Dalian - IELTS Examining

10th December 2012

My last words in the previous report were "here (Dalian) it's much drier and more comfortable" than the steamy south of China. Well, five months later it's even drier (clothes dry in a few hours in Winter!). Last Thursday I watched snow fall in bucket loads, yet the next day I walked across the road to my school (on fresh snow), under a clear blue sky and a weak sun. My landlord came to collect rental for the next 3 months while presenting me with a bill for the past five months' electricity (376 rmb = $58!) and a year's broadband subscription (870 rmb = $134) - is it any wonder I've stayed here for so many years.

Australia has made the news here: while all the weather reports on TV are about the freeze in the north (Inner Mongolia at minus 50 degrees), they reported that Falls Creek has had snow, in summer!?

This weekend was my 4th straight weekend of examining IELTS students wanting to study overseas - there's no rest for the wicked. While it can get quite boring after a while, I do get a few laughs (not to their face) from those candidates who tell me such things as: they want to "study aboard"; or, going to university allows them to "learn more knowledge"; or, "after a hard day studying I like to go to my bedroom to relax myself" - I dare not ask them how they do that!; or, how some "smell" (not "smile") a lot when talking to their friends; or, which "closez" (instead of "clothes") they like to wear; and, the word that most students mispronounce (including some Chinese English teachers) is "urally" instead of "usually". At school, one of the most common pronunciation mistakes is when a word ends in a consonant and the next one starts with a consonant e.g. "in the past year" is often pronounced "in the pasta year", to which I jokingly reply "I had pasta for dinner last night".

I do try to be humorous with my students, while expecting high standards and maintaining fairly strict discipline. Just last week I heard that many students had entered a school writing competition, unbeknownst to the foreign teachers, where they were asked to write about a foreign teacher they have had in the past. I managed to get hold of a couple of the essays about me which I found very interesting and funny. The following is an extract of what one male student wrote:

"To think about Renzo, a word strikes my brain---punctilious. He has a white hair with a handsome face; a big hooknose is his symbol. I have to say that he is one of the most respective teachers I admire. Renzo was born in Italy; study in Britain when he was young; grown up in Australia and be a teacher in China now. He likes to travel to different places and experience different things. I’m afraid to say he is a kind of adventurer. He always have a serious attitude to everything, I am quite confusions why an Australian has a German’s strict attitude....... Finally, I certainly admire Renzo from the bottom of my heart. I think I should study as hard as I can".

And a rather touching extract from a female student:

"In my second academic year, I met Remzo, who was born in Italy and lived in Australia, he is very friendly and kind. When having classes, Remzo always smiles and tries his best to speak words clearly. What is more, he often awards us with little koala and kangaroo toys brought from Australia. To encourage our enthusiasm, he gives chocolate and other snacks to us.
In my opinion, he is not only a good teacher but also a great person. I was not good at speaking and I felt nervous when I spoke to somebody.But since I met Remzo, I tried to speak to him, no matter in class or after class,maybe that is the time I decided to learn IELTS and prepared to go abroad. Remzo makes me get to know western life and I also fall in love with the free life style, I cannot wait to go to Australia and feel the mysterious things.

Although he just teaches me for one year, I want to be his forever friends. His honesty, enthusiasm and friendly impresses me a lot, I will value the time that I spend with him. I will try to improve my English and I hope that after two years I can meet him again in his beautiful hometown".

Perhaps I can use these as references for my next job (ha ha).

I have now booked my flight back to Australia, arriving on Jan 11. I have another 6 months to run on my contract in China, which I will probably honour, despite a number of changes to the curriculum and management staff - neither of which have appealed to me. I still don't know what management will want me to teach next semester. A number of factors, especially age, are pointing to the fact that my tenure in China is coming to an end. That doesn't worry me as I will have spent 5 interesting and good years in China. Back in Melbourne I may have to reinvent myself for the third time, even though I may seek some part-time teaching (if age is not an issue, as it is in China), and I'll certainly chase International English Language Testing System (IELTS) work as I now have some experience in that area. Attached is a photo of me during an IELTS weekend when I happened to have scored the Communist Party Secretary's office, at the university where examinations are held.

