Shane (back in the day) 2012 relocation. (moved from old blog)

I indeed realise I am still half was through my retelling of Beijing and I haven't even started on Shanghai, but there are no pictures up of where I work or what I do. Dad keeps telling me that things I take for granted are actually kind of interesting....of course if they are not just don't read it.

My classes are all pretty cool, I only have the odd kid I don't like. Which out of 100+ students is not too bad I feel. the vast majority of my students are in the CL level which makes them about 7-10 years old, its a nice age to teach as the kids can sit and work but still love to run about like maniacs which is always good for comedy value. I have bigger kids and smaller ones but far fewer of them, my teenage class is possibly my favourite. 10 teenage boys and 2 girls, classes are spirally out of control into the bizarre and just plain weird. last lessons involve a 20 minute argument about who was better Marvel or DC. I like to think i won but they are just so big and noisy I wasn't even a close second. My apologies DC, I failed you. 

There are pro's and cons to every location, this one is very close to a huge shopping centre so we have food on our doorstep (although we are all bored of Chinese food at the moment), the school is brand new so it looks pretty amazing. Cons being that we have windows that we cant close (controlled by the building apparently) and the classrooms seem to be smaller so getting 14 kids in is a little of a squeeze. We just have to get creative and sit in big horse shoe shapes, tackle problems as they come up. 

The school I work in moved locations back in July to a big snazzy new shopping complex, or more accurately the office building next to it. We now have ten classrooms with interactive whiteboards, which are basically a bog toy in the rooms, however I am not hugely computer savvy so I don't rely on mine too much. Between my computer breaking tendencies and my computer's regular hissy fits we don't have a  great relationship. Regardless they are great for the little kids as they are fascinated with them and will do just about anything i say for a go on it. Great trick once i figured that one out!

Generally I love my job although ask me at half past eight on a Sunday morning and i will not give such a positive answer. Weekends are killer and I always sleep very well on a Sunday night, but it is easy work. most of these kids will get excited about colouring or a word search so entertaining them really is easy, plus they are an amazing source of amusement. especially when they cannot say something or get it slightly wrong.
"knife, fuck, spoon"
for example or my personal favourite
"put your Dick in your bag" I have a student called Dick and the kids don't really understand why i giggle when they say things like that.
In a recent test i asked a 6 year old boy "what can you do?" and he panicked a little and looked about for inspiration before screaming "I CAN DO MY MOTHER!" Whole office fell about the place laughing.

Christmas 2012 (Mam and Dad visit) Xi'an (moved from old blog)

Christmas Pt 2

After a few days in Beijing we flew to Xi'an for New Year. I was planning on trains but i couldn't get tickets, so we flew. 

Xi'an is an old walled city in the middle-ish of China, home of the Terracotta Warriors. I was there about three years back when i was travelling so I very vaguely knew the city, always handy when going somewhere. We even stayed in the same hostel as I did, the Han Tang Inn right next to the city centre. Well our first night was in a very posh hotel around the corner as we had turned up a night early. It was a huge room and very impressive but freezing cold, however the beds were very comfortable so we were happy to stay in them. 

The hostel itself was also very nice, clean, well looked after. a few things had changed since the last time i was there but three years is a long time in hostel years. New Year in Xi'an was very very quiet, there is a Chinese TV program that has become very popular, its almost a variety show with lots of music and silly mini shows and sketches. (similar to a children in need style program.) Well there is a much longer version for Chinese New Year which last several days and many people will sit and watch the whole thing, so i wasn't surprised to see people sat watching nearly 12 hours of it. The hostel was full over the New Year but the bar was very quiet, we were bought a beer at midnight and were given several more from others in the bar. Dad went on a mine sweeping mission and we finished all the discarded beers. In Chinese culture saving face is very important, so you cannot turn down a beer regardless of if you want it or not, so lots of drinks get wasted all the time. Dad attempted to put a stop to this waste and we finished most of the unwanted beers. 

So a quiet night but it was not without perks. 

New Years day we went on a tour with the hostel to the Terracotta Warriors. we were put on a mini bus with about 8 other people and a very nice tour guide. She had been telling us about the history of the Warriors and Xi'an and would throw random test questions at us to make sure we were listening. The warriors visitors centre consists of 3 pits currently (one more under construction) a museum and a few little other shows and cafes. Pit one is the biggest and three the smallest so we visited in reverse order, it actually wasn't too busy so we were able to wander about and take as many pictures as Mam wanted. in the middle of the visitors centre was an old style 360 film, it was basically 15 screens and projectors showing the building and hiding of the Warriors. It was a very low budget film that was good fun to watch, it showed the initial war, the capturing of the slaves, the sculpting of the warriors, the hiding of them and the eventual destruction of them by the following emperor. 

We were all taken for lunch and then back on the bus back to the hostel for about 5 pm. 

