Going to the hairdressers

Before (sorry there will be no after pic)

It had been well over two months since I had last been to the hairdressers and my hair was beginning to look like I had stuck my finger in a power socket. So I had gone the last couple of weeks just tying it back and cutting my own fringe. But the time had come to be brave and to put my hair in the hands of a new hairdresser in China. I knew this time would eventually come so I asked one of my colleagues if she could take me and be my translator. She was only too happy to help and suggested she pick me up the following day at 6.30pm outside the school gates (I live on campus). When she arrived she had her little 5 year old daughter Sissy with her and we drove to a nearby town where her stylist worked.

Sissy showing me her haircut

We had no appointment, and in fact the stylist was about to go home but my friend told her to stay and cut my hair. She did. The cut was ok, but they don't seem to layer it here like they do back home. So it was quite a blunt cut, then my fringe was cut way too short. So now I wear it off to the side, just so it isn't so obvious and will wait until it grows back out. She also mentioned the colour wasn't right (I have had highlights in for the last year). So I thought ok, let's see what she can do.  Famous last words! Well, picture this. I now have a blunt bob cut with a very short thick fringe and it's jet black. Once she finished, she said, "There, now you look Chinese". OMG, I had to admit she was right. Everyone, including my friend loved it so I didn't have the heart to say otherwise. Sorry guys there is no way I am posting a picture of it.

The best thing about the whole night is how they wash your hair. You lay down on a comfortable table (like a massage table) which has a sink at the end. The assistants then wash your hair and also give you a head, neck and shoulder massage as well. It was so relaxing! We definitely need these in New Zealand. They even had TV's on the ceiling so you could watch your favourite show while they did your hair. Brilliant!

Getting my hair washed

 

A wee surprise on Memorial Day

Well, I almost made it through 7 weeks without needing to use a squat toilet. But that was all about to change last week after a trip into the city for dinner.  I was invited to a place called DC American Kitchen on Memorial Day (kind of like our ANZAC day in New Zealand but for Americans).  There was one American, a Filipino, a German and me - lol.  I had tacos and it was so good to eat something familiar again. The highlight for me was the sour cream and having a fresh salad. I hadn't had these since I was back in New Zealand.

 As I was in an American style restaurant owed by an American, I wandered off to the bathroom none the wiser.....until I opened the door. I quickly shut the door again contemplating my next move. Could I find another bathroom close by? No. Was I desperate to go? YES. The restaurant manager must have seen the horrified look on my face and wanted to know if I was ok. I quickly realised that there was no way out of this and like Nike says 'just do it'. At least the bathroom was spotless which was a bonus. On a positive note, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be and now that gets a big tick off my bucket list!

Back at the doctors

It was bound to happen. I hadn't been feeling well for the last couple of weeks with stomach cramps and frequent trips to the loo, so I decided it was time to visit the doctor again. The problem? My enthusiasm to try all the weird and wonderful food that China has to offer, instead of taking it slowly. 

As you can see I received a nice array of pills with these little glass viles that I was told to have two in a glass of water after each meal. Once I got home, I couldn't figure out how to open them. There was no cap or opening, just glass. So being the bright spark that I am, I decided to get a sharp knife and cut the top off with one clean blow. Well, just imagine the sound of smashing glass and then blood everywhere as I managed to slice one of my fingers in the process. Thankfully, I brought a couple of plasters over from New Zealand but these were woefully inadequate as my finger began to bleed through them. Typical!

After giving up and deciding to put the viles back into their box, I noticed the word injection on it. Umm was I meant to have it injected? I spoke to my Chinese friend who went to the doctors with me and she confirmed that the doctor said I was to drink it. Anyway, I decided they are better off staying in their box out of harms way and took the pills instead.

Going to the doctors only cost me 15 yuan (just over $3) for everything, and there was no appointment or waiting time either!

Taking on the language

Before arriving in China I thought it was important that I start learning Chinese. I hoped that this would give me a head start and allow me to become more independent and get to know the real China by talking with the locals. It has been many (many!) years since my last stint overseas as an AFS student. I was young at the time and was sent to a small town in Czechoslovakia for a year. Back then we had no internet, no smart phones and language books, particularly Czech ones were non-existent. That meant learning the language had to be done by talking with the locals.

Learning Chinese has been a much different experience this time round. Access to a number of great sites like Yoyo Chinese has been fantastic. I had watched some of Yangyang’s YouTube videos before I arrived and then two weeks ago I decided to get serious and sign up for the course. It provides a daily study schedule including, video lessons, audio reviews and study notes. Sometimes there are also flashcard practice and additional lessons to solidify the learning. 

While I am out and about I am never without my iPhone as the Pleco App in particular has been invaluable. I am able to quickly look up words, and then listen to the way it is pronounced before I test it out (normally on unsuspecting shopkeepers). Sometimes I get it right but other times I don’t, so in those situations I show them the Chinese character on my phone and they understand.  Yesterday I was looking for nail polish remover and band-aids, so I had to pulled out my phone and look those up.

