Zai jian China

I've been somewhat lax as it has been somewhat busy with all of the preparations for our departure. As it has been so busy I am not fully mentally and emotionally prepared. I feel like I'll be back here in a few weeks working with the same colleagues, hanging out with fabulous friends and teaching some familiar faces. 

The last 2 years have gone by in a whirlwind. I have learnt so much professionally as well as personally. I've also had some fun and made some amazing friends. Some of the best times have actually involved teaching friends the Ukulele, with a few drinks to help. Another highlight is somehow managing to persuade a group of teachers to get on stage and sing an arrangement of "Goodnight Sweethear" with the words "Goodbye Students" on the last day in 3 part harmony.

It has been a crazy last week in Suzhou. One of the more memorable moments involved my husband going to Shanghai for the final pet check, but getting the wrong car. Apparently the guards from the compound pointed to a car and he got in it. The only problem was that it wasn't the car we booked. This is one of the dangers of living somewhere that you don't speak enough of the language to communicate in this situation. Thankfully the person at work who had booked the actual car was able to speak to the driver and persuade them to take my husband and our Labradoodle to the vet and back in Shanghai for less than our original booking. However, there was a major traffic jam and it took them 4 hours to get there. I believed that we were buying a car in Phuket as it was a necessity, but I think it may now be to stop my husband getting into strange cars!

On a positive note Bella, our gorgeous Doodle, got her export license and is officially booked on the flight ot Phuket on Wednesday. Phuket Quarantine sent us an email that makes no sense. Fingers crossed! An English Teacher from my new school emailed me to explained that he arrived late at night with his dogs when quarantine was closed and they appeared on the baggage carousel amongst the suitcases. I can't wait for Bella to appear with our luggage! It'll be her birthday when we arrive and so her birthday present is a trip to the beach.

I've been to 3 leaving dinners/parties in a week, received several highly unexpected presents, letters and cards with amazingly kind words. People have made such a huge difference to me in so many ways and still I don't feel like I'm leaving.

A thoughtful colleague decided that the leaving teachers needed a sort of leaving item to be signed by their colleagues. So, she asked a highly talented and fabulous Kiwi Tech Teacher to laser cut some Shanghai skylines. They are so beautiful and thoughtful. I felt like one of the kids making my way around the foyer trying to get some of my favourite colleagues to sign it! Having the words to look back on alongside the memories really helps with the move.

China has been one crazy ride. I can now shop and haggle reasonably well in Chinese. I can try desperately to get them to believe that I don't eat meat, they are not convinced by this at all though. I've done my first half marathon on the Great Wall of China with my husband and traveled more than we have for quite some time. Although we don't want to prolong our stay her in China it was the right move for us and a whole new adventure is about to begin.

"Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow."

Anita Desai

Smog Winter 2014 - 2015

Smog is something you deal with living in China and if you've read my previous posts you'll know that it's something I'm not a fan of. During our first Winter in China we endured pollution exceeding readings of 500 on our AQI apps. It was a huge deciding factor in our decision to search for a new position and move on.

This Winter it hasn't been as bad and you find yourself in the staffroom telling people that it really isn't that bad, purely because it's only gone over the 300 mark a couple of times. We've even had days that it has dropped below 100 and that is exceptionally rare in our experience. We have air filters this time around and polution masks. Running in a pollution mask is tough and somewhat ridiculous. Getting the mask to seal perfectly is a losing battle. Getting the high quality windows of our apartment to seal is not even worth thinking about.

The view from our apartment when the pollution is low.

As soon as the pollution rose after Christmas I got sick. I've actually had 5 infections in 3 weeks and I'm still trying to get over it. There are days when we aren't convinced that the AQI apps are right. You struggle to see out of the window, the air tastes funny and you use your inhaler more than ever. As someone who has only ever suffered with exercise induced asthma in Winter I often forget that I have an inhaler. Recently I have had to use my inhaler every day and actually wheeze quite badly.

Spring Festival Smog.

The smog has put a huge dampner on our experience of China. The school where I work has also had a very large turnover of staff due to it. I feel for the local staff who have grown up in Suzhou and are also concerned for their health and that of their families. 

How can we save our planet?

Good Samaritans or Admitting it Was All Your Fault

People who grew up in a society where Christianity was the predominant religion are familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan. A guy gets robbed and hurt on the road, several people pass by pretending they can't see and eventually someone stops to help. The moral being you really should help people in need out.

In China we were told don't help. This goes against the grain. It is really hard to pass someone who is hurt, trapped under an e-bike or lying on the pavement looking ill. Unfortunately if you stop here it means that you are admitting that it was your fault. You were the one that casued the person to be in that state and therefore you have to pay their medical bills and if they cannot work you are keeping them for life. You only help if you are guilty.

To put this concept in context a little more I would like to relate a story from our household. My husband went to the Doctor's on his own in Summer on his e-bike. It is lass than a 10 minute ride from our apartment and the road is busy. It was very hot and he needed a blood test. On his way home he realised that he wasn't feeling that great and needed to stop. He remembers pulling over and unclipping his helmet. The next thing he remembers is waking up in the middle of the road with his e-bike on top of him and his helmet no longer being on his head. No one stopped to help him. When he got home he had some cuts and scrapes on his arm, shoulder, hand and a nice bump on his head. Lots of people would have passed by on that road whether they were walking, driving or riding and despite the fact that he was right in the road he was not helped.

It is really unfortunate that you can't help anyone and no one can help you without there being the potential for a large sum of money needing to be changed hands. People may help you in some situations, but certainly not if you are injured.

Harbin Ice Festival 2015

One place that everyone told us we had to visit was Harbin, not for their beer but for the ice festival. Some friends said that they were going and suggested we join them that weekend. We left our booking somewhat late and so flew with Spring Airlines. The perfect choicee if you like less leg room than your average airline, a good 30minutes of an airsteward trying to sell ridiculous items over the communication system and vintage aircraft with multiple patches and signs of aging on the body. 

