That's All Folks

Though we only returned from China a few weeks ago, it already seems as though we were never there at all. We were showing Lina's family a few (well, a lot to be honest) photos of Yongchuan living and it was already hard to really put myself back into the life we lived for ten months. I took a lot away with me from our experiences in China and feel I gained a much greater understanding of the Chinese born or Chinese raised people I meet in my life in Canada. The way of life in Yongchuan revolved around work and family, with little or no time for the kind of recreation we recognise in the West. One thing I had never really understood was the proliferation of huge Chinese resteraunts in Vancouver. Now I know that eating is a huge part of socializing in China and most meals are eaten with a group. Whether you're eating on the street or in a restaraunt, it was always a group activity. 

Another difference I have found striking between bustling, noisy China and Canada which is essentially empty in comparison is the amount of space we take up in living. Practically all the accomodation we saw in Chinese cities was appartments. In the evening families come out to public squares and parks to relax, play, and meet. The idea of having your own private garden or enough indoor space that you just stay at home in the evening seems ver strange in comparison. Life is Canada is certainly much calmer, though part of me does miss being constantly surrounded by "life".

Our re-entry to Canadian life was to join a faithful gang of mountain biking friends for a long Canada Day weekend in Squamish and Whistler. The weather turned up a special BC treat of rain and chilly temperatures, though after the heat and humidity of China I really didn't mind. We rode some great trails, got covered in mud, and I particularly enjoyed the mountain-fresh water running all over the place.

Muddy ladies

With barely enough time to adjust, we headed off for Ontario and an Augaitis family visit. With more than usual time available, we planned an accessory to our trip in the form of a canoe and SUP camping circuit in Algonquin Park. It's been a long ambition of mine to see some of the outdoors in Ontario, despite the assertions from BC-fans that Ontario doesn't have anything worth doing outside. Unsurprisingly, this isn't true.

Derek, in the crow's nest

Lina, going the distance on Lake Ontario

Kiefer and Derek enjoying the post race facilities

A few days in Toronto, babysitting, going out on the town, a SUP race for Lina in Port Credit, paddling in Algonquin Park, and finally a few days at the Augaitis former-farmhouse on Crow Lake rounded out our trip. 

My next stop will be Vancouer where I have a pile of tasks to complete to hopefully allow us to leave for a few weeks travelling around the US of A with our mountain bikes. After a year struggling with the trials of teaching, I felt it was fair that I take a teacher-length summer holiday. Once we settle back into Vancouver life the realities of getting a new job, paying the mortgage, and other such mundane things will bite. I don't mind putting that off for a another month...

The land of milk and honey (and cheese)

We've been back in Canada for almost a week and enjoying the abundance of coffee, cheese, burritos, and things we understand. I do miss the simplicity of drifting through life understanding very little and hence not worrying about it, but on balance I am glad to be back in the country I have chosen as my home.

To mark the end of the Chinese era in our lives, I found a few photos of memorable moments from the past year.

Lovin' some "enhanced coffee" after the Chonqing marathon

Whipped cream in my face at the end of year pie-throwing contest

My moment of stardom in university students' short film in Yongchuan

Good bye to Chongqing with Kevin and Katherine from my Grade 9 class

The Final Countdown

"We're leaving together, but still it's farewell", as Joey Tempest sang shortly before one of the most bombastic keyboard riffs in Euro-rock history was unleashed to the delight of poodle-perm dudes everywhere. This actually has nothing to do with what I wanted to write about, so apparently I have digressed before I even got started... which must be impossible if I haven't started anything from which to digress. Now I am confused.

Anyway.

On thursday  I "taught" my final lesson and on Friday helped invigilate the English exam which will determine the future (immediately at least) for my students. Less of a grand finals and more a fade to black really. Still, it was a relief to have made it to the end.

Friday also was the day of the school "riot" which took a little explaining to me, but was essentially a big end of year party for the students culminating with cream-pieing the teacher of your choice and a water balloon fight. The sterner elements of the school administration apparently tried some passive-aggressive sabotage tactics including locking the places we needed to get into to prepare, and performing some intense scowling at the proceedings. Lina managed to hold the whole thing together with the help of our Canadian principal who was sympathetic to the cause. I was charged with preparing a motivating playlist of music that might appeal to Chinese teenagers. This intimidating task came off fairly well, though I don't know if they know who AC/DC or Primal Scream are...

Riot over, Lina and I scurried off for the bus station and our last trip to Chengdu to spend the weekend with the Chengdu Panda Hash.

We got to the meeting place in good time on Saturday morning and snoozed our way out to the scenic area which had been chosen for the weekends hashing activities.  There were some faces we recognised, and even a few who remembered us. I love the eclectic crowd at these things, including a surprising majority of Chinese. The foreigners this time included a representative of the US consulate, a pilot, a German nuclear power engineer, plus the usual compliment of oil-industry big wigs and financial types. After lunch (and some warm, weak, Chinese beer) we set out in the rain on the first hash run of the weekend. The inclement weather made things slippery and washed away the flour markings of the trail, but we had a great time splashing and sliding our way through the forest for an hour or two. More beer, some organic farm food, and a short bus ride later, we were back at our hotel for the night.