I would have to say that the Chinese has to be one of the most logical languages to learn. Their verbs do not conjugate, there are no genders like European languages and there doesn’t appear to be any plural forms of the nouns. Wow! There are many other bonuses too, the English word he/she/it all use the same word – Tā.  Also the verb ‘to be’ can change a number of times in English depending on the subject. For example ‘I am’, ‘He/She is’, ‘They/We are’  but in Chinese this is all represented by the same word – Shì.   

So what makes Chinese a little difficult to learn? I would have to say (in my case) it’s the tones. Chinese has four main tones, rising, falling, high flat and low 'bouncing'. So saying a word with the wrong tone can result in a lot of confused stares. For instance the word for panda is

Xióngmāo, but saying it with the wrong tone may have you saying chest hair instead. Not ideal if you are wanting to see the pandas and not someones chest! This certainly makes learning the language a lot of fun especially if you can look back at it and laugh.

One for the ladies

Pads galore!

Chinese tampon on the right

Sorry for any guys reading this but it has to be said. Why is it so hard to find tampons here? There, I said it. I mean, there seems to be aisles and aisles of pantie liners and pads but no tampons anywhere. The only place I know of so far, is in Walmart in Wenzhou and they only have one brand (German) and one size (super small compared to what's available in New Zealand). Anyway, it is interesting to discover the small things that can take you by surprise when you are living in another country.

Another thing I haven't been able to find are regular sized towels. There are lots of hand towels everywhere and I was given about three when I first moved into the apartment, but nothing bigger.  Thankfully I brought one over in my luggage from home which is getting a good workout.

Back in the classroom

Some of my good kids

My Chinese students are very curious about their new English teacher and others are just downright excitable. As I walk through the school to either get to class or to the print room you will always hear kids yelling out 'hello!' or 'teacher!' and then start waving madly to get my attention. The others (especially the really young ones - grades 1 and 2) will just stare and giggle.  In class I have to make sure I keep and eye on my bag as some of the kids (girls mainly) like to go through it and check what I have. They also like looking at my iPhone and are amazed that everything is in English.  I definitely have to keep tabs on my Blu-Tak as that is a bit of a novelty here. The first day I used it I remember one of the teachers was really worried that the pictures I stuck to the wall were now permanent. When I showed her how it worked she was impressed and wanted to know how she could get some. I haven't seen anything like it here in my town but I haven't had a chance to check out the city yet. So maybe they have a similar brand in the bigger cities, but if not maybe I could be a distributor for Blu-Tak here in China as a side job hahaha!

These two are hilarious!

Every class has designated students who are regarded as the leaders. Before every class they will take the roll and make sure everyone is present. A couple of times a day the whole school (excluding the teachers) will do these eye exercises. This seems to be common throughout all Chinese schools as I know of other teachers in middle and high schools who also do the same thing in different regions. Over the sound system you will hear counting with some background music. The kids will sit at their desk close their eyes and for the next 5 minutes do these finger movements around their eyes, eyebrows and nose.  While this is happening the class leaders monitor the students and anyone misbehaving is quickly told off and their names recorded. I would say 90% of the time the kids will toe the line but there is always a few who can't stop talking, fidgeting or like to annoy their friends to try and get them in trouble first.

For most of my classes I will have a Chinese teacher present to either provide instruction in Chinese when the kids don't understand or to keep an eye on them to make sure they behave and don't get out of hand. Sometimes chaos can occur in my younger grade three classes but that all depends on who their teacher is. Some of them are really strict and could take you down with just a look, this makes teaching these classes fun as we can get through all the material and we rarely have to stop to bring kids back into line or to keep them focused. Some teachers will sit in the class but will play on their phone, normally on Wechat, which is a popular APP everyone, including myself is on here. It's like a text and voice messaging combined with Facebook for your phone and is so cool. There is only a couple of teachers that don't show up to my classes. One of them teaches the advanced students so these kids are generally good and easy to teach and I have no problems with them. She is only next door in the teachers office so if there is any issue I just pop in there. However, I rarely see the other teacher, but luckily I haven't had many problems with her class so far (touch wood!).

Eye exercises after lunch

More eye exercises

Class leader in action

Teaching at a Chinese public school

 

Teaching in a Chinese public school has both it's advantages and disadvantages. One of the main reasons I decided to go down this route was for the following reasons:

1. The working hours were less than at a regular English training school.  Training schools open the afternoon and run into the evenings. They are costly for the parents, but the classes have only about 6-12 kids in them so the students have more one on one time with the teacher and more exposure to English. I have a couple of students in my classes who attend these and their English is miles ahead of the rest. I also thought as a first time teacher it would be good to ease into work load. I have 17 lessons a week and each run for 35 minutes - so not bad really. Also, I have the benefit of getting all the holidays and any additional days like the school sports day off (this ran over two days).

2. Public schools hours are Monday - Friday and classes are during the day. Training schools are usually Wednesday - Sunday and finish at night. I wasn't too keen on walking home at night. But I soon realised that it is pretty safe here, as there are so many people out and about either eating, exercising, shopping (shops are open late) and walking around.

