Thursday June 23rd - it's all about the food (again)!

Today was my last exam, and as per the original plan, I celebrated by taking David and Tracy out for Roast Peking Duck diner. The arrangement was that if they organized the dinner, made reservation, got us to the restaurant and back, and helped me order the right items - it would be my treat! (NB: also to say thank you for all the other things they have done for me while I have been in Qinhuangdao...i.e. gave me a cell phone to use for 5 weeks, etc. etc.)

The meal was to die for!....everything was just excellent and I am definitely a fan of roasted duck. Further, and as always seems to be the case, you learn something new about China everyday. Peking Duck, Beijing Duck and Roasted Duck are all the same thing. I guess the city of "Beijing" is also called the city of "Peking" in several countries...which is why you will hear this meal called Peking Duck in some restaurants and Beijing Duck (or Roasted Duck) in others!

The original, and most famous Beijing Duck restaurant is located in Beijing (I guess no surprise there?) and it has been around for almost 600 years. This has become a "chain" and there are now numerous locations all over Beijing (and elsewhere). The branch in Qinhuangdao was opened in 1985, and is absolutely huge. It is 6 stories high and a VERY busy place.....plus like all "fancy" restaurants in China, it has many little individual rooms that are booked and used by groups. For this restaurant, this was true even for our small group of 3 people.

In addition to the great food, David and Tracy are really nice people and so it was a very nice evening! (pictures enclosed).The duck comes (deboned) and you put some meat in a quesadilla type thing with some onion and sauce. Believe me, this was VERY tasty! As you can see this was a very fancy meal/restaurant, and so I had budgeted 400RMB to cover the cost.....I was a bit surprised when the bill came, it was a whopping 179RM!....for 3 people and drinks. This is CRAZY cheap, and I now think I should have eaten here every single night I was in Qinhuangdao. (NB: David did say that the exact same meal in Beijing (at the original restaurant) would likely run about 1200RMB - quite a difference!)  

The other pictures are (of course) of another EXCELLENT meal...a traditional BBQ with Ranier, his friend and his uncle. We had this on Wednesday night (again refer below) but for these types of BBQ'd meals, they bring in these carbon type pieces that are RED hot and place them in a little trough in the table. You then BBQ everything on a little grill that sits over top of these. In our case we had lamb/fish/beef/eggplant/everything you can think of.

At this meal, I inadvertently ate some beef ligaments (I thought they said tenderloin)....it tasted pretty bad for tenderloin and I had some trouble not gagging once I actually knew what it was.....I also passed on the starfish, octopus and anything else that I felt might make me throw up right at the table (Bijou kind of falls into this category...but I love that stuff and so it is definitely not included on my "do not eat or drink list"!)

Having said all this, there were tons of different dishes to try, and I have to admit that I was never really a big fan of lamb until I tasted it here (it is also fantastic).

The other sets of pictures are of going out for lunch with some students. These were three of my favorites, and Thursday they took me to their favourite restaurant on crazy street for a send-off lunch. The one in particular (Turning) is a very cool kid, he is into Taoism.....and is just really interesting to visit with. We almost always talked for 5 or 10 minutes after each class, and I would sure like to check back in with him in 10 years to see where he is at?  

The pictures of the empty apartment are an example of how the Chinese buy their houses. They are basically just a cement cube...that they then arrange and decorate however they want. In this case this is Ranier's (the sand goes down under the hardwood floor)

Wednesday, June 22 - First Final Exam Day and Interviewed as a Fashion Expert?

Today I gave out two final exams...and am happy to report that I have actually worked hard all day, and have completely marked OB, plus have the grades input.

One very negative aspect of the day was the "apparent collective exam writing" that happened. I had been warned numerous times about the cheating in Chinese Universities and Colleges....but I don't think you can truly get it until you experience it for yourself. It is just to hard to describe/put into words. The other teachers are as puzzled as I am as to how/why etc., but think that it just may be part of the "whole collective culture thing" (and that the student's don't think of it in the same way we do????). This "all for one" attitude is a positive in some cases......for example, in group work, you really can see the whole class looking out for the weaker students...however, this is much tougher to take during a test.

