March 21, 2003

So much for getting a journal update in place sooner than last time! Can't give you any real good reasons for this except to say that I have been busier than ever with teaching. This is because I am now teaching Business, Marketing, and I.T. classes in addition to English. Thankfully, not all at once! Right now it's English and Marketing, but the time it takes to prepare for these two courses is quite a bit more than just English alone. Wondering why the heck I am teaching these other courses? Well, the school I work at provides a business diploma course for students who will be continuing their studies in Australia. In order for them to be accepted to the college they need to pass this. Thankfully, I am not alone in teaching and have been blessed with the knowledge and experience of my co-worker Vince. Vince is an American who has had a variety of business experience at levels higher than my own. Working together has been a good experience, and I am confident we can get a good number of these students on the road to a successful academic career overseas.

Ah, and what about the IELTS test?: Good news! A good number of the students got scores high enough to meet the requirements! Actually, more than I anticipated. Of course there were the students whose levels weren't up to snuff and as a result did quite poorly, but there were also a few who got higher scores than anyone would have guessed. Sadly, there were also a handful of truly hard-working students who fell just short of their goals. Part of the reason may have been the nervousness I spoke of in the last journal, and part may have been the results of bad luck or simple mistakes. Anyway, in regards to those that did pass, I would like to think that I had a good part to play, but credit should also go to the teachers I worked with, both foreign and Chinese. I should point out that my Chinese co-workers are some of the best people I have ever worked along side and their commitment and hard work is fantastic. The school is fortunate to have the staff they do now.

Let's see....what else has been happening out here? Oh, I had quite a battle with mold growing around the windows of my apartment. This was not your small speckling of mold either. The stuff was spreading along the walls and kept getting worse and worse as time went on. The high humidity of Chengdu and the inadequate power of the apartment heaters had everything to do with it, but so too did the failure of the apartment management company to understand and then take care of the problem. These people are super nice, but because of language problems and troubles contacting the landlord, action was not taken until I was at the point where I wanted to move out. In addition to the initial mold problem around the windows, the heating/cooling units were leaking water into the walls and causing damage to the paint and created their own areas of mold. Absolutely crazy let me tell ya! Thankfully, that's the end of that and I am happy to say I am mold-free.

The sun has finally made it appearance on more than a once a month schedule, so there is a definite increase in spirits around the city. The constant murkiness of the skies got to be so routine that it wasn't until the sun appeared for a full day a few weeks ago that you realized what you were missing. It felt soooooo good! With better weather comes the desire to get out and see some things and a few weeks ago Vince, myself, and one of the Chinese teachers who has since left the school, went to a place called Sanxingdui <click for details> located outside the city of Chengdu. I will let the link provide you more answers as to what it's all about, but I would like to add that the museum was full of really interesting items that had been discovered there. The museum does its part in trying to make you feel that you have entered an area of mystery by playing an eerie and extraterrestrial kind of soundtrack that keeps looping over and over again as you walk around looking at the artifacts. All in all, it was a cool trip and I have plans to go back since we had to leave before I finished looking at all the museum exhibits.

I also made a quick trip recently to Ren Min Gong Yuan which stands for the People's Park in Chengdu. My co-workers Kelly, Kelly's baby daughter, Grace, Grace's boyfriend, and I walked around the flower-filled park. It was absolutely beautiful.....and packed with people! People taking pictures, lovers holding hands, all the things you expect to see in a park. Really great!

I am going to end with a little discussion on the food of Sichuan province. As I mentioned in a previous journal entry, Sichuan is famous for its pretty girls and its hot and delicious food. Both are true, but it is the food that stands out the most to me. Heck, there are pretty girls all over China, and the rest of the world for that matter! Hahaha!! So, let me get on with the food. First and foremost, it is HOT!! Yeah, like most of you didn't already think that right? Well, you have no idea how hot until you actually come to the source and taste for yourself! There is simply no comparison with anything I ever had back home called "Sichuan"! For many, it's just too damn hot and they revert back to some of the other delicious food types found here. Personally, I must say that it took me a few weeks to really and truly get used to the spiciness and fully appreciate the true variety of flavors masked beneath the heat. And I'm someone who loved to eat hot and spicy foods before I came here. Some of the dishes are just intimidating to look at. One, and I'm sorry for forgetting the name, is basically a huge mound of red peppers with a small amount of tiny bone-laden bits of chicken inside. "Um, would you like any chicken with your peppers sir?" He he. Besides peppers, a major component of many dishes here is oil. Something you just have to get used to and you can't escape it. Doesn't matter at all to me, but I have heard more than one westerner remark that it's too much. Do any of you know the dish called Kung Pao Chicken? It's quite a famous Chinese dish back in the States, and it's origin is Sichuan China. In reality, besides peanuts, some oil, and pieces of boneless chicken, the similarity ends. Here, the dish is known as Gongbao Jiding and it's my absolute favorite. Let me assure you, Americans are being ripped-off because Kung Pao chicken sucks compared to the spicy real thing! Gongbao Jiding isn't very high on the spice scale for Sichuanese food, but it makes the stuff back home seem like it's out of a baby formula bottle! :) Another tasty dish famous in Chengdu is something called Ma Po Do Fu which is a type of tofu topped with meet, scalions, peppers, and it all sits atop a pool of spicy pepper sauce. Delicious!!

Finally, the top-dawg of Sichuanese foods would have to be the famous huoguo otherwise known as hotpot. I can go on and on about this food because providing a short and simple description doesn't do it justice. Hence its own paragraph! Now, there's hotpot which can be had all over China, and there's the real-deal which you can only find here. I have had hotpot in Beijing and it pales in comparison to what I have head here. Just what is hotpot? Well, to begin with, you sit at a table with a large opening in the middle. Closer inspection reveals a gas burner and brackets. Atop this sits a large pot filled a bright-red oil-based sauce that's floating with small peppers. Inside there are other spices like onions, greens, and garlic. The burner is lit and soon you are facing a bubbling boiling and churning sauce just begging you to put something more into it. Now this is part of the fun, actually choosing what to cook inside the sauce! There are full menus of items you can buy to put into it and it ranges from the ordinary like potatoes, to the strange like duck tongue. I have had duck tongue and they don't just give you the tongue, its all the cartilage and supporting structure along with it. :) Another oddity is blood, and after trying it I must say it's quite good! Anyway, you dump all this stuff in and let it start cooking. Each person removes the items he or she wants one at a time and then dips it into a small dish of oil and spice to "cool" it off. As you may suspect, the meal is not one for those on the go and it can take quite a while to finish, but one of the best parts about it is the social aspect of having hotpot. The conversation is usually light-hearted and it's involving as you fish around the broth looking for an item you want to eat. Quite easily the best eating experience of my life, and having good friends helping you out makes it that much better!

So ends this journal entry. In the future I will try to add some pictures of some of the dishes mentioned above as well as some others. Everyone take care!