Living and Teaching Abroad

Nanjing, the Local area.

This morning whilst my eldest was at his art lesson, I took a wander round the area and took the opportunity to snap a few photos.  The area is full of little restaurants, come sunset it gets incredibly busy, with every restaurant packed to the roof and many street vendors about. There is a small market that sets up at about 10am and continues late into the night.

 

Nanjing ladies preparing the greens for one of the restaurants whilst sitting on the side of their stools.

 

There are many shops offering individual music lessons at a really reasonable price, approx 70RMB. This is one of the teachers having a practise between students.

 

You never know what you might come across here.

 

Caged chicken waiting outside one of the restaurants.

 

Caged cats also waiting outside one of the restaurants.

 

A little ginger out to dry in the sun outside another restaurant.

 

There are also plenty of hairdressers in this area.

 

When you go into a restaurant it is normal to get given a teapot of hot water to drink.

 

More restaurant workers peeling the veg.

 

This is an unused shop and home to several workers.

 

The outdoor kitchen area of one of the restaurants.

 

The chef preparing food in an outdoor kitchen area.

 

Always an exciting and interesting place to wander round. You never know what you might see and home to some of the best fried rice ever.

 

 

 

 

 

Beijing- A whistle stop tour.

Chinese New year or as it is known here in China, Spring Festival is the most important of all the Chinese holidays. This year we had my father visiting from Ireland and decided to give him a whistle stop tour of Beijing. Below you will find some photos and details of our short but well packed trip.

Traveling during Spring festival can be difficult to say the least. Hundreds of millions of trips take place by train, plane and road, leaving it difficult to get tickets especially at the begining and end of the week.

I got lucky and secured tickets for the fast train to Beijing on the Saturday which was New Years Eve. It was busy but manageable. We took the metro from the train station to the stop close by our hotel and walked the remaining 15 minutes. I was glad to reach the hotel and check in was painless and quick.

This is one fast train.

We stayed at the Crowne Plaza for a reasonable rate. They had a special on for the week which was a family buffet for 128RMB a person, under 6 were free and it included soft drinks and local beers. This suited us perfectly and we ate there every night.

I had booked a tour for the next two days, as I wanted to get a lot done in little time so a tour seemed like the best option. I had done a similar tour in Beijing before. This time we went with a different company as they offered better value for money. They didn't charge for the children. You can find their website here. http://www.beijinglandscapes.com/

Our first stop was the Ming tombs. We had great weather and the place was virtually empty.

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g294212-d319105-Reviews-Ming_Tombs_Ming_Shishan_Ling-Beijing.html

You can read some reviews here. The Tombs have really mixed reviews. I have seen them twice now so I have no real desire to see them again. I guess they are worth seeing once. I would recommend a guide or at least a guidebook.

All items have been removed from the coffins, so now they are just big empty boxes but people still like to throw money in.

Here we can see the Emperors Throne.

The area around the tombs is amazing, as is the view.

After we left the tombs we went for a traditional Chinese lunch, which was fantastic and then we drove up to the wall. We went to Mutianyu. I had been to this section before and really loved it so we chose the same one again. You can find more information on this section here. http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china_great_wall/scene/beijing/mutianyu.htm

We went on New Years day. It was definitely the best time to go as there was very little people there as the photos will show.

We bought return tickets to go up the wall; we went up in the ski lift and down on the toboggan. It cost 80RMB per adult. The children were free. I should point out that my eldest is 1.19 meters tall. One more centimeter and I have to pay for him.

A quiet day on the wall.

What a view. This is definitely a must see place. We actually met a lot of the cast from River Dance on the wall, they were over doing a 25 city tour and were dancing in Beijing.

 

When you do these organised tours in China you must make a few stops in some government sponsored factories and shops. A lot of people don't enjoy these but I have to admit I found most of them very interesting. Plus they are warm and have decent toilets.

Government Tea shop.

Learning all about tea. I tasted some amazing teas here.

The jade factory. Another interesting but a little long visit. We also visited the Chinese Traditional medicine centre and the pearl factory.

That night my father and my son and myself went to a Kung Fu show at the Red Theatre. It was fantastic. I thoroughly recommend it. My son sat in total silence mesmerised by it.

 

The next day we started our tour in Tiananmen square and moved in to the Forbidden City. It is important not to underestimate the amount of walking required on this tour. You need to be fit.