On arrival in Harbin we didn't have a car booked so headed for the taxi rank which is sign posted, the only thing is there aren't any taxis in the advertised location. The taxis are somewhat hidden around a corner and are nearly all the more expensive black taxis. We knew it was only about a 40min ride so we weren't expecting to pay more than 100RMB. The meter and had been partially obscured during the journey by the driver's tea bottle and so we were shocked on arrival at our destination that it read 246RMB. Unfortunately none of our friends had warned us that many drivers in Harbin tamper with the meters. This scam happens regularly in Harbin and we were the unlucky ones. Apparently you should get the driver to agree to a flat fee of 150RMB. Not much help to us now.

We met up with some of our friends as we had all been on different flights and headed down to Stalin Park. The park is on the frozen river and becomes a playground for people of all ages in the winter. It also becomes a great place to make money which is somewhat ironic considering the name of the park. Large blocks of ice have been stacked and transformed to create castle like facades with grand arches and turrets. You can ride down to the river from an ice tower on a wooden sledge or travel up a travelator and race numerous other poeple down on a rubber inflatable. You could rent an ice bike or a series of seats joined together with metal poles in had to puch yourselves across the ice. Alternately you could pay for a ride in a buggy, on an inflatable banana, on a rubber ring being pulled by a vehicle, on a snow mobile, on a dog sled or a horse and carraige. It's amazing that you can safely walk, ride, slide and play on the river whilst being safe and seeing the sheer depth of the ice that you stand on. 

I was completely sucked in by the chance to hold a snow fox at Stalin Park. We saw a man holding a snow fox and he had a second behind him asleep on a blanket. He was playing with the fox and it seemed quite happy. For 20RMB I got to cuddle a very soft, warm snow fox. It behaved like our Labradoodle and went to rest its head on my shoulder and sleep . I was lucky that I was able to hold the snow fox for so long as when we visited other tourist spots people were allowed one photo and the fox was taken away. Unfortunately all of the other people we saw with the foxes really did not seem to be treating that well at all and this made me very sad. In hindsight the snow fox I held was probably little different to the others and I majorly regret supporting animal tourism in this way.

A little later we walked to the St. Sofia Cathedral. It certainly holds the Russian architecture and many of the traditional features of a Russian orthodox church. Inside the building is full of photographs. Sadly the exhibition made little sense to us as the captions were in Mandarin characters. The Cathedral was the only real stand out piece of Russian architecture that we saw and I found that rather surprising.

Our final stop on the first day was the largest sculpture park. You need a driver and quite frankly you need that driver to act as a tour guide and get you in. You can visit during the day for about half the price it is at night, but we had been advised that night was really the best time to go. It would appear that every person in Harbin had been given the same piece of information. Our driver decided to give up trying to drive to the actual entrance, but parked and then guided us between the vehicles. Police were at the entrance refusing everyone entry. We were  advised by the driver to make a line behind him and not let anyone split us up. We turned ourselves into one very stubborn conga line and held on as best we could. People all around were pushing and shoving, trying to break through the police line. The moment that the police were willing to let anyone through the crowd surged and we were genuinely scared that we were about to end up in a stampede situation. You’d think that passing the police we would now be in the park, but no. We had to wait for our driver to persuade someone to add a couple of people to our line to make us a group of 10 so that we could go through the group line. The final hurdle was being aggressively shoved through the turnstile by the person collecting the tickets.

In the park itself you can see an ice wall of China, castles, igloos, a train, slides, a grand piano, armchairs and more. There were a large number of people in the park, but nothing compared to the crush we had experienced outside. Probably the most dangerous area in the park was the stairs in the castles. As you climbed there were people pushing past you trying to reach the top before you while others tried to descend on the same side. Excellent health and safety. The igloos served as an ice bar where you could drink blueberry brandy or blueberry brandy or blueberry brandy.  The temperature does drop in the evening and there are places inside the park that you can go in to get a hot drink and keep warm for a few moments. The scale of the ice sculptures is impressive, but the lights do make it a little gaudy.

For our second day we planned to head to the smallest park near our hotel and then onto Sun Island to see the sculptures prior to our return to the airport. If you check on line Zhaolin park is open 9am - 9pm. This is sadly not the case. It is open from 13:30 - possibly 15:00 and then 16:00 - 21:00. We quickly called our friend who spoke more Mandarin than us and got the driver to take us to Sun Island earlier. Sun Island has large blocks of ice that have been carved by hand into some form of statue or sculpture. It is vastly different to the all of the other parks. Some of the sculptures are part of a competition and the plaques describing the inspiration and some of the translations were really quite entertaining. The intricacy and sheer size of some of these sculptures were really impressive. In some respects I think that this park was more impressive due to the type of skills that were used in creating them.

We didn’t go to the tiger park as many other tourists do. For us witnessing animals being thrown to the tigers to be destroyed didn’t seem like something that we wanted to do. Tourists can buy something to have thrown in and that really just doesn’t appeal to us at all. There are few other attractions in Harbin so you only need a couple of days, but you really need a local driver to help you. If my Mandarin speaking friend hadn’t been with us we would have been completely and utterly stuck. It’s an expensive weekend from Suzhou, but it’s a once in a lifetime experience.

Cat Café

A large number of people would have first been introduced to the unusual concept of a cat café from having watched Karl Pilkington visiting one in Tokyo. I thought it was utterly bizarre that people would pay to go to a café, buy a drink and then play with some cats. On our first trip to Japan we came across a cat café and could not believe how expensive it was. 

We currently live in Suzhou and stragely enough a cat café has opened down Pingjiang Lu. Why they decided to open a cat café I have no clue. I think it is great for the cat population of Suzhou. My husband and I were out for the day visiting the Suzhou Museum, needed a drink on our way back to the metro and found ourselves in the cat café. Inevitable really.

