Some more flowers

Some more pictures of flowers from the mountain apartment.

Chinese education has some gaps

I spoke to another teacher about my issue with receiving a mixed cocktail from a 16 year old student after class.  What he said is kind of interesting.

He told me a story about when he taught at a school for 14 year olds.  One day, some students invited him to a party on the roof of the school.  When he got there, he was shocked when students puled out cigarettes and started to offer him some.

He said that he was obligated to accept and not to do anything because he did not want the students not to like him.

I find this very strange, on many levels.  

It is not permissible for students to drink or smoke, but if they are caught doing it, they receive basically no punishment.  

Many parents do not understand that drinking is not particularly healthy for kids.

When a friend was in high school, he mentioned that in another class at his school, some boys drank beer when a teacher was out side of class.  They got drunk and started trying to grope and kiss female students.

In the USA, this would lead to criminal charges, lawsuits, and the like.

In China, the school separated the students by putting them in separate classes.

I am told that alcohol is a major problem in China.  Not just in schools.

However, no one does any education of students about the effects of daily drinking or dependance.

My friend also told me that there is no sex education of any kind in China.  Children either learn from their parents or friends.

He said that it is not uncommon for girls to think that they can get pregnant from kissing a boy.

So, students spend all day at school.  They study from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM.  Yet no one bothers to educate them about basic life issues like alcohol, drugs, sex, and relationships.

The result of the lack of sex education is alot of teen age girls have abortions.

Dining at the Mall

Nt to my chagrin, I have discovered that there are many restaurants at the Mall.  I am chagrinned because I did not adequately explore the third floor of the mall to find out that there is a sushi place, a Thai restaurant and a korean hot pot place.

Yesterday, I went to the Thai place.  It was expensive by Chinese standards.  I paid a whopping 15.00 for a carafe of some kind of blue, fruit water drink, some tasty thai egg rolls, and some tasty fish curry.  15.00 is alot considering my usual culinary forays set me back around 2.00 to 3.00.  

The thai food was quite good.  The weird fruit water drink was the color of windex and raspberry gatorade.  It was served in a martini glass.  It probably would have been better with some vodka in it.  I felt like a teetotaler sipping a mock tail.

The egg rolls were nothing great but were palatable.  Fish curry is quite good.  It was nice to have fish that did not have bones.  I was very leery as I took each bite, expecting the bones in the fish to open like an umbrella in my throat.  

My only complaint is that the thai food was very chinese.  It had a good thai flavor, but had alot of oil.  I need to cut back on my oil intake or I will soon not fit my clothing.

The day before, I went to a korean hot pot restaurant.  At your table, in the middle, is an electric burner.  The staff but a metal bowl on the burner and pour very hot spice/oil mix into one half of the bowl.

You then order meats, vegetables, seafood, and other items to drop into the boiling water in the middle of your table.

I tried shrimp, some lamb, some thing like a potato and some sort of lettuce type green. I didn't really know what I was ordering, but the staff were helpful. The shrimp came out with their heads attached.  If you have not seen a shrimp with it's head attached recently, you might not know that shrimp in China have large, beady black eyes.  They seemed to be looking at me.

After my items had been heated, I pulled them out and ate them on lettuce.  You make a sort of burrito out of the steaming hot stuff from the bowl and your leaf of lettuce.  It is very tasty and low in carbs.

I think I over did it with spices though.  When I left the korean place, I was literally pouring sweat from all of the hot foods.  I can only imagine what the staff must have thought of the sweaty foreigner.

I also spied a sushi place, but need to explore that further.

The past two days, I also have had a chance to eat some very tasty soup at some small fanguan in Hankou near where I work.  A co-worker took me because she was feeling sick and wanted some soup.

Yesterday, I had seaweed soup with pork.  It was very good and made me feel extremely good.  Today I tried duck soup.

