2--Arrving at School

Chinese mattresses are somewhat thinner than what we're used to. They resemble a massage table mattress and have a bamboo mat at the bottom, for comfort I presume. They're not so bad if you can sleep on your back, which fortunately I can. However, as soon as you turn on your side, it doesn't
matter if you have extra padding on your hips like I do, it still feels hard. But all these Chinese people manage to curl up on them and they don't complain -- ever.

The seats in the corridor part of the train, which is on one side, are little jump seats and have no padding. We sat on them for quite a while during the 20 hour trip, but every once in a while it was good to climb on the bed and be a little more comfortable. (Sidenote -- don't wear a dress
next time). People on the train have no problem sitting on someone else's bed and sharing the space. After all, you can only sit on the bottom bunk and so they are very accommodating.

All along the windows, on the curtain rods, people hang their little towels to dry. They bring these to wash their faces and hands as nothing of the sort is provided on the train. We dug out one of our orange "Rockhound" towels and hung it out just like everyone else. But apparently there is a certain way to hang it, because one of the ladies of the crew came by to fix all the towels in our area.

We managed to get about 6 or 7 hours shuteye and when I woke up, I heard the guys in the bed accross from mine, but at the bottom, slurp and chew loudly. That is perfectly acceptable in China. I spent some time looking out the window. The scenery had changed quite a bit. The lush green of the south had been replaced by more familiar foliage. Some poplars and also some
evergreens appeared by the roadside and the hills were now a more rolling form. Even the grass seemed more like that of home. The crops were mostly corn and sugar cane, we think.

But then it was time to get up, you know, the Mother Nature call. The bathrooms on the train are interesting but actually much cleaner than a lot of other ones we have encountered. There is a sort of gutter or channel with a hole in the floor. There are two small platforms the size and shape of a large shoe, one on either side of the hole. Obviously that's where your feet go as you squat down. In front of you there is a small bar on the wall to hold on to so you don't lose your balance when the train goes around a corner or something. But be sure to bring your own toilet paper. These toilets also flush - some others don't. It's an experience everyone should
have at least once, I think.

Once we decided to get up, we sat back on the little jump seats (far too small for my derriere) and wondered what to have for breakfast. The little carts did come by, but we didn't see any food we wanted to have. Then we remembered we still had the cakes that we had bought the day before. They were individually wrapped in cellophane, so they were still fresh. We started eating, and then the man who had slept accross from Dick on the top bunk offered us his package of boiled eggs. We each took one and thanked him. (Xie Xie, pronounced sort of like shay shay). They were a little hard to peel, but once we got into them, they were quite tasty. They must soak
them in a brine, because they were quite salty. We bought bottled water (we hadn't brought our own tea flasks like the locals did) and that would do us until we were to get off the train. More pictures, of course, and more conversation. A couple of times, when the train stopped, Dick would get off and buy some juice or snacks from the vendors on the station.But now came the worry of knowing where we were to get off. We didn't know the name of the city we were to get off at, and even if we did, we couldn't read the writing. There was very little Pinjin (the English way of writing Chinese) and absolutely no English. But Owen had told us that we would get
off the train around noon, so we decided to go with that knowledge. There hadn't been that many stops so it would be safe to go with that, we hoped.

Not long after making that decision, our bunkie who had shared his eggs motioned that we should get our bags down. He and another man helped Dick get the big bags to the doorway. I took down the small backpacks and then he motioned to the bed. I proceeded to fold up the comforter and told Dick to do the same on his bed. Then he motioned that the crew will do that. I
guess he just wanted us to check that we had all our stuff.A short while later the crew came by with the ticket book. When we had first gotten on, they took our ticket in exchange for a plastic card (like a credit card) which had the berth number and bed location (bottom, middle or
top) on it. Now we had to change it back to get our tickets again. That was how they make sure people get off at the appropriate stop and don't ride for free. All that worrying for nothing. We ended up with a couple of phone numbers from the people on the train. I don't know if we'll ever use them, but it was a nice gesture. Then we said our goodbyes and proceeded to
get off the train. A couple of men helped carry the heavy bags off the train and parked them by the wall on the platform.

I sat down on the bags while Dick went looking for a cart to use. He came back for his train ticket so that he would be able to get back into the station. He was gone a few minutes and then came back with a Chinese gentleman. I didn't catch his name, but it turned out to be our host, Mr.
Zhang (say: Jung). He and another teacher from the school had come for us. They told us that there was a train from Zhengzhou (where we now were) to Jinan, and it had softbeds and hardbeds, but none were available. So they had bought us bus tickets. The bus trip would take 7 hours and then we would be met by car to take us to our destination. Apparently the bus trip is shorter than the train anyway. The only glitch was that the bus didn't leave until 2:00 and it was only about noon now. So they took us to the waiting room at the bus station. We sat there for a while and they gave us bottled water which they had previously frozen. It was good to get some really cold water for a change.

