Now and then...(Wuhan, Hakata, and tonkotsu ramen)

It's been a while since I've written on here.  Last week at school, there were many things happening. I had to hand in interim reports.  There were a series of department meetings and a general staff meeting.  I went to boys' poker night.  Bled chips at the beginning, but by the end I came out on top.

 I also got fed up with my social studies students for dirtying up the classroom and leaving it as a pigsty every day.  So I decided to go military on them.  Look at how clean this room is!  I was told by some of my students that it's the cleanest room in the school.

A number of teachers decided to become hardcore gym rats.  Work out every day at 4:00PM. I'm one of them.  We hang out in the weight room after school.  Some of us learn kung fu on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and I go running around the track if I'm late getting to the gym.

 Okay.  Let's go back on the road...

Two months ago, I left Hong Kong for Japan.  I landed in Fukuoka (Hakata). What a pleasant city! Interesting things to see, and tasty eats!  It's the ramen capital of Japan.  After having ramen in Hakata, all other ramen paled in comparison.

When I finally got to my hotel, it was night time.  I decided to walk around the nearby nightlife area of Hakata (which apparently was one of the most famous red light districts of Japan).  I saw what would become a constant reoccurring sight throughout my travels in Japan - roving bands of drunk businessmen stumbling out of stripper joints.  Went to buy some food and called it a night.

The next day, I went to visit some shrines. They had these funny looking entrances where you had to go through a big guy's mouth.

It was fairly cold outside, and a sweet old lady beckoned me into her small mama-papa restaurant.  I guess she could tell I was a gaijin (foreigner).  Had some delicious homemade udon, which hit the spot.

Grannie also gave me a free ticket to go to a nearby museum, where I learned a bit about the Gion Yamakasa festival, where large groups of men run floats around town.

 

At night, I went to a place called Ramen Stadium for dinner.

TONKOSTU RAMEN!!!

Here's something funny I found out.  Apparently, to many Japanese, ramen noodles are Chinese pulled noodles.  But here in Wuhan, and even when I was down in Hong Kong, ramen is deemed Japanese.  The Japanese think it's Chinese, and the Chinese think it's Japanese!  I chuckled to myself as I finished my delicious meal.

Even though the Japanese and Chinese get on each others' nerves sometimes, I find it funny they don't realize that they have so much in common, and that they don't give each other enough credit for each other.  But at least they do recognize that the other culture can make something delicious like ramen. That made me have a little bit more faith in humanity, and made me warm and tingly inside...or was that just the noodles?

Wo bu shuo Guangdong hua! Part 4

 This week will be busy.  I'm teaching 1 block of Social Studies 10 and 3 blocks of Info Tech 10.  I'm just going to put up some pictures with small descriptions for this edition of Pan Laoshi's Adventures.

Central Hong Kong

A view from Victoria Peak

Went up on the Tram, went down on foot on Old Peak Road.

Came across a nice park with a big fountain and a zoo. Headed to Causeway Bay but my camera battery died.

Central by night from Kowloon.

The next day I wanted to go to the Big Buddha, but met Annetta - a new friend.  Detoured to Disneyland HK, which is puny, especially if you've been to Disneyland in California and Disneyworld in Florida.

Annetta helping me pick out a present for Cathy.

On the way to the Big Buddha.

The Big Buddha

Annetta and I went up the Peak at night to go see Toussaud's Wax Museum.  Fought off some ninjas with my homeboy Bruce Lee.

Central...on the way to have late night wonton noodle soup. The next day I would depart to meet Gamblor in Macau.

D'oh!

Today, I made the stupid mistake of attaching my new digital video camera onto one of the school's computers.  One thing about Chinese network and web communities that everyone should know about is that they are filled with malware, spyware, spam, viruses, and the like.

Anyways, I got a virus on my 8gb SD card.  It totally got hit with something bad.  Not 1 minute after I put my SD into my own laptop, Norton Antivirus popped up and told me I had a "high risk" intrusion that was quarantined.  Good thing I installed the latest Norton Antivirus software before I left Canada.

It does store and transfer videos.  But it thinks there are no photos on it even though I had something around 40 pictures on there.  I can do 1 of two things.  Either throw away my SD and start fresh, or make this travel blog into a video blog.  I'm too lazy make a decision...