Beware the false trail

"On on!"

Organic shoe-washing

Sunday was started with typical Chinese breakfast (mostly the same as dinner, but with some strange pickled things and soy milk). We were then back out running I the the damp forest again, with some atmospheric mists swirling around us... though none of the spectacular views were available for viewing. Lunch, beer, bus, beer, and beer brought us to the railway station where have successfully managed to buy sleeper tickets on the train back to Yongchuan. We'll arrive in YC at three in the morning and then hopefully get ourselves into work on time for some invigilation of the final exams.

Warm "Snow". The beer of champions at a robust 3% alcohol.

CPH3 - an institution we will miss

The End Is Nigh

With just three days left in my teaching career, there have been various items of business to take care of. One item of business not requiring much input from me was the inaugural graduation ceremony of the school, which for reasons I expect to never understand took place yesterday... before the final exams. Despite my current students being the juniorest of the juniors, they seem to be appearing all over the place in school events. It's great to see them so keen to get involved with singing, music, drama, and generally doing their own thing. The school singing club features a good handful of my students and opened the ceremony with a musical number. I think it was some kind of Chinese high-school romance story. Though of course I couldn't understand any of it, they put on a great performance. 

Jeff about to launch into Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love"
(no, not really)

Fresh graduates

Being a working Saturday, the usual suspects had concocted a plan to celebrate the end of the work day with the First Annual International Soju Saturday. Soju turns out to be one of the least offensive (and cost effective) drinks available in Yonchuan. The escape from Chinese beer was most welcome. Soju combined well with Tyler's selection of country music classic, howling at the moon, watching The Song Remains The Same, and finally adjourning to YC's old town for barbecue was a great success.

A long time ago I promised our friend Tracy in Vancouver that I would make a "Day in the Life" video of our activities here in YC. With time running short, I finally got around to getting some stuff filmed using the GoPro camera. Sifting through the inevitable pile of mostly unwatchable footage has yielded the following story of a day teaching. There's a load more of "extra curricular" activity that I didn't include. I'll figure out something to do with that later. So, for now here's Part 1 of a day in our lives. Thanks for the inspiration Tracy! This one works much better with sound.

A Day in The Life (in Yongchuan) from Andrew Dye on Vimeo.

Concessions

A bit of price-stalking a few moths ago scored us some really cheap 'plane tickets to Shanghai for the weekend. The Chinese granted the Shanghai Concession to the French in 1849, and in 2012 I conceded yet more of my environmental conscience to getting on an aeroplane for a weekend away. With our days in China drawing to a close, it did seem like we should make a final effort to see a little more of the country's culture before we're back in Vancouver and will have to cope with only 28% of the people being Chinese, rather than pretty much all of them.

Ironically (or not, I'm never sure what irony actually is after that Alanis Morissette song) we ended up enjoying a free exhibition of Ian Rankin photos, which was really entertaining. To restore the cultural balance, there was a band of four Chinese guys playing covers of British rock songs. It's been a long time since I watched live music (Erhu twanging excluded) to I enjoyed these guys reinterpretation of Yellow Submarine (apparently in the style of "Knees Up Mother Brown"), some reggae Pink-Floyd, and Radiohead's High and Dry with the words changed to a load of nonsense. that last one may not have been an intentional reworking, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

The in-flight magazine had one of those whiffly "things I saw whilst enjoying my mornings perambulation" articles written by a French Artist living in Shanghai. Unusually, the article gave the address of the tennament building complex that he had visited and found a community of artists and hip cafes crammed among the skyscrapers. We set off for a long walk to find this spot, and were rewarded with some real hole-in-the-wall hipsterish stuff. We could have almost been back in East Vancouver.

No. 87, Lane 1025, West Nanjing Road

GZ Cafe, designed for tiny hipsters

This picture tells the story

We also did the obligatory look at the big/old/significant buildings walk, which was very scenic. I've also just started reading Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, which I had no idea was about architects until I started reading it. Maybe it won't really be about architects in the end... but this part certainly fitted with a weekend surrounded by Gothic and Romanesque buildings. All of these impressive facades were an unfortunate reminder of how ugly Yongchuan is, but YC's charms lie in its cheerful inhabitants rather that its architecture, climate, or municipal sewage system.

The Bund's bizarre psychedelic tunnel. Made in France.

