Ghost-town Campus and Globe-Trotting

Okay so this post is probably going to be a bit long and involved as much has happened since the last one and I have had no time to update. Basically fro December 25th Xmas party until now the students and staff gradually trickled off home from campus for the Spring Festival which takes place on January 25th.We have 5 weeks holiday and during this time most of

more Hong Kong Glitzy skycrapers

the foreign teachers nip off on their travels,either to warmer climes (it is freezing here) or in some cases off home to see their folks for Xmas and the Chinese New year.So we are doing both- we decided to travel a bit,especially as it is REALLY cold here,and then we will go home to Israel for a couple of weeks to see the boys, and my dad and to do a bit of paperwork that needs taking care of .Second semester begins here on February 13th so we are flying back here on the 10th.

 

 

So on January 7th we got a flight down to Xiamen, a lovely coastal town which we had heard good things about. Coincidentally two of our colleagues,Iain and Courtney are doing a 3 week Chinese course there and another Becky arrived just after us. We spent 3 lovely days in Xiamen which lived up to its reputation as a great resort,with seaside,lovely warm weather and a charming island called Gulangyu which is car-free and used to be home to Europeans looking to escape to a romantic getaway. The little winding streets and seafood restaurants are kind of like Cornwall but not really! There are also lots of funny little knick knack shops selling porcelain and wooden cats,for some reason. The island is reached by a small ferry from Xiamen which is itlself an island. Xiamen proper is a pretty big city complete with western style shopping malls,flyovers and restaurants and also a lovely nightlife area full of bars where Chinese with dyed blonde hair and cowboy boots sing songs by Bachman Turner Overdrive and Queen.

In the evening we met up a couple of times with our friends from Lin’an for Hotpot and Italian food and one time for a beer. We left Xiamen by overnight sleeper bus for an 8 hour trip to Shenzhen, the border crossing into Hong Kong. The sleeper bus was very weird.You board the bus at 10pm ,remove your shoes which you place in a plastic bag at the bottom of your bed,and go to sleep and wake up in Shenzhen at 6am where you can cross over customs into Hong Kong which is truly another country. Not only do they use Hong Kong dollars and speak Cantonese and English,they also drive on the left as in England. The whole place felt like one enormous glitzy shopping mall. We spent 5 nights there and I can’t say I was totally enamoured of the place- maybe for people who care about Yves St.Laurent,Chanel and all of that crowd it’s shopping heaven but we really felt we could have spent more days in Xiamen more profitably.Plus it turns out that a lot of the wow of Hong Kong is based on the amazing views from the top of Victoria Peak and Victoria Harbour,but since it was horribly cloudy all the time we were there we felt a bit cheated on that score. We did get a few good shots of the harbour at night with all the lights,but again, not the most exciting place we have been on our travels.

tram in Hong Kong

On  our second day in Hong Kong we took a tram to a little island called Lamma Island which also has no cars. Unfortunately the weather was not very kind to us again. It was very misty and a bit drizzly. The island was nice but not nearly as nice as Gulangyu. We did have a great evening at our friend Nigel’s house, met his lovely wife Susan and very much enjoyed their local cuisine. Many of the things we had planned to do in Hong Kong seemed to be dependent on the sunshine,so we left Hong Kong feeling a bit underwhelmed. We flew back to Hangzhou and on to Lin’an to find the campus completely deserted. We did meet a friend,Simon, a German who is studying Chinese here. He said that nearly all the campus shops and restaurants are closed,and we shared a taxi back up to campus with him ,and indeed the place looked like a ghost town. We are only staying here 3 days luckily, just long enough to pack up the stuff we have bought to take home and then we will take a bus to Shanghai and then fly on to Israel on Friday.

misty view of Hong Kong island from Ferry to Lamma

Lamma Island Ferry landing

Hong Kong Glitz

Beach at Gulangyu

Gulangyu

Making Jiaozi with Danny’s class

Today was Danny’s last teaching day of the semester (I already finished mine) and his students invited him to a session of jiaozi (Chinese dumpling) making at a party they organized. He of course asked if I could come too,and fortunately they agreed. So we went off to a very weird sort of empty apartment which the students hired for this event. It is traditional to eat dumplings at New Year in China,and the students (about 40 of them) had brought all the ingredients over to this apartment ,together with various other things, a drink called Huangjio and a sound system. Daniel,the class monitor came to fetch us and take us to the apartment,where we were showered with  a large quantity of said dumplings. Then they asked us if we would like to learn how to make them-and I am sure you can guess what we answered. There were various different fillings and very soon we were rolling and filling along with the best of them,It was a lot of fun!

