It is sweltering hot here, 34 degrees, dry and dusty. Imagine walking 2 kilometers in this noisy city, big black cars, green-and-yellow taxis, tuk-tuks and bicycles all jostling for some maneuvering space. And EVERYONE hoots! By the time I get to Real Life, I am boiling hot with perspiration streaming. (My brisk walk has declined into a slow-energy-preserving-stroll to ensure that I don’t arrive at work looking like I’ve just run a marathon.) In this heat it’s not unusual to see people on the streets eating ice cream for breakfast.

Dust hangs over the tar streets for it has nowhere to go and the particles clamour for position in an ever-increasing smog-filled sky. One day after the ai (I’ve found the correct spelling for my cleaner), has come to clean, I can see my footprints in the dust on my bedroom floor. What am I doing here …..?

Christmas arrives early
But on the 30th May I received, what my teaching colleagues fondly refer to as a ‘care parcel’ from home. My first parcel from South Africa! Packed with tender loving care, containing some of the most special things I could dream of – my books on South Africa and China, including Antjie Krog’s new collection of poems and an African atlas, which I want to use during the next English corner (more later), software for my new notebook, Watershed CD’s, loofah gloves, body butter, (two batteries – one can find batteries in this techno mad country, but it seems that they slipped in) and oh-so delicious, Lindt dark chocolate.

In Beijing there’s SHOPPING and shopping
The China World Shopping Mall is a mecca to compete with the best in the world and I’m talking 5th Avenue New York here! It has a Louis Vuitton store spread-eagled across three storeys, selling the latest of Uma’s bags, shoes, clothes and watches. Right next door is a Prada, Tods, Van Cleef and Arples. I couldn’t find a Tiffany’s, though. I wandered around for hours on end and even though I could not afford to buy a single item, I felt quite at home. Maybe being a westerner, I could hide behind my aquiline features and make some of the Chinese sales people believe that I was earning more than a mere pittance every month.

From China World Shopping Mall I took a taxi, pointing to the place on the map I had and said, ‘zhega, zhega’, which translates into, ‘this, this’ I was dropped off in front the Silk Market. Four, five, six floors of dirt cheap wares. Ranging from clothing, shoes, bags (all label names) to Chinese calligraphy treasures, watches, technical gadgetry. If you’ve been to the Oriental Plaza, you may begin to understand what I am talking about – thousands of stalls with determined sales ladies, accosting one with a ‘… hello lady, you want Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada …?’. And I have to admit; I succumbed, I did buy a few trinkets from this market and I will certainly be passing that way before I leave China.

My strategy in dealing with the swarm of sales people is to turn my music up real loud and not make eye contact. Regardless, it’s draining swatting them away and I don’t exaggerate when I say that they get very physical and too close for comfort in trying to barter their wares.

After my shopping exploits I had to find somewhere to re-energise and found myself in Hou Hai again – next to the beautiful lake, surrounded by the weeping willows.



A few of the nine milion bicycles are for hire around Hou Hai



In China, Mahjong is a game played with 4 players similar to Gin Rummy and I found a lane, next to the lake where peddlers rent out tables and people sit around playing for money.



What’s it like teaching at Real Life English?
Working days start at 13:30 and end at 21:30 - Tuesdays are my really heavy days and I teach non-stop from 16:00 – 21:30, Wednesdays and Thursdays are acceptable and on Saturdays I start at 10:30 and finish at 18:00. Sundays and Mondays are days off.

Every teacher has a core class – a group of students of similar ability that study the same syllabus for a period of 12 weeks and then hopefully progress to the next level. My core group is at intermediate level and I see them twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I give them homework that I mark on my days off and every fourth week, they write a progress test. Having passed their final test in week 12, they then graduate.

Below are Manuel, Sherry and Takuro. Manuel is a languages student and his nickname is ‘Shiver’ so dubbed by the other teachers, as he really gives one the shivers. I still reserve judgment, but have received a few questionable sms’s from him. Sherry will be leaving at the end of June as she’s been transferred to Hong Kong for two years. Takuro, is Japanese and has come to China to study Chinese and English. During the mornings he studies Chinese with the academy and in the afternoons he studies English. Truly admirable ….



I assisted with the lessons and graduation of group of students from the Hilton and in this photograph we’re celebrating their graduation.