Also attached is a hilarious clip (12.7MB) I have used at school to highlight different English accents - this is about two Scotsmen in a voice recognition lift - I've screened it many times and I crack up over it every time. {Sorry! unable to load video clip}

Of some interest to me, come next July, is that many of my Dalian students whom I have now known for 3 years will be arriving in Melbourne to continue their studies at LaTrobe University. I'll enjoy showing them around my hometown.

Well, it's almost the end of this semester and I look forward to catching up with family and friends - I hope some of my past students are still there. I wish everyone a very happy festive season, whether it be Christmas or Spring Festival, or both (ha ha).

Bye for now... Renzo

Guilin - Conical Mountains, Terraced Rice Fields

26th September 2012

As my China summer holidays were about to end I decided to take a trip to Guilin and YangShuo, famous for its conical-shaped "karst" mountains and its terraced rice fields. As with most trips it has it's ups and downs.

One day was spent on a tour to a mountain where we passed many villages, where there appears to be a gender-role reversal i.e. the women go out to earn a living by whichever means, including catering to the tourists, while the men stay indoors looking after the home chores. Tradition has it that the women rarely/never cut their hair, resulting in a huge "bird's nest" on their head (refer photo 3a). The trip up the mountain, by bus and on foot, was quite exciting - not only for the magnificent views of the terraced rice fields but also for the kamikaze mini-bus drivers who were screeching around the corners racing up the mountain, while we were looking down the ravines below. While I was very confident of their driving skills I wondered how much thought went into the possibility of some rubble around a corner, a tyre puncture, or some malfunction with the bus!

The next day we headed for the more popular YangShuo, some 90 mins away by public bus. As the hotel had offered us a couple of rather long and expensive round-about tours to get there, we headed for the bus terminal. On the way there the taxi driver, ready armed with brochures and prices, talked us into taking a bamboo raft (for two) to YangShuo via the Lijiang River and naturally offered to drive us to the dock (45 mins and ~ $12). Everything appeared to be going well on the river, with great views of the karst mountains, even though we were asked to change to another raft after about 45 mins (without any clear explanation), until well short of YangShuo the boat docked and we were handed 2 tickets to continue by bus (and no bus in sight)! I refused to get off the raft, my Chinese friend called the operators (to no avail) after which I had a long "conversation" with them: the lady shouting at me in Chinese and me shouting back louder in English. When we were eventually shown the "bus" (a small golf-like buggy) we figured we had no other alternative and hopped on... well, it didn't take us to YangShuo - it took us to a small town called XiPing where we were left stranded. Fortunately, via my Chinese friend, we eventually caught the public bus to YangShuo ($1 and 50 mins on rough roads).

YangShuo is a very lively town, full of foreign visitors, and well worth visiting: many street stalls, good restaurants and bars, and bicycles everywhere as there are many good rides by the river and through the countryside. I was able to hire a good (new) Giant mountain bike for 30 yuan (~$4.50) per day. We spent 2 days visiting places of interest, including Moon Hill (refer photos). Another pleasant aspect was the location of the hotel: by the river and where all the action was, with its outdoor reasonably-priced restaurant where we could sit and watch everyone going past.

The highlight of YangShuo was the Liu Sonjie Impression Light Show: a night-time water spectacular show arranged by the same person who choreographed the 2008 Beijing opening ceremony. It was set on the Lijiang river, with a cast of 600 costumed people, with the lit-up surrounding karst hills forming a very impressive backdrop.

On the way back, at Guilin airport, there was a professional photographer asking passengers to pose in front of a poster of the Airbus A380: I think I was supposed to point to the plane but I made a silly motion that the plane "is going down" - I don't think they'll use my photo for their marketing!

Oh well, next Monday it's back to another year of teaching at Dalian Jiaotong University. One thing I can say for Dalian is the weather: in Guiling/YangShuo it was hot and steamy - here it's much drier and more comfortable.

