Officially a Charou in China!

Day 7 – 01/10/12

It was a beautiful day in Shenyang, China today. The sun was shining and the wind remained still. Tracy and I took advantage and spent most of the day outdoors. We also got some lesson planning done. As we now have a better sense of direction and a clearer idea of where each mall and market is, we explored to greater lengths spending more time in each spot. We looked at clothes, food and made more friends.

The markets here are very similar to the Sunday flea market we have in Durban only these are opened daily from 8am to 9pm and are along the road side leading to the mall. Here you can find anything from food to high fashion at any time of the day. The atmosphere at these markets is always lively. There is always music pouring out from someone’s mini radio or a shop owners huge speakers. Tracy and I really enjoy this and on some occasions we try to sing along. If we’re lucky we sometimes find ourselves singing along to Adele or Britney Spears. At night the atmosphere is lively and beautiful. I’m not really used to night markets so I truly enjoy being able to shop for food, clothes, stationary, jewellery and even linen at any time of the night.

The lights, aroma, people and occasional firework display add to the beauty of the night markets. The aromas come from the food being cooked on the road side and sometimes from…who knows where! Most of the road side cooking is done over a coal fire similar to a braai or barbeque as non South Africans would call it. Meat or fruit on sticks is a very common snack found at these markets.

What I found interesting was that coal was also being used to generate electricity at some of these stalls. In the past week I’ve seen buckets of coal just laying outside restaurants and shops with no one to attend to them. I wasn’t sure what they were used for and I thought it was pretty dangerous to just leave buckets of coal along the road side. I later found out that China is the largest consumer of coal in the world and they are probably the largest users of coal-derived electricity. Talk about braaing everyday! Those white doctor-like masks I see people wearing everyday now makes a lot of sense. China is like a big, lit cigarette and depending on how they handle their resources and natality this cigarette will be tramped on sooner or later.  Speaking of cigarettes China seems to have no rules or regulations about where, when and how cigarettes should be used. You’re allowed to smoke at restaurants and just today I saw someone smoke and throw a cigarette butt on the floor of a cell phone store even though there was an ashtray next to her. I was the only one who looked shocked so this is probably standard behaviour.

The fashion in China is very much like the fashion we see in Chinese animation – Mini, checkered skirts, long socks, platform shoes of all sorts, frilly jerseys, white shirts with bows, lots of stockings with mini dresses and shorts. The men are usually found in jeans and sweaters or funky leather coats or jackets. Occasionally you find females dressed in a smart coat or jacket which is paired with matching stilettos or handbags. 

China is also the land of Hello Kitty products and other cute animated characters such Pooh Bear, Angry Birds and Mitty. They have some of their own animated characters who try very hard to express themselves in English but fail. The teachers at my school refer to this language as Chinglish. The clothes found at the malls are usually branded, pricy and have better English.  

In closing I’d like to proudly announce that I found curry powder AND geera seeds today. I’m officially a Charou in China.



Chinglish 1

Chinglish 2

 

Chinglish 3

Curry Powder & Geera Seeds



You could even buy a pet on the street!

 

 

         

New Beginnings!

Day 6 - 30/09/12

It’s almost a week since I’ve been in China and the plan for the weekend is to get all the unpacking and apartment stuff out the way so that I can start fresh and get down to some lesson planning by Monday. So far I’m doing good! I’ve cleaned, washed, unpacked and rearranged until about 21:30 last night. It was all worth it. My apartment now looks squeaky clean and I’m ready to get down to some serious work. What makes this fresh start even better is that it all begins on 1 October – tomorrow. We all know this feeling! New month, new start…clean slate!

Well, to kick it all off I cooked my first meal at my apartment today. Ingredients included salt, crushed chili spice (something like masala), tomatoes, onion, mushrooms and oil. Where’s the tumaric, geera and mustard seeds you ask, well this is China. They do have spices I just haven’t discovered them yet. The mushrooms here look like the poisonous ones we find in South Africa. So I was a little scared and I wasn’t really sure about how I should cook them. I remembered that someone told me something about cooking mushrooms with a 5cent coin in the pot and if the coin turns a specific colour the mushrooms are poisonous. There was no time for that! I figured that if these mushrooms were being sold at the grocery store surely they are good to eat. So I washed them and threw them in the pot together with the other ingredients.

The result:

 

Overall the food was good and edible. The crushed chili spice gave it some flavor but not enough as it was missing the geera powder, roasted dhania power and gerum masala. The wanna-be poisonous mushroom were also good however the stems were very chewy. So I decided the next time they will be cut-off before cooking. This was served with noodles.

I’ve spent the last two days mainly indoors as a result of the weather and also because my site seeing buddy Tracy is a little unwell. I also used some of this time to reflect on my first week in China.