Looking at the first gate to the Forbidden City from Tiananmen square.

 Inside the Forbidden City.

This guy was a big hit with the children.

This was hidden round the back of the city, there was nobody there. We were brought by our guide to meet the Nephew of the Last Emperor. You can get him to do some beautiful calligraphy for you, for a price. There is much debate as to whether this really is the nephew or not. All I will say is that it seems like only foreigners are brought there and you are not permitted to take photos. There are many threads about this online.

One of the many beautiful roofs at the Forbidden City.

 

After leaving the Forbidden City, we went to the Temple of Heaven, stopping for a fabulous lunch a long the way.

The Temple of Heaven.

We went out to the Sumer Place after the Temple of Heaven. The lake was completely frozen and people were out skating on it.

The next morning we popped out to Beijing zoo to see the Pandas. The ticket for the Panda enclosure cost just 15 RMB and the children were free.

Taking it easy at Beijing zoo.

There were plenty of Pandas at Beijing zoo.

 

All in all we had a lovely visit, we had wanted to go to a market but unfortunately they were all closed for Spring festival. We managed to see many of the big sites. The tour cost 1620RMB for 3 adults and 2 children, that included all the sites, two lunches and the kung Fu show. As we say at home: You couldn't beat it with a stick!

 

 

7lbs in 7 days with the Juice Master, Jason Vale

I decided whilst I was home over Christmas to do a detox when I returned to China. I had overindulged with fried breakfasts, chips and chocolates and my body was crying out for some care. So I downloaded the 7lbs in 7 days app for the ipad and read through it and watched the videos. I was hooked and went straight out and bought some spirilina and wheatgrass powder to bring back to China with me. I shouldn't have bothered, as they are both available locally. Ah well.

The program works by making fresh juices each day and consuming them and nothing else apart from water. There is no solids, no tea or coffee and worst of all for me no coke zero. The app is good and there are videos to show you what to do. My eldest became obsessed with them and would go round the house quoting from them, things like:' now if you don't have a wheatgrass juicer!'

 

My terrible juicer, I wish I had a Philips!

In my first week back I bought a juicer, the best one they had in the shop. It cost me 35GBP and comes with a blender. I now hate this juicer.

You need a huge amount of fruit and veg.

I looked around the grocery shop to see what was available and them made an online order to Shanghai for the things I knew I couldn't get. Such as avocados and limes. I should at this point mention that I hate vegetables and never eat them. I am not too bad with fruit but again I rarely eat any.

This is the healthiest our fridge has ever looked.

So armed with my new app and a whole heap of fruit and veggies, I got up 45 minutes earlier every morning and started juicing. My juicer has a really small chute so everything had to chopped up first to fit in. This was a little time consuming. Also as I was working I had to make enough for the whole day by 2 as they Hubby decided he wanted to give it a go as well.

Here I am juicing one morning before work.

I have to say I really liked the juices, I felt like I was filling my body with proper goodness for the first time ever. It was the juicing I hated. I didn't mind cleaning the juicer but because of the volume I was doing each time, I had to keep stopping and empting and giving a quick clean to the machine.

Here I am with my first juice.

I didn't get all the ingredients needed so I had to make some of the juices without. I cannot find beetroot anywhere. Limes and avocado have to be got from Shanghai. Even the Yogurt was difficult to get.

Even my eldest joined in, but he was not as keen on the actual juice as the youngest was.

We stuck with it for the full 7 days. To be honest I didn't really miss coke, which I though I would. I never felt hungry, which I also thought I would and I liked most of the juices. By the end of the week I was glad to have seen something through to the end. I felt that for the first time ever I was giving my body the nutrients it deserved. I lost 2.9 kilos and the hubby lost 4.5 kilos.

The big difference for me now is that I have decided to incorporate fresh juices into my everyday life. They are such a good kick-start to the day. I will of course eat solid food but I am not ready to give up on the juicing just yet.

 

I should also mention that I signed up on the website and had motivational videos emailed to me every day. There is also a Facebook link.

http://www.juicemaster.com/

Back to China

Coming back to China is not something I ever really look forward to. Being in China itself is great but the journey is long and tiresome. And no matter how good the boys are I know that there will be a price to pay for the long journey on the other side. Jet lag is a total nightmare, especially with small children who want breakfast in the middle of the night and want to play cars when I all I want to do is sleep. Then having them just drop of to sleep in the middle of the day when I am trying to keep them awake so they will sleep that night.

