Turkey, Temperatures, and the Passing of Time

Well, it's officially December now, and the last week or so has brought with it some changes to life in Jiujiang. First of all was Thanksgiving. It seemed that it would pass without notice until I got a door-opening text message from my fellow CIEEer Laura. We had been invited to a Thanksgiving get together by one of the older foreign teachers in town that Laura had met a while back. Laura couldn't make it, and I had never met him, but I showed up at a bus stop, not quite sure what to expect, but excited to hang out with some foreigners nonetheless. It was quite a strange experience, walking into that house. I hadn't been with more than one non-Chinese (and therefore English-speaking) person since our trip to Xi'an two months ago, so entering a house in Jiujiang with more foreigners than I could count on one hand, and all of them speaking a language I could understand, was a little shocking! Alright, we didn't actually have turkey, but there was chicken and mashed potatoes, some pasta and veggies, and a few Chinese dishes thrown in the mix too. It wasn't the traditional Thanksgiving feast we're all used to, but what made it special was all of these people from all over the world coming together to celebrate. Even though we couldn't be with our families, we managed to be there for each other and have a good time celebrating the things we are thankful for here.

potluck Thanksgiving dinner

Since I had to work the next day, I didn't stay too late, but it was nice to meet everyone, especially some of the foreigners that have been here for a while. The next night, we ended up running into some of them walking around after dinner, and they introduced us to a place called "Freedom Bar" over by the big university (where most of them teach). Night life here is mostly KTV joints (karaoke) or clubs, they don't really do the 'bar' thing, so it's nice to finally have a more chill place where we can just go sit down and have a drink. It's pretty much the hang out for all of the westerners at Jiujiang University too, so we can always count on running into some familiar faces when we head over there now. In just a few weeks it's become my 'go-to' place on a Friday night (and sometimes other times too!)

winning night out with new foreign friends!

(see fb for more pictures chronicling Jiujiang's nightlife soon!)

Change number two came with the beginning of December. It's gotten cold. From what I've been told, when winter comes here it's like a switch turns on, and it will pretty much stay like this until April. Now, cold is a relative term. The weather here is actually really similar to the weather in Austin/Waco, so it's not like we're talking arctic temperatures or anything (those can wait until I travel around in January). We had some low 20s last week with some storms, but it's mostly been in the 30s/40s. But the key difference between winter in Jiujiang and winter in Austin is that there is no central heating here. I am lucky enough to have an electric heater in my apartment (one of the stipulations of my contract through CIEE), but it only works when it feels like it and I can only heat one room in my apartment at a time. But nowhere else has heating. The restaurants, the classrooms, etc are all pretty cold now. Time to bust out the coats and scarfs!

My final note for this post is just to remark on how much time has passed since I arrived in Jiujiang. December 1st was the 3-month point, which kind of caught me off guard. I have now been in China longer than I was in Maastricht! But it certainly doesn't feel that way. Time is passing very quickly and the days feel shorter than they did there (probably because I'm not jumping on a train to another country every weekend like I was then). This experience has been so different from that one. Not better or worse, just very different. I'm not quite sure how I feel about this observation that time is inevitably passing. I'm enjoying my time here, but it's going by faster than I thought it would. But, I don't really know what that means or how I feel about it, so for now, it's just a thought that can run around in the back of my mind while I'm otherwise engaged.

I'm down to my last few weeks of teaching for the semester and have begun the daunting task of planning final exams for 180+ students. I am also planning my whirlwind tour of China for the winter break in January/February with some other CIEE folks from Jiujiang and Harbin, but more on that another time. I'm sure our adventures will fill many a blog post by the time we're done!

That's all for now! Keep warm and enjoy the holiday season for me!

The General State of Things

I’m realizing, looking back on my blogs, that a lot of what makes it up here is very disjointed. It fluctuates between generic, touristy information and random experiences that seem noteworthy at the time. (This is probably also because I update so rarely – still working on this!) But there’s not too much about my everyday life here and how things are really going. Hence, an update on “The General State of Things.”

It’s November now, and I’ve been here for over two months now. That’s kind of hard to believe – time is really flying by! That being said, I’m definitely finding that things here have reached a certain level of normalcy. For the first few weeks that I was here, everything seemed so new and different, often outrageously so, and life was a constant stream of culture shock and daily absurdities. But now, I’m feeling more comfortable with the way things work. Don’t get me wrong, there are still some weird things that I won’t probably ever get completely used to, and it definitely still feels different than life in the more familiar western world. It’s more that I’ve come to expect it, so it doesn’t faze me so much. I can cross the street fairly nonchalantly without really fearing for my life anymore. I’m learning to ignore the staring, most of the time. Alright, only some of the time, but still. Baby steps.  It doesn’t bother me so much that I can’t read anything in the supermarket. I just go with the flow and if something’s not what I thought it was, then oh well! (All though it helps that I can understand when they tell me my total, and I can say, “I want that one” and things like that) Eating out involves much “Chinglish” and gesturing, but I can get by.

