China: Some surprises

Given all the kerfuffle surrounding my sister's work permit & China visa, I have to admit I had pretty much zero expectations of our trip. Until about a week and a half before we left Indonesia it was doubtful whether or not we would get to go (either that or I would go by myself, which is not as much fun!), so I guess I didn't let myself get too excited. It took landing in Shanghai, and giving my friends a hug for me to really believe I was actually going to spend a week in China!

I don't have a huge number of pictures (I haven't gotten around to downloading the rest from everyone else's facebook), and Erin has the list of the places we visited, so I'm going to focus on moments that were unexpected or interesting to me, interspersed with some nice pics :-) I will update the captions when Erin, Jenny or Phil tell me the names of the places!

1. They drive on the right. Crossing the road for the first time was a huge reminder of how lacking my knowledge of China is!! The traffic wasn't as bad as I had anticipated, perhaps because it was still holiday time, and because it was so hot (nearly 40 degrees celsius every day!!!!!!!), but the intersections took a bit of getting used to. At most of them, traffic can turn right at any time, even when cars are turning from another part of the intersection. Also, most of the bikes are electric - silent and deadly ;-) I definitely had to remember to check carefully before stepping out!

(There were lots of LED - I think - screens turning the sides of buildings into huge billboards. This one is a thermometer, with the indicator nearly all the way to the top!!)

(? Gardens in Shanghai)

2. There's not much English around in everyday life, not like in Indonesia. It makes sense now, why most of the Chinese teachers at my school have so little English - they just don't have any exposure/chance to practice. There were translations on signs for major transport (train stations, airport etc.) but that was about it.

 (Hip, happening laneway district with shops, food and lots of unexpected things to see)

3. Both Shanghai and Nanjing were not like I thought they might be. Shanghai is enormous, almost beyond imagining. Jenny said they love explaining to the students (Jenny works for an Australian school that sends groups of its Year 9 students to China for five weeks at a time - it's an amazing program!) that if all the inhabitants of Shanghai left tomorrow, the entire population of Australia could quite happily move in. I'm simplifying, but I think both cities were cleaner and more organised than I thought they would be. I think I might have been expecting it to be more like Indonesia. The laneways near Jenny's school in Nanjing (where we had fantastic breakfasts - see below) were not as nice as the main streets (live poultry, food stalls etc.) but they were still reasonably clean and free of rubbish. In both Indonesia and China it's easy to spot people whose job it is to clean up public areas, so I'm not really sure why China does it better. Anyone have any insights/ideas?

 (Part of the model version of Shanghai at the ?Urban Planning Centre)

(The yummiest thing I ate for breakfast in Nanjing - a savoury pancake type thing)

 (The building under construction is colloquially known as the corkscrew, and it dwarfs Shanghai's previous tallest building - the bottle opener, which is hiding to the left/behind the corkscrew.)

(A lighthearted moment nearly 500m up, on the 100th floor of the bottle opener.)

4. My brain has a lot of trouble holding on to such different sounding words. I can't even make some of the required sounds!! Erin was doing really well with the characters - she was noticing patterns and guessing at meanings, with some success. I am proud to say I can now say (but not write, unfortunately) hello, thank you, and the numbers from zero to five. I am using this to great advantage with my Sec1 class. When I want their attention I usually count down from five, and when I tried it on Monday in Chinese they thought it was fantastic!

5. In Indonesia, when a shop or business opens, other businesses, companies or individuals have a flower board displayed at the front - it will have a message of congratulations, and real (ok, sometimes fake, but not in Bandung) flowers making a border and/or decorations. Watching two go past, strapped either side of a guy on a motorbike, is quite an experience! In China, flowers decorate the entrance to the new shop. This particularly impressive display was for a hairdresser in Nanjing :-)

Despite the limitations of the weather (Reminder: China in August is ridiculously hot! Try to go at another time if you can) I'm really glad I took advantage of the opportunity to see a place that really wasn't on my radar. Seeing it with friends (one who has learnt Chinese since school, and one who is doing a pretty impressive job of picking up a difficult language remarkable quickly!!) made all the fuss and bother totally worthwhile. Thanks Jenny & Phil :-)

3 good things

It's way past time I reminded myself about all the great things I get to do and see.