They are also good enough at cheating (and it "feels" like 90% of them are in on it) that I think it would be tough to technically prove unless you video taped the whole exam, analyzed it and broke it down. The bottom line is that I think you get exams done by committee (of course there are exceptions...and of course, as you would expect, they are mostly the strong student's). They are such nice kids, they all come to class, seem engaged and try hard....and so I guess you just have to keep that in mind so that you do not hate them after an exam. (I also note that for those  student's that I was "fairly certain" were cheating, I put a "ch" on the top of the exam when they handed them in, and marked their tests VERY VERY tough.......the "honest ones", got more leniency. 

Hate to quit a post on such a downer comment...so on the positive side, today I was also interviewed for the school's "English Speaking" newspaper....and so feel like a bit of a celebrity!

...I thought the article/topic would be about Canada....and maybe more about Medicine Hat College, however.....much to my surprise.....the main topic of the article was Canadian FASHION!

OK......even I realize how funny this is! Of all the things I (pretend to) know about, I do KNOW that I have zero fashion taste, and a very poor sense of what is "stylish" (case in point, when looking for gifts for people, Heather said that I should try and find stuff in "rich colours"......and said it like I would know what that means????)

....HOWEVER, having said this, the next time I get bugged about my lack of fashion sense and what I am wearing....I can now legitimately ask, how many of you have had your "take on current fashion" published in a newspaper article????? The student's said they would send me a copy of the article. It will be in English, and I promise to attach it to the blog to a) to prove that I can now be thought of as a fashion expert and b) because it will likely be pretty funny! (I sure hope that these nice young student's do NOT show it to any potential newspaper employer's if they are trying to get a job).

They asked me questions like what do Canadian College Students wear?......my detailed response was that I think they mostly wear jeans and t-shirts, and that a lot of the boys wear baseball caps?

They asked what the fashion center of Canada was....I said I thought it might be Ottawa? (I have no idea, I do know it is not Medicine Hat)

....the really bad part is that it actually went downhill from there...because they said stuff like they felt music was part of style and fashion....and what were kids listening to now? (I said I was really not to sure - I think maybe Lady Gaga?)....and how do student's wear their hair (I said young girl's seem to like ponytails...and that in Jordyn's and Anna's case, they like bad hair extensions!.....hahaha (good one!)....just kidding, I did not say the Jordyn and Anna part.

After the hair question, I kind of started using "the no comment"/I have no idea. I told them over and over that I was really the wrong person to ask, but they were determined to write down something! Anyway...always glad to be of absolutely zero help to young student's working on a school project! 

Well, it is 5pm in Qinhuangdao, and it is (still) hot and muggy...which means I am (still/always) sweating buckets...therefore, going to go jump in the shower before heading out to dinner!

Tuesday June 21st - the Home Stretch...and the rest of the trip is "quasi-set"?

Tuesday: my last official day of teaching classes....The Korean Lady's for lunch, then the train station, and then the beach boardwalk for a nice long walk.

Wednesday: Give (and start marking) final exams...possibly some Muslim place downtown for supper with Jeff, Lee, Will et al

Thursday: Give out my last exam (and fingers crossed) get everything marked, done and submitted by 6pm that afternoon.....Thursday night go out with David and his Wife for Roast Duck (and more bijou!)

Friday: Go to Shanhaiguan with some students (probably to see some more temples...which to be honest, are becoming like churches in Europe......they are really quite spectacular, but seen one, seen them all?)

.......(and a bit of a change from the original plan here as I now think I can make it work so that I leave Qinhuangdao on Sunday and spend a couple of days in Beijing before heading home...if so.....)

Saturday: pack, clean up my apartment and get ready to go

Sunday morning: head to Beijing...tour around there until Wednesday, when I catch my plane to go home!

Tuesday's Activities

As per above, lunch today was at the Korean lady restaurant. This is likely my favourite "lunch" meal, and I probably go here at least once or twice a week. The dish is kind of like a personal hot pot meal (refer picture). The rice gets kind of crunchy, it is a little spicy, has lots of veggies and is just awesome!