Until the next journey... Renzo

Japan - Enjoyable Week

20th July 2012

Konnichiwa All,

Why a China report so soon, you ask? Well, because I'm actually reporting on a very enjoyable week's holiday in Japan. The things that impressed me most are:

• The cleanliness of Tokyo: hardly a rubbish bin to be found, yet not a smidgen of rubbish to be seen anywhere. I guess people are expected to take their drink bottles and paper bags home - unless they happen to come across a bin at a train station. There they have 3 slots for rubbish: a small one for 'bottles', the next size for 'cans' and the biggest opening for 'pets'? Perhaps, you can't take your pet poodle dog on the train? Or is that the terminology for a big bottle?
• The politeness of the people: always a respectful bow and a thank-you 'arigatou'.
• The orderliness and respect for others: at the train station you wait in a straight single line to get on, after waiting for passengers to get off; you are not permitted to talk on your mobile phone on a bus or a train; no one speaks loudly - how peaceful it all is!
• Lastly, the food was absolutely delicious: everything I tried was very tasty.

Apart from having a good look around Tokyo: harbour cruise, a monorail quick view of the city, and lot's of walking and shopping, the highlight of the trip was climbing Mt Fuji. We were lucky to have booked a good-weather day, giving us a great view of the snow-capped mountain and the valleys and lakes below. It did, however, start to cloud over with heavy winds and some rain, near the top. The walk to the summit was estimated at 6-8 hours of climbing and 3-4 hours descent! As that was more time than we had available, and we were not prepared for such eventual cold and rain we made it to the 8th station (some 600 metres from the top). The climb wasn't steps, as is often the case in China, but mostly rock climbing/scrambling towards the top. It was much harder than I had expected and the descent, for the next hour, was tricky in the wet conditions, but the whole experience was very exhilarating, finishing up in clear skies and bright sunshine again.

The next day we took a bullet-train ride to Kyoto, the ancient and former capital city of Japan. That was a little disappointing to me as the Imperial Castle was closed, it was overcast with showers, and we were left with mostly gardens and temples to see - we were a bit sore and 'templed out' by that stage. We did, however, treat ourselves to a typically tasty Japanese meal before we left.

Back in Tokyo we had a quick visit to the Innovation Museum where we were supposed to see how things were going to look like in 50 years time, but time did not allow us to take it all in. The most innovative thing I saw was when I went to their 2012 public toilet - wow, the buttons and features of the toilet: heated seat, 'shower' for your bottom, 'bidet' for ladies, and variable warm air to dry off - it beats the Chinese 'hole-in-the-ground' and the Aussie 'dunny' any day!

After so much fun something had to go wrong, and it did! On the Sunday morning, one day before I was due to fly out at 9:30am, the hotel calls me at 11:30am informing me that I was due to check out at 11:00am. I told them that they had it wrong: I had always had it in my mind that I was due to fly out on Monday. However, just to make sure I checked my flight tickets and to my horror I was in fact due to fly out that morning!!! Not only did I have to pay for another night's accommodation at a mere 11,500 yen (~$170) but my special-priced return ticket with Japan Airlines was strictly on a no-change, no-refund, no-nothing basis to which I had agreed to get the special price of (~$620 return). I then called Japan Airlines, apologised for my stupidity and asked "can you get me on tomorrow's flight instead" to which they replied "certainly sir, but you'll have to pay for the one-way fare back to China". As it was my fault, I figured I'll just have to wear the cost, until she said "will you be paying the $2,620 by credit card?". After picking myself off the floor I calmly said "no, I think you have it wrong, it only cost me $620 for the return ticket", to which she equally calmly explained that I had bought my tickets at a special price and that she was now quoting me normal price. With my best professional groveling voice I pleaded for leniency. Thirty minutes later she called me and said "good news Mr Rossi, we'll put you on tomorrow's flight at no extra charge" - viva Japanese Airlines, they'll have my business whenever the opportunity arises: what a satisfying finish to great week in Japan.

Photos:

1. Tasty noodles at a typical Japanese restaurant
2. Standard hi-tech toilet in hotel room
3. The chief temple of the Jodo-Buddhist sect. ZOJOJI
4. Harbour trip in Tokyo
5. Bullet-shaped, futuristic-looking water taxi in the harbour
6. Mt Fuji after being on the bus for 2 hours
7. 5th station is where the bus drops us off
8. An indication of the steepness of the climb
9. Eventually above the clouds
10. 8th station (3100m) - the weather turned
11. Started the descent with a warm, but not waterproof, jacket
12. Foggy, wet and slippery conditions coming down
13. Bullet train to Kyoto, the morning after
14. Kiyomizo-dera Temple in Kyoto
15. Two obliging Kimono-clad Japanese tourists
16. Even more hi-tech toilet in Tokyo innovation museum
17. Ginza Station in Tokyo - expensive, high-fashion district of Tokyo
18. Interesting car in Ginza with Mercedes badge - looked like a genuine Merc

Arigatou gozaimasu for taking the interest to read this, and sayou nara until next time.

