scary behaviour

I just spent the morning doing a bit of shopping in the old city part of Suzhou. I was very disturbed to hear across the street two men arguing and then one of the men hitting the older man in the head, then kicking him in his back and attacking him further by punching him while on the ground. The perpertrator appeared to be a 'door man' some sort of security type person out the front of a hotel or office. The guy he was beating up was an older man who looked to be delivering water bottles on his bike. I was inside another shop across the road when this happened, buying a DVD and had to watch helpless as this all happened. Many others outside were watching, but clearly no one wanted to get involved. My Chinese is very limited and I would not have been able to find out what it was about anyway. It was very distressing to see, and I felt really sorry for the old man and annoyed at the man who did this. In my view violence is never acceptable and seeing this incident unfold was sickening. The victim walked away yelling out stuff, but it made me think about the differences in wealth, status and position that this country is already experiencing on a large scale.

There are many poor country people who take jobs in wealthy cities like Suzhou and work 6-7 days a week for on average 12 hours a day. Many labourers do this while building all the massive skyscrapers and apartments and they are usually accommodated together in small rooms with about 6 bunks. It's no life.

colour in the midst of haze

I like this photo. It really highlights the way the haze and smog of the sky covers the whole place. The orange colours really stand out against the drab greys of the sky and lake. Today is very overcast. It's been a little while since we've seen blue skies and no true blue skies like you see back home.

So here we are

That's me looking out on the big lake near where we live. Sometimes I wonder why I do the things I do. I mean, I'm now starting to develop a pattern and routine in my life again - being back at work brings that about. But I still seem to have a lot of spare time to myself. I get really bored at times and miss English language TV, DVDs, English language books, my drums or guitars or just something else to break up the boredom. So I muck around on the computer a lot. However this is mostly wasteful idle trolling through music internet sites, email and adding to this and flickr.

Boredom is an ongoing fascintation to me. I am often bored and often ponder why and I bored? Why can't I find more meaningful things to do? Well - this post is already personal enough, so I'll stop for the moment. Here's an interesting quote on boredom:

Your true traveller finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty - his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure. Aldous Huxley.

Did I ever tell you...

KFCs are everywhere in China. They are really popular - the way the chicken is cooked seems to agree with the Chinese people. In fact a friend from a small city in Shandong province mentioned that when he was there there was only 1 thing that was noticeably western - their first KFC store.

Rare for the rest of the world is the lack of McDonald's restaurants. I've seen maybe 3 since moving here - and 2 of those were probably in Shanghai. Whereas KFC - there would be at least 6 or 7 that I've seen in Suzhou alone. There are a couple of Starbucks cafes which would be the second most popular Western chain, and 1-2 pizza huts. I still haven't seen any Burger Kings.... But I imagine all of this could have changed within a year. Surely McDonalds have plans...

This image is of the community centre outside our apartment buildings - ours is the building at the back. At night the whole place lights up in neon...

The canal outside my work

Another interesting thing about the bikes here in China is that they are nearly all electric. This includes both bicycles and motorbikes. So because of that they are extremly quiet and creep up on you quite quickly. It's good because it reduces noise pollution, but means you have to be constantly on your guard as a pedestrian. When we first arrived in Shanghai, we thought that everyone was drifting through the streets with their motors off to save petrol or something...

I've booked my flight back to Australia for Andy and Jen's wedding. So it will be great to catch up with some of you and buy some necessary things before returning. My arrival and departure details are as follows:

Arrive Friday 29 September at 11.35am in Brisbane
Depart Wed 4 October at 8am from Brisbane

My personal favourite

My personal favourite
Originally uploaded by nancyshack15.

Tracey found this one - so I need to give her the credit. We're both on a mission to capture some of the more interesting signs 'interestingly' translated while we are here. Visit Tracey's photos to see some other recent ones

Chinglish

I taught my first English lesson last night. It was to be to a group of about 12 young professionals from a corporation, but only 2 showed up. That kind of threw me - ie all my group exercises went out the window (I can hear all you teachers out their laughing). But I soldiered on and by the end of it - 2 hours later - I was actually enjoying myself. Maybe it's the power - the power to "program their little minds" as someone used to say...

Tracey (posing as a trainee teacher) actually sat in for the first half to provide me with feedback later on. And according to her I did quite well which was nice to know.

Differences

There are many things that we have had to get used to in moving to Suzhou. I wanted to try to capture some of them before they stop becomming so unusual. So here's a list...

1) the way shops and buildings are clustered - sometimes unusual office like buildings with no obvious entrance are the shopping centres or major areas to congrugate in... they are known as 'community centres' here...

2) the taste of bread... the less said the better. For that matter the taste of most Western foods when you can find them - peanut butter, milk etc... Mind you cooking up a stirfry here tastes so much nicer - maybe its having access to so many authentic asian vegetables...

3) the weird manners of drivers - flicking on and off the high beam lights (on and off about 8 or 9 times in a row)... honking the horn a few times when there are no other cars around - honking for joy??

4) the contrast between slick new estates and buildings - quite tidy and then the older areas where rubbish and rubble (not unlike a war zone in places) lies strewn across the road and inside and outside buildings... people throw everything on the road, footpath, canals and water... but then you get to the new areas and it's immaculate... spitting too - both inside and outside - not so nice....

