat ride to the island was quite fun for those of us with a strong stomach- bumpy times! On arrival and after being vastly entertained by some hilarious mannequins in wetsuits- pictures on Flickr to come soon) we excitedly got away from Harry and headed over to the "swimming area"... it was tiny and packed with people. More subversion as a few of us carefully headed over to the next little bay, traipsing through masses of broken coral and happily jumped into beautiful clear water... until we felt a weird shock, heard a tinny sound and we whistled at to get the heck out of the non designate swimming area! There was a policeman on the shore looking annoyed and a guy on a jetski to help enforce the rules. No choice but to turn back and I headed back to the "corral" with two of my fellow rule-breakers (the other 2 tried, it seems, to find a good new spot repeatedly and to annoy the guard as much as possible by keeping eye contact and occasionally trying to make a break for it). Good water, annoying rocks underfoot but fun colleagues did make it all worth the trouble, the staring and the potential sunburn. A communal shower (thankfully no naked colleagues at that time), overpriced drinks, a neutral Chinese lunch later we met up with those who had taken part in the "water sports games" and saw the pictures of them holding onto the coral reefs and picking up sea urchins... my irritation at how these Chinese people (the scuba instructors who condone this, I mean), and other inconsiderate and ignorant people, ruin the environment knows no bounds at this point! I remember being sternly told not to even get close to the reefs when I went diving and here they are grabbing on, picking up random bits off the beach and buying souvenirs made of coral!! Gah!
Anyway, boat ride back was, again, speedy, bumpy and entertaining, made more so by the screams/ squeals of my fellow workmates! More hours on the bus, then the visit of a conference center and another boat ride to the "Jade Belt"- a stretch of sand that looks out onto the South China Sea, a beach with waves the knocked over a few teachers and drenched more than that! The guy holding a turtle that kept trying to beat him up with its 'flippers' was just the cherry on top!
New hotel for the evening and a friend and I went to explore the area around the hotel in an attempt to stay awake past 8PM and find some ice cream/ dessert. The best part was the discovery of the NanGuo Supermarket, not for its offerings (we're better off in Shantou), but for its delectable Chinglish. There were aisles of "bumf", "dentifris", "clean air", "bathebles", "family thing" (yes, singular) and, my favourite, "mop/besom". We did not pay with our "credit carts", but this store definitely could have produced yet more entertainment if we had had time and energy enough for it.
Not much to add about today- a temple with some interesting statues of disgraced mainlanders (with good faces) this morning after a disappointing breakfast and an irritating experience with milktea people who seemed convinced that we did not need large cups and that the small or medium would be more appropriate. Much annoyance at the airport with people in the next line for check-in yelling at each other and shoving into us and Harry making the whole process go about as slowly as possible, while trying hard to grab all bags by the most tearable parts possible. Glad to have left him behind in Hainan! Flight was delayed, we got back to campus after a slight pause on the road to maybe wait for some freshmen. More disappointment and irritation when I got home and the best part of my day may have been the smoothies I had for dinner followed by the Singleton cult movie: Bridget Jones' Diary.
To look forward to (and by that, I mean, to produce fodder for sarcasm and my ever-decreasing patience): Freshman Orientation, grading and more grading... I need to get a squishy stress-ball for this week/ semester/ life!
That said, we started the year quite brilliantly with a professional development retreat to the beautiful island of Hainan. There was the awkward first faculty meeting and group picture, this preceded by the medical "body check" tests downtown which I joined once again this year to hold hands while blood was drawn, meet the new people and get a free ride to and from WalMart with all my stuff. New people are all sort of lost for the time being, but I'm sure will all know their way around faster than I learned to get around town. I still stick to my usual haunts and hope that La Kaffa will not be closed indefinitely, thereby depriving me of my favourite caffeine-providing locale.
