Ash & Sonja's Adventure Page

Saturday, 01 March 2008

Location: Ben'niu, China

January:

At long last we are on holiday. Five weeks of nothing – no classes, no planning, no prep, no students, no Rob! Plenty of time to sleep in, mooch around in our PJ’s and stay locked indoors because it’s freezing outside. I spend the first three weeks writing like a mad woman trying to finish my book. It may never get published but at least I’ve done it – I’ve written a book. Ash has provided photos and it looks pretty good. Now, just gotta find an agent/ publisher.

As the month draws to a close we get a sprinkling of snow. Ben’nui is all white and fluffy. Ash and I duck across to the school to check out the fresh blanket of snow on the oval. The bell rings and it’s break time. The students come tumbling out of their classrooms onto the oval and start an en-masse snowball fight. They are delirious. For many of them it’s the first time they have seen snow.

A week later Ben’niu gets the biggest snow dump it’s seen for 15 years. Actually China gets the biggest snowfall in 51 years. Over 3 days at least 3 feet of snow falls causing havoc not just in our little industrial town, but nationwide. Ben’niu can’t cope with the snow. The roads are closed, people can’t get to work. Die-hard idiots still drive on the snow without chains, slipping and sliding over the roads. The people make snowmen of giant proportions – only they take on the resemblance of a mouse. The year of the Rat is approaching.

For the first time Ben’niu looks pretty. An ugly town, now covered in snow even it manages a romantic look. For a few days anyway until a snow plough is found and clears the roads. Then the snow turns first grey, then almost black with the deposits of coal dust and pollution.

We are invited out to dinner and taken on a drive in the snow to a pretty park by our new Chinese friends the Chen family. The deputy Mayor of the next town is invited as is his daughter. Harmony Chen (a boy) performs over dinner – he sings a song, and recites a speech made by Nixon on a visit to China. Why? We are the guests and it’s meant to make an impression on us.

Rare and exotic food is ordered in our honour: wild boar in a curry sauce, game chicken, reef fish and hedgehog all spin past on the lazy-susan. Yes, hedgehog. Considering we have a pet hedgehog I am at first reluctant to sample this dish. But in the name of research and not wanting to offend our hosts I take a piece. It’s fatty with minimal meat and maximum bones – not worth the effort of cooking in my opinion and far more fun to have as a prickly pet running round the house.

Transport has stopped over much of the nation due to the snow and Ash and I fear that our train to Beijing may be cancelled. We are lucky – the snow stops a few days before and the tracks are cleared just in time for us to catch a sleeper train to Beijing. At long last we are going to see Emma and Simeon! Bring it on.


February:

The sleeper train is definitely our favourite way to travel in China. We went hard sleeper – 6 bunks with 3 tiered on each side of the compartment. Blankets supplied, and hot water for tea. The rail staff were friendly and helpful. After the first stop almost 90% of people got off so we had a very empty carriage for the journey. The next morning we were popular as people passed, stopping for a chat – to Ash in Chinese and me smiling like an idiot.

Finally we arrive in Beijing and there are our beloved friends waiting for us outside the train station. They bundle us into a taxi and off to their very lush apartment. Ooohhh, I want to live in Em’s place forever. Very nice and spacious after our little shoebox.

We spend the next two weeks indulging our bellies in a range of non-Chinese delights. Paddy O’sheas for pints of Guinness and cider, a Cuban restaurant for Emma’s birthday, a Thai place for our first wedding anniversary, a Belgian restaurant for pizzas and exotic beers, an Arab place with live belly dancing and more. Shopping is our addiction and we spend up big on winter coats – Beijing is f--kin freezing! I’m certain that I’ll get frostbite and lose some toes if I stay outdoor for too long. The bookshop is big on our list too. Some new English reading material is always appreciated.

All too soon it’s time to leave. We are reluctant and drag our heals about it. But finally we must go and with tears in my eyes I get swallowed up by the throbbing crowd at the train station and board the train.

This time we travel by soft sleeper – more expensive and terribly over-rated in my opinion. Sure there’s a light above my head and only four bunks instead of six but the bunks are shorter, there’s less luggage room and our compartment companions have sprawled out claiming almost all the luggage room. One man lounges in his long john underpants, legs splayed, toupee perched nearby. When lights are out and the door is locked the room becomes stuffy with most unpleasant smells.

We arrive in Shanghai bright and early, get a connecting train to Changzhou and are soon trudging up the driveway to our apartment. Snow is still piled in mounds on the side of the road. It’s completely black now and littered with rubbish. Ben’niu is back to it’s industrial age self.


School starts and we get a pleasant surprise. Senior 2 classes are cancelled until April – maybe for good. So we divvy up Senior 1 classes between the four of us. Yes, Rob did come back, but secretly I think he’s been abducted by aliens during the holidays. He’s being abnormally friendly, and behaving like a normal person. I almost want to ask ‘who are you and what have you done with Rob the Nob?’