The price is 11rmb and includes a big beer (or $1.57cdn)...as the weather got hotter, I'd usually go for a bottle of water instead of a beer, and in those cases the price was .....11rmb!

P.S. She is called the Korean Lady because she escaped from North Korea...and both her and her cook/helper are very nice.....and as you can tell from below, they LOVE getting their pictures taken!!!!...anyway I will miss these little lunches. 
  
In the afternoon, I walked for about 3 hours on the beach. It is surprisingly easy to go this long as there is always a kind of "I wonder what's around the next corner aspect to these walks"....and I think these types of days are my favourite. You just see a little bit of everything!

Here is a recap of some of the "happenings" along the Beach on Tuesday afternoon (with related pictures below)

1. I finally saw a little Chinese fishing boat in action. These pictures capture how and what they do....it was especially surprising to see just how shallow the sea is here (the tractor that drove out to the boat and back was a LONG way out there!...I left one picture natural versus zoom so that you could get the idea) 

2. Grown men really do "play" on the beach together in China! Next time everyone is at the lake, all the men can go over to the beach and play water games

3. Weddings are a VERY big deal here and you see quite a few wedding pictures being taken all over. I understand that the bride rents several wedding dresses (yes, plural) in various styles and colours (for example a white dress, a blue one, green etc.). They (bride and groom) then get wedding pictures taken in these various colours in different locations. This is all done long before the wedding day so that these photo's can be done up and given out as a wedding gifts to all the guests (which seems like a pretty good idea?).

I can also tell you that one of the parts of this process that looked pretty familiar to me/Canada is that the groom looks totally bored.....and seems kind of like an "extra" hanging out at the movie set!

4. I wasn't able to get a picture of our "BBQ" on Saturday night because it was dark out and the camera has trouble focusing....but our BBQ looked the same as the young gents in the picture below

5. Yes, they were clam hunting in Bedaihe the other day - these two clam hunters were happy to show me their catch!

6. Lots of pictures look blurry because the poor little automatic camera has trouble focusing due to the haze/pollution/fog that is ever-present. The picture shown below is taken looking directly at the sun (it doesn't burn your retina's here!!!!) 

Sunday and Monday, June 19th/20th - Frustration!

Sunday, I woke up totally craving an egg mcmuffin, coffee and hashbrown. There is a McDonald's in downtown Qinhuangdao, and even though it is a 30 minute bus ride (1 way), the craving was bad enough that I decided that is what I'd do...go to Ronnie's Mac's and have breakfast (I am just fine with lunches and dinners, but strangely I am really missing the good old North American breakfast!)

I got downtown and went into McDonald's - they have a picture menu, so I pointed at the egg mcmuffin combo...19.50RMB.....which laughably/sadly is one of the more expensive (non-fancy) meals I have eaten while here.

I ordered my coffee (first non-instant coffee for a couple of weeks - it was REALLY good), and food to go as I was going to sit outside and people watch. I opened the little sandwich bag and found I had a double cheeseburger and no hashbrowns? This was strange....but I thought what the heck, drank my coffee and ate my breakfast cheeseburger.

The breakfast cheeseburger did not satisfy my craving, so I went back in and ordered just an egg mcmuffin (11.50rmb)...again I got another fricken cheeseburger. I have no idea why, it was 10:30am and so maybe breakfast was over? Maybe they were just having a cheeseburger special?....but I have to say, this was one of the first times that I was really frustrated with this whole can't understand anything crap. Obviously, there was also little point in my trying to complain or explain my issue - but not a good start to the day (grrrr)!

After breakfast I wandered around downtown seeing the sites and snagging a couple more bargains. I ate lunch at the "New World Mall" food court - picture menu's here again, but all went smoothly and I had an excellent stir-fry type meal (in case you wonder why I always have a picture of the food plate, I take them in case I really like the food...that way I can show my picture to other restaurants).

