Back in Beijing - yet again!
Hello again!
Happy belated Valentine's Day! Celebrate by going to visit Lucas' special Valentine's comic.
Came back from my trip to the south of China this morning.
Monday, February 6th, my student, Yang Yang, came over in the afternoon and we went for hot pot with Andrew (American teacher) for dinner.
Tuesday, February 7th, Yang Yang's mother came to pick Nicole and I up from BISU's North Gate. She (Yang Yang was with her of course) was around 20 minutes late. She didn't know where she was going. Our plane was set to leave at 8:45 AM and we arrived at the airport around 8:15. Needless to say, we made it. We weren't even the last ones on the plane.
We arrived in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, in the early afternoon. It was sunny and hot and tropical plants and palm trees greeted us! What a marvelous change from the sub-zero freezing cold winter Beijing weather!
Buildings in Guangzhou are tall and slim and sit a few centimetres from each other - apparently it's well-known for how close together the buildings are placed. There are two-tier American-style freeways that cross the city, with the typical local food and clothing markets spreading into the side streets underneath. It all makes for an interesting-looking city.
My other student, Xiao Sheng, picked us up at the airport. He was there with his cousin who's going to be a father in May.
The one attraction we went to in Guangzhou was a big park with funky-looking statues of dragons and elephants and all sorts of different beasts, Gods & Goddesses, and people from Chinese folklore made of various materials: CDs, China (like, actual plates and tea cups and bowls and stuff), silk, glass bottles of different sizes and tints. And at night it's all lit up. It's pretty spectacular. Worth noting was a fountain displaying a realistically-painted ceramic cherub-like blond boy holding his dick in his hand and moving from side to side, sometimes squirting water as if he were peeing - much to the delight and "oohs" & "aaahs" of the huge Chinese crowds gawking in awe.
One evening we went to a massage parlour that neither Xiao Sheng nor his cousin had been to before (or so they say...). We went late and Nicole and I finished around midnight and waited for the guys to come out in a lounge area. We quickly realised this was a "men-only" type of joint....
Didn't see all that much of Yang Yang because he's part-manager of a skateboarding company that has its HQ in Guangzhou and he mostly smoked pot and hung out with his skater buddies. He'd fit right in in Vancouver.
The four of us - Nicole, Xiao Sheng, Yang Yang and I - stayed in an empty apartment in a building that's part of the residential complex of the aunt and uncle we were "staying with." It was nice to have our "own" place to hang out. There wasn't much furniture. Yang Yang and Xiao Sheng slept on the floor.
After a couple nights in Guangzhou we went to Zhan Jiang - Xiao Sheng's hometown. We stayed with XS' parents - really sweet people. The city has a rather small-town feel to it and is really spread out. XS' parents live in a building built by the father's gas company for its employees. Behind the building are farms and garbage-filled wasteland...quite a strange area to have a residential building.
A special day in Zhan Jiang included dim sum at a fancy hotel in the morning, a chauffered drive to the beach (the father's company chauffer, no less) where I rode a camel, Yang Yang galloped in the surf on a horse, we had a short drive in beach jeeps, and chose sea-shells from the many sea-shell sellers (the chauffeur bought a sea-shell necklace each for Nicole and I), then strawberry-picking in a field by the road on our way home, and a much-needed nap back at home, before eating amazing seafood for dinner, and ending the day with a delightful two-hour foot-and-body massage. Foot massages are always given by men, and the two guys who got us were so funny! My guy kept laughing at his co-worker who had to massage Nicole's feet, which are bigg-ish for a Western woman, but HUMUNGOUS in southern-Chinese terms (the people from the South are shorter and smaller than those from the North). Apparently Nicole's massager was in a sweat massaging her feet and lower legs, which are the longest part of her body. My guy would burst into fits of laughter, making Nicole's guy laugh, making both of us laugh even harder - we laughed really hard for the whole hour. I've never laughed so hard for so long in my life. Truthfully. It was really great. Nicole's massager was a real man with a mission - in the end he got the job done and he did it well. For my part, my massager sometimes tickled me or really hurt me, so I pulled my foot away twice, quite to his chagrin...I'm sorry! It was quite the experience.
