Jun 2008

Tai'an's roadways are modern and up to date. There is traffic of all kinds. All sorts of vehicles carrying all sorts of products wind their way through lanes dodging any other form of transport at great speed. Hands on the horn to signal there is a vehicle coming and to get out of the way! Double lines are ignored. That's how you overtake - dive into the lane put the pedal to the metal and the hand to the horn.

At times I'm in awe as to how we squeeze through things at others I'm holding my breath that we don't hit anything. Seat belts don't exist. Although I do believe they are trying to enforce them before the Beijing Olympics.

The roadways are quite picturesque. There are great plantings of trees and bushes all neatly pruned. In spring the colour is added.

You will see three wheeled vehicles with a tray on the back overloaded with all sorts of products.

The local transportation is called a Bung Bung. Similar to a Tuk Tuk in Thailand. It is a three wheeled scooter with a tray added and some surrounds, a seat and there you have another means of making a buck. The Bung Bung costs Y3 IE 50c.

The traffic is chaos. There are thousands of people on bicycles, in trucks and cars or pedestrians all seeking their space on the road. It can be quite frightening at times. The one rule to remember is never make a sudden movement but keep looking both ways as you cross the road as they drive on any side of the road!

Even at night the traffic is chaotic. They don't seem to turn their headlights on and they seem to travel at the same chaotic pace. Everyday I see an accident. Normally involves a motor bike or bicycle or scooter.

I know what time it is in the morning by the sound of the traffic. No need for an alarm. My first morning I thought I had a freight train about to hit me. But as with anything the hum of the traffic because just background noise that you get used to.

The traffic into petrol stations I find amazing and for no rhyme nor reason. The cars and trucks just line up into the street blocking the traffic.

I have found the cold hard to deal with. Sometimes I can not seem to get warm, even with the AC on 32. The Government turned the central heating off on the 15 March. I have arrived at the end of winter. OMG how am I going to cope when I am here for the full winter.

Summer has also been extreme. Coming from QLD I enjoy and prefer summer. The temperature is not the killer it is the humidity. It might be 30 on the dial but the humidity makes it feel 35.

The Chinese Children are gorgeous, just like all Asian children. They look like dolls!

I do find it rather funny how in winter the children are all rugged up that they could not possibly move in the clothing, yet they have this little open slit over their bottom for going to the toilet. I'm still trying to find out what happens with nappies.

You can see and feel the adoration of children. Unlike our culture, grandparents are often the carers of the children whilst the parents are working.

As babies they are very cute, well dressed and well cared for. The little girls are often dressed up with pretty hairstyles or adornments. They love to run up to you and say "hello" and then run back to their parents giggling. It is really very cute. They learn English now from such a young age. And are much more confident than their parents approaching a foreigner.

In Tai'an, there are few English speakers. Those that do speak only speak a little bit or are too embarrassed to try and speak English.

The Main Campus is in the City of Tai'an. It is in the less attractive west part of town. The school has approximately 10,000 students across 3 campuses. Most class sizes are 50 - 55 - mainly boys. It is a private vocational school who have to have family support them to pay the tuition fees which I am led to believe are quite expensive.

The school is owned by Shandong Electric Power. It has affiliations with Singapore Shelton School of Commerce, TAFE, Auckland Institute of Studies, New Zealand and Arizona State University of America.

The school has track and field, basketball courts, football field and volleyball courts. It appears that everybody lives on Campus, from current teachers, retired teachers, foreign teachers, students and anyone who has ever had an association with the school.

There are two canteens on Campus, one for the students and one for everyone else. I have never been to either as I am led to believe that the meals are not that good.

There are many street vendors outside the front gate. You walk through the stalls dodging cars, bung bungs, bicycles, motor scooters and anything else that moves. You can buy almost anything at the street stalls. A favorite with the Western Teachers is the Chinese Hamburger. It is a bun that is warmed on a grill with pork, egg and lettuce for the huge extravagance of Y2 ie 33c!

The fruit and vegetable stalls are good - I buy my fruit from them. I don't buy any vegetables as I eat out every night. At $2 a night why would I be bothered to cook.

The students range in age from 16 - 22 and have been learning English for 3 years. Although they rarely use it. They live a spartan existence in the college dorms where there are 6 to a dorm. They have no bathing facilities in their dorms. The students do not have any cooking facilities in their dorms either and must rely on the canteen. If they want to leave the campus they must get a leave pass which I understand is very difficult.

Education in China is very competitive and very hard. I'm not sure that people back at home would do as many hours of schooling as the Chinese. It is very hard being a student here. Their parents pay high tuition fees and have high expectations. After all they are depending on their children to provide for them in their latter years so they want them to have good paying jobs.

The students must also clean the classrooms. In fact everywhere you go you see the workers doing the cleaning. We pay cleaners at home to do that. I even had a cleaner for my home! I would dare not tell them that.

The students would love to have greater access to computers for study. They actually have computer lessons but no computers???

I find it interesting that some students feel the pressure of the competition in Education, some seem to take it in their stride, others complain and then there are the class sleepers.

School excursions are unheard of. The typical Chinese way to teach is by chants. Of course they seem a little confused and overwhelmed when the have a foreign teacher who wants to do more with them. Even asking them to move seats on some occasions has been a great battle.

From a teaching prospective the facilities are poor. The blackboards have every marking on them from their 50 years of use, no dusters for cleaning just a wet rag, the floors are concrete with no coverings, no heating and no fans.

My apartment is my office with a school desktop and printer. I should be thankful for this as if you want to print or photocopy you have to plead. I find other teachers using my printer and going to the copy shop to print 50 copies! I am happy for them to print 50 from my printer but they never seem to want to do this.

The school has a couple of ponds. Almost every day you see some Chinese person fishing. I am concerned that they eat them because it is stagnant water. Perhaps they just do it for entertainment!

No space is ever wasted. Between the foreign teachers apartments and the Chinese Teachers Offices someone has created a vegetable garden behind the hedges. Every now and then you will see someone pick the vegetables.

Although prior to leaving Australia I had purchased a mobile phone and set up international roaming it didn't work. I contacted the supplier to be told that they are very sorry they have no network in China! Why didn't they tell me this when I bought the phone???

So here I am after my first sleep in Tai'an thinking I can buy a SIM card. I did it in Thailand, Laos and Vietnam should be a piece of cake in China. Not so.

This was an experience. I went into one store near the campus, I did all sorts of explaining with people who spoke little to no English. I decided this was too hard and went to a large store of China Mobile. I had a phone I wanted a SIM card. After what felt like an eternity I decided this was all too hard.

I was then told by another teacher that someone in the office could help me and there was a shop on Campus. Armed with this information I went to the office and went to purchase a SIM card. This was not possible. I would also have to purchase a phone. The school shop didn't sell phones, however I could buy a SIM Card. So I bought a SIM card for Y100Y with Y150 ($25) credit. I was advised that this should last me the 10 months in China!

The Chinese are very superstitious and they like phone numbers with the number 8 in them. There is a big wall of numbers and you choose your preferred number. I'm not that concerned and choose the next available number. I have no chance of every remembering the number. It doesn't start with 04! Some people spend a life time selecting the perfect number.