The return

Together again.

Well I'm back. I arrived at Brisbane airport at 4:35 pm on the 2nd of July, about 29 hours after getting into the car outside the apartment at JUFE in Nanchang. I was supposed to be landing in Brisbane at 12:35 however a swine flu related delay in Shanghai of two hours meant that I missed my original connection and had to wait in Sydney for three hours for an available seat. Anyway it was all worth it when I landed and saw Michelle and Penny waiting for me at Brisbane.


Getting ready to ride the rockin' chicken.

So we are all together again and staying with Michelle's mother Alice in Toowoomba while we get organised. The cold here has been a shock after the heat and humidity in Nanchang. There were storms and heavy rain the day before I left and it seems that they continued after I left. In fact Pingxiang, the town I visited with Jorvik was flooded - http://english.sina.com/china/p/2009/0702/252842.html - (scroll down to the pictures of Pingxiang). He is OK though, the magnificent Zhou family mansion is of course on a hill, so they were safe from the flood waters.


Penny loving Queen's Park in Toowoomba.

We have started the whole Centrelink shuffle and I have been to the Toowoomba office 3 times in the last 2 days...yay! Hopefully payments will be forthcoming and we will be able to head back to Brisbane and jobs and a house before the baby arrives...

Sorry about the lack of pictures in the last few posts, I will add them once we are up and running on our PC again (told you so).

Last night in China

Well tomorrow is go day and I am ready. The bags are packed the last parcels mailed and the apartment is an empty shell again. It's been a strange couple of days actually. People have been saying goodbye and dropping by to go through our stuff. I managed to sell most of the big stuff and we have been mailing boxes over the last couple of months so the place really is empty tonight. I took some photos of the place to demonstrate just how spartan it is but forgot that I have already packed the card reader in the bottom of my bag. Doh! Now I love packing as much as the next person but repacking bites! So this post will be picture-less until I get home and upload.


The bag, room to spare.

I had my last trip into Nanchang today to pick up a Qi Pao (Chinese traditional dress, you know the slinky ones, yeah those ones) for Michelle and feared that I might not make it back alive. As I set off the sky opened up and pelted big thunderstorm sized drops that had the gutters swimming in moments. Luckily I got a cab right outside the gate and we set off. Its an extra long journey at the moment as the closest and most convienient bridge, Ba Yi (August First) bridge is closed. So we have to take another bridge to the Northern suburbs and then make our way through the city to the South where I needed to get the Qi Pao. All the while the storm raged and the sheets of water across the roads deepened. Actually I am constantly amazed at the lack of drainage on the roads here, although with their history of damming rivers perhaps the roads are sources of cheap hydro power? Anyway I made it there and back in one piece and managed to get the Qi Pao too.


This tornado, water spout thing was seen in the sky just days before I left...perhaps an omen?? Definitely weird!!

So tomorrow I head off to the airport (thankfully not through the city) at 11:30 for my flight to Shanghai at 1:30. Then it's off to Pudong International Airport for the flight to Sydney at 7:35 pm. Then I'll come up smiling on Thursday!!

Wish me luck and I'll see you all soon.

The last few weeks

Jorvik eating pigs liver noodles (breakfast on Saturday) which are better than they sound.

It has been a fairly busy couple of weeks...at times. At other times it has been quite monotonous and boring. I had exams to mark for the last written exam which was held last Wednesday. All of the classes in first year (about 600 students) sat their writing exam and all of their papers were then marked by us. Apparently we had to mark them in the same way as the Chinese teachers do. This means that each teacher has a section of the exam to mark exclusively. This sucks because some of the teachers had multiple choice, black and white type sections and others (read- me) had paragraph type sections with multiple criteria to mark. Actually the whole exam was a sham in my opinion and easily the worst exam I have ever encountered as a teacher or a student, but this is not the place to go into that.

After I submitted my papers I went on a little trip to a nearby town called Pingxiang. It is about 2 hours to the Southwest of Nanchang by fast train. I went there with a guy that has been a great help to us over the course of the year. His name is Zhou Wei and his English name is Jorvik. He has helped us with Tao Bao and any number of other little problems that pop up here. So I went to his home town and met his family and some friends. It is a nice place, smaller, quieter, cleaner and basically just nicer than Nanchang.

The outside of Jorvik's house...

...and the inside.

Jorvik and his family.

An old temple which is now a museum.

The square in the center of town.

It is near the border of Hunan province and the food of the region reflects that style more so than the salty, oily, crappy food in Nanchang. In a word the food was "good." It was a short trip, we arrived at about 7pm Friday and returned by midday Sunday. during this time I was treated to many special Pingxiang "treats" as Jorvik called them. I was also lucky enough to stay at Jorvik's home...or mansion I should call it. A huge three storey house in a secure gated community on top of a hill in the North of the city. The chandelier in the lounge room was the size of a car. His parents were perfect hosts (in the Chinese fashion) and ensured that I was comfortable and well fed. Jorvik was my guide and showed me around town, temples, markets, the old sections and the new. All in all it was a good, although really hot day in Pingxiang.

A Pingxiang treat, Gui Lin Gao which is a kind of tea flavoured jelly served with honey. My favourite!!