After a while, Mr. Zhang suggested that we should eat some lunch. We left the other teacher with our bags and went outside the station to a restaurant that served noodles. We had some lunch and as usual people in China think I don't eat enough. (Little do they know I spent a lot of money to learn how to do that). When we got back from lunch, we sat down in the waiting room
and had a casual, albeit somewhat difficult, conversation. After a while the two men decided that we deserved to be in the first class waiting room, so we moved our stuff over there. This was a room that had air conditioning and a TV. That made it a little more comfortable. But during all this time, I had resisted the urge to use the facilities at the station. I had
tried once, and was "grossed out" by the condition of the ladies room and came back to the waiting room. But the bus trip was 7 hours, so I had to find a way. We asked if there would be a toilet on the bus, but we were told no. So now it was a case of grin and bear it. Public washrooms are a
gutter in a raised section of the concrete floor with small partition walls that are no more than 3 feet high and don't cover the front, so everyone can see you. There is a pipe that releases a large amount of water every once in a while to flush out the gutter, but people leave all kinds of debris alongside the gutter. I don't know how often this gets cleaned up, if ever.

Anyway, I found that the stall closest to the flushing pipe is the cleanest -- it gets the greatest amount of water pressure. What an
adventure!
Once I got back to the waiting room, the attendant motioned me in the direction of the boarding area. I went outside, but I couldn't see the rest of my party, so I went back to her. She escorted me around some buses to the one where our hosts were assisting with the loading of our bags. No Dick. He had gone looking for me. So now Mr. Zhang went to find Dick and I stayed by the bus. A couple of minutes later they both arrived and Dick said that some Chinese lady in the washroom would be wondering what all that yelling was about.
We got on the bus and took our seats in the second row behind the driver. Our hosts were in front of us. (Unlike Hong Kong, Chinese vehicles drive on the righthand side of the road and have the steering wheel on the left). The bus was showing movies and they even had English subtitles. The movies were kind of dumb, sort of a cross between Bad News Bears and a Jackie Chan movie. There were three in a row, none better than the others. Oh well, it was still entertainment and it made the time pass.
Of course we did have some kodak moments and halfway during the trip the bus stopped for lunch. We went into a kind of tent that had rows of tables lined up. At the front there was a lady serving up noodles with some tasty morsels on top. We took our food and ate it up (well OK, I didn't finish it all). Then another bathroom adventure. Outhouses are also interesting.
They have one or two gutters and now there is no water to flush them.
Needless to say it isn't a pleasant experience. Again: grin and bear it,
this time holding your nose.
Then we walked around the area a little bit and noticed some kids in the
park. We asked what they were doing and we were told they were doing Kung
Fu excercises. Of course we had to take pics of that.
Back on the bus and this time we caught a little shut eye. Buses will drive
as fast as they have to in order to keep to their schedule. Ours was no
exception. Around nineish we arrived in Jinan and were met by the black
Toyota owned by the school and of course its driver. He loaded our bags in
the trunk and we got into the car. We were told it would be about an hour
and a half to the school
The car was quite comfortable, obviously a luxury model. It was late and we
were tired, so I closed my eyes. It's a good thing I was sleeping.... About
an hour into the trip, I woke up to a loud squealing of the tires and then a
crash. I bumped my nose on the driver's headrest. I woke up and asked Dick
to help me find a kleenex or something because my nose was bleeding. It
stopped in a short while, obviously not too bad. There was going to be some
swelling, but it didn't seem to be broken. We got out of the car to see
what had happened. Dick told me later that the driver had tried to pass on
the right because his honking had not convinced the large truck in front of
him to move to the right. There was a good reason. A small farm tractor
with a trailer, without any lights - front, side, or rear - was parked on
the roadside and that is what we hit. I'm not sure if the tractor was
broken and they had stopped to repair it, or if they were taking a rest, but
it is a good thing that the people were not on the vehicle. They stood by
the roadside and just watched and waited. Well, all but the old man who was
obviously the owner. He and the driver from our car exchanged some loud
words and some of the other people got into it too. But it didn't last
long. A short while later an ambulance showed up and took the old man away.
He had hurt is arm or shoulder or something. The other people stood
around and waited. We took some pictures of the car, which we thought was
pretty badly damaged. The hood was completely crumpled up. The farm
tractor was a three wheeler, and the front end had been turned upside down.
I wanted to take pictures of the peasants by the roadside, but didn't think
it would be polite under the circumstances. One of the men was wearing only
a pair of underwear and the others weren't wearing much more. But that does
not bother them at all. It's hot, so who needs a lot of clothes?
About half an hour later another car from the school arrived. We were
introduced to Mr. Liu, the "head master" of the school. He and Mr. Zhang
