Hello! As I am settling in to living in China there are less novelties to go off on. That being said there are a few things to discuss from the previous week!
Firstly, the Leg of Lamb “restaurant” in Kaifaqu lived up to the lofty expectations. The place really does look like hole in the wall and that is by China standards. However, it was some of the best food I have had in China. I am biased towards lamb though. Our large group was situated on a long table outside in front of the restaurant. The tables have holes in the middle, where they can place a miniature coal grill. On this grill they place a, mostly cooked, lamb leg. The people around each leg, we had about 7 or 8 legs for our group. I was fortunate enough to be sitting right in front of one. Being right beside the lamb means you get to cut pieces off and place them on the grill below to sizzle a little more. The further you cut into the lamb the more this is necessary as the meat becomes raw. The side dishes were generally quite good as well. Their attempts at potato salad and veggies were awful, but hey the lambs the go to option. That being said they made miniature cornbread like patties and had these slightly sweet grilled bread balls that our quite prominent here and very delicious. There was no shortage of food and most of us ate to a sickening degree! Well to a food hangover Saturday level.
The restaurant visit did not go by without some celebrity like action. One of the other new teachers Aliki was subjected to several pictures from the restaurant staff, which she graciously agreed to. However, once it began more people began to ask and eventually an innocent enough old man joined the line. He was not satisfied with just a picture and went in for a kiss and a marginal ass grab. That was about the time we decided to leave haha! Granted the man was not part of the restaurant, but still it was time to leave.
From there a group of five of us taxied to five colour city in Kaifaqu. This is a large stretch of bars and restaurants, mostly expat bars. My favourites included the Nagging Wife or simply The Bar. We explored a bit and sat outside one of these bars, before catching the 80 Qui, 15 dollar taxi, 25 minutes to Jinshitan. Split three ways it will make any taxi in Canada seem ridiculous. The visiting in Kaifaqu did not end there as a small group of us returned on Sunday. A Maple Leaf veteran of three years led us to a place called Euro Bake. Here I was able to purchase a real fruit smoothie and eggs benedict for breakfast. The benny was fabulous by any standards and having missed fruit smoothies I was in a blissful state. It was expensive by Chinese standards, but still just under 12 dollars. We followed this up by making a Chinese Walmart run and a visit to Tesco. Firstly, Kaifaqu is much more insane then were I usually am in China and is still nowhere near the real “big” cities in China. Walmart in China, is nothing like Walmart in Canada. It is entirely Chinese, which is too be expected. It is unlike Metro, Ikea, or Tesco, which keep their products rather uniform to anywhere else. That being said I was able to make some quality purchases. Starting with generic peanut butter! It is like bad sugary peanut butter. Since I do not like sugary peanut butter in the first place I am not a fan. I was also able to find flour, delicious cans of almond milk that I believe is unsweetened. I have also converted to drinking Chinese milk. With the help of my students and nutritional labels I have figured out the % of one brands different colours. Pink milk is skimmed. Purple is 1.5ish. Blue and Green are somewhere above 3. Unfortunately, no one drinks the pink in 1 litre containers, so I had to by a box with 24 250ml containers. Fortunately, that is the perfect amount for my morning cereal! It does mean I will have an excess of straws. I also bought some Chinese oatmeal. They have a surprising large amount of oatmeal here. Oatmeal is oatmeal so I am assuming that will be okay.
I will be buying a bike soon! I am looking at 500 qui options or perhaps a more expensive bike then can fold in half. It is needed, because they are no longer letting us out the back hole in the campus wall. This means what should be a 200 metre walk to the gym, coffee place, and the potential gorgeous houses is now a 15 minute walk. I have regularized a gym schedule around my two 3 hour lunch days, Tuesday and Wednesday and the weekend. It is rather nice. The amount of walking you do here results in a very minimal need of extra cardio. I easily walked up a total of 50 stories of stairs on Wednesday.
