17--Pear Blossom


It seems that little by little the signs of spring had been showing up. The farmers were working the fields with mule-driven plows and seeding and planting trees. They spread plastic out in long rows to protect newly seeded fields and provide much needed moisture. As the seeds begin to
sprout, holes are punched in the plastic to allow the plants to pop their little heads out over the sheets of plastic. Quite an ingenious way to seed without having to transplant or use bedding out plants.

One morning I awoke to the sound of what I thought was a tractor that kept stalling out and then being restarted. But it was still dark, and what farmer in their right mind would run a tractor in the dark over here? Finally, the noise had completely woken me up and I got up. I looked out
the window in the drying room, but couldn't see anyone in the field. When I opened the window I realized what I had been hearing --- frogs. They happily croak and chirp in the little pond out behind the building, and since the weather has warmed up, they are quite active.

Before going to Jinan and Qufu, we had made arrangements with Mr Su to see the pear blossoms in the county to the north of us, Yang Xin. It had been decided that we would go on April 16th, and we had been asked to teach a class at the school there before going to see the blossoms.

We walked with Mr Su and his daughter over to the square at the main intersection, seeing as the road had been dug up and was completely impassible by traffic. (In the way of the Chinese, though, as time went by, the hill of dirt that had been placed as a barrier ended up with some paths
over it that could be navigated with bikes and motorcycles, and eventually, they even used a front end loader to remove a portion of the barrier so that traffic could pass.) It seems that in China they also have the two seasons we refer to at home: winter and construction.

Along the way, Mr Su was met by numerous people that he knew and he would stop for a quick chat with them. Stopping to greet a friend is a Chinese custom that is very important, and you can observe it on the streets at any time. Mr Su has a large number of friends, acquaintances, former students, and so on, so he stops quite often.The car of the Yang Xin school was picking us up at the corner, and we didn't have to wait long. We were introduced to Mr Li, who had been a student of Mr Su's some time ago, and was now an administrator for the Yang Xin school. His English was quite good and he told us a little about his school on the way there.

The trip took only about 20 minutes or so and then we pulled up into the courtyard of the Yan Xing school. It seems Mr Su had also spent ten years of his life at this particular school, which was a middle school (junior high) and had some 2,000 students.

First we were escorted into the board room which sported numerous plaques on the wall, obviously excellence awards. There was a large oval table in the room which had the typical Chinese feature to it. In the centre there was a well in which they had laid artificial turf and on top of that placed pots of flowers and plants. I've seen this in the Chinese movies, and on the
news too, and it really makes the room warm and friendly, a good way to approach a business meeting.

On the table they had placed plates of fruit, of course the most abundant of all being the pears. These pears were large, yellow and more round than the pears we're used to. They offered some to us, and we ate one each. I wish I could have taken them all home with me, they were delicious! More crispy than I thought pears would be, and a very pleasant mild taste to them, these pears have earned their reputation. We learned that the type of pear is Ya and the word for pear is Li, so these are YaLi (YahLee).

We visited for a while with Mr Li and a few other people and then we were escorted into the theatre where the kids were waiting for us. We had been asked to do a specific lesson out of the Grade 2 book. Now, this book is one that I refuse to use in my classes because I really detest it, but the lesson they had picked was all about comparatives and superlatives, so we ventured into it. They knew the material, so we decided to concentrate more on pronunciation, as we usually do.

At the end of the lesson, we taught them the song "You Are My Sunshine" and wrote the words on the blackboard. We gave them some time to write the words down, so they could sing the song after we left.

Mr Su liked the song and said it was a good one to teach them. I kind of wish they hadn't given us a prescribed lesson to teach, because we could have done much more good with our own material, but, as usual, we did what they asked.

After the class we went back to the boardroom and now we were joined by all the teachers, who asked us questions. The first few were all about how the students could learn English better, and we answered truthfully that the Chinese system is far too concerned with grammar and memorization, where we concentrate on learning by doing and on communication. After a while, the teachers were reproached by Mr Li in Chinese, and the questions changed to other topics. We answered all the questions and were observed by the teachers, even the ones who didn't dare speak up. Afterwards it was time for more pictures, out in the hallway and then outside.

Next we were taken to a classroom of Grade 1 students who seemed to be going over their physics test, and I recognized a bit about light refraction. We walked around and talked to a few of them, and had our pictures taken, of course.

Now it was time to go see the pear blossoms. We got back in the car, and a second car with some of the other people from the school came with us. We stopped at an area that had an observation platform and climbed onto that. All around us we could see the white flowers on the pear trees. I tried to capture on the camera the vastness of the pear orchards, but I'm not sure that it came through. Pear blossoms are pretty, but not very fragrant. We were told that the trees we were looking at were quite young, but we were also going to a place where the trees are much older.

We stepped off the platform, after the obligatory pictures with all the members of our little party, and looked at the souvenirs. Dick found a long brass pipe with traditional etchings on it, similar to the long pipes we've seen the women hold in pictures. He managed to bargain a good price for it, and it is now part of his brass collection.

We got back into the car and went to another orchard. The weather had gotten quite warm, even hot, and we were given some canned pear juice to drink. A very fine drink it is, we enjoyed it tremendously.

We wandered around the orchard for some time, taking numerous pictures. But having Chinese people around, they always seem to think that you have to have pics taken with people in them. I managed to get some of the scenery, but again Mr Su proceeded to take a bunch of pics with me in them. Oh well.

When we arrived at the restaurant for lunch, the heat had gotten to me, and I ended up not eating lunch. The men were all quite concerned about me, and they asked the staff to let me make use of one of the hotel rooms so I could lie down for a while. I did, and was glad of it. After about a half hour they came to get me, and I had a little bit to eat.

They asked if I needed to go home right away, but I told them I felt much better, so we could continue our tour. They had planned to take us to one of the Chinese kindergartens which was run by one of Mr Li's old classmates, another ex-student of Mr Su's. (Are you getting the trend here?)

The kindergarten, or nursery school, I'm not sure which, was built in the typical Chinese style. It had a courtyard, which doubled as playground complete with playground equipment made of metal pipes and old tires, a building for teachers' offices, etc, and a building for classrooms. First
we visited with the principal of the school and her assistant. We were offered fruit and tea and sat and chatted for a while.

Then they led us accross the courtyard to the classroom. There were about 30 children being very quiet and sitting very straight on their little chairs all around the little tables. I assume these children were about three or four years old, and they were very polite. Dick got them up to sing Head and Shoulders, but I'm not sure that they understood what he was doing.

We got some pictures of them, and of course the adults wanted pics of us with the little ones. Some of them were not too sure about getting that close to us, but they warmed up to us after a few minutes. A couple of twin boys had come in during our visit, and when they were led to us to have their pictures taken, they were quite shy. However, as soon as they were placed by us, they backed right into us with their hot little bodies. Chinese people wear long johns and layered clothing well into the spring, and even on this day, as hot as it was, they were wearing sweaters.

After visiting with the principal and vice principal for a while, and of course more of the obligatory pictures, we headed back home, tired and hot, but very happy to have seen more of the Chinese culture and way of life.

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