DAY IN THE LIFE OF A CHINESE TEACHER

Hello Everyone..my apologies I really really suck at keeping up to date with my blog and I promise to try to be a more interesting blog to stop by. I have many stories to write about to catch p with the past month but the first one is about my day today. Today is Wednesday, just another day at the office here in China. I have been teaching here at Shazitang Education Group for two full months now and have settled into my role as the grade 5 foreign English teacher. Since I am only an intern, I have it pretty easy most days in terms of work load. School here in China is structured much differently than school back in Canada. I work at a boarding school so students live in dorms (did I mention I teach at a primary school? this means these kids live at the school 5 days a week at age 6!). The working day for these kids starts at 7:15am. I have to be at the school for 7:45 to have breakfast before heading to my office to plan lessons and then teach a few morning lessons. For me, I usually teach 3 or 4 lessons each morning, have lunch followed by a rest time (the most glorious two hours of the day, which lately I haven't been lucky enough to get). Afternoons are typically pretty laid back for us foreign teachers. We plan lessons in the office, learn Chinese, or plan and run some fun activities and workshops for students. After dinner at 5:30, we get to go home for the day. But the working day is not even close to finished for the students and other teachers. They continue to have lessons until 8:30 at night! In case you didn't put 2 and 2 together, this means that these kids are in school from 7:30am until 8:30pm!! Makes me take back my days of complaining about 9-3:30!

Today I got the taste of what it is like to work as a full time Chinese teacher and man, do I give them huge credit. The amount of time and energy teachers here put into their job is absolutely insane and I can say that I truly appreciate what teachers do. Being one of only 6 foreign teachers with 6 school campuses and 10,000 students can make you a hot commodity and we tend to get some days that are jam packed full of lessons and activities. Today was one of those days. We had lessons in the morning followed by a trip to another campus to put on Halloween activities and games for the afternoon and then rushed back to the main campus to do a few evening lessons. After a whirlwind of a day I am so happy to be sitting on my bed and enjoying a cup of tea. And to think that most teachers here do this everyday. This absolutely blows my mind! Today really gave me an insight in to how hard Chinese teachers and students really work. Every single day of the week the students study away at school for hours and hours in hopes of being smart enough to one day be accepted into university.

I guess the point that I am trying to make is that we have it so easy back in Canada. Our school system is set up so that students get to learn while having fun and we understand that childhood is important and allow students to enjoy it and make the most of it. Here in China, kids spend their childhood at a desk in school for 13 hours a day with a pile of books and not to mention the homework that follows. It might sound absurd. You might be reading this thinking, why? what's the point? Well in a country with a population of 1.4 billion there is a stiff competition to get into a prestigious school and let me tell you, there are many students who want a spot at a top notch university, even just any university really. For us in Canada when we graduate high school we have endless options as to where we can study. Yeah sure, institutions can weed people out by charging a certain amount for tuition and setting a standard for what kind of marks you have to obtain to gain admittance into their institution but when it's all said in done, if you want to go to university, you will get in somewhere and be able to go. In China, it doesn't work that way. You have to work extremely hard to get yourself a spot in a university and the competition begins at an extremely early age.

Think back to when you were a student in elementary school. What do you remember? The fun you had with friends at recess and all the fun games and activities and school projects you did in the classroom? Hanging out with friends after school, playing sports or having dance lessons? If this sounds about right for you then you are extremely fortunate to have such positive memories because for the students that I stand in front of and teach everyday, the majority of their childhood is spent sitting in a desk, nose in the book.

Today was a great friendly reminder to be appreciative for where I come from and was a great chance to spend a day in the life of a Chinese teacher. I hope you can learn something from the day that I had as well. If you're interested in learning more about how different the Chinese school system is from ours in Canada, click on this link to  watch BBC's series, Chinese Schools  Very enlightening!

Cheers!

