Friday, November 25, 2005
still here..still alive...etc.
Hi guys,
sorry we haven't done this for ages, I was going to say that we have been really busy but then when I try and think of stuff to tell you about I can't think of much so we can't have been that busy! Time seems to be passing really quickly at the moment and I can't believe we are over half way through this semester.
The most exciting happening this week was that Rupert gave his "symposium" entitled 'An Introduction to Modern Western Electronic Music' and he basically bored, sorry, thrilled hundreds of students for a couple of hours with lots of information about the different kinds of electronic music, then he showed them some of the software you can use to make it and finally told them about club culture - see I was listening! I went along for moral support and actually learnt something.......although sadly I don't think I like the music any more than I did before but at least I can nod in a more knowledgable way next time rupert waffles about it when he has discovered some amazing new piece of software he can use - you would be suprised how often that happens! Anyway ever since the symposium we have had loads of students tell us how much they enjoyed it and how interesting it was so I think Rupert is making some progress on his mission to inform the 1.3 billion people here that there is much more to western music than the Backstreet Boys and Westlife. Actually, it went down very well and although we think a lot of the English was too advanced for the students who attended, there were enough music and video clips to keep them interested and on the whole it was a success - especially since he got paid 200 yuan to do it (about 15 quid, but that goes a long way here when clothes shopping - for him obviously, not for me - no honestly, we went out and bought him some funky combats and a cool zipper jacket thing so now he has the funky image to match the music, hee heee.........).
Oh and another exciting happening recently was that my parents came to visit as part of their little excursion to see some friends in Shanghai and then the Phillipines. They stayed for about a week and I think we gave them a little taste of the delight that is Haikou. They stayed in a very fancy hotel in the city centre that has some special deal with our college so guests of our college can stay there for about half price (anyone else fancy coming to see us?). On one of the days we met up with my calligraphy teacher and took them to a calligraphy exhibition that was just opening in the city and it was very funny. We arrived just before the opening and suddenly found ourselves being treated as honoured guests. They pinned a little posy to our tops and some of the famous calligraphers asked to pose for photos for us so we tried to look distinguished and knowledgable as we viewed the exhibits - which is no mean feat when it is over thirty degrees outside and there is no air-conditioning, but looking back at the photos I think we managed it - not! The famous calligraphers then would do calligraphy for anyone who gave them a piece of paper and at the beginning people just calmly waited by the table where the calligrapher was working and he would write whatever they requested but after a while it got quite busy and what with the idea of queueing being quite alien to the Chinese, it became quite a catfight with people scrabbling to push some paper under the calligraphers' noses and get him to write something for them. But on the whole it was a fun experience and we are probably appearing in some local media as distinguished foreign calligraphers - oh if only they could see dad's handwriting, or Rupert's for that matter.
Another thing we did with the parents is take them to some of my classes and to English corner. The parents loved meeting the students and the feeling was more than mutual - the students are still talking about it to this day. I think dad made a great impression not just because of his safari waistcoat and shorts, but because although he had a cambridge degree he decided to teach for thirty five years and it is completely unthought of in China that a person with a degree from a famous university would not pursue a top job and aim to make vast amounts of money as quickly as possible. They are quite interested to hear that in the west we are not all so completely obsessed with making as much money as possible! The little fifteen first years I teach met mum and sang her a little song in Chinese about a mother's love. They were quite confident in chatting to her which really suprised (and pleased!) me because when I first met them in September they were so shy it was all I could do to get them to introduce themselves to me. They have come so far in a couple of months and I think its mainly because they are settling in and hopefully starting to really enjoy college life. Its great to watch them at break time, they used to stay in their seats and whisper to each other, looking really guilty if they had to get up to go to the loo, but now they are jumping around, teasing each other, play fighting, singing and sometimes I actually have to ask for quiet when I want to start the lesson after break. Its great!
We are finding that our salaries go a long way here and we (actually mainly me) am making the most of the fun shopping to be found in Haikou. There are some great clothes, shoes, bags to be had, and then there's the dvds. We're also discovering some great places to eat. We haven't cooked one meal since we got here, but I think I am going to start thinking about it soon, sometimes its nice just to stay in and have something simple. The most recent find has been the only Indian restaurant in Haikou. It's really nice and has the closest thing to Marks and Spencer chicken tikka that I have ever found, anywhere. If you haven't tried M and S chicken tikka then I can thoroughly recommend it. Oh and talking of food, there is an Australian guy here with a Chinese wife who teaches at some other uni in the city and is about to open a western restaurant and said he will do a sandwich bar, roast dinners and fish and chips - which is just so amazing cos there's just nothing like that in Haikou. We are trying not to get our hopes up too much in case its a disappointment but he hopes to open by Christmas with a Christmas party which sounds cool. Its very hard to get into the christmas spirit here - I still think its summer and can't get my head round the fact that we're almost in December. Its still pretty hot although the last few weeks have been cooler. At the moment we are very excited to be able to wear shoes and socks, long sleeves, and most exciting of all..jeans!! Yay! I think its going to be like this for a while now, its in the early twenties, going up to mid twenties in the middle of the day and it feels really comfortable although at first we felt quite chilly.
Well thats about it. We have put loads of photos on this time because my parents brought out my new digital camera (along with 24, yes thats 24 packets of salt and vinegar crisps - oh I love my parents) and I have taken quite a few pictures recently, although none that I am wildly excited about but I'll have to keep trying!
Hope you're all ok, we haven't had many emails recently but then I guess we haven't really sent many or blogged for a while so we forgive you.