3. I could plan my lessons and teach whatever I wanted. This has ended up being a double edged sword as even though I thought this would be more up my alley, the preparation time can be long as you prepare all you own PowerPoints, worksheets and games from scratch. Training schools already have a schedule and themes for their classes.You still have to do a bit of prep but I don't think it takes up so much time.

4. The number of kids in each of my classes is a major disadvantage to both me and the students. There is only so much time and attention you can give such big classes (my largest has 54 students) and you are restricted on the types of activities you can do. Some games are out of the question as there can be so many kids squeezed into a class that even moving around can be difficult at times. Like all kids, some are good and really want to learn and some will sit at the back, talk, play cards, read books, throw things around or fight each other. Some kids see the class as a chance to relax and have fun (like some teachers, who wander off to play on their phones). Disciplining them can be tough especially in another language. But last week, I threatened a couple of boys with standing up the front of the class and holding my hand for the rest of the lesson and that worked a treat. No way did they want to look 'uncool' in front of their friends!

 

Anyway, I could keep writing forever on this, so I better sign off here before you all fall asleep. I will probably come back to this topic again in a later post.

My class schedule

Impromptu food post

Green tea & honey drink

I seem to have taken a few pictures of the food and drink I've been having the last 24 hours. So even though I wasn't going to post anything today, I thought I would include these anyway for those of you who were interested. I have found purchasing food here a little difficult. There are some small restaurants and eateries I go to as they have pictures of their meals on the wall that I can look at and point to. But mostly, these are written in Chinese or you have to speak with the owner. My Chinese is still pretty crappy so trying to order things can be a mission. I communicate with the little Chinese that I know, a lot of pointing and miming and a great app I found called Pleco. These three things get me the basics.

I receive a free school lunch every day from Monday-Friday. Lunch begins at 11.20am and classes resume at 1.35pm. The lunches are not what I imagined they would be (I think I had visions of yum cha, peking duck and lots of wonderful and delicious food being handed around). The reality was a little different. It is rice, a soup (either sweet or savoury), some boiled greens, salty meat, a small fried fish, and

Those berries

 yesterday it was a piece of corn. Sometimes it can taste better than it looks but it is the saltiness that I am still getting used to. 

Yesterday, I happened to find the only cafe in town and even though I am not much of a coffee drinker I couldn't resist having one. It was a little expensive (22rmb), just over $4 and not that hot but the coffee was good and they were even playing English songs - country western music lol.

Yesterday, I went fruit shopping and noticed these berries that are quite popular here. For $2 for a bowl I decided to give them a  try. They looked a little like blackberries, but they weren't tart. They were sweeter and really nice. I will be definitely getting these again.

For dinner last night I succumbed to one of the local snackes which was a stuffed pancake with some green veges inside. I have avoided wheat for a few years now but I seem to be in a town that loves their carbs and bread and my will power is weakening. I have to say that the pancake, hot from the oven was great. It was $2 and so big I couldn't eat it all!

School lunch

Stuffed pancake

Drinks in my cupboard

My first Chinese coffee

The cafe

Boxing at The Maple

The Maple

Yesterday, the local expat bar in Wenzhou, The Maple (run by a couple of Canadians) decided to open early for all those wanting to watch the Mayweather and Pacquio fight. Even though I am not much of a boxing fan, the fact that a group of English speaking expats were getting together was enough for me to get back on the bus to Wenzhou and meet some new people.

There was probably a good thirty people who arrived, mainly Americans either teaching English like me or studying or teaching at the local English speaking University. It was good to make a few contacts and to know that others that had been here much longer than me knew just as little of the language than I do! 

It was a great opportunity to find out where these guys were teaching, how well their school looked after them and their motivation to come here. I was the newbie of the group, as I have only been here for four weeks. Others had been here six months, while a few had been here for years. It was funny talking to some of the teachers at the private training schools as they would have as little is 6-15 in their classes. I have up to 50!

Watching the fight

Waiting for the fight to begin

May Day in Wenzhou

Wu Ma Street

Today was a day off for everyone here for May Day, so I decided to catch the bus into Wenzhou for a change of scenery and to check out the shops. Wenzhou is a large city in comparison with New Zealand with approximately 2 million residents. It is probably not big at all by Chinese standards as it doesn't appear to have a subway.

The shopping here is insane. Just like in New Zealand when a long weekend comes along, the malls and shops tend to be packed and this place is no exception. It was like Boxing Day Sales at a Westfield on crack. People were everywhere and sales people were out in force!
I decided to spend the day looking for familiar brands such as Nike, Adidas, Converse, Vans, MAC, Kiehl's and doing a price comparison. Unfortunately, most of these were the same price as you would have to pay for them back home, so no real bargains here. But I think I was wandering down the Parnell or Ponsonby Road version of Wenzhou. Wu Ma (5 Horses) Street is a very popular area and has a quite a few foreign shops. I love a good bargain, so I will need to talk to more people about where I can find the deals.
It was a good day out, and I am glad I made it there and back (bus and ferry) on my own without any dramas.

Wu Ma statue

On the ferry, check out the dirty water

 

The ferry