A Day In Our Lives

We live in the foreign teachers' building in a complex of short apartment buildings. Across the way, a woman is cooking dinner in her kitchen. Yes, we're close enough to see. Their cooking area is right at the window. Often, the man in the apartment cooks without a shirt. It's hot here in Jinan. We understand that it hasn't quite made it up to the top 3 "ovens" of China yet but it's a close 4th. Thank goodness for a/c!

Our apartment complex is located on the same street as the south entrance to the university so we don't have to walk far to get to school. It's a bit of a walk to the teaching buildings though, about 15-20 minutes to get there across campus. All along the streets, there are vendors for household items, fruits and veggies and most importantly, there are food carts.

This morning, we woke up, downloaded some episodes of our favourite tv shows from the Internet and then went out on the street to forage for breakfast. We bought breakfast sandwiches from the ladies near the campus gate (about a 3 minute walk). On the way back up the street, we stopped at our favourite fruit vendor. We try to stop there as often as we can. During pineapple season, we often got big slices on a stick from her. She is our favourite because she goes out of her way to pick us the best of what she has to offer and she always greets us with a smile. Today, we picked up grape tomatoes (they are REALLY popular here), some logan fruit and some cherries. Lately, we've noticed that her family seems to have pitched a tent behind their stall on the sidewalk and are sleeping there because she is there from day to night.

We came back to the apt and watched some tv while we ate our breakfast. Instant coffee is also big in this country (it was in Mexico as well) so we've given up any pretenses and are enjoying it. We're even lazier though cause we're buying these little packets of pre-measured coffee with sugar and creamer. We only have to microwave some water. Y voila! Then we went to work marking. Ok, Don did. I watched tv. I'm slightly addicted to Gossip Girl.

When I got hungry for lunch, I went back out on the street and bought us these great wrapped sandwiches filled with cooked shredded carrots, cabbage, potatoes and spices. The nice man just cooks it on a flat round surface placed on a stack over a block of hot charcoal. Lunch cost less than $1, just like breakfast.

Now we're getting ready to go have dinner with a couple of students. It's become a bit of a regular thing these past Sunday evenings. These 2 boys, Jerry and William, are among the most eager English learners on campus. Jerry is a Japanese major who loves speaking English and William is one of Don's students. They take every opportunity to practice and we're happy to help. Bye for now. J

p.s. Just got back from our first hot pot in China. I'm stuffed!!

Dragon Boat Festival and Other Important Days

Dragon Boat Festival

We're off today to continue celebrating Dragon Boat Festival. The students have been bringing us treats of zongzi (sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves and shaped like pyramids) and boiled eggs. Carol just came from visiting her hometown and the sweet girl lugged home a bag of food for us. This on top of the food she brought for her roommates. Yesterday, we were invited to Cruise's home here in Jinan and his mother made us a feast for lunch. His family welcomed us into their home and fed us till we couldn't eat another bite. We felt honoured to be there enjoying the meal and the company. She even sent us off with a care package of food. Her dishes were similar to the style of food that my parents make. While it made Don & I feel quite at home, it made me a bit more homesick.


High School Exam

Saturday was a big day in China. All the high school students started a two and a half day university entrance exam. They have been studying for this exam for an entire year. Every waking moment has been dedicated to cramming knowledge in so that they can access it in order to do well for this exam. Their results will determine their future and ensure that they get into a good university and therefore a better job prospect. No pressure, huh?

I have been hearing such stories about the rigors of studying, like getting up at 5 in the morning and studying well into the evening. To make sure that their children are physically well, I've heard how some parents would never serve new food to their child in the 6 months before the exam for fear of making them ill. If you are unable to write the national exam for some reason, you have to wait for the next year. In one city, there was police presence at the school cafeteria to make sure that nobody tampered with the students' food. You see, there is great competition for the relatively few spots in the universities. When you have a population as numerous as this, you never have enough room for everyone who wants a university education.


