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Defend the Bath Top-gradly
Aug. 11th, 2004 06:27 pmRight, this is a probably going to be long, as I know I've been very lax in keeping updated. I blame it on the dodgy power supply, which has managed to kill a few emails.
Following my great success as an onscreen actor, Greg is next. He thought he had escaped, but next Saturday he’s moonlighting as an American designer (anyone ever heard of G-Free?) here to launch this season’s fashion. And he has to do his live! However, he also has to watch a fashion show, give flowers to the top model, etc. I promise to get pictures!
Last Wednesday, a week ago, was the birthday of one of the other teachers, so her flatmate created a great dinner, in the form of spaghetti Bolognese. You may not think that sounds too exciting, but we hadn’t had anything like it for months! And garlic bread, and salad, and other amazing, Western foods. It was a good time, but as usual we left early, as we have been rather sleep deprived of late, thanks to noisy neighbours.
We spent most of last Saturday at home, until the noise of the military training going on in the school outside threatened to drive me insane. Why is it that they can not count beyond 4? So we headed to one of the underground shopping areas – of which there are many in this strange city. Unfortunately, possibly because of reaction to the noise of counting, I didn’t cope with the crowd well, and felt rather freaked out by the numbers of people. You don’t always notice it, but sometimes it is obvious that there are 6 million people in this city. So we escaped to the park above the shops, and sat by the fountain (not going at the time), counted the number of people who fell in (4), and watched the old men fly kites. Actually, watching people fall in the fountain was very fun. Mostly it was children, so their parents would strip them off, wring the clothes out and place them on the black granite surround, which was incredibly hot and so soon dried them off. However, one young lass, possibly late teens-early twenties, had waded into the pool for a photo, and then slipped and fell over. We think her boyfriend must have suggested she do what the kids were doing, judging by the speed and force with which she slapped him!
We had dinner with Lee that night. She’s one of the Australian teachers here, from Tassie, and quite nice. She’s also one of the many Christians we’ve met here in China, and not all of them foreign. We didn’t tease each other too much about being from the wrong side of the Tasman, as we’d already done that. There are about six Aussies here, and we’re the only Kiwis, so there is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing of insults, comments, and compliments.
It was also the night of the Asian Cup Final, which was played between Japan and China. China’s loss was not very well accepted, but we only know about riots in Beijing from overseas news sources.
On a baking hot Sunday we made our way to the museum, and found out that the terracotta warriors from Xi’an (no, not a football team) were visiting. This was a nice surprise, and means that we no longer have to go to Xi’an, which has been described as a hole (and not a nice one – definitely not sandy like Rabbit’s). The warriors were great, very clearly individuals. I found it rather mind-boggling that they should be so old – from the Qin dynasty around 221-206 BC. But then we found some pottery on the top floor that was more than 4000 years old. The Dawenkou period was described as being ‘late Stone-age’ but the pottery was beautiful.
Another really interesting exhibit was the carved stone from the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220AD). It’s amazing how neat and flowing Chinese writing carved in stone can be. There were also various frescos, of animals, people and monsters. What I found fascinating was that many of the romping animal pictures very closely resembled pages from some of the Old and Middle English beastiaries. There was also one with two entwined dragons, looking for all the world like a Celtic carving. Maybe there’s room for a cross-cultural influence thesis there!
Other random things in Jinan include livid purple skies at night, as the cloud and smog layer reflect the flashing of neon signs, a singing taxi-driver this morning (I Just Called to Say I Love You), and the crowds and crowds of people on bicycles.
And I’ve figured out how to deal with beggars. Just keep some food in your bag at all times. It’s worked quite well so far. I was uncertain as to how well it would be received, but the two urchins who I gave bread to yesterday had grins on their faces, so that’s good.
Only two more Wednesdays to survive! Maybe, now that I feel kinda updated, I'll be able to write more regularly.
Following my great success as an onscreen actor, Greg is next. He thought he had escaped, but next Saturday he’s moonlighting as an American designer (anyone ever heard of G-Free?) here to launch this season’s fashion. And he has to do his live! However, he also has to watch a fashion show, give flowers to the top model, etc. I promise to get pictures!
Last Wednesday, a week ago, was the birthday of one of the other teachers, so her flatmate created a great dinner, in the form of spaghetti Bolognese. You may not think that sounds too exciting, but we hadn’t had anything like it for months! And garlic bread, and salad, and other amazing, Western foods. It was a good time, but as usual we left early, as we have been rather sleep deprived of late, thanks to noisy neighbours.
We spent most of last Saturday at home, until the noise of the military training going on in the school outside threatened to drive me insane. Why is it that they can not count beyond 4? So we headed to one of the underground shopping areas – of which there are many in this strange city. Unfortunately, possibly because of reaction to the noise of counting, I didn’t cope with the crowd well, and felt rather freaked out by the numbers of people. You don’t always notice it, but sometimes it is obvious that there are 6 million people in this city. So we escaped to the park above the shops, and sat by the fountain (not going at the time), counted the number of people who fell in (4), and watched the old men fly kites. Actually, watching people fall in the fountain was very fun. Mostly it was children, so their parents would strip them off, wring the clothes out and place them on the black granite surround, which was incredibly hot and so soon dried them off. However, one young lass, possibly late teens-early twenties, had waded into the pool for a photo, and then slipped and fell over. We think her boyfriend must have suggested she do what the kids were doing, judging by the speed and force with which she slapped him!
We had dinner with Lee that night. She’s one of the Australian teachers here, from Tassie, and quite nice. She’s also one of the many Christians we’ve met here in China, and not all of them foreign. We didn’t tease each other too much about being from the wrong side of the Tasman, as we’d already done that. There are about six Aussies here, and we’re the only Kiwis, so there is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing of insults, comments, and compliments.
It was also the night of the Asian Cup Final, which was played between Japan and China. China’s loss was not very well accepted, but we only know about riots in Beijing from overseas news sources.
On a baking hot Sunday we made our way to the museum, and found out that the terracotta warriors from Xi’an (no, not a football team) were visiting. This was a nice surprise, and means that we no longer have to go to Xi’an, which has been described as a hole (and not a nice one – definitely not sandy like Rabbit’s). The warriors were great, very clearly individuals. I found it rather mind-boggling that they should be so old – from the Qin dynasty around 221-206 BC. But then we found some pottery on the top floor that was more than 4000 years old. The Dawenkou period was described as being ‘late Stone-age’ but the pottery was beautiful.
Another really interesting exhibit was the carved stone from the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220AD). It’s amazing how neat and flowing Chinese writing carved in stone can be. There were also various frescos, of animals, people and monsters. What I found fascinating was that many of the romping animal pictures very closely resembled pages from some of the Old and Middle English beastiaries. There was also one with two entwined dragons, looking for all the world like a Celtic carving. Maybe there’s room for a cross-cultural influence thesis there!
Other random things in Jinan include livid purple skies at night, as the cloud and smog layer reflect the flashing of neon signs, a singing taxi-driver this morning (I Just Called to Say I Love You), and the crowds and crowds of people on bicycles.
And I’ve figured out how to deal with beggars. Just keep some food in your bag at all times. It’s worked quite well so far. I was uncertain as to how well it would be received, but the two urchins who I gave bread to yesterday had grins on their faces, so that’s good.
Only two more Wednesdays to survive! Maybe, now that I feel kinda updated, I'll be able to write more regularly.