ORANGE ISLE MUSIC FESTIVAL

This past weekend, the six of interns decided to go to Changsha's annual Orange Isle Music Fest to see what Chinese music fests were all about and compare them to ones back home. The day (abruptly) began at 1pm when I was awoken by Fran who came knocking on my bedroom door saying that we were leaving right that minute for the festival. I still drunkenly stumbled out of my bed threw some clothes on and grabbed my stuff and out the door we went! The fest took place on Changsha's Orange Island which is absolutely gorgeous! We arrived at the festival and mulled around to see what was all there. There were two stages and many food venders (selling Chinese food of course) and a lot of local people that set up shop selling the most random items (so Chinese). We sat on the grass on the side of the main stage and watched a few performers, getting up occasionally to grab some food and water. It also didn't take us long to find the beer gardens..the staff working them loved us and gave us a whole bunch of free Tiger Beer t-shirts and flags (simply because we were foreigners I assume). Towards the end of the night we reverted to hanging out by the beer stand because Tiger beer put out these massive cushions in the sand and it felt amazing to just chill, lay down,  drink beer, and listen to the music with a view of the stage. We were quite the attraction while sitting there and so many Chinese people stopped to take our picture "Oh wow look at the foreigners laying on the pillows, let's take a picture!" The Tiger beer rep even got a few photos of us which I'm sure will be used in a beer advert somewhere here in China. As for the actual music, some artists were pretty horrible and others were pretty good! The only thing is that Chinese people have absolutely no sense of rhythm so their songs were pretty well off beat. Some artists attempted to sing some English songs but for the most part it was all in Chinese which was pretty cool to experience what their music scene is like.  We ran into a few other foreigners at the festival as well which was pretty cool since seeing other foreigners here seems to be quite rare unless you are at Pizza Pizza on the walking street. One of them was actually from Canada as well which was cool because other Canadians are sparse around China, or at least from my own experience. It was so refreshing to talk to him and hear a Canadian accent...I listen to Brits and other Europeans or Chinese speak all the time so it made me feel like I was at home! All in all the Orange Isle fest was a good time..was great to spend the day hanging out on the island with a great view of the city and enjoy some great Chinese musical talent!

One of many Chinese people who stopped to get a picture of us at the festival

你好 (HELLO) CHANGSHA!

A week ago, I packed all my belongings into my backpack and hit the Beijing train station. Many times in China, I caught myself thinking 'where are all the people? China is supposed to be packed full of humans' well I found them, they are at the Beijing West train station. Being hungover, sad to leave, and carrying a bursting at the seams full backpack through a huge crowd of Chinese people staring at you was quite the event let me tell you. I had never been on a train before, since back in Canada passenger trains are not very common so I was very excited to see what it was all about. Well, being a third class passenger in China was a great way to start. It might not of been very glamorous or extremely comfortable but it was an experience and I'm actually glad I had to do it because I'm sure I would have never chosen to travel that way. The beds were stacked three high and I had the top bunk so it was impossible to sit up on my bed so I spent most of my waking hours sitting in the isle hanging out. To my satisfaction, there was a young boy, maybe about 3 or 4 who was next to us on the train. He was so much fun! Even though I could only say a few words and phrases in Chinese, I was able to entertain this little boy and have fun with him! I would make crazy faces at him and he would giggle and try to copy them! It also worked out in our favour as his mother was constantly offering us fruit, meat, and chinese candies while we were playing with her son. 15 long hours later we arrived in Changsha and were greeted by some extremely friendly members of our department from our school and headed back to our school. We were taken to our apartment, and let me tell you when you expect the worst in China, sometimes you are pleasantly surprised. Our accommodation here in Changsha is absolutely gorgeous!! We all have large rooms with King sized beds and are spoiled enough to have a flat screen tv in our living rooms. The boarding school that we use as our home base is gorgeous and quite large considering it's a primary school. All the other teachers are very friendly and the students are so cute but some of them are a little crazy at times. I am teaching mainly grade 5 so the kids' English is not too bad and they are lots of fun! The younger students are adorable but a little crazy and harder to teach because they don't speak much English...cute nonetheless though!

As for Changsha as a city, what a breath of fresh air...literally! The air pollution levels here are minuscule in comparison to Beijing. The Xiangjiang river flows through the city and there is a range of mountains on the west side of the city, the most famous being Mount Yuelu which makes the city have quite the nature feel to it. The population of Changsha is currently at around 6 million so it's the perfect size for China as it has everything an expat needs without it being too overwhelmingly large and crowded. The people here drive like maniacs and are extremely friendly. Since most of the people here don't see many foreigners, the 6 of us interns are local celebrities and are constantly being stopped and stared at, something that one must get used to. One of the most famous areas of Changsha is a walking street downtown which is home to many stores and restaurants and there is a small bar street that branches off of the walking street with many small KTV bars and pub style places to go and enjoy a cold one. There is an outdoor market very close to Tian Hua (the school we live at). The sights and smells sometimes leave much to be desired but it is much what you would expect to see in China. There are many small shops selling various items, from clothing to shoes to fruits and vegetables to carts with large pieces of meat. Here you can also find many outdoor BBQ's where many Chinese go to enjoy some spicy meat skewers of all kinds and drink tea and beer. One of the things that makes this market smell a bit odd and look quite dirty is the fact that garbage collection means just throwing waste on the ground which gets cleaned up in the wee hours of the morning. This makes for a rats haven and a less than lovely scent for humans and I have twice already seen a rat scurrying around (a bit alarming but is to be expected).

