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Xintian

Well this has been a long time coming I know.......

I have settled well into my new home of Xintian and have been teaching now for nearly 4 months. It is amazing how quickly time is going here. There is only one week left till Xmas.

I haven't really been doing a lot since I have been here, but have managed to get a way for a couple of short trips. I went to Yongzhou for a weekend back in October and stayed with Jen (you may remember I mentioned her in the Yangshuo post). We and a few others went out for pizza and ten-pin bowling, I know not what you would typically expect one to do in China but I think we were all ready for a 'western fix'. (See photo of the bowling gang).

I also made a short trip back to Yangshuo during the students mid-term exams because I had 5 days off as we are not required when the students are doing exams. They have exams every month for 2 days and so far my students have had exams on either a Monday and Tuesday or a Thursday and Friday so plenty of long weekends for me, not that I really need them as I only work 15 hours a week anyway.

The other trips have been 2 one day trips around the local area organised by the school with some of the other teachers. The first place was to a recently discovered Ming Dynasty ruin (it was only found in October) as well as an old Ming Dynasty village, it was quite exciting to know that myself and Mick (the other foreign teacher here) were the first foreigners to ever visit either place. We had a day full of stares and smiles, the locals can get very curious when they look at you. You get used to people staring at you eating after a while, sometimes it can still be a bit annoying, especially when they insist on walking right up to your table and standing over the top of you whilst eating and just look at you and the food and how you are eating. Many of the locals are quite surprised that I can use chopsticks, especially being left handed, that is almost non-existent in this country. They believe that left handers are more intelligent than normal, so I guess they know a thing or two after all.

Last weekend saw the other day trip take us to a town called 'Stone Sheep' and a place called Buddha Mountain, every hill is a mountain here by the way. After a nice scenic walk up the 'mountain' we went back into town and had lunch with some locals. Because we had a large group we were divided up into groups to go to different peoples houses for lunch. I ended up at one of my students houses and the food was great, the father of the student was trying his best to get Mick really drunk and was trying his best to not get me drunk, I didn't mind so much as I really don't like drinking that rice wine it is way too strong for me and is not very nice either.

I have managed to find a couple of local eateries to eat at that we frequent quite often and they are so good. Even though I don't have very good language skills I still haven't ordered a bad meal yet.

Check out some more photos from my travels and I will post again soon.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Love Gabby

Yangshuo 16 Aug - 3 Sept 07

Hi everyone,

Well I ended up spending nearly 3 weeks in Yangshuo and enjoyed every moment of it. Apart from the orientation and teacher training, the rest of the time was spent relaxing and looking around the place. Having already spent a few days in the town last year on my holiday I found it very easy to get around and found the good eating places etc.

I met a great bunch of people over the 3 weeks and saw nearly all the courses that came through. Also attached to Buckland College is a private language school called Owen College and I spent a lot of time talking to the students from there. They were all in their early to mid twenties and had spent a lot of money to come to Yangshuo to learn English. They think it is fantastic to have so many foreigners at their disposal to talk to and we loved talking with them.

On the Saturday after the orientation finished I had hired a pushbike and went for a dawn ride into the hills with Laura, a Canadian teacher who was volunteering at Owen for the summer. We got up at 5.30 and rode for about 30-40 mins and came to a spot between the Karst hills to watch. Unfortunately it had been raining the last couple of days and the cloud cover prevented us from seeing the sunrise. But it was very beautiful and peaceful all the same. (See photo)

The next week was spent relaxing and waiting to find out when I was going to my school. I was being paired with another Aussie, Mick, who was still teaching at Owen so had to wait for him to finish the week out. We were told we were going to a small town called Lanshan and it would be either Saturday or Sunday. When Saturday came they could not give us a definite answer and said probably tomorrow. So we had packed and were waiting Sunday morning, when the boss called us into his office and said we were not going to Lanshan now but to Xintian No. 1 Middle School instead. Okay no biggie. We were then set to leave Tuesday, and leave we did.

Also whilst in Yangshuo Michelle had a birthday (another full time teacher at Owen) and we all went out to celebrate. Michelle is an Aussie from Brisbane. (See photo)

Along with that I have made friends with a Canadian named Jen and she is teaching in a town about 2 and a half hours from me so we agreed to try and keep in contact. (See photo)

There were so many other great people I met that I will keep in contact with also from around the world. We even had a Polish guy, Blazej (or Frank to us), there at Owen as well as people from Britain, Canada, America a few Aussies and a Kiwi couple doin g the teaching courses.

Well that was my fun in Yangshuo. It is time to go to my new home in Xintian.

Take care

Gabby

Leaving Home 15 August 2007

Hi everyone,
Yes I have finally got around to starting my blog. I will try and keep them up to date as much as possible.
This first one is about leaving Australia and heading off to the great unknown.
The day started very early and a last minute scramble to get everything into my pack. Well that was a no go and had to leave a few things behind. In hindsight I left the right things behind as I haven't really needed any of it. I did however manage to pack the wrong things all together, but more on that later.
My flight from Sydney was delayed by an hour but other than that was pretty smooth sailing (or flying in this case). Sat next to a nice couple from England and we chatted for most of the way. I was informed half way through the flight that I might not make my connection in Hong Kong for Guilin and that the airport staff would meet me on arrival and help me get to my flight. I was ushered to the front of the plane just as we started our descent into HK and was told as soon as we land and are taxiing to wait at the door to run.
Staff from the airport were there to meet me and run we did. First I had to check in and get a seat allocation then I had to sign a form acknowledging that the airport had informed me there was a great chance that my luggage would not be on the flight to Guilin. Well there was nothing to do but sign the form. Then we ran to the gate where my flight was due to board any second now. I made it there in time, only to have that flight delayed by another half hour so could sit and catch my breath. It was really hot and stuffy in the airport and I still had my Canberra winter clothes on and was in desperate need for a drink, but no time for that.
Eventually my flight boarded for the one hour flight and all I could think of was I am hot and smelly and I won't have any luggage for the night. The flight was quick, I slept for most of it and it was filled with Spanish tourists.
After arriving at Guilin I went through the usual customs and immigration checks and then went and waited by the carousel to see if my luggage would come through and YAY there it was, I cannot begin to tell you what a relief that was.
Went through the final luggage inspection and around the corner to the main hall of the airport and there was a man with my name on paper, I smiled and off we went. He quickly pulled out his mobile phone and started talking away in Chinese to someone and then hands me the phone, I was puzzled as to who I needed to talk to. It turned out to be the Owner's wife from Buckland whom I had been dealing with over email before I left. After a quick chat it was into the car (this is about 9.15pm local time) and had a one to one and a half hour road trip ahead of me.
It was very dark and I couldn't see anything so promptly went to sleep and awoke just before we pulled up to my new home for the next week or two in Yangshuo.
Stayed tuned for my Yangshuo adventures.
Love Gabby