I spoke to another teacher afterwards, and he said that people do not eat the meat in the soup.  They just drink the beth, and give the meat to dogs or throw it out.  I do not agree that this is the best way to eat soup, and will continue with my practice of eating all of the stuff in the soup bowl.

Tasty eggrolls and weird non alcoholic blue drink.  I got this because, apparently, I do not know how to pronounce ice tea properly.  There was a picture of this on the menu, hence I got it.

Curry fish and rice is very good to eat.

The little puppy

This is a picture of a the little puppy I liberated.  I don't go back to the school until a week from Monday, so I hope he will be fine until then.

Cocktail apres class

Many of the students I teach in China are extremely polite and well behaved.  Some are disrespectful brats or know it alls, but so far those have been relatively few.

At one of the schools where I teach, I meet with students after class to have short talks to help practice speaking.

Usually students bring me a coffee or a water or something like that.  Tuesday was a little different.

I had to go to the nearby store, and on my way met some students who were coming to see me.  One of them handed me a glass bottle with a pink liquid in it.  The label indicated that this was a "breezer".

I took a double take.  There was a Bacardi logo on the bottle.  I spun the bottle over, and it indicated that there was 4% alcohol.

I quickly asked the student what the drinking age was in China.  He said 18.  I started heading towards the building with the english office.

I asked him, do kids at the school drink these.  He said "Yeah".

I told him that I was going to bring this bottle to the head of the english department because he should not have alcohol at school.

He tried to grabe the bottle away from me, to which I gave him an "oh no no no" and bade him follow me.

In the english office, there was only one teacher.  An older woman.  I quickly explained that this student had given me an alcoholic drink on school grounds.

She looked at the drink and said she didn't understand.  I turned the bottle over and showed her that the drink has 4% alcohol.  She quickly understood what was going on.

Anyway, I think that this school has a pretty big problem with teen agers drinking.

It is important to understand that not all students in China are intelligent.  Many of them are the same slackers and goof balls that you find in American schools.

It is interesting that alcohol is readily available to students at a store next to a high school.  Further, it is fascinating that a 16 year old student, wearing a school uniform, was able to enter a store next to the school and buy alcohol during the school day.

What is different than in the USA.  After this incident, the student helped me carry my bags about a mile to get a taxi.  I assume it is because he was told he is not in trouble,  I made it clear that I was not angry at him.  I am never angry at someone who brings me a cocktail.  Not ever.

The issue is more about my role as a teacher and not a drinking buddy of my underage students.  I think they figured this out pretty quick.

The great escape

My last post was an update about that sad little puppy I saw at the school I work at up in the mountains.

Well after that post, I decided to go get me self some wine.  Actually, I went out for a stroll and the dusty and hot road did create in me a thirst, which was best quenched by some wine.

Anyway, I got some wine, and as I drank my wine, I thought about the little puppy.  I decided to go check to make sure he was OK.

It was around 10:30 when I walked down from my apartments to where the dog crate is located.  The workers have apartments right behind the cafeteria, and the dog crate was in a sort of vestibule where there is a stairway to the second floor of the apartments.

All the lights were off in the apartments, and the little puppy was there sitting up with a rather scared expression on his face.

Thereupon, operation puppy liberation did commence.

I scooped the lil pup and dashed back to my apartments.

He was quite happy to be out of his confines, and ran around and around.  I used my most calming dog speak to get him copacetic.  We had a decent evening, as I finished my wine, watched Chinese soap operas, and taught the puppy how to play tug and such.

He slept on the floor next to me.  I put him on the couch, where he fell asleep.  But he woke up and seemed alot calmer on the floor.  I have the feeling he has never been on a couch or taken a nap next next to someone before.

I awoke the next morning at 6:00 AM and brought the puppy back to his cage.  I hope that his owners do not do anything wierd.

I spied the puppy later that day inside one of the apartments.  I did not see the puppy back in his crate again that day, although I gave him a fried egg on my way back from breakfast.

I will be sure to update about the developments in this ongoing story.

Puppy is doing fine

That little poodle puppy I mentioned last week is doing fine.