Life in Changsha has thus far been good. It is very refreshing to be out of Beijing and see what else China has to offer!

SAYING GOODBYE TO BEIJING

I apologize for my lack of blog posts lately. Between teaching practice, having a social life, and moving to Changsha I have kind of put it on the back burner. Because I'm horrible at keeping up I'm going to rewind back a week in time when I left Beijing. What a sad sad day! Over the course of the past month I have gone from being complete strangers with everyone at TTC to being extremely close with a lot of people. I feel so blessed that I had the chance to come here on my own and leave with so many great amazing friends that I'm certain I will see again (cough cough Inner Mongolia trip)! Saying goodbye to Beijing was really hard for more than one reason. Firstly, I was just starting to feel comfortable and at home in Beijing. I had finally adapted to the climate, the food, I knew the subway system to a certain degree, I knew where to go to get a great meal or a cheap bottle of beer and most importantly felt comfortable crossing the street..I was comfortable. Leaving was like reseting the system again which at the time was a hard concept to grasp but now that I am sitting here at my desk in Changsha I am glad I did it. Secondly, the people..what a riot! Beijing is an amazing city and I have so many fantastic memories there, from the beer garden, the many silk market trips, the sky bar, the fat Toms from teaching practice, the crazy nights at the beer garden down the road, the 50 yuan all you can eat buffet, jamming out with Miguel in the lobby, laying in the grass at the summer temple, dying laughing 20 times a day from George and Rasmus, having a nap in the beds in Ikea, having morning cuddle sessions with  miss Clem, and going to the shop down the road from some delicious dumplings. And not to mention all the great times sitting out on the front step of the hotel until the wee hours of the night! It didn't really feel like reality saying goodbye to so many amazing people that I have grown so close to. Beijing was one big party and now I'm feeling the effects of the Beijing hangover, the worst kind if you ask me! I was forced to literally squeeze all of my belongings into my backpack and leave Beijing with 5 other great interns for Changsha
再见 Beijing!

798

The other day, a few friends and I decided to venture off to 798, the art district here in Beijing. Only a 45 minute walk from Wangjing and well worth it! We stepped into the gates and what felt like outside of China. I didn't quite know what to expect out of an art district in a country like China. I mean, anywhere else in the world you can expect to find extremely avant-garde work in a gallery, but would it really be the same here in China? I was pleasantly surprised with what we discovered. We walked  down the narrow pedestrian filled streets past art galleries, cafes, quaint shops, and bars and stumbled upon a contemporary art gallery that we decided to check out. We payed the well worth it 10 rmb and wondered in. What we saw was not what I expected from Beijing at all. The first corridor featured a variety of pieces about human impact on our society which was pretty neat. The large gallery  that included my favourite piece, a copy of the fake New York Times that was released by The Yes Men in New York City, was full of a variety of artwork that exposed topics that I didn't think would be allowed to be put on display in a communist society like China. The entire time we were there, I couldn't help but be amazed by everything. I couldn't believe my eyes and I didn't feel like I was in China at all. It make me think that art is one thing that links everyone in the world together. It doesn't matter what kind of country you live in or where in the world you are, art is something that we can all relate to and use to express how we feel about the world around us, no matter how suppressed we may be. I was really forced to re think every impression that the Western world has put into my head about China and see it through an unbiased set of eyes, and man what I saw was beautiful and ironically quite liberal! Another neat thing we saw our the first street musician. He was playing guitar and singing in the street and since this seems to be a rare occurrence here, we stopped to watch for a while. We soon realized that street musicians here in China are a little bit different than back home. Typically back home, people will busk on the street and you walk by and freely drop money into their case. Well this man had his guitar case open and had cds for sale for 20 rmb. A friend of mine wanted to encourage the man by giving him some money, but wasn't keen on having a cd so walked up and dropped a few rmb into the case. The man stopped playing and started speaking to him in Chinese, motioning for him to buy a cd. My friend then dropped some more money into the case and took a CD and walked away and yet again, the man stopped playing and ran up to my friend and gave him his change because he overpaid for the CD. This was hilarious to see but also very interesting to wrap my head around the fact that the man would not take his money without him having something for it and would not allow him to overpay..he only wanted what he thought his music was worth. The man didn't understand that simply just hearing him play was worth the money. Seeing the art district here in Beijing was a beautiful and an eye opening experience and I hope to make it back there again before I leave the city.

