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.