What came next?

6 fantastic weeks in South America , follow our adventures at http://5travellingamigos.blogspot.com/

impromptu holiday on my way home

relaxing by the pool

well, i had to go to city to buy some bathers!

My departure from Guanzhou was not as easy as expected. I left the appartment with directions from NiCole who instructed the taxi to take me to the Railway station, travel to GZ, car hire to Airport (a much quicker trip this time). My flight was cancelled!

2 day layover in KL, basic expenses covered (but not my shopping!).

Pool, bar...tropical gardens for an impromptu little holiday.

tour of duty ends....for now

with Natalia in the last class of the tour of duty on her birthday
with brother Ryan
with Dandan teachers assistant and interpreter and classroom conflict manager.
after knock off, to 3D bar for a Coopers
Daffy, from the gym, she is very enthusiastic!

Planes, trains and automobiles is the agenda for Monday.
Nursing a slight knee strain from class today, from being a rabbit hopping or was it the kangaroo? must improve fitness and agility! At my age, in a skirt too, how silly but fun. Icing with bing piju (inside and externally), luckily sitting down most of Monday.

Apartment manger has offered to assist in the morning to get a taxi to the Lohou Station. I have the instructions in Chinese but he is pulling out all his customer service stops for 6.45am! Maybe he wants to make sure I go!

With goods in storage or in use in Hilton, Kingston Park, Kilburn, Unley and now Shenzhen, I'd say that's really spread out-thanks to all for your help.

I am NOT looking forward to swapping warmth and humidity for the cold or chill of winter but the brain might appreciate a rest from flying by the seat of your pants and modifying teaching plans as the lesson progresses.
I had an open door this week which is where the parents come to watch their kids for 40 mins and all the games resulted in either tears or huffs as they got very competitive for 9 year olds! Modify and modify again! Learning is meant to be fun....not traumatic.
Back to TAFE for 9 days for "project" work before heading off to Chile, Peru and Bolivia.

Signing off for now....next message probably from OZ.

Cheers and thanks Shenzhen for your hospitality.
Thanks for reading and sending your feedback, messages and greetings.

Yiwan , Y-Von-Na , Yi Won Na , many pronunciations and none of them painful!

Towards the final countdown

High Flyers, graduation for some
Dinner , a roll your own Chinese burrito at a Muslim restaurant.

Friday night felt like a Friday as I had the next day off. I ate out at a favourite Muslim restaurant which is clean and the menu has pictures. The outdoor table was pleasant as it was a nice evening with lots happening in the street. A lady came and offered to help me order, she was obviously keen to use her English and show off a bit which I didn't mind as I was undecided about my order (except for a bing pinju TsingTao). Tasty meal, increasing my new repertoire by one.


Saturday, a day off after 10 days of teaching. I went with Luke to the electronics area by bus and subway, to buy a memory card for my camera (much less than purchasing from around here) and to price some other gadgets for people who had asked. The uncertainty over quality/price/compatibility through mostly sign language was too big a risk with other people's money! I'll take a fluent speaker and bargainer next time (Luke bargained well).


I found where all the foreigners hangout - at Shekou a trendy area about 3 km from Nanshu, I saw more today than the last 8 weeks all together. Not a very friendly lot though, hardly a hello smile from any.


What a treat, Olympics on many channels, flipping between the tennis (in English), badminton, tabletennis, basketball all on Chinese channels. keeping up to date with Aussies through the internet.


Having packed the kitchen gear and taken it to work for storage , I went out for a takeaway as I can not order a home delivery ( no read Chinese!). On may way back in I shared the lift with a young man and his Chihuahua which stared at me all the way up 25 floors ( the dog not the owner), equal fascination between us in the strange thing before us!


Teaching tomorrow from 8.45 and finishing at 5.30 with teh two VIP students I started my first class with weeks ago. I have survived the summer teaching , but the others have two weeks left after they increased the sessions to 8 weeks ( brings in good revenue).

Housework, not hard in such a compact place, packing down to two shopping bags of household stuff and a case of clothes to stay and a bag of clothes (reduced in size) to bring home. My additional Chinese language skills will not take up much room but I can see potential for a longer stay of actually learning some phrases. I'm working on the second line of teh Olympic song to follow Beijing hauan ying ni...which is so catchy.

My maths was tested today with converting yuan to USD as the bank didn't have enough AUD anyway. It was nice to get paid yesterday with enough time to convert as you can not exchange RMB outside of China and I am sure airports take more percentage.

Anyway Olympics getting exciting with some great women's tennis (Chinese of course)... you might get an update if anything exciting happens tomorrow if not, I fly out Monday, home on Tuesday.