The trip to Hainan started on the 5th, bright and early, with all of us appearing packed and ready for fun, sea, bonding and at some point professionally developing into masterful teachers (for those who have not reached that level yet). Flight was uneventful, apart from a cute airline logo, arrival in Haikou included coconut candy (everything there includes coconut in some form!) and the beginning of the Harry Saga. Harry was the tour guide we picked up in Haikou. He was irritating, clapped his hands to get us to do anything, stated the obvious (as in "ok, stand up now!" after we were told to get off the bus), started every sentence with "OK" and ended with "aah" and was generally more than we could deal with during 5 days of forced interaction in 90% humidity and 35C weather (that's realfeel 110-120F according to Accuweather), with daily wake-up calls between the hours of 7:00 and 7:30AM. After a quick lunch, we were taken to the hotel, which had a very pervasive mold/ smoke smell (especially in the room I was assigned and the dining room- enough to put you off any food!), then bused over to Hainan University for a tour during which we stayed on said bus, swung by Evergreen Park, had some dinner back in the hotel then basically crashed as many of us were still recovering from jetlag.
Next day, after a rather Chinese breakfast, we went off to be professionally developed by listening to various talks about teaching English, one of which, from our fearless leader, involved research carried out on myself and fellow faculty members. Apparently, I am easily identifiable as the perpetrator of quotes involving how the language of foreign teachers begins to include never-used-so-often-before words such as "delicious", "convenient" and "hometown". Several people guessed it came from me, even people who weren't sure I'd taken part in this project (about our Chinese and 'home language' selves). The afternoon session of the day involved us splitting into interest groups and discussing various aspects of ELT in China. I joined the Extra-curricular activities group, which ended up just being a group of ELC teachers talking to one HaiDa guy about what we offered, while he told us they had nothing like that and he didn't really know about what did exist at his school, though he suggested that we come up with a way to evaluate the usefulness of these activities rather than just doing whatever came to us at the time. A valid point, but he offered no suggestions as to how to do that... helpful! Dinner that night more than made up for the unfulfilling sessions, as it included a buffet of sushi and delicious desserts!
Day 3 was made up of a lecture/ workshop about the state of ELT in China given by a professor from Macao who had no problem telling it like it is on the Mainland. He may have been walking a fine line, telling us about which newspapers to take from HK and Macao back into 'China' and which it would be best to leave behind, while making it clear to us what he thought of Chinese policy making. I definitely enjoyed the pictures of lower-ranking political figures sleeping through reform speeches in silent protest, boredom or general disregard of their duties in light of the fact that they would have no say either way. Good to see our colleagues reacting to this and nodding along in a not so "toeing the party line" style.
The afternoon was full of bus-time as we made our way across the island to Sanya, land of beautiful beaches and fancy hotels, and our retreat 3 years ago. This time we stayed on a different beach, but the hotel had a great view of our stretch of sand and was close to a bbq area, complete with pushy little girls thrusting firecrackers and Roman candles at me (5 jiao for 1, 1 yuan for 2!) I ended up wandering down the beach with a few people until we found "cocktails" at a "beach bar": 4 mixed drinks of questionable alcohol content at a table on the beach, overlooked by a tiki lamp. It had atmosphere... kind of! New drink: Sanya Bay.
Day 4- was subversive and refused to get back on a bus and get dragged around to another beach, butterfly village, seashell museum and tropical forest (yup, all that in one day!), when there was a perfectly decent sandy area with beautiful waves right in front of my nose the whole time. An unnecessary 7:30AM wake-up call later, my roommate and I were on the beach with overpriced snacks in hand, ready to bake, swim and generally have a great day, starting at 8:30. We jumped in the waves, lay back down to dry off... then 3 guys decided that right next to our heads was the perfect spot for their sunshine-y day- there was no one else on the beach!! Miles of empty sand and they just had to come park themselves in our personal space and take out their cellphones and (presumably) take pictures of us. We quickly decamped cursing the locals and their lack of beach/ human etiquette and found ourselves a pair of wooden lounge chairs with a tiki parasol for 30RMB/ day. More wave-jumping action and perfect positioning between the two lines of breakage of the waves, a little chit-chat with a couple of new colleagues who also went the umbrella/ chairs route rather than the sand/ sun/ annoying people one and we headed back to go hunt down the Muslim quarter for some delicious, non-Harry-ordered foods. No dice with the taxis- they had no idea what the "muselin simiao (Muslim temple)" was. They did offer to take us to a famous temple 20km away though! We settled on a lunch of fish, tofu and egg, but at least, we ordered it ourselves, with me having to serve as the designated Chinese-speaker! Success- I can now get things done, more or less speedily and accurately! I am a whole new person (especially after amazing a new co-worker when I claimed to be "shy and introverted")!