This time we had a slightly different journey ahead of us. Going home for Christmas is expensive so in order to afford it we had to fly back into Shanghai. Normally we fly into our local airport at Nanjing. The difference here is significant.

This is our journey back.

I woke at 5am to get dressed, sort out the bags, organise breakfast and dress the boys. The hubby cooked and at 6am we sat down to sodas filled with bacon, sausage and egg. 

Dublin Aiport.

Leaving Dublin

Looking down on Dublin.

At 6.45 we left the house and drove 2 hours to Dublin airport. We arrived and checked in for our flight to Heathrow. Normally we fly via Frankfurt. I was not looking forward to Heathrow as we had a tight turn round. We had two hours from when we landed from Dublin to take off for China.

The flight from Dublin is just over an hour long and passed without incident. This time our youngest had his own seat, which was nice.

For those of you who have navigated your way round Heathrow before you will know that it is huge and can take a considerable time to move round. We landed in terminal 1 but were leaving from terminal 5. On the information leaflet they give you it says that it can take up to 90 minutes to transfer. As soon as we exited the plane we wasted no time in heading straight over to terminal 5. We took the shuttle bus and on reaching terminal 5 went through the boarder agencies check and security. Queues were long but moved quickly. We arrived into terminal 5, there was plenty to do and see but unfortunately our gate was a 20 minute walk away and we had to head straight to it.

In the air.

We arrived about 10 minutes before boarding the boys enjoyed looking out the window at all the planes. We boarded the plane during pre-boarding and took our seats. I had 3 middle row seats for myself and the two boys and Hubby was in front. He swapped with our eldest during the flight. The flight was fine. The boys were good and slept a little towards the end of the flight. The food was pretty good and overall the flight was comfortable. We arrived in Shanghai right on schedule, 10 hours and 50 minutes later.

A bit of spotting in Heathrow.

The train station is 60 km from the airport in Shanghai. So we decided not to mess around with buses or metros and just take a taxi. The journey was uneventful and cost us 280RMB around 28 GBP.

The next part is the really fun part. On arriving at the train station I have to buy tickets for Nanjing. Sounds simple. It is important to take into account that there is a very good chance the ticket seller will not speak English. I want the tickets for as soon as possible. I want us sitting together and most importantly I want us on a fast/ bullet train and not one that will take half the day to get there.

Waiting for Mommy to come back with the train tickets.

I go armed to the ticket desk with my passports, money and a screaming baby. You have to stand very firm as people kind of sweep in from all roads and directions. And just as I am approaching the counter, the youngest goes totally mad. He starts screaming and kicking, so I decided to take him out of the pushchair and carry him to calm him down. All I succeeded in doing was bringing the screaming closer to my ears. I did eventually get the right tickets with a little help from a girl in the queue behind me.

Getting tired on the Bullet after his long journey.

The bullet train is just over an hour long. The seats are comfortable with lots of room or us and some baggage. We arrived in Nanjing at Lunchtime and were home in a taxi half an hour later. I was relieved the journey was over and we had made in back in one piece.

 

Things I miss from Ireland.

Obviously it goes without saying that I miss family and friends but being home this Christmas reminded me of the other things I really miss. Mostly food of course!

1. Milk.  In Ireland we drink a lot of milk. It is perfectly normal to have a pint of milk with your dinner, I really miss that. A nice cold pint of fresh cows milk with every meal, especially a takeaway. The hubby always finds it weird when we are out for a pub lunch and he sees so many people drinking pints of milk in the pub.

2. Proper chips. I really have a chip thing. I love them with lots of salt and vinegar, coleslaw or garlic and cheese. Chunky chips as in proper chip shop chips are virtually impossible to find in China, as they were in Qatar and Kazakhstan too.

3. Fried breakfast. I love bacon, I like sausages but given the choice I would take bacon every time. Where I come from we have a popular fried breakfast treat called Soda Farrell’s. Amazing! You use it like a bap and fill it with bacon, egg and sausage.