Week 33 , graduations and Olympic fever

Paper craft giraffe small stars (5-6)
Trail Blazers graduation with parents after an Open Door (parents welcome for last 40 mins of 3 hrs)

Small Stars 0 (3-4yo) on basketball Von with MaMa and Elmo
Monkey (Carol) leading me into the Fun O Land fun

Micky with his art deco Union Jack (Olympic flags)
High Flyers class graduates, some go some stay some new!
Monkey and Von at Fun O Land
Dinner, meat off teh skewer at Brazilian BBQ

Ok, I'll admit it, I have used my out of school time to watch the Olympic coverage.

this last week at school has been a week of graduations as kids leave to have a shortened summer holiday. It's a bit of a revolving door as new students come in for a short summer term!

We went out to dinner at the Brazil BBQ which is a full on feast! This was the summer teacher's farewell and thankyou. I know I ate some things I'd rather not know about but most of it was very tasty. A party afterwards at Luke and Lei's allowed me to meet a lot of the other teachers from the other two SZ kids schools, resulting in a warm feeling about coming back and a list of things to bring back with me like Lucas Pawpaw cream (which I have some of anyway).

A kiwi with a really strong accent sided with me vs the Canadians (who have won no medals yet). A really mixed bunch - Canada, Cameroon, Philippines, Poland, NZ, Aussie, England, Ireland, Swedish maybe....many non Chinese teachers in China teaching English.

The next morning I was on duty at FunO Land, the kids zone nearby and I have to say with no shame that I loved it! Crawling through tunnels that wobble and shake, climbing over wellpadded obstacles and being shot at by foam balls. Don't let on how old I really am! Wednesday is the day off so I have mine on Saturday, convenient for packing I guess as I fly out Monday and teach most of Sunday.

I found a bar 3D which is a beer bar and sells Kilkenny on tap, Newcastle Brown and Coopers by the stubbie! Not cheap but the TV was on a China bravely lost to Spain in the Basketball. Very emotive crowd. Had to get to dinner so I left before the end which was sad for China.

Greetings from Yiwan, my Chinesed name apparently.

Home to SA soon, mummm, Maggie Beer, Mr Dinh's, A crisp sparkling white, french toast and a really good flat white coffee immediately come to mind. Hindley Street for coffee...the rest will follow. I am due at work for a meeting at 8.30 am after arriving on schedule at 6ish, after customs etc and a change into work clothes at teh airport , the J 1 bus to the city and - TAFE here I come for 9 days work (to pay for upfront costs of return to China later if all permits come through).

I look forward to catching up with family and friends. More photos will be posted on Facebook

Till next time

Let the games begin! Soon.

My front row seat for Opening Ceremony, probably similar to yours, only the size of TV will differ!
5 steps to the fridge (including the turn to open the door!)


One World, One Dream


Is there any chance that can be world peace in our lifetimes?
An amazing opening ceremony, courtesy Hong Kong Tv (SZ is so close it gets off mainland TV in English), we have ages for Australia as it will come out as Odalia (spelling??) in Pinying.

I have a total of 5 steps to the fridge, five to the bedroom and the TV is centre stage but so far I've been spellbound by the precision and technology from Chinese performers. I had to wait for an ad break to fill my glass with a South African Sav Blanc to go with scrambled eggs on toast!

I poked my head out of the window a few minutes ago and there is not much activity compared with a normal Friday...everyone at work and all teh students were going to watch the opening ceremony from home or a pub. Home sounded good to me, cheap, safe and airconditioned!

An Aussie from Radio Australia manged to get a commentating spot with HK TV so I expect to get some parochial support when Aus comes out.

My guess for the lighting of teh cauldron - a dragon somehow or a phoenix in a high tech display or something so incredibly simple it will be awesome!

Join me in a toast for a sucessful Olympics, terrorism and disaster free, politics minimal and games spirit upmost ? Beijing haun ying ni - 2008
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=QFQ1JDw-d70
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ8ZaeRb8yU&feature=related

Ghana look splendid in Kenti cloth, there are countries I have never heard of and will be hunting for on the World Map at school tomorrow!

time to upload the blog before I lose the link....happy Olympics to you all in any country you support.
cheers

tune

Finish Summer week 4

My apartment on 25th (top is 32nd). Middle with the balcony in centre of photo.
My bike and I in corridor of school

end week 4 (Trail Blazer Mid class)
say no more!
ground floor new building temp accom for construction workers?
Goodness, send more moisturiser! taken by Luke with his old my new camera!