Then we had our hour-long body massage. We both got tiny Chinese women walking on our backs. My massager knew exactly where to place her feet and how much pressure to put where - it was quite extraordinary. I loved it.
Then it was just the four of us young-uns taking the bus (and Chinese-style ferry) to Hainan, a tropical island off the sourthern Chinese coast. We went to the beach resort town of Sanya. We found a hotel in my Lonely Planet for 70 yuan a night for a double room - that's $5 Cdn a night for each of us. And it was a three-minute walk away from the beach!
Sanya was mostly sun, sand and swimming.
On the 15th we took the bus and ferry back to Zhan Jiang. We left around 8 o'clock in the morning and arrived around 7 o'clock in the evening - a whole eleven hours. Nicole discovered what it's like to travel in China and didn't much care for the stress it caused her to feel.
On the 16th I woke up at 5:30 AM in order to catch a 7 AM flight to Shenzhen - just north of Hong Kong - where I caught another flight to Beijing; I arrived around 11 AM.
The cab driver back to the university made his meter go faster (I know because Nicole and I paid around 60 or 65 yuan, while this guy's meter said 85) and then charged me 108 yuan (quickly turning off the meter so I couldn't see) plus 15 yuan for the airport and highway fees (it really is 15 yuan). I told him I'd pay him 100 - the 85 on the meter and the 15 for the fees and he didn't make a fuss. He had already ripped me off on the ride over...sheesh!
But I didn't think much of it. It's so good to be home. It's such common practice here to rip off the foreigners. I really don't much care anymore.
I can't believe I made it to ten o'clock without a nap.
This evening I had dinner with Andrew, the American teacher living across the hall from me.
I also cleaned the sheets that Nicole and I used in my students' apartment while she was in town. I think Yang Yang will come back to Beijing tomorrow (the 17th).
I start work again next Monday (the 20th). Tomorrow I'll start preparing lesson plans and all that. I just need to rest now.
Hope you all had fabulous early February-s. I don't think I've ever seen the plural of February - would it really be "Februaries"???
Happy belated Valentine's Day! Celebrate by going to visit Lucas' special Valentine's comic.
Came back from my trip to the south of China this morning.
Monday, February 6th, my student, Yang Yang, came over in the afternoon and we went for hot pot with Andrew (American teacher) for dinner.
Tuesday, February 7th, Yang Yang's mother came to pick Nicole and I up from BISU's North Gate. She (Yang Yang was with her of course) was around 20 minutes late. She didn't know where she was going. Our plane was set to leave at 8:45 AM and we arrived at the airport around 8:15. Needless to say, we made it. We weren't even the last ones on the plane.
We arrived in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, in the early afternoon. It was sunny and hot and tropical plants and palm trees greeted us! What a marvelous change from the sub-zero freezing cold winter Beijing weather!
Buildings in Guangzhou are tall and slim and sit a few centimetres from each other - apparently it's well-known for how close together the buildings are placed. There are two-tier American-style freeways that cross the city, with the typical local food and clothing markets spreading into the side streets underneath. It all makes for an interesting-looking city.
My other student, Xiao Sheng, picked us up at the airport. He was there with his cousin who's going to be a father in May.
The one attraction we went to in Guangzhou was a big park with funky-looking statues of dragons and elephants and all sorts of different beasts, Gods & Goddesses, and people from Chinese folklore made of various materials: CDs, China (like, actual plates and tea cups and bowls and stuff), silk, glass bottles of different sizes and tints. And at night it's all lit up. It's pretty spectacular. Worth noting was a fountain displaying a realistically-painted ceramic cherub-like blond boy holding his dick in his hand and moving from side to side, sometimes squirting water as if he were peeing - much to the delight and "oohs" & "aaahs" of the huge Chinese crowds gawking in awe.
One evening we went to a massage parlour that neither Xiao Sheng nor his cousin had been to before (or so they say...). We went late and Nicole and I finished around midnight and waited for the guys to come out in a lounge area. We quickly realised this was a "men-only" type of joint....
