Harbin - Ice and Snow World!

Because we are Canadian, we think we know what cold is, but Harbin, in the far north close to the Russian border, was an eye-opener. We were warned about the cold and we did prepare with warm clothes, but we were surprised by how cold it was. We were only there for the weekend but it was a solid -20 Centigrade the whole time. Luckily there was no wind and it was quite bearable for the most part but we were out for 2 and 3 hours at a stretch and if you didn’t keep moving, fingers and toes started to freeze.

We went to Harbin on a tour organized by the Chinese Culture Club. We took the overnight train up, sharing a sleeper with Don and Eve. It was fairly comfortable and we arrived at 7 am. We made a quick trip to the hotel to drop off our luggage and have breakfast, but we couldn’t check in until later in the day. Our first stop was to watch the ‘ice swimmers’ – a group of retired folks who are paid $10 US a dip to swim in the frozen Songhua River. The big attraction at Harbin was “Ice and Snow World” and we visited the snow sculptures next. The theme was Canada so we were pleased to see many Canadian symbols – Bonhomme Carnival, maple leaves and Dr. Norman Bethune. The largest was a huge replica of Niagara Falls – it must have been 200 yards long! Afterwards we had lunch at a restaurant in a botanical garden. The heat was welcome, but the chicken feet in the soup weren’t!

After lunch we went to a Siberian tiger park and saw tigers, lions, ligers, jaguars, leopards and just about every kind of big cat you can imagine. The highlight was the tigers taking down a live steer. I’ll save the photos of that! Later we checked into the hotel and afterwards we went to see the ice sculptures. They were simply amazing as the pictures will attest. I have never seen anything quite like it. The buildings were huge and all wired up with lights inside the ice blocks.

Sunday we visited a museum dedicated to telling the story of a Japanese biological warfare unit that operated near the city during WWII. This history helps to explain the dislike that many Chinese seem to bear towards the Japanese because the Japanese have not admitted responsibility for these horrible events. We returned to town somewhat quieter than we had been, but lunch at a noodle restaurant restored our spirits. After lunch we had free time to shop and then left for the airport.

Now there is a story to tell here – on Thursday before we left I gave our passports to our travel agent who needed them to get visas for our next trip to Cambodia and Vietnam. Of course I told him that we were going to Harbin on the weekend, but he promised that we didn’t need our passports. Now Brenda was not comfortable with us traveling without our passports and so I called him back and he assured me again that we didn’t need the passports and that he would call the hotel and the airport. Sure enough no one asked for our passports until the airport, but Brenda was nervous about it all weekend. When we got to the airport, our Chinese Culture Club guides took our photocopies of our passports and went off to some area of the airport. Though we were delayed checking in, sure enough we got on the plane. Not only that but because of the delay, they bumped us to first class seats. Now the flight was delayed leaving Harbin for several hours, but sure enough we got on and arrived home about 2:00 AM. So Brenda is still talking to me, but Harbin was not the only thing that was cold that weekend!

To the End of the Earth and Beyond...

Brenda has accused me once or twice of dragging her to “the ends of the earth!” So when I found there was a place in Sanya called “The End of the Earth” – Chinese – “Tian Ya Hai Jiao”, well we just had to go! It turned out to be a beach on the south coast of Hainan Island in Southern China that the ancient Chinese believed was the end of the known world. It has very impressive rock formations on the beach and out in the water. The site is well known in China because it is on the 2 yuan note and it is a tradition for couples to come here to have their pictures taken in front of these ‘sweetheart stones’ which are inscribed with the Chinese characters for ‘end’ and ‘earth’.

We were on our Christmas holiday and spent six days in Sanya which is located on Hainan Island, China’s Hawaii. Sanya was very nice – white sand beaches, sun, warm water, nice hotel and not crowded. Most of the tourists were Russians or Chinese. We found a huge difference between the Russians and the Chinese. The Russians were mostly big people and quite fleshy. The Chinese of course are mostly just the opposite. However, while the Russians were wearing Speedos and bikinis, the Chinese were very modest. The majority of the Chinese on the beach didn’t even have swimsuits. Their concession to the beach was to roll up the pant legs of their usually black clothes. One image that epitomizes this contrast is seared into my mind – picture a rather stout Russian woman walking toward you on the beach showing too much sunburned flesh! As she turned around, all I could think was “Don’t let it be a thong!” But you guessed it – two red moons over the beach at Sanya! We also visited a botanical garden, a minority village and bought the requisite beauty tea and special Shinglong coffee and coconut and coffee candy.

