A trip to the supermarket by bus

This is a short video of the trip I make by bus to get to the supermarket down the Dongshan Rd. There and Back again.

Mid Autumn Festival

This weekend its the Mid Autumn Festival in China.

Wikipedia:

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a popular harvest festival celebrated by Chinese and Vietnamese people. The festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, during a full moon, which is in September or early October in the Gregorian calendar, close to the autumnal equinox.^[1]

The Government of the People's Republic of China listed the festival as an "intangible cultural heritage" in 2006, and it was made a Chinese public holiday in 2008.^[1] It is also a public holiday in Taiwan. Among the Vietnamese, it is considered the second most important holiday tradition.

Today, the 19th of September, is the time of the full moon and its when the main celebrations are held. In its modern conception the festival is mainly about outdoor reunions among friends and relatives to eat mooncakes and watch the moon, a symbol of harmony and unity.

Eating and the giving of mooncakes is a major part of the festivities, especially while looking at the moon with ones family.  Typical mooncakes are round or rectangular pastries, measuring about 10 cm in diameter and 4–5 cm thick.  A rich thick filling usually made from red bean or lotus seed paste is surrounded by a thin (2–3 mm) crust and may contain yolks from salted duck eggs. However, my students tell me that they can also contain fruit such as apple, oranges or watermelon, meat such as beef or pork, or their favourite ice cream. 

I have been given three boxes of moon cakes each containing eight moon cakes. I am not going to eat them, this is the general consensus amongst my expat colleagues, so I am following their advice. My mooncakes will be distributed to the security guys on the campus gate and the gardeners if I see them.

I also have to say that the school has been very generous to all its staff and we have been given huge presents. All members of staff received a big box of pomegranates, a presentation b ox of moon cakes, a presentations box of mixed nuts and a presentation box of mixed grain foodstuff.  This is in line with the origins of the festival being one to celebrate the harvest - a harvest festival.

This is a short vid of me showing the contents

Of course school is now on holiday. My last lessons yesterday were bought forward one hour so all the kids could get away. They were all excited as all kids are come the holidays. I think most of the Chinese staff were excited too. They all had plans to travel home to see their family and relations. Most of the staff, even the married ones with families tend to live on campus in dormitories, 4 to a room!

We had extra excitement yesterday as a TV crew had turned up to film Steven and I. So Steve and I had to be available from 9am. First Steve was interviewed because he had a class, then the crew followed him into his class to film him teaching.

Sunny from our office who acted as our interpreter

Steven in his classroom

 Steven takes the mike

 Sunny and Steven

 Steven with Charlie (our boss) at his desk

Steven in full flow

I don't have any photos of me with the camera crew because Steven had to teach, so it was just me and the crew, plus they wanted to interview me in my accommodation. 

So off to my flat we went where they were introduced to Snook Doggy Dog, who was on her best behaviour. She got filmed quite a lot. Then I had to 'show them around' my flat. That took all of 1 minute, but they filmed my sitting room, bedroom and kitchen. I was asked what food I ate, I showed them the contents of my fridge. Then I had to act sitting at my table working and 'doing the things I normally do'.

Then we went outside and filmed Snooks chasing her ball and generally leaping about.  Then we went off to my class. This was my Junior A class, so they were the youngsters. They were all warned to be on their best behaviour and what great kids. The sat straight backed, stayed quiet, put their hands up if they wanted to speak and stood up when they spoke - as they are meant to do instead of the usual lolling about and all shouting out at once. So I did a bit of teaching then got them singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - the unit is about space after all. 

Apparently Stevens clip is going to be shown on the local TV station at 7:30 tonight (Thursday) and my clip is going to be shown on Friday at 7:30. I've been promised, by the reporter, a link to the clips on the internet, so when I get them I will post them. 

Empty corridors

The school is now empty and an empty school is a strange place. Its soulless. The joyful music of children playing and chattering is missing. The buildings stand empty and silent as me and Snooks wander around. I think Snooks and I and Steven might be the only people left on the campus apart from the security guards on the gate. 