I’ve decided that there will be good days, great days, bad days and horrible days. Whatever it is I should remain focused and positive. I’m here to experience, learn, grow and be a great English teacher. I’m not leaving China without these. I have exactly five months to make it all happen. Let the games begins!

       

 

Lavatory Let-down

Day 5 – 29/09/12

One would assume that China is a country in which you can find anything considering most things are made here. Well let me tell you what you can’t find here…western style toilets. My apartment has a western style toilet but that’s about the only place you could find one. Earlier on this week I went to a medical centre for foreigners and they had a non-western style toilet one that requires you to squat. To add to this feeling of repulsion is the lack of soap and toilet paper. I thought that they just didn’t care about foreigners so they didn’t bother to build a proper toilet or to put in any paper and soap. Today I learnt that I was wrong.

I visited a fairly modern six floor shopping mall with very expensive shops like Swarovski, Bvlgari, M.A.C and Estée Lauder. These are all international brands and are exceptionally extravagant in appearance and cost. However the toilets at this mall are the total opposite. They are squat style toilets like the ones at the medical centre for foreigners. They have no toilet paper and I didn’t spend enough time in there to check if they had soap. I was hoping to have better luck at McDonalds considering it epitomises everything western. But guess what I still found squat style toilets with no toilet paper. I was definitely surprised and very far from being delighted at that stage. Fortunately I didn’t need to go to the toilet that badly so I waited until I got home about five hours later.

This western style toilet- less place that I talk about is called Tianjin. It’s a long street-like pathway bordered with several tall building of shops, mall and hotels. No cars are allowed here only cards and their owners. The goods at this western style toilet-less place range from food to clothing to electronics, some cheap and others extravagantly pricy. The smaller and less expensive shop owners often insist that you buy something from their store. As soon as they see you taking an interest in something they run to you and start ranting away in Chinese. Who knows what they’re saying. Fortunately Tracy and I have learnt how to count in Chinese and we’ve also learnt the hand signs used to indicate certain numbers. This knowledge comes in handy when we’re trying to ask how much something costs.  

In China the numbers six to ten have specific hand signals that go along with them which definitely helped me to remember the Chinese word for each number. It also helps when I’m buying food or groceries.

Standing in the pathway of Tainjin surrounded by tall buildings, huge colourful screens and the sounds of cars, trucks and motorcycles made me feel as if I was in one of those movies where groups of friends go traveling around the world. These scenes are usually accompanied by upbeat music tracks which Tianjin successfully provided. Who said you need drugs, diamonds and dollars to feel like a movie star!

Good feeling!

Love Verusha

Six - Liu

Seven - Qi

  

Eight - Ba

Nine - Jiu



Ten - Shi

Me at Tainjin

 

 

China in a nutshell or a fortune cookie!

Day 4 – 28/09/12

It’s almost the weekend here in China and many citizens are looking forward to it. On 1 October every year the People’s Republic of China celebrate National Day. This day marks the declaration of the founding of the People’s Republic and the unveiling of the first five star Chinese flag.  

The Chinese government is the only legal government which aims to create a classless society by allowing community ownership of all property, goods, production & distribution and major resources. Private ownership is banned. Even though Democracy also aims for equality and a classless society South Africa is governed by specific groups of people all of which are demanding different requirements. Democracy also allows  private ownership which means we will always be divided by wealth and poverty. 

Anyway back to the fun stuff…so the National holiday lasts seven days and most workers are given the time off to visit relatives or travel. While the Chinese will be enjoying their holiday I will be trying to get my act together. I will unpack – eventually- and make my apartment look a little more homely. I will prepare for my lessons which start after the holiday and maybe get in some sleep and writing.

My apartment is pretty spacious with a few modern features. However my bed consists of a base and the mattress is substituted with a big piece of foam. I keep forgetting to ask if other teachers are in a similar situation. There are many apartment buildings in China and very few houses. To be honest I’ve never seen an actually house in China. As you drive all you see are tall buildings which are all apartments as this is the cheaper option.

Unfortunately my day hasn’t been as eventful as the previous ones so I decided to give you a short history lesson. This morning I was suppose to attend the school’s sports day at 7:15 but I over slept…bad impression for a new teacher. I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again. I eventually made it to the event by 8:30. It was entertaining but also a little uncomfortable as we (foreign teachers) had large groups of students and teachers staring in our direction and trying to get as many pictures as they could. We felt like the animals from the movie Madagascar. We left and later visited a paleontology museum…who knows what that is! All I saw was rocks, bones and dinosaurs. My feet were sore and I was bored. Supper wasn’t any better. I had thick noodles (the width of adult fingers) in a sort of spicy sauce and I’m pretty sure I ate a few strips of something fishy. I abandoned that and opted for Milo which actually tastes like ProNutro. 