In the afternoon, I finished off my last final exam (yeah!)...now I just have to figure out how to get them printed and photocopied????

Late Sunday afternoon Will, Lee and I went to another college as they had been challenged to a volleyball match by some Italian teachers.....with the losers to buy supper (yes, these teachers are teaching Italian to the kids at that school????). We called it North America versus Italy - and we won quite handily (NB: we were smart enough to chose volleyball, and not soccer). It was a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon, supper was great, and we all agreed to try and get a rematch in before people started leaving.

Monday was a typical crappy Monday (nice to know these happen overseas, and not just at home). I taught all morning, and definitely didn't knock any of these lectures out of the park...and my afternoon goal was simply to get a train ticket to Beijing for this weekend.

These god dam train tickets are going to be the death of me!

As per a previous posting, I had quite a time trying to get my first set of train tickets to Beijing...so this time I was going to be so much smarter. One of the student's volunteered to come with me to the train ticket office to help me out, I had my money, my passport, she had researched the train schedule on the internet, and we knew exactly what train #'s, the dates, the times etc....in short, I was all set!

We went to the little ticket office and got turned down.....AGAIN!

I officially have to buy my tickets at the actual train station. Daisy (the student), had a class at 2:30 but she said she would come with me to the train station. I told her that she should go to class, but to just write out exactly what I needed and I would be fine. All I would have to do is present the note, and get my tickets. We even knew which buses I had to take to get out to the station (34 to it's last stop and then transfer to 38).I decided to try out the bus, save myself the 40rmb, and got to the station safe and sound.

.....and could not buy the bloody tickets - AGAIN!!!!!In this case, I can not buy tickets until Tuesday (because I did not want to leave until early Saturday morning which would save me the one night's hotel room in Beijing). Anyway, apparently "Saturday's" tickets do not go on sale until Wednesdays and so I went all this way for nothing. This completely melted my whatever will be, will be attitude, and in combination with my McDonald's issues on Sunday, made me want to start throwing chairs and smashing windows...and even start throwing Chinese people around too (the small ones anyway!).

I have to say, if I was not here "short term" and REALLY wanting to go to Beijing, I would simply give up. This train ticket thing is really painful.

You can not buy them on the internet, only at the train station...and at the end of the day, these tickets will have cost me:
- 47rmb plus most of my Monday afternoon
- 90rmb and either some of my Tuesday or Wednesday to go back out to the train station to actually get the tickets
- 100rmb x 2, for the actual train tickets
- 45rmb on Saturday morning to get to the station
- 45rmb to come back to the college on Monday night
- approx. 70rmb to get cabs to and from the hotel to the train station in Beijing



Mao's tomb, the Bird's nest and all the other sites I hope to see better be REALLY interesting!!!!

(P.S. Having completed my little hissy fit, it is kind of worth noting that 497rmb is actually only $71 Cdn....to take a modern high speed train 6 hours...plus 6 cab rides and 1 bus ride of approx. 20 km each....and I didn't really have any other plans for Monday or Wednesday afternoon).  

Anyway...it is frustrating to not be able to communicate, and now I know why little babies cry (I know I wanted to at the stupid train station/McDonald's)

Saturday, June 18th - Crazy Street and Beach BBQ Mafia!

Today I finally buckled down and got some work done! I got up, walked down to crazy street, and bought my breakfast from a street vendor (yes, I am now Chinese enough to eat at these types of high quality food providers).

Crazy street is located about 3 blocks from the college, and is the main "merchant street for this area". There are 4 colleges and universities right beside each other (I think about 50-60,000 students in total?) and this street is where most of the food vendors etc. are located to service this population.

Needless to say this road (that people still drive on) is one busy little place! Because of this, the other teachers have nicknamed it Crazy street, which really suits. It is really kind of hard to describe "crazy street", and much easier to just say refer to the attached pictures...

