BACK IN cAPE tOWN AND FINALLY ABLE TO ACCESS MY BLOG!

Blocked website
For some reason known only to Big Brother, the last month and a half in China, all blogs and nings and many other websites were blocked. It probably had something to do with the Tianemen Square Anniversary. Well, finally, I am able to update my blog! So many things have happened which I could have blogged about, but as I'm getting old, my memory is fading. Maybe an onset of early Alzheimers.
To cut a long story short, Tony finished his exams and Grade 12, and lolled around for a month and a half watching TV and playing on his computer and doing no packing. We all nearly died of shock at the school's award ceremony, when he was awarded a certificate for the most improved student. He has worked really hard at school though, and I am proud of him. Monday, he received a large trophy for sportsman of the year. While I was terribly proud, I did wonder where the hell we would pack it into our luggage.
I completed the thirty hubs in thirty days challenge and have been working quite hard on my latest book. My goal is to complete heaps of writing this holiday. That way, I won't spend any money!
The rest of the month of May flew past so quickly, with my birthday, Kerri's birthday and the farewell parties and end of year functions that start to fill up your social calendar. It's strange how you start to feel yourself subconciously withdraw from people, as you know that you'll be leaving soon. I think, it helps to cure the pain of leaving close and dear friends behind. But, when you close doors behind you, other doors always open in front of you, and that is something that bears remembering. It's probably hardest leaving Kerri behind, but so many people and her friends told me that they'll take care of her and I mustn't worry. I know that she'll probably be the one taking care of her friends rather than them taking care of her, but she's with a great community of people, so I must stop worrying. I'm too young to go completely grey. Even if I do have the early signs of dementia.
Swine Flu
The Swine Flu Pandemic is causing strange behaviour. Not only are Hong Kong primary schools closed because of Swine Flu, but Nanjing Airport is taking temperatures of all passengers on the plane before they are allowed to get off. If they detect someone with a sniff, cough, sneeze, runny tummy or temperature, they put them into quarantine. Last Thursday, one of our teacher's husbands was on a flight into Nanjing. Someone on board had a fever and was put into quarantine. We had a big farewell party at their house on Friday, went with them to the staff party on Saturday night, and then on Sunday they had China Health Services knocking on the door. The guy with the fever had swine flu, so everybody who had been on that plane was put into quarantine, including all the people they'd been in contact with. My friend and her husband stretched the truth. Okay, they lied, and said they hadn't been in contact with anybody since he'd returned. Forget about a wild party at their house with easily fifty odd peopl on the Friday following the flight! There gate was chained up, and a security guard was put at their gate preventing them from leaving and others from visiting. What a way to end their time in China! At least, the Chinese Government delivered restaurant of their choice food to them every day! Imagine the expense of doing that to everybody who had been on that flight?
Leaving Nanjing
Our trip home on Wednesday was an adventure, or rather, a series of adventures. But then again, this is us we are talking about, would you seriously expect anything different? The school has a tradition of students and teachers going into the gym to do a yearbook signing and saying their farewells to each other. I headed to the gym with good intentions. Andy, one of Tony's friends asked me to sign his yearbook, in the corridor outside the gym. I could feel my eyes well up with tears and knew instinctively that if I set foot in that gym, I would break down in front of everybody. Leaving, is so hard to do. Great friendships you've made over three years, people you've traveled with and got to know so well. It's very hard and not something I'm good at dealing with. So, I just turned around, headed to my classroom, hid out there and drank a sprite, waiting for the final bell to go, ending my time in China, and escaped through the back door, too cowardly to leave through the front and have to say goodbye to everybody. I am yellow from head to toe. My blood is yellow. I am a coward.