Well, actually, I'm too lazy to be lazy.  I'm gonna make a decision.  I'm going to keep my corrupted SD card for student work.  Hell, their computers and digi-toys are all filled with viruses anyways.  What's more, the computer room I'm teaching in has a reputation from last year for being one of worst corrupted computer labs.  Now I'm not sure who did what to which computer.  I've been told it's the students who download things off questionable websites, which totally makes sense.  I've been catching students downloading all sorts of things since the onset of this school year.

Anyways, enough rambling.  I'm going to get some sleep.  Hopefully on the weekend, I can get a new SD card that will never ever touch any school computer...ever!

Oh yeah... one last thing.  Tomorrow my buddy colleague Mitch is having a FUBAR party in preparation to see FUBAR 2!!!

Teacher Day

Yesterday was Teacher's Day at my school.  All the teachers got to stand outside near the flagpole and received roses.  I got two because my buddy Jason didn't want his.

My classes were very respectful.  Even my communications class, which is more or less an inner-city class full of ESL students...but in private school uniform, were very well behaved.  Good on them.

Publish Post

Glitzy Teacher Day Party, on the left.

In the evening, there was a staff party at a new housing development nearby. I swear the housing area was straight out of North America!  And the party was glitzy.  It was like something out of the OC.  It was really, really weird walking in. The houses were blocked from the main road by a run-down, half constructed commercial block, but going through a gate, there was a super-clean housing area (probably for rich people).

Anyways, the party was at the community building.  It had a pool next to a workout area, restaurant, indoor bar and pool.  My buddy Nick and I walked in late, and half our colleagues were tanked already (there were free drinks...with hard bar).  I didn't eat since I thought there was dinner.  There was dinner...if you consider various assortments of white flower pastries dinner.  I decided to clear the scotch bottle of Chivas Regal 18 years, to the chagrin of my colleague Mitch. But there wasn't much. Once I emptied it, the bartender brought out a whole swath of new drinks...

Before my colleagues got their serious drink on, Nick and I decided to leave to get some real food.  We took a bus to a local night market, where we had fried noodles.  The cook was masterful with the wok.  He got the wok to flambe! The noodles were bloody hot! But they were excellent! HAO CHI!!!

Street noodles! Yum!

Craziness has ensued!

First week.  My students have very low English language understanding.  They don't participate or answer questions.  When I check for understanding, I realize they don't understand.  They sometimes do understand, but they cannot express that they understand.  Some won't stop talking in Mandarin.  Others have talked to me in Mandarin straight up, assuming I could understand them. Some students in my English Foundations class are really disruptive.  I have my work cut out for me

All in all, my first week was great.  The first two days were Hell, but yesterday was awesome. I got my grade 10 students using the computers to access the school network.  My grade 11/12's started on Microsoft Word and Excel, and my ESL class have already written something and have all posed questions and formulated answers in speech!

Today, my friends and I went to a mall and a Wal Mart.  We decided to eat at a Pizza Hut.  In any other instance, I would disagree with that choice of restaurant.  But I was really hungry and needed to ask a worker "ce suo zai nali?"

Forgot to take pictures.  The Pizza Hut proved to be an interesting experience.  They had a WAY better and more extensive menu than Pizza Huts back home in Vancity.  We got the Chicago pizza and the beef steak pizza (which didn't taste a thing like a beef pizza back home. Very strange, but it was good!  We also had smoothies.  Mine was a mango smoothie with some sort of really great tasting green fruit on the top. I only had one, but probably should have gotten 3.

"Hypothetically, you could be teaching your own class in September..."

 The day after tomorrow, I start my teaching career.  My sponsor teacher back at Graham Bruce said that I might have my own class come September.  I didn't have enough long term vision to see that what he said was actually true.  Focusing on the situation back in Vancouver, I thought I'd be a TOC or tutor for years and years.  Heck, I even doubted that I would get hired anywhere.

Now, I am about to teach in a country, grade level, and course content that are foreign to me.  I don't hide the fact that I'm a bit nervous from all of this.  But I will do well.  I can feel it.  I am ready.  I'm a Toastmaster, and Toastmasters are never unprepared and use whatever nervousness they have (if any) to do exemplary work.