On another note, I was slightly mistaken on expiry dates. In Chinese most of the date son packages are production dates. This means the expiration is a matter of mystery in most cases. However, at least with peanut butter they have a 15 month shelf live, Therefore, I was also able to return to the local market and buy Chinese peanut butter. The brand I choose is pretty mediocre, but I prefer it to the Walmart generic. It tastes more like bad natural peanut butter. However, while at Walmart I bought Heinz ketchup with a clear expiration date of 2015! No more ketchup poisoning.
I have two final things to discuss unrelated to specifics in China. Firstly, the notion of cultural superiority. One thing I have noticed is the tendency for some of the people who have come here to look down on things. They just can’t get over it. I was offered good advice the other day, “Do not try and bring the West here.” This is China and things that happen here are what happen here. They are not better or worse, but simply different. To many non-Canadians the idea of owning a house and large amounts of property is absurd. Or the notion of going to a gym to get exercise. Most Chinese people work longer hours in physical jobs, who needs to work out. So everyone who drives here honks 50 times an hour. The sound of a man loading up a giant spit happens every 10 seconds on the street. The sound of fireworks is so common that real bombs could be going off and I would not even glance. Things are done differently here and it is fascinating and amazing and if you can accept that and simply adjust your life into that set up. It is a fun adventure.
That being said one thing I do have a slight bone to pick is with Canadian attitudes. Maybe the recent strike has increased my bitterness. The respect level from younger generations to older generations and careers, like teachers, is different. It is better. My students and people here respect teachers and elders. It is not a marginalized position. I am thanked for coming here and teaching. Moreover, the students… yes the students… although they do try and cheat fairly regularly (happens at home as well), but the kid who cares the least in my class, would have been top 5 in any class I taught at home. They want to learn (well get a good grade, maybe not learn) and they want to succeed. They also hand everything in. The notion of not handing something in is absurd. In Canada I have to plead, bag, threaten, and I get maybe 75% of my assignments, many of which are late and penalized. I get the response, “uhhhh, why do I have to do anything?” This is a critique, but one in which I do not have an answer. The question that really comes to mind is when did the minimal become acceptable? Why are our younger generations so entitled to the point where anything that isn’t given to them is considered stupid? An attitude adjustment may be in order. With the comparative drive I see here. It is rather frightening, but the Chinese students certainly earn it.
Firstly, the Leg of Lamb “restaurant” in Kaifaqu lived up to the lofty expectations. The place really does look like hole in the wall and that is by China standards. However, it was some of the best food I have had in China. I am biased towards lamb though. Our large group was situated on a long table outside in front of the restaurant. The tables have holes in the middle, where they can place a miniature coal grill. On this grill they place a, mostly cooked, lamb leg. The people around each leg, we had about 7 or 8 legs for our group. I was fortunate enough to be sitting right in front of one. Being right beside the lamb means you get to cut pieces off and place them on the grill below to sizzle a little more. The further you cut into the lamb the more this is necessary as the meat becomes raw. The side dishes were generally quite good as well. Their attempts at potato salad and veggies were awful, but hey the lambs the go to option. That being said they made miniature cornbread like patties and had these slightly sweet grilled bread balls that our quite prominent here and very delicious. There was no shortage of food and most of us ate to a sickening degree! Well to a food hangover Saturday level.
The restaurant visit did not go by without some celebrity like action. One of the other new teachers Aliki was subjected to several pictures from the restaurant staff, which she graciously agreed to. However, once it began more people began to ask and eventually an innocent enough old man joined the line. He was not satisfied with just a picture and went in for a kiss and a marginal ass grab. That was about the time we decided to leave haha! Granted the man was not part of the restaurant, but still it was time to leave.