French Concession Lanes

Towers of glittering delight

Yonchuan Local

This weekend started off well on Friday night with a trip to the gym with fellow foreigners Tyler and Fimo followed up by a food crawl around Yongchuan and Fimo's birthday cheesecake to finish.
Saturday morning was a slow start, but we came to the decision that it was too nice outside not to do something. One of my Google Earth researched routes which we hadn't yet done was the full length of Tea Mountain ridge. The roads were either vague or non-existent on the map, but I dropped some waypoints on likely looking things from the aerial photos on Google Earth and copied them onto the GPS. The slog up the dirt road to the ridge  was strenuous as usual and slippery from overnight rain, but saved us paying the entrance fee to the park. Living in China does seem to breed thriftiness. We followed the paved road, past the apparently never-used "Jade Corridor" tourist path, complete with never-used teahouse and scenic spots. There were frequent inspirational signs to keep us entertained though, including "Leave behind a clean environment, take away happiness". For once a Chinese translation that actually seemed meaningful. The path came to an abrupt stop rather short of the point at the end of the ridge I was hoping for, so we backtracked to the last intersection. On the way we met a huge group of Chinese hikers wearing suits and carrying umbrellas who we didn't pass on the way out. I've no idea where they came from. We elected to take a look along our other option: a dirt road which promised to lead along the ridge. Pushed on by the sense if adventure, were soon splashing and slithering out way in the right direction. The ridge as punctuated by derelict and burned out old factories, with occasional farmers to seemed to have adopted the land. It was all slightly spooky and the feeling of being in a place unseen by foreigners was upon us. We get that feeling quite often in the YC countryside. Eventually the road started snaking its way down through the bamboo towards the paved roads in the valley below. We appeared from the woods onto a brand new concrete road which led us through villages and sprouting rice fields back towards YC. It's taken us all year to figure it out, but I feel we have now truly conquered both of Yongchuan's "famous mountains" both vertically and horizontally by a combination of bikes, hikes, and trial and error. Who would have known life contained such peculiar kinds of fun.

Today is a different kind of adventure in YC as we've visited our usual street market for vegetables and had our hair cut by the local pompadour-wearing Chinese fashionistas. I don't think I've ever had so much hairspray applied to my head, or been quite so bouffant... but I do have shorter hair, which is a relief.

Marathoids

I am done with marathon running. No doubt this will turn out to be a lie but today at least, it's over. I've never had ambition to run marathons, but a combination of living in China (the land that outdoor recreation forgot) and Lina pining for the thrill of the race meant I found myself running in the Hangzhou Marathon last year. Overall I would file that experience under "things that I'm glad are over".

Hangzhou Marathon, which took 3 hours and 53 minutes but felt like a million years.

Fortunately, my experience in the Chongqing Marathon earlier this year was a much less grueling one. This may have had something to do with only running half of it. Chongqing's marathon was a clear winner from the human perspective with enthusiastic runners and crowds. However, the course almost exactly resembled a straight, flat line (with a fiberglass mountain and aliens at one end). Not thrilling.

The Chongqing Marathon, which I ran half of in 1 hour 40something . I forget.

This weekend I was again on the start line of a forty-two-point-whatever-it-is kilometer race. We'd made an epic journey from YC to the Beijing countryside with Matt and Elaine on Friday night (and part of Saturday morning), only to prise ourselves out of be a couple of hours later to head for the start line. In contrast to Chongqing the crowd of competitors at the Great Wall Marathon was almost entirely foreign. This race seems to be more of a tourist-circus than a serious competition; a marathon with no Kenyans in it can't really be serious right? The setting was very pretty though and I was encouraged by rumors of hills and unpaved roads. The elevation profile certainly looked promising...

There's a marathon in them there hills

The marathon keeners were out in force in the start area and I felt conspicuously ordinary among superheroes adorned with Bat-Man utility belt, iPhone cyborg attachment, and beeping heart-rate monitors. One particularly high-achiever had solar-panels on his backpack. I'm not joking, but maybe he was. If he was joking, it could have been the world's first incidence of "ironic solar-panels". Solar-panel man, I salute you.

Once the marching band, government officials speeches, and general chutzpah was out of the way the race began. We were in the second wave of runners (which turned out to be the cause of an unfortunate incident for Lina). We set off up the road, up and down steps, along the wall, down some more... and then into the road. We all delivered a hundred high-fives to the local children, including one enterprising pair who had covered their hands with dirt for comedic value. The high-point for me was a long downhill section on a rough old farm track where I was for once able to take advantage of being a crappy road-runner but not so bad on uneven surfaces. Skipping my way through the loose stones, I got told to slow down by one of the marshals... which made me feel like I was doing something right. Finally, it was back up and over the wall. Stricken athletes sat recovering on the steps like spandex-packaged gazelles with their heart-rate monitors reporting that cardiac meltdown was imminent. I lumbered my way up and over, though my heart-rate monitor was reporting that it was time for beer and a pizza followed by a lie down. The last five kilometers down a hill on paved road were rubbish and killed two of my toenails, which are now going to fall off. Poo. I found some enthusiasm left to poach a few places and run the last kilometer into the finish. 

The Great Wall was a fun race, and a good high point to end my brief marathon running career. I'm now going to take up darts. 

Beijing Great Wall Marathon, which took 5 hours and 18 minutes and felt like  it.