Last couple of weeks of classes

Well we are finally approaching the last few classes. Michelle and I have both finished teaching for the year and now only the delights of testing remain. We have some classes in the week of Christmas but are just showing a movie as all of the exams will have been completed. We had a relatively warm spell for the last week although today seems to be back to the normal low temps.


Penny interacting with the locals. This is in one of the "brown spaces" on the campus.


Skidoosh!!!


Penny and Shellby.


Yes Penny still enjoys "cafe culture" here in China. Baby Vienna and donut with whipped cream anyone?

The air pollution seems to have increased in the couple of days and the visibility has dropped considerably. Its kinda like the days when there are bush fires on Mt Cootha (in Brisbane for those non-brisvegans) except the smell is more "chemical-ly." When we brought our clothes in off of the deck yesterday they smelt like they had been airing in the smoking room of a chemical waste processing plant. Nice!


This photo was taken at around 5:15 pm yesterday and you can see the thick crappy smog in the air. Needless to say it was a short sojourn outside.

The pollution here has become something of an issue. The last time we were here in Nanchang it was OK. The air pollution wasn't too bad at all. However there seems to be more cars, factories and dust than last time. Michelle read something about the air pollution targets here in China. Each province and city has to reduce their emissions to reach new targets. Some provincial governments are managing it and some are trying but not quite getting over the line. However Jiangxi seems to be going the other way. In fact the polluters are moving here as the provincial government wants their money (in bribes most likely) more than they want clean air and a healthy populace. In fact between the dodgy people and extreme weather we came to the realisation that Nanchang is actually the "Ipswich" of China...

As such we are actively looking for jobs elsewhere after our contract here is up next June. We are thinking of somewhere in Shandong province. It basically consists of a large peninsula just West of Korea and is known for its clean air and nice scenery. Maggie, one of the teachers here is from Shandong and her and her husband Ryan lived in a town on the coast called Yantai which sounds nice. There are a couple of International schools there so maybe it is a goer. We shall see.


These little suckers are called Nan Feng Mi Ju and are delicious. Basically they are a minature mandarin. The people here go crazy ape-shit bonkers over them and rush the fruit stalls selling them like a boxing day sale at David Jones. They are good, really sweet and usually seedless. Penny really digs them too which is great. Although after being given over 5 kilos as gifts from various sources we are all well and truly sick of them...


We all have our winter coats now which is good timing with the below zero months close to hand. We all have goose down jackets which of course are stylish and really warm. Penny is modelling the pink pointy hooded pixie look whilst dancing around the table playing her gourd pipe (there is a shortage of standing stones and pan pipes here so the pixies have to work with the materials on hand).


I had a look out of the kitchen window into the awful weather this morning and saw some street cleaners with their stick brooms scraping the dust into the teeth of the horrible arctic wind...of course the dust just blew right back into their faces and eventually landed back where it was. Oh well at least they have jobs I guess. Sorry about the quality but this one was from my phone...I promise I will do better next time.


Here is a high note to end on...the lovely Miss Penelope.