Didn't see all that much of Yang Yang because he's part-manager of a skateboarding company that has its HQ in Guangzhou and he mostly smoked pot and hung out with his skater buddies. He'd fit right in in Vancouver.
The four of us - Nicole, Xiao Sheng, Yang Yang and I - stayed in an empty apartment in a building that's part of the residential complex of the aunt and uncle we were "staying with." It was nice to have our "own" place to hang out. There wasn't much furniture. Yang Yang and Xiao Sheng slept on the floor.
After a couple nights in Guangzhou we went to Zhan Jiang - Xiao Sheng's hometown. We stayed with XS' parents - really sweet people. The city has a rather small-town feel to it and is really spread out. XS' parents live in a building built by the father's gas company for its employees. Behind the building are farms and garbage-filled wasteland...quite a strange area to have a residential building.
A special day in Zhan Jiang included dim sum at a fancy hotel in the morning, a chauffered drive to the beach (the father's company chauffer, no less) where I rode a camel, Yang Yang galloped in the surf on a horse, we had a short drive in beach jeeps, and chose sea-shells from the many sea-shell sellers (the chauffeur bought a sea-shell necklace each for Nicole and I), then strawberry-picking in a field by the road on our way home, and a much-needed nap back at home, before eating amazing seafood for dinner, and ending the day with a delightful two-hour foot-and-body massage. Foot massages are always given by men, and the two guys who got us were so funny! My guy kept laughing at his co-worker who had to massage Nicole's feet, which are bigg-ish for a Western woman, but HUMUNGOUS in southern-Chinese terms (the people from the South are shorter and smaller than those from the North). Apparently Nicole's massager was in a sweat massaging her feet and lower legs, which are the longest part of her body. My guy would burst into fits of laughter, making Nicole's guy laugh, making both of us laugh even harder - we laughed really hard for the whole hour. I've never laughed so hard for so long in my life. Truthfully. It was really great. Nicole's massager was a real man with a mission - in the end he got the job done and he did it well. For my part, my massager sometimes tickled me or really hurt me, so I pulled my foot away twice, quite to his chagrin...I'm sorry! It was quite the experience.
Then we had our hour-long body massage. We both got tiny Chinese women walking on our backs. My massager knew exactly where to place her feet and how much pressure to put where - it was quite extraordinary. I loved it.
Then it was just the four of us young-uns taking the bus (and Chinese-style ferry) to Hainan, a tropical island off the sourthern Chinese coast. We went to the beach resort town of Sanya. We found a hotel in my Lonely Planet for 70 yuan a night for a double room - that's $5 Cdn a night for each of us. And it was a three-minute walk away from the beach!
Sanya was mostly sun, sand and swimming.
On the 15th we took the bus and ferry back to Zhan Jiang. We left around 8 o'clock in the morning and arrived around 7 o'clock in the evening - a whole eleven hours. Nicole discovered what it's like to travel in China and didn't much care for the stress it caused her to feel.
On the 16th I woke up at 5:30 AM in order to catch a 7 AM flight to Shenzhen - just north of Hong Kong - where I caught another flight to Beijing; I arrived around 11 AM.
The cab driver back to the university made his meter go faster (I know because Nicole and I paid around 60 or 65 yuan, while this guy's meter said 85) and then charged me 108 yuan (quickly turning off the meter so I couldn't see) plus 15 yuan for the airport and highway fees (it really is 15 yuan). I told him I'd pay him 100 - the 85 on the meter and the 15 for the fees and he didn't make a fuss. He had already ripped me off on the ride over...sheesh!
But I didn't think much of it. It's so good to be home. It's such common practice here to rip off the foreigners. I really don't much care anymore.
I can't believe I made it to ten o'clock without a nap.
This evening I had dinner with Andrew, the American teacher living across the hall from me.
I also cleaned the sheets that Nicole and I used in my students' apartment while she was in town. I think Yang Yang will come back to Beijing tomorrow (the 17th).
I start work again next Monday (the 20th). Tomorrow I'll start preparing lesson plans and all that. I just need to rest now.
Hope you all had fabulous early February-s. I don't think I've ever seen the plural of February - would it really be "Februaries"???
posted by Caro at 7:24 PM
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