Renzo

Dalian - Where Did The Year Go?

2nd June 2012

I notice that my last report was June 2011... whoa! A year has passed very quickly.

Having already spent two years in Dalian I look like signing up for a third year... so much for moving around China!

With my Melbourne apartment leased out and a cold Melbourne looming there's no point in returning during the Jul/Aug school break. So, the only definite plan I have is a one-week trip to Japan in early July. After that, maybe some touring around the south/west of China.

Having almost completed teaching two semesters with the second-year uni students, I look forward to less preparatory work for a repeat of the same program for the next school year. To compensate for the reduced work, and to keep my workaholic tag alive, I have now been trained to be an International English Language Teacher Testing System (IELTS) Examiner: means I can grade the speaking English level of anyone ( mainly students) wanting to continue their studies abroad. It's a good gig as I can choose which weekends to work and it pays well. I can even nominate to examine in other cities in China, all expenses paid. Although it may sound inviting, it would mean getting up early on a Saturday morning and returning late Sunday - and no time to explore the city of my destination. I think I'll be sticking to examining in Dalian for a while.

I can't believe that I can't find a photo taken of myself in the past year - a definite sign that things are getting boring here and a change is due soon. I have applied for a teaching position in Italy, but experience tells me that I probably won't even get an acknowledgement of my application: an Italian-speaking Aussie carrying an EU passport and tons of teaching experience - what more do they want!? (ha ha). Maybe I'm demanding too much when I ask for a package containing a Ferrari and a Ducati.

Xian - Ancient And Historic

10th August 2011

Well, I can now say I have been to the ancient and historic city of Xi'an. The first thing that struck me was the massive, old-city wall with a perimeter of 14km, parts of which still had a surrounding moat. It wasn't until the 3rd day that I hired a bicycle to ride the full length of the four walls: the cobblestone road on the wall being quite wide, albeit a bit bumpy. The highlight was meeting a couple of Chinese university students who thought my age to be 35-40: naturally, I took an instant liking to them (haha).

Through www.ctrip.com I again travelled 1st class, from Beijing, at an economy price (special at the time) and found nice accommodation (after reading many peoples' reviews). I opted for a serviced apartment where I had a kitchenette and the facility of a laundrette to wash my previous week's clothes. More importantly, the apartment was an easy walking distance to the old-city wall, the Bell Tower, the Drum Tower and the touristry Muslim Street where I bought some trinkets.

Xian Bell Tower

Xian Drum Tower

Xian Muslim Street

Top Hotel, BMW, 2 Merc, 2 Porsches, Land Rover

My first major trip was to see the Terracotta Warriors. I have to say I found it a little disappointing, as seeing it with the naked eye was no more spectacular as the many colourful photos I had seen in past years. There were three pavilions: the first, had no warriors - just some diggings and mounds; the second, had a few headless warriors and a couple of horses among the diggings; and, the last pavilion, had what most photos show: a couple of thousand warriors (in various states of "health"), 3-5 abreast in separate trenches. It was difficult to get good photos as there were far more visitors than terracotta warriors. The highlight of the visit, again, was meeting up with other tourists: a Spanish couple and two likeable Chinese university students who were very keen to stick with us.