Next we visited Hong Kong. What an impressive city! It has all the beauty of Vancouver or Seattle – it is located on an island and has a beautiful harbour, which is visible from various spots as the city sprawls up the side of the mountain. We stayed in a hotel in what is called the mid-levels – partway up the mountain – that was close to the series of escalators that takes you up or down (depending on the time of day) from the central area. The transportation system is wonderful and quite reasonable; we took buses, the subway and a ferry. The city has lots of English speakers, luxury shopping and a distinct western feel too it. We did a little shopping – we both took the opportunity to buy shoes and Brenda bought some jewelry. It was good to see ‘real’ brands, as most of the stuff you see in Beijing are ‘knock-offs’ unless you pay big bucks. We visited Stanley Old Town, Kowloon, Lamma Island, the Night Market, the Ladies Market and saw the Harbour Light Show.

We ran into a snag coming home as we spent about 5 hours sitting on the runway waiting for bad weather in Beijing to clear. The ‘bad weather’ turned out to be about 3 inches of snow. Doesn’t sound like much, but the snow clearing equipment seems to consist of several old ladies brushing the snow aside with twig brooms. Anyway, it was not as bad as it sounded and we were home by 8 PM. New Years’ Eve was spent with a group of fellow teachers at the Chinese Acrobats and then out for a special dinner of Peking Duck. The duck is supposed to be world famous, but my take – there isn’t much meat on a duck! I’d take a turkey any day, but at least we can say we had it!
First Posted January 2, 2007

Alien Egg and Twisted Donut

Christmas holidays are approaching and the excitement is growing here at school. We had our student Christmas concert on Thursday – the highlight was a Grade 1-3 hiphop dance group. We had class pictures under the Christmas tree also on Thursday. Santa has been making daily appearances at the school from 3:30 – 5:30 to help drum up new students. It is a bit disturbing to see the old fellow co-opted in this way, but the staff members under the beard have borne it with good grace. We have also been talking over our Christmas trip each morning over breakfast; it is hard to believe that it has come so quickly – we are on the old Christmas season fast-forward!

Friday night we went out to dinner with Don & Eve again – this time just the four of us. We picked a nearby restaurant, Pili-pili, an African themed restaurant. Don and I shared skewers of barbequed beef, mutton, venison and ostrich! We decided the ostrich was a bit stringy but all the other dishes were good. There was entertainment and one of our fellow teachers has become quite friendly with the African band members. They are also schoolteachers who moonlight in the house band. We have been told that they are great. Unfortunately, we left just as they were coming on because we had to be up quite early Saturday. We have promised ourselves to return when we can stay to hear them.

Saturday dawned bight, cold and clear! Don, Eve and Darryl bustled into our apartment about 9:15. They were joining us on our Saturday Discovery tour and were also staying in town for an evening formal event so wanted to leave their dress clothes and change later.
We chatted for a while and them rushed off to catch the bus. The tour was deliberately vague but we had a notion that we would see some of the Olympic venues that are under construction north of the school. So off we went in our big yellow school bus, bantering back and forth, singing Christmas carols and generally enjoying being together.

Sure enough our first stop was the ‘Bird’s Nest’ – the still under construction 91,000 seat Olympic Stadium. We couldn’t get into it, but we did jump out of the bus for a quick dash to take a picture of the unusual structure. It doesn’t seem to have a parallel or perpendicular line anywhere. It is supposed to simulate the ‘random patterns of nature.’
Nearby was the Olympic swimming pool – some sort of semi-transparent membrane stretched over a stainless steel frame. We strolled past the guard and got quite close to this one. We also saw the National Gymnasium and Olympic village that will house 168,000 people during the games – they were basically big construction sites. The concrete is up but not much else. Next we saw the former Asian Games venue, which is now an area of trendy apartments and western restaurants. Then it was off to see the new National Theatre, dubbed the ‘Alien Egg’, also under construction downtown near Tianamem Square. It is scheduled to be finished this summer and will house 3 separate stages seating over 6,000. Its exterior is completely clad in titanium and its modernistic style has attracted lots of criticism as it seems out of place in the centre of the city so close to the Forbidden City and the Great Hall of the People. There is lots of very modern architecture in Beijing but none so close to the old city.

We stopped for lunch in Wang Fujing – a big pedestrian shopping mall near Tianamen. We went into a shopping plaza to enjoy the very western surroundings and had a very western lunch at a Sizzler’s. I had a burger and also the salad bar. We could have been in Toronto or Vancouver. Afterwards Don, Darryl and I went into a big hat store and Don bought a cowboy hat while Brenda and Eve did Starbucks. We huddled for warmth while waiting for our bus – it was -6 C.

