Montreal Part II

Every morning when I cycle to McGill, I pass a small plaza that is quickly becoming one of my favorite places in the city. I'm not entirely sure why, but I think it's because it symbolizes how I perceive the people and dynamic of Montreal. On this anonymous square at Maissonneuve & Guy, as on several other places throughout the city, stands a piano. Just a simple, decorated piano. However, I bike by this plaza at least twice a day and every single time there is someone playing the piano with a small crowd gathered around on the few spare seats that are on the plaza. What's more, the piano is played by quite a diverse range of people. The other day I even saw two people, who didn't seem to know each other as far as I could judge, play as a tandem and when I came back from the climbing weekend today and rode past the plaza once again, there was a homeless person playing while seemingly in some sort of trance. It's incredible how these people are so different, yet all share this amazing talent of playing the piano well enough, or with enough passion, such that they can attract a small random crowd to listen to them, even for the briefest moment. It's a nice thing to realize when your cycling back home completely exhausted from the weekend.

If there is one thing that rock climbing is good for; it's for making it painfully obvious that there is one muscle group that's structurally skipped in any other physical exercise than climbing; those in the forearms. Fun fact, there are only very tiny muscles in your hands, and none in your fingers. Perhaps this is obvious and I just missed the memo in Biology class, but up until this moment I had never really thought about that. Luckily, rock climbing is good for a lot more than that, especially if you go with the MOC (McGill Outdoor Club). It's been an exhausting weekend, but with a cosy lodge in a small town (owned by the MOC), great people and fun games (human bouldering, anyone?) it was absolutely worth it. Somewhat surprisingly, climbing is as much a physical sport as it is a mental sport, both in the sense that you have to be focused on the goal at hand as well as solving the 'puzzles' in order to get to the top (and I guess there is an element of fear involved as well). A natural wall, rather than a man-made structure, definitely adds a different element to climbing, just as the pouring rain we experienced all day on Saturday. Luckily today was a lot better, although it was definitely more chilly than the entire past week (when we were blessed with almost summer like weather). We had to hike up to about 400m to get to the wall we were climbing today (which was a lot harder than the wall on Saturday, although it helped that this wall was actually dry) and were blessed with a beautiful view. We got a preview of what the Indian summer will be like here, when all the leaves turn bright red or yellow, and I got to tell you it's absolutely beautiful already.

It's funny how much of a toll a sport takes on your body when you're not conditioned to make the movements and use the muscles required to do so. Coming back to the MOC house after two days of climbing it was actually hard to form a grip and open a (admittedly oversized) jar of peanut butter and right now there is no strength in my grip whatsoever. I also might've mentioned at some point that I'm rather tired so I'll keep the rest of the blog short.

I've been here for a month now and can say that I'm now completely settled since, more or less, a week. After some hectic course switching and trying to get back into the academic lifestyle after three months of doing nothing, I'm slowly but steadily getting into a comfortable rhythm and I know my way around the city quite well too. Furthermore, I have an interesting mix of courses and the workload seems bearable. Unfortunately though, I haven't been able to go to a Jazz bar yet, but I'm planning on doing so soon (I also have to for my "Intro to Jazz" course, which is an amazing course). There is actually a small Jazz festival here soon, running from October 3rd until October 12th, so I will definitely check that out soon. I'll keep you posted (maybe...probably not...we'll see).

Montreal

After a hectic first week in a new city, it might be nice to update all my readers (hi mom!). Don’t expect regular updates though, I’ll see whether I can be bothered and whether there is something worth writing about.

Having settled all the administrative stuff and having finally decided on an apartment, it’s about time to enjoy the city through which I’ve been walking and cycling around excessively the past week. Having barely used the public transport, Benedikt and I walked around 30 kilometres over the first two days to look at apartments. Luckily, after three days we went to a garage sale and managed to get two cheap, yet proper bikes. However, we still had to go around the city looking at apartments, so sufficed to say there has been enough exercise the past week. With a little luck I can avoid public transport and do everything by bike until late November if Mother Nature is benevolent (the weather here has also become much more unpredictable and extreme).

Going round the city by bike has allowed me to already properly take in the city and there were a couple of things I noticed. First and foremost the high amount of homeless people that didn’t fit with my, admittedly, romanticized picture of the city. They are really quite prominently present, but most are rather polite (except for the time I got called a ‘horrible human-being’ for not giving change).