But I digress. The girls (Susan and I) now have a total of 7 teaching hr/wk, and the boys have 10 hr/wk. Thank you God! This is wonderful. Finally low stress teaching and plenty of time to indulge in other pursuits.

I’ve introduced a new teaching method to my class – the use of a book – I know, very advanced of me, and it’s working a treat. All my classes are going fabulously. Even the class that I despise and have 10 letters of apology from the students are not just behaving but actively participating. For the first time in ages I am really enjoying teaching and realise that I am going to miss my students when we leave in June.

Wednesday, 20 February 2008

Location: Ben'niu, China

Five Months in Benniu:

I’ve been very remiss in keeping our travel page updated and for that I apologise. The time just got away from me and I have been a little busy writing my book.

Anyhoo here is the last 5 months in a nutshell.


September:

Rob is our team leader and it so happens he ran the Ben’niu English team last year. Or so we thought. Turns out that Rob has an aversion to meetings, claims to be a ‘real’ teacher but has no idea how Susan and I should teach the WITT generated FEC program, is completely disorganised and appears to be clueless about what to do or how to lead the team. We later discover that last years teachers did A LOT of his work for him.

Susan is a delightful 50-something with a sharp wit, great sense of humour and a directness (some would say bluntness) that I can relate to. She is my teaching partner and I love planning lessons with her. Everything is a breeze and we both seem to be on the same wavelength. It’s a relief to not have someone think I’m too pushy, direct, or in their face.

Ash has Rob for a teaching partner and things are more difficult for him. Rob is of the opinion (secretly, never to our faces) that we aren’t capable teachers because we don’t have a University degree. (He let this slip indirectly at the WITT training conference when he was tired and hungover). Oddly he has a degree in Geography and an uncompleted teaching certificate both of which make him feel that he is superior to us. This shows in his attitude toward lesson planning with Ash. Mr I-Have-a-Degree proceeds to do absolutely no lesson planning for the first 5 weeks of the semester instead choosing to steal Ash’s lesson plans and additional props/ teaching materials and present them to his own classes. Ash is by no means impressed by Rob’s behaviour.

Ash and I are rather nervous at teaching 450 students! Each class has 30 students and we have 15-17 classes per week, for a mere 45 minutes. How we are supposed to impart any meaningful English upon them is beyond me.

To my surprise the students are very well behaved and very eager to pay attention in class. Our lessons are based on self made material – the school doesn’t provide a book for us to teach from. As such our lessons are very free, impulsive, entertaining and purely conversational based. The students respond well and begin arriving to my classes ten minutes before class starts.

One day I arrange the desks into groups of six and will never forget their reaction. They enter the classroom and stare mutely at the new configuration, stunned and unsure of what to do. Not one student dares to sit down. They ask me what to do. Even when they have chosen their tables and buddies they look uncomfortable for a few weeks. It’s all too relaxed and easy-going for them.

Rob attaches himself to Ash and I with superglue-like persistence. He follows us to lunch and dinner every single day, often following us up the stairs to our flat, coming in for a chat. He has no concept that we may want to spend some time alone together on the weekends. I begin to feel like he has been surgically attached and I’ll never have time alone again.


October:

After a month of no meetings and feeling stressed by our great leader’s lack of direction or ability to convey information in simple English I write a memo to him asking for the implementation of team meetings and list a few other gripes that I want to discuss. Rob reacts by refusing to speak to me, choosing instead to pump Ash for more information, which is a pointless move because Ash had no idea I’d written the memo. When I approach Rob and ask him to talk with me directly he responds by saying ‘No.’ Why? He doesn’t need to talk to me because he can just ‘talk to my husband instead!’ Yes, that’s what he said. I find myself wondering if I’ve travelled back to the 1950’s. It takes me 20 minutes to get him to grudgingly agree that I am an individual at work and so he should speak to me directly. Rob then ignores me for the next 3 weeks.

It’s Mid-Autumn festival time. The students put on a ‘party’ as they call it. They have a school performance out on the oval complete with stage, dancing, singing, colourful costumes and 3000 eager students watching. We receive a last minute invite. Literally. At 5.30pm we are asked to attend and give a performance! We decline this but say we’d like to attend at spectators. We’re led to the oval where most of the students have already gathered sitting on their little wooden stools. Five chairs are taken from the judging table, and lined up right in front of the stage, (and in front of some of my students). We feel most awkward at this intrusion, and slink down in our chairs trying to give those behind us a better view. The students don’t mind, they cheer, call out my name and wave excitedly.