On the way back we saw the CCTV building (China TV) but elected to do a driveby. It is reputedly the most expensive building in the world at 1 billion US and is supposed to be constructed in the shape of two standing ‘Z’s’ at top out at 243 meters! It has been dubbed the ‘Twisted Donut’. Construction in Beijing is going on everywhere as everyone seeks to cash in on the Olympic boom and spend some of the western dollars that are flooding in because of the massive trade imbalances. There is a great deal of local controversy about the destruction of traditional hutongs and historic landmarks. But strangely in this supposedly communist country, these voices are drowned out in a frenzy of consumerism and entrepreneurship. For more on Beijing’s architectural controversies, see http://www.gluckman.com/BeijingArchitecture.html

Later that day, we saw Don, Eve and Darryl off to their event. We stayed home and watched a DVD; it was fun to see them dressed up and excited, but we were both glad to be staying home – it was cold and we were tired! We will see our colleagues from both schools Monday night as we have our school Christmas party together.

We leave for Sanya, Hainan on Wednesday morning and will also visit Hong Kong. We will be back in Beijing on December 30, and will do another blog recounting our southern adventures then.

To all our friends and family back home, we would like to wish a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2007. We will be thinking of you all. We are looking forward to a restful and relaxing holiday and wish all of you the same. May the peace and contentment of the Holiday Season remain with you throughout the year!
First Posted December 17, 2006

Longevity Noodles!

Today we made longevity noodles! Rather we watched a chef make them – an amazing process. The chef stretched out a dollop of dough by shaking it up and down and then doubled the long string and twisted it all in one series of smooth movements. Each time he twisted it in the opposite direction. This was repeated many times for about 20 minutes, then he stretched and doubled it, twisting it each time. This was repeated several times until magically long thin noodles began to appear! Our efforts were less smooth and much less successful but we had fun. Apparently because the noodles are made in one long strand, they are called longevity noodles and are served to elderly people on their birthday. We were more successful making dumplings, which is like making a pastry turnover. Still, there were some fine points like squeezing between thumb and forefinger and the other thumb to push the filling into the centre and stretch the dough. Afterwards we ate our dumpling creations; our noodles were mostly only fit for the waste bin! This event was held at the Chinese Culture Club which runs many tours, lectures and other events and fortunately is about a 5 minute walk from our school.

This week at school was busy as has become the norm. We are getting ready for the middle school report cards, which will go out next Friday. We were also given money to buy Christmas decorations; we purchased those yesterday and decorated out classrooms this morning. I bought a tree, which is now glowing nicely in the window of my classroom. I left lots of decorating for my classes to do too. I also bought a big kite, which I hung from the lights in my lab. It is very white in there – everything is white including floor, desks, walls and computers. So now there is a big red kite hanging in the centre of the room to break up the space a bit.

Our school is running a Santa Claus promotion – the public has been invited in to get a free picture taken with Santa in our Santa’s village. It is running for 90 minutes each weekday and 3 hours on weekends from now until school closing. One of the teacher aides innocently volunteered to be Santa, not knowing the extent of the commitment involved. When the schedule was announced several of the men on staff volunteered to help out. I did not (Grinch that I am), suggesting that my talents might be more useful elsewhere (i.e. anywhere but in a hot, itchy Santa suit). Our school is really into the Christmas spirit, or at least the ersatz Santa version of it. The exterior of the school is light up like Las Vegas, but strangely not the traditional Christmas colours more like the CIS colours. The lobby and the plant room where Santa’s village and the 50 foot Christmas tree are looks like a department store.

Friday night we went out to dinner with friends from Concord College and had a delicious Indian dinner. Saturday after shopping for decorations, I went out to get a foot massage (very nice) while Brenda went out to a choir recital of the Messiah in which one of our staff members sang. There is a large (1600 seat) theatre next door to the school and a lot of big shows come in there. Tonight we are treating 5 young staff members to dinner at a Thai restaurant to thank them for all their help when we first arrived. They were all China veterans and they kindly helped us get established.
First Posted December 10, 2006

Peking Opera and Golf

December marks our 5th month in Beijing. It is a nostalgic and at times a little sad for us as we think of passing a Christmas without our family for the first time in forever. It will definitely be a different experience for us. Brenda has been having a difficult time thinking about the Christmas traditions we will not be observing – the special decorations and foods, the music, the choir, the church and especially the family times. She is coping by trying not to think about it and consequently we haven’t decorated for Christmas although decorations of all kinds are readily available and our school is decorated to within an inch of its life. We’ll have to think about a new way to celebrate the season. I am sure we will come up with something to make the season special.