I have been thinking about the little puppy since last week.  I actually researched ways of hiding him on the train ride back to Wuhan.

Anyway, I just got back to my mountain home, and went to the place where I last saw the puppy.

The workers from the cafeteria where sitting outside having lunch (it is about 85 degrees here today). I found the puppy, clean and happy sitting in a metal cage/crate in a shady spot outside what appears to be apartments for the workers.

I stopped and pet him through the cage.  He seemed quite happy and energetic, although I am sure he does not like being in a crate.

I have done further research about dogs here in China, and my assessment that ALL dogs here have it bad.  SOME dogs have a very good life.  Strays and unfortunate dogs have a VERY bad time around here though.

I read a story about a family who call their three dogs their sons, and refer to their only human son as the dogs older brother.

It is indeed a relief that the puppy is doing ok.

Some views of Northern Hubei from the train

Some pictures that show the landscape of Hubei.  It is mostly farm country, without much except fields, farms and the odd river.

Mountain Home

These are some lovely pictures from my mountain home.

Dogs do not have it good around here

On Mondays and Tuesdays, I am at my little place in the mountains.  I kind of enjoy it there except for the VPN issue I have with my computer.  I have figured out ways to deal with the situation, but I will not elaborate about it here.

Anyway, the other day after I came out of the cafeteria (where I did not enjoy a thoroughly mediocre meal of mystery fried rice and pork flavored tofu) I was greeted by the cutest, saddest, most forlorn puppy I have met in a long time.

Outside of the door of the cafeteria (the back door actually) there was a tiny white poodle puppy that was coming up to people, tail wagging, begging for some food.  He was very filthy and needed his eyes cleaned.  I reached down and petted him and he playfully nipped my finger, perhaps checking to see if I had a treat for him.  He was still very much a young, bouncy puppy.

For the rest of the day, I kept thinking about and figuring out a plan to go get the puppy, give him a bath, get him some food, and smuggle him back to Wuhan with me.

I saw him later that day and he was still bouncing around the same area.  I surmised that he is a pet or stray that workers at the school have adopted.  He was not skinny at all, just filthy.

After a few beers (Tsintgao of course) I walked down from my apartments and looked for him.  He must have gone to his filthy place where he sleeps.

The next morning, I did not see him.  I had resolved myself to picking him up and at least giving him a bath.

I did see him at lunch time, but I was in a rush.  Fortunately, it looks like I was correct in that the workers had put a bowl of rice and meat out for him. So if he doesn't get sick, I will definitely catch him and give him a bath, maybe buy him some real dog food too.

It is something of a difficult and slippery slope.  I can give some kindness to this dog, and perhaps it will live longer.  Will it only make it more difficult for the dog when I am unable to continue to care for it?  I have resolved myself to not acquiring any pets while here, because when I eventually leave I cannot bear the thought of what their fate could be.  I know, from experience, that most chinese people do not seem to view dogs or cats in the same way that westerners do.  I do see people with well cared for dogs and have found a dog grooming place near my work, which means there are people who care for dogs and cats.

However, today, while walking past a pet store (where they keep large dogs in cages that are not of a suitable size) I saw a grown man kick a dog that was inside a cage.  As I walked past, I heard the dog yelping and crying.  I did yell as I passed the door, but had to keep moving. I heard the dog crying or a good 100 yards down the street.  I felt very angry and sad in a deep sort of way.  I could feel that dogs fear in the helpless yelping it made.  I have to pass that pet store everytime I go to school in Shiyan.

I see way too many dogs out on the loose.  I see them running frightened through traffic.  It breaks my heart.

I think that I have to help the little puppy.  I cannot hope that he will be there next time I see him.  If he is, he is.  If he is gone, there is nothing I can do about it.

PE in China

I have observed kids running laps around the track at school.  They do this at wierd times, like before school.  Kids will dump their book bags and do a couple of laps.  I have only seen younger kids do this, on a small track that is at best an 1/8th of a mile.