The cat café is a little tucked away and has a wide variety of cat themed products that you can buy. You can pay a fee to enter or you can buy a drink. Some of the drinks are cheaper than the entrance fee. Someone clearly went to business school. We decided it would be a bit of fun and something different. There were a lot of cats. There was a problem though. On the tables there were diagrams demonstrating how to pick up a cat without upsetting them. It's not a problem if the cats are awake or used to being handled.

The 3 cats that were awake had a couple of tactics for avoiding people. One sneaky cat would check if the coast was clear, assess the quickest route to the next scratching post and dodge the hands that wished to pet it even if it meant diving under tables, over cushions and around chairs. Another cat climbed to the heighest perch of a post and feigned sleep. The third cat would sit near you, with its back to you and after a few gentle strokes would try to bite or swipe you and then disappear to another part of the room. We named this delightful feline Grumpy Cat. You can see Grumpy Cat in the photo keeping a good 50cm distance, being grumpg and not making eye contact.

Adam picked up a couple of cats. So far so good. He sat down and placed the cat on his lap. One second later and the cat was gone. Three failed attempts and he gave up trying. Nearly every cat pretended to be asleep and avoided human contact. How long the business will last, I really don't know. 

The Wax, My Eyebrows and a Moment of Sheer Panic

As many of you may have read my previous posts about myself and my hair having some serious issues here in Suzhou. Today my eyebrows and I had quite a scare.

I was a bit of a late bloomer when it came to make up, hair, eyebrow plucking and so on. My hair skills were limited to a pony tail or not a pony tail until perhaps 2 years ago and I genuinely believed in the powers of clear mascarra until I was about 15. I think that should give you a fairly clear picture as to how much I have cared and known about "beauty". Having said this I hopefully know better these days and try to look a little better than the blank canvas genetics gave me.

My eyebrows were looking somewhat overgrown and I had been putting off going to get them done due to weekend work commitments and the cold I would have to face on my e-bike to get there. Today I had decided it was time and booked an appointment at my local beauty salon that just so happens to be owned by the wife of a colleague.

With my appointment confirmed I hopped on the e-bike on my short ride to get myself beautified. It's always nice when you arrive and they give you slippers and hot tea. The girls speak little English and show the list they have memorised. Sadly eyebrows was not on the list and when I pointed they cast some horrified looks at one another and then speedily called their boss. The alarm bells were beginning to ring slightly, but I'd had my eyebrows done here before. It would be fine. Wouldn't it?

I went into the room and lay down where told. It was somewhat dark. Concerning. The wax arrived. Still rather dark. Hmmmm. First touch of wax on. Appears to be in the usual place, but she can't seem to pull it off. Second piece of wax all over me! They decide they now need to wrap my hair in a towel to protect it and try desperately to wash off the wax that they have dropped all over me. Time to panic. I unfortunately caused a slight scene and began storming out as the owner herself arrived and quickly volunteered to fix my eyebrows.

For future reference body lotion, massage oil, hand cream and warm water do not remove wax from where it should not be. If you find yourself in this unforunate situation please recommend make up remover.

The good news is that I still have 2 eyebrows that are nicely shaped. The bad news is that I had to go and buy a secret santa present with lobster like colouring surrounding my eyebrows.

A School Production in Suzhou

This is my first week of this academic year with no school production rehearsal. I am pretty excited not to have this hanging over my head any longer and the great thing is that it was a success. I've normally been the Musical Director and I've normally been in a local school where the community are completely behind you.

It is a challenge being in an environment where the local community are highly unlikely to support you, mainly due to a language barrier. You also have to deal with nearly all the technicians don't speak your language. Having said that it is pretty exciting to do a production where there are a multitude of languages and cultures. Selecting an apporpriate show to cater for an entire student body of middle and high school students that can be watched by elementary students is a huge challenge. Considering the talnet available and the facilities is another issue all together. Thankfully my colleague had an idea and I was more than happy to share in her vision to produce "James and the Giant Peach".

We certainly faced some challenges. Some students who normally got involved in the productions decided that it was too "childish" for them whereas others who would normally from being discouraged involved chose to take part. There were a lot of highs and lows from the start. Things soon began to turn around when the students saw the thought, time and effort that had gone into this. There was excitement over costumes, set and staging. We considered tiny details from the very start and wanted to give the students a production experience that would hopefully surpass what they had experienced before.

My amazing colleague turns out to be a PR Queen and organised a dress up day, readathon, floor stickers and a million other things. There is no doubt in my mind that without her there is no way the production would have been as great as it was. I almost feel quilty that my name was anywhere near it after all of her amazing work.

The script was short, there were media inserts, audience particaption and no big song and dance numbers. I couldn't watch! As A Musical Director you have something to do and some control. As a Director you have to find somewhere where you won't be driving people insane and can keep yourself somewhat sane. I tried a variety of tactics and it turns out that I am better off in the corridor waiting for it all to be over. The lovely teacher that we had on the lights decided that I looked so awful that she appeared the next day with a survival bag and I am eternally gratefull!

The feedback has been the best I have ever received. Despite not selling as many tickets as I would have liked the feedback really has been overwhelming and we are very proud that it is being deemed the best production that the school has ever done.

Pretty glad it's over now!

The Giving Tree.

Last year we were busy struggling on our reduced Overseas Cost of Living Allowance and possibly not being as organised as I would like we missed out on putting together a bag of gifts for the Giving Tree. This year we have filled 2 bags of gifts.

Christmas has changed as we have moved away and as we've "grown up" traditions have changed. We didn't really exchange gifts last year either and that is partly due to the fact that we are travelling and most people don't do that with a Labradoodle or snowboards. What do you really need as a gift when you are an adult with income, savings etc.

