Julie and Jonathan Go Walkabout: September 2013

China - the first month:

We flew from Auckland on the 12th of August leaving behind a typical NZ winter where the worst of
the weather arrives after the shortest day of the year. The start of an adventure that we had been
planning and discussing for at least 5 years……I guess there is truth to the saying “good things take
time”. It certainly was a busy few weeks getting around the country saying our farewells to friends
and family. Know that we are going to miss you all.

Our midnight flight took us to Hong Kong and the new airport which has been open for some time
now but still has a massive amount of work underway. A 6 hour layover was delayed a bit due to
a storm in the region which was slowing the departure intervals. Next flight was to inland China,
Guilin where we did the immigration thing. We are met at the airport by a guy waving a handwritten
sign with our names on, well that sure was comforting…we were in the right place/time on the
correct day! A good start.

A 100km drive to Yangshuo and it was amazing as the limestone karst mountains emerge from the
haze/clouds simply everywhere. This is a feature that Julie has long had on her “must see” list and
here they are on our first day in China!! Upon our arrival in Yangshuo we find the city is built in and
around these mountains and the views are simply spectacular.

The company we are working for has a hostel and apartment arrangement for their teachers coming
into the country which is more than adequate. We are placed in the apartment and for the week we
have a workout on the old thigh muscles due to the “Chinese squat” toilet.

The orientation provided for the week is interesting and we get a chance to talk to some teachers
who have been in China for several years and try to glean as much information as possible. As we
arrived a few days prior to the official start date we have some time to explore around the town.
We went on a “bamboo” raft down the river amongst the mountains and “little miss camera” was
very happy!! I however couldn’t but help notice the bamboo raft looked suspiciously like it was
made from 200mm extruded PVC pipe with screw cap ends, in either white or bright blue!! But did
concede that they had made some effort as every 500mm there was a “growth ring” as part of the
extrusion….yeah it sorta did look like bamboo.

The Yangshuo/Guilin area is apparently the second most visited tourist site in China, after the Wall,
and is very much a tourist town. It is relatively easy to deal with most of the vendors as they have
a small understanding of English and we have been told several times that Yangshuo is not “real
China” where most of us will be sent. The group is a mixed bunch from America, England, Spain,
Scotland, Wales, Mexico, Ireland, Canada, Germany-(her English is the proper Queens English with
no German accent) and 3 Kiwis. I have the distinction of being the “most mature”.

The end of the orientation week and we have a meeting with the staff and we are told there is
a school in a city called Huaian in the Jiangsu province that is after a primary and middle school
teacher and that we are the “lucky candidates”. There is no information on the school apart from
a couple of pictures and the information sheet on Huaian is straight off the internet. We look at
each other…..”OK sounds like us”. Saturday evening we are told that we have to be ready at 9am on
Sunday as we have to catch a plane in Guilin – bloody hell not a lot of notice but we soon remember,
“TIC” –This Is China!! - short notice, change of plan, you go now, no problem, don’t worry, - are
all phrases that the Chinese must have to learn early in their English lessons if they are going to be
dealing with Foreigners as they sure know how to use them.

There are 4 of us going to the Huaian area, two young girls –one American and one English. They
decide they want to adopt us as their parents whilst in China! A flight from Guilin to Nanjing, as it is
closest to Huaian, and we are met by the local Buckland rep - Bruce. Yep, he is a fan of Bruce Lee!
Bruce it turns out has his own English school for young kids and has an English couple working for
him. It is a long two and a half hour drive to Huaian from Nanjing and he puts us up in a hotel as our
apartments are not ready. He then proceeds to take us all out for dinner, where we are joined by his
family, to a very nice restaurant specialising in Peking duck - nice! We are in a large, OK very large
private dining room around a massive round table with the centre lazy susan being about 3 metres
across!! Truly it was a serious dining table and a fantastic meal.

It turns out we left Yangshuo in such a hurry that we now have to “hurry up and wait” at the hotel
where we eventually end up staying a week. We both feel we would rather be getting into our place
wherever it is and getting ourselves unpacked and sorted but not to be as…..you guessed it, TIC!
On the flip side Bruce, so far, is turning out to be an excellent rep for the company and sorting our
queries, taking us out for dinner, and amazingly paying for everything! I guess he has some charge
back arrangement for expenses with the company when he gets involved in placing teachers in his
area. Temperature is running at between 24-32 and also quite humid.