5) the love of bland food. Now I generally quite like most of the food I've eaten here - it's really nice. But... Chinese people seem to really dislike strong flavours and that includes spicy flavours. A few that I've spoken to hate Thai and Indian food - they can't stand it... whereas they much prefer sweet and sour flavours... And here was me thinking that sweet and sour was just something invented for Western consumption.

The afternoon haze polluted sunset

As Tracey's blog has recently mentioned, last night I signed a 6 month teaching contract. It was hard negotiating and a few times I thought to myself where's Morry when you need him! I'm really freaked out at the prospect and feel really underprepared (partly because all my resources are either in shipping or have so far 'disappeared' in the mail). My first test as a teacher begins this Thursday night when I have to teach a two our block from 6.30pm to 8.40pm. The students (to the best of my knowledge) are well educated students and full time employees - the type that have doctorates and masters, so I'm hoping I go well. I won't only be teaching adults as they have already foreshadowed that I will have to do 3-4 hours a week at a Suzhou Middle school. That's probably the scariest part - as I've heard these classrooms have well over 35 students and can at times create a "Silence of the Lambs" moment, the aptly titled (by another ESL teacher) experience when everyone gives you blank looks for the whole lesson...

I've taken many canal shots now - there are probably around 50 or so canals crisscrossing the city, so I will start to dump some of these photos up at flickr.

Hope everyone is well!

The Venice of China

Suzhou is very pretty. There are hundreds of canals all throughout the city, so the comparisons to Venice are worthy. Last night we went on a 2 hour boat ride around some of the bigger canals that surround the old city. This was one of the photos.

We have spent much of our first week here buying kitchen items and other necessary items for our new place. Tracey starts work on Thursday, and I have also been visiting and researching the many language schools here to find suitable work. It's a little scary as there are many bad stories from previous teachers about schools here in Suzhou. I'm just going to have to be very careful if/when I sign any contract. We are also trying to find a suitable Chinese course to continue studying.

Back online

I must have passed some test because we are back online with blogger. Hopefully it will stick around. Moving to Suzhou on Monday has been both exciting, disconcerting and at times perplexing, but I can already see that this will be a place that I will really enjoy and no doubt miss someday. I'm finding my language skills very hit and miss... numerous times I've tried to say things and have people just stare back at me blankly... and talking about stares... as a westerner we are constantly stared at. It's quite frustrating at times. Sometimes some people just stand right next to you and look at you. No doubt trying to hear some English, or who knows? It must be kind of like what it feels to be a celebrity.

Many things are unusual or strange in this place, like the driving. Firstly - I have to let you know of my credentials to comment on bad driving. I've taken cabs in many cities around the world including so called 'dodgy' areas in Asia, and I was in an accident in a cab in Madrid once, so it is with all honesty that I say that the drivers here in China are extremely scary at times, and one cabbie (our first) driving from Shanghai, was undoubtedly the scariest and worst driver I have ever seen. Usually I like to console myself with the thought that they do in fact no what's going on and that although things work differently here, that we'll arrive to our destination safely. But the taxi accident in Madrid has already disproved that theory. The other day - our second in Suzhou I saw three different accidents in one day - I didn't actually see them happen, but I saw the after effects and all the yelling and arguing. They all looked minor, but it's no surprise really that this happens....

People drive down the wrong sides of streets, turn right or left when they have a red light, run lights, and are constantly making 2 lanes into 3, 3 lanes into 4 and so on.... I'm sh*t scarred most of the time.... but I think, getting used to it... And that whole theory for pedestrians of just taking a leap of faith and walking out in front of traffic when you have a green light is definitely flawed. I've seen pedestrians inches away from being plastered about the place... There's a hierarchy - 1) cars and other vehicles.... 2) bikes and 3) people.... you have to remember your place.

Oh, and there's no seatbelts in taxis.... just one in the front passenger seat, which the driver always goes at great lengths to try to explain that you don't need it. Usually you can't actually physically connect them anyway. So it's a bit of a step back in time to the 1960s or 70s or whenever we last didn't have seatbelts....

The image that accompanies this post is one of the views from our place.

Shanghai

We're here and it's all new and amazing in a non-Australian way!! We are able to post on blogger - but we can't read the blogs... so hopefully this appears. Tracey has more posts at her site (see the link on the sidebar). This means we won't be able to read your comments...

Ready

Tracey and I have had many chances over the past three or so weeks to reflect on the many things that we will miss about Brisbane, our lifestyle and our friends and family. It seems that each couple of days we reach another significant event prior to leaving - saying goodbye to family, to a group of friends, moving out - and each time our world shrinks further. It is almost now a world consisting of each other and our luggage - which we've now been living out of for 5-6 days.

I just went for a swim at an indoor pool in Acacia Ridge (out near where we are staying until we leave tomorrow) and had one of those moments when time seems to stand still. I was sitting in my parents car alone, with one of those epic Underworld tracks playing through the stereo, and after swimming laps for half an hour, my mind became trance like - washing over the many cars zooming back and forward in front of me as I waited at the intersection. I began to see that in less than 24 hours I wouldn't be in Brisbane... I wouldn't be able to go for a drive in the comfort of a vehicle... I most likely wouldn't be able to enjoy a swim at a nearby pool... I wouldn't be able to enjoy the amazing sunset that was occurring then. I imagine a vastly different expanse in China - it doesn't matter where you move in the world - there is always a slightly different appearance to the sky.

The other significant thing I should mention is that we may not be able to access blogger / blogspot in China - so this site may have a short life indeed!