June 1

China uses a staggering number of plastic shopping bags. So, in order to encourage people to reduce their usage, from June 1 onwards businesses are required to charge their customers for the plastic bags they use for their purchases. I paid 5 cents the other day for one bag because I didn't have my shopping bag with me. I think that it's a very environmentally responsible step and again, due to the size of the population here, a small thing like this will likely make a huge difference.


School Year

We found out late last week that the school year is being shortened by 2 weeks. It may or may not have something to do with the Olympics. We were planning to give our final exams in the last week of June, but we're now getting ready to finish the semester in the next 2 weeks. I am finished at the end of the coming week. Don will teach one more week after that. We're happy to have summer vacation start earlier but are a bit worried that we'll be aimless. We've now started to think about where we might travel to this summer and are excitedly looking at the possibilities. We'll definitely have to narrow down the list of places we want to see though. Stay tuned for those adventures.

J xoxo

Friday Night Out On The Town

Instead of our normal Friday night BBQ, we joined the Danish students on a night out on the town. The two boys, Mads and Jeppe, have been here as long as we have but have found a very different Jinan. BTW, they’re here as part of an exchange program that our university has with theirs. They're here for 5 months to finish their final project for their bachelor’s degree.

We had dinner in a nice restaurant that had English descriptions and photos (as you can appreciate, this is a big bonus for us). It was decorated in a very Western style, sort of loungey (ok, I just made up that word… benefits of an English teacher?). There were big benches / couches instead of chairs. Comfy for some, not so much for others. They had a weird service. You had to pay for everything in advance. The menu was eclectic. There were Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Italian and Western (aka club sandwich) dishes to choose from. Funny thing happened, the server addressed me and I had to redirect him to Hermen (who is Dutch, has red hair and speaks Mandarin because he is married to Kathy who is Chinese). We had a good laugh at that.

Then we headed off to find the bowling alley nearby. As we walked, we drew a lot of stares. It’s not every day that you see a group of 6 foreigners. I find that I include myself in that description but if I draw stares, it’s only because I’m with them. We found it after some walking and had a great time showing off our individual talents. While there, Hermen met a couple of kids from Holland. And then as we were heading out, we saw another group of foreigners. This is noteworthy because we don’t normally see many around town. Oh, and some Chinese girls approached me and I had to refer them to Hermen again! They wanted to take one of our lighter bowling bowls.

Our next stop was a small bar called “The English Corner” where many foreigners go and hang out and listen to English music. Our final destination was a bar called “The Banjo Bar” where we enjoyed a live rock band. There were more foreigners there. I don’t know if they all showed up there because of Mads’ posting online but there seemed to be a convergence. You could almost forget you were in China. It was a fun night of beer drinking, singing and dancing!

Don's Birthday

The school gave Don a birthday party. There’s a hotel on campus so we just headed over there to the restaurant for dinner with a few of the other teachers. Here in China, when you go to a restaurant to eat with a bunch of people, you normally get your own separate room. Guess this makes it more pleasant because it's quieter and there's great service since one server stays in the room with the party.

We had a nice meal which was capped off with a birthday cake. Kathy and Hermen gave Don a bilingual map of China, which we have been looking for. Michelle, the lady who hired us, gave him a box of tea. Rob gave Don a case of his favourite peejiou (beer). I think our memories of China will definitely include peejiou (see next post).

China in Mourning

Along with the rest of the country, Don observed the moment of silence yesterday in class as the horns and sirens sounded outside. Unfortunately, I didn't know anything about it since I was home by that time. Last night, I flicked on the tv only to find the same news feed on almost all of the 60 channels. I didn't know that it was part of the national mourning until I read the CTV news this morning. A nation in mourning means no entertainment programming and the closing of movie theaters for 3 days. When I was out at a department store today, all the employees were wearing yellow ribbons on their sleeves. This evening, I noticed some of the students sporting China's flag in heart shaped buttons. There are also collection boxes everywhere. Don just figured out tonight that he was getting the news free on his cell. Apparently this is related to the earthquake too. The cell phone company, thinking that everyone is eager for news, is sending the feed for free at the moment. Obviously, they hope that people will continue to subscribe to the service after the free period.

The images of the disaster have been unforgettable and heart breaking. Our thoughts are with everyone in that area.