We get a couple of false starts for moving into our apartment from Bruce, (remember - TIC!) before
we are finally taken to where we are going to be living: - OK, it is a 3 bedroom unit on the third floor
of a 6 storey block which has 6 apartments per level and there are (I think) 32 blocks in the complex.
It is effectively a whole block and then there is another complex on the next block over, and then
another down the road, and another two blocks down, and another………you get the picture?. The
complex could best be described as a tenement housing estate; would be my best guess and while
it might once have been new-probably not that long ago either, it is tired and not a whole lot of
maintenance. Our apartment is…….let’s just say it was filthy and as if the previous occupants had
vacated without any cleaning and left behind all sorts of various crap in the cupboards.

-side bar- one of the other teachers, an Irish guy, arrives in his apartment in some other distant town
and after a couple of days decides to check out the cupboards he is not using to find a semi inflated
blow up doll left behind!! Hmmm. How do you get rid of that?......very quickly and very carefully!!

So, we drop our gear at the apartment and go to the school which is about 5 mins by car away. We
are met by the principal and some other teachers whereby there is a lot of talking in Chinese and
looking at us, we smile and nod. We go back to the apartment via a small shop where we get bought
for us some basic gear as there is, pretty much NOTHING in the kitchen to use or cook with. Julie has
a mild case of shock and we both look at each other…..”bloody hell”.

The rest of the afternoon evening is spent cleaning, scrubbing, wiping, mopping and then we do it
all again over the next couple of days. After clean number 1 we at last are able to unpack our bags
and put some gear away. We hang up our black New Zealand flag with silver fern on it, put up a map
and next plan is to get some of our pictures of home/family/friends printed and onto the walls. The
plan is to make our apartment “our oasis” in Huaian – a place to relax, be comfortable, safe, yeah –
home!

School; Julie is teaching Grade 1-6, which are kids form 6yrs old starting school to around 12. I have
Grades 7-9, ages 12/13 to 15/16. They refer to it as Primary and Middle school. The class numbers
are a mixed bag, Julie has between 45 and 55 and I have from 55 to 65. There are 3500 students
here and it is a boarding school and we are told most of the kids are from the country. We work
a two week roster, (remember subject to change as TIC) working one week Saturday off and then
school on Sunday and having the following Friday off for a three day weekend when the kids get to
go home.

Lesson planning is probably proving the most interesting part as all my grades/classes are clearly
streamed and even then ability is still all over the place. (OK, so this is nothing new to all you
teachers!) While all the classes at some time have had computers and power point the fact is most
of my classes the gear is either missing or broken – bloody shame as having that gear would make
things so much more interactive and interesting for the kids. The Chinese English assistants in Julies
classes are making sure she has power point most of the time as she is a hit with the kids with her
many pictures and cool cartoons sourced from the internet. They even go to the effort of moving
the classes around for her to ensure she has access to power point. Julie is also working hard on
getting lesson plans sorted as it is not quite the case of “one lesson plan per week” as we were told
is common for foreign English teachers. Maybe it’s just because we care!

This is the first time the school has had foreign English teachers and have been told it is probably the
first time they have ever seen a foreigner! Think this is pretty much the case in the area we live as
there is no other reason I can see that anyone would stumble into the area. Although….I did see not
too far from our apartment what must be the “Thermos” brand factory for China? as it takes up a
large commercial block of land – maybe they have some foreigners visit there?

The Chinese English teachers from Grade 7, 8 and 9 took Julie and I out to lunch the other day
which was really nice of them. The restaurant was in an apartment block and they were using it
as a restaurant with three private dining rooms, basically each was a bedroom. The restaurant
is basically not registered and operates illegally with no licence and simply “does not exist” – this
apparently also applies to the taxes that he doesn’t pay and is one of many in China we are told.
The meal was great with around 20 individual dishes of which we try and make a point of trying
something from each one.

Yep we are truly into the adventure now after one month and after the initial OMG when we got
here. Each day got better and better as we found a new supermarket, got the bus sorted out so we
can get into town, got the leaks fixed, hot water to the shower, internet, bikes to ride to school,
our first and second lot of visitors come for dinner and stay the night-(other English teachers in the
Huaian area) so yeah, it is all going so far so good – and we are planning our first trip for next week
when we have 4 days off and also hatching a plan for early October when there is a 6 day break.
This is providing we have our passports back as they are at the Ministry of Exit and Entry getting
our Foreign Expert Certificate and Resident Permit!! –it’s a case of no passport, no travel so here’s
hoping.

Later, J2 on walkabout!