I think that there is some emphasis being placed on physical fitness by the school.

Several times a day, I am roused from my various states of dozing to the sound of a chinese man leading calisthenics on the field near my apartments here in Wuhan.  Today, they were doing something with hula hoops.  When I looked out, I spied some kids whipping each other with them.  Picture a field of kids with hula hoops, led by a the booming voice of a chinese man.

They also play music.  I think that this is mostly for little kids.  One is like the hookey pokey song, but different.  It has been seared into my mind, but as I write this I cannot recall the lyrics.  I may amend this post later with the lyrics, so be sure to stay tuned.

I observe the younger kids doing their PE down on the field near my room.  When they are doing the hokey pokey type dance thing, I am treated to the songs played over a loud speaker, which I can clearly hear in my room.

They must be doing something right, because I have not seen many over weight chinese people.  There are some hefty folk here, but they are few and far between.

Chuntian Lai Le

The weather is very nice here in Wuhan.  I actually worse a short sleeved shirt today.  Many people commented that I was dressed for the summer.

It is my experience that the spring weather here is pretty volatile.  Yesterday, for instance, I took a taxi back to my apartment and stopped at the grocery store.  I kind of regretted it because I had left for work in a dress shirt with no jacket, and it had started raining.   The wind was also whipping and made my umbrella useless.

Fortunately, as I was leaving the walmart (my favorite grocery store) I spied a man struggling to get a big box into a taxi.  I hopped over and helped him a little.  I then asked in my pidgin chinese whether he was going towards the school where I live.  He said I could hop in.  His kindness let me get back to my apartment without getting totally sodden.

The days after a rain storm are very pleasant here.  It gets cool and is very nice.  Today it is maybe 65 degrees and sunny.  The sky is a faint blue-grey, which is like a clear sky.  Alas, there is alot of air pollution here, but certainly it is not as bad as beijing.

Wuhan's index rating is around 150 today, which is pretty bad.  On some days, it is much higher in Beijing.  Shiyan has a much lower smog index rating than either of these.

Today, as usual, I found out that I have tomorrow free.  Until coming to China, I do not think I ever found out about days off in the middle of the work day preceeding the holiday.  I attribute this to general disorganization rampant throughout China as opposed to a desire to give me a delightful surprise.

It certainly makes planning trips rather tricky.

Teaching American Culture with music

Over the past several weeks I have been teaching about American Culture with lectures about the many different genres of American Music.

I started with a lecture about American Folk Music.  Some of my students are musicians and actually knew a little bit about different kinds of American Music.  Of course, some students describe Taylor Swift as Country music.  I made sure to give them a chance to listen to different kinds of music.

I started out by having the students listen to Bluegrass, Appalachian Folk, Old Time Music, Blues, Gospel, Zydeco, and a couple of other genres.

A great Blues song to use to teach english is Robert Johnson's classic song "Love in Vain".  It has very easy to understand lyrics and tells a very poetic, short story about a man breaking up with a woman.  I never realized what a classic song this really is until I used it to teach with.

Popular music has also gone pretty well.  I have had the chance to use many different songs because there are about twenty different, identifiable styles of American Pop music.

For example, the different genres include: ragtime, blues, jazz, swing, rock, r&b, doo woo, soul, funk, heavy metal, punk, house music, hip hop, techno, grunge, and perhaps a few others I have ommited.

Earlier this week I had the rare pleasure of explaining the meaning of the song "midnight train to Georgia" by Gladys Knight, "get up offa that thing" by James Brown, and "Rockaway Beach" by the Ramones.  My students especially liked listening to Metallica singing "One".

I dont just play the songs.  I spend some time introducing each genre of music and then pause the song and try to explain lyrics.  So far so good.

The Great Firewall of China

I have been having no luck using my vpn in my little get away in Shiyan. I think it works in the office at the school, but not in my apartment, which sucks! The vpn on my ipad works, but not by net book air. A little odd.