We had lunch at a restaurant today, with our friend Perry from the TEFL class, called "Cornfield Coffee". There are several of these in Zhuhai. They are "Western" style restaurants. They are fairly upscale, and expensive for this area. They serve everything on the menu from steak and chicken, to frog, ham, egg and intestine sandwiches. They also have waffles, all sorts of sweet and milk drinks, beers and ice wines. The servers, the two times that we ate there, really try to speak English, which is not that common around here. The place is obviously fancy because even though it still has squat toilets in the bathrooms, it actually has soap and paper towels!
Perry, who grew up in Australia, but is of Chinese descent, helped us get on the right bus and we went to Gong Bei, Southern Zhuhai. We had to go, literally, through a 2 mile long tunnel through a large mountain to get to this part of the city. It is right on the Macau border, only about 20 minutes from where we are staying. We could see Macau, but did not have our passports with us to cross over the border there. We will probably not have a chance to do so until our course ends.
Once in Gong Bei, the large buildings and snarled traffic, teeming with people, had us visibly observing plenty of smog and pollution. Being that we are on the water, and surrounded by mountains, as well as there being much haze, causes an oppressive amount of humidity!
We went to a literal underground market that crowded about a thousand stalls and stores in to a not very large area. There, one can negotiate and haggle prices for everything. We bought Marie two pair of very nice shoes for about $12 USD total. I was going to buy rip-off Nikes and Adidas for a total of $20-30 USD for both pairs that would have been around $120 in the US, but the largest sizes they came in were 9.5! So, the shoes literally did not fit....
While walking around, we were reminded more of a China that we expected to see. It was very crowded and almost overwhelming. Zhuhai has a "mere" 1.5 million residents, and this was the crowded downtown. We can't even imagine Shanghai, which boasts well over 20 million!
It began to downpour when we left, which caused the humidity to subside a bit. We caught a cab back to Zhuhai. There, we ran in to a market near our apartment to escape the rain. There were hundreds of people killing, skinning, slicing, gutting, and doing all sorts of other lovely things to fish, chicken and other animals that people picked out on the spot. We did not want to get too close, as parts fly all over. It would be like a Gallagher concert, without the rain coats!
We then dropped our stuff off at our rooms, and proceeded back to this Net Cafe. We are seated next to two Chinese boys that have been chain smoking and spitting intermittently on the floor. It is hard to get over this disgusting habit. Jon tries to brace himself for the first time he may be spit on directly, and will need to try to restrain himself from punching someone very hard!
We bought a 35mm camera on Friday. We will try to take pics to download to a CD after the course, and upload, after we get settled, to this blog. We will definitely try to buy a good digital as soon as we can find it, too.
Until then, take care, be well, and watch out for spit and fish parts!
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
What another week!
We just finished a very intensive week, without much sleep, at the course. We did get to teach twice this week. Both were good schools, but the second was great. It was an expensive private school with thousands of little kids running up to us, screaming "hello" and running away when we spoke back to them. They were all in uniforms, and were out in the yard exercising at the whistles and shouted prompts of the teachers. They treated us like celebrities, and seemed to be fascinated with us. They were very good students, and very quick to pick up the lessons. They are taught to read aloud, or choral, in unison when asked to read from the board. So, it was very loud but enjoyable. We were fed breakfast before the classes, which was nice. It was extremely hot and humid (no AC) and we still can't get over the fact that there are only squat toilets in the bathrooms, and no toilet paper, soap, nor paper towels! We have no idea why they wouldn't have this to prevent germ spread, but we hope they have better immune systems. Luckily, they have clean drinking water!
At the end of the lesson, the kids swarmed around us and were fascinated. A little pudgy kid kicked my water bottle away, and then ran. It was a surreal scene with so many there playing freely one minute, then having to line up and drill upon command the next. They definitely win in the group control Department!
We will be buying a camera as soon as we can, as well as posting more. In the meantime, here is posted a picture of our class.
We can't see your comments for whatever reason, so please be in touch.
Stay well!
-Jon and Marie
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Hello from China!
What a week!
We left BWI on Weds. 8/29 around 10AM to JFK/NYC. We then flew direct at around 4 PM from NYC to Hong Kong International. When we arrived at the local time of 8 PM on Thursday 8/30, we were quite sleep deprived and disoriented (no pun intended). We were very happy to be off the plane, though the flight was on a huge Cathy Pacific jumbo jetliner. It is a subsidiary of British Air, and is very nice. There was very good food, high tech accommodations (TV, radio, and a GPS system on the seat backs that showed exactly where we were, how much time we had left, the temp. outside, etc.) and even free drinks (alc. incl.) and snacks the whole time!