Secondly, the amount of pugs in the city – you know those dogs that look like they all ran into a concrete wall repeatedly as a puppy – quite possibly the ugliest creatures in the world. I suspect it has something to do with the elaborate gay scene that is present in this city. 

And finally, the relaxed vibe that the city seems to give off, even with the hectic traffic all day. One of the coolest things in that respect was the tam-tam drum group that happens regularly on Sundays in the Mont-royal Park. When we first arrived there early afternoon the drum circle and crowd wasn’t too big yet, but after coming back from lunch the drum circle had grown massively in size and the park was completely full of people relaxing and enjoying the nice weather. I spent a good time already practicing my football-throw (essential to properly immigrate in North-America).

Benedikt and I also went to a pre-season match of the McGill Redmen against the Carabins of the Université de Montréal. Unfortunately, the most fun for a McGill supporter was the tragic cheerleader that was constantly half a second behind the others, despite them not changing up their routine for the entire 3,5 hours that the match lasted. McGill was beaten 40-12 and simply had no chance. I was told the McGill football team has barely won a game in the past three years so my hopes are on their Hockey team, which I hope to attend somewhere throughout the semester. The team spirit at the uMontréal ground was quite cool to see. An hour before the game there were a couple of hundred students and parents enjoying a BBQ and joining in on the school spirit, which is something I find quite cool about schools in North-America. 

Well, I'm off; we're going on a three-day kayak trip with the Outdoor Frosh. It's going to be exciting, as we will be camping outdoors, learning how to do an Eskimo-roll and descend down the rapids of the nearby river. Au revoir for now!

Shanghai

After 42 relatively comfortable hours, Atilla, Eva and I arrive in Shanghai. The hours went by quite quickly as we reflected on the camp and spent many hours sleeping. As it turns out the hardsleeper on the train is more comfortable than the bed I spent 15 nights in back in Kunming (or Anning, technically) and I imagine even a nailbed is more comfortable than my previous trainride.

The first thing we notice is the heat, it takes some time to get used to the 35 degrees in a humid climate. When we walk over Nanjing road the following morning at 10am it is already 31 degrees, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Attila and I spend our days  in a very comfortable hostel, the Blue Mountain Bund Youth Hostel, and are accompanied by Aleena the next three days. The best thing about Shanghai was spending a little more time with a few of the awesome people I met during this internship, an unforgettable experience in many ways.

Even though we arrive early in the afternoon, we do little more than checking out Nanjing road for dinner and spending some time at the Bund in the evening. We decide to go for easy and cheap as we both crave a burger, so McDonalds it is. I rarely go to fastfood places back home, but here it seems like an easy choice if you want something familiar with a decent amount of meat. The Chinese seem keen on having rather light meals and snacking a lot on the street, but it doesn't look so tempting to me. We also weren't in the mood to randomly select something on the menu in a small restaurant, or pay premium fee for the English menu (you essentially pay more than double for one page of google translate in the menu). Afterwards we enjoy the beautiful view of the financial district across the river and the nice atmosphere of the Bund, which provides us with quite a comfortable (only 28 degrees now, but at least there is a breeze) and scenic walk back to our hostel. A really nice bonus is Attila's invitation to join him in London during the olympics, even though the booking after was quite troublesome and annoyed many people in the hostel on the only day the wifi was down.

The city appeals to me much more during the night. During the day it felt to me like it lacked atmosphere and culture that you would find in cities like Berlin, Stockholm and London, to name but a few. As our hostel was located close to Nanjing road, the main shopping street, I definitely got the feeling that this city is much more about shopping and showing of your social status (even though Chinese claim they don't like to do so).

The next day we pick up some EPs who arrived from Hangzhou and we meet up with some other EPs already in Shanghai. Together we make our way across the river by boat to the financial district (after saying goodbye to Anissa and Suhaila), ready to visit the Shanghai Global World Financial Center or, as we dubbed it: beo (because it looks like a beeropener), with 500 meters the highest building in Shanghai and fourth highest in the world. The sun is slowly setting as we ascend to the observatory at 474 meters, providing us with the opportunity to see the view both in daylight and with the many lights that illuminate the city after sunset. It was worth the wait as the view is even more beautiful in the evening. As we were all pretty hungry at this point Eva decided to take us to a restaurant nearby in a shopping mall (appearantly a normal place for restaurants here). The Restaurant was quite nice and we tasted a delicious dessert with toast and ice that is supposed to be rather famous, especially in Shanghai. Unfortunately, most restaurants in China close at 10, and this one is no exception. We all go our own ways and decide to meet at our hostel tomorrow for a final drink together.

