Tuesday, January 18, 2011

A Rant on Life in Hainan

A school Photo from the beginning of the year


I have titled this blog entry a rant, as I don't really have any theme, or narrative. Just relating a bunch of stuff.


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MANY people in Haikou get excited and point when they see me... For some reason it's OK when their kids. These little ones were on a field trip. I bet their teachers HATED me. As I biked by them I yelled "HELLO" all of the kids of course start yelling back "HELLO". I was plying around with this one kid. He had a wicked high kick. When we first saw the kids they were all orderly and in a straight line... by the time I left they were a screaming mob ;)



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The first couple of paragraphs below paint a rather negative picture. I want to clarify that I don't mean to say that Vicky and I are not enjoying ourselves... we are. It's just that I often share how wonderful my adventures are on this blog, and thought some of you might be interested in hearing a few of the challenges of a life overseas. correction.. not overseas. China. This place is pretty unique. And even in China, it makes a big difference where you are. Shanghai is a world apart from Haikou...

Though the island of Hainan gets many tourists under it's billing of "The Hawaii of China" it is to the southern part of the island they all go to; Sanya. Haikou lies in stark contrast to Sanya at least in reference to it's exposure to foreigners. Vicky and I have an oxymoronic experience in that we find ourselves both in isolation and the center of unwanted attention. The people here will stare, point and sometimes say 'hello'. They don't mean any harm by it, they've just never been taught to do otherwise.

English is almost non-existent here, and neither Vicky nor I have any inclination to move our Chinese beyond the basics that we use to shop, eat and get around. We are for all intents and purposes, illiterate. If we were planning on spending anymore time in this country, I might reconsider, but we are not.

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Opening ceremony for our school's 'sports day'





Ever since the Beijing games, everyone in China thinks all sports events must be preceded by a spectacular opening ceremony. This was one of many wonderful dances





A fan dance


The Grade 12 Girls felt they needed to give their performance a certain... je ne sais qua




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Vicky and I teach about 10 hours per week (each). The other 12-15 work hours per week are spent in the office preparing lessons, marking student work, and from time to time, talking on skype, writing e-mails or playing a video game. We never take our work home with us, which is something sweet and to be savored, as I don't expect it will happen again (not soon anyway).

We teach the same 15 students day in and day out, which is great, because you get to know each of their personalities. As always, the challenge of teaching Canadian curriculum to students who are not fluent in English, is largely offset by the lack of classroom management issues. Our group of 15 kids are all really nice to each other, and seem to really be enjoying their new schooling experience. So much so we found they had spray-painted the bathroom wall, declaring "I love BC class". I'm sure any inner city teacher would die laughing hearing that the largest behavior issue is trying to make the kids contain their school spirit.

My typical work day goes like this:
6am - Get up, shower, get dressed
6:35 - Catch the bus (just outside our apartment)
7:00 - Grab spicy flat-bread for breakfast (eat while walking to school)
7:05 - Open the office, make a pot of coffee, read CBC News
7:35 - First Class begins, I read and do prep work while Vicky teaches
10:10 - I teach science/math until 11:50
12:00 - Call it a day

In the afternoon and evening, Vicky and I will often watch a TV show or movie, we go to the gym about 3 times a week. We walk in the park (some pics already posted). We seem to spend a ridiculous amount of time planning, shopping for and cooking meals. This was a real change as I hadn't cooked or cleaned for my 2 years in Dalian. We also decided that we had enough free time this year that we didn't need a maid. A maid is nice, but their work is usually sub-par. We decided we'd rather just keep the place neat this year.


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Class Field Trip !!!! (so much fun)



Vicky and I haveing a round of bumper cars with our students



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Joe had asked me earlier this year about going to the beach

Joe: So do you guys go to the beach a lot?
Dan: No, not really...
Joe: I thought you guys lived near the beach, how far are you from the beach?
Dan: About 20 min by...
Joe: If I lived there I would be going to the beach all the time. I love going to the beach.
Dan: Yea... but when you go to the beach here EVERYONE is staring at you as you walk along the beach, and then once you're settled, everyone stares at you as they walk by. It just makes it so it's not a relaxing place to be.


The same is true for many things here. Vicky and I use the gym often, but don't use the pools so often. Mostly because Vicky hates that the Old Chinese Ladies just sit there and stare at her as she changes. We go sometimes around lunch for a swim(all of the Hainanese are sleeping from 12:00-2:30). Or put on our suits and just walk over. I will also swim laps from time to time by myself, but it's not as fun as the same setup in Canada would be.

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OOOOHHHHH funny side story. A few weeks ago Vicky and I had been to the gym early enough to have a swim within the Chinese nap time. At around 2:30, as can be expected, the old Chinese people started to come out to the pool area. Now we figured we were in for a bit of a laugh as the giant hot tub had been drained earlier that day (that's where all the oldies like to hang out). We thought it was kind of weird and funny, but the first old guy out climbed into the hot tub and started doing exorcises???? We had a bit of a laugh, but what really baffled us was that they just kept coming... all the usual oldies at their pre-appointed time for their bath. It didn't matter to anyone that they were hanging around in a cold ceramic bowl, rather than in a hot tub. In their mind 2:30-4:00 is hot tub time, end of story. We cracked up. A bunch of Chinese seniors sitting around in their bathing suits and swimming caps just chatting away.

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Our Class at Halloween


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There are lots of cultural differences to observe here. One of my favorites is people walking backward down the street clapping... or people who get on the bus and touch a seat with their hand before they sit down. They believe that if you sit before the seat cools it can make you sick. Instead, in order to save the seat for themselves, they will sit on the corner like a kid who needs to pee but won't admit it.


I don't mean any of this in a demeaning way, it's just kind of funny to me ;)

Not like I ever do anything weird.

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Since nobody understands me I've taken to hanging out with this Chicken



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I've learned living here that there is no such thing as common sense. Sense is not as common as many people think. And it's not natural, it's learned.

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Anywho, great things, strange things and bothersome things aside, Vicky and I are approaching one of our favorite times of year. VACATION TIME!!! Definitely the greatest perk of this job is how easy it makes it for you to see swaths of the earth you've never been to before. This year we will travel to Hanoi Vietnam, we will work our way down the Vietnamese coast to the towns of Hue, and Hoi An. We also know of a small island off the coast of Hoi An we might try to visit. Hoi An is famous for its materials and tailors. It is here that I plan to have my wedding suit made. I've designed it myself. I hope it turns out. From Hoi An we continue south to Ho Chi Minh (Saigon). After a few days in Ho Chi Minh, we will cross the border into Cambodia where we will spend time in Phnom Penh, and Siem Reap. We plan to visit some historical (and terrible) sights here. We will also visit Ankor Watt (really excited about that one). Now... if we can squeeze all of this into a little over two weeks, we will also spend a week on a small Thai island called Ko Tao, The big one that's up in the air is how much time we spend in Hoi An since there's a lot that we want to do there, so we'll see.

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A picture of our class on Christmas Eve


Vicky, me & Coco at the "Bad Santa" gift exchange


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I'm excited for vacation.
I'm excited to see all of you again.
I'm excited to drive across the country with Dad.
I'm excited to see where Vicky and I go next. We are just starting our job search.
And I'm REALLY excited about getting married this summer.

I love you all and will Blog as I travel. Sorry about my lack of blogging so far this year. It seems I am perpetually saying I should write more often and call more often... hopefully one of these days that problem gets around to fixing itself.

Daniel

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