At the time of writing the Beijing games are only 5 days away and what I haven't learnt about the Fuwa or the Friendlies mascots isnt worth knowing! Teaching it everyday makes even the chinese phrases sink in. Just in case you didnt know....BeiBei, JingJing, HuanHuan, YingYing, NiNi are the 5 (Blue , black, red, yellow, green) representing the 5 original continents also remind you of the 5 olympic rings??? Well, the phrase "BeiJing HaunYing Ni "means "Beijing welcomes you" so even 3 years olds know the 5 mascots. Bei Bei (Fish)- Sea/water) JingJing(Panda) HuanHuan (Fire/flame/Phoenix), YingYing ( Tibettan Antelope./ earth) and NiNi (Swallow/ Environment). have a good look at their symbols http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/

to see the resemblances. BeiBei (swimming, kayaking etc), Jing Jing (Weightlifting), Huan Huan (NFI - I forget), YingYing (Athletics) and NiNi ( gymnastics etc and also represents the Continent of Oceania including Aodaliya-Australia). See, told you it was very important trivia, but for once I am nearly an expert and I can also unravel the mystery of teh Sydney 2000 mascots (Syd, Mille and Olly) but I have no idea about Athen 2004! Must have slept through that two weeks.

Teaching was reasonably uneventful. Continuing to please the "masters" which is good news for a intern rookie! farewelled 4 students from one class as they take their summer holidays ( pleased to see its not all work and no play). Made my first 'little one' scream on Saturday, she is only 2 and was a bit scared of a big yellow haired foreigner ( yes yellow not ginger, red or graying) but a bit of time spent with a page of Mascot stickers "brought" her aound to actually touching and talking to me as we sat on the floor for 20+ minutes. I felt great afterwards having melted a barrier or two with some time invested for the future.

I managed a hug from a 3 year old as well so my fans are growing as long as I don't give them too much homework I suspect!

Food wise, I have managed a mix of few home cooked meals of Chinese style and a good steak, mash, veges and mustard washed down with an Argentinian Red. Tonight , eating out was an Udon noodle beef curry which I have to practice how to eat in public - I can slop but I can't come at the China Slurp (the noisy enjoying of the food sound that comes with eating out with locals).

yesterday in a 4 hour break in classes I discovered an area of shops that include some bars and an Illy Coffee Shop, not bad but I say the best coffee so far is MacDonald's brewed coffee with milk (not creamer). Can't wait for a real Adelaide Flat White, I might just risk one at Adelaide Airport if I can afford it.

Two weeks of teaching left, I am glad that i am coming back ( fingers crossed) because there is so much I haven't seen and done yet in SZ, in fact I am not 100% sure on what there is to do, but I'll work it out later.

I bought some clothes yesterday, some3/4 pants, suitable for crawling between the crayons and the glue sticks in a small stars class, skirts not suitable. long pants too hot for summer school. An outing to Decathlon is like visiting Rebel Sports meets Snowys outdoors - tents and sleeping bags, backpacks and footballs plus a full range of outdoor clothes, badminton rackets and bicycles! home sweet home!

Start week 5 - and countdown to the Olympics with a day off on Wednesday.... thanks for reading so far, it must be winter back home with slow TV and bad weather.

Guess what I bought today?

135mm
28mm from bedroom window
local street stall, plenty green veges
hand held shot with Image Stabiliser (IS)


Pay day, first since arriving.......Tempted by the best offer this side of the Great Wall, I decided to buy Luke's Canon EOS 400D camera body, an upgrade from the Pentax I sold before leaving for China, especially at the price. He was buying a new camera (bigger body) so we went off to make our purchases somewhere off the metro. He bought a camera, I bought a 28-135 zoom lens. Lei is great at bargaining (i am going to commission her for my apartment search in October!) so we got a great price. Photos above are the test shots. It's good to be working with someone who loves photography, hopefully i will get back into photography, not just taking photos.
Lei and her mum (visiting from the Philippines) came too, lunch at Macas ( a treat for all) and then clothes shopping. I bought a pair of shorts (my other pair is too tight around the middle!) and a black pair of Crocs (@25Y they are a steal...or stolen or a great fake).
I paid the rent, had dinner out, bought a couple of DVDs and that was my day off. Back to school tomorrow.

Luke is the boss, the Director of Studies (DOS) and Lei is the Senior Teacher (and she and Luke are married).