Classes are also going pretty well. I’ve gotten a better grasp on the levels of my various classes, so I can plan my lessons more effectively. This whole teaching thing has also done wonders for my public speaking abilities. Shy little me can speak in front of crowds now, no problem! There is one negative on the teaching front though. A few weeks ago, I started teaching a 10-week course, twice a week, for other teachers at the college. It had its ups and downs: about a month in, I still don’t have the teacher’s edition of the text book, so the school wasted a bunch of money on that; there’s a lot wider range of English abilities among the teachers than my regular students, largely because there’s also a wider age range; the class gave me the opportunity to meet some non-students, which is always good, and I’m hoping some of the friendships I’ve made will last throughout the year; extra pay is always good. But, I found out this week that the class has been cancelled. The last two classes I have only had two people show up, so the administration decided to call it off. I think they’ll try to restart it in the spring when, I am told, the teachers’ loads are not so heavy.

The students. I love love love my students. They are all so nice and excited to see me out and about. Two of them have taken it upon themselves to be my personal tour guides into Jiujiang’s nightlife, which is a surprisingly fun scene. Last week, I had my first KTV (Karaoke) experience with another, larger group of students. I have frequent requests for them to “be my friend” and I am always happy to oblige! It’s really pretty great being the same age as my students. Hopefully this trend will continue!

Other than that, there is not much more to say. The weather here is just starting to turn cooler, although not really cold enough for my taste. I am regularly asked why I am not cold and told that I should wear more clothes by students decked out in several layers and winter jackets. They can’t quite seem to grasp that I can not be cold when its 55 or 60 degrees outside! I alsorecently completed a week of Halloween lesson plans, complete with pictures and candy, which was a fun cultural diversion from my poorly written textbooks.

I’m sure some element of homesickness will set in as November gives way to the holiday season. But, for now, I’m just enjoying things here. Hopefully, more updates will come before long! Bye for now!

Welcome to Jiujiang

Today marks my 14^th day in Jiujiang. So, it’s about time I introduce you all to my new place of residence! I arrived in Jiujiang’s pathetic excuse for an airport at about 8:45 on Wednesday, August 31^st. Since my flight was a little early, I was waiting around anxiously in one of the two rooms in the airport for my ride to get there. Before long, I was greeted by Hamlin, my school’s Waiban, or Foreign Affairs Officer, who is basically my tour guide, translator, security guard and general go-to guy for the duration of my stay in Jiujiang. Since it was dark and raining, I didn’t really get to see much on the sketchy, seatbelt-free taxi ride to the school, but I was just eager to get to my apartment and get some sleep.

My first few days were full of cleaning (still an ongoing process), unpacking, meetings with various school personnel, and meals with my Waiban at the hotel where my apartment is (more to come on my living quarters in a later post).  I met with my boss in the English department and finally found out my schedule for the year. I would have the weekend to get settled and ready before classes began on Monday, September 5^th.   

the building where all my classes are held

I teach 7 classes every week – a pretty light load considering I’m getting paid incredibly well compared to my Chinese peers! Four of my classes are Oral Business English for English majors and three are Oral English as an elective for non-majors. Each class lasts 1 hour and 40 minutes –two 45 minute halves with a 10 minute break in the middle.  Unfortunately, the elective classes run until 6:00pm Monday, Thursday and Friday. This is a little later than I would have liked, but my morning schedule is, well, a lot lighter, so I guess I can’t really complain. I have class from 2:30-6:00 on Monday, from 10:00-11:40 on Tuesday, no class at all on Wednesday, and 4:20-6:00 on Thursday. My busiest day is Friday, when I have class from 10:00-11:40 and then again from 2:30-6:00. Since all of my classes are oral English, I have pretty much no grading to speak of, so my only responsibility outside of class is lesson planning. 

courtyard inside the teaching building

one of my classrooms

 Outside of figuring out how on earth I'm going to be a teacher, I’ve spent most of my time these last two weeks getting settled in my apartment and wandering around the city (here begins the tour guide portion of today’s blog). Juijiang is located in the north of China’s Jiangxi province (see map below).  As Jiangxi’s second largest city, Jiujiang’s administrative district has about 5,000,000 people in it. The “urban” population, however, is only about 600,000. While this sounds like a perfectly good sized city to me, it is quite small by Chinese standards. In fact, it was described to me as being “more like a town than a city” by one of the Chinese students in Shanghai. 

Jiujiang’s two major claims to fame are Lushan, the famous mountain just south of the city, and the Yangtze River which flows through the north of the city. The name Jiujiang means “nine rivers” or “nine waters” so there are numerous other lakes and smaller rivers that run through the city. While this makes for some very humid weather, it makes navigating much easier. Since I can’t read any of the signs, I use the lakes and other waterways as points of note on my mental map so as not to get lost in the huge labyrinth of streets and dirty alleyways.

 

the many waters of Jiujiang

My favorite discovery to date is the park/kids amusement park/all around fun center located in the middle of the lake about 10 minutes from my school. Although it’s full of slightly decrepit-looking rides, old and shirtless smoking Chinese men, and some very loud insects, it has a certain charm that has already made it my favorite place in the city. Whether for people-watching in the park, reading a book in one of the hidden-away corners, or relaxing on the little island in the lake with some local music, I am sure I will spend many an hour here over the next few months.

entryway to my island getaway

That's all for now. Goodnight (or morning, depending on where you are)!

Caroline