At this point I should probably give up apologizing for the long gaps between my posts. Though my intentions have been good, I’m finding it difficult to make time for the things that were my life-savers last year: blogging, journaling and photography. And, although these difficulties can be partially explained by this blog post, there is another element to our lives in Suzhou that has made it nearly impossible to keep the momentum I had last year. I’m actually happy.
Last year at this time I was merely trying to find ways to cope. I was trying to make friends with people who didn’t necessarily want to be my friends. I was trying to impress a school that didn’t care what I had to offer and I was trying to force myself to fit into a city that was just very much NOT me. Blogging and journaling was a way for me to stay positive about the things I was going through. This year, I don’t find myself needing the same things.
Because Suzhou has been so welcoming and such a good fit for Dave and I, we find ourselves making friends easily and doing things that involve growing a certain amount of roots in this city. In Guiyang, the idea of getting a gym membership seemed too permanent to me. I felt like we could be leaving at any moment (I was honestly afraid of being fired for a long time) so I didn’t think signing a yearlong contract at a gym would be wise. Here, that isn’t an issue.
The same thing goes with the newest editions to our home: Hugo and Poe. We ventured down to an animal shelter a few weeks back and found 2 cats that quickly became ours. Now that they are healthy and well-fed, they are quickly becoming family. I would never have dreamed of getting a pet in Guiyang. Moving an animal across the country is stressful and Dave and I both knew that Guiyang was not going to be our last stop in China, so pets were off the table.
So I guess what I’m saying is that although blogging is still a project that is very important to me, I find myself being stretched in other ways as well. Improving my health further is high on my ‘to-do’ list this year, so Power House Gym will be getting more of my time. My cats are also high on my priority list. Keeping my apartment clean is essential for my survival (have I mentioned I’m extremely allergic to my cats?). If the fur or dander build up, I can’t breath, so I’m spending a lot more time vacuuming and sweeping than I was last year. And lastly, it’s kind of nice having a social life again! Now that I’m not a depressed, anxious mess anymore, its great going out with some of the teachers from my school. As I’ve mentioned before…I work with some really great people!!
So that sums up the last month. New family members, gym memberships and of course, I’m still keeping very busy at the school (which I still love!!). September and October were their own brands of mayhem that need some explaining. I’ve already written about Beijing, but that’s only 1/3 of our travel in those 2 months. In total, we were on 6 airplanes, 5 high speed trains and slept in 4 different hotels within our first 60 days in China. That may sound like fun, but we also security checks becomes a bore after that many trips…
Trip #1 – Shanghai
2 weeks after arriving in Suzhou, I had to travel to Shanghai for a week to complete a 60 hour TEFL training program for the Chinese government. I had already completed 240 hours of this training over the past few years (through a Canadian company), but still, in an effort to weed out any undesirable teachers, the government requested that I complete their program before I would be granted a fully legal visa. I obliged because the last thing I wanted was to be kicked out of the country after finally finding the right job!
The training itself was pretty useless. Because I’d already taken several of these courses (3 of them being in-depth training for specific age levels: adults, adolescents and children), I already knew most of the material. I can definitely see how this training would be valuable for anyone who has never taught before, but for me, it was a waste of time. I showed up, did my best not to lose my temper on our teacher (who insisted with raise both hands in the air any time he wanted us to be quiet…) and made it through the week without losing too much of my sanity.
The supposed bright side to all of this was that I got to see Shanghai. The reason I say ‘supposed’ was because I didn’t actually like Shanghai all that much. Most foreigners see Shanghai as a haven from ‘old’ China, and in a lot of ways, they are right. There are countless western brands there where you can find everything from cosmetics, to western food to western clothing. Still, this wasn’t all that impressive, given that I’d been in Canada 3 weeks earlier and I was all stocked up on my ‘western’ stuff.
But Shanghai is simply not my cup of tea. The city is just too much ‘city’ for this small town girl! With a population of 30,000,000 (yeah…that’s slightly less than all of Canada), the subways are always packed, the pollution is nasty and the noise is unbearable. I hate the crowds and there was nothing worse than the metro station where people routinely push their way onto the trains. Our only refuge from the crowds was our hotel room, which stunk of cigarettes and was nearly as noisy as the outdoors.
I’m grateful that Dave was able to join me on that trip (the beauty of being able to work anywhere where there is internet access). We had an OK time in the shopping district, walking around and seeing the sights, and we found ourselves some good restaurants and had a nice time down at The Bund. Mostly, I met some really cool people while taking my class, so that was good.
When the course was over, I was thrilled to head back to Suzhou and get back in to the swing of things at the school. I still hadn’t really had a chance to get my classes in full swing and I still had plenty of ‘beginning of semester’ projects on the go, so it was important for me to be present at the school as much as possible. But of course, 10 days later, National Week arrived…
Trip #2 – Beijing
Beijing was somewhere I had never been but had always wanted to visit. When the National Day came upon us, we had to make a decision: Stay at home for a week with nothing to do…or head to Beijing for a mini holiday. We chose the latter, mostly because I hate being bored…
Beijing was somewhere I had never been but had always wanted to visit. When the National Day came upon us, we had to make a decision: Stay at home for a week with nothing to do…or head to Beijing for a mini holiday. We chose the latter, mostly because I hate being bored…
Now, I’ve already written about the Great Wall, so you might be wondering why I’d bring up Beijing at all. After all…how much could we have seen on a 4 day holiday? Well…the answer to that is that we saw enough to know that we are happy that we don’t live in Beijing!