Xmas Dinner at the Wonderland Hotel

This was an event of such epic proportions that it gets a post all of its own. Our Irish friend Patrick, who teaches at another campus of our University downtown got 8 invitations for foreigners to come to a FREE Xmas Dinner at the five star Wonderland Hotel in Lin’an. This hotel is about 10 minutes by car from our University but located on the Lake front and is apparently where the very rich of the town go to spend Xmas. The hotel sent its own private bus to pick us up and return us safely home. For this we were required to each sing a Christmas song. Danny and I rehearsed Halleluia by Gali Atari all week,as Patrick,who has been to this event 3 times before, assured us that the guests would not be aware if we were singing in Hebrew or in English. On arrival at the hotel at about 4.30pm we were shepherded past a large model snowman and various decorations,and a guard of honour composed of liveried waiters and waitresses with Santa hats,to a huge dining area full of every possible kind of food. There was a Chinese food buffet, a Western main course buffet, salad bar and Dessert buffet. Another table had soft drinks and tea and coffee and yet another with alcohol, the only item which was NOT free of charge.We immediately loaded our plates and tucked in. The manager came up and shook us warmly by the hand and thanked us for obliging. We listened to two Chinese girls dressed in white robes playing Xmas songs on the White grand piano.Then a choir of white robed maidens lip synced to Xmas carols.Finally it was our turn to sing our songs which went off reasonably well. After that there was a raffle- the lucky rich winners got an Ipad 2 and a 5 day holiday in Korea (we speculated as to whether it was to attend the Funeral of Kim Jong il or the Other Korea).

WE were then presented with gifts -some kind of plastic toy that whirrs around and lights up,and Chocolate Santa Claus figures.At around 8.30 pm we were escorted back home in the Hotel Bus full and very amused.

End of the Semester-Exams and Parties

As I wrote in the last post, we are busy with final exams,grading and preparing for the Spring Festival break( which is in the Winter,go figure!)

.My 6 Literature classes have a written exam that I have to mark , and my 2 Freshmen oral classes have been tested in a small interview,much like the Bagrut oral exam.Some of them told me it was the first time they have ever been tested orally in English and were very nervous. The English majors have been busily preparing for the exam,and seem (for the most part) to take it all pretty seriously.So tomorrow I will give an exam to around 120 students in a huge auditorium (freezing cold-no heating) and students take the exam with their gloves,coats and hats on! But of course, NO extra time, no LD dispensations (ignoring spelling mistakes,oral test or any of THAT stuff ,fellow EFL teachers!) And,also by the way,many students thanked me and gave me a big smile as they handed in their tests.

Then my loyal assistant Livia will help me put all the grades into the University computer system (in Chinese). After all the exams and parties are over,everyone will leave for the long Spring break,the students going home and the foreign teachers off traveling. We will be going to Xiamen,Hong Kong and then a brief visit back home to Israel,before we return for the second semester on February 13th.

Last night we were invited to Autumn’s house (the head of the English department) for a Christmas Party and farewell as she is off to study in Manchester,and she introduced us to Teresa, her replacement.

There were 7 foreign teachers and our respective student assistants there,and everyone brought potluck dishes to eat. We then exchanged gifts in something Ryan described as a :Yankee Swap” in which each person opens his present but if he doesn’t like it he can exchange it (once only ) with another guest. I was most satisfied with my electric foot warmer!

Then Autumn presented us with a little gift each and handed over “baton” to Teresa who promised to help us with all our problems in the coming semester

The Lovely Autumn

.It was a lovely evening and made me realize again what a great welcome we have received from everyone here,both staff and students.

Fran one of my lovely students

My electric Footwarmer

Winter is here -end of semester stuff (skip if you aren’t a teacher!)

Well we are fast approaching the end of our first semester here at ZAFU. The time seems to have really flown by. Everyone is making plans for traveling over the 5 weeks or so vacation that we have. We are going down to Xiamen for 2 days,then on to Hong Kong. From there we will come back here to fly home to Israel for a couple of weeks,before returning here mid-February to start second semester. I have been reflecting on the teaching experience a little here- and it is really hard not to make comparisons with “back home” even though it may be a little unfair,since I have not really taught much in the University in Israel (except for the Hebrew U summer programs and a few short courses here and there). Anyway what have I learnt? Firstly students here are SERIOUS! And I mean that. They are now all studying hard for their final semester exams,sometimes leaving the dorms at 7am and leaving the library at night.They don’t seem to have much life outside their studies except for a few clubs and activities that they participate in. Now the students who did presentations for me in class were very earnest and tried very hard,but were very boring on the whole.Many used powerpoint and played movie clips and music,but mostly just read from the slides and were terrified to just speak,in many cases they had no clue what they were actually reading. I think they had used the Chinese version of wikipedia and just run it through the translator.Yesterday I gave a class on the Liverpool Poets and tried to explain to them about the atmosphere of the 1960s,the Hippies and the Psychedelic music and art,and they were completely baffled. I just can’t get them to be creative at all,it’s really hard.They are polite,and attentive but they just answer you what they think you want to hear.