The next day is not so special as the Yuyuan garden turned out quite dissapointing and Aleena and I fail to find the French concession area while Attila tries the Maglev-train (he is a physicist, after all). Luckily the evening program makes more than up for it as we enjoy conversation, a game of pool, cold beer and Dave's remaining tequila. It was really good seeing Dave again the past two days, after separating in DuJiangYan, even though he is otherwise occupied most of the time. I also got to know a new friend of his, who is also an AIESECer and who had joined us yesterday as well. A very enjoyable evening indeed.

Having said goodbye again to everyone and being left with the three of us again, we meet up the next day with Eva, our local (yet horrible, haha) guide at the Shanghai Museum. After a relativy interesting tour it is already time to meet up with another EP, JiaYing from Malaysia. Together we do manage to find the French Concession, which has a few very nice streets with some nice (but pricey) bars and restaurants. The atmosphere is great here and it is relatively quiet here, or at the very least we could escape the constant honking and noise of cars here. The buildings are nice too and there are relatively few people for a well known tourist area, perhaps they got lost like us the last time. Although, in our defense, we had no idea what we were looking for and this was well hidden between two big shopping streets. As none of us were really hungry, we have a few drinks at a bar instead. After we are joined by two Chinese volunteers, who also live in Shanghai (like Eva), we reminisce about what we learned about Chinese culture during this internship. After happy hour (which lasted three hours, strangely) I want to go to a jazz bar, which is said to be the best in Shanghai and they said was close (turned out to be 2.5km). Because of the 50rmb entrance and the fact we had to make our metro (which we didn't), after this long walk I was the only one who went in, and only for 10 minutes (to avoid the fee). It was enough, however, to get a taste of the atmosphere in Shanghai's greatest jazz club.

When we finally return to the hostel and are done with packing and everything else that has to be done before leaving to Bejing, it is time to catch some sleep. At this point, however, it is already 2am and we have to get up three hours later to catch our train, which departs to Bejing at half past 7.

Time to say goodbye to Shanghai and meet up with one more EP in Bejing before Attila flies back to Budapest. I will spend some more time in Bejing, enjoying a bit more culture here and finally taking some time to relax, a not unimportant part of a vacation of course. 

Kunming 2

The final day of teaching has just passed, time to reflect on how the summer camp in Kunming went. During my last class, the students were as tired as I was. It has been an intense two weeks for everyone. After some resting in our dorm, I decide to take this final opportunity to work on my shot a little. The 3’s were going really well as the sun in the sky and the music in my ears make this a wonderful afternoon. Before I know it, it is time for dinner and time for my final workshop, the camp is really coming to an end. During the day, I quickly made a presentation about the basics of football, with a lot of pictures and a long video of Messi, the only player I am certain of that everyone will know him. It felt like there was not enough time, as I kept rambling on about certain topics (I noticed I tend to do this while presenting if I get carried away). Afterwards there was a meeting to inform us about the final two days and to discuss the closing ceremony of tomorrow. I will host it again, but with a different co-hostess this time.

But let’s back up to where we ended the last blog. July 19th I wake up very confused because Attila is in the room. I thought he had class, so I did not expect him in our room. However, it turned out that it was already lunchtime and I had slept through all the activity in our room in the morning as people were preparing to leave for class. After taking some time to reflect upon my first workshop, it was time for lunch and afterwards the talent show. I start to realize how crazy the workshop actually was when I am talking to Attila over lunch. Not knowing what to do my workshop about, now that football was ruled out, I decided to do the same as every other EP: present my country and culture. To my surprise this was a very popular topic, as both my classes were filled to the brim, almost exclusively with girls (2 times at least 30 people, out of a total of 160). As it turned out, most people did not understand most of the workshop, but they hardly seemed to care. Attila experienced the same. Appearantly they were there for the attraction of two European guys. For us a first to feel like circus animals, but this feeling would later become even stronger later during the Global Village. With both our classes filled to the brim, one of the remaining two workshops even had to be cancelled, with only two attendees.