I generally buy my meals on Crazy Street.....or from one of 3 or 4 restaurants/food vendors on campus. I also usually buy some type of fruit every day, and get that from a little fruit store on campus (I have also attached a picture of this shop + owners)......we have no ability to communicate at all except through gestures, but they are really nice. We are now in a routine where they will give me a little piece of some "new and different type of fruit" so that I can try it before buying it (surprisingly they recognize me right away when I come into the shop, but that may not be totally related to the fact that I am regular....being 2 feet taller than everyone else and not Chinese might also factor in?)

The rest of the day (actually right until about 7pm!) I worked my tail off....and while this meant it was kind of a sucky day - I really did need this. I was very productive, and got all the assignments marked, all the grades input, 2 of my 3 final exams set, and got ready for classes on Monday.

My thought was that if I worked hard all day, my reward was that I could go to/enjoy my (first ever) beach party!  Morgan, Greg and Chris had planned a BBQ/party on the beach in front of the college for Saturday night.

I have to admit, this was a little bit disappointing....I think I expected a bonfire, a sky full of stars....and maybe a band like the Archie's or Beach boys to come out and play songs like Sugar, Sugar or Surfin' Safari....and it was really more like standing around on a beach in the dark drinking beer (different locale....but same idea as the bush or gravel pit parties we use to have as kids!). Of course there were some unique aspects involved because it was a "Chinese Beach party".

First of all (the foreign teachers call them China gangs, and I'm not exactly what this means or how it works) but we had to pay a guy 100RMB to use "his" beach for a BBQ. He did not have any sort of uniform (or probably authority) to do this, but Chris says if you don't pay, he will come back with his friends (and baseball bats). Having said that, it is not as ominous or as intimidating as it  sounds, because he was only about 4'6" and gave us a receipt!!!!

I found this hilarious...and not sure what this receipt would say???...perhaps something like "paid quasi-legal beach fee to make sure we were not bothered/arrested or beaten up while BBQ'ing". (I have attached a picture of Morgan holding our proof of payment below)

The actual BBQ'ing was done in these little metal boxes. They put coal in them and then BBQ chicken, beef, eggplant, bread on little skewer sticks. I tried to take pictures, but as always, it was hazy last night (i.e. which is also why no stars etc., in fact, I'm not even sure I have seen the moon while here?). Because of the haze, when the sun goes down, my little camera just does not take any good pictures as it can not/will not focus. The BBQ'd food was really tasty...but probably pretty carcinogenic with the coal fire and I'm pretty sure you would not want to eat Chinese BBQ for years and years.

It was a nice visit, but I called it a night fairly early (when they started forming a rum circle and were going to pass around a bottle of straight rum....this is where the 46 years old versus 26 to 30 year old "difference" shows). Having said this, they are a really nice bunch, interesting and lots of fun. They have also been quick to include me, which is much appreciated.

I have briefly mentioned them before and said I'd give more details, so as previously promised, here it is. Most of the foreign teachers (6 of the 10 that I know best) are all from the same graduate school in Tennessee. When they finished school a couple of years ago, the economy/job market in the U.S. was so bad that they could not any work in their fields. Morgan and Greg (I think they are married?) came here first. Morgan is really the den mother/leader, and she is the one who organizes the Friday night dinners, speaks the most Chinese, and kind of keeps all the others on the straight and narrow. Of the guys....Chris, Lee, Will, and Ryan were friends of Greg and Morgan's......who over time, called them and said why don't you come to China and teach ESL?



During the week, everyone is pretty busy - and many of them take on outside tutoring/private teaching jobs in order to earn some more money. However, Friday is "their social day" and they have a standing date to do a Friday night dinner where everyone is invited...and then go out for drinks...and because they are all in that "26 to 30 years old age group" 2 Friday's ago......Greg, Morgan and I grabbed a cab and came back home much earlier than the rest (3:00am!...way past my normal 9-9:30 bedtime here!!!!). When I saw them on Saturday, Lee and Chris said they got home as the sun was coming up, and that they were going to be eating breakfast/lunch and dinner all in the same bowl because they had all slept until 4pm.

I think this type of job ends up being a viscous circle. The U.S. economy (and Tennessee in particular) remains in rough shape, and so none of them can find a job back home. They make quite a bit of money "for China " and therefore, can live really quite well here...especially given all the holidays....but are not making enough to build any sort of nest egg. What they really need is the U.S. economy to get back on track?       