Business as usual

the traditional Chinese herbal "cure" for the cold, drink hot like herbal tea

Billy taking his turn in the "swimming" class
A youngster playing sax outside a musical instrument store- a rather beautiful rendition of "edelweiss " to an audience of parents and locals
traffic jam on Saturday night en route between school and home

Small Stars Life Club with David the TA, Robin, Sophie,Carmilla, Von, Monkey (Carol), Jacky, Billy, Leigh


Well, business as usual, not long to the Olympic kickoff and not much longer before I head home for a while pending release from TAFE and Chinese visa being granted. I'm already being considered as a full time staff member with some very pleasing feedback about my teaching. Maybe I should have stuck with my first decision to do early childhood teaching way back in 1977! You get there in the end it seems.

Looking forward to Wednesday, day off with a journey to a great place for shopping in Shenzhen. Luke and Lei are taking me so we can look at cameras and lenses. ( yeh, i know I just sold mine but I have a urge to get back into photography especially as Luke is an enthusiast and has a good contact). Not only do I get to see a bit more of the area, I can also see what I have to look forward to when I come back. ( I can bring less clothes and more books!)

Not much news or amazing events to report, just business as usual. Stay tuned.

A little bit of excitement

Small stars 3-4 yrs young learn about football (Sunday morning)
The elusive China Post, 2 minutes from my apartment!
A little bit of China without the high rise, 5 mins from home
5 minutes later, a fire engine was turning into our driveway (below)
Partway down from the 25th
residents watching the flashing lights and pouring water from 15th floor

Hi all,

Wednesday, my day off. This was to be a lazy day with a sleep in to try and outwit a brewing headcold. I tried some of that wonder honey to scare off the cold, hope it works. Finally went out for a short walk to the elusive post office which as it turns out was under my nose the whole time around the corner disguised as yet another large shop. A couple of souvenir Olympic Post cards and a short wait to post them (Armstrongs and cafe 23) in airconditioned comfort.

I decided to lengthen my walk and look in some shops I haven't seen before and located a camera I was asked to look out for. A fruitful expedition which also netted the local swimming pool (handy as I have to talk about swimming with them , now I know where some of them go)

a couple of papaya and the ATM to take out RMB pay my electricity bill.

I was half expecting a phone call to play badminton with our centre manager but she wasn't sure if she would get back from Guanghou in time ( I didn't get the call which is just as well-I would have missed the excitement.)

I'd been taking some photos of an almost cloudless sky out of my window then decided to check my emails. A few minutes later a roar of sirens and a fire engine turning down our road then into our driveway - no fire sirens in house so people stuck heads out of windows and balconies to see what was going on.

Then I heard an announcement which was not in English , I think it was in airport speaker language (almost undecipherable) and decided if it meant everything is OK, and I left I could get some supplies and if it meant please leave in an orderly fashion I would be best assuming to go down 25 flights. Others also seemed uncertain (and they looked like they should have understood the announcement!) and by the 20th floor plenty of activity could be heard, including pouring or gushing water, by the 15th floor the stairwell was wet and firemen were going and coming. The external exit door was locked, luckily there was an alternative safe exit and we stood in the foyer watching water pouring down from above. "Kwai dien" ( quickly) says a security man, ushering us past the wall to the outdoors.

I gave up and had dinner nearby, a noodle soup and lemon tea for the huge sum of 15 yuan (2 dollars), makes up for teh days I am indulgent.

When I got back the building was safe but the queue for teh lifts was huge so I decided to test my legs on the 25 flights of stairs. In 85% humidity I think I have sweated out the cold surely, dripping with sweat at the 25th floor, not to mention sounding like a puffing billy steam train I did it! I'd better set two alarms for the morning.

Oh, I also sent off an email to English First to accept their offer of a 12 month contract from late October ( have to fit in a 6 week holiday with friends in Chile, Peru and Bolivia before that).

Pending leave without pay from work and the granting of a working visa, Shenzhen 3 Kids school you have to put up with me for a while yet.

Nothing much happens and I can still take up so much of your time in reading this. Now to try and correct some of the typos but I will leave some of my trademarks in.

I don't think I have chased off my head cold, I'll have to keep my distance tomorrow.