The driver had arrived at 7am to pick up our bags, but saw that we had too many, so he booked a small van to take the baggage and he would just take us. Mike, our driver, we'll miss him greatly. I'd struggled to sleep, knowing that we hadn't quite finished packing and sorting stuff. Talk about leaving it to the last minute! So, I was up at 4am, packing, sorting, but we still managed to leave Siobhan's guitar behind! Probably just as well, as we would never have been able to carry it with all our luggage! We had two large suitcases, two large backpacker's backpacks, one large gym bag, two small gym bags, three small wheelie bags that can only just fit on as handluggage, a huge metro bag with teddies and two Wii fits, two laptops, another laptop bag with Siobhan's Wii in it, and my big sling shoulder bag. As you can tell, we had a lot of luggage. The smaller wheelie bags were each heavier than our hold luggage. We were seriously overweight, and not from eating too much KFC either!
Nanjing was not a problem, until the vigilant check-in lady happened to cast her eyes towards our laden trolley loaded with hand luggage. She immediately called security and ran after us, shouting, "You can't take all that hand luggage on the plane!" She probably had a point, as we had only checked in the two large bags, one of the backpacks and the large gym bag into the hold. I quickly explained that we were still sorting out the hand luggage. So, we sat down, discarded Siobhan's rollerblades which she'd forgotten to put in the shipment, the kids' Vietnamese straw hats and my Timberland boots. When the security and check-in lady weren't looking, we jumped up and quickly went through immigration. The flight was delayed about 3 and a half hours, which didn't really impact on our traveling as we had originally had a 7 hour stopover in Hong Kong. Imagine my dismay, when we spotted the vigilant check-in lady and her security man at the boarding pass gate! But, ever quick-thinking, I quickly dispersed our hand luggage amongst other friends also flying to Hong Kong. What would we do when we left Hong Kong?
For the first time ever, I was strong-willed and didn't go shopping at Hong Kong Airport. The thought of having to carry our purchases on top of everything else was enough to put me off. Instead, we left Tony at the gate with all our luggage, and Siobhan and I headed to the sports bar to meet up with some friends who were on our flight and waiting in the airport for their connecting flight to Amsterdam. A couple of apple ciders later and we had time to eat dinner at Burger King, before heading to the gate where Tony had fallen asleep while supposedly guarding the luggage. Luckily, nobody removed any of our belongings! We managed to somehow or other carry our 'hand luggage' onto the plane and make out as if it weighed nothing. The flight was a little bumpy, but uneventful. I had a Chinese man sitting opposite me who spent the whole flight hoiking loudly and spitting into his air sickness bag. As we headed to South African immigration, he hoiked loudly and spat on the floor, leaving a delightful blob of mucousy mess. Ah, what we'll miss about China!
Bribery and Corruption!
Then we arrived in Johannesburg. Collected our luggage, had three large trolleys piled high! We decided to check in straight away for our flight to Cape Town, to get it all out of the way, and then have a leisurely breakfast. SAA are much stricter on luggage and hand luggage than the other airlines we'd used on our trip. Luckily, we'd only approached with two trolleys and Tony had stayed back with the hand luggage trolley. The guy on the weighbridge weighed the two trolleys and we were 70kg over the limit of 60kg! Three of us were allowed to take 7kg of hand luggage on board each. Although I begged, the man would not grant me any slack, and then the porter chipped in and said they should help us. I quickly realised that they were playing a good cop/bad cop routine. I've watched enough American TV to recognise the signs. Anyway, he finally put us down for being 26kg overweight, so we had to pay about $70 (R700). They then signalled for another guy to go and do our check-in, which he did without blinking an eye at the obvious discrepancy between what we were checking in and the weight of our luggage written down on the paper. Definitely a whole team of them at work running this operation. Of course, nobody helps without demanding anything in return, so we had to pay $90 (R900) as a thank you gift. Thank God for bribery and corruption! We would have had to pay more money otherwise, and they completely turned a blind eye to our third overladen trolley.
Lost luggage
However, the story doesn't end there. Three of our bags failed to arrive in Cape Town! All Tony's clothes and underpants, his trophy he won for being sportsman of the year and other documents we need! Hopefully, they'll be found and they won't have items missing. Of course, our bags weren't locked! We are too trusting! I'm not sure if it was the scammers who removed our bags, or if there is another operation working there. Hold thumbs they locate them today!
But, yippee we are HOME!
love
Cindy
(Already missing everybody from Nanjing!)

