The Eyes

Ha! I’ve been going through some of my old papers, journal entries and emails from my three years spent in North East China. I came across this list of gems and I thought I’d share with you as it makes for some entertaining reading. It would take ages to explain everything to you, so if you’re not sure or feeling inquisitive about any, please feel free to comment. The following is a list of things I experienced on a daily basis in Changchun between 2003-2005.

Don’t freak out when…

• - you wash your clothes for the first time and your rinse water is black
• - you blow your nose and your snot is black (coal is used in Changchun and the air is full of smoke)
• - your water is turned off
• - you can’t flush your toilet
• - someone of the same gender holds your hand or asks you to dance ( these are signs of friendship)
• - people in crowds get up close and personal (Our sense of space is different from theirs)
• - everyone cuts in front of you in line or you get pushed out of the way
• - people rummage through your grocery cart while you are shopping
• - people randomly shout out, “Hallo!” and then giggle
• - cars, buses, bikes and mule carts do not wait for you to cross the street. Pedestrians do not have the right of way here.
• - you end up driving with a taxi driver who seems to have a death wish
• - people put food on your plate
• - your empty or near empty glass is refilled to the brim
• - someone wants to touch your hair or the hair on your arms and legs
• - people call you fat to your face
• - people stare
• - someone asks you how much money you make
• - someone raises your sweater or shirt to see if you are wearing enough warm clothes
• - you are greeted at the door by family members in long underwear
• - you get on the train and realize everyone is in their long underwear
• - people smoke in the hospitals
• - you visit a doctor in the hospital and your examination room is full of strangers and other medical people
• - the doctors ask you to lie on the table, pull your shirt up, pull your pants down and give a stool sample with 20-30 people watching you
• - the person in front of you spits a big wad of phlegm on the ground
• - someone farts or burps in public
• - you are staying in a nice hotel and in the middle of the night, you get a phone call asking if you need anything special like a massage or a glass of water
• - you experience overt corruption like bribes to police officers or ticket sellers
• - you take the train and everyone uses the bottom bunks, sometimes yours, as the common sitting area
• - the stairway leading up to your apartment is filled with bicycles, trash, vegetables and other assorted pieces of junk

Things have started to take on a more personal note as the wedding gets closer and closer. I was sorting through some old photos today and found this one. It’s one of our first photos together. It was taken back in 2004 in Changchun, China. I think it’s one of the few candid shots I have of us together. John does not like being in front of the camera and mark my words, it is a rarity to see him smile in front of the camera. That’s my guy, alright. Love….love.

Four years down and a lifetime to go…

By June 2003, the SARS scare in northern China was starting to die down and life had returned to normal. My classes at Bai Da Wei English School had resumed and I had started working on improving my ESL teaching skills in the classroom. I had seven of my own classes, with students ranging from 4 to 14 years of age. At that time, most of the people I encountered in Changchun had never seen a foreigner. I had quickly gotten used to people staring at me and yelling HELLLOOOOOOO!!!! whenever I was outside.

Winning my students over was a little different. Two of my classes were ‘baby’ classes. The kids were really young and most of them were going through seperation anxiety. Plus, they had a strange looking woman in their classroom who they didn’t understand. It took them a week or two to stop crying whenever I came into the classroom.

My next challenge was getting them to do what I wanted them to do. I had had plenty of experience in my Mom’s kindergarten classroom in Canada, but it just wasn’t the same.   Despite my anxieties, I discovered that kids are the same everywhere around the world. They want to have fun and they want to feel safe. I started introducing lots of songs and games into my lessons and stopped worrying so much about getting them into their bookwork and found that this worked really well.

By the end of June, I had them eating out of the palm of my hand and parents couldn’t wait to bring them to my class. Teaching has never been so much fun and I maintain that to this day. I’ve worked at a lot of schools in the public and private sectors, but I had the best time at Bai Da Wei. I simply loved my job there. I would highly recommend working for this school.

I was also making strides in my personal life as well. I met with a Chinese tutor three times a week. North East China is not a place you can really get along in unless you speak some Chinese. I was sick of getting into cabs and grunting and shouting at cab drivers to make them understand. I was tired of having to bring a calculator with me if I wanted to buy something or taking a Chinese co-worker with me if I needed to go to the bank or get a hair cut. I was tired of play-acting to get what I wanted. The final straw came when I was at a clothing market and was trying to ask the sales woman what type of fur was on the trim of a Chinese jacket. I found myself hopping up and down, twitching my nose and holding two fingers to my ears to imitate a rabbit and realized – enough is enough!

Even though I doubted my ability to learn a new language, I persevered and discovered that when I applied myself, I had a natural aptitude for languages. Within months, I had memorized several hundred characters and my tutor was pressing me to study harder.

In the meantime, my social network was expanding as I was growing more confident about being on my own in a strange country. Our school owned a restaurant on the first floor of our building. Our teaching staff would often meet there on Sunday nights and drink cold beers after a long day at work. The restaurant soon became well known amongst the ex-pat community for good food, nice folks and a decent music system that blasted whatever we felt like listening to. I met a lot of teachers from the other language schools in Changchun. We had some amazing parties there that summer. I met so many new people from different countries and I was endlessly fascinated with hearing everyone’s stories and what had brought them to China in the first place. More than a few times, I stumbled home in the small hours of the morning, happy and satisfied with the road that I was on.