Lots of love Hannah (and Rupert who is currently taking over the world in a computer game)
sorry we haven't done this for ages, I was going to say that we have been really busy but then when I try and think of stuff to tell you about I can't think of much so we can't have been that busy! Time seems to be passing really quickly at the moment and I can't believe we are over half way through this semester.
The most exciting happening this week was that Rupert gave his "symposium" entitled 'An Introduction to Modern Western Electronic Music' and he basically bored, sorry, thrilled hundreds of students for a couple of hours with lots of information about the different kinds of electronic music, then he showed them some of the software you can use to make it and finally told them about club culture - see I was listening! I went along for moral support and actually learnt something.......although sadly I don't think I like the music any more than I did before but at least I can nod in a more knowledgable way next time rupert waffles about it when he has discovered some amazing new piece of software he can use - you would be suprised how often that happens! Anyway ever since the symposium we have had loads of students tell us how much they enjoyed it and how interesting it was so I think Rupert is making some progress on his mission to inform the 1.3 billion people here that there is much more to western music than the Backstreet Boys and Westlife. Actually, it went down very well and although we think a lot of the English was too advanced for the students who attended, there were enough music and video clips to keep them interested and on the whole it was a success - especially since he got paid 200 yuan to do it (about 15 quid, but that goes a long way here when clothes shopping - for him obviously, not for me - no honestly, we went out and bought him some funky combats and a cool zipper jacket thing so now he has the funky image to match the music, hee heee.........).
Oh and another exciting happening recently was that my parents came to visit as part of their little excursion to see some friends in Shanghai and then the Phillipines. They stayed for about a week and I think we gave them a little taste of the delight that is Haikou. They stayed in a very fancy hotel in the city centre that has some special deal with our college so guests of our college can stay there for about half price (anyone else fancy coming to see us?). On one of the days we met up with my calligraphy teacher and took them to a calligraphy exhibition that was just opening in the city and it was very funny. We arrived just before the opening and suddenly found ourselves being treated as honoured guests. They pinned a little posy to our tops and some of the famous calligraphers asked to pose for photos for us so we tried to look distinguished and knowledgable as we viewed the exhibits - which is no mean feat when it is over thirty degrees outside and there is no air-conditioning, but looking back at the photos I think we managed it - not! The famous calligraphers then would do calligraphy for anyone who gave them a piece of paper and at the beginning people just calmly waited by the table where the calligrapher was working and he would write whatever they requested but after a while it got quite busy and what with the idea of queueing being quite alien to the Chinese, it became quite a catfight with people scrabbling to push some paper under the calligraphers' noses and get him to write something for them. But on the whole it was a fun experience and we are probably appearing in some local media as distinguished foreign calligraphers - oh if only they could see dad's handwriting, or Rupert's for that matter.
Another thing we did with the parents is take them to some of my classes and to English corner. The parents loved meeting the students and the feeling was more than mutual - the students are still talking about it to this day. I think dad made a great impression not just because of his safari waistcoat and shorts, but because although he had a cambridge degree he decided to teach for thirty five years and it is completely unthought of in China that a person with a degree from a famous university would not pursue a top job and aim to make vast amounts of money as quickly as possible. They are quite interested to hear that in the west we are not all so completely obsessed with making as much money as possible! The little fifteen first years I teach met mum and sang her a little song in Chinese about a mother's love. They were quite confident in chatting to her which really suprised (and pleased!) me because when I first met them in September they were so shy it was all I could do to get them to introduce themselves to me. They have come so far in a couple of months and I think its mainly because they are settling in and hopefully starting to really enjoy college life. Its great to watch them at break time, they used to stay in their seats and whisper to each other, looking really guilty if they had to get up to go to the loo, but now they are jumping around, teasing each other, play fighting, singing and sometimes I actually have to ask for quiet when I want to start the lesson after break. Its great!
We are finding that our salaries go a long way here and we (actually mainly me) am making the most of the fun shopping to be found in Haikou. There are some great clothes, shoes, bags to be had, and then there's the dvds. We're also discovering some great places to eat. We haven't cooked one meal since we got here, but I think I am going to start thinking about it soon, sometimes its nice just to stay in and have something simple. The most recent find has been the only Indian restaurant in Haikou. It's really nice and has the closest thing to Marks and Spencer chicken tikka that I have ever found, anywhere. If you haven't tried M and S chicken tikka then I can thoroughly recommend it. Oh and talking of food, there is an Australian guy here with a Chinese wife who teaches at some other uni in the city and is about to open a western restaurant and said he will do a sandwich bar, roast dinners and fish and chips - which is just so amazing cos there's just nothing like that in Haikou. We are trying not to get our hopes up too much in case its a disappointment but he hopes to open by Christmas with a Christmas party which sounds cool. Its very hard to get into the christmas spirit here - I still think its summer and can't get my head round the fact that we're almost in December. Its still pretty hot although the last few weeks have been cooler. At the moment we are very excited to be able to wear shoes and socks, long sleeves, and most exciting of all..jeans!! Yay! I think its going to be like this for a while now, its in the early twenties, going up to mid twenties in the middle of the day and it feels really comfortable although at first we felt quite chilly.
Well thats about it. We have put loads of photos on this time because my parents brought out my new digital camera (along with 24, yes thats 24 packets of salt and vinegar crisps - oh I love my parents) and I have taken quite a few pictures recently, although none that I am wildly excited about but I'll have to keep trying!
Hope you're all ok, we haven't had many emails recently but then I guess we haven't really sent many or blogged for a while so we forgive you.
Lots of love Hannah (and Rupert who is currently taking over the world in a computer game)
