Working Girl

Spring has sprung in Lianyungang. It sprung precisely on Sunday. It went from a freezing 3 Celsius on Saturday to a hot 18 Celsius on Sunday and there it has stayed! Why bother with an intermediate season when you can jump straight into the beginnings of summer?!  I’m more than ready for some heat, having spent most of the last two months in snow. Xinpu seems to have transformed into a bright, colourful hive of activity. It’s amazing what a little sunshine can do to your perception of things.

I am settling in nicely, and there is just one more emergency purchase I must make to make my life comfortable and that is some shoes. It is no exaggeration to say that I have worn the snow boots that my brother bought for me for this trip, almost constantly since I walked out of Abby’s flat (amazingly hangover free – has to be a first) on that cold and snowy morning when I left Cardiff. I have not only worn them every day to go out, but it has not been uncommon for me to have them on overnight too in certain beyond freezing situations. I think the lowest temperature I’ve been in so far was hovering around the -20 mark. These boots truly have been indispensable. However, now that it is suddenly not winter anymore, I must sadly wave adieu to them, but it's OK because they now stink anyway.

Thankfully Lianyungang is not short of places to buy shoes or indeed anything. The street I live on, which runs North-South through Xinpu has every conceivable outlet, from places to eat to liquor stores, hairdressers, florists, bakeries, coffee shops, brand stores, supermarkets, mechanics, kitchen supplies, electrical goods and anything else you can think of.

 

 The main road from my apartment up to the centre of the city.

 The daily fruit market near my apartment

 My complex is behind this row of shops.

 Shops and the fish market on my road. Tricky to tell what's what without going in and having a poke around.

My kitchen window. Go on - admit it. You're jealous... It may look like the aftermath of the apocalypse but there's a lovely, friendly community here.

Here are some of my neighbours playing cards downstairs. They always have a smile and a hello ready. Chinese people will happily blabber on at you regardless of the fact that you clearly have no idea what they are saying.

The bin area is being transformed into allotments as the weather heats up.

There are also little back streets with open fronted places selling all of the same stuff that you can get in supermarkets, but at a fraction of the price. Also common in China are Walking Streets, where you find a whole array of shops plus the masses of street food sellers.

Anything you like on a stick! Corn, meat, pineapple, fish...



 Corn on the cob or meat sticks

 Walking Street in Xugou, taken from outside my school

 China's answer to garlic bread. 40p for a huge soft tortilla slathered in garlic, spring onion, chilli and whatever else is going on, served in a bag with a stick. Fine dining indeed!

 A little rice cake with raisins, steamed in a mini bamboo container. 20p

 Food street near the school in Xugou

Nuts! Nuts and pineapples on sticks are the de rigueur snacks in China 

Although the Chinese seem to work from dawn until dusk seven days a week, the streets really come alive at night. All of the neon signs flicker into life, the street food vendors multiply and steam and smoke and all of the great smells of cooking permeate the air. You can buy anything from fresh fruit and veg to fried chicken or eggrolls (soft tortillas brushed with egg, chillies and a mysterious hot paste and filled with spring onion, some sort of savoury crispy doughnut and pickled vegetables), dumplings, noodles, rice or soups. There are also street barbeques where you choose what you’d like cooked, take a seat a patio table inside a temporary tent or just at tables put on the pavement, and drink a beer while your food is being cooked.

You can get almost anything at almost any hour of the day. I have set myself a budget of £5 per day and I hardly ever go over it, unless there is a bar or some wine purchasing going on. Having such enormous variety on my doorstep means eating well is very easy.

 Less than a pound for a gigantic bag of chillies.

Last week I went out for hot pot with some people from the school. It differs from the solo street type I had in Guangzhou. You are seated at a round table, with the hot pot in the centre. You order several items and then plop everything into the steaming broth, then it's a free-for-all as you scoop whatever you want out with your chopsticks and dunk into whichever side dish or sauce you have chosen. It looks a little like this:

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We also sampled the delights/horrors of Baijiu (pronounced bai-jo), Chinese rice wine. We then went onto a bar where I met some more ex-pats and I remember very little other than waking up on the floor of one of the teachers and spending the rest of the day in bed wishing that death was an option. I think that will be the first and last time I drink Baijiu.

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On a side note, baijiu is the word for white wine, hongjiu is red wine, mijiu is rice wine and pijiu is beer so my name is causing much mirth as it clearly means alcohol. I couldn't think of anything more apt.

I have also started work which although I’m not sure I’m any good at, I am enjoying. I spend two days a week at the school in Xuguo near the coast and two days a week at the Kindergarten in Xinpu. I have been provided with an e-bike, which I LOVE and this has afforded me more independence as I can now travel further and see more of Lianyungang.

My badass e-bike with a horn that sounds like a shy flea farting.

 meep! meep!

The traffic also seems to be much easier to navigate when you are part of it as opposed to on foot attempting to dodge it!

 

Logic-defying traffic sign.

My second day at kindergarten involved a Parent–Teacher evening, during which I had to give a speech in front of two sets of around forty parents about myself and my teaching intentions for their offspring. This is a well to do establishment and the fees are high so I had to give the impression of being a competent person. Considering I had taught their kids for exactly one and a half hours, most of which I filled by singing songs and playing ball games, and it’s a job I have never done before, I feel that this is the closest I’ve ever been to being an actor! IT’S ALL LIES!!

 My commute to Kindergarten. It is situated at the edge of the city so the bike lanes are refreshingly clear.

Swanky kindergarten building.

Each day at kindergarten begins with everybody gathering in the yard for twenty minutes exercise. This means various theatrical dances to some kids' songs about driving in a big red car (beep beep) or prancing around like a prize ***** to Gangnam Style, which the kids love. (For those of you who don't know what this is, it's a cheesy dance/pop song with an accompanying ridiculous pretending-to-ride-a-horse dance, that has taken the world by storm. Seriously - watch this clip and you'll feel my pain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH1XGdu-hzQ. And yes, we do ALL of the moves...) I'm all for a less sedentary lifestyle and think that these methods should be more prevalent in the West, but dancing to Gangnam Style at 9am with two hundred little kids is a brutal way to start the day...!!  

I take the bus to school in Xuguo. The system is the very futuristic looking BRT and is fairly new. In fact it is still being built. So far there are only around three lines but it is expanding quickly. It costs 2CNY or 20p to travel anywhere on the system. I have a travel card that works like the Oyster card in London.

 

 The school is situated above a clothes shop on one of the main shopping streets in Xugou.

A typical classroom

I’m getting to know more people and settling into a rather pleasant lifestyle of eating good food, drinking with good company, biking like a native, working at a lovely job, lunching in the sunshine and all for less than £30 per week.

Hmmm, I could get used to this…