Spanish Couple, Chinese Couple + Me

Terracotta Warriors

The last trip was to Mt. Huashan, known as 'The Number One Precipitous Mountain under Heaven' - one of the five sacred mountains in China. The day started at 7am under a cloudy sky and light rain. Things never improved from that point; in fact got far worse, following a series of frustrations:

• Having gone to the main bus terminal, where most trips start, I could not find the number 1 bus that would take me to the mountain. After asking many bus attendants, all of whom waived in a vague direction, one of them managed to understand 'Huashan' and pointed me to her bus (even though the bus did not carry a number).
• After some 2.5 hours the bus stopped in a small town in front of a restaurant, where everybody was ushered into the restaurant. An old man started pointing to a chart of a mountain, obviously explaining about the various trails and peaks we would encounter. Then, everybody started to walk out going in different directions! Where was I!? I could not see a mountain!; there was no bus outside; and people were starting to scatter in their own little groups.
• I looked around for any foreigners and noticed there was only one couple being spoken to, in French, by a cute Chinese lady. Aha, she must be a guide and surely can speak English! I approached her with my best "lost boy" look and she kindly explained that I need to catch a taxi to go to the mountain (as if I could speak Chinese to a taxi driver!) and that people had been advised to have something to eat first, as there would be no food on the mountain. Fortunately, she invited me to join them. To my surprise, when at the restaurant, she (Kerry) explained to me that the Frenchman (Pascal) was her husband and the girl was his cousin.
• When we got to the mountain there were several queues, with only Chinese writing. Even Kerry was confused as to where to go, running around asking whoever where we should line up. It turned out one queue was to get onto the mountain, the other was to buy tickets for the cable car which would get us to a point where the scenic climbs would start.
• We then casually strolled to the cable car queue in expectation of a quick ride up the mountain. Not so! The single-line queue must have had at least a thousand people waiting for cable cars that were taking six passengers at a time! But that was not the end of it - we then had to convert the original cable-car ticket to one that would allow us to catch the car! Kerry queued up for that while the rest of us joined the long queue. After some 20 minutes Kerry joined us with the converted tickets. We then shuffled for 3 hours before we got our ride! If I was by myself I would have joined the 3-hour queue only to later find I didn't have the right ticket! Thank God for Kerry. What made the wait a little bearable was that she stayed with me in the single-line, separated from her husband, where we basically swapped life stories. What a small world... she comes from Wuhan where I first started teaching English, and she attended the same university (WUST) where I had taught (albeit before I was there).
• Having arrived at where the trails started, we commenced climbing, not being sure which of the four peaks we should tackle first. It was so foggy that we could not see the steep mountains around us (supposedly what makes the mountain spectacular). After about an hour of semi-steep climbing on narrow trails with thousands of people going in both directions, Pascal announced that he wasn't going any further because he was afraid of heights and the danger it posed. He encouraged his wife and cousin to keep going, so he went back to the cable-car area while we carried on for another 2-3 hours.
• We finally made our way down and met up with Pascal, and guess what? There was an almighty long queue to get back down (this time only about a two-hour shuffle).
• Even after getting down we had to catch a minibus (according to Kerry) that would take us to a bus depot. As the three of them were going a different direction to me, Kerry put me onto a bus where the driver said it would take me very close to the train station (where I boarded the bus that morning).
• You've probably guessed: when the bus finally arrived at their depot at about 9:30pm it was nowhere near the train station. When I asked the driver where the train station was I got the usual vague Chinese waive of "over there", but when I made my way "over there" I was no wiser as to where I was. So I got into a taxi, but he couldn't make out the address on my hotel card. I finally pointed to the Bell Tower (near my hotel) on my map and he reluctantly took me close to there but refused to go beyond it (where my hotel was), for reasons that I obviously could not understand.

At the end of the day I was totally exhausted, physically and mentally, contemplating how disasterous it would have been without Kerry. My biggest regret of the trip was that I never got her email address to express my gratitude to her, her husband and cousin for the help and company, in a better way than the quick "thank you so much" as I was boarding the bus.

At the start of my holiday I expressed the view that "I've often regarded travelling as having to endure a certain amount of pain, in order to have an enjoyable holiday". After 10 days of travelling, my conclusion is that it is true: travelling solo I've encountered many potential problems and uncertainties, but I have derived great pleasure and satisfaction from having seen and experienced such historic places as The Great Wall, Forbidden City, Terracotta Warriors and the sacred Mt Huashan. To supplement that, the holiday was made much more enjoyable because of the people whom I met along the way: they will remain in my memory as much as the sights that I visited.

I flew back to Dalian the same way as when I left: seat 1A in first class (at economy price haha). As I have three weeks of holidays left, there is time for some more travelling..... I'll keep you posted.

Hope everyone is happy and well... Renzo