the middle
Today was a long day. My afternoon class (which I didn't have last week because they were taking an exam remember?) was noisy and full of energy and hard to control. I let them off 15 minutes early...pretty bad, but oh well. I'm sure they don't complain. It's unfortunate though, because their level is the lowest and they just don't bother even trying.
Okay, back to scenes from Chengde. Sunday morning:
Here's our hotel bathroom. Straight ahead is the girls' bathroom, to the left is the boys'. Gaetan & Loic are in front of the mirrors.
The two stalls in the women's bathroom. You can easily see inside the stalls if you're standing... I've been to malls where the public bathrooms have slats in their stalls so you can see every woman squatting...it's as if the stalls didn't have doors. Katia said she once lined up to go to the bathroom and every woman in the line up could see the woman who was peeing because nobody bothered to close the door. The Chinese don't care about these things, and frankly, if I weren't so prudish, I agree that nobody should care. It's as natural as eating and sleeping after all. But personally, I just can't go to the bathroom in front of other people!!! I can hardly speak to someone while peeing!
This is what every bathroom stall has. It's a bit shocking at first, but you quickly get used to it...well, sort of. I do occasionally go home inbetween classes because I can't bear to go to the public bathrooms at the school... One thing that is easy to forget: you can't throw the toilet paper into the hole, you have to throw it in the basket, which stinks the place up tremendously!!
We took a bus to go to one of the temples in the outskirts of Chengde, but the bus driver took us to the wrong temple (well, not the one we wanted). So we decided to walk to the temple we wanted to visit. I took a ton of pictures of street scenes. This one looks like it's of a 24hour street cafe.
The sidewalks in China are badly paved, if paved at all. It would be impossible for a wheelchair to go through. I don't know how people with disabilities survive. The must be totally dependent on their caretakers. Lots of bikes in Chengde... And still those bicycle-cart thingies.
A colourful Chengde store. Sells just about anything and everything.
Coals burning at right. People walking... It was cold!
Somebody's yard. Clothes hanging to dry, a pile of rubbish in the foreground, and a man piercing a hole in his stairs...don't know why! He had a drilling machine, though, and it made a lot of noise!
An old man selling coal on the side of the road. He's behind his scale and weights on the left.
Katia's yellow bag, which she bought in Beijing for next to nothing. Everytime you see those red ball-things (lantern look-alikes) you know there's a restaurant.
We went through a huge market. I guess it was the Sunday morning market. It was marvelous. This was the first sight that greeted us: the roaming barber shop.
Spices and goods to eat, next to shoes and clothes. It was quite the market.
Katia bought two pairs of socks from the woman on the left. Her feet were freezing (she wasn't wearing the right shoes!). There are so many people in China that when one of them is sick, they wear something to cover their mouth and nose so as not to spread the disease to others. I see it all over campus and I guess that's what this woman is doing in the middle of the picture.
There were lots of people. I think Chengde has 200,000 inhabitants (about), but you can be sure that there were many people from the surrounding areas at this market.
The woman is holding her baby. This was the fruits and vegetables section - on the ground is just as good as on a table, I suppose... For farmers who bring in their goods with a bicycle-cart there isn't much room for tables I guess.
Pigs ready for slaughter. There were trucks and trucks full of them...
A view of the market from high up. This was the other side of the market - completely opposite the barber stops which we saw at first. It really was quite a cool market.
A woman selling puppies.
It took me forever to take this picture. I felt so bad because I kept the women waiting for so long... Cute puppies. I'm sure they haven't been vaccinated for ANYTHING though...
Going for dinner at 7:30 PM tonight, as usual, with the French crew and a few Chinese people, no doubt. Tomorrow the plan is to go to Carrefour to stock up. Carrefour is a French supermarket that's not too, too far away from our university. It's a good place to buy foreign products.
Thursday, two of my students, Yang Yang and Kobe (they made me dinner the Thursday before last), have invited to be my guide and to take me around an old district in Beijing.
I received a letter from my father and I'm so happy! He tells me to be careful with so many exciting things happening at once. I need to write postcards myself!