Pictures enclosed!

(P.S. I do not mean to make these postings into novels...but you talk about one thing, and it leads to another...and then another....for example: Beach BBQ--->Mafia Guy--->Foreign Teachers--->Friday night Dinners etc. etc.)

Friday, June 17th - Animal Park/Beidaihe!

Friday's are easily my favourite day of the week....no classes, and there are always fewer people at the attractions that I want to go visit than on the weekends. As a result, I generally try and get a pretty early start and see/do as much as I can!

Today, after skyping with Heather and the kids, I went to the wild animal park (.....It is China, of course they have one!!!!). Then I continued on to Beidaihe for lunch plus to go back to the pearl market one LAST time.

I have talked about Beidaihe in other parts of the blog, but in a few sentences or less, it is basically a district attached to Qinhuangdao, and is located about 8 km away from the College. Even though it is technically part of QHD, it is probably better "known" in and around China than the big city is.

Beidaihe is usually referred to as the "summer capital of China" because many of the top government officials move their offices/residences there in July and August. Further, tons of Russians go to Beidaihe for their summer vacations (and there were quite a few of them in the Animal park today). 

The Wild Animal Park is located in between the College and Beidaihe, and takes up quite a bit of land. It is 60RMB ($9) to get in, but that includes a train ride around the park.

Kind of like the Beijing Zoo, you get mixed feelings about these places.The cages/treatment of the animals is not what you'd expect to see in Canada, but on the other hand, they seem well fed and everything is clean and reasonably well kept. At the end of the day, I think the Chinese just have a different attitude about the whole natural environment than we do...and this is the reason you will see people go to the beach, have a picnic, and leave their garbage there....or why in places like this, you see the old style zoo cages and where you can do things like pay 20RMB to have an elephant pick you up with it's trunk, or 10RMB to play basketball with a monkey (I didn't do any of those types of things.....too "Canadian" I guess?) Although who is to say Canadian's are better, because even though we have much nicer/more natural looking cages in our zoo...it is still a cage? (....yikes, way too deep for me, time to tell another bathroom story!). Plus, I was sure not "above" laughing my head off at the bears on this trip. Some of the Russians on our train car had some bread, and the Bears put on quite a show in order to get some!!!!! (refer to the pictures below).

One last comment about the park....you can also drive your car through it! Plus as you can see from the pictures, there was technically nothing stopping the people in these cars from getting out and walking around the Lion or Tiger cage....except for signs posted saying "danger, don't get out of your car". I am quite sure we would not have this type of "set up" in Canada...but I think the Chinese park might make more sense. They are actually giving people credit for having a brain. Plus, there are lots of Chinese, and so maybe they think that if someone is stupid enough to get out of the car - then in a survival of the strongest/smartest type way......they are getting rid of a dumb one, and the country is better off.

Going back to the whole different natural environment attitude comment above, I do have to say that is seems like the Chinese attitude might be changing. You are starting to see things like the protected wetlands area that has been built as you go into Beidaihe (which I don't think would have "happened" in the not to distant past). The pictures are below, but this area is where the river goes out into the sea. The Chinese have fenced off a large area and designated it as federally protected wetland....of course, being China, there are also a number of people walking through it gathering clams (I think?)

One other thing that I wanted to mention/remember when I look back on this blog is how much I have walked this trip! In fact, today I walked to the animal park, and then to, and around Beidaihe. I took a bus home, but even in doing this, I probably totaled about 10-12 km. Further, I am sure that I have averaged 5+ km walking per day since I have been here because even on "work days", I have to walk to get breakfast. lunch and dinner, and classes.......and on the days that I go see something, I basically walk the whole day. I do note that it is pretty "easy" to walk here because there are so many people and things to look at. This has been great, and I am quite sure I have lost some weight because of this. If I were here another month or so, I could go back to the bungee jumping guy and he would no longer be able to tell me I am too fat to bungee bunch!