I would be happy if my colleagues respond as I am curious how it all sounds to you from “over there”. It’s pretty cold over here now-thank goodness we have a/c in the apartment and the electric blanket was the best thing we EVER bought. And the noodle soup in the new cafeteria helps a lot too (it’s a do-it-yourself thing-choose what veg,noodles and meat you want and they make the soup for you and all for 6 shekels a bowl!)

 

 

Lingyin Temple with Yinsheng and tea with Mark

This weekend we made another new friend-Yinsheng Pu who works for Absolutechina.com and was introduced to us by Flora, who is a friend of our Indian friend Aadil. I think he looks a bit like a Chinese version of Erez Tal.

We met up with him in Hangzhou and he asked us what we would like to do and we said to go to Lingyin Temple,(the Soul’s Retreat) one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Hangzhou-about 1,500 years old- and maybe in China. IT is still an active temple and I think a rich one. There were loads of people there to offer fruits to the Buddhas and to pray.The Temple is set in a lovely scenic area with trees and mountain trails, known as Peak Flown from Afar. All around the temple there are stone buddhas carved into the mountainside and then the temple complex itself is full of gold covered buddhas in various poses,surrounded by huge statues of fearsome warriors. Unfortunately photography is not allowed inside the temple structures so you will have to surf the web to find pictures of those statues. We photographed only the exterior.

After a lovely morning at the temple Yinsheng took us to a Chinese fast food place (our favourite lunch) and then kindly accompanied us to the number 21 bus stop so we could get the bus back to Lin’an.

We sincerely hope we get together with him again very soon.

Today we invited a colleague of Danny’s called Mark (don’t know his Chinese name) to have afternoon tea and cakes with us. He was going to come with his girlfriend, a graduate student from Edinburgh University but she unfortunately couldn’t come in the end. We had a lovely afternoon with him chatting about all kinds of things (and his visit spurred us to clean our apartment at last) and then went to eat supper together at the new restaurant on campus. We talked about loads of things-Israel,China,education,the students etc and it was very pleasant. But,as I said on Facebook,China is making me too fat!

Yellow Dragon Cave or the Chinese Shidduch

This was a real Hangzhou weekend as we went there on Friday to visit the Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital (Danny did some tests don’t worry he is okay) and again on Saturday. The Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital is the one we were recommended by several people as it has an International Clinic and doctors who speak English and are qualified etc etc. So we duly arrived there after having made an appointment by phone with a delightful receptionist fortunately fluent in English. We waited precisely 5 minutes in the reception area which looked more like a Hotel Lobby and then we saw the doc who did all the necessary tests with remarkable speed and efficiency.Everything was clean with carpeted hallways and nice comfy chairs and we got all the results back immediately and returned to the doc. Then the nurse took us to pay (about 600 NIS we will get back from Insurance) and went to fetch the medicines for us.It was all easy, quick and above all devoid of stress- nobody pushing or shoving or shouting. We only saw about 5 other patients there probably as it is too expensive for the Chinese ,although we did see lots of Chinese milling around downstairs but not at the International clinic part.

Hospital Waiting room

We then went to eat at our favourite Chinese Fastfood restaurant Yng He Da Wang cheap clean and quick and bussed home.

Saturday we were set to meet up with two friends- first we met with Leon Yuan and his wife Yuan works for a tourist company ,and was introduced to me by Flora Wu who is a friend of our Indian friend Aadil from Virtual Tourist. We were going to meet her in Hangzhou but she is on a tour right now so put us in touch with her colleague Yuan who showed up,to our delight with his wife,whose name I didn’t catch. After a quick Cappuccino  they took us to a place called Yellow Dragon Cave,only 10 minutes walk from the place where our bus plonks us down in Hangzhou but which we had never heard of before.The cave is a popular spot for locals as it is believed to bring good luck especially for people looking for a marital partner. The cave is in a lovely park with people doing Tai Chi and dancing and playing traditional Chinese music.We didn’t actually go in the cave as it was too crowded (leave it for a weekday) but we saw loads of parents and grandparents looking to find a partner for their kids. Many were holding signs with their offsprings’ details on ( height,age,education etc) and some fixed their signs onto trees near the entrance to the Cave,It was a laugh and some of the people asked us if we have eligible children and asked how old they were etc. So apparently Chinese granmothers and mothers are just as bad as Jewish ones.!