The talent show turned out to be a lot of fun. Luckily not every of the nine classes did a Chinese song, so a few songs I actually knew (be itt hat they would be considered a bit cheesy back in the Netherlands). By accident I became a judge, so it was fun to ’critically’ look at the performances, and some were actually quite good. It seems like most Chinese can sing at least decently for some reason. After selecting four classes, one of which was my own, with the other judges it was time for a game of basketball with my class. They kept asking if I could join, so I played for a short while. Being very careful, as I am not supposed to play basketball games, I acted more like a distraction in the 3vs3, allowing the two students of my class to score. Unfortunately, my short appearence could not prevent us from losing the game. The other team was simply very good. With basketball being the most popular sport amongst these students (by far) it is not a surprise that some are quite good.

The next day I was supposed to have two classes, but the classrooms turned out to be reserved for an emergency evaluation of the government officials in the region. Luckily this was known the evening before, so I could sleep. Nonetheless, it was quite weird. Because of such things the phrase ”This is China” or, when the volunteers are not around, ”Fucking China” has become rather popular. The cantine food here is much better than in DuJiangYan, but I am getting quite tired of the lack of variety, so I decide to get a fresh baguette at Carrefour and some Peanut butter. We can also finally greet our long lost, golden friend. Chinese seem to prefer cloudy weather, as they do everything in their power to prevent getting a tan. I am very happy that the weather is finally like it is supposed to be in the region of ’Eternal Spring’. It allows me to finally work a little on my shot again, also because there are no afternoon activities that I have to be at. It is a quiet day, that we finish by visiting the nearby lake after dinner. It is a nice, warm setting with the sun slowly setting and the sound of water and fishermen in the background.  A good way to end the day.

The next day I finally have class again, I enjoyed the slow days, but that is not the reason I am here for. The Oral English class went a lot better this day, but the sustainability class seemed a bit difficult for the 10th graders, so a lot of translation is necessary. The vice-principal mr. Lee decided to give a lecture, so the afternoon activities are once again cancelled. This gives us some free time to decide what to do in the evening. As it is the evening before our first official day off, we are allowed to stay off campus a bit later than usual. There were many different plans amongst all volunteers and some guys wanted to play snooker. I wanted to join, but in hindsight I am very happy that i went to the KTV instead. The KTV is a Chinese karaoke bar. We went there because the volunteer that is also celebrating her birthday really likes singing. Expecting something like what I experienced in Berlin (a regular bar with a screen and a stage perhaps), it felt more like a scene of Lost in Translation, but then in a more luxurious building. While contemplating whether or not the gold and marble we see is real, I am greeted by at least 15 employees whose sole job is to welcome customers walking by. I’ve noticed this unneccesarily high amount of employees in many stores. Many people in China must be extremely bored…

We definitely were not though. Doing a mix of Chinese songs and many cliché English songs (for lack of choice) make it a very entertaining evening. Michael Jackson songs turn out to be a bit ambitious for the  guys present, but we heartily sing (shout?) a long with songs like ”Nothing’s gonna change my love for you”, ”Being Lonely”, ”Fix You” and ”Hotel California”. Afterwards we make up for the lack of Queen songs ont he way to KFC, turning some heads int he process.

The next day we wake up a little late, tired from our escapade in the KTV. Mr. Lee is not amused, as many people have the same as us. It makes me remember his lecture about a week ago, when he stressed punctuality. The school brings us to an ethnic village closeby, where traditional ways of living by Yunnan minorities are recreated. It turned out to be very interesting, after the initial fear of the entire village being a massive souvenir shop (it turned out the actual village was behind it). After drinking tea with a very nice shopowner, we enter this very interesting tourist attraction.    

The next day classes go a little smoother again, as I slowly learn how to communicate with the Chinese students. The Afternoon program is the global village. I prepared a whole table full of things about Dutch culture. The stroopwafels are very popular, but the entire spectacle turned out to be more of a photoshoot. In two hours, I did not say one word about Dutch culture, but there was an endless stream of students who wanted to take a picture. I’m happy the circus is over, but Suhaila insists, for some reason, that I play some piano (appearantly by popular demand). I don’t fully understand why me, as I am the most average of the players present, but I give in eventually. The whole spectacle makes me feel even more like the elephant we saw at the ethnic village.