We are keeping busy seeing the Beijing sights. Friday night we went to the Beijing Opera. We had been warned that this might not be to everyone’s taste because the singing can be rather high pitched and grating. We arranged to meet a group from Concord College there and we all really enjoyed ourselves. We went early and got to talk to the stage manager and see some of the performers applying their makeup, which is quite elaborate and done in traditional patterns for each role. The performance itself was specially chosen for westerners and was a selection of three short scenes or plays. The first was a comic scene with a young maid trying to persuade an old boatman to ferry her across the river to pursue her lover. It was only two performers but it was amazing to see how they simulated the boat rocking on the river and the effect was quite amusing. The second was the story of two lovers – I don’t remember much about it. The last play involved a nymph falling in love with a scholar and giving him a magic pearl and earning the wrath of the gods who fought each other. It was quite a pageant of battle scenes and wonderful acrobatics, costumes and makeup. It was a great evening and we were still home quite early.

Saturday was devoted to chores – grocery shopping, schoolwork and housework. Brenda was nursing a sore back and was not too lively. Sunday morning I got up early and headed out to the golf course to test my new clubs. We had set up and inter-school match and four of us from CIS played a scramble against a threesome from Concord College. We were all wondering how the weather would be as Saturday had been quite bitter. The day was clear and sunny with almost no wind and so we had a great day. I played most of the day with a long sleeved golf jersey and a fleece vest and toque. The clubhouse was fabulous – it looked like a temple from outside and the interior was equally impressive – huge cavernous spaces finished almost entirely in marble, a huge and very comfortable locker room complete with sauna and several attendants to look after you and a huge elegant dining room. We were treated like royalty from the moment we arrived with people running around to make sure we had everything we required. The course itself, Beijing Grand Canal Golf Course - was fairly player friendly with wide fairways and fairly flat greens. It reminded me a lot of the Myrtle Beach National courses.

Probably, the most special thing were the caddies; we each had our own female caddy to cater to our needs. I’ve never played with a caddy, but it won’t take long for me to be spoiled. Walking down the fairway with someone to find your ball and choose your club is really a treat. When we started out the ground was frozen – I am sure the course would have been closed at home. It was difficult to drive the tee into the ground – of course we didn’t do that, the caddy did – and the ball bounced off the first few greens as if it was hitting the parking lot. It was a very pleasant day; we played a scramble format and took about 5 hours to get around but we were all reluctant for the game to be over. After the round we had a nice lunch and when we counted up the score the CIS team won the first of what we hope will be several matches.

Tonight we were invited out to a celebration of the first anniversary of one our favourite restaurants – Abella. It has become our regular stop on Monday – two for one pizza night. But the restaurant is much more than a pizza restaurant; it has wonderful beef, fish and vegetable dishes and a quiet, intimate atmosphere. Tonight drinks and snacks were gratis and very yummy. So you can see there are some nice features to our life in Beijing!
First Posted December 3, 2006

Forbidden City and Grand Opening

It has been three weeks since I wrote last and a lot has happened in those 3 weeks. None of them were ‘normal’ weeks, but what is normal about living in China? The Grand Opening of the school on Monday marked this past week. We had lots of distinguished guests from Canada including the new NB Minister of Education, Kelly Lamrock, an Ontario MP, a Canadian senator and Canada’s most famous musical export to China, Chairman George. The focus was really on the VIP’s and the VVIP’s. Teachers and students spent an hour on Friday practicing lining the students up for their group picture and herding them through the school for their roles as extras in the grand pageant that was the Opening. Fortunately it all came off on Monday relatively smoothly – it is not easy lining up 350 people for a photo! Then we herded them all into the theatre for the speeches by the politicians and performances by students and Chairman George. That lasted about 2 hours in the hot balcony – luckily we were pretty well out of view by the VIP’s as the students were restless and sleepy.

