Classroom Photos

Here are the classrooms that I study in 5 days a week.

From China – Study

This is the listening room. There are only 7 students in my class, so we all huddle around the front. The teacher in this photo is the one who uses an angry voice when students make too many mistakes.

From China – Study

The computers all have keyboards and a special pad attached (you can just see it at the bottom of the shot on the right) that I assume is used for tests. So far we just write in our textbooks though. Sorry about the camera shake in this one. I was using Cathryn’s point-and-shoot and the students were giving me strange looks for taking photos, so I was a in but of a hurry.

From China – Study

This is the classroom that we use for our reading/writing and speaking classes. This photo was taken during class and the two heads you can see are two of the three students from Cambodia. The blurry guy at the front is our reading/writing teacher. He’s a fun guy with a good sense of humour. Today he asked the class:

Teacher: “what should you say if you don’t know the answer when I ask you a question?”
Students: “duìbuqǐ” (I’m sorry)
Teacher: “And what should I say to you when you say duìbuqǐ?”
Students: “méi guānxi” (It’s Ok/doesn’t matter/never mind)

But I suggested instead:

“You should say GET OUT!!” (With dramatic hand guesture pointing at the door)

Our teacher laughed and agreed. He said that this was a much better idea than saying “it’s OK” and then taught us how to say “get out” in Chinese.

From China – Study

This final photos is what my desk looks like most days in class. Textbook on the left, notebook on the right and my ipod with Chinese<->English dictionary close at hand.

Essential Vocabulary

We had another visitor last night. When I told the story before about how we bumped into the guy in a restaurant that we’d met the night that we arrived. I was suprised at how small Kunming is. Actually it turns out that China is pretty small too. When Cathryn lived here in 2006, she lived in a city called Xining (Click to see a map).

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My School

We have to travel by bus for about 15-30 mins each way depending on traffic. In the mornings the buses are packed like sardines and we are both afraid of losing our stuff. Our friends who live here have told us stories about pockets being picked and backpacks and handbags being sliced open with razor blades etc. We’re looking into getting some bicycles to ride to and from school.

Here are a couple of photos of our campus.

From China – Study

The first is a big sign at the front gate that tells everyone what school it is. This sign looks shiny. The buildings in the campus not so much.

From China – Study

And this is Cathryn walking down one of the roads on campus as we head off for lunch. This was quite picturesque today as the wind was blowing all the pink blossoms off the trees.

I’ll post some pics of classrooms and more campus shots soon.

Studio quality sound

Three days of class down and I’ve got mixed feelings. I’m having a good time and learning lots, but the pace set in class is a bit scary. I have to do heaps of review and prep to keep up with what is going on – especially with the characters.

Most of my teachers are fun people. Especially the reading/writing teacher who we have 8 times a week. He has a great sense of humour and we all have a good time in class.

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Creative timekeeping and Chinese family life

After an ~8 year school vacation I returned to university today. I’ve got more motivation to study this time around because it’s already come directly out of my pocket, rather than the government paying for it and me paying it back at some mystical time in the future. The first day was …school…

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Class schedule

Here is my class schedule for 2010 semester 1!

As you can see, the class that I have the most of is reading, which is actually a reading/writing combination – I have 8 of these a week. This is actually the class that I care least about at this point. What I want to learn is speaking and listening. But with only 4 speaking and 4 listening classes a week I’m feeling a bit gypped.

But, I won’t know until I try. Only a day and a half to go until I’m back at school!

Tag-teaming

It’s been a while since I attended university, but I head back into it next Monday after an 8 year absence.

My good friend Chris has also started uni this week. Tackling computer programming at the ANU.

What I find amusing and interesting about this situation is that Chris previously studied Chinese and can speak it well, and is now studying programming. I previously studied programming (and can probably still code my way out of trouble), and am now studying Chinese.

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That shiny new toy buzz

In the midst of the Chinese New Year lull, when the streets were quiet and all the people had returned to their hometowns, some thieves took advantage of the quiet to steal from my friends office.

One of our Korean friends who runs a computer sales and repair business for other Koreans living in Kunming was still working during the week. He stepped out of his office for his lunch break and locked the office by putting a bike lock through the handles of the double glass doors, but not putting the grilled shutter down. He was only gone for about 30 minutes but that was enough time for some people to come, break one of the door handles off and make off with his electric motorbike, his laptop and 10 years worth of backup data stored on 3 external hard drives.