From next week, I’ll have four or five more students in my core class, as classes are being rationalized. Besides my core class, I also teach electives. We have a local Assistant Director of Studies (ADOS) called Audrey who prepares all of the topics for classes for the teachers and we need to do research and make copies.

Last week, I had to teach an advanced class on the Peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Mind-map in hand and having scanned www.answers.com, I was ready.

On a Friday evening the school is open to everyone who’s interested in becoming students and from 18:30 friends of friends arrive for three hours of free English and spending time in the shadow of native English speakers. It’s called ‘English Corner’! It’s havoc! Busy, busy, western music playing, pool table beset by a few; groups of students surrounding the three of four teachers who are doing English corner. Its three hours of torture! I am still becoming used to the demure pronunciation of the Chinese and struggle to hear them. Once I understand the question, I then invariably end up speaking for three hours …. Phew. But I have a plan! There’s a game called ‘Killer’ that I’d like to introduce as an option to blah-blah’ing. I’ll also bring my ‘realia’ – real stuff from South Africa along.

In addition, I also do ‘Help Desk’ where students may ask for assistance during the course of the day. So for an hour or two, I sit in the students’ area and answer specific questions or just chat in general. There’s much more general conversation happening than pointed questions.

My passion is Pronunciation and on a Saturday afternoon, I fill up one of the large seminar rooms, running through ‘Ship and Sheep’ – a tutorial on pronunciation. The Chinese find it difficult to vocalize and I have a fun time getting them to speak LOUD and CLEAR and S-L-O-W. Try saying:
‘A proper, copper coffee pot’ quickly and see how you measure up!

In Beijing there are many migrant workers from the north and west rural areas of China. These migrant workers are impoverished beyond belief and are treated as third rate citizens. One of the teachers at Real Life English has been very active in a school for migrant children and on the 1st June we celebrated Children’s day here. 20 of the pupils arrived in their finery and entertained the school for more than an hour. And I mean finery, tinsel in hair, costumes, makeup – it was an awesome spectacle! The teachers at this migrant school earn less than R300-00 a month and the first thing they handed out were red scarves for every on-looker to thank us for our generosity . It truly was an enchanted afternoon.





But have you found the soul of Beijing?
Before I left South Africa, someone said to me that China has no soul and in my experience to date, this is corect. I have not found the soul of Beijing, but I see soul in the dedicated worker-students that attend class after a hectic workday until late at night, I see soul in the teachers and kids from the migrant school, I see soul in the taxi driver who decides to play western love songs when he picks up two westerners …. 

The case of the missing roommate
My roommate has returned from her (illegal) sojourn in Tibet and I’ve had a fine time getting used to sharing space with another person.

I did my best, suggested a dinner together and we talked. A week later, I was still fighting for space in the cupboards in the kitchen and hanging space for my washing. I had a heart-to-heart with her and I believe that she’s trying really hard to get used to me too. It’s like living with my oversized teenage daughter ….. Did I say that I wanted kids??

My emotional barometer
As my missives are written over a couple of days, I vacillate between sheer joy and ecstasy and deep, drowning despair. I find that being cooped up in my room really gets to me and when I have my days off, I’ll travel from place to place to seek out some green, some shade, sunshine and fresh air. This topsy-turvy routine is also very unsettling. When I get to Thursday evening I am totally and utterly wasted and feel as if I can sleep for days on end.

I too miss being able to put on some running shoes and go for a run in fresh air, on roads that are not undergoing some sort of reconstruction. I have not been able to run outside for longer than 20 minutes, as I cannot find a route in which to run in peace.

I find joy and peace in the lessons with a few students and I suppose that I am going to need this oasis in a desert of noise, action-loaded encounters to breathe life into me every now and then.

I have also bought a bunch of St. Joseph’s lilies for the apartment and my room; and yesterday I discovered a shop that sells Verbena candles. The fragrance in my room is intoxicating and uplifting.

Trivialities*
1. When a baby is born in China, its first birthday is only celebrated on the 100th day. In this way, longevity is ensured.
2. The government controls the emission levels (in Beijing) and even if the weather forecast predicts sunshine, it may be totally overcast, as the emission levels have been increased.


* I can only assume responsibility for the experiential quality of the trivia above and not for the factual accuracy