The afternoon plans for yet more wave-fun were dampened by the threatening clouds and intense downpour, though we did manage to make it back out to "our bar" for after-dinner drinks with a bigger group of people. Much discussion and fun for our last day in Sanya.
Day 5- Breakfast (still not approaching "delicious"), bus to Boundary Island where we could swim or join the "water sports games" (oh, Harry and his Chinglish!) The bus ride was fine, the boat ride to the island was quite fun for those of us with a strong stomach- bumpy times! On arrival and after being vastly entertained by some hilarious mannequins in wetsuits- pictures on Flickr to come soon) we excitedly got away from Harry and headed over to the "swimming area"... it was tiny and packed with people. More subversion as a few of us carefully headed over to the next little bay, traipsing through masses of broken coral and happily jumped into beautiful clear water... until we felt a weird shock, heard a tinny sound and we whistled at to get the heck out of the non designate swimming area! There was a policeman on the shore looking annoyed and a guy on a jetski to help enforce the rules. No choice but to turn back and I headed back to the "corral" with two of my fellow rule-breakers (the other 2 tried, it seems, to find a good new spot repeatedly and to annoy the guard as much as possible by keeping eye contact and occasionally trying to make a break for it). Good water, annoying rocks underfoot but fun colleagues did make it all worth the trouble, the staring and the potential sunburn. A communal shower (thankfully no naked colleagues at that time), overpriced drinks, a neutral Chinese lunch later we met up with those who had taken part in the "water sports games" and saw the pictures of them holding onto the coral reefs and picking up sea urchins... my irritation at how these Chinese people (the scuba instructors who condone this, I mean), and other inconsiderate and ignorant people, ruin the environment knows no bounds at this point! I remember being sternly told not to even get close to the reefs when I went diving and here they are grabbing on, picking up random bits off the beach and buying souvenirs made of coral!! Gah!
Anyway, boat ride back was, again, speedy, bumpy and entertaining, made more so by the screams/ squeals of my fellow workmates! More hours on the bus, then the visit of a conference center and another boat ride to the "Jade Belt"- a stretch of sand that looks out onto the South China Sea, a beach with waves the knocked over a few teachers and drenched more than that! The guy holding a turtle that kept trying to beat him up with its 'flippers' was just the cherry on top!
New hotel for the evening and a friend and I went to explore the area around the hotel in an attempt to stay awake past 8PM and find some ice cream/ dessert. The best part was the discovery of the NanGuo Supermarket, not for its offerings (we're better off in Shantou), but for its delectable Chinglish. There were aisles of "bumf", "dentifris", "clean air", "bathebles", "family thing" (yes, singular) and, my favourite, "mop/besom". We did not pay with our "credit carts", but this store definitely could have produced yet more entertainment if we had had time and energy enough for it.
Not much to add about today- a temple with some interesting statues of disgraced mainlanders (with good faces) this morning after a disappointing breakfast and an irritating experience with milktea people who seemed convinced that we did not need large cups and that the small or medium would be more appropriate. Much annoyance at the airport with people in the next line for check-in yelling at each other and shoving into us and Harry making the whole process go about as slowly as possible, while trying hard to grab all bags by the most tearable parts possible. Glad to have left him behind in Hainan! Flight was delayed, we got back to campus after a slight pause on the road to maybe wait for some freshmen. More disappointment and irritation when I got home and the best part of my day may have been the smoothies I had for dinner followed by the Singleton cult movie: Bridget Jones' Diary.
To look forward to (and by that, I mean, to produce fodder for sarcasm and my ever-decreasing patience): Freshman Orientation, grading and more grading... I need to get a squishy stress-ball for this week/ semester/ life!
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