Post #109 1 July 2016

Gentlefolk,

With our imminent departure from China, we've been saying goodbye to friends.  This post is about a couple of "farewells" we hosted recently for colleagues and friends.

I'll do another post on going out with friends.

Our social life is limited in China. Not that I'm complaining, but it's a different lifestyle to back home. Here we have small group of foreign and Chinese friends, mainly teachers, who we see fairly regularly.

Of the UPC teachers, we are firm friends with Michael and Steven - have lunch together in the Tang Dao Wan Canteen most days (sometimes Karishma and/or Jens join us, or some foreign students), and a group goes out to dinner every Sunday night,

This semester I had classes 4 nights a week to start, and later 2 nights a week.  Vera had private students on Wednesday night, Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Saturday night.  So most of our nights were committed.  We never went to a movie, or dancing, or lectures, or played golf, as we often did in Canberra.

The younger teachers sometimes went out to bars, but after teaching a night class for a couple of hours (7 - 8.50pm) we'd just want to kick back and relax by watching a DVD or reading the China Daily, or surfing the internet - frightening how much time one can spend (waste?) on the net!

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter etc are blocked in China (The Great Cyber-Wall of China protects citizens from insidious Western ideas), but Sykpe and email are available.  Although our internet access was sometimes volatile (would send us into a panic, we are so reliant on computers and the internet now), communicating with family and friends these days is so much easier than even 10 years ago.

Our days were taken up with reading, preparing lesson plans, biking, gym (3 mornings a week), occasionally meeting friends, swimming (on Sundays), watching the occasional rugby test at Knuckles or Legends, and of course teaching.

You couldn't call the life of a foreign English teacher 'strenuous', but one way or another the days seemed to fill up.  It's a relatively easy job, but having said that I always took time to prepare detailed lesson plans and to think what and how I should teach to achieve the greatest effect.

Chinese college students, overall, are great - respectful and eager to learn.  It was a pleasure teaching them.  They realised that I was dedicated to develop their skills/knowledge, and responded accordingly.

Dinner at home, Sunday 12 June 2016

This semester we have hosted a dinner every month for friends and colleagues. The June dinner was our chance to say goodbye to them.

I really don't know how Vera does it - she can conjure up food for a dinner or lunch, seemingly 'at the drop of a hat'.  Fortunately she enjoys cooking, and is keen to introduce Indonesian cuisine, which few people have tried.

After dinner Sun Yu entertained us with her Er Hu, a traditional Chinese string instrument.  Then Steven got his guitar and sang some songs (he does a great rendition of House of the Rising Sun!).

Later we played  a team variation of "20 Questions" - always fun.

We started at 6.30 and everyone was gone by about 10pm (some had early classes Monday morning). It was a casual, enjoyable night with a nice group of friends.

Vera made a range of dishes, including 'Gado-Gado' an Indonesian salad.

'Mine hosts' - but it was all Vera's work. We only have a small kitchen, and limited cooking facilities, but somehow she cooks up a storm.  Everyone loves her cooking.

Our female guests, from left: Sun Yu (International Office); Hao Yu (Gautier's wife); Wang Si Qi (French teacher); Karishma Prasad (Australia)

Our male guests, from left:  Steven McCune (US); Gautier Plassais (France); Graham Kendall and William Ong (Australia); Dr Laxmisha Rai (India); not shown Michael Christensen (US).

It's chow time! From left front: Gautier, Graham, Michael, Steven, Rai, and Vera.

Sun Yu entertained us on the Er Hu, a traditional Chinese instrument. She is very good.

Vera & Hao Yu. She met Gautier while studying in Lille, France. They have a beautiful daughter.

Our guests brought a big cake to mark the occasion. From left: Vera, Sun Yu, Wang Si Qi, Gautier, and Karishma.

Lunch at home, Friday 24 June

UPC runs an intensive German course for students planning to study in Germany. We got to know two of the German teachers fairly well, Thomas Weische and Jens Schmidke.  Both were accomplished linguists. Thomas spoke fluent Chinese and Arabic, as well as English and German. Last year Jens completed a PhD at Michigan State University, and is fluent in Spanish, English and German.

Next week Jens will leave for his new position as German lecturer at a university in Jordan, so Vera put on a 'farewell lunch' for him. Nice guy, we wish him well. 

From left: Steven McCune; Gautier Plassais; Vera; Jens Schmidke; Karishma Prasad; Thomas Weische; and Michael Christensen.

Dinner, Monday 27 June

As Michael, Steven and I all had Monday nights free this semester we organised "Monday Night @ the Movies" in our apartment. Vera made dinner and then we would watch the latest episode of 'Better Call Saul' (a spin-off of Breaking Bad), and more recently 'Game of Thrones'.  

Michael is a whiz at downloading stuff from Chinese websites.

Monday 27 June was the final episode for this season of Game of Thrones - exciting stuff: blond Dragon Queen; lovable Dwarf; good-guy Jon Snow; assassin Arya; scheming Queen Cersai & her brother Jamie;  etc, etc.

From left: Michael, Steven (patting his belly as he usually did after another great home-cooked meal), and Vera. We'd get together every Monday night for a home movie.

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Well, that's it for this post.  

It's actually been quite an emotional couple of weeks, saying goodbye.  

I'll do another post on outside dinners with friends.

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Best wishes, keep well and keep smiling.

Alex & Vera Olah

English teachers at the China University of Petroleum, Qingdao

www.upc.edu.cn

Friday, 1 July 2016

PS Today my blog has received 11,000 hits, since the start in February 2014.