Foreign Experts’ Day

Every year, the government of Shandong province arranges a field trip for the Foreign Experts (a.k.a. foreign teachers) to show their appreciation. Yeah, we really like the title, especially the “expert” part. This year, we visited the city of Linyi. Before we left, the students told us that Linyi is the 3^rd and remaining area in China most likely to be hit by an earthquake. We tried not to let that bother us.

We left Jinan in a convoy of 8 small buses with police escorts, who remained with us for the entire 2 day trip. Now I know how the Prime Minister feels. When we arrived in Linyi after 3 or 4 hours on a modern highway, there was an army of policemen stopping traffic at each and every intersection so that we never had to stop at traffic lights or bother with any traffic. It was hilarious when we crossed one intersection where the policeman had stopped a man and his dog so we could drive by. I felt bad the whole time that the city’s crime rate might have been affected whenever we were on the move. Surely, there was a better use for all that manpower.

The population of Linyi is reported to be 10 million but we didn’t see that many people while we were there. We did see construction at every turn. Tower after tower of apartment buildings were under construction. One of my students told me that the people of Linyi mostly live in the surrounding area. Because the apartments looked rather pricey, I gather they must be for investors and not for the current population. This is definitely a city growing at a quick pace.

We had a busy first day. We visited the Linyi University (the 1st photo is our group looking at a model of their enormous campus). Then we drove through the factories of the Shandong Lingong Construcion Machinery Co. Ltd.(we literally drove through one door and out the other door of one of the factories and never even got off to take a closer look at the heavy machinery, the boys were disappointed). We visited an exhibition of the urban planning of the city (where we say a huge model of the expanding city). We saw a few historic sites: the former residence of Wang Xizhi (a famous calligrapher) and the Linyi Yinqueshan Han Dynasty Tomb where they excavated the original script for Sun Tzu’s Art of War which were written on bamboo slips. The day was capped off with a concert at the Linyi Normal University.

The highlight for us was the next day, for different reasons. Our first stop that morning was the Immense Beer Co.. The itinerary had that planned for 7:30 a.m. so I was a bit concerned. Thankfully, the time was our departure time and the plant was a couple of hours away. The boys were very happy at the beer plant because they enjoyed samples. However, since our next stop was a primary school, I was worried that we might show up as a bunch of drunken and loud foreigners. Who thought that visiting a beer factory was a good appetizer for a primary school visit? Thankfully, we showed up sober at the school but an hour late. Imagine how hard it was for the organizers to tear people away from free beer.

We were warmly received in this little village. The older people were all standing outside to check out the foreigners. Inside the yard, the children were all lined up according to height. We brought along with us some donations of toys, school supplies and money for this needy school. As I looked at their faces, I couldn’t help but wonder what was going through their minds as we descended on them. Some of us must have looked like giants to them.

We finished off the trip with a hike in the Menshang National Forrest Park. After seeing some of the natural beauty of China, we are looking forward to seeing more this summer.

We plan on posting more pics from this trip so stay tuned.

Happy Anniversary!

We celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary by going out for a lovely dinner. This is no small task for us here, going out for dinner. We haven't been able to eat out at restaurants much because we're basically illiterate.

The Chinese food that we're used to in the West is mainly Cantonese style. The food I'm used to at home is also Cantonese style since my family comes from the Canton region. The cuisine in the northern part of China is quite different so we've been craving more familiar dishes.

We learned of this Cantonese restaurant in town and was happy to hear that it had English AND photos in the menus. Bonus! We took the bus to a newer area of Jinan and walked along clean, tree-lined streets to get to the Shandong Hotel. The Cantonese restaurant was one of 3 restaurants at this fancy hotel. They also had a Brazilian BBQ and a Western restaurant (whatever that means).

We had a nice dinner with attentive servers. We didn't get to pour our own tea once! Don was supposed to have gone to a football game that evening. He was able to catch glimpses of it at the restaurant because they had the game on in the restaurant and then again on the bus on the way home. Yes, they have tv's on some of the buses here. We had a nice, independent evening and even got to take home leftovers - Chow Ho Fun :)