My time in Yantai so far
Trip Start
Apr 26, 2006
1
10
14
Trip End
Sep 09, 2006
Yantai,
China
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Sorry about gap in contact, but I've been trying to settle in here and wait for some news to appear. Yantai is a pretty average Chinese city to stay in I think, although Sam who has come to stay thinks that as there are no tourists the locals do more bizarre things and stare more (which I would have to agree with) but the area Im living in is really good and having my own little space has to be the best thing that has happened, ever. There is a fresh sea food market most days, and another indoor clothes market which sells lots of cheap hand made fabulous clothes. Unfortunately China is not what I was expecting in terms of cheap electrical goods, everything seems to be a few paces behind the UK. They still sell tapes and tape players everywhere. News since I last spoke to you all being Iv decorated my room, its now got a few Manga posters up and souvenirs from Beijing
'Times Square' 2
. Music Iv been getting into and I recommend everyone should listen to is Cat Power, The Greatest, Stereolab and Iron and Wine. As my package from home hasn't arrived yet (with Chinese learning pack) My hand has been forced, and Iv been indulging in super cheap DVDs from the local market (at around 8 Yuan each its about 50p a piece) Our local DVD shop as a secret door at the back covered in posters where you can get DVDS that are out at the cinema or just coming out and some other rather less appealing titles (such as a huge collection of porn films that western stars have starred in that are banned in the UK) Recomended viewing for this week is John Woo's Hard Boiled (if you like beautifully shot and well choreographed Kung Foo) Farewell My Concubine (an excellent Chinese film that manages to deal with the issue of homosexuality in China very effectively considering it was only declared not to be a serious mental illness about 4 years ago by the government)and Top Gun (many humorous homo erotic overtones and excellent 80s sound track makes for an entertaining viewing) Going out to buy myself a pair of aviators today as a tribute to Goose.Teaching has been harder this week, the novelty of being the new foreign teachers has worn off and Iv lost my temper twice. The 1st time was quite humorous, my 'kim jong il' class of Koreans were being very surly in general and when one of the boys started imitating my accent I lost it and screamed 'If you would shut up for just 5 bloody minutes you might actually learn something'(in true frustrated teacher fashion) Spoken in rapid Glaswegian though, so as not to actually be understood
'Times Square' Yantai
. And of course they just continued to stare blankly. The fact that I have difficulty with they're facial expressions seems to work both ways, they cannot read mine either so it took them around a minute to figure out I was angry. I have also been discovering that around half of the middle school boys do not speak English, and this is accepted by the teachers which makes my classes with them difficult as they do not wear signs on their forehead. Yesterday I had a go at two of them only to be told that 'they dont learn English' by the teacher, which would be fine if they didn't disrupt my classes by giggling and saying rude things in Chinese. Thankfully the language barrier comes in handy in these moments and I get to call them whatever I want in the most sarcastic of tones and they will still nod, smile, and say 'yes miss mhairi' when they figure out that Im pulling an angry expression. Humorous moments have been plentiful this week though and the lows are outweighed by the highs. In my last class I was doing the differences between the UK and China on the board and after a few perfectly PC answers about the weather food etc came shouts of 'Yellow' 'Yellow' teacher. As they grew louder and louder and I could not ignore them any more I then had to try and explain that this was 'not good English' and 'Asian' was better, much to their confusion (I think they are taught this at school.) Also my Korean kids on doing the differences between China and Korea said that 'Chinese people dont shower' and 'Food is made of oil here' I then took much delight in teaching them 'greasy' and 'smelly' as really showering and oil free food are not high on some peoples agendas out here.Last weekend in Yantai was by far the funniest so far. There was a big group of us out and we have all ranged to go on a 'Road Trip' (yes Iv been hanging around too many Americans) to Qing Dao this weekend. Its about four hours south of Yantai and its a major beach resort where the locals think its good to be tanned
A fellow Scot! Collin from the Shetlands
. In China people (especially woman) use parasols in the sun, and often wear gloves and always tights partly to protect themselves from the sun and partly to cover up. Or big 80s looking visor things that cover the whole face, which along with the gloves are just as much to protect themselves from dirt and pollution as the sun. And as I have been discovering much to my skins anguish, just like most beauty products in the UK are geared towards the 'bronzed' look, in China they seem to be aiming for the bleached look (Im on my 3rd bar of soap now, as the other two turned out to be skin bleaching soaps.) The nightlife there is also supposed to be better(which means less Chinese dance music/phillipino band schmaltzy coldplay covers.) However this week there has been a bit of a weird one socially. Helen has had a friend from Beijing staying (I prefer 'fling from Beijing' actually) hes called Sam and Bens been in Beijing sorting out his visa for India as he goes next week. So Ive been doing lots of organizing decorating and lesson planning, but hopefully this weekend will make up for it. However as its been a bad teaching week for me I've been having thoughts about how Im going to cope with another month of surly teenage faces (as Im not sure if me and Helen are going to swap primary for secondary as was originally planned) as we feel we have got to know our kids too well to start over again. But then again when I have a good class I want to stay on here over the summer! It really is true that you only feel as good as your last class. Me and Helen are also supposed to be visiting a rural primary school where they have never seen a foreigner before which should be fun. Anyway got to pack for Quing Dao now,should be lots of sun sea and sand! Byeee 