1. I bought a pacman helmet to use when I take an ojek (motorbike taxi) to ballet twice a week.

2. I spent most of today hanging out with friends. Well, they hung out, I cooked. It started in the morning with cinnamon pancakes and apples cooked with maple syrup, and then turned into peanut butter cupcakes with maple frosting, something I've been wanting to try for ages. Cooking for others is the best feeling, and these three made all the right appreciative noises. They were happy, I was happy, everyone wins. In case you would like to have a go, here are the recipes I used:
http://baketheneat.com/peanut-butter-cupcakes/
http://www.thenovicechefblog.com/2010/09/chocolate-bacon-cupcakes-with-maple-frosting/
I just used the frosting from the second one, but will use the whole recipe for Kyle's birthday in a few weeks. I know how to get to a man's heart (actually, stomach!). I had to add extra maple syrup to get it to taste right, I think the quantity should be adjusted to 1/2 cup.

3. Peanut butter cupcakes with maple frosting. I know it's bad to brag/talk yourself up, but oh my, they tasted so good!!!!!! I'm going to have to work hard to not eat them all before I can take them to school tomorrow.

PS That's my Disney Princess mug. It says "Dream and the world dreams with you", and it has a matching plate and bowl. I know what you're thinking - pacman helmet, princess crockery, this girl has all the cool stuff! When I was done baking, and cleaning up, I put my feet up and had a cupcake and cup of tea. What a lovely way to end an awesome break :-)

Selamat Hari Kemerdekaan!

Last year, I wrote a post about how I love the street decorations for Independence Day. This year, I decided to get some for myself!! I've always wanted to buy some to use in a (vague, undetermined) future classroom when I'm teaching Bahasa Indonesia, and so with Cass in tow (for moral support - it turns out she's the best at bargaining by a long shot) I took an angkot to a spot on the side of a road where I'd seen them for sale. End result: ten flagy things and one proper Indonesian flag. I then thought I would put one on my balcony, rather than let them just sit in a bag for the forseable future, but got a bit excited. Now both my housemates have them on their balconies as well!!

After a downpour

Today hasn't been so great - one of my classes in particular are not ready for their test tomorrow, and they don't seem to care about it. I hate that sinking feeling that happens when I ask a basic question (something we practiced heaps last week - drawing perpendicular bisectors and angle bisectors) and I get blank faces and rubbish like "what's an acute angle Miss?" or "No, I haven't heard of perpendicular before!".

Anyway, that's not my good thing for today. We had a sudden, very heavy, downpour which only lasted about 5 minutes, and after the rain, the sun came out and everything sparkled :-)

I'm a sucker for a pretty dress

The best thing about today was my new dress :-) It has elbow length sleeves, a pretty A-line skirt that swishes when I walk, the fabric is bright and has parrots on it (see below) and to top it all off when I put it on this morning I discovered it has pockets!!!! Bliss.

Cost of living, and a small frog

Today seems to gave quite a financial theme for me. I just read something my sister posted to FB - that she bought 6m of ribbon for 2000 rupiah (around 20 aussie cents). Earlier today I was reading an article on The Age website, which contained rather alarming facts about the cost of living in Australia. Apparently Melbourne and Sydney are more expensive to live/visit/do buisness in than New York!!! Also today I bought a magnum ice cream for around $1.30 (I can't remember how much they cost at home, but it is definitely more than that!). A while back, when I told my Canadian friends the starting salary for a graduate teacher in Australia they told me I was stupid for leaving (I took a bit of a pay cut to come here, but money was not my motivation and I feel like I'm getting so much in other ways). I guess in the end it's all about perspective. To some of my students, I'm just a poor teacher without (heaven forbid) the latest gadgets or a driver, cleaner and cook. At the same time, some of the cleaning staff at my school earn around 1 million rupiah per month (about $100 - and this is only rumor, I have no solid facts). I'm grateful for what I have, which includes more magnums than I would have at home ;-)

On a completely different note, this morning I was standing next to the photocopier, gazing out the window while waiting for my worksheets to print, when I saw something move in the garden bed outside. I had to look very hard, because it was camouflaged really well, but after a while I realised it was a frog! A tiny, brown frog. Going about its buisness while I went about mine.