When it is finally over we get to relax a little. Attila and I get a few beers at the Carrefour for the evening, as we are showing Pulp Fiction to everyone in the hall, on a big screen, to celebrate the birthday of Lear and I. At the same time it is some education for all the people who haven’t seen this legendary movie. The actual day of my birthday is a slow one, as I only have one class, no activity and no workshop. After a quick talk on Skype with the parents, we head to the night market. We were warned by the Chinese guys that went a few days earlier that it was kind of small. Knowing Chinese standards, we decided to take our chances anyways. It was not like we expected at all. Practically, it was just a barbecue on a street corner. However, it was by far the most social activity I’ve seen a group of Chinese people do, as the eating was accompanied by lots of laughter and heavy conversation. It felt like some sort of neighbourhood meeting with nice food, some of which we tried. I didn’t mind it was nothing special, as it was a beautiful night for a walk and I was with good company.

The reason why I did not have afternoon activities, was because the students had to rehearse for the ”Yesterday once more” of the next day, in which they act out famous movie scenes. Unfortunately, none of them did a scene of Pulp Fiction, but it was entertaining. No one dared to do an act in English, but with my private translator and because most scenes were from Disney classics, I could follow most of what was going on. It does feel weird though, when the entire room bursts into laughter and you have no idea what’s going on. Afterwards, I quickly put together another workshop about the age of discovery and the Dutch golden age. The first workshop was quite horrible, but after a beer and some ”Watch the Throne” in the break, the second workshop is much better.

During my class the next day, the kids tell me that they normally don’t like school, because they feel it is way too much work. They are jealous of me when I explained them my schedule in secondary school, but they also remark that I cannot possibly learn enough with such a schedule. After class we are meeting to finally see something of the city we are staying in, by checking out the city center of Kunming. Unfortunately, because of the limited time, we only see one big square and mostly wonder around some side streets with markets. I also buy some much needed t-shirts, after I had to throw away two earlier. The reason for our limited time is the finals of the talent show in the evening. Unfortunately, my class does not perform as well this time and the price goes to a different class. Afterwards, students all got a chance to show their talents. I was particularly impressed by a girl who did a dance. Wondering what style it was, I asked some Chinese volunteers who all told me it was the ’Lumba’. Having never heard of it before, I ask whether it is a Chinese style, but they explain me it is from Spain. Ah! The Lumba…The r and l remain difficult. Other performances that were impressive included a breakdance performance, tai chi and a variety of Chinese instruments being played.

This rounds up the activities of the past week. It is going to be hard to say goodbye after such an intense camp, and I’ve made some close friends. Luckily I get to travel with Attila to Shanghai, and we will meet up some other people there as well. Another 40-hour trainride is ahead of us, a considerably cheaper option than flying. Luckily we have sleeper tickets again and I get a chance to catch up on some reading, which I hardly had time for during this camp. Time to move on again, after a closing ceremony and dinner with the school leaders. 

Kunming

After saying goodbye to the kids of the kindergarten, we set off to the trainstation of Chengdu. Despite the random availability of hot water and the occassional flea in our beds, the school took good care of us and they provide us with transport to the station. We have to wait quite a while before the train leaves, so we decide to have dumplings. With our previous trainride still fresh in memory, we figure a light lunch is recommended. Even though the trainride was up to 16 hours shorter than the previous trip, it was definitely a worse experience. Because we could not arrange hardsleeper-tickets, we had to spend 20 hours with regular seat tickets.

While arriving at the platform, we encountered the first problem. The amount of people waiting to enter our wagon could not possibly fit in all the required seats was my first thought. Unfortunately, I was right. It took some effort to actually get on the train and the wagon was flooded with people. This meant that almost all overhead storage was used as well. I found a spot for my bag somewhere and took a seat. Later it would  become clear that it wasn't a safe spot for my bag as it came crashing down on someone's head. Luckily, the tequila bottle stored inside did not break on impact (the man on whose head it crashed was fine too). The reason why the wagon was so full, as it turns out, was because of standing-tickets. I was not aware that such tickets could be bought, and I could not imagine anyone buying those for a ride of at least 20 hours. I couldn't have been more wrong, the majority stayed all the way. A real shame because this meant the wagon would be overcrowded for the entire ride. This certainly did not help at night, when the lights remained on and many of the people were in fierce discussions. It also did not help that the lady pushing the trolley of had the most annoying voice I've heard since I first heard about Rebecca Black.I knew I would not be able to sleep, especially in such uncomfortable seats, so in order to pass the time I read a lot (Walden by Henry David Thoreau is a quite intriguing read) and tried to learn about Chinese culture from my fellow volunteers. The trainride wasn't all bad, but once the desire to sleep kicked in, all small annoyances of the past and following hours were put under a magnifying glass. One lady in particular was a big nuissance with her indecent behaviour. She just occupied seats of my fellow EPs, or used them as backrests when she wanted to sit in the aisle. But this is starting to become a very negative post so far, so let's quickly move on.
Upon arriving in Kunming it seemed like the city was way different than my expectations of it. Having talked to other people about China, I had high expectations concerning the beauty of this city. The area around the trainstation, however, looked horrible and it was one big chaos of people. Not exactly the beautiful serenity that I romantically, yet mistakenly, imagined. When I opened my eyes nearing the end of our bustrip to the Anning Middleschool, this picture was completely reversed. The school and the new business center, as well as the roads in this area, look nice and clean. It also helped that the sun started to shine at this point. This made me very curious about the city center, which I have not yet been able to go to.