Thursday's trivia

Hiya,
You can all stop looking for an affordable toaster costing less than a Chinese bicycle...found one, made in China (toaster not bike). I can now add variety to breakfasts with toast or quick cheese on toast snacks, to supplement Rice Bubbles or Cornflakes and yogurt. To go on my toast I have a berry style red jam "cupie jam" which Jen, Deb, Hoa, Catherine will know from Chinese breakfast options. I found some wholemeal bread ( unsweetened) and invested in the nicest honey I have tasted in ages. On a "gut feeling" I bought some Chinese Xin Zhi Yuan Bee Product with dichotomous factor (?!). The box indicates that it is "Produced under strict biological technological process." Its also good for the young, the middle aged (oh hello pick me) and the elderly-not quite yet thanks. It's an ideal choice for those who overeat spicy food, stay up late and an antidote to a whole gruesome description of digestive ailments. It's really runny so I think it will escape my toast but all the honey was runny (I think they use it for drink additive not food topping). Its 88% something...10% natural honey and 1% each from lotus seed and leaf. A bigger adventure than imported French runny honey for a similar price. It cost 1/3rd of the toaster so I hope I haven't blown my hard earned RMB. I could always follow the drinking instructions and add to tea or water. Stay tuned, I'll let you know.... on more strange food adventures.

Forgot to say two new Foreign teachers started this week, 2 guys from Canada adding a new dynamic to the teachers' office with 4 foreign teachers + DOS and 3 local teachers creating a traffic jam at times and some creative scheduling for similar resources. With all of us teaching at once the centre is fairly lively with good natured noise and cries of no Chinese, this is an English school!

Cheers.

A drinkable GreatWall Cab Sav? read on

Shenzhen is a seaside port
A huge thick Mango juice
dinner, all gone
domestic-hanging up washing on small balcony

teaching 4-5 y old small stars (Chinese TA to help with language)
1995 vintage
on yer bike, on my ride to the port area (about 3km)
yummy
Fishing fleet surrounded by building sites

Not a lots happened since the last posting.

Teaching, a bit of light (OK lazy) gym work, eating in and sampling wine from Argentine and lo and behold - a drinkable Great Wall Cab Sav (1995) for 75RMB, comparable with imported wine of same price bracket. The cheapest Aussie wine I have seen so far is around 105RMB (divide by 7 to convert to AUD) and decided I'd rather continue the adventure by tasting the unknown...

Teaching graduated from easy good fun with rewarding students through to having to work the room quite hard to get some input from students (the "whatever" and if its not a computer game, don't bother me ! age group).

Reward for that is a day off. A short sleep in, a reasonable bike ride to the see the HouHai Sea and look longingly at Hong Kong where my visa doesn't allow me to go! Oh forgot to add I visited the Decathlon sports store ( I knew it was a bad move, so many lovely things including some bikes that look much less China Domestic and way more comfortable for a westerner to ride. )Bought a pair of mountain bike shorts, making my ride a whole lot more comfortable. I just can not get the seat high enough for good leg extension so without gears I feel like i am pedalling a minibike. Definitely will be selling it off at the end of my contract to a person more suited to a Domestic model bike - No need to worry Friday, a six km ride on China bike is equivalent to 60km on Bike Friday for discomfort!

I got to the sea, saw some of the fishing fleet, the origins of Shenzhen until 25 years ago and then evaded a circling thunder storm, escaping with damp but not soggy clothing.

I have eaten my way around Shenzhen Nanshan and Shekou district today. lunch was at Tropicana, a Italian Coffee and Swiss bakery ( Iced espresso and a rare beef and salad croissant) and the paper SCMP =South China morning post?

A huge mango juice at a swanky shopping centre and then while i was in Wal-Mart I was invited to a customer afternoon tea (Coke and watermelon). Dinner was Japanese Seafood fried rice at Ajisen Ramen after a swim at the gym. Home to test the Great Wall Red ( cheers for the Swiss Army knife with bottle opener- I didn't have a tree handy - Jen & Tina will know the story as you had to be there!

In all my travels, I did not see a China Post outlet, but then again, I haven't seen any postcards either.... Domestic duties of washing and sweeping the floor also took up five minutes of my day.

I was looking at getting a toaster (now I can find unsweetened bread) thinking they are not expensive at home but here they are comparatively expensive - half the cost of my bike and in fact on special, you can by a sit up Chinese style clunky bike for less than a toaster. Now I am beginning to think in RMB or CNY (Chinese Yuan) rather than AUD. At 210 RMB that's about $30AUD, far too expensive an outlay for just 5 more weeks. The iron was only 28RMB about $4 AUD - get my point?

On the weekend I have a program called life club which is an hour of one topic. This week's is Football (round ball code for Aussies) so imagine me teaching 3-4 year olds and 5-6 's about goal, ball, football, boots, crowd, penalty all at the top of our voices. Cheers Dad for the research on a computer based download as we have online real time access in the classrooms so I'll be able to use it with any age.

See not much has happened since I last wrote but if you are still with me you must have rotten TV programs on or its too cold or too wet to go outside!

Enough for now.

Cheers.