When we got to the airport, Marie was ecstatic to see Hello Kitty everywhere. Hong Kong International Airport is almost a city itself! We had thought about staying at a hotel attached to the airport, but it would have been way too expensive for very basic accommodations. So, we took a bus to our hotel, the Novotel City Gate Hong Kong (2 miles away), checked in, noticed how beautiful the hotel was, and were amazed by the view from our room. There were mountains surrounding us, and the water a few blocks away. There was a large pool and fountain out back, a huge outlet mall connected to the hotel, and even many nice restaurants. Unfortunately, we were so tired that we could only try to sleep just before midnight when settled and could not enjoy many of the hotel's amenities.
The next day, after a very nice Western style breakfast at the hotel, we then had to rush off again to take a train, to a bus, to the Ferry Port at Hong Kong's Harbor. The Ferry Port was also very impressive. There were many stores, and a Starbucks that of course Marie loved. Jon bought waters knowing that they would be needed for the Ferry Ride.
The "First Class Tix" we bought got us seats on the upper deck of the Ferry. The ride was very
bumpy, with a Jackie Chan movie to amuse passengers. It took about 1.25 hours to get to Zhuhai's Port. When we arrive, we lugged our several bags through Immigration and went outside to catch a cab to the school that we'll be spending September getting our TEFL certs in. The cab ride was crazy; our bags nearly fell out of the trunk as the car was so small and could not fit them (they were tied in with a rope)!
When we got to the school, we met with a woman named Mei Ling. She helped us get to our hotel across the street, where we spend 2 nights. It was not a bad hotel, but during our second night, we were locked out of our room due to a misunderstanding regarding payment. Luckily, it was resolved, but the language barrier almost proved an impasse!
When we checked out of our hotel on Sunday 9/2, we went to our new home for the month, the Hongda Garden Apartment building. We have our own apartment, with a living room, a TV (that I can't work), a kitchen, a bathroom, two bed rooms, and cages out of the windows to hang our things to dry from. Our bathroom luckily has a Western style toilet (meaning not a hole in the ground like most bathrooms here do), but the "shower" is nothing but a shower head that sits in the corner of the room. When we shower, everything gets soaked in the bathroom! We of course have not drank the water, but still need to shower with it. It is understood by all in China that tap water should not be drank. It smells pretty awful when it sits stagnant for a time (like in the toilet). Another oddity is that there are no paper towels anywhere, only TP used for hand wiping. Most public bathrooms, and even restaurants have "squat toilets" and no TP or soap, so one must bring their own if going out for the day. The water we drink is called "Mr Wang's", but the scary name is still better than drinking from the tap!
We met our class on Sunday 9/2, and had dinner at a local place with them. There was a large lazy susan in the middle of the table, so if we were quick, we could grab food as it went by! There were many good things, but we were too tired and hot from the humidity to eat much!
Our classes started Monday 9/3, and the whole week was very intensive. We did not expect to have so much work immediately thrown at us, but have done what was needed. We did not get to tour all week because of the class, but need to make it our priority as it will help us get to where we want to be with teaching once we finish. Our classmates are all "unique", but so are most people that choose this path.
We actually really went out and saw a few more things today (Saturday) then we had all week. We had spent the week eating in the cafeteria to save time and money, and needed to speak with the students in English in exchange. It has been very exciting as they are quite eager to learn. They get to choose their own English names, but I don't know if these names are really explained to them. There have been boys with names like Eric, but also "Army" and girls named Doris and Crystal, but also "Apple" and "Rubber". We would hate to know what Chinese names they would give us! ; )
We did get to speak with one on one with locals as teaching practice. That was very enlightening, as they have definitely not been afraid to speak their minds! Their English seemed to improve with only a few days practice.
Again, we have been in class almost all the time we have been here, but today we ventured over to the shoreline of the city.
Zhuhai is a very interesting city. It is a coastal city that has much benefit from being near Hong Kong. Much development has gone in to this area. It is Southeast China, and part of the Guangdong, or Cantonese province. Though Cantonese is spoken by most here, the mainland or official Chinese, Mandarin, is widely spoken by most locals under 40. We live in the area where it costs less to live, and is a little dirtier than the nicer shoreline area. Our neighborhood has a palm tree lined road with much traffic and congestion, but the hills can be seen flanking us. There are so many things around here, and the few restaurants that we have visited have been pretty good. We aren't big fans of things like chicken feet, and other odd animal "delicacies", but have tried a few. The people seem to appreciate that fact that we try to use a few words to them and attempt to use chopsticks every meal. They laugh and stare a bit, but that is to be expected. We just try to be careful not to get run over as drivers here are not very concerned about pedestrians. Though, walkers don't seem to worry about walking in front of speeding cars, either!