Because of a few changes in the plan, we arrived early at Kunming. The purpose for this was to give us more time to prepare. We were greeted by the vice-principal upon arrival and it became clear that expectations were very high in the management of this school. The schedule also became clear and everyone had to prepare two 70-minute classes of their own interest (although some classes had to be specifically about English, my second class as well) and a workshop. Later in the program we will have to create another workshop. The morning is filled with two 70-minute classes (although not everyone will always teach) and the afternoon with activities that we created together for every of the classes. Before it came to that, however, we had to prepare an opening ceremony for the students. I was chosen, practically by default, to be the host of this event. Exciting, but also a little scary.

Admittedly, I did not spend much time preparing the first days. As the only person who did not bring a computer (I mistakenly thought that we would have access to computers in the computer roomsthat we talked about in the interview, but it turned out that this meant internet access instead), I kind of feel like a special help kid and I have to wait until I can borrow someone's computer (Attila is the usual victim). Instead, I spent a lot of time playing basketball with the Chinese volunteers and helping with preparation of the opening ceremony. Luckily, we took full advantage of the good weather of the first few days, as it has been raining nonstop since the 14th (coincidentally, at the time of writing I see the first rays of sun entering our room). We have excellent facilities at this campus and we even have wi-fi in our room, which is moderately stable for Chinese standards and helps a lot in preparation. The food isn't all that bad either, with a proper cantine where we can actually choose what we want. We got a card that allows us to spend up to 40 yuan on food each day. More than plenty, especially because we have consistently skipped breakfast (which is at 7:00) so far.

The day before the opening ceremony, and the start of the summer camp, we take some time of to see a local buddhist temple and visit the hot springs. It was great to see a beautiful buddhist temple for the first time, and even better to relax in the hot water in the hot springs. With the absence of a proper shower in our previous location and the busy days ahead, this was a really nice way to spend the day. However, when we get back (two hours later than expected) a concerned vice-principal is waiting for us in the conference room. He starts about punctuality and enthousiasm and voices some concerns. It seems, however, that he grounded this on nothing substantial, so we feel that it was more a scaretactic to ensure our dedication. The rest of the meeting passes with a much more lighthearted atmosphere.  The next day, it is time to host the opening ceremony, we created a video (which is available on my facebook page) of all volunteers and we have some nice speeches planned. The hosting, together with my co-hostess and translator Rachel, goes smoothly and I feel like the children enjoyed the ceremony, or at least the majority of it. At times it did feel like I was talking to a brick wall, as their mastery of English listening is a little dissapointing (as I find out later in my Oral English class), but luckily everything was translated. All in all, it was a nice and educational experience for myself.

My teaching schedul was a bit slow the past days, but it will pick up the following days. The class on sustainable development that I had today was much more succesful than the Oral English one, which I definitely have to adjust to a lower difficulty level. I will be off again tomorrow, and then the busy schedule will start. This gives me a little time to relax and make a few adjustments.

In a few days it will be my, and a Chinese volunteers' birthday. Unfortunaly, we are not allowed outside of campus after 10 pm, which makes it difficult to plan something nice for this day. The thorough reader, however, will know that we have it covered. I'm looking forward to seeing a bit more of the city if we have some free time. Perhaps I will get the opportunity on our only day off the 22th, but a trip to dinosaur valley is planned as well. Luckily, the time we are supposed to be back in the evening is extended to a whopping 10:30pm. Plenty of time for fun.