My school is supporting the Giving Tree this year by filling 800 bags for migrant children and teachers at a school in Shanghai. These children tend to have 2 - 3 sets of clothes that would be hand washed and air dried. Entire families live in one room and bathrooms would be shared by perhaps 10 families. No insulation. No heating. No cooling systems. Families earn no more than 2000 or 3000RMB a month. My husband and I opted to fill two bags this year.

We were given a bag for a 7 year old girl and a bag for a teacher. Each bag should have a total budget of 250RMB spent on it and include a warm coat, hat, scarf, gloves, stationery and a gift. The student bag and teacher bag were slightly different, but not by much. The more we read the information and browsed the shops and Taobao the harder the shopping became.

You really shouldn't spend more than the assigned amount as all of the bags are opened together, but finding a warm coat for the amount you are meant to spend is not easy. We felt guilty adding up the amount of each item, but it would be awful for the childrens bags to be too different. It was lovely picking out cute stationery for a 7 year old girl who loves pink and Barbie. Cute stationery costs so little here and it was fun having an excuse to buy it all. Barbie dolls however was not really in the budget unless we used Taobao and even then we are a little over. How can you deny a 7 year old living the life she does a Barbie that cost 10RMB more than you are meant to spend?

Buying for a teacher I was a little worried that I couldn't purchase all of the necessities for the budget, but we shopped around and managed find a great wind proof jacket at a local market exactly on the jacket budget. We were also asked to spend a higher amount on stationery as the schools are greatly in need of supplies. I dread to think how long we actually spent in the stationery aisle at Auchan weighing up our options between various items. Bulk v's quality v's cost. Some serious debating happened in the stationery aisle.

I won't be there when the bags are opened as many of the donors won't be but I can only begin to fathom the joy that the contents of the bags will bring.

Many families live transient life styles or have simply uprooted for work. Every day I see a reminder of all those in Suzhou who are not settled but living in temporary housing for work.

Several emails, 2 Skype interviews and a decision.

Well it has been a very busy week with a lot happening. The pollution has started to climb again with a high of 327 seen on the AQI earlier this week and a climb above 200 earlier this afternoon. You could barely see the sun today as it was just so smoggy. I was forced to run with a mask on. This was going well until I got so warm that it unfortunately caused the seal on my mask to not work quite as well as hoped. It also backs up why you shouldn't run if you need to wear a mask. This proves my Dad's motto that exercise is bad for you.

If you read my post last week I am sure that you would expect me to have had numerous flattering comments about my beautifully cut and expensively coloured hair. I am afraid that I will have to disappoint you. Not one person noticed my change of hair. Despite the hairdresser's verdict that I arrived with hair that screamed "tackorama"and left with suitable hair, apparently the change was too subtle. The only other reasons I can possibly consider for no one noticing are that they either temporarily lost their sight or that they were just too jealous.

Aside from the doom and gloom of pollution and a distinct lack of compliments I have a ray of sunshine, a silver lining or some might say a golden ticket. Despite being unsure whether to stay or go I put my proverbial hat in the ring for a few jobs and spent a few days in email conversation with a school prior to 2 Skype interviews and then an offer, which was accepted. My husband and I are very excited as we are heading back to the beach and away from the smog. In 7-8 months time we will be flying to Phuket.

I had signed up for a job fair and more than one teaching recruitment site. I was intending on going to a job fair in January, though I was a little uncertain that I wanted to go through the cattle call again. It's also pretty crazy looking at the descriptions and school preferences trying to determine if you are really the person that they are looking for. There is also the added pressure of schools that do not like to employ teachers with a non-teaching spouse and the fact that I come with a Labradoodle in tow too. 

We did intend to stay in Suzhou for longer than the initial 2 year contract and we have some fabulous friends that we are really going to miss. The pollution was definitely directing us to the door. We were having doubts about leaving as we were having such a great year here. The second year is always easier as you know where you are going. You know where all of the fun places to go are. You've built those great relationships that matter. All in all we have been having such a great time. It is definitely bitter sweet leaving, but a job in paradise is too good to pass up. 

The other wonderful thing about the whole situation is that now the decision has made is that I can enjoy the rest of my time in Suzhou to the full. I am through with the uncertainties of what to do and where to go. We have some very excited friends and family who are all wanting to visit. Adam however has joking that only people who visited us in China are allowed and is in charge of bookings.

My lungs are pretty excited too!

Another Hairdresser Equals Another Story

Some of you may have read a previous post about my continual hair disasters here in China. Following the many disasters I decided to pay that bit more and use the hairdresser that my blonde highlighted colleagues use in Shanghai. This for me involves some forward planning as I normally don't decided that my hair needs doing urgently until the very last minute and beg for an appointment that same week.

So, I booked an appointment 3 weeks in advance and headed into Shanghai for hopefully some hair salvation that was likely to bankrupt me. I had my directions on a piece of paper and a hideous new umbrella from the train station as mine blew inside out earlier. I found the Salon easily and stepped inside. 

On arrival I was "greeted" by the owner who brusquely asked who I was, told me that the person I had booked with hadn't shown up, didn't want to do my consultation, told me that they would somehow "make it work" and directed me to a chair. Mere seconds after I sat down he went to work on another client and quite happily announced that he had a hangover and was wearing the clothes he had slept in. The alarm bells began to ring in my head. I am about to allow a man with a hangover and slept in clothes to touch my hair! Whilst furiously sending messages to friends that have been to the salon a little voice in my head is screaming at me to stand up and walk out. Two things kept me in the chair. The first thing was that my roots were looking really bad and the second was the scene that I would have created with so many other people there.

After 45 minutes I eventually got some form of consultation. He was certainly rushing as he was working on 3-4 clients at once. He did part of my colour and then moved onto another client whilst the most junior employee was asked to do the next stage, however he couldn't speak English and he got another employee to translate. Thankfully the owner checked and discovered it had been done wrong. 