4. Chicken balls and gravy chip from the Chinese. I can't really explain this. The gravy is like a thick black tar, messy but fabulous and the chicken balls are huge with proper chicken and most importantly no bones, ( if you live in China, you will understand this one)

Now some non-food items.

5. The open fire. You just couldn't beat it with a stick. Not to mention walking into a warm house.

6. New series on UTV. UTV always have great programmes on. We don't have a TV in our house in China but if we did we wouldn't get programmes like these.

7. Tesco’s and Asda. Yes I am kind of back to food again. It is just the selection. I sometimes feel that I could just cry as I walk around these huge supermarkets. There is so much to choose from. I  might be worth a look at my local supermarket in China to get a real idea of how fabulous Tesco’s really is!

8. Driving. I actually don't drive, it is a long story and when I should have been learning I used to hitch everywhere instead. But the hubby does and having access to a car is fantastic. We can just hop in and go wherever.

9. Music sessions. Sitting in a pub in rural Monaghan and watching instruments being passed across the bar to customers, there really is nothing like it. These impromptu sessions are excellent.

10. VPN. I love not having to use a VPN at home. Using a VPN is not difficult it's just a pain and doesn't always work.

11. A babysitter. When I am home in Ireland my mother is always available to babysit. We don't have a sitter in China so we never ever go out.

12. Restaurants. In Monaghan we have a great choice of restaurants. 

Coming home this year for Christmas was lovely, I got to catch up on all the things I miss but most importantly our family got to catch up with friends and family.  Now if only we had of had a little snow, it would have been perfect. 

Saint Patrick's Trian, Armagh, Ireland.

Just before Christmas I brought the boys down to St Pat's Trian in Armagh as I have done on several occasions. This time was special as we were heading for down for the Grinchmas special. The boys were very excited. I bought the ticket for 7.50GBP and we headed into the cinema to start our Grinchmas experience.

http://www.armagh.co.uk/event/happy-grinchmas-let-loose-with-dr-suess/

After watching the movie, we were escorted over to the craft room, were the children had a choice of decorations all with a Grinch theme to make. The boys were given lots of assistance and each made a beautiful Christmas tree decoration.

Busy making decorations.

Lots of fun.

The end results.

After we finished making decorations we wondered up to the land of Lilliput. This is an interactive section that tells the story of Gulliver's Travels. We first entered into the paly area and could spend as long as we liked there before entering into the self-guided story of Lilliput.

There was a great selection of clothes to dress up in, for children and adults.

All dressed up.

Lots of fun playing on the slide.

There was plenty of play things for 'lets pretend'.

The friendly Giant told us the story of Guliver. The children were pretty scared at this point. He is huge!

Value for money? yes indeed. This place never fails to impress me. They have different galleries with changing exhitibitions, very friendly and helpful staff and there is always something to entertain the children.http://www.armagh.co.uk/place/saint-patricks-trian-visitor-complex/

They are open Monday to Saturday from 10 to 5. Definitly worth a visit.

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Castle Leslie, Glaslough, Monaghan, Ireland

Castle Leslie, Glaslough, Monaghan, Ireland

On Christmas Eve we got invited down to an evening of Christmas Carols in Castle Leslie. Castle Leslie is a beautiful estate in the village of Glaslough in County Monaghan. It hit the news a few years ago when Sir Paul McCarthy got married there.

http://www.castleleslie.com/

A copy of the invite.

There are many Christmas trees dotted around the Castle.

Another Christmas tree.

The Beautiful Choir singing around the piano.

A view down to the bar area with more Christmas trees.

The children joined in with the choir.

A view of the entrance at dusk.

We had a lovely evening of mulled wine, mince pies and a wonderful choir. What a fantastic start to Christmas.

Communicating in China.

When you decide to move to a new country one of the considerations has to be, how you plan to communicate. When you go to big cities in China like Shanghai or Beijing more and more people can speak English. As you head out from these cities you will find it more difficult to come across people who speak English. We live in one of the smaller cities, Nanjing. Occasionally we do come across people who speak English but mostly they don't. So people ask me all the time, how do I cope?

I have a very good example from last weekend. I was getting a piece of furniture delivered at about 8 am the phone rang and it was the delivery driver. I answered, he spoke Chinese, I apologised and hung up. I guessed it was the driver or company, as I knew I had the furniture coming some day soon. I tend to do this a lot. Look for the context. I communicate with my Ayi in this way, a kind of process of elimination. I know she is not talking to me about world peace so the topics are somewhat limited to the household and the children. My understanding of Chinese has improved a lot, but my spoken Chinese is dismal.