As we were leaving for the day, the message was passed around that we were invited to dinner with all the VIP’s. Well some teachers were so grumpy by this time that they didn’t go, but we did and were treated to an expensive seafood dinner at a very expensive restaurant across the street from the school. The routine at these events is that guests go around to each table making flowery toasts. There is wine and bijo, a very strong liquor, and it is de rigueur to drink to the toast. The result is that most people were pretty well oiled before the dinner even began. Brenda drank her favourite – Sprite – and I kept away from the bijo. The meal was very fancy – lobster, crab and various types of fish. The dishes just kept coming. I tried everything including the deep fried chicken feet, but really there wasn’t much to sink your teeth into and by the time we were done I was thinking about a cheeseburger. Francis and most of the Pangs got quite drunk and the after party was at a karaoke bar, which we skipped – after all we had to teach the next day.

As I write, we are settling in for winter; the high temperatures have been ranging from 42 to 54 degrees. We had a snow shower on Saturday morning and most of the trees have shed their leaves. The willow trees on the avenue are stubbornly holding onto theirs, but as we walked in Chaoyang Park on Sunday, we were shuffling through piles of leaves. Ever optimistic, I bought a set of Callaway Fusion golf clubs last week; we are hoping to have a match against our sister school, Beijing Concord College this Sunday. Whether it comes off or not is questionable; it pretty much depends on the weather. The price for the clubs including putter and rescue club, bag, travel bag, umbrella, hat, towel, sleeve of balls, glove and hat - $225. Are they fakes? Yes, but pretty good fakes and they might fool many people. What they will play like, I don’t know!

Last week we went to see a Kung Fu show. It was part Broadway musical and part martial arts show and purported to tell the story of the Buddhist monk who invented the art. There was lots of dancing, flipping, slashing the air and smashing of wood and bricks. There were even some women dancers – the monk apparently struggled with temptations of the flesh at various times and this was told very poetically as the couple swung from the rafters on long curtains! One of the big stunts was when they hoist the monk onto a trident sort of skewer, which was inserted into his belly button and then they spun him around on top of it! It looked quite uncomfortable! We saw the same stunt done at the Opening dinner the following week. The odd thing about going to the show was that we thought we were going to see the Chinese acrobats. It was arranged by the school and as we were getting into the vans to go, the organizer said, “Oh, by the way, you are going to see the King Fu show, which many people feel is even better than the acrobats.” Strange things like that happen a lot, but hey, it’s China!

Friday was Terry Fox Day at the school and all the students turned out to walk around the school several times. It was quite brisk and bright and the walking was a fun time as we laughed and joked with the students. Friday night we hosted a party for the teachers from Beijing Concord College. Later we went out to dinner with Don and Eve who teach there. We decided to meet on Saturday and finally tour the Forbidden City. Fred, a new teacher who has only been in China for 10 days or so joined us. We were dressed quite warmly but it was still cold. Our guide, Grace, patiently showed us through the immense structure. It is really pretty awe inspiring with lots of impressive buildings, courtyards and bridges. If you have seen the movie, “The Last Emperor”, you have a good idea what it looks like. Later, we had dinner together at a cozy restaurant called the Den and then went to Yashow market to introduce Fred to the wonders of shopping in the markets. Fred picked up 5 dress shirts for about $35, so he is a quick study!
First Posted November 28, 2006

Hutong Tour

We went on a hutong tour (alleyways and old style houses) Saturday near Tiananmen Square. It is the first time we have seen Tiananmen and it really is quite big – biggest in the world they say! (There are lots of claims to being the biggest and best in China – every second restaurant you walk into has the best seafood in China!) The actual square was closed Saturday because of the big Africa-Asia summit in town but we could walk around the edges of it and see it. In fact we had to walk around 3/4 of it because of where our taxi dropped us and it took close to 50 minutes!

Many of the hutongs have been razed and replaced with new high rises and apartments. But several in the area near the square have been preserved. We took a pedicab ride - our first - and it is quite a pleasant and sensible way to travel in this area. We visited the home of an old lady who had lived in a courtyard house in the hutong for 48 years, we went to a nursery school, a market and an antique street. Our guide kept talking about the classical style of courtyard house, but the one we visited had been extensively changed with various sheds and outbuildings encroaching on the open area inside. In the classical style this area would have been used for plants and fishponds, but there was not much evidence of that in the one we visited. There were also stacks of coal briquettes which they use for heating. Apparently at one time the house had 3 families and 13 occupants so it would have been very crowded. Now there are only two old people living there, both are former postal service employees who were assigned to the housing during the Mao years and still live there for less than $10 per month. It seemed quite cozy and quiet, but we were told that young people don’t want to live in the hutongs because most of the houses don’t have private toilets and share public toilets in each street.