Xi'an has an old Muslim Quarter near the centre of town which has been turned into a mini shopping district, its all very similar souvenir style things but much bartering was done and Dad had a great time. It took Dad ages to barter with one guy over the price of t-shirts, eventually they settled and the guy ran away. eventually he came back clutching Dad's t-shirts but we had no idea if he was coming back at all, at one point Dad was yelling about selling the shirts from his shop himself. They defnatly did not know what had hit them when we went shopping.

Like i mentioned early Xi'an has a city wall which was restored in the 80's, its 12 or 14 kilometres all the way round with 4 gates, North,South, East, and West to get on and off. You can hire bikes and cycle all the way round. We only walked one quarter of it but that was plenty, the wall itself doesn't look to change but the city below the wall was interesting to look at. 

It was surprisingly difficult to find places to eat in Xi'an, I couldn't guess why. There was no shortage of street food and lots of very posh looking places but nothing in between. We found a small place on the same street as the hostel whose English Menu was 4 pieces of paper which were very old looking and ripped. The food was fantastic and the people who worked there were really friendly, they kept trying to bully their son into practising his English but in the three or four times we ate there he always look too embarrassed to say anything, Chinese or English! like I say the food was amazing and stupidly cheap. 

After 4 days in Xi'an we headed back to Beijing for a final few days of shopping and site-seeing, Dad terrorised the people in the shopping market again and bough nearly a full bag of clothes for Tom not to mention the silly hats and gifts. I think last count was 14 hats but i may be wrong, it was definitely double figures. Combine that with a handful of DVD's clothes for Mam and Dad and a visit to a tailor and they were going home with a fair amount of stuff. 

I gained lots too, Mam and Dad had brought out all sorts of stuff for me including a Christmas cake (which sadly did not survive January) and all sorts of clothes and things. 

After Mam and Dad left I had a whole day on my own which was spent doing my own shopping and bartering. I left Beijing with a new superman jumper and several pairs of earrings. A fairly profitable holiday i would have said. I dont really want to go back to work anymore!

Christmas in Beijing with Mam and Dad, 2012 (moved from old blog)

 I'm dreaming of a Beijing Christmas. Pt 1

Forbidden City

So, Christmas in Beijing? 

At first glance a stupid and idiotic idea, first Beijing gets a little chilly in the winter and second it gets really bloody cold in the winter. Yet despite this, Beijing is somewhere that I will always love and as I also love Christmas, why not spend it in Beijing. (That and mam and dad were flying into Beijing to visit.)

I finished work on the evening of the 23^rd and flew early morning 24^th, a short 3 hour flight and I arrived! Met mam and dad in the airport with only a little wandering about, and jumped into a cab heading back to Sanlitun hostel (where I used to live with Clare). It had been 18 months since I last saw Beijing and it felt like a homecoming, well it is the closest thing to home for me in China. 

One of Dad's hats 'borrowed' for the week

We were put in a room in the hotel across the courtyard, which was not ideal but a perfectly nice room, plus every day we got business cards for hookers posted under the door so it had its advantages. So much had changed from what I remember from living in the area. Things I thought would be gone were still there and things I thought would outlive us all (dumpling lady) had gone. It was hard not to be disappointed with some stuff, the silk market for example, used to be a huge fakes market where you could get some great bargains, but what was a market now looked like a mini shopping mall type centre with doors and glass walls where a table and an old lady once were. It was much nicer looking but had lost its chaos charm and the atmosphere had completely changed. Luckily the other market nearer to the hostel seemed to have picked up the slack and was now very cheap where it used to be a little on the pricier side. Generally, it was a case of looking for the relocated shops or restaurants that I remembered. Gave a treasure hunt feel to any shopping days we had.

Christmas dinner was a Beijing roast duck served with a multitude of other dishes and was a beautiful meal. Duck is one of my favourites anyway but definitely better than dry turkey and sprouts. Presents were exchanged Christmas eve which was mam and dad just unloading their bag of clothes and shoes onto my bed, they had brought out heaps of stuff and just as I needed them too. I cannot buy clothes in Southern China, as the people are annoyingly short, so when I find trousers they are always several inches too short. 

In the first week, we did most of the normal touristy things; WangFuJing and bug street, a few parks, a lot of shopping, the local bar area and much more. Plus we found a new local bar to go to as my one had changed into something not so great. The weather was freezing cold but with enough layers and a hat we were able to walk around and visit places without suffering too much and getting uncomfortable/miserable/cranky. Dad bought a hat in almost every place we went and left China with the hat count in double figures! No idea how he plans to wear them all, maybe an elaborate rotation schedule and double layering?

My favourite food, some big pancake crisp thing.

 As all of us had been to Beijing before we were not left with the need to go to see all of the “must-see” places, which meant we were able to just wander round and never felt like we were missing anything. We did a few but generally; we walked all day every day and crashed in the evenings, slowly eating our way round the city. 

After a week in Beijing we went to Xi'an, the plan was to get the train but I couldnt get tickets. so back to the airport and a 2 hour flight to Xi'an on one of the bumpiest flights i have ever been on. Wasn't pleasant!