As I was there for such a long time they offered to order my lunch. I had my favourite Vietnamese Baguette from B Real on Fu Min Lu. My lunch arrived promptly but was sadly accompanied by some Salon conversations that returned to the owners new products that he is making and selling at a trade fair in Hong Kong next week. I probably heard about these products 4 times in my 5 hour stint in the hairdressers. 

The end result is not really what I asked for, but it was a major iprovement on my previous experiences and the cut was really well done. In the future I would like to think that I can have a hair appointment that does not involve people with hangovers, lack of skills, patchy colour or being hit on the head by a hairdryer. 

Decision Time

Only Three months into the second year of my contract and I have already been asked to indicate whether or not I am intending to stay. This is a great question. Many international schools like the decision to be made by the start of December in time for the job fairs and other schools ask for a decision at the very beginning of the school year. It is a risk to resign when  you haven't got a job lined up. It's scary.

I sat down with my husband and wrote a pros and cons list for staying or going. Unfortunately the lists came out exactly the same in length. Not so helpful. Initially Adam had very much wanted to leave but has since changed his mind and wouldn't mind either way. Maybe my dream job will just fall into my lap before I have to make a decision and then it is all sorted for me. If only it were that simple.

One thing that really makes you want to stay is the fact that you've developed better relationships after a year, new people come in and you often have the curriculum just how you want it. I'm having a great time being Head of Grade this year, I know my way around, the curriculum suits my teaching style more and I like our friendship group.

We've discovered a couple of people among us who also play Ukulele and this has evolved into regular Ukulele sessions that include a lot of playing, sharing music and stories along with a few drinks and nibbles.

Will we stay or will we go? I have no clue, but I guess I need to have decided in a month's time.

Hopes, Prayers and Promises.

Growing up in the UK I have been used to seeing votive candles lit in rememberance and for prayers in Churches. You have to wonder if the candle helps and if it is really sufficient as it will eventually gutter and die. Does this impact on the efficacy? Does it mean that only the sentiments attached to the longest burning candles are important?

Earlier this year the Pont Neuf in Paris hit the headlines due to panels of the bridge tumbling away into the Seine. The Pont Neuf is famous internationally and covered with "love locks" attached by copious amounts of lovers who have imprisoned their love with a generic metal lock and then flung the keys into the murky depths of the water below. I've never bought into anything like this, but this Summer I couldn't resist. The locks looked amazing. It was like an art installation and I just had to be a part of it. 

It would appear that "love locks" have made it to China. In Wuzhen water town there is a temple dedicated to the God of love. Outside the trees are stifled by red ribbons with gold characters and biro inscriptions. Inside the temple there are rows of chains on the walls that have heart shaped locks and red ribbons attached. It surprised me to see the locks inside. I am used to the ribbons and other small ornaments outside the various temples , but I was surpirsed by the locks.

I started comparing the ribbons, tags and locks to the votive candles. Let's face it, they last a lot longer. They are bold. You can personalise them and you can enjoy the challenge of visiting at a later date and trying to find your own. The wooden tags I saw at a temple in Hangzhou were in a mixture of languages and contained names, dates and what it was that the person desired. I suppose the only problem you have is that it is no longer private.

The best thing really about these visual displays are that people still hope.

Hangzhou, Wuzhen, the Vegetarians and the Mean Taxi Drivers.

Having completed 6 weeks of teaching and 2 of preparation I for one was exceedingly grateful that "Golden Week" was no longer a distant speck on the horizon. Once again China prepares and participates in the world's largest human migration and why wouldn't you want to be a part of all of that chaos?

Last year we headed for Yangshuo, however we didn't check which days were the official Chinese holiday and it was manic. This year we were smarter and will be safely back in our apartment in Suzhou with at least 6 hours to spare before everyone else is actually on the move, we hope. Currently we are in Hangzhou in our room on the 3rd floor of a youth hostel very close to the Drum Tower and the historic Qinghefang Pedestrian Street.

We've been meaning to get to Hangzhou and thankfully we have made it at long last and the rain has stayed away. Amazingly the temperature is still hitting 30 degrees and is stupidly humid despite the fact that it is autumn. These conditions and the fact that we tend to walk miles and miles when sight seeing has meant that we have been somewhat sticky travellers. We've even walked further than intended due to the attitudes of the taxi drivers here in Hanghzou. In Suzhou and Shanghai we don't normally have a problem. Once in a while a driver may not understand my pigeon Mandarin or be able to read the directions I hold out pleadingly on my smart phone, but this is not a regular occurence. Here in Hangzhou we had nearly 10 taxi drivers turn us down all within the space of perhaps a 90 minute window. Some taxis were empty with lights on, saw us and drove on by. Some taxis stopped and asked where we wanted to go and then flatly refused whilst speeding away from the curb. The worst was the driver who wanted to agree on a price that was more than double the real cost the meter would have given, which he was refusing to use. We happily waved him away. The results of these mean spirited taxi drivers is an extra 3 hours walking bringing our total for the day stupidly high. I always thought that taxi drivers were meant to take you where you wanted to go and that they drove for a living. Apparently times have changed and taxi drivers may drive where they wish, when they wish.

Despite the miserable taxi drivers of Hangzhou we managed to take public transport from our hostel to the bottom of West Lake, walk up to the top whilst doing our best to avoid a few hundred 8 - 10 year olds on a school trip before eventually hailing a cab out to the tea plantations and museum. The air was a little smoggy and so some of the beauty of the lake and surroundings was dulled, but still pleasant and the tea musuem and plantations were a reasonable excursion. The plantations are nowhere near as impressive as the rice plantations along the Dragon's Backbone, but then again I am sure few crop plantings are. We did however learn that Longjing Tea is best served in glass rather than China and that in the Song Dynasty people had tea making contests that were judged by the foam and the way the tea sticks to the side of the bowl, much like you swirl your wine around the glass and watch it cling to the sides before slowly drifting downwards. 