Today, we went to see the Fisher Girl State of Zhuhai about 20 minutes away on the shore of lover's lane. Please check out Zhuhai on Wikipedia to read all about the legend of the statue. We walked along the water, saw the city in the distance, and then headed to Haibin park. It is a very serene place, with people doing Tai Chi, and the ability to climb hills to see the whole city from a Temple like platform at the top of the summit. There is also a place called Lake of the Lotus where people are put in to what look like giant rubber bubbles/hamster wheels. They can then try to roll around without getting wet, but it doesn't seem to get them very far.
After the park, we went to a very modern shopping mall. It was quite fancy compared to our area. It still did not stop people from spitting, but there are laws against that now being made because of the attempt to improve the country before the Olympics. The mall was next to a Pizza Hut, which after having local food all week, we had to try! It was actually quite good, and much nicer than any at home. We had shrimp, cheeses, raisins and ham on it. We also were given Seafood salad, fried shrimp, fruit drinks and dessert. This was ironically expensive at $25 because most full and wonderful meals eaten in our neighborhood are about $3-5 total for us both to get drinks, tofu, veggies, a rice dish, and a meat dish! There is also KFC here, as well, as in our neighborhood, but we have steered clear so far.
Once we caught the overfull and non air-conditioned bus back to our neighborhood, we had soymilk bubble teas at an outdoor bar that was showing olympics pregames. The area of it is right outside of our school, and it has an outdoor stage where many shows take place. the building where the school is is actually a large crescent with many shops, restaurants and a plaza where little kids can play bumper cars with batter operated mini cars they ride in. There is also many grill vendors, live chicken sellers, and jewelry vendors that Marie loves. She is also happy about all of the dogs and cats that roam about, but Jon does not want her to get Rabies, so she stays away from the ones that don't have owners!
It is now Sunday morning, 3 AM local time, and Marie and Jon are checking our emails thoroughly for the first time since we have gotten here. We are in an Internet Cafe behind our apartment building that never seems to close, and is still filled with dozens of smoking patrons. We can not use the Web on our laptop in our apartment building. We must log on to the Wireless Network at our school building, which closed 9 hours ago!
We left BWI on Weds. 8/29 around 10AM to JFK/NYC. We then flew direct at around 4 PM from NYC to Hong Kong International. When we arrived at the local time of 8 PM on Thursday 8/30, we were quite sleep deprived and disoriented (no pun intended). We were very happy to be off the plane, though the flight was on a huge Cathy Pacific jumbo jetliner. It is a subsidiary of British Air, and is very nice. There was very good food, high tech accommodations (TV, radio, and a GPS system on the seat backs that showed exactly where we were, how much time we had left, the temp. outside, etc.) and even free drinks (alc. incl.) and snacks the whole time!
When we got to the airport, Marie was ecstatic to see Hello Kitty everywhere. Hong Kong International Airport is almost a city itself! We had thought about staying at a hotel attached to the airport, but it would have been way too expensive for very basic accommodations. So, we took a bus to our hotel, the Novotel City Gate Hong Kong (2 miles away), checked in, noticed how beautiful the hotel was, and were amazed by the view from our room. There were mountains surrounding us, and the water a few blocks away. There was a large pool and fountain out back, a huge outlet mall connected to the hotel, and even many nice restaurants. Unfortunately, we were so tired that we could only try to sleep just before midnight when settled and could not enjoy many of the hotel's amenities.
The next day, after a very nice Western style breakfast at the hotel, we then had to rush off again to take a train, to a bus, to the Ferry Port at Hong Kong's Harbor. The Ferry Port was also very impressive. There were many stores, and a Starbucks that of course Marie loved. Jon bought waters knowing that they would be needed for the Ferry Ride.
The "First Class Tix" we bought got us seats on the upper deck of the Ferry. The ride was very
bumpy, with a Jackie Chan movie to amuse passengers. It took about 1.25 hours to get to Zhuhai's Port. When we arrive, we lugged our several bags through Immigration and went outside to catch a cab to the school that we'll be spending September getting our TEFL certs in. The cab ride was crazy; our bags nearly fell out of the trunk as the car was so small and could not fit them (they were tied in with a rope)!
When we got to the school, we met with a woman named Mei Ling. She helped us get to our hotel across the street, where we spend 2 nights. It was not a bad hotel, but during our second night, we were locked out of our room due to a misunderstanding regarding payment. Luckily, it was resolved, but the language barrier almost proved an impasse!
When we checked out of our hotel on Sunday 9/2, we went to our new home for the month, the Hongda Garden Apartment building. We have our own apartment, with a living room, a TV (that I can't work), a kitchen, a bathroom, two bed rooms, and cages out of the windows to hang our things to dry from. Our bathroom luckily has a Western style toilet (meaning not a hole in the ground like most bathrooms here do), but the "shower" is nothing but a shower head that sits in the corner of the room. When we shower, everything gets soaked in the bathroom! We of course have not drank the water, but still need to shower with it. It is understood by all in China that tap water should not be drank. It smells pretty awful when it sits stagnant for a time (like in the toilet). Another oddity is that there are no paper towels anywhere, only TP used for hand wiping. Most public bathrooms, and even restaurants have "squat toilets" and no TP or soap, so one must bring their own if going out for the day. The water we drink is called "Mr Wang's", but the scary name is still better than drinking from the tap!