After I hung up the phone I went and got my 5 Year old. I explained that Mammy had a call and I think it might be the driver. So I asked my son to ring the number, explain that someone would be home all day to accept the furniture, ask what time he would arrive and how much it was going to cost. My Son called him up, asked the questions and informed me he would be here this morning and his charge was 60 RMB.

I then received a text message. So I copied it and pasted it into Google translate, it was from the removal company telling me they were on their way, could I confirm my address and the cost involved. I entered my reply in Google translate and messaged them back. Done and dusted. A couple of hours later I had my lovely new piece of furniture sitting in my living room.

I am heavily reliant on my Son for translating, He is only 5 and although he doesn't mind, I really need to start formal lessons myself. The problem is I am so busy I just don't know how I would fit them in. In the mean time, Google translate, my son and some very good friends at work help me out with all my communicating needs.

 

My Lovely new Cupboard.

A Year 9 poetry exercise.

With my year Nine English class we are lucky to have a small group of students, all of whom are very interested in writing for pleasure. So we have tried a number of writing exercises which we have read aloud to each other. I have decided to joined in. It has been a while since I have written in such a forum but I have enjoyed the results.

This poem came from an exercise where we had a series of cards in different categories: character, object, feeling and place. Each of us filled in a card from each category. We then shuffled them and handed them out randomly. Just to give it a bit more of a challenge we all decided that we must write 200 words- no more; no less. The results were interesting including an existentialist murderer who befriended a Giraffe called Emily whilst in Wonderland...

Here is the one wot I wrote:

 

 

The Old Wooden Toothbrush.

 

The bristles of the toothbrush in her hand

Were worn and broken; the veneer was chipped-

Exposing gently rotting wood beneath.

Each brush sent a shiver down the old girl’s spine,

It whispered: “Time to let me go.”

“It’s time! It’s time!”

 

The tepid water coursed the many changing channels in her hands.

And slewed across cracked varnish on her nails.

The skin was loose, where once warm hands she held:

Parents, lovers, children

Hands long grown and stale.

A voice within her welled 

“It’s time! It’s time”

 

The water laughed, chattering of an untouched Narnia of memories

Beyond this brittle wardrobe, door locked, key lost.

Beyond friends called; friends long gone.

She listened hard:

Voices!

Running with the water;

Rattling down drainpipes,

She heard them call:

 “It’s time! It’s time!”

 

A warm tear fell soft upon her cheek.

The ghostly grace of good times past

Reflected in her mirror:

Lipstick gaudy on once plump lips.

How many mouths those dying lips had kissed?

How many now could tell the tale?

They whispered:

“It’s time! It’s time!”

 

Yet- the glint, 

The shining eye, 

Brightened by that tear- and beyond, 

so sweetly sang her soul:

‘There is Time!  There is Time!”

Children's art lessons Nanjing, China.

The Art and music lesson shop.

This morning I brought our eldest to his first art lesson. The lessons take place in a small studio in a very busy area of the town. It took us ten minutes to get there on the eBike. I was looking for something for him to do at the weekend. Art was not necessarily my first choice but there was one big selling point, the teacher only speaks Chinese, as does the other children in the class. I probably would have sent him to grape eating classes if I thought they would improve his Chinese. The bonus here is he likes drawing and it will be beneficial for him in the long run.

We arrived early and I paid upfront for 12 lessons, costing my 600RMB or 60GBP. There were two other girls in the class, one was a little older that him and one a little younger. There was a brief exchange in Chinese and I said I would be back in an hour and a half and off I went.

Getting ready to draw.

With his teacher.

I went to a small restaurant next door to do some work and have breakfast. Which was delicious. I went back to check on him twice, he didn't see me but he was there gabbling away to his teacher in Chinese. I was delighted. I went to collect him when it was time and he stood proudly holding onto his picture. Overall it seemed to be a very productive lesson.

My Yummy breakfast from the place next door.

Proudly holding up his picture.

The masterpiece.

My eldest is looking forward to going back next week and I am looking forward to the lovely soup and rice from the greasy spoon next door. And for the bargain price of 9RMB or 90 pence.