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Ni Hao true believers! Welcome back to the exciting adventures of Alexs' year in China. Prepare yourselves as our hero sets out on the biggest adventure yet with a fews twists and turns along the way! This will recount the countdown to and the events of the national day holiday. Be warned dear reader, this blog will be of epic proportions/length to help me catch up with my writing.
Teaching is going well. There has been no change other than my new found love for Reading Club. As well as my regular lessons I also do a club for one hour twenty minutes a week to help the kids improve not only there english speaking but also there english reading. The class is made up of thirty of the best kids from across my classes making them much easier to handle and talk to so the level of work is to a higher standard. That particular week I begged to ask the question; Are you a wizard 'arry? Harry potter reading club was an incrediabley good experince. All my students launched themsleves into it as I designated each table a house and awarded house points for good work. A competitive air filled the room and we soon burned through the reading and the new vocab. Much of Chinese teaching lacks giving opinions so I also had the kids giving there own thoughts on the book, the style it was written, the wizarding world and they seemed to love it. Mr Bell/Mrs Smith I hope i'm making you proud. I'm currtently pioneering the best of english literature to my students througg the techniques I observed in your lessons. If they're not proud, then I certainley am. We'll soon be doing Fuast, Shakespeare, Poe..... but baby steps I guess. Harry potter is not Shakespeare and though my kids aren't ready yet, they soon will be.
That week I also met a student who has become a very good friend to me; Lee. Out at lunch with Sharon she spotted a tall looking chinese lad (taller than me even) and hailed him down. "Alex, this is Lee. He's in a metal band in Urmuqi" "Say again?" I mutterd with jwa dropped. Yes, this guy loves Metallica and Slayer, is absolutley amazing on guitar and can give it his all on the drums. Ever since that meeting we've been going out for food, he's been helping me drastically improve on guitar and he also loves horror movies so we've spent a lot of time together. His english is also fantastic and he is eighteen. luckily he is not one of the students I teach so i'm allowed to do all these things without any fintger wagging from the school. It's amazing that two people from completley diffrent backgrounds, languages and socities can connect on such a level. He's really helping to expand my experince in China with the foods he orders and language he explains. And it's nice having a local friend. I now firmly believe I can make friends anywhere without too much problem thanks to the medium of heavy metal. Keep rocking England, we're doing a fine Job of it in China.
Its time for the elusive holiday I've muched talked about. With the help of the amaing Mike we booked oursleves on a 34 hour train to Xi'an in order to meet up with our fellow volunteers. This holiday was 'National day' were Mao said 'Now we shall work' so the Chinese have a week of to celebrate that single day. I know, the irony goes over there heads. Excited, bagged packed and ready to go we hoped into a car and headed to Urumuqi. Once we arrived, sorted ourselves out and prepared food we waited for the train and borderd, struggling in a mass of thousands of Chinese people rushing for the doors. It is exactly like on youtube with the hundreds of people all trying to exit and enter a train at once. Thoughts of intense rugby matches came to mind and we battled our way to our carriage. To save money we decided to book a hard sleeper (380 yuan, 38 pounds) which is six bunks crammed into a tiny area in stacks of three. It was actually moderatley comfortable to be honest. Me and Stepehen both had top bunks with space for our bags at our feet so the journey was no where near as bad as you would imagine. A lot of trains open on the corridor at the feet but ours was a walled compartment, adding to the comfort. I slept a good 3/5 of the journey and the rest read books, listend to music and tried my hand at (unsuccesfully) talking to fellow passangers in Chinese. Apparently I need more practice. From the looks on people faces I was either speaking utter tripe or insulting their entire famlies in short bursts. Either way, they wern't best pleased.
Arrival was bizzare. We we're met by our hostel who we're holding a sign saying something along the lines of "Alecsbfslksfxsbndander Kdhdiidd" and assuming there were no people of such I name I took it to be me. The hostel was absolutley lovley, a full bar, interenet acess, unbeliavbley hot showers (how I miss them) and the rooms were nice too. The showers may have been so good because I hadn't showerd for 48 hours prior to my first wash and things were starting to grow between my toes but they still are a fond memory of mine. That day we had a look around Xi'an and it is very much like any other major city in China; Huge TV screens, flashing lights, fashion everywhere and stunningly attractive people that made me feel like the grinch after being dragged through sewage. We also ate some absolutley lovley noodles which came in a bowl like a fruit basket with some of the best meat i've had in China. Though it was unspecified what the meat actually was for nine yuan I didn't ask. Tim and Marcus arrived that night so we all decided to head out and check out the local bars. We had a lot of fun that night and accidentally ended up sitting in a lads 18th birthday and then being welcomed by the party. Good day all round.
The next day the four of us visited the small goose pagoda, an anicent tower built by the Buddhists and one of the few reminaing 'original' sites in Xi'an. There was also the famous belltower, which was a reconstruction and in the middle of a roundabout, and the drum tower which was also fake. The ancinet city walls? Newley built. Same with the architecture around the city. It was good to see something with some actual history. We also looked roudn the museum which was impresive. It had many statues of buddha and you can see how his shape chnaged and transformed as time went on. I was intruged by how the skinny, indian Buddha turned into the chubby little chinese creature which contradicts everything buddha stood for and that progression over time was intresting to see. Once again we hit the bar street that night and met a lovley American gentleman who was working on some major machinery just outside of Xi'an. He also love metal, which made for good conversation between us. The thing I love about China is you meet so many intresting people and everyone has there own stories of travelling, China and life in general to tell. I'm honestley worried about returning to England and everything seeming mundane again. Between bars and hostels you can travel the world by stories from others and thats what makes China so special. We met more Chinese as well and they we're all extremley friendley. The term 'Wo shi yinguo lasoshi' is a favourite meaning 'I'm an english teacher'. Teachers are held in such high respect it really does give you status and impresses the fellow chinese enought to befriend you.
