Relaxing in Bali Jan 2012

Bali Blog 16 – 23 January 2012

Monday

My Chinese New Year / Spring Festival trip began at 8am on Monday the 16^th of January 2012 as I left my apartment, treading lightly past the hungover, semi-conscious bodies of my housemate and his two friends who grunted their goodbyes. I rode the subway for over an hour to the airport, and caught my flight to Kuala Lumpur (KL) in Malaysia just after 11am. In KL airport I ate lunch at an unfamiliar fast food chain called Merry Brown and used the WiFi in Starbucks with an iced lemon drink and a piece of “Chocolate Tuxedo” cake, very flavorgasmic indeed. I spoke to Yvonne and Sunshine, who I have adopted as my Chinese older sisters. I plan to visit Yvonne in Shanghai in February (she has kindly offered to buy my flights) and again with Sunshine at the end of March. Something to look forward to :) After a second flight, I bought my visa on arrival ($25). The man at customs was handsome and called me Katy Perry jokingly. I met the hotel's driver outside then it was a short drive to the hotel, a small walk down a dark and intimidating alleyway and I arrived around 10pm, in total a 14 hour trip door to door.

Tuesday

I slept soundly and on Tuesday morning I checked in and enjoyed the delicious inclusive breakfast of toasted sourdough with butter, honey and homemade papaya jam, fruit salad and juice. I spent the remainder of the day sunbathing by the pool. I read the entirety of Fenton Johnson's 'Geography of the Heart', which I thoroughly recommend. It is his account of two contrasting upbringings, experiences as a homosexual man in a time when attitudes towards and awareness of homosexuality and the AIDS virus were still limited. He tells the story of how he meets his partner and their unlikely relationship (one HIV negative, one HIV positive) until his partner's life is claimed by AIDS. Although it is a touching story, about a devastating event in the life of the author, I was left most of all with an impression of the power of unconditional love and a lot of hope.

Unfortunately I was so wrapped up in this excellent memoir, I got a little sunburnt!

The Island Hotel offers anyone staying for more than a certain amount of nights a free massage. On Tuesday afternoon, filled with the kinks and creaks of a long journey on top of weeks of teaching, I went to see the masseuse, who relaxed me into a stupor.

Wednesday

With an Australian girl I met, I went to the beach on Wednesday and we each bought a book. I chose The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. We had brunch at a restaurant on the sea front, which was completely delicious and reasonably priced. I had Eggs Benedict with bacon, and my new favourite drink, papaya and lime juice. I started reading my new book as soon as I got home and later we watched The Hangover on the big screen projector in the social area.

Thursday

On Thursday it rained in the morning, dampening our plans to visit the beach again. Later we joined a Canadian and two English girls for a pedicure then went to the beach as the weather cleared up. We paid patronage to Frank's Bar, a ramshackle collection of benches, simple wooden tables, beach umbrellas and a huge stack of Bintang beer crates. We drank and watched the sun go down, then we were joined by Frank, Josh and Budi. Frank was tall, slender but toned, with skin like black treacle and dreadlocks past his hips. He played the bongos as Josh brought the drinks and Budi, a 49 year old with a shock of wildly spiking grey hair, played guitar and rasped out 90s pop songs. We soon joined in singing at the top of our voices so that not even the wind could snatch them away. It was one of the girls' birthdays and as soon as they heard this, Josh also pulled up a bongo and treated us to a rendition of Happy Birthday, first in English, then in Balinese and one more time in English. It was powerfully positive and irresistibly rhythmic. I wished it was my birthday! Later, over a delicious dinner of Mexican food, we all agreed that bongos were definitely amongst those that made guys sexy musicians.

Friday

I read all of Friday morning and some of the afternoon to finish Stieg Larsson's 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo', which I found to be at times highly statistical, with a deeply detailed, potentially plodding storyline interspersed with several intense descriptions of rape and torture scenes. Perhaps not the most relaxing holiday read, but engaging nonetheless. I had handmade pizza for lunch, stone baked in an outdoor oven, very good indeed. That afternoon I spoke to my mum over Skype then visited the book shop and swopped my book (at only half the price) for 'Turtle Feet', Nikolai Grozni's memoir of his time as a Buddhist monk. Then I sat alone on the sand and watched the sun set over the Indian Ocean. I was joined by Budi, the 49 year old busker from the night before, and we talked about life, money, the job situation in England, technology, specifically iPhones, and his situation. He says the money he gets from busking goes to buy new guitar strings, which are expensive. The guitar was a gift from a foreign tourist 5 years ago and seems to have transformed his life. His passion for music is evident when he plays and sings, although he described his unemployment as 'lazy', etching the word thoughtfully into the sand as he said it. He often plays at Frank's bar because “Frank knows my story” and occasionally someone buys him a beer. Sitting with him on the sand, the waves threatening to tease our toes as they advanced, by only the light of three lonely stars and the civilisation behind us, I was struck by the beautiful simplicity of our exchange. How nice to listen and be listened to, removed from differences in culture, language and age. Especially so to feel safe and free of sexual predation in the sole company of a man I didn't know. I wandered home and watched Scott Pilgrim versus The World on the projector, a film which is endearing to me simply for the level of passion I imagine to have been shared in its creation. Meetings of geeks in Nintendo and 'Mmm... π' tshirts exclaiming “It would be so awesome if we put a Pee Bar behind his head!” and “How epic would it be if two CG1 dragons flew at them!” Haha~

