Big in China

A while ago I posted about a shoot I had for a pharmaceutical company. Here is the video to the various photos I posted back then. 

Can you spot me? I'm shown more than once.

The link to the photos and the story is here (opens in a new window)

If you would like to read more by me, here are my novel and my diary from Ar'ar, in the northern Saudi desert. Both available on Amazon as soft and hard copy. 

Merry Communist Christmas

Christmas in China?
Surprisingly yes. What many people don't know, is that there are many Christians in this country, and I am not talking about the foreigners from the West. I knew this before I came to China, through my lovely teaching assistant Jing. Religion is one of the things I learnt from her about China. What I didn't expect to see is that it is openly celebrated, not like back home though, but shops, streets, etc. are decorated and you hear Christmas music everywhere. Even in Chinese language.
Working at a pseudo-Canadian school means that we had a show on the 24th and off at Christmas.
Putting up the show was quite tiresome. 35+ classes had to be prepared for this day and the expectations were high.
Because we couldn't fit 1000 pupils, plus teachers, admin staff and parents in the sports hall, we organised two shows. One for middle and high school and one for primary. It took us about a month of preparation and rehearsals, but it was worth it.
The initial plan was to either sing or dance any song the pupils liked. But then the plan changed for some peculiar reasons and it had to be a Christmas song. Under one condition: no mention of Jesus and his family. My grade 11 chose Justin Bieber's Mistletoe and my grade 10 went for Taylor Swift's version of Last Christmas.
The pupils had to be appropriately dressed and the school and the sports hall decorated. This took a long time too. What was in the storage room from the previous years? What had to be ordered?
Two of my grade 10 students rebelled as you can see in the photographs underneath. I'm so proud of them!

The Chinese however, have a lovely tradition on Christmas Eve as my wonderful assistant Jing informs me. They give apples to each other. Now I understand why I received apple gifts from my students.
If you walk into a Chinese shop on Christmas Eve, the easiest thing to buy isn't a turkey but an apple. These apples look quite different from the usual sort. Most of them are wrapped in colourful paper and decorated with gold ribbons or pictures of Santa Claus; some even have Christmas messages printed on their skin. They’re sold as Christmas gifts – something that foreigners may find strange, even incomprehensible.
Christmas Eve is translated as 平安夜, ping'an ye, which means a safe and peaceful night. And the word for apple is very similar (苹果, píngguŏ), making it “the fruit of being safe” in Chinese. Hence the reason for sending apples as Christmas gifts.
Interesting is what a Chinese friend told me. He says that nowadays, Apple-brand technology is gradually taking over many Chinese wish lists, and some people have begun swapping their eatable apples for electronic ones on Christmas. But you can never go wrong with a real apple.

    A rather communist banner decorating the stage.

    Santa with some fans.

                      Mike, one of the two rebels.

                     Benny, the second rebel.

    With Ms Jiali. A grade 10 pupil.

    Being in a festive mood.

    No Christmas without a tree.

    Next to appear on stage is .......

    Cute the little ones.

My presents. The red box on the left and the silver foil on the right contain apples.

Apple in silver foil.

My grade 10 performing 'Last Christmas'.

My Grade 11 performing 'Mistletoe'

Girls dancing

Feliz Navidad

Tequila 

We Wish you a Merry Christmas

Gummy Bear

Jingle Bells Rock

Teachers singing

If you would like to read more by me, here are my novel and my diary from Ar'ar, in the northern Saudi desert. Both available on Amazon as soft and hard copy. 

Bicycle shopping

Many people in China and in Asia in general ride a bicycle. It’s the cheapest and easiest way to get around. I too want one in order to be able to see what’s beside the three or four blocks I can walk and explore the area. I asked a few colleagues who have bicycle where they purchased theirs, and colleague C is kind enough to meet with me and go to the nearest shop. Well, the nearest shop is a 45-minutes walk from home. Walmart do bikes at a low price, but I heard from colleagues various horror stories and decided therefore to go to a proper bike shop. 