Sunset

 Red Reflections

Teachers Day

Wikipedia: In the People's Republic of China (PRC), there are some activities for students to show their appreciation to teachers, such as presenting gifts, including cards and flowers. In addition, many former students will go back to their old middle schools and high schools to give presents to their old teachers.

The government first proclaimed Teachers' Day in 1985, but has never clearly explained why it should fall on September 10. Some people believe it was an arbitrary choice and have proposed to change it to September 28, which is believed to be Confucius's birthday. On Sep. 5, 2013, the State Councilannounced a legislative draft endorsing the change. If adopted, it would effectively make mainland China and Taiwan share the same Teachers' Day beginning in 2014. 

For a few days before teachers day the concert hall has been being used as the venue for a TV programme celebrating Teachers day, so the area around the hall, which is close to my accommodation has been busy with performers and technicians busy working. Coming back from a class I spotted these girls being photographed so I dived in as you would and got my picture taken. Darn it didn't get any telephone numbers tho!

The day dawned bright and hot

And we all had to muster on the sports field at 7am as school starts promptly at 8am

We stood with the teachers

All in militaristic ranks

This is my Senior class

Then it was the raising of the flag and the national anthem, speeches and prize giving (to teachers)

Once in class we were given gifts from our students, the school and the agency that employs us.

 This card was from my Senior Class

More moon cake and a big box of grapes from the Linkfun agency that employs me, the flowers from senior and juniors,  the mug and notebook from the Junior A class.

This gift was from the school itself - its a USB card

Its pretty cool - although we had to point out the spelling on the tin and card is wrong.

A close up of the mug the Juniors gave me - its cool.

In the evening, after school me and Steve popped over the road for our first excursion to a local restaurant.

This is a spicy cabbage dish

This is (out of focus) aubergine

 With rice and a couple of beers for two about £5. Which Ann, at school, told us was a bit expensive. 

Random Monday Catch Up

It's Monday, it's sunny, it's 09:30, I don't have teaching until 13:40, Snooks has been for a walk and is lying in the sun so I thought I'd use the time for a random catch up and post some of the pictures you haven't seen (unless you've seen some of them on my facebook wall).

A week ago Sunday (not yesterday) Me n Snooks went over to Xianlin where I lived last time. We had a date to meet with Tom and Peggy at the Blue Marlin. They had just got back to China from the States and I was looking forward to meeting up with them again.  To get there from where I am is a bit of a trek using public transport.  From my school by taxi to the Metro,  then nearly 1 hour on Metro Line 1 into town and the Xinjiekou interchange. Then onto Line 2 to Xianlin about another 30 minutes. So a bit of a trek so by the time I got there a drink was needed.

Other old friends and associates turned up - Ryan (red hat) and I forget his name

Tom - It was his birthday

 Peggy and Audrey a Chinese girl who used to be a waitress at the bar that Tom and Peggy have 'adopted'

Snooks made a friend of Zac

 After drinks on my way home I stopped off for noodles near the station 

 The noodle guy

 On Saturday Steve and I went shopping to a big supermarket call Auchan - its French.  Stever wanted to get cheese and was so enamoured of the selection he took photos. In doing so he took a photo of what he wanted, but forgot to put it in his basket!

This young woman, covered in balloons was advertising waffles - we needed a pic of her.

 Yesterday (Sunday) I bought Snooks a fleecy blanket 

 To put into the bed I had made for her out of a cardboard box. 

 This weekend has seen a lot of activity in the concert hall, I believe they are rehearsing for a 'Teachers Day' (which is a big holiday) TV show, so lots of people have been going through the motions outside.

At about 4 o'clock the kids were getting back to school. This is 'Harry Potter' a Korean kid who is in my Junior A class having fun with Snooks

 She gave him the run around

There was also a football match between Senior A and Senior B class. These are some of the girls from my class watching.