Pictures from the last few days together in China

 

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Back online

Well things have changed a lot around here. Michelle and Penny are safely back in Australia and I have just finished my first week alone in our little house. I haven't been able to post any blogs because of the Chinese government has blocked all of the blogging sites for the last month or so. Apparently it is supposed to stop people getting the word out about any possible June 4th, 20 years since Tiananmen type gatherings. The government here is so reactionary and paranoid...oh well seems to work for them. I'm not sure that it actually had any effect anyway. The students here have been so indoctrinated into the Chinese government's version of reality that few even know what happened in Beijing in 1989. So the sites are still blocked and I am blogging through a proxy which doesn't seem to let me add any pictures.

Anyway back to the present. It's hot and lonely here. Michelle, Penny and I headed off last Saturday, flying into Hong Qiao in Shanghai and then taxi-ing to Pudong where Michelle and Penny were to board their flight. We arrived early and sat in an Italian restaurant and had dinner. Penny seemed fairly oblivious to it all but Michelle was dreading the flight, and I was dreading the thought of being so far away from my girls. Eventually we bid a teary farewell and Michelle and the little traveller walked through the gates into immigration. I waited outside the gates for a little while (just in case) and then headed downstairs and jumped in a cab. I took a hard sleeper back to Nanchang overnight so that I could make it back in time to teach some catch up classes on Sunday. It was a hell ride actually. As per usual there was a snorer on the second bunk. He may actually have been a world class snorer and I would'nt be surprised if he snored for China at the last Olympics. It was like someone sawing really old dry wood...all night.

Thankfully it has been a busy week so I have managed to pass the time quickly. I have all of Michelle's classes and my own to teach so my days have been full. Next week is the last week of teaching and then it's time to get everything together and get ready to go home...bring it on!

Back in the holding pattern

Not much to report from here at the moment. We are doing the same old same old really. Work, mark papers, make lesson plans, sleep and start again the next day. Penny and Michelle are coming back early so we are trying to get everything organised for that. They will come back on the 30th of May leaving me to finish everything here before returning on the 5th of July. Our travel insurance only covers pregnancy related claims to 26 weeks so we thought it best to make sure that Michelle was home by that time. It will leave me with two weeks of double classes and then some more exams to mark before coming home. It should be Ok as by then most of the classes will be exams or review classes for the end of semester.


We have been mailing a box a week home and are up to box four. It is amazing the amount of crap that you can accumulate in a relatively short time. especially when you have more disposable income than you are used to...We are trying to get some 'China' type household decorations for our new digs (where ever they may be). Last time around we bought them from various markets and shops on our travels around China; Beijing, Lijiang, Chengdu, Xian etc. This time its pretty much been Nanchang, Nanchang and Nanchang, (and a brief sanity restoring sojourn in Hong Kong) so we are using the wonderful taobao to accumulate our Bobo (Bohemian Bourgeois) stylings.


May day is coming up which means a long weekend this weekend which is nice. We have Friday off this week which rocks as I usually teach 3 classes on Fridays. Sweet.

The holding pattern continues and soon Michelle and Penny will be back home in the comfortable and familiar surrounds of the wonderful land of Oz.

On a different note, although one that is close to my heart, the weather here has been as variable as usual. We had a few scorchering hot dry days, some more rain and now we are back down to about 22 degrees. Lets hope that it doesn't drop any further as the winter woolies were in the first box that was sent back home!

Good news and more travels

Most of you will already know that Michelle is pregnant. She is 18 weeks pregnant and this was the real reason for our initial trip to Hong Kong. I say initial trip because we actually went back again last week. Michelle went to see a Doctor in Hong Kong as we don't really rate the medical system (or hospitals) in China. She had a couple of the usual tests (well usual in Australia) and the doctor wanted her to come back for a couple more. The end result is that everything is fine and we are expecting a little boy on or around the 14th of September. So good news all around.


Wandering along Nathan Road near Mong Kok (hee hee!!) station.

We got to spend a little more time in Hong Kong this time as Michelle wasn't able to travel for 72 hours after one of the tests. So unfortunately, well fortunately really, we had stay for a couple of days longer. With the sawing snores of the awful cabin invading harridan still ringing in our ears from our last train trip, we decided to fly both ways this time. Basically it was a more relaxing and much easier experience all round.


A double-decker tram in Causeway Bay, near Jardine Street markets

Penny got to play in numerous playgrounds, wander through lots of lovely parks and basically just really enjoyed herself. Which was great. She really came alive with the other kids in the playgrounds and we cant wait to get her back to Oz and regular playground visits.


A playground...what do I play on first???


Its all mine!!


On the second day there was a little rain which didn't worry Penny too much. She proceeded to 'clean' everything with some of our tissues. This consisted of wiping a soon sodden tissue over all wet surfaces. In fact she "cleaned" for about three quarters of an hour.


Yep, still cleaning...


Up the stairs and then...


Down the slide.

We also had enough time to check out some markets and head up to Victoria Peak to check out the view, which was awesome.


An awesome view from the top

Another piece of beautiful scenery.


The Mid-levels from uphill for a change.


Peak Tower.


The girls enjoying the view.


No that is not part of the Peak viewing platform in the bottom of the shot. That is the roof of a private residence. Not bad eh? No they didn't invite us in...


The funicular (its fun, lets say it together - fun-ic-u-lar - see, fun!) tram on the way down the peak. This baby is one of the oldest forms of transport in Hong Kong. It gets pulled up the steep tracks and lowered back down on a single cable and the views are well worth the trip.