Hopefully tomorrow is a better tasting day!

Love to you all

Verusha

 



Sports day dance routine

First years at Sports Day



Finger size noodles (It's not pasta, trust me!)

What Milo looks like in China

 

China Manners

Day 3 – 27/09/12

Today I took my first taxi ride to a medical centre specifically for foreigners. I had to get a medical exam done as it’s a necessary requirement for all foreigners.

The taxi ride was scary! For most of the trip all I heard was hooting and ‘holy s*^t’. Hooting from the several cars around us including ours. The censored words from my fellow teacher Tracy who like me is clearly not used to Chinese driving manners. At times there were trucks turning directly toward us and continued moving even thought traffic on our lane remained stagnant. At others times we were driving on the opposite side of the road to avoid traffic. Sometimes there were cars so close to us I could hug the person in the next car. Among all of this were also people on foot, their bikes and their motorcycles trying to transport their large boxes of goods to the closest market in order to earn their daily income. I was just glad that I got to my destination in one piece and with the contents of my tummy still inside.

The big needles and urine test tubes at the medical centre didn’t do much to help my tummy. The needles….well they are needles! The toilets stank and the design catered only for those who are able to squat. There was no toilet paper and neither was there soap to wash our hands afterwards. Thank God for pocket tissues and hand sanitizer. The entire medical exam went by very quickly. At the end Tracy and I were not even sure what happened. The Chinese call it efficient I call it rushed. For example, my ECG which took at least 5minutes in South Africa took five seconds in China. I didn’t even have time to take a breath so I’m quite sure those readings are all wrong. The good thing is that it’s done and I will get my resident permit soon.

Towards the end of the day Tracy and I took to the streets ourselves. We crossed busy roads…actually we ran across busy roads, made some friends with the locals and learned new Chinese words and phrases. We visited the supermarket and found Special K cereal for 40 yuan which is equal to R51.44. On our way home we walked through the night market and bought supper for only 5 yuan = R 6.44. It wasn’t great however I was glad to see familiar food; cauliflower, green beans sprinkled with peanuts.

 Peace & Love

Verusha ;)

Cauliflower & green beans sprinkled with peanuts and sticky rice

The three wheeled car I mentioned last week 

 

 

 

Hi Guys

Welcome to my Charou in China page. This page will document my five month stay in China, from September 2012 to February 2013. While I was in China I kept my friends and family updated through weekly e-mails. I also shared my experiences with them in these mails. I've now decided to share these e-mails and my experiences with you. Each week I will add one post about my Charou in China experience.

N.B. Charou is an informal South African word used to describe an Indian.

___________________________________________________________________________

Day 1 & 2 - 26/09/12 

Ni Hau (Hello in Chinese)

Yesterday I managed to comfortably digest my first meal in China. Sticky rice, tofu, flavoured onion pieces and steamed bean pods dressed with a flavorful sauce sufficed as a delicious lunch. While taking full advantage of these somewhat new flavours I also met with some of the other foreign teachers.

Today I survived my second meal at a Chinese restaurant. It wasn’t as good as the first but it’s a dish I could definitely eat again with a few improvements. It’s called ‘hot pot’ which I thought was something similar to a potjie and I was right. It’s served in a stainless steel dish with water and flavoured stock. The ingredients include either vegetables (mushrooms, dhania (coriander), sprouts, spinach, tofu, potatoe) or meat with noodles. The raw veggies and meat are thrown into the pot depending on what you want or you could throw in everything. There’s a hot plate in the centre of the table so your Chinese style potjie cooks right in front of you. There’s a spicy and plain option. Fortunately there are two other teachers who are also vegetarians so I shared my pot with them. Unfortunately the Chinese don’t eat with forks so I had to master the art of eating with chop sticks which I managed quite well!

Today was also my first venture into the streets and the malls which are walking distant from my apartment. Walking seems to be a common mode of transport here in China as well as bicycles and motor cycles however as China has the highest population there are still many cars on the road even three wheel cars – no not a tricycle, a car! On the roads the alternative for an indicator is the hooter/horn. If a driver wants to turn or change lanes he presses on the hooter and forces his way through and it works! Other drivers obey this ‘rule’. I guess it’s an understanding they have with each other.

The malls are equally busy even on a Monday afternoon. A very small number of Chinese people understand English which means I have to brush up on my Chinese pretty soon. Foreigners in China feel like celebrities as there not many of us or maybe the people of China are not used to seeing people that look different from them. As a result they stare at you wherever you go. Some stare at you for as far as their eyes can take them, some point at you, others say hello and some even try to make conversation with you in Chinese.   

Love to you all

Verusha 

 

Hot Pot (Spicy & Plain)

Tracy and I mastering the art of eating with chopsticks