There are a few places near the plantations where you can drink tea, beer, play cards and buy fruit from wandering sales people with their 2 baskets suspended from a sturdy bamboo pole slung over their shoulder. We had a pleasant beer and tea by the water in the sun with mosquito repelling incense burning by our feet. It was after this that no taxis could be bothered to drive us further South to the Six Harmonies Pagoda and we went by foot the entire way. The walk wasn't overly interesting and the map provided by the hotel was fairly poor with few roads and little English. All in all a great challenge.... I would love to conclude that the pagoda was amazing and worth the walk, but, it was just another pagoda and not in the best of conditions to be quite honest. If you don't have much time in Hangzhou and the sky isn't perfectly clear you can easily miss the pagoda and not miss a thing.

Food is a challenge for a vegetarian in China and Hangzhou is no different. Breakfast is fairly simple. I found a little shop making breakfast pancakes and so we get a nice hot breakfast made to order for 5RMB for the two of us. Lunch is nigh on impossible as we never seem to be anywhere near anywhere at lunch time and the majority of the dim sum we come across has meat in. We can ask in Mandarin if it has meat, but despite being told that it is vegetables we have often found meat. Lunch on the first day consisted of corn on the cob and some fries from a fast food restaurant that shall remain nameless. Dinner was some delicious tofu skin spring rolls full of cabbage and tofu and some ok pineapple rice. Day 2 in Wuzhen lunch was half a packet of biscuits and dinner was a corn on the cob. Day 3 is still open for improvements. If you are vegetarian and really will not eat food that has bits of meat that you could pick out be prepared to have the worst diet ever in China.

Aside from the usual food problems we have had some fun with public transport. We decided that we wanted to visit Wuzhen. The front desk at our hostel is reasonable for information and so we followed their advice and took the metro to the bus station and then a local bus out to Wuzhen for 30RMB each. As long as you can pronounce where you are going it is pretty easy to get a bus as it seems tickets aren't really sold that far in advance. We waited about 20 minutes after our ticket purchase and enjoyed an hour on a coach that was playing a DVD of a Chinese classical concert the entire was on high volume. On arrival in Wuzhen we purchased return tickets for the last bus just in case and then paid 2RMB for the K350 to Wuzhen. 

Tickets to enter Wuzhen are only sold during the day between 9:00 - 14:00. I believe they then start selling them again later for the evening and if you are staying in Wuzhen you can get a pass for the appropriate number of days. We have been to 3 water towns and this was our 4th. We only had time to do the Western zone of Wuzhen and it was great. The best thing is that there are several traditional craftsmen still working within the buildings here. We saw tradition blue and white fabric being created with starch and all of the bolts hanging from wooden frames several metres high drying in the sun. Not far from the fabric workshop you can find a pottery workshop where you can throw your own pot, fan painters, lantern makers and bamboo crafts. There is a temple, a pagoda, a museum about foot binding that houses the largest collection of shoes for bound feet I have ever or will ever see and the architecture of the streets themselves and the traditional boats travelling up and down the water only add to your experience. Being a lover of fashion and fabrics the most exciting thing for me was seeing a lady with all of the silk worm coccoons and a bucket of water beginning to process the fine, soft threads that were then eventually taken to the enormous looms where the silk brocade is still being made in the dimly lit carvernous stone building by ladies whose concentration and skill know no bounds. It is incredible to see so much work go into producing something so beautiful and for machinery not to be taking over. I would just like to say that I did not buy a single thing in Wuzhen, no fabric, no pottery, nothing. I did so well!

The streets around Hangzhou are great for curio shops, tea, stone carvings and all manner of fun things. It is noisy, busy and with so much to see. If you like soaking up the atmosphere of a place then this is ideal. There is an entire street near the Drum Tower that has stall after stall selling food at night. We saw fish that we have never seen before and some of the less desireable treats on sticks that for some unknown we reason we have only just seen despite having been in China for over a year. I really don't know who actually likes deep fried spider, but it appears to be quite popular.

We are off in search of tofu skin spring rolls and maybe a beer. Thanks to the ever present and talented Mr. Orangedog for being my personal phtographer. 

Camping in a Foreign Land

In my mind camps are really important. They are the times when students and teachers get to know one another better and break down some of the prejudices and preconceived notions that they have of one another. It's a lot of work running a camp and the paperwork is crazy, but I always believe that it is worth it.

I have just returned from 3 days in Anji in tents with 131 students. This is the first time I have done a grade level camp, taken this crazy number and taken students from a variety of nationalities. It's alsp the first time that I have had an outsource provider for the entire trip so I had no control over the menu, timings or anything really.

I learnt a lot from this trip and I will not be using an outsource provider like this again. I would much rather go to a high ropes course and use a provider there and run everything else myself. You only have yourself to blame if you are responsible. I prefer this to apologising for someone else and being continually frustrated because your requests have not been listened to or promises you were made were lies.

Despite an extreme lack of sleep and atrocious weather the students had a good time. It would appear that everyone's highlight was the rafting with 0.5 grade rapids and water guns. No one cared about getting soaked as we were already so wet and the water fights took the students' minds off the paddling they had to do. I ended up in a boat with 2 scientists and a librarian, all without boating experience and 2 who got rather caught up with the water fights that I ended up doing an extreme amount of paddling. It was an entertaining ride though.

Advise for anyone doing a camp overseas:

• Even if they say there is a wet weather plan don't believe them
• Plenty of good food = happy students and staff
• Don't expect to sleep
• Find out where the nearest hospital is and how to get there
• Take as many translators as you can to accomodate the demographics of students
• Think of all of the positives that will come out of camp rather than the amount of work you have to do. It really is worth it.