• 

West Plaza

Then they drove us in their brand new BUICK(??) to another part of the city,where we walked through a small market which to Danny’s joy sold a kind of pita type thing,and out into the above West Plaza which looked more like a square in Europe.There was a huge shopping centre there and outside they were building a stage for afternoon singing and dancing performances. There were also a lot of little booths selling all kinds of toys and kick-knacks.From there Yuan and his wife took us to Gudun Road where we had a lunch date with another English teacher. We said goodbye to Yuan and his wife (what’s her name?) and agreed to meet again soon for another fun weekend and went off to meet Nathan.

Nathan is a fellow English teacher from Oxford  whom I met via Raoul’s China Forum. We had arranged to meet at a cafe called Myth Cafe, mainly as he wanted to try the English Fry-up.The food however turned out to be crap, most of the items on the menu didn’t exist. But we had a good time chatting to Nathan and comparing notes about our various jobs and experiences in China. He has already been here a year,and moved to Hangzhou from Chengdu principally to be closer to his girlfriend who works in Ningbo,so he is there most weekends and this is the first weekend we have managed to meet up. Anyway we came home after a long day with more great Chinese experiences and memories,and have discovered that there is a lot more to the city of Hangzhou than we first thought.

Me,Yoan and his wife after Cappuccino

 

Visit to Leifeng Pagoda,Hangzhou

Yesterday was another beautiful sunny day so we decided to go off to Hagnzhou and explore again. Since it is warmer outside our apartment than in it we tend to do this at the weekend. Also we are trying to figure out how to get around Hangzhou by bus instead of taxi as we want to feel less touristy.(joke) Anyhow we got to the bus station and after one attempt at getting the no. 8 bus in the wrong direction(driver did not let anyone get o ) we got the correct no. 8 and reached the Pagoda which is reconstructed as the original one from the 10th century got destroyed.The view from the top was magnificent and we had the usual “Please take our picture with you” from curious locals.We are now used to feeling like Robert Redford and Julia Roberts. We then walked a bit around the stunningly beautiful West Lake and then went to Omar’s Indian Restaurant for  lunch. (Real Indian food but sadly no Nans or Chapatis till evening )As we were going into the restaurant we ran into my student Chris and Miles,the Canadian who used to teach at ZAFU but because of the 5 year maximum rule had to leave and is now teaching at another university in Hangzhou.

We then got the number 8 back to the bus station to go home but unfortunately got stuck in the rush hour and the journey back home was otherwise uneventful.This morning it is Danny’s 65th Birthday and we are feeling more and more as if we are on a second honeymoon. I was going to write about Danny’s experience as a judge of a speaking competition but since this is my blog I will leave that until I join him in the next round.

Things I’ve learnt in Lin’an (2 month summary)

Well we have been here just over two months now and frankly it feels a lot longer.Lots of things were strange for the first couple of weeks and pretty much everything was exciting. Now we feel at home on campus and around town,even though we still get lost.

So these are a few observations:

1.The most dangerous thing on campus is the likelihood of getting mown down by a silent electric bike or one,two or three students riding one bicycle.

2.Students carry umbrellas at all times -either because it’s really hot o rjust about to rain.

3. Regarding the above the phrases “The weather in Lin’an is very changeable” and “The food is very delicious” are not just phrases the students have learnt to recite as I first thought,but the gospel truth.

4.It’s hard not to eat too much when the food 5 minutes from my door and costing around 4 NIS a meal is “very delicious”

5.It takes 12 minutes to walk from my house to the class except when my leg is in severe agony.

6. Chinese students frequently wear glasses frames with no lenses in because they think it is beautiful and makes their eyes look bigger.

7. Students here have mostly not heard of Israel but they have heard of Einstein who they believe to be an Israeli.

8.If you have a holiday it’s not really a holiday as you have to make up the lesson on another day,including weekends and night-times.

9. Students who don’t have a lesson will go to sleep anywhere they happen to be, including on the classroom desks at lunch-time.

10.If you don’t have time to walk to the university cafeterias you can order the food from a guy who will bring it (and also tea and cappuchino) on a moped-but for this you have to be able to speak Chinese.The same goes for ordering the little electric bus that whizzes around the campus and will take you anywhere on campus for 1 RMB (50 agorot)

11. Don’t be alarmed if something goes bang at 7,30 am on a Saturday morning (or at any other time of the day or night) it’s usually someone getting married -or sometimes a new store being opened.

Bride on Campus

 

that’s about it for now-but I will add more thoughts later.