Packing and picnics

Last weekend went to see the Shaolin Monks. The full details of which can be read about in my hub about the trip in http://hubpages.com/hub/Shaolin--birth-of-Kung-Fu. I should have been packing, but now suddenly I want to see some of China before I go! June 24th when I leave, is edging ever closer.

This week has flown past so quickly, it is frightening. Everyday I've been staring at my empty boxes thinking that I really have to start packing. Then the shipping company contacted me with the timeline for my move. The collect my passport and expert card on Monday 5th May, and then my actual shipment gets collected on Sunday 10th May. Luckily, it's a Sunday so I don't have to take time off school to organise the pick up of my stuff. This motivated me to think more seriously about my packing. It didn't quite motivate me enough to be galvanised into action to actually do any packing though!

Thursday was Tony's graduation assembly at school. My baby boy has grown up, and when I look at my tall strapping boy with the tufts of pubic hair growing on his chin and cheeks, then I feel that I have done something right. I feel that he'll be able to go out and conquer. He starts his final IB exams on Monday, so please hold thumbs that all goes well. He has been actively studying for the last couple of weeks, so I hope something has penetrated into his brain.

Yesterday, I was supposed to meet Kerri for a picnic in Pearl Park. The day turned into a very bad China day which was good for me, as I came home so angry and upset, that I was motivated to pack like mad, discarding things for my garage sale I've decided to have next Saturday. So, when that is over and my shipment has gone, I'll be living like a squatter in this big empty house. Hopefully, that'll make the time go faster.

So what happened at the picnic you might ask? We were supposed to meet at 11am at the Park. I bought a huge bag of rolls and lots of meat and homemade sausages, which Siobhan and I lugged around. I was really excited, I was going to meet al whole bunch of Kerri's friends and her boyfriend who I've never seen yet. When we arrived I phoned Kerri but she was still somewhere on her way stuck in the traffic. She assured me that she'd contact a friend who was already at the park to collect me from the gate. An SMS promptly arrived with the friend's number I had to call. I duly phoned he friend who told me, "Walk until you hear loud foreigner voices. I am with the foreigners," as if this was some kind of achievement. Siobhan and I bought tickets to the park which were quite costly, and the bimbo phoned again saying that she couldn't see us yet. I patiently explained that we were just buying our tickets. She then said, "I know, but I can't see you yet." I again explained that we were still buying our tickets. She then responded with her stock line, "Walk until you hear loud foreigner voices. I am with the foreigners."

Unfortunately, there were three paths leading away from the gate. We didn't know which one would lead us to the 'loud foreigner voices.' I tried to call, but she obviously couldn't hear above the racket of the 'loud foreigner' voices. So, Siobhan and I decided to take the path the majority of the 1st of May public holiday crowds were taking. As we were walking along the path, slowly wilting in the strong sunlight, a woman danced in front of us with her camera poised ready for action. She walked backwards as her obscenely gross hoiky husband walked next to me put his arm around me and squeezed my breast, while she clicked away like a mad woman on her cheap Chinese-made digital camera. I couldn't fend him off as my hands were full with the humungous bag of rolls and other stuff I was carrying. Another woman sidled up to Siobhan who was walking next to me and tried to put her arm around Siobhan for the photo. Siobhan cursed and managed to brush the woman away.

We walked and walked and saw crowds of people, people having picnics, but no sign of the 'loud foreigner voices' anywhere in the park. Having finished our bottles of water we bought at the gate, and feel tired and dehydrated, we sat down on a bench and decided to wait for Kerri to arrive and find us as we were obviously lost. Siobhan mentioned a bad smell that was getting worse and we looked next to the bench to discover flies buzzing around a fresh human baby turd, no doubt left there by one of the slpit-pants brigade. We hastily moved away to another bench. A golf cart loaded with locals drove by and they all pointed at us and jeered and laughed. People walked past and pointed to my huge bag of rolls and laughed and pretended to throw up and get sick. Charming. The bimbo sent a text message this time. "Where are you?" I replied that we were sitting on a bench waiting for Kerri. She sent another text, "Come for a beer with us first and then you wait." Now, I could feel the veins in my neck starting to pulse with blood as I became more angry. An hour and a half had now gone past since we had arrived. Firstly, I don't drink beer. Secondly, how the hell do I join yu for a beer if I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE YOU ARE! Which is what I said in my text. No response. I called Kerri, she said she couldn't talk as her phone was going flat because she had forgotten to charge it, and she was still stuck in traffic.

Siobhan and I wandered around for a while longer and then decided to go home. We were tired of people laughing at us and mocking us. It was thoroughly unpleasant. As we were walking out the gate, the bimbo calls after not answering her phone the last couple of times I tried to call her. "I can't see you, didn't you see the big white bridge?" For God's sake, what big white bridge? this was the first time she ever mentioned a bridge and no, not once on our wanderings did we ever see a white bridge. maybe we weren't even in the right park, although the ticket said Pearl Park.