Catching up with a Fabulous International Couple

I am very lucky that since starting teaching I have met some amazing, inspirational people and formed some life long friendships. My Facebook is full of many of these fabulous people and I am really loving being inspired by everyone's adventures and passion for education.

Yesterday evening my husband and I were fortunate enough to meet up with Brian and Stella, who were in Shanghai for Brian to undertake an IB Physics course having just begun teaching internationally. We last met in Sydenty a few short weeks before Adam and I were due to head to Suzhou for our first international post so it was really nice to meet a few weeks after Brian and Stella have started their new life in Dhaka.

Normally when we go to Shanghai we are on some form of mission that normally revolves around shopping and our favourite Vietnamese Baguettes from B Real on Fumin Lu. This time we were heading in for an evening and after the fabulous cocktail bar and restaurant choices that Brian and Stella had made for us in Sydney we wanted to ensure that we did equally as well. The route to success involved google and insider knowledge from colleagues and previous Shanghai residents. 

Despite my planning and having addresses in English and Mandarin on my phone I did manage to intially walk in the wrong direction, oops. In the end we had cocktails at the Roosevelt Sky Bar which I thoroughly recommend. The pollution was low, the view fantastic and the cocktails delicious. The sky scrapers and lights of Pudong financial district are a great back drop for the tourist and commercial boats that continually sail up and down the river. Now I just need my parents to come back so that I can take them there too!

Dinner was a short, rushed cab ride from the hotel to Lost Heaven. I say rushed as the restaurant gives your table away if you are 15 minutes late even if you call. I can see why they have a strict policy as they are absolutely packed to their dimly lit rafters. It would be a good choice for a date if your skin is in bad condition or you are having a bad hair day as the lighting is incredibly flattering/lacking! 

All the place settings at Lost Heaven include some form of bizarre brass cover that is reminiscent of a tagine dish and appears to have no purpose. It was pointed out during dinner could be used in a Jackie Chan movie as a weapon. I can see it now...

Dinner was really delicious and light. They are certainly dishes that you could order in other local restaurants if your Mandarin is up to scratch, however mine isn't. The other great thing was the first question asked by our waitress was if we had any food preferences or things that we didn't eat. My Vegetarianism was no problem at all and she stopped me from ordering a vegetable dish that apparently featured meat. Sometimes the extra fee for a sound stomach and not having to return your meal because it is covered in the obligatory sprinkling of ground pork is worth it.

The night ended far too soon, but it was so wonderful to hear about the amazing adventures that Brian and Stella are having and their future travel plans. I am jealous of a couple of school policies that involve overseas PD and field trips, but then again I can walk to the corner shop and buy a beer for a normal price with ease.

Moon Festival Nanjing Mini Break.

My husband and I have just arrived back from our Nanjing trip and this trip has certainly had highs and lows. There were moments where I felt like there was likely to be a camera crew pop up and tell us that we had been "punked", however this didn't happen.

The Moon festival occured at the end of the third week of the school year and as induction had been 2 weeks that means I have worked a total of 5 weeks, and so a break was evidentally deserved. I darted onto my e-bike as soon as I could from work and made it home 10 minutes earlier than I'd believed I could, so far so good. We grabbed out bags and headed to curb to hail a cab. There was only one problem. It appeared that there was some of form cab exodus from our area. After 20 minutes of hanging in the street and hoping and no cabs materialised. Adam raced to grab the e-bike keys and we sped to the station.

I hate being late following an incident where my alarm was so quiet I didn't hear it and had to rearrange a flight... I stopped checking the time after we got on the bike as I just didn't want to know. We'd been lucky to even get train tickets as it was so busy with people travelling home and I did not want to miss this train. I hopped of the bike and as Adam locked it up I walked speedily across the road and proceeded to miss judge the height of the curb and land sprawled infront of the bus stop. I speedily raised my head and scanned the area Meerkat style to ascertain as to how many people had seen my oh so elegant walking and praying Adam hadn't. No such luck. The great news is that I hadn't needed to rush we still had 30 minutes before our train departed. The not so great news is that not only did my knee hurt like crazy and I was wobbly, but I had ripped open the knee of my right trouser leg. I know rips are in for jeans, not chinos.

The train was uneventful and the queu for a taxi insane, but we made it to the hotel without me managing to injure myself further. It was nice to be in a hotel rather than a youth hostel for a change and I made use of both the pool and the gym despite my angry knee which I am still trying to persuade it is happy. 

The concierge was sadly lacking at the hotel. They were there, but not very good at their job. We asked for a taxi to Purple Mountain, a well known site in Nanjing and they looked terribly confused. We eventually got some level of understanding and purchased a map for 5RMB and got a cab. We hadn't been in the cab long when the driver began trying to communicate with us and in the end phoned a friend who explained that due to traffic we were taking a different route. As we were on the freeway there was nothing we could do and just sat back and went with it. The cab cost 80RMB instead of the predicted 30RMB and after getting out at a busy junction we discovered we were not in the part of Purple Mountain we had asked to be dropped off at. Great.

Purple mountain has several options of places to see and things to do. We found ourselves roughly in the middle of the monuments, tombs and places to see. We started at Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum and then continued onto the Ming tombs before heading to the most ancient chair lifts possibly in existence for a climb past the observatory to the top peak and the big Buddha. With the temperature being around 30 degrees, the sun beating down and the humidity high it was not exactly the most pleasant day to be walking and hiking. I also got to the point where as much as I like the architecture the buildings were reminiscent of many others we have seen and I was glad to return to the hotel in less than half the time it took us to get to the mountain, enjoy my hotel bath robe and the pool.