DuJiangYan 2

After a week of work at the kindergarten, it was definitely time for some relaxation again. During the week we taught, or perhaps kept busy is a better way to put it, a bunch of four year olds. They slowly became accustomed to our presence in the classroom and they started to increasingly participate in the activities (mostly song and dance)  that we presented to them. The weird looking foreigners didnt turn out too bad as they grew fond of us as we did of them. More and more did they want our attention to tell us stories, often resulting in me looking at them completely lost, or just for a hug. I am not quite sure what I did, but there was one kid in particular that kept asking for me so that he c ould sing a song or give me a qin qin (pronounced Chin Chin, which means kiss). They refer to you as Dennis-gege, which means brother. 

One day, during outdoor exercise, I saw a part of the school football team practice. I was amazed, not in a good way, about the practice method employed. They were told to stand near a wall, their toes almost touching it, and practice their kicking technique by kicking the ball as hard as they could. If such method is employed everywhere, I can understand why a country of over a billion cannot produce a decent national team. Unable to resist, I asked if I could borrow a ball to play for a bit as well. Soon, two of the guys came to me and I taught them a simple exercise to practice quickness and passing technique. It was the most exciting bit of teaching I did thusfar.

That evening we went to the city center of DuJiangYan, the recently rebuild city. We went to explore the city and do some of the necessary shopping, and it was definitely necessary. My slippers had been contaminating the air of our room ever since I accidentily wore them while hiking through the mountains earlier and it was impossible to get the smell out of them. Afraid to die from the toxic, it was time to buz new slippers. The weather here definitely does not allow for closed shoes or anything other than shorts. 

Anyways, after we got the essentials, we found a wonderful street that, for a change, was not that crowded. It was build to represent traditional Chinese architecture (even though it was of course brand new). With the just set, the Chinese lamps dimly lighting the street that we were walking on and the soft sound of the canal in the background, it was a wonderful moment to contemplate and let it sink in for a moment that I am actually in frigging China!

But let's return to the relaxation. On friday we had no class, which was great because 'twinkle twinkle little star' was getting rather boring, so we went with the entire group to go and see the national treasure: the panda. Unfortunately, it was too hot outside for the panda's, so they were indoors instead, enjoying the airconditioning. Nonetheless, it was still funny to see these clumsy animals from up close. Afterwards, we split from the group and went with a small group to celebrate Mavis' birthday in town. After a short stop at the Jin Lee street, where we tasted some local treats, we went to our hotel. Mavis had arranged everything and in China it is rather common to share a big double bed with several people (she told me they fitted 6 once), however, we were with four guys, all taller than 1,75m. Luckily, Hadrian offered to sleep on the chair, so we only had to share it with three people. Before it came to that, however, we went to quite a fancy restaurant for some more Hot Pot. This time we could order the dishes ourselves, so we got a lot of meat, which we are all craving for ever since we arrived here. Or maybe I should put it as 'normal meat' because there is plenty of meat around here, but all made of parts of animals that we don't usually eat in the Western world (like pig's throat, that I tasted on sunday). This is also the reason why KFC (Kj-ip!) and the McDonalds are suddenly so appealing, but that's a different story altogether.

We left the restaurant early at around 8 pm (Chinese people seem to eat quite early anyway) to go to a club where Mavis had reserved a table. As I’m used to go to a club around midnight, this was all rather strange for me. The two clubs I’ve been to so far are both really to what I’m used to. In this particular one there’s only a small dance floor and the rest of the room is mostly filled with tables. At the table we started playing some games and, to my surprise, we could just ask a waiter (in a club?) to provide us with the necessary items, such as dice and cards. Apparently it is completely normal to hardly interact with each other and just stay with your own group to play games. I asked why people limit themselves to playing these games and not dance or interact more with each other, but I was looked at with a surprised and confused face, and they retorted whether I didn’t think it would be boring to go to a club just to dance. It was amusing to see that the dance floor remained largely empty the entire, except for the brief moments that us ‘internationals’ were on it, which triggered a small courageous group of Chinese people to join us (only to quickly leave again after we were done). We then went back to the hotel, where I had my first night of sleep in a proper bed (it was unfortunate that it was rather small, especially if you have to share it with two other people).