Saturday

Breakfast on Saturday was just as delicious as all the other days. I caught Alex awake and on Facebook at around 3am UK time and we chatted for a while, always a pleasure. With two of the other hotel guests, I walked to the beach, but the weather was wet and windy and more than once on the way we had to wade through large dark brown puddles. After lunch I had my first hot stone massage with coconut oil. It was quite possibly the best massage I've had to date, lasting an hour and a half, and leaving my skin feeling soft with the coconut oil.

In the evening I watched 'Confessions of a Shopaholic' made barely watchable by the delicious Hugh Dancy. Afterwards, I listened to Steve, an Australian hotel guest with long grey hair and a guru style beard, sing and play the ukelele.

Sunday

On the last full day of my stay in Bali, I woke up late, ate breakfast, sloped around the internet before giving that up and going for a walk. I bought a vibrant tie dye scarf, the colours of the rainbow. On my way back, I bumped into Steve and we went for lunch, talking about language inquisition, history and music. I feel I have given more time to the older generation this trip, which has left me surprised at and proud of myself. I see it as a positive thing, and hope I can continue it. For the rest of the day I browsed the internet, speaking at the same time to my friend Tom in England and my friend Johnson in his hometown of WuHai in Inner Mongolia. Technology has such a potential to consume our time and take over our lives in a negative way, but without it, the life of a traveller would be increasingly lonely and difficult to organise.

I leave The Island Hotel and Legian at 11am tomorrow morning to catch a flight to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. I will meet my friend Jane there, who has promised a trip back to Penang and motorbike lessons. Now that I feel I have given myself ample relaxation time in Bali, filling days with plans to do sweet nothing or little, I'm excited to start a busier holiday. After that, of course, I will return to China and to work to see my children. Life just gets better :)

Living in China Aug - Jan 2011

Shenzhen Blog
23 August 2011 – 15 January 2012

I have now spent 5 months living in China. These are some of my impressions so far.

Housing
On my second day in China, after staying the night with a friend of Yvonne's, I met two of my new colleagues and we set about finding apartments. The third estate agency we tried, after insisting that we didn't need something brand new or luxurious just because we were Western, showed Tom and I an apartment on the 17th floor of a building with an amazing view of the surrounding area. It was stacked floor to ceiling with possessions and even had an upright piano in one of the rooms. The view and the western style toilet sold it for us and we signed a contract to live together only a few hours after meeting for the first time. The rent is £180 each, excellent value for money compared to renting just one room in a house in England, never mind renting half an apartment. Amazingly the current tenants were able to vacate in just one day, piano and all. Our colleague and his wife settled on a brand new building, where the fridge and television were still in their packaging. Our double apartment door opens into the living room with a hard wooden sofa and chairs. We have a small balcony which holds two chairs, a washing machine and bizarrely a sink, and of course the awesome view. Left of the living room is a corridor to the kitchen on the right (tiny), Tom's double bedroom on the left, then my single bedroom on the right, with the fully tiled bathroom at the end containing aforementioned western toilet, sink and an open, wet room style shower. My room has a hard, thin mattress, built in wardrobe space and a small study room leading off it and the better view :p We also have 24 hour security, who are very friendly but who speak no English. One of them looks only 17, dressed in what we call his “Action Man uniform” of a dark green camouflage t shirt and combats.

Food
A variety of delicious food is available nearby as we live above four restaurants and a few shops. We also live a few minutes walk from American supermarket Walmart. Chinese food has a lot of variety, with different cities and provinces specialising in their own style of cooking. For example, the cuisine of Sichuan province is renowned for being hot, spicy and full of chillies. Coastal cities boast numerous types of seafood. Shenzhen also carries plenty of western and international food. In the first month or so, Tom and I had 'Foreigner Friday' when we would treat ourselves to non-Chinese food.