Later we visited a nursery school that showed more of the classical features of a courtyard house with much of the interior space preserved and several courtyards attached behind the main one. We also walked down a little market street and bought some roasted peanuts and bing bing, a kind of pizza with egg on top instead of tomato sauce. It was quite tasty. We also visited an antique street and found time to buy a couple of prints.

The day was quite blustery and cold with a strong north wind full of dust. Given the strong winds it was better to be in the alleys than out on the main streets where the wind was really whipping. The weather had been quite nice with highs still hovering around 20 but Saturday we would have been glad of a ski jacket. So we will have to make a shopping trip for some warm clothes soon!
First Posted November 6, 2006

From Russian to Thai

Sometimes I wonder how life will seem when we are back in Canada. One thing that has become apparent in the last two weeks is how often we eat out in restaurants. The truth is that cooking in our apartment is difficult and dangerous. The kitchen is small and we only have 2 hot-plates and a microwave to cook in. We can’t seem to find a decent pot and often end up scorching the pots we do have as it is very difficult to regulate temperature on the hot-plates. The other thing is that we can eat out so cheaply that we don’t save any money eating in. So at 6ish most nights we often find ourselves going out to a restaurant. There are literally hundreds within a short walk or cab ride and a meal for 2 can range from under 3 dollars to about 30 dollars. In the last two weeks we have had some interesting meals – a Russian restaurant where the floor-show was better than the food (I’ll include some pictures), a couple of Thai restaurants that both had good food and one that had a sort of gay pop song troupe of entertainers and several excellent Italian restaurants. WHo knew there was a big Russian population in Beijing? So I wonder how we’ll adjust to living at home, where going out to dinner is the exception rather than the rule.

Another feature of this past two weeks has been the workload. We have had report cards, an Open House, a Student Talent Show, a Sports Day, a Halloween Haunted House, a Halloween class decorations shopping trip, a hotdog grill out, Parent-Teacher meetings and at least 2 PD sessions after school. My major effort was a slide show produced by my after-school group for the Open House. Brenda and I have both got an after-school activity 4 days a week and I have an additional activity after that 2 days a week. So, many evenings we haven’t got back to our apartment until 9 and then we have often had marking or preparation to do. Despite all this, we have managed to squeeze in some fun. We visited the Summer Palace here in Beijing and we had a roaring Halloween bash in the residence.

Personalities are also becoming apparent now that we have been here for 10 weeks. We are getting to know our fellow teachers quite well and also learning about the idiosyncrasies of Chinese ways and the school administration. I am slowly getting the equipment I need to run my BBT lab. I had a meeting with the owner about 2 1/2 weeks ago and a long list of things was approved which he promised would be in my hands by the end of that day or at least by the next week! It has been slow in coming. A lot of it was dumped on me this week. And I mean dumped – I walk up to the IT Department and spot the new arrivals and start asking for the stuff to be released to me. After anywhere from 2 to 5 days they might give it to me. Then I carry it by hand to my lab and set it up. I unpack it, do the software installs and network configuration, troubleshooting, figure out how it works (Chinese manuals) etc. I am not sure what the IT Department here is for. Actually, I think they are just here to waste my time!

Our student’s personalities also have really emerged. We teach all the same students – about 75 in the high school and middle school – and so we spend a fair bit of time sharing insights and information about them. In some ways, they can be difficult to teach as they don’t understand a lot of what we are saying and they just don’t react like Canadian kids. They don’t often get the jokes and I hope they don’t take me literally! One thing you notice is that they bow to you when they see you, even when they pass you in the hall. I quite like the bowing actually! There is an eye contact thing too – if you look at them they will look down. It is unconscious thing and they really can’t help themselves. Another oddity that gets on my nerves is being called “Teacher”. I know that sounds like a small thing but try hearing that 50 times in 40 minutes and it will drive you crazy. I am trying to teach them to say “Mr. Badger”, but they seem to find that hard to say!

Trying to photograph them is also difficult as many of them continue to turn away or cover their faces when I point a camera at them. So getting good pictures has been difficult. Strangely most of them have digital cameras or at least phones that take pictures and they take a lot of pictures of each other. When I do get a picture of them, 10 or 12 kids who want to see the picture will often swarm me and then inevitably one of them begs me to delete it. So they are really interested in seeing pictures, but they don’t want you to take any. I thought things would change after the slide show at the Open House, which they liked, but I am still having problems.

I think when you are a foreigner; there are some things about a culture that you will never really get. I am sure they find us as strange as we find them. I hope that they like us as much as we like them and that we will be able to teach them something of value.
First Published November 2, 2006