The students put on an incredible display of singing and dancing. The crowd goes wild, and wave glo sticks manically, flowers are presented to favoured singers and cheers echo across the field. One group of Senior boys puts on a hip hop performance that has the crowd in near hysterics. Their performance is canned half way through. Obviously that much excitement is not allowed. The moon appears full and bright in the night sky. The students all stop, gaze at it for several moments, and then the party is over. In an orderly fashion they pickup their stools, walk in polite lines and head off for bed.

We have a weeks holiday for National week. To get these seven days off we must work the preceding weekend (so a 7 day week) to then get the next week off. If you take out 4 days for our usual weekends either side, it means we really only get an extra 3 days off. The school however don’t see it this way. They feel that we should be thankful and appreciative of their giving us a whole week off! That’s China for you.

We spend the week sleeping, exploring Changzhou – finding the all essential DVD store and a supermarket that sells cheese and other western delicacies.



November:

This month the students had a two day sports carnival. IT’s a very big event and we are given two days off to attend, (or not) – it’s our decision. Susan makes the most of a 4 day weekend and goes touring with her hubby Frank. Ash and I stroll over mid-morning to check out the action. I’m expecting the students to be wearing their school tracksuits for the events but nope. Not a trackie in sight. The students are participating in sprints and long distance running, long jump, high jump, shot put and more in normal clothes – mainly jeans and jumpers because the weather has taken a chilly turn.

We arrive to see students finishing the 4000 metre race – some contestants having worn skin tight jeans! Remarkably just metres beyond the finish line in each lane waits a friend who then catches their running buddy as they collapse at the end of such a strenuous race. Made all the more strenuous because the contestants have only had one week to practice for these events.

Our students eagerly come up and say hello to us as we wander around the sports field. One of my students drags me off to her friends and they all cheer when they see me. Nothing like fans to inflate the ego. The school media team come up and interview me. It’s all very strange and unexpected, this excessive attention.

Ash and I settle into our classes and teaching. Office politics are strained however. One Monday morning Rob returns after a week holiday to Beijing for a wedding and informs me there is a schedule change starting now. Did he know about this before this morning? Yes, he just didn’t think it was his responsibility to tell us. We should have emailed him was his rationale. He refuses to call the others and advise them, saying he’ll go and see them in a couple of hours – right before they are supposed to be teaching the new schedule. I get angry and tell he sucks at his job. He lumbers across the room, stands over me and starts shouting that he doesn’t answer to me! Nice one. I send of an email to head office saying we need an intervention.

The HR manager arrives a week later. We all get our chance to spill our grievances to Cliff privately, then it’s a group session. High hopes are held that Cliff will give Rob a much need kick up the buttocks about his pathetic work performance. Nope. For some reason Rob is the ‘Golden Boy’ who can do no real wrong. Guess we’re stuck him.


December:

Christmas causes a flurry of fluctuating emotions. We must work the whole Christmas week including Christmas Day. The school could choose to give us the day off – but they don’t. We’re all a very flat. Ben’niu is a desert of Christmas spirit. Not a decoration, tree or wrapping paper in sight.

To battle depression I find a bag of decorations and a plastic tree and give them to one class – they go nuts decorating the room like it’s the most important thing in their life. It’s the first time they’ve ever celebrated Christmas and they are excited like little children on Christmas Eve.

I choose to teach a Santa story – what Santa does on Christmas Eve delivering the presents etc. I dig out my flashcards from Foshan and paste images of Santa, Rudolph, A Christmas Tree, an Elf and a Snowman on the board. I tell my story complete with mimed actions, sacrificing any dignity in the process. Then tell my students they have to write their own ‘Christmas Story’. It turns out to be a raging success. They come up with fabulous ideas – Santa is kidnapped, the Snowman is the culprit and caught and melted to death is a common one. As they write I take photos of them and do a big group photo at the end of each class.

The week before Christmas I got my students all hyped up, and told them Christmas was all about presents and that I loved chocolate, hoping to get a few chocolate bars – comfort food for the week ahead. I got more than I bargained for. On Christmas day student after student came running up with Christmas cards and presents. I had bags and bags of presents and at least 100 cards! I was so embarrassed that they had taken my ‘present’ comment to heart. I got armloads of chocolate, ornaments, scarves, mittens, key-rings and more.

To reward my wonderful students I typed up their Christmas stories, put together class photos and made a ‘thank you’ slide show. With Ash’s help I burned a CD of this for each class and gave it to the class before Spring break.


January:

The semester is winding down. Susan and I have exams with the FEC group and are manically marking, testing, writing reports, planning the next semester schedule, and writing our books. We finish mid- January and have a well deserved five week break to look forward to. Ash and I plan to go to Beijing at some point. Susan is staying local with a trip to Shanghai planned. Rob leaves without a single ‘goodbye’. We’ve no idea where he’s gone or if he’s coming back.