We met our class on Sunday 9/2, and had dinner at a local place with them. There was a large lazy susan in the middle of the table, so if we were quick, we could grab food as it went by! There were many good things, but we were too tired and hot from the humidity to eat much!
Our classes started Monday 9/3, and the whole week was very intensive. We did not expect to have so much work immediately thrown at us, but have done what was needed. We did not get to tour all week because of the class, but need to make it our priority as it will help us get to where we want to be with teaching once we finish. Our classmates are all "unique", but so are most people that choose this path.
We actually really went out and saw a few more things today (Saturday) then we had all week. We had spent the week eating in the cafeteria to save time and money, and needed to speak with the students in English in exchange. It has been very exciting as they are quite eager to learn. They get to choose their own English names, but I don't know if these names are really explained to them. There have been boys with names like Eric, but also "Army" and girls named Doris and Crystal, but also "Apple" and "Rubber". We would hate to know what Chinese names they would give us! ; )
We did get to speak with one on one with locals as teaching practice. That was very enlightening, as they have definitely not been afraid to speak their minds! Their English seemed to improve with only a few days practice.
Again, we have been in class almost all the time we have been here, but today we ventured over to the shoreline of the city.
Zhuhai is a very interesting city. It is a coastal city that has much benefit from being near Hong Kong. Much development has gone in to this area. It is Southeast China, and part of the Guangdong, or Cantonese province. Though Cantonese is spoken by most here, the mainland or official Chinese, Mandarin, is widely spoken by most locals under 40. We live in the area where it costs less to live, and is a little dirtier than the nicer shoreline area. Our neighborhood has a palm tree lined road with much traffic and congestion, but the hills can be seen flanking us. There are so many things around here, and the few restaurants that we have visited have been pretty good. We aren't big fans of things like chicken feet, and other odd animal "delicacies", but have tried a few. The people seem to appreciate that fact that we try to use a few words to them and attempt to use chopsticks every meal. They laugh and stare a bit, but that is to be expected. We just try to be careful not to get run over as drivers here are not very concerned about pedestrians. Though, walkers don't seem to worry about walking in front of speeding cars, either!
Today, we went to see the Fisher Girl State of Zhuhai about 20 minutes away on the shore of lover's lane. Please check out Zhuhai on Wikipedia to read all about the legend of the statue. We walked along the water, saw the city in the distance, and then headed to Haibin park. It is a very serene place, with people doing Tai Chi, and the ability to climb hills to see the whole city from a Temple like platform at the top of the summit. There is also a place called Lake of the Lotus where people are put in to what look like giant rubber bubbles/hamster wheels. They can then try to roll around without getting wet, but it doesn't seem to get them very far.
After the park, we went to a very modern shopping mall. It was quite fancy compared to our area. It still did not stop people from spitting, but there are laws against that now being made because of the attempt to improve the country before the Olympics. The mall was next to a Pizza Hut, which after having local food all week, we had to try! It was actually quite good, and much nicer than any at home. We had shrimp, cheeses, raisins and ham on it. We also were given Seafood salad, fried shrimp, fruit drinks and dessert. This was ironically expensive at $25 because most full and wonderful meals eaten in our neighborhood are about $3-5 total for us both to get drinks, tofu, veggies, a rice dish, and a meat dish! There is also KFC here, as well, as in our neighborhood, but we have steered clear so far.
Once we caught the overfull and non air-conditioned bus back to our neighborhood, we had soymilk bubble teas at an outdoor bar that was showing olympics pregames. The area of it is right outside of our school, and it has an outdoor stage where many shows take place. the building where the school is is actually a large crescent with many shops, restaurants and a plaza where little kids can play bumper cars with batter operated mini cars they ride in. There is also many grill vendors, live chicken sellers, and jewelry vendors that Marie loves. She is also happy about all of the dogs and cats that roam about, but Jon does not want her to get Rabies, so she stays away from the ones that don't have owners!
It is now Sunday morning, 3 AM local time, and Marie and Jon are checking our emails thoroughly for the first time since we have gotten here. We are in an Internet Cafe behind our apartment building that never seems to close, and is still filled with dozens of smoking patrons. We can not use the Web on our laptop in our apartment building. We must log on to the Wireless Network at our school building, which closed 9 hours ago!
We will try to update this blog as much as we can, but it will be difficult while this course is on. We hope to be settled somewhere working by the middle of next month. Then we can update this much more, and even take pics/videos to add to it.
We hope that all are well, and look forward to letting you know of and see our travels as we go!
Until the next time, all the best to you and yours!
-Jon and Marie Helman
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