This bi plane flies over a lot as do numerous military helicopters we must be near a military base.

More stuff happening in the concert hall

As I said Snooks, sun bathing this morning

Time for a coffee........

First weeks teaching done.

Its Saturday morning and the campus is quiet. All the kids that board during the week went home to their families Friday after the last lesson.  The last couple of weekends the campus has been busy because the students were doing their military training. So its quite strange.

Living on the campus is fine. All week the place has a buzz about it. When you walk past the classrooms during teaching and during the break times there is that clamour of a thousand voices chattering or reciting their lessons that echo around schools all around the world. Its a lovely sound. And theres always a friendly face, a wave or a smile as the students or teachers pass. Of course Snooks is a great asset as the students and teachers alike want to meet with her.

Every day for me is a school day, I have lessons every day of the week. I only have 9 hours of classes each week (13 x 45 minutes each), but they are all over the place really. I'm not really complaining as I am on the campus and my flat is five minutes away from my classroom so I can get back sharpish for a cup of tea after each class and its not onerous work after all.

This is my Junior A class. They are all about aged 12 ish and are great fun. Their English is quite good but you have to be careful not to have too much expectation based on their spoken English.

The first Unit is about Space so I got them drawing aliens

 These are their efforts, pretty good I thought, the school thought so too and put the pictures on their website!

This is my Senior A class they are about 14/15 ish. They are all good fun, most have pretty good English too. All of these kids are being aimed to go to foreign universities thats why we're teaching the iGCSE

This is one of the dormitory blocks where they live six to a room, the toilets and ablutions are down the hall. As you can see they all do their own laundry. 

This is 'Kimmy' doing her eye exercises they all do following instructions blared out through the loudspeaker system

The is 'Prussian Blue' - they choose their own English names. She likes cats! I've shortened her name to 'Blue'.

The English have arrived!

On Friday as I have most of the day free, my one and only class at the school is at 16:30, AJ has organised me some work teaching IELTs in the city. IELTs is the English qualification that gives students access to foreign universities, they have to achieve a score/grade of 6.5/7 to get accepted. 

This is the view of Nanjing from the 25th floor where the language 'school' is. 

This is the noodle maker at the local market

Snooks taking it easy after her morning walk (running madly after her ball), she seems to have nicked her foot/toe a bit and its been bleeding a bit. I've has a look and I can't really see a cut so it's not serious I think. 

 One of my Senior A students (Jo) Father has given us all a gift of Moon Cake  As you can see its a substantial gift to give the international office.

From Wikipedia:

Mooncake (simplified Chinese: 月饼; traditional Chinese: 月餅; pinyin: yuè bĭng) is a Chinese bakery product traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival(Zhongqiu). The festival is for lunar worship and moon watching, when mooncakes are regarded as an indispensable delicacy. Mooncakes are offered between friends or on family gatherings while celebrating the festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the four most important Chinese festivals.

Typical mooncakes are round or rectangular pastries, measuring about 10 cm in diameter and 4–5 cm thick. This is the Cantonese mooncake, eaten in southern China (Guangdong, Hong Kong). A rich thick filling usually made from red bean orlotus seed paste is surrounded by a thin (2–3 mm) crust and may contain yolks from salted duck eggs. Mooncakes are usually eaten in small wedges accompanied by Chinese tea. Today, it is customary for businessmen and families to present them to their clients or relatives as presents,^[1] helping to fuel a demand for high-end mooncake styles.

One can tell its a special gift because of the statement on the box:

'Give first choice present quality guarantee, adopt advanced technology. Delicious loved by all best enjoymeng'.

Unfortunately I will not have 'enjoymeng' of these as they are usually made with lard. Stephen is giving his to his Chinese girlfriend, I'll find somebody suitable to impress, maybe the guards at the gate might get one each.

Later today Stephen and I are off to Auchan a french supermarket to see what goodies we can find.