got in the car with us and they left the driver and the other teacher to
deal with the accident. Mr. Liu speaks no English, so Mr. Zhang translated
for him. He apologized profusely, and even said the words "Sorry, sorry",
but we said that everything was OK. (Contrary to popular belief, the Chinese
language does employ the letter "r" and it is even pronounced like the
English "r"). At this point of course we were quite tired, it had been a
long day and we hoped they didn't want to do the big reception tonight.
They didn't have to be told, they realized that it had been a long,
gruelling day for us. We arrived at a large iron bar gate and the driver
honked. The gatekeeper opened the gate and the car took us around a set of
buildings to our apartment. We were told that Mr. Liu lives in the same
building but more to the east. They took us up to the third floor. Again,
the heavy bags had to be carried up, but fortunately for the last time this
trip.
The apartment had a brand new steel security door. They opened it and we
walked in. We couldn't believe our eyes! The place was gorgeous and huge.
We were in the living room and it had all brand new furniture, an air
conditioner in the corner, a water cooler, glass tables, TV, DVD player,
Kareoke supplies and huge speakers. A blind covered the window and this had
a beautiful waterfall scene on it. Then they took us to the kitchen. A
large mirror was hung on the back wall and in front of it a brand new glass
table and four blue plastic chairs. There was also a brand new refrigerator
and a brand new washing machine. The cooking area is through a set of
sliding doors onto a sort of covered verandah. It had a brand new propane
two-burner stove complete with hood fan, an under the counter 40 lb tank of
propane, a microwave (but no microwave dishes), a rice cooker, a hot plate,
brand new dishes and utensils and a dish sterilizer. Then to the bedroom,
which had a king size bed made of a dark reddish colour wood, and had the
same waterfall picture above the bed as on the blind, but this one lights up
and appears to be flowing. The headboard tilts forward to reveal a
bookshelf. The draperies and bedding were also brand new and absolutely
gorgeous. The mattress was still in its plastic wrap. The office had metal
storage cupboards and a wooden desk with a brand new computer, complete with
all the toys. Behind this room is another type of covered verandah which
has the drying bars. These can be raised and lowered by use of a crank and
have hangers on them for the clothes. There was also a storage cupboard in
this room. The bathroom had a western style toilet (yeah!) and a brand new
hot water tank with a shower attached to it. The bathroom doubles as a
shower stall, which takes a little getting used to, but is not bad at all.
The whole place has ceramic tiles on the floor. As Dick says we have a
"kitchen in a box", a "two piece bathroom in a box" with abstract pipe art
on the wall (the plumbing pipes are all on the outside of the walls, since
these are made of brick).
We expressed our amazement and gratitude, and then our hosts left us alone
to rest. They would come for us in the morning to take us for breakfast.
We wandered around a little and looked at everything and had these huge
grins on our faces. We had expected a very small apartment with minimal
stuff, but this was way past our expectations. We unpacked a few items we
would need right away, and decided tomorrow was a good time to unpack. I
took the plastic off the mattress and made the bed. OK, they don't seem to
have pillowcases, so we used the pillows with the fancy covers that matched
the bedspread. Tomorrow we would check things out more closely.
It took a little getting used to the thin mattress, but we managed to get
comfortable and had a great night sleep. But in our western way, we had
left on the air conditioner and turned on the hot water tank (it's electric)
and had the ceiling fans going, etc. When we got up in the morning -- no
power. We took a shower, but of course it was cold (lucky the weather is
hot so the water doesn't get too cold). When Mr. Zhang and Mr. Liu arrived
, together with Miss Liu, another English teacher, about 9:00 o'clock as
planned, we told them we had no power. Well, of course they had to fix that
right away. They called the repair guy over and he flipped some circuit
breakers in the hall outside our door. That seemed to do the trick. But by
the time they were satisfied that everything was working, it was closer to
10:30. They apologized to us for missing breakfast and were going to take
us out for early lunch. That's when we sprung a new word on them -- brunch.
Mr. Zhang thought that was pretty neat, and he thanked us for teaching him
a new word. We went to the restaurant by car -- it was waiting for us at
the bottom of the stairs. At the restaurant, the driver took the car right
up the sidewalk, which is probably about 20 feet wide and made out of
bricks. That is a common practice here, to park cars, motorcycles, and
bikes on the sidewalk in front of restaurants and other businesses.
We walked through the vinyl strips at the door (a marvelous way of keeping
the cool air inside), which were being held open by a couple of staff
members who were in burgundy and white striped shirts and burgundy trousers
or skirts (depending on gender). This place was fancy! We were taken up
the stairs and down a hallway. Along this hallway there are numerous
private dining rooms. We were led to our room and it had a beautiful table
set over to one side. The table was round and had a large turntable in the
centre. China dishes were set in the Chinese formal style and the chairs are
arranged in pairs around the table. We met Mr. Chang (I hope that's the