MKC
I work at one of the schools belonging to Manhattan Kids Club (MKC), relatively young company run by an interior designer who, although Chinese born, lived in America for many years. Its fair to say I have a love hate relationship with the school. They enforce strange rules without explanation, constantly checking and evaluating our work which makes myself and the other staff feel that they don't trust us. This led me to tears several times in the first couple of months, but after asking around and reading discussion boards on Chinese management styles, specifically in dealings with foreign staff, I am now aware that this is simply how Chinese bosses differ from English ones. It is widely agreed that a good teacher should be in possession of adequate patiences, but I feel that my manager tests them far more than my students do! Looking at things from her perspective, she is at the mercy of parents, who pay £10000 a month for their child to attend and who she is scared of displeasing for fear of losing business. The emotional welfare of staff and students seem to take second place. Her satisfaction that the business is running smoothly over whether the teachers are allowed to work effectively, the physical safety of the children (to superstitious levels) over allowing them to have fun and discover their own resilience.

My Class
At Manhattan Kids Club I teach the youngest class, mostly aged 2, with a couple of them turning 3 after a couple of months. My class was initially of only 4 students, but that has gradually grown to 10, with 4 or 5 more joining us all at once after the Spring Festival holiday. I have a large classroom divided into the teaching area, where we also put the beds out during nap time, the tables where the children eat and colour their workbooks, the play area and the soft reading area. We also have a bathroom and storeroom. I enjoy decorating the display boards to reflect the themes of my teaching. I am assisted at all times by my teaching assistant Phoebe and my classroom nanny Lin Ayi (Aunty Lin). Phoebe is 21 and was at first a little hesitant with her English. However, I have seen it grow as well as her confidence (hopefully due in part to my influence). I have been actively encouraging her to be assertive and independent, and to have faith in her competence. Actually, she is a very good teacher and I feel lucky to have her help me with the translation, behaviour management and preparation for Arts and Crafts projects which take a lot longer to prepare than it takes for the kids to attack them in their enthusiastic way. Lin Ayi is older, with a 16 year old daughter. She speaks next to no English, apart from the basic commands we give the children constantly, such as “Wash your hands”, “Go pee pee” and “Sit down”. My wish to communicate with her has given me extra incentive to continue developing my Chinese. She is excellent with the children, and can often stop them crying where Phoebe and I fail. Although the children see her as a soft touch, and therefore a push over on the behaviour management front, I have seen her more and more asserting her authority with those children who refuse to eat, fight or switch off their hearing at moments opportune to them. Their presence makes my job a lot easier.

Chinese Fashion Sense (generally speaking)

Men: The Token Parentally Approved Boyfriend (white shirt, glasses, navy trousers, rubbish haircut) The Not So Sporty Sporty Type (head to toe Adidas / Kappa / Nike) The Workman (paint and dust covered denim, with more denim) Korean Pop Star Wannabee (Leather jacket, a tshirt with English on it, any old English at all, whether it makes sense or not) The Rest (some kind of polo shirt, without fail)

Teenage Chinese girls: Anything fashionable, Hello Kitty, teddy bears, bows, lace, frills, dungarees, hotpants, knee high socks, platform trainers, big glasses, curling tonged hair.

Women: Dungarees, teddy bear jumpers, lace, frills, bows, some kind of height inducing footwear, curly tonged or permed hair.

Older women: Garish jackets in pseudo traditional Chinese patterns, permed hair, small dog in tow.

The Rules of China
1) You can't live in China if you're scared of lifts.
2) Chinese people can't queue. They will push their trolley into your back in supermarkets. Not maliciously, just because they think a couple of centimetres will make all the difference.
3) In traffic jams, they love using their horn, especially when its obvious the only thing it will accomplish is to make every other driver become pissed off, or start doing the same.
4) Motorcycles, scooters and bicycles are commonplace... on pavements.
5) If you say something in English in an English accent, they won't understand. If a Chinese person says the English in a Chinese accent, they will.
6) In China, every request has to be dithered over and argued about first.
7) “Meiyo” is the worst word ever. When you hear it, your stomach drops and all hope is lost. It literally means “don't have” but is often used to mean “No way”, and often “I can, but I won't”. Imagine a builder has been in your house for months on a two week job, and you ask whether him, and his team of tea guzzling, bottom exposing louts, will be done anytime soon, and he responds with “Nah, mate”. That's the British equivalent of “meiyo”.
8) There's a 5 step rule to speaking Chinese to Chinese people. You will, more often than not, have to repeat the phrase 5 times before they will respond. The first time, they don't listen because they are thinking “Oh my gosh, a foreigner is here!”. The second time, “Oh my gosh, the foreigner is saying something”. Third, “Oh my gosh, a foreigner is talking to me!”. Fourth, “Oh my gosh, is the foreigner speaking Chinese?!” and finally “Ohhh... I get it”. It can be frustrating, to say the least.
9) Staring. Lots of staring. And occasionally, paparazzi photo taking can ensue. Its a fact of everyday life.
10) China is an amazing country, not just for its rich history and beautiful landscaping. It is also well documented to be a place of political unrest and questionable human rights. Consequently, people are a little odd, and regularly bemuse me.