I should
probably start by providing an explanation as to my lack of communication over
the past month; it all comes down to a small piece of poorly made plastic. My original laptop charger lasted three
years, finally breaking here in China. The
Macbook charger is magnetic, fitting snugly and easily into the entrance of my
laptop. When the last one broke I
purchased a new one from Xi’an’s biggest electronics department; it’s also a
minefield of stalls and stores selling goods both fake and real. I purchased a fake one, which seemed to work
fine, for a while at least. After three
months, however, it broke in exactly the same way the old one did: the wire
became detached from its magnetic counterpart.
Being tight-fisted I decided to buy another fake one, which lasted an
incredible three days. Finally, I gave
in and bought a real one for 628 kuai.
That’s over £60, which is expensive back home, so it’s ridiculously
expensive here, taking a sizeable chunk out of my pay check.
My first semester at Aston is coming
to an end and it’s a strange feeling knowing that originally I would have been
going home in little more than a few weeks.
It seems that now I’ve signed my name onto a one-year contract everything
feels … a bit heavier. Initially this
was a short break before settling into a career back home, but now my plans
have completely changed. This semester has been a roller coaster ride of
experiences and emotions. I’ve grown
close to a lot of people both Western and Chinese. I’ll be gutted to see many of these people
return home, but for the majority, working at Aston or being a TEFL teacher is
generally more of a short-term job or experience. Despite the language barrier it’s easy to
attach yourself onto people here and become friends. For example, I see cleaners and other staff
members here at Aston whenever I come into work. They can’t speak a word of English and I can regurgitate
some very poorly spoken Chinese, but despite the distance between us we’ve
laughed and grown closer as the semester has progressed.
I’ve been seeing a lot of my Western
friends lately, trying to squeeze in as much time as possible with them before
they leave. The other week I went on a
trip with Jonnie to a near by city called Baoji. We took a high-speed train there, which took
about 2 hours and cost about 40 kuai.
Upon arrival we were disappointed to discover there was very, very
little to do (if at anything at all).
Just to be sure we weren’t missing anything we contacted a friend from
Baoji and asked, “What’s the best thing to do here?” To which they replied, “Try the cold
noodles”, and, “Take the number 9 bus around the city”. At first I thought this was a joke. “Take the
number 9 bus … to see anything in particular?”
“Nope”. As you can guess, our
trip to Baoji didn’t last long and after 3 hours we were on our way back
home. The trip would have been even
shorter if we didn’t need to wait 1 hour for the return leg of our journey.
There was also a leaving party for
Jonnie/welcoming party for Jorge’s girlfriend recently. I won’t offend her by incorrectly spelling
her name out on here! I arrived late as
I had been invited - for the first time - to a Chinese friend’s home for
dinner. They were incredibly welcoming
and I had a great time. My friend is
called Will and his family treated me to a banquet of food. They made sure I tried all the dishes before
they had any of the food themselves, and they were also sure to get my opinion
on each and every dish individually.
It’s fair to say the food was amazing and my first experience of
visiting a Chinese person’s home was terrific.
My only disappointment was that it took me almost 6 months to make it
into a Chinese person’s home for dinner!
So afterwards I arrived at the party
late and everything had well and truly kicked into gear. The moment I walked in a beer was put in my
hand and it didn’t take long to catch up with everyone else. We danced and sang in Jonnie and Jorge’s
home, which then continued as we went onto KTV.
This was my second time visiting KTV and we didn’t leave until at least
5 in the morning … when we were asked to vacate the premises. Nobody felt well the next day, which was made
worse by the fact that Jonnie and I had to be at the police station for 9 a.m. to
deal with our Chinese visas. I don’t
want to see the I.D. photos the police took of us that day, ever.
Anyway, as time draws to an end,
people are moving on: Jorge now has his girlfriend to accompany him; Brian has
a one year working-holiday visa for Australia; Andy and his girlfriend, Jonah,
are having a baby and moving to Canada to be with Jonah’s family; Jonnie is
going to Beijing and then heading back home to settle into a career. These have been my closest friends here and I
will always remember them as a fundamental part of my experience in China. Thank you.
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