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White Dinner Rolls

오늘 저녁식사에 동성, 심주부부를 초대했다. 두달 전에 아기를 낳은 심주가 이제 도우미 아줌마 없이 혼자서 애기 키우랴, 살림하랴, 남편 뒷바라지하랴… 새로운 생활에 적응하느라 고생이 많기에 나름 기쁨?을 선사해 주고파 서양식 저녁을 마련해 봤다.

오늘의 주된 메뉴는 steak에 치즈 머쉬드 포테이토, 발사믹드레싱과 함께 먹는 야채샐러드, 에피타이저로는 단호박스프와 화이트 디너롤빵으로 메뉴를 정하고, 오후에 다양한 식재료를 파는 Metro에 가서 장을 봐왔다. 여기에도 서양식으로 하는 식당이 있지만 너무 비싸서 가기 힘들고 가격이 착하다 싶으면 맛이 아주 중국스러워서 먹고 나서도 썩~ 만족스럽지 못하다. 중국 온 이후로 제대로 된 스테이크를 먹어보지 못한 남편의 입맛도 만족시킬 겸, 스테이크 먹고 싶어하는 동성에게도 기회다 싶어 큰 맘 먹고 고기를 샀다.

하지만 정작 제일 많이 신경이 쓰이는 것은 화이트 디너롤빵이었다. 다른 메뉴야 얘전에 많이 만들어 봐서 만들기 익숙한데 롤빵은 이번이 처음이기 때문이다. 호주에 있을 때는 싸고 흔해서 그냥 편하게 사 먹었지만 여기서는 기대하는 그 맛의 빵을 찾기가 힘들다. 어쨌든 요리책에 있는 레시피를 따라 시도, 시간이 좀 걸리기는 했으나 결과는 아주 만족스러웠다. 김이 모락모락 나는 디너롤을 보는 순간 오~~ 모두들 감탄이 절로 나온다. 사진 몇 컷트 찍는데 항의가… 빨리 먹고 싶은 울 남편 그만 찍으라고 성화다ㅋㅋ. 오늘의 메인 보다 더 메인 같았던 화이트 디너롤의 레시피를 아래에 첨부해 본다.

재료

이스트 1ts, 설탕 1/2ts, 밀가루 2컵, 소금 1/2ts, 분유 1Ts, 설탕 추가분 2Ts, 올리브유(또는 식용유) 1과 1/2Ts, 우유 1Ts, 통깨 조금

순서

1. 이스트와 설탕에 따뜻한 물 3Ts을 부어 썪은 다음 위를 덮어 따뜻한 곳에 10분 정도 놔 둔다.(이때 이스트가 발효돼 거품이 올라옴)

2. 큰 볼에 밀가루, 소금, 분유, 설탕 추가분을 넣어 잘 썪어 준 다음 올리브유(또는 식용유)와 1의 이스트 발효분과 따뜻한 물 반 컵을 넣어 10분 정도 잘 치대어 준다.(반죽이 손이 달라붙을 경우 밀가루를 조금 더 넣으면 됨)

3. 젖은 행주로 그릇을 덮어 따뜻한 곳에 1시간 정도 놔 눈다.(1시간 후 반죽이 거의 2배 가까이 커짐)

4. 부푼 반죽을 주먹으로 치면서 1분 정도 치대어 준 후, 반죽을 12등분 해 준 다음 모양을 만든다. 반죽을 길게 밀어 매듭을 짓거나, 꽈배기를 만들거나, 가운데 십자로 칼집을 넣어주는 등등 원하는 모양을 만든다.

5. 기름을 살짝 두른 오븐 트레이에 간격을 둬 놓은 다음 젖은 행주로 덮어 20분 정도 놔 둔다. 오븐을 180도로 예열한 다음 우유를 디너롤 위에 발라준다.(붓 또는 손으로… 남은 우유는 남편에게 마시게 한다ㅎㅎ) 원한다면 통깨나 허브를 위에 뿌려 15~20분 정도, 위가 노르스름하게 될 때까지 오븐에 넣어 굽는다.

Magical Dragon of Chinese Medicine

Yesterday I went to see a doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine to see if they could offer any hope for my asthma. After having all the tests done in Korea and seeing a specialist there, the bottom line for Western medicine was that the symptoms (coughing) could be suppressed, but that was it. So I bought enough pulmicort to last me about 4 years before coming to China.

From China – Living

A Korean friend of ours who has much better Chinese skills that either Cathryn or I spent a few hours searching the Internet for the best hospital in Kunming for asthma and discovered the hospital in the photo above. On Monday when he had finished teaching his Korean class we all jumped into a taxi and arrived at the hospital about 20 mins later.

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