Our hotel was a 5 minute walk from the Confucius Temple in Nanjing which China has awarded "AAAAA" for tourism. It must be good! The temple is surrounded by 3 small alleys that home to shops selling tourist items, beautiful crafts and the most spectacular crystals. The wider streets surrounding the temple area have larger, newer Chinese chain stores and of course the ever popular KFC. There is a section of water directly infront of  the temple and there are numerous boats offering trips up and down the water. The temple itself is marketed exceptionally well. They have stunning lights that project classic Chinese images onto the pavement infront. Performers dance in traditional costumees outside and inside you can see far more superior performances as well as stunning statues, ancient tablets and other artifacts. The atmosphere is great in the temple area and just as lively during the day, but perhaps more beautiful by night with the excellent lighting.

As our hotel offered a late checkout we decided to split the last day into two trips. We went back towards the Confucius Temple in the morning to take a boat ride and stumbled upon a garden that also housed several really interesting exhibitions including conflict in Nanjing and artwotk. It was a meagre 30RMB to entrer and we were really impressed by the amount there was to see and it was well cared for. The garden wasn't as spectacular as the gardens in Suzhou, but when you put the garden and exhibitions together it was very impressive. The boat ride on the other hand was not anything to write home about.

After a lunch break at the hotel we asked the concierge to get us a taxi to the massacre museum. Sadly we ended up at a monument and nowhere near the museum at all. We saw as much as we could where we were and learnt something about the strength of the communist party in Nanjing, but were rather disappointed to not be where we wanted to be. 

To round off our trip we had no problems getting to the train stationm, some issues trying to explain to a man he was in my seat and not to sit in Adam's. Then we had the pleasure of a man in front watching a loud movie with no headphones and actually snoring in a way that you only ever hear in comedies. Of course we needed 1 final problem to end our adventure and that was the taxi driver having no clue where our apartment complex was or the street it was on and so had to phone a friend.

Neighbourhood Centre Annual Food Festival

I planned this post nearly a fortnight ago and then missed writing and posting it as I indulged in a really good book that there was absolutely no possible way I could put it down prior to the conclusion. Today I am feeling the guilt for being so tardy in posting and so the night before the Moon Festival weekend starts with my bag packed for an adventure here I am typing.

Last year we accidentally stumbled across a food festival at our neighbourhood centre. We went with a friend who was a meat eater and had lived in Asia long enough to be suitably tempted by the barbecued squid on sticks but not the unidentified meaty items also being roasted. The highlight for my vegetarian self was the most amazing Portugese egg custard tarts fresh out of the oven. With how amazing egg custard tarts are in China you'd think they were created here.

This year we were fairly excited to head back to the festival as the weather was about 5 degrees lower than last year and we wanted those tarts. We'd noticed the hive of activity at the local centre; plastic chairs and tables being set out, lights being erected, stalls being built and heaps of foot traffic. I was really excited to go to the food fair, mainly for the egg custards. Sadly there were no egg custards in sight. I was devastated.

There was some form of competition that may have been televised on the stage and plenty of families having dinner and buying tacky trinkets. It is fun to people watch at local events and the locals certainly love to watch us. The stall vendors were desperate to sell to us and frequently used 1 of the few Mandarin words that I understand which means 'delicious'. We did try some chesnuts however they didn't quite live up to the description so I went to the supermarket for a yoghurt instead. Being vegetarian in China is not as easy as you'd think.

1 Week Down

Tomorrow will start the second week of my second academic year here in Suzhou. I do love the fact that I know where most things I want are. I love my minimal amount of local knowledge and language that somehow get me through transport, food and haggling. All activities can be considered entertainment for the local populus if they involve a foreigner.

It is nice being a second year at an International School. You know some of the students and they remember you. It is also nice being a little less inept at pronouncing Korean names. I do still have my moments of "sorry, please could you repeat that?" and "was that right?"

The work doesn't get any easier in teaching. It is an entire lifestyle and the first week back was as full on as I expected if not more so. Most days I only just had time to eat lunch and at least once I didn't get lunch until well after 2pm due to meetings. I also noticed a shift in the ways in which some colleagues are interacting with me as I now hold a position of responsibility. This can be tricky in such a small community as you are relying on the expat community to contain people with whom you can be friends. I've met so few people who are not working at the same school as me that it will be interesting seeing how my friendships grow and change over the coming year.

Today the sun wasn't as out as I would have liked, but it was 30+ so I cheated and did an indoor circuit workout with the aircon going before heading to a shady patch of grass by the lake with my husband and 2 friends. We barely saw anyone despite being next to a path and in such a popular area. We were only really visited by a lady working in the park who wished to take our empty cans and bottles for what little money they would gain her. It was peaceful, relaxing and a beautiful place. I am very lucky to be in a convenient city with great public transport, cheap taxis and places where I can escape the masses even if just for a little while.

Appreciating Where You Are

There are without doubt days that I absolutely cannot stand where I live. This weekend did not feature that feeling. 

I tend to need a lot of sleep to function well. My husband on the other hand doesn't. He can train in the morning with ease but not late at night whereas I am usually the opposite. I've been trying to change this as I tend to be somewhat tired and hungry after work and then the training doesn't always happen. So, I set an alarm for Saturday morning and woke an hour before it went off only to discover my husband still asleep. He was easily persuaded to join me for an early run. 

We were out before 7am and running through 3 different parks near our apartment. It was wonderful seeing the life in these parks so early in the day. Even before leaving our complex we saw a man dressed in white traditional clothes practising Tai Chi. We then passed 3 groups doing Tai Chi in the park, a group salsa dancing, 2 groups doing what I refer to as "Chinese line dancing", a group performing tricks with diablos and a group working out using the metal framed equipment provided for toning. It appeared that every corner we turned there was someone else out starting their day with movement amongst nature rather than in a gym. I struggled to keep running as I was so mesmerised by the collective energy.

I love that the locals have reclaimed the space and that they use it. I love that they arrange to meet in groups rather than being solitary. I love the range of activities that they do. It is inspiring. I can't help but think that more communities should follow their example and exercise together in their public spaces.