Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Ni hao true believers! Last time our hero was nearley massacred in what has become know as 'the week of gam bai' but all hope is not lost as the adventure goes on. This week our hero takes his first excursion into the wastelands of Xinjiang on what is know by the locals as a 'holiday' and an unexcpected event leads to supirse, horror and foreigners.
Teaching just continues to be more and more fun. My teaching methods seem to be rapidly improiving simply due to the fact that if they had not I may have been led to throtilling some of my students; most of them are absolutley lovley and a pleasure to teach but I swear down fustration builds when only 1/2 the class ever actually pays close attention. I've began to shout 'ATTENNNNNNNN-TION!' when I want them looking towards the front of class and standing in a military pose (saluting the kids) until they settle down. It works fairley well as they seem to have a great fear of military powers for some reason. They also interact with me much more happily and talk much more freely. They say i'm not like the other teachers so they are much happier to talk to me. I just reffuse to punish them like the other teachers and they seem to respect that. Teaching is great, though I still feel more like Matt Smith in my demenor than a Mr Smith who is an actual teacher.
On the Thursday we knew we were going to a 'foreigners banquet' and that most foreign teachers from around Xinjiang were going to be there and that it was beng held in a hotel. Awesome, we thought. We taught during the day and were told we would be leaving at four. Fine, we thought. At three I get a phone call off Rene (no idea who that is at this point) "You must dress formally" "Er, sure" I reply. Stephen gets the same phone call. Suddenley we began to wonder why? No one had hyped this up an formal wear seemed.... excessive for a banquet. We arrived at the car to find the Le Rouxs, Joseph and Rene all dressed like we were off to a funeral (that formal). As we headed to Urumuqi, saw the hand written and signed invitations from the education board and as we pulled up to an extremley fancy hotel it suddenley dawned on me; this is actually quite important and I look a little bit like a geography teacher who has just staggerd out of a gym in his suit after an intense treadmill workout.
We stepped out the car and were informed actually, this is a award ceremoney which will be televised across the whole of Xinjaing. 100 million viewer potential. I gulped. As we stepped in we met a lovley german couple whos son would be preforming the saxaphone that night and were introduced to a lot of other, much much older than me, foreign teachers. When we sat down we were informed by Joseph the food every year is gorgeous so not to fill up on snacks. So we sat, smiling like it was the oscars as the cameras panned in and out among us and pretending to laugh and joke with the random Chinese fellas who were sitting around me. They were throughly confused by my actions but regardless of this I kept going. We watched an hour long set of speeches on the cucumber growth in Kazakhstan (Did ye na that cucumbers from Kazakhstan are imported to Xinjiang? Neither did I, I have a list of cucumber related facts now) and then a variety of Ughyur dancers and preformers as well as singers, dancers and the presenter whos dancing eyebrows could put this kids from the cadburys adverts to shame. If I had layed down a sick beat those things would have been bouncing like it was 1999 , yo.
All round, an extremley good evening. The food never arrived though so at the end of the banquet Me, Stephen and Joseph devoured the plate of fruit infront of us and all fo the available snacks. In the car people were throughly displeased with the lack of food, Stephanus went as far as saying "I do not dress in a suit to eat fruit". It was golden. We headed to a fake macdonalds in our full formal gear and then we headed home to pack for the next day; our Turfan/Turpan/Tulufan (they say all names) holiday.
We met Mike and Stephanus the next day to head to Turpan. A car to Urumuqi and a bus ride later and we found oursleves in Turpan. Proper crakin' journey. Now Turpan is in an almost bowl like dip in the ground and is completley desert, one of the lowest points on earth. Essentialy this means it is like an oven at full temprature. I have never felt more foreign then when I was reciving stares because 1) I'm white 2) I'm and English speaker 3) I looked a bit like swamp thing dripping sweat and dirt in a trail behind me. At our hotel Stephen and I couldn't afford to stay in a proper room so stayed in the dank, dark basement with beds shoved in it. It was fairley comfortable for 50 yuan so we didn't complain. We maneged to get a car at discount thanks to Mike telling the driver about our volunteer/teacher status and headed out to see the Flaming Mountains.
These mountains got there name from Chinese folk lore which states a great monkey took a fan and blew out the fires that lit the mountain. Very intresting. In reality I think there called that because birds cannot fly over them without roasting alive. It was boling out there (unbleviabley hot) and in the 'most Chinese thing of the week' they had tried to fence off the monutain so you had to pay to see it. This is a mountain. I mean a huge, great, 3000 metre long thing. And they put a garden fence around it. Pricless. After this we headed to the ancient city of Gaochang, predating Christ in its age. It was incrediabley intresting to see though it was full of litter, broken beer bottlers and the such. It was simply amazing such a wonder has managed to survive thousands of years only to become some chinese students party den. After this we headed back, ate some local Ughyur kebabs of Liver and Kidney (I love it so much) and hit the sack.
Next day we took a car out to some ancient budhist caves to have a look round. On the way to the caves we saw the fake ancient caves that were built to appease the tourists. The Chinese love it but I have no idea why they would rather see a fake than the real thing. The caves themselves were pretty amazing as a lot of the paintings in them were still inteact giving us a glimpse of an civilisation far in time from our own. It is all so perfectley preserved thanks to the extremley dry wheather and probabley by the fact that the land surrounding it is near un-inhatitable so anyone wanting to destroy the caves had a battle on there hands. Truley amazing. It was full of tourists though, to our great disappointment. After this we headed to the Turpan museum. Here there were some mummies, some of which looked far too fresh for my liking, some dinosaur bones (lots of full dinosaurs were found around Turpan) and some old tools and equipment. All in all Turpan was a very intresting and Cultural trip, I highley recomed it to anyone with any intrest in the past. Turpan itself is very much like any other town in China, just with a high Ughyur population, but I did enjoy looking round. After this we headed back to Urumuqi, had a western meal in a lovley restaurant and headed back to home swet home.
Other highlishts; I played guitar in the park, which was pretty awesome, and manged to gather a small crowd who loved listening to me play. One guy even invited us to his house for beer and to meet his family, which was kind of bizzare. As well as this I've found myself getting a little better in Chinese and usingit more frequentley (more on this to come in future blogs).
Check out my pictures of Turpan, they truley are amazing and most of what I talked about in this blog is featured. Stay tuned for next time which will be a blog in the lead up to my first real, proper massive holiday to Xian and all the exciting things prior to that excursion. Comment, comment,comment and share this blog so the world can know the wonders of China, teaching and Project Trust,
Excelsior!
- comments
Dad Keep it up Al.
Norma Kidd Another excellent instalment Alex. We're looking forward to hearing about your holiday in Xian., tt sounds as if you needed it after the 'Banquet''! Luv, Grandma and Aunty Fi.
Val Very amusing,love the fence round the mountain,mum xxxxxxx
Sue Very amusing! Sounds like you are having a great time. Xx
lilian and pete all sounds very interesting .you really seem to be enjoying it.