Wednesday the rest of the volunteers arrived and we all went for noodles. seeing everyone again was fantastic. There were eight of us all togther; four form Xinjiang, two from Gansu and two from Jinagxi. We all have such diffrent experinces and projects it really amplified the feeling that in this year I will never get to truley 'know' China as i'm only experincing a minute section of it. Mind you, from what other people said, I think without the prescence of the 'ethnics' AKA Ughyur, Kazakhs and Russians my experince of China would be massivley warped and seeing this multicultural region (Xinjiang) truley is a privallage to me. We wanderd round and saw some more of the back alleys and 'real' Xi'an away from the main roads before heading back to the hostel, relaxing and hitting a club in Xi'an. Reagrdless of any story your friends tell you about nights our on freshers and how wild it is I garuntee you nothing can top these clubs. They are unlike anything I have ever seen and will probabley ever see again once I return to England. Sorry chums but England simply cannot top it.
Thursday was our 'day of rest' as such. We spent some time exploring the muslim quarter, and area made up predominatley of muslim Chinese selling food, and I ate a soup of assorted sheeps bits (lung,liver,kidney and what not) which was quite delicious. As well as this we continued to explore and wonder. Xi'an is a city worth visiting but be warned you pay for everything and pay to go absolutley everwhere. As a money saving iniative we did not go into any touristy places but observed them. After all how diffrent can a wall look from the top (sarcasm) but for 100 yuan it wasn't worth it. We went to an area with a lot of local housing and saw the conditions within the city; the apartment blocks are extremley cramped and compacted with hundreds of people crammed into a small space, the public toilets are a crime agaisn't humanity (that comes from experince, trust me on this one) and every other shop sells extremley cheap but delicious food. Once more we went to bars/clubs that night and I had the wonderful experince of taking to a stage with a guitar and singing my heart out. I loved it. I'm not going to lie, as much as people hate 'that guitar guy' I love being that guitar guy and absolutley love preforming for people. It's something I hope to do again in the future.
Friday was the Terracota Warriors. Me and Tim got split from our group into a seprate tour bus with a collection of American students working in a university as teachers. It was intresting to hear about America and there own experinces as Amercians in China which varied greatley from our own, both me and Tim being from Xinjiang. The warrior pit (the sight they found the warriors) was a nightmare. Imagine yourself in a room with 100,000 people pushing towards a barrier all wanting to see the warriors. I was throughly displeased by the pushing and what not but the warriors themselves were a fantstic sight. Row upon row of them, no two the same. They truley are a fearsome sight and wonderful to see. If you get the chance to go on a quite day do but otherwise the pushing and shoving does cloud the experince in a hazy, hate filled veil. After that we ate a weternised chinese meal clearley designed for tourists. Funnily Me,Tim and the Americans (who all have lived in China for 1 1/2 months at this paoint) ate evrything whilst the other tourists sat looking displeased. People just cannot handle China, tutut. That night was amaing; I went to a metal gig with my long time friend and part time lover (oh-er, that was a joke for my worried family) Stephen Erhorn. It was in a basement bar full of rock memrobillia and people much inclined to my lifestyle wearing leather jackes, doc martens and badn t-shirts. I went absolutley wild and the band, H.E.A.T, put on a cracking preformance. I could have loved in that place without a care for the rest of my year.
The next day was a sad one. We ate a lot fo western food and said our goodbyes to all the hostel friends we had made and all the Chinese friends we had made. We wanderd round once more, had once last drink and said goodbye to our fellow volunteers. We shant be seeing most of them until the holidays in mid-January so it was a very sad affair. At 5 am we got up from our hostel and departed in the journey home. It was very similar to the first but with much worse beds which opend up onto the corridror so all the Chinese could gather and oggle us. That was fun for 28 hours. I again slept most of the way but I wouldn't rush to do it again. All in all it was an amaizng trip. We met so many amazing people, saw the beautiful city of Xi'an and even, dare I say it, felt truley at home in China. I missed Fukang that week. I truley see this little town as home and whenever I leave I feel pains to be saying goodbye to it. Fukanf is my home now and if anything reinforced that in my mind it was Xi'an. China is now as much apart of me as England. Well, not quite, but it soon will be.
Well, that was a long one! Thanks for continuing to read my blog, comment to let me know your all still out there and healthy, message me if you want more details on anything I talk about or have any general questions about China. Next time I will finally catch up to my day to day life as not too much has been happening but, guess what, we we're just given another holiday so I will bve writing about my road trip next time! In all honesty, i'm sick of holidays and just want a routine to follow but theres always more of China to see and the holidays enable me to do that.
Until next time, keep on rocking true believer,
Excelsior!
- comments
Norma Kidd Alex,what a fantastic blog. Your descriptive powers are amazing-I I almost feel asi if II've seen it for myself! Keep up the good work. Luv, Gran.xx
Fi Hey Al, Sounds like you are having a great time and making the most of your time away. Keep having adventures and writing about them ...... I always look forward to the next installment!, Luv Aunty Fi xx
Mum Tres amusent Ali,what wonderful experiences,keep them coming
Sue What a shame you got caught up in the crowd when you went to see the Warriors. I was there out of season so it was quiet. A truly magnificent sight. It is incredible how every face is different isn't it. Sound like you are having a fantastic time. Love Aunty Sue xx