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

A few days ago, our TTC group had another fun filled tour day that included a stop at the Great Wall. We hopped on the bus early in the morning and took the nearly 2 hour drive out of the city and into the mountains to the Great Wall. As soon as we got off the bus, I could not believe my eyes..I stood face to face with one of the greatest wonders of the world. Looking at it, it seemed as if it wouldn't be much of a challenge to climb up the hundreds of steep steps to the top but I soon found out how wrong I was. The section that we were at stretched straight up the mountain face and there wasn't really much of a flat spot to get a bit of a break. We climbed up past watch towers and looked over the walls at beautiful mountains littered with bright green shrubbery. I was so out of breath from the steep gradient and the polluted air, but it felt amazing to finally get some exercise! We stopped up at the top to catch our breaths and take it the great view of the wall we just climbed which stretched across the mountain side and into the valley then started to head back down. I think that for the first time ever, getting down was the harder part. My legs were shaking and some steps were extremely steep. When we got to the bottom, a lady with her little boy in arms came running towards me and handed me her son (a little startling) so that she could get a picture of him with me. It was a pretty special moment to have, especially when still feeling the adrenaline of climbing the Great Wall. A few of us broke down and purchased  an oh so touristy "I climbed the Great Wall" t-shirt (in my defence, it's a pretty cool accomplishment) and then headed back to the bus to continue on into the city.

The next cool stop of the day was to Hou Hai lake and the Hutongs. The Hutongs is a section of small old houses that were the standard back in the day. The homes had communal bathrooms and kitchens shared by all of the residents. Today, some of the buildings look to be still inhabited but others have been converted into small shops, restaurants, and bars. We got the joy of riding around this area with rickshaws, which was definitely the way to do it. Cycling down the narrow streets was a great way to take in the sights, especially when we made it to Hou Hai lake, a beautiful lake littered with paddle boats and shops, cafes, and bars all around. It was a great atmosphere and neat to see these traditional Chinese buildings.

We finished the night off by heading back to the hotel and drinking lots of pijiu before going out to Mix, a Chinese club to dance the night away. It was a great end to yet another amazing day in Beijing!
Cheers!

ATMOSPHERE BAR

The other night, a few friends and I decided that we wanted to do something exciting so we hopped on the subway and went into the city and about 40 minutes later found ourselves staring up in awe at the tallest building in China (the CCTV building). The main attraction of this building is a nice little place called Atmosphere, probably one of the most expensive bars in Beijing, on the 80th floor. For people who have the money, it is a great way to sit and enjoy a drink while soaking in the marvelous view of Beijing. To give you an idea in Chinese standards, a cocktail here costs 85 rmb and typically in a normal bar beer costs 8-15 rmb. It is definitely worth it to go up for one drink, but we figured to stay there all night might be a little bit of a stretch. At first, we couldn't get a table in the bar, so we went down to the 79th floor to have a drink and soak in the view while we waited for a table to open up. We sat down at a table facing right up to the window and drank a delicious cocktail while we waited for a table. A little while after we went back upstairs and were escorted to a table in the bar right in front of a jazz band that was playing. After a few songs we decided to get up and dance, which was so much fun! A little while later a group of Chinese men came and sat down behind us at a table by the window. They turned around and started talking to us, asking us where we were from and why we were in Beijing. They ended up inviting us to sit at their table and talk English with them and offered us a few glasses of their 700rmb bottle of wine! They also decided that they would be picking up the rest of the tab! Basically the gist of the story is that I went to the most expensive bar in Beijing and didn't have to pay a single cent simply because I was white and spoke English. This kind of thing is something I have a hard time wrapping my head around. Anywhere else in the world, your social class is typically determined by your wealth and status, but here I am in China sitting and chatting with a group of Chinese lawyers and a judge and the only reason they paid any sort of attention to me was because of my skin colour and my native language. Back in Canada, someone of that kind of 'prestige' would not invite some poor starving university student to join their table. Yet everywhere you go here, people stop and stare and want to take your picture like you are some sort of celebrity and want to take you out for drinks or a meal. It is a very strange concept, one that I'm not sure if I am fully comfortable with yet, but hey afterall this is China! Regardless of that, it was a great evening soaking in a view of a beautiful city, a great band, laughter with friends, and learning new Chinese words. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience!
Gan bei!