The next day was more or less a wasted day, where we spend the entire afternoon waiting for the train to go back to DuJiangYan. Appearently the train that travels between Chengdu (the big city in the region where we had just spent the day and night) and DuJiangYan only goes every few hours, which is a little weird because it is only a half hour ride. In the evening we reunited with the rest of the group for dinner and we were told that we would spend our sunday at a private kindergarten somewhere else in the Sichuan province. It would take us around two hours to get to this place, JianYang, a small town of only 1.5 million people. From the start I had a bit of a weird feeling about this kindergarten and it felt like we were there more for the school to use us as an advertising tool, rather than that we were there for the children. After a walk through the market, which almost certainly violated at least half of the hygiene requirements we have in the Netherlands, we went on another busride to have lunch at an Ostrich farm. It is here that we split from half of the group, which would continue the summercamp in JiuZhaiGou. It was an emotional moment for some of us, but after the necessary pictures were taken they parted. We stayed at the farm to see a performance of a bunch of 80 year olds and to dance with the children. Afterwards it was time to go back to the kindergarten for dinner. It was then when I found out that the parents pay a tuition fee of 70,000 yuan (around 8,500 euros) for this private kindergarten. This also explained why all the parents were driving us around in BMW’s, a Porsche and other luxury cars. It was a sharp contrast to the majority of this city. We ended the day with yet another dance, somewhere on a public square in town.

Today, as I am writing this, we are also preparing to leave DuJiangYan and move on to Kunming. Unfortunately, all sleeper tickets were sold out, so we will have to undertake the next 20-hour trainride whilst remaining seated. We will say goodbye to the kids this afternoon and then move on tomorrow morning. On to the next part of the adventure.    

     

DuJiangYan

Before leaving Hangzhou we went out with all the EPs (Exchange Participants) and all the Chinese volunteers to a club called Coco Bananas. Painful as it was, they were replaying the Holland - Germany match and all the waiters were wearing football outfits. One of them was particularly nice amd he gave us a free bottle of whisky and plenty of ice tea to mix it with. At the club you could really see the one child-policy at work as all the girls were outnumbered 8 to 1.

The next day I woke up after having slept a wonderful 12 hours, which is great because it meant I had no jetlag on my first longhaul flight. We went to an amazing restaurant where I tried a lot of new dishes and it cost us only 32 yuan each, which is less than what I paid for the burger at the airport. We then went on yet another dangerous taxi trip to the trainstation, ready to embark on a 33-hour long trainride. The trainride was surprisingly fun and time went by quite fast. A major advantage was that it would span two nights, so we could sleep for about 14 to 20 hours. Could...Unfortunately, in my case the girl next to me was snoring like a lumberjack and I barely slept. I played a cool cardgame with the Chinese volunteers, of which I forgot the name but it was quite similar to ˝klootzakken˝ and I got to know my fellow EPs a lot better. I even learned a few new Spanish sayings from Dave: ˝El que en pan pienso, hambre tiene˝ and ˝En tiempos de guerra, evalquier hoyo es trinchera˝. I will leave it up to you to translate and understand it.

A very good thing to bond over was the fact that we were all suffering from the lack of a normal toilet. The only available toilet was a squatting toilet, or basically a hole in the floor. None of us planning to use it in its intended position, we were determined to last it out, the entire 33 hours. I gave up, starting to feel sick, but the others lasted only to find out that the restaurant we were having lunch at, the famous local Sichuan dish called Hot Pot, did not grace us with porcelain to sit on either. Thus, it came as a pleasant surprise that our dorm at GuangYa school does have a regular toilet that us Westerners so often take for granted (no longer).

Anyways, let´s return to more tasty matters before this goes out of hand. Hot Pot can best be described as a spicy version of cheese fondue, the cheese being replaced with soup filled entirely with different kinds of peppers and chili. I have no idea about what it was I put in half of the time, and the other half consisted of a pig´s brain, lotus root, duck stomach and blood. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend the brain or the blood, but it was a very tasty experience in general.

Afterwards we continued to the school in DuJiangYan and with our final dangerous trip, for now, on the crazy Chinese roads. I suspect that they attain their drivers license by buying an extra large pack of rice, because it seems that they allow anyone on those roads. Having arrived we finally completed the trip that we started 40 hours ago. The principal welcomed us and told uss about the region. Sichuan, home of the Panda, has manz beautiful mountains and the city, that has completely been rebuild after an earthquake five years ago, is quite stunning as well. We will explore this soon, after we have prepared our classes for the coming week. I am definitely looking forward to it.