3 more good things

1. I didn't have to work this weekend. I know some people did (sorry K!) but I didn't. And it felt good :-)
2. I just made a mountain of pasta, enough to feed me at lunch and tea time for a few days. Not only is it awesome comfort food, it frees me up to make more exciting things like pineapple tarte tatin (which I will take to share with my equally awesome Canadian buddies while I indoctrinate them in the wonders of Dr Who).
3. I'm watching the A League Grand Final, and dreaming of the day when I get to support Heart at the same event. One day!!
4. I know I said 3, but this is too good to leave out - my sister just sent me a set of resources for the next topic I have to teach Sec2. Collaboration between teachers (especially my - wait for it - awesome sister) is exactly what should be happening!!!

And to top it all of, here is a picture from Friday. We had celebrations for Kartini Day, and the inter-house competition was to dress up teachers in traditional clothes. The girls in my house did a great job with me (I will add pictures when I get them), and I especially loved my hair (although the kids didn't - they were exclaiming over how much thinner it is than theirs, and took a while to figure out what to do!!) which included an origami flower!

Update 23/4/2013

Kartini Day (including Emerson hamming it up with a whiteboard marker-drawn mustache!!!)

The aforementioned pineapple tarte-tatin (which is really just a fancy way to say puff pastry cooked over the top of pineapple, sugar and spices, then tipped upside down)

3 good things

So, this blog has been woefully neglected for several months, for reasons of procrastination, lack of energy and lack of time. There was a bit of literal and metaphorical hand-wringing, plus empty promises made/deadlines set, but that all seems pretty pointless. Instead of bemoaning the fact that I’m just no good at writing a journal, I am going to follow the example of a teaching blog I’ve been reading. This blog is called “One GoodThing”, and it’s where a group of teachers go to post about one good thing that happened to them that day. The rationale behind it is that there are so many not so good things and sheer busy-ness that get in the way of us remembering to notice the good stuff. I really like this idea, and so the rest of this post will be on this topic.

I had planned to write about 3 good things that happened this week, but once I started thinking, I realised there have been a lot more than that! I will pick the best ones:

1. The biggest, and best thing to happen for a while involves my Sec2 class. They all passed the last three tests. All of them. 3 times in a row. I’ve never had that happen before. When they got to 2, I made them a deal; if they made it to 3 in a row, I would make them cake. Their last test was Wednesday and I was so excited I marked it before school finished, then ran upstairs to tell them the good news. After a small lesson on manners and greed (they are teenagers (some very very spoilt), not angels after all!), we came to the agreement that I would make red velvet cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes with mint chocolate ganache (one student begged me for this, apparently it’s his favourite!) and mini apple pies (which got a rave review when I made them for Pi Day – yay!).  And for the record, it is definitely worth the late nights (I really should have planned better – making all of that in two nights is kind of stupid) to show my students how proud I am of them, and to reinforce the lesson that hard work pays off.
2. My students have got the message about saying please and thank-you, and being polite. Now whenever someone asks me for something, and I pull my ‘I’m waiting for something face’, one of them chimes in with “say please” . My Sec1’s, and one boy in particular, are very cute about the way they do this. It makes me smile :-)
3. Next week is a holiday, and my sister is coming to visit. And that reminds me, we are also organising the June holiday, which is going to involve Bali and a trip to Komodo Island. It’s nice to have something to look forward to!