As some of you may have seen in the news, the pollution in Beijing is atrocious. You can actually taste the pollution in the air and there’s always a bit of a haze to see through…even when it’s sunny. Out on The Wall, we had clean air, but the two days we spent IN the city made me very glad to live in Suzhou, where the pollution is bad at times (it comes down from nearby Shanghai), but where I don’t feel like I’m actually in danger by being there!
You can read more about Northern China’s pollution woes here
But the pollution isn’t the only part of Beijing to leave a bad taste in my mouth (so to speak). Dave and I felt like targets from the moment we left the airport. Everybody wanted our money. Everybody EXPECTED our money. From the moment you step out of the airplane, you are a target…and I can’t think of a group worse than the taxi drivers of China…
In western countries, it is expected that the taxi driver use a meter when taking you anywhere. Taxi drivers will still find other ways to rip you off (taking the long way around, for example), but they are still limited by their meter. In many Chinese cities…that isn’t he case.
What’s worse is that people here are so accustomed to this sort of behavior from drivers, that they don’t even question it. Drivers refuse to use their meters and they will not take you unless you agree with their price. Worst of all, most cabbies work for a small number of companies, so they all agree on a minimum price, so no matter which taxi you go to, you are paying AT LEAST double what a metered ride would cost. This is infuriating…especially when there are really no other options at 11pm when you have luggage and have just gotten off a flight.
But taxi drivers are not the only once looking to make a buck off the tourists…
The restaurant business reportedly did well over the National Holiday, and nowhere was that truer than in Beijing. One restaurant was actually handing out 1500rmb bills ($300 Canadian) by charging people ‘per shrimp’ in their food orders. It’s sad that we live in a world where this is common place – tourists all over the world deal with this treatment. It doesn’t only happen in China.
Our personal experience was at a restaurant near the Forbidden Kingdom. We wanted to have Beijing Roast Duck while in the city (it’s hardly a treat for Dave and I…we have a fantastic ‘duck place’ in Winnipeg…) so we ventured out to find somewhere that wasn’t going to overcharge us.
We saw a sign advertising the dish, so we went into the restaurant. It was a bit of a hole in the wall, but we often seek out those restaurants, as they often have the best food in China. We ordered the duck along with a favorite bean dish of ours, and could hear the staff nervously laughing while watching the ‘crazy lao wai’ from their little desk at the other end of the restaurant.
We ate the little bit we could tolerate before asking for the bill…in Chinese. You see, at this point, we hadn’t been given much opportunity to demonstrate that we weren’t their average tourist. We do, in fact, know the difference between real Beijing Roast Duck and the canned, slimy sludge they’d served us…
The staff actually huddled together to see what they could charge us for the meal. I could HEAR them discussing how much to charge us for the meal (the restaurant DID have menus…and we DID check the prices…). When the waiter came over, our conversation went something like this (done completely in Chinese. I am VERY proud).
Marie: Why is our bill so high? Our duck never arrived.
Waiter: Your duck is right here
Marie: THIS is your duck? This is NOT Beijing Roast Duck! Beijing Roast Duck is delicious. This tastes terrible!
Waiter: Well, this is our Roast Duck.
***Moves uncomfortably, shifting his weight from foot to foot***
Marie: Ok, well, even if this IS your duck, our bill should only be 140rmb…why are you asking for 190rmb?
Waiter: Wait one moment please.
***He runs to the back…to speak to a manager, I imagine.
Waiter: The additional charge is because you used our dishes. There is a 50rmb fee for using our plates.
Marie: I’m sorry, but you are a racist.
Waiter: What!? I am not!?
Marie: So, you’re telling me that you would treat a Chinese person this way?
This is the point where Dave wisely gave the man 150rmb and we walked out of the restaurant. We created quite a scene and several customers had quickly paid for their dishes and left. We’d actually even scared some new customers away from eating at the restaurant. I felt good about myself. I also felt angry, so we walked around for a little while longer and then went back and got a picture of the place. I half-hope they saw me take it.
The rest of our time in Beijing was less eventful (thank goodness!). We saw some parks and some old buildings. We really weren’t up for anything overly touristy so we never made it down to the Forbidden City or Summer Palace, but some day we’ll head back down there to see the rest that China’s capital has to offer. Beijing is only 5 hours away by high speed train, so a visit would hardly be difficult to organize.
Our last grand adventure in Beijing was to do some Christmas shopping. We braved this night market and found some goodies for our family and friends back home. Now we are faced with the challenge of finding a post office so that we can ship these gifts! The strangest things are struggles in China…
I’ll be back soon with Part 2 of this post. I’ll be writing about our trip to Hong Kong! (Spoiler: It was fabulous!)