It is Saturday afternoon and I’m on my way back from the centre, where I went to the local TV station for an audition. I’m supposed to meet colleague C near my place, but he texts me and says that it’s best to meet outside Walmart and walk from there to the bike shop. As I can’t give the taxi driver directions, I get out near my place and walk for nearly half an hour to the Walmart. Colleague C in the meantime has sat at one of the food places to eat noodles. I find him there with a pot full of noddles when I arrive. He’s circulated by an old Chinese man who looks funny at him. The old Chinese is the owner of the first food place in the food alley. He goes around pretending to wipe the tables and clean the area. His interest arises when I enter the scene. Two Laowai at once? That’s a jackpot! The old man comes closer and my colleague tells him in Chinese where we are from. The old man looks at us suspiciously and walks away a few steps. Then he returns and my colleague repeats where we are from. The old man looks again suspiciously, curves a little around us and goes back to his little hut. During all this time, two young ladies follow the scene. One of them is inside the food place cooking and serving customers, the other on is outside. Both of them stare at us all the time. When the old man walks away, one of the two ladies comes to me with her mobile phone and makes me understand that she wants to be photographed with me. Colleague C is a bit jealous, but he has no reason to be jealous, because she goes around the table and asks him for a photo. It is clearly visible that the other lady wants photos too, but is too shy to ask or even come to us. I call her and her friend goes and grabs her by her arm. We take a few photos and me and C leave after that. 

Where is the bike shop again? I ask.

Half a block away. He says. 

Really? I’ve never seen a bike shop around here, but then, I haven’t quite explored the area.

Perhaps it’s two or three blocks away.

Aha.

Well, it takes us fifteen minutes to get there on foot.

We arrive at the bike shop and enter. Unfortunately the person who speaks little English isn’t here today. We have to make do with the people who don’t speak our language, but never mind. We’ll survive. 

I’d like a racing bike. I haven’t had one in years and most of my bikes were racing. The problem, besides the hefty price, is the size. Since Chinese people are quite petite, all the bikes are their size and not for a 6.2” ft. European. I take one and try to drive around the shop, but I fail, because it is too small. One of the shop assistants comes and adjusts the saddle and the steering, but it doesn’t make any difference. Colleague C has brought his girlfriend’s bike that needs fixing and has a look at the various accessories. I walk around the shop for a while and try various bicycles. The shop assistants seem to find it weird that I drive through the shop and curve around them, but don’t say anything. I then discover a mountain bike that is more or less suitable for me at a good price. I ask for protectors and point at one set in one of the shelves. A shop assistant comes with two kind of protectors in different sizes and asks which ones I want. I go for the longer ones. I also buy a lock. The Chinese take out their mobile phones and fire up Baidu translate to tell me that they will give me some stuff for free. The word they find is ‘giving’. So, they throw in a bottle of chain oil, a small bag for the frame, a throat and neck protector, and one for my colleague, a frame protector for the piece under the chain, a bottle holder, and a trouser clipper. Every time they show me one of the items, they say ‘giving’. Both of us are impressed and happy. Who says Chinese can't do business? Russell Peters, let me tell you, they can if they want.

It is dark when we leave the shop and I wish I’d bought lights too. Never mind. Next time. 

   My bicycle

    Giving

   Giving

                                                          Giving

    Giving

   Giving

If you would like to read more by me, here are my novel and my diary from Ar'ar, in the northern Saudi desert. Both available on Amazon as soft and hard copy. 

Halloween - After Party in two parts

After a long, tiresome, but funny and emotional day at school, we organised a Halloween party at my house and all foreign and Chinese English teachers listened to our calling. Some even brought their families. But to my surprise, only very few are dressed up.
The party finishes early and me and my housemate hit the road. First stop is Paulaner's, the German bar/restaurant in the Kempinski hotel. There's the usual house band playing, but this time the programme is more party like and many people dance. The director, the big boss of the hotel, a young Austrian from Vienna, shows up at our tables and spends a little while with us drinking and talking.
Way after midnight we go downstairs to the club Muse 2 and continue the party until the early morning.

    House party.

    Paulaner's, Kempinski Hotel

 

    Muse 2 - The DJane in a Halloween costume

    It's not the saints that come marching in, but bottles of champagne.

    And more bottles of champagne

    And even more bottles of champaign..... Every time someone orders a bottle of bubbly, it is brought to you in this way. And the waiter walks around the establishment before he or she reaches your table.

    Here they are, piled up.

                      Man, that's a tower of bottles! Don't sneeze or make a sudden move!

   Live music.

    Chinese gone wild!

                      Me and my donkey (as Robbie Williams sings)

                                                 Enjoy the show!

If you would like to read more by me, here are my novel and my diary from Ar'ar, in the northern Saudi desert. Both available on Amazon as soft and hard copy.