From there a group of five of us taxied to five colour city in Kaifaqu. This is a large stretch of bars and restaurants, mostly expat bars. My favourites included the Nagging Wife or simply The Bar. We explored a bit and sat outside one of these bars, before catching the 80 Qui, 15 dollar taxi, 25 minutes to Jinshitan. Split three ways it will make any taxi in Canada seem ridiculous. The visiting in Kaifaqu did not end there as a small group of us returned on Sunday. A Maple Leaf veteran of three years led us to a place called Euro Bake. Here I was able to purchase a real fruit smoothie and eggs benedict for breakfast. The benny was fabulous by any standards and having missed fruit smoothies I was in a blissful state. It was expensive by Chinese standards, but still just under 12 dollars. We followed this up by making a Chinese Walmart run and a visit to Tesco. Firstly, Kaifaqu is much more insane then were I usually am in China and is still nowhere near the real “big” cities in China. Walmart in China, is nothing like Walmart in Canada. It is entirely Chinese, which is too be expected. It is unlike Metro, Ikea, or Tesco, which keep their products rather uniform to anywhere else. That being said I was able to make some quality purchases. Starting with generic peanut butter! It is like bad sugary peanut butter. Since I do not like sugary peanut butter in the first place I am not a fan. I was also able to find flour, delicious cans of almond milk that I believe is unsweetened. I have also converted to drinking Chinese milk. With the help of my students and nutritional labels I have figured out the % of one brands different colours. Pink milk is skimmed. Purple is 1.5ish. Blue and Green are somewhere above 3. Unfortunately, no one drinks the pink in 1 litre containers, so I had to by a box with 24 250ml containers. Fortunately, that is the perfect amount for my morning cereal! It does mean I will have an excess of straws. I also bought some Chinese oatmeal. They have a surprising large amount of oatmeal here. Oatmeal is oatmeal so I am assuming that will be okay.
I will be buying a bike soon! I am looking at 500 qui options or perhaps a more expensive bike then can fold in half. It is needed, because they are no longer letting us out the back hole in the campus wall. This means what should be a 200 metre walk to the gym, coffee place, and the potential gorgeous houses is now a 15 minute walk. I have regularized a gym schedule around my two 3 hour lunch days, Tuesday and Wednesday and the weekend. It is rather nice. The amount of walking you do here results in a very minimal need of extra cardio. I easily walked up a total of 50 stories of stairs on Wednesday.
On another note, I was slightly mistaken on expiry dates. In Chinese most of the date son packages are production dates. This means the expiration is a matter of mystery in most cases. However, at least with peanut butter they have a 15 month shelf live, Therefore, I was also able to return to the local market and buy Chinese peanut butter. The brand I choose is pretty mediocre, but I prefer it to the Walmart generic. It tastes more like bad natural peanut butter. However, while at Walmart I bought Heinz ketchup with a clear expiration date of 2015! No more ketchup poisoning.
I have two final things to discuss unrelated to specifics in China. Firstly, the notion of cultural superiority. One thing I have noticed is the tendency for some of the people who have come here to look down on things. They just can’t get over it. I was offered good advice the other day, “Do not try and bring the West here.” This is China and things that happen here are what happen here. They are not better or worse, but simply different. To many non-Canadians the idea of owning a house and large amounts of property is absurd. Or the notion of going to a gym to get exercise. Most Chinese people work longer hours in physical jobs, who needs to work out. So everyone who drives here honks 50 times an hour. The sound of a man loading up a giant spit happens every 10 seconds on the street. The sound of fireworks is so common that real bombs could be going off and I would not even glance. Things are done differently here and it is fascinating and amazing and if you can accept that and simply adjust your life into that set up. It is a fun adventure.
That being said one thing I do have a slight bone to pick is with Canadian attitudes. Maybe the recent strike has increased my bitterness. The respect level from younger generations to older generations and careers, like teachers, is different. It is better. My students and people here respect teachers and elders. It is not a marginalized position. I am thanked for coming here and teaching. Moreover, the students… yes the students… although they do try and cheat fairly regularly (happens at home as well), but the kid who cares the least in my class, would have been top 5 in any class I taught at home. They want to learn (well get a good grade, maybe not learn) and they want to succeed. They also hand everything in. The notion of not handing something in is absurd. In Canada I have to plead, bag, threaten, and I get maybe 75% of my assignments, many of which are late and penalized. I get the response, “uhhhh, why do I have to do anything?” This is a critique, but one in which I do not have an answer. The question that really comes to mind is when did the minimal become acceptable? Why are our younger generations so entitled to the point where anything that isn’t given to them is considered stupid? An attitude adjustment may be in order. With the comparative drive I see here. It is rather frightening, but the Chinese students certainly earn it.