Alright (my students make fun of my "alright!" which I apparently say all the time in class), time to work (prepare for tomorrow's class). Hope you're all in good health. Take care.
Okay, back to scenes from Chengde. Sunday morning:
Here's our hotel bathroom. Straight ahead is the girls' bathroom, to the left is the boys'. Gaetan & Loic are in front of the mirrors.
The two stalls in the women's bathroom. You can easily see inside the stalls if you're standing... I've been to malls where the public bathrooms have slats in their stalls so you can see every woman squatting...it's as if the stalls didn't have doors. Katia said she once lined up to go to the bathroom and every woman in the line up could see the woman who was peeing because nobody bothered to close the door. The Chinese don't care about these things, and frankly, if I weren't so prudish, I agree that nobody should care. It's as natural as eating and sleeping after all. But personally, I just can't go to the bathroom in front of other people!!! I can hardly speak to someone while peeing!
This is what every bathroom stall has. It's a bit shocking at first, but you quickly get used to it...well, sort of. I do occasionally go home inbetween classes because I can't bear to go to the public bathrooms at the school... One thing that is easy to forget: you can't throw the toilet paper into the hole, you have to throw it in the basket, which stinks the place up tremendously!!
We took a bus to go to one of the temples in the outskirts of Chengde, but the bus driver took us to the wrong temple (well, not the one we wanted). So we decided to walk to the temple we wanted to visit. I took a ton of pictures of street scenes. This one looks like it's of a 24hour street cafe.
The sidewalks in China are badly paved, if paved at all. It would be impossible for a wheelchair to go through. I don't know how people with disabilities survive. The must be totally dependent on their caretakers. Lots of bikes in Chengde... And still those bicycle-cart thingies.
A colourful Chengde store. Sells just about anything and everything.
Coals burning at right. People walking... It was cold!
Somebody's yard. Clothes hanging to dry, a pile of rubbish in the foreground, and a man piercing a hole in his stairs...don't know why! He had a drilling machine, though, and it made a lot of noise!
An old man selling coal on the side of the road. He's behind his scale and weights on the left.
Katia's yellow bag, which she bought in Beijing for next to nothing. Everytime you see those red ball-things (lantern look-alikes) you know there's a restaurant.
We went through a huge market. I guess it was the Sunday morning market. It was marvelous. This was the first sight that greeted us: the roaming barber shop.
Spices and goods to eat, next to shoes and clothes. It was quite the market. 
Katia bought two pairs of socks from the woman on the left. Her feet were freezing (she wasn't wearing the right shoes!). There are so many people in China that when one of them is sick, they wear something to cover their mouth and nose so as not to spread the disease to others. I see it all over campus and I guess that's what this woman is doing in the middle of the picture. 
There were lots of people. I think Chengde has 200,000 inhabitants (about), but you can be sure that there were many people from the surrounding areas at this market.
The woman is holding her baby. This was the fruits and vegetables section - on the ground is just as good as on a table, I suppose... For farmers who bring in their goods with a bicycle-cart there isn't much room for tables I guess.
Pigs ready for slaughter. There were trucks and trucks full of them...
A view of the market from high up. This was the other side of the market - completely opposite the barber stops which we saw at first. It really was quite a cool market.
A woman selling puppies.
It took me forever to take this picture. I felt so bad because I kept the women waiting for so long... Cute puppies. I'm sure they haven't been vaccinated for ANYTHING though...Going for dinner at 7:30 PM tonight, as usual, with the French crew and a few Chinese people, no doubt. Tomorrow the plan is to go to Carrefour to stock up. Carrefour is a French supermarket that's not too, too far away from our university. It's a good place to buy foreign products.
Thursday, two of my students, Yang Yang and Kobe (they made me dinner the Thursday before last), have invited to be my guide and to take me around an old district in Beijing.
I received a letter from my father and I'm so happy! He tells me to be careful with so many exciting things happening at once. I need to write postcards myself!
Alright (my students make fun of my "alright!" which I apparently say all the time in class), time to work (prepare for tomorrow's class). Hope you're all in good health. Take care.
posted by Caro at 5:51 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home