spelling), he is a "head master" of one of the other schools here in Huimin
and a good friend of Mr. Liu's. He joined us for brunch. We were told to
sit down on specific chairs and then the waitress came around to serve the
tea. After that she removed the chopsticks from their paper wrapper and
placed them on the little rest in front of each person. Then everyone
opened their bags of sunflower seeds and began to snack on those. They
asked us what we would like to drink, beer or wine. We had tasted Chinese
beer, so we opted for the wine. Well, this stuff is more like home brew. I
don't know if it's 36 proof or 36%, but it's got kick. It's clear and they
serve it in really small glasses, sort of like liqueur glasses but even
smaller. It's a good thing, cause this stuff in large doses can be lethal.
Once the food arrives it never seems to stop. They bring in one dish after
another. Some with vegetables and some with meat or fish or tofu, and the
eggs abound. There is always a great variety. Now the toasting begins.
Each person gets to have three drinks with you, but only 1/3 of a glass at a
time (unless they decide you have to have the whole glass). The toasting
itself is also subject to protocol. Our glasses were always higher than
everyone else, but the most important or most respected person would touch
the glass slightly below the top. The others would touch the glass much
lower. We were obviously very important to these people, and we realized
that this was not just another job for us. We were the first foreigners in
this county and obviously that packed a lot of weight. Talk about your
instant promotion to being a Canadian ambassador! Throughout all the
toasts and conversation the tea was continually poured and we ate. There is
always a soup, which is ladled into everyone's bowl by the waiter or
waitress. There was so much food, we didn't want to seem ungrateful. Just
before the last toast they asked us what food we would like to eat. What
did they think we had been doing? But it seems that they were referring to
the last course, which is always a starch of some sort: rice, noodles,
bread or dumplings. We told them we were full, but of course they ordered
anyway. When it arrived, we had the last toast and had to drink it all up
(they were quite familiar with the term "bottoms up" by now). Now we ate
the "food" and more of the dishes that remained on the table. Quite a
feast.
After brunch they took us home to the apartment for a rest and then in the
afternoon we were asked if we would come to the school where they had some
students assembled.
We arrived at the school and they had two big red signs out for us that
welcomed us and indicated the school had a "bi-lingual" program. They told
us that they are planning to teach some of the other subjects in English as
well. Sort of like an immersion program. Quite progressive, we told them.
We were then taken to a room that had about 60 kids in it. There were some
speeches and then they wanted us to talk to the students. The kids had all
learned their lines from their books and memorized them, so we got bombarded
by the same questions over and over again: "Is this your first time in
China?" "How do you like China?" "Do you like Chinese food?" "How many
people in your family?" "Where are you from?" and so on and so on. But this
was the first time these kids had an opportunity to use the English they had
been learning for years. We answered their questions and enjoyed every
minute of it. These students are so eager to learn and to show what they
can do. We decided then and there that we were going to like it here.
What we did notice is that all of the kids, as well as the adults, really
needed help with their pronunciation. But that was no big surprise to us.
That evening we were again taken to the fancy restaurant, which is named the
Golden Horse. It just opened this year and this is the year of the horse,
so they named it Golden Horse -- makes sense. Again we went upstairs to a
private dining room and this time we were introduced to the head of the
school board for the county and his wife as well as their son and his
girlfriend. Also Mr. Liu and his wife and son and, of course, our
translator, Mr. Zhang. The drivers are always present as well. Again we
were served way too much food and there was the formal toasting.
Conversations are always jovial and we had a great time. But again, we were
the respected guests and established a friendship between our two countries.
I wonder if old Jean Chretien could give us some kickback on that?
The wife of the school board official had a real sense of humour and kept us
in stitches all night. Both she and Mrs. Liu indicated they wanted to be my
friend, which of course I accepted. But then this lady started with the
English words she had just learned. Yes, No, Thank you. She kept repeating
them (loudly) and then I got into the couple of Chinese words I had learned.
We laughed until we cried. Both ladies wanted to learn English from us.
Then this lady asked if I could sing. Well, I had to tell her the truth: I
like to but need a bucket to carry the tune. She asked me to sing, so Dick
and I sang "If you're happy and you know it". Then she did a bit from the
Chinese opera. Wow!. Then the son's girlfriend did a little bit of her
dance routine for us. An evening we won't soon forget!
And of course, I showed them that Canadians can drink that white lightening
stuff and live to tell about it.
The following day we were to start teaching. A one week program from 8:30
to 11:00 and from 3:30 to 5:30. We didn't have much time to prepare, what
with all the dinners and so on, but we knew we would be OK. Mr. Zhang would
pick us up at 7:00 for breakfast.

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