We called our driver to fetch us, and as he arrived, Kerri phoned me from a friend's phone. "Where are you? I got here 15 minutes ago." Gee, only an hour and three quarters late.
"Sorry," I reply with anger dripping off my tongue, "We're leaving."
"Oh but you can't everybody is here and wants to meet you!"
I can feel myself start to choke back tears of anger and frustration. "I'm tired and just want to go home now. We walked for miles and never found your frigging friend's wonderful directions of 'loud foreigner noises.' I'm going home, the driver is here."
"You can't go, just find a Chinese person to talk in the phone and we'll find out where you are. Maybe there's another gate to the park and you're at a different gate."
I look around in desperation and see only hoiky spitty types. finally, I spot a woman that looks decent with her two kids next to her. I approach her carrying my huge bag of rolls and meat. "Hello, excuse me, " I say politely as I try and pass her my phone.
If looks could kill I would have been dead on the spot. She pulls a face that would turn any good wine into vinegar straight away, said, "Ha!" and backs away and refuses to take the phone.
By now I can feel the sobs are nearly escaping and I momentarily lose control. "I'm going home now, this wasted exercise has cost me RMB260 ($40) I can not afford at this time with all my expenses. I am very upset. Bye!" and I end the conversation as I start to sob.
All in all, a great China experience. I have not heard from Kerri, so I guess she's mad at me for not attending her picnic, meeting her boyfriend and making a fool of her in front of her friends by getting lost.

But, what the picnic did do, was motivate me to come home and pack like a woman possessed. Oh my God, I've accomplished so much and have become quite vicious in what I'm discarding. I'm determined to no longer be sentimental and hand onto stuff I don't need. Oh well, had better get more packing done and cook dinner while I still have the things to cook with!
Have a great next week!
love
Cindy

Dizzy dentists

Just when you think you're over China...

"Teachers wanted for international school. Sense of humor needed."

When you see this kind of advert then you know that you're in for some potentially tough situations where if you don't laugh, then you might just cry. China is definitely one of those countries where you need that sense of humor. Boy, do you need that sense of humor! Take today for instance. I've had this bothersome tooth for over a year. I avoid going anywhere near the dentist as my medical insurance does not cover dental treatment. Previously, when infection flared up in the tooth, I got over the counter antibiotics - the stuff you need a prescription for in the West, and after a day or so the pain subsided. Well, today the pain flared up again. So much so, that it feels as if someone has taken a chisel and started to chisel away at my cheekbone. In fact, that whole side of my face feels swollen, like I've been punched. (And yes, that has happened to me before so I do know what it feels like!) Teaching nine year olds with toothache is not the most pleasant of experiences. Every little shrill voice seems to jar your nerve endings. Anyway, one of the other teachers happened upon a local Chinese dentist the other day whom he says cleaned his teeth well for a very cheap price. So, after school, grimacing with pain, I made my way to the recommended dentist, only to find that the examination room was filled with workmen of all shapes and sizes, drilling away with giant jackhammers and hammering with hammers. The brand new dental surgery, only open for a fortnight, was already being revamped. Something you see quite often in China. With the deafening noise sending spasms up my swollen cheek, I timidly advanced into the front office which was set out like a little pharmacy. "Drugs," I thought to myself, "Need drugs badly!"

An old man who could have been the dentist, approached me and rattled out a few sentences in Chinese, which I completely failed to understand. "Ting boo dong," I replied, wincing with pain as the jackhammers hammered away in the background. That mean that I don't understand. The old man smiled revealing severely rotting brown and grey teeth. I hoped that he wasn't the dentist, as obviously, he'd never done any work on his own teeth. It turned out that the old man could write English, even though he couldn't speak it, so he wrote down for me that the dental surgery would be re-opening on Sunday. "Mmmmm, mmmmm...," I moaned holding my cheek in pain, hoping that if he noticed I was in pain then he'd be able to give me some drugs. The old man smiled at me and nodded, opening his desk drawer he removed a slightly grubby flashlight covered in oily fingerprints. He then reached inside his drawer again and removed a chopstick. He opened his mouth with the grey brown teeth, signalling to me that I must open mine, which I dutifully did. I'm not sure if it was because my common-sense was dulled by the pain. He used the chopstick as a tongue supresser and peered into my mouth, with one of his nurses holding the flashlight and shining the light into my mouth cavity. He nodded to himself and wrote out a script in Chinese and gave it to the other nurse who fetched me some medication. Three boxes, I seriously hoped that one had pain meds in it. "P-R-N," he said slowly in heavily accented English, pointing to where he had written exactly that on the box. He picked up the next box and read what he'd written, "B-I-D," he said slowly. I was confused. I had no idea what the old man was talking about. "T-I-D," he said as he pointed to his writing on the third box. Having lived in China for three years and asia for four, it took a while before I figured out what he meant. P-R-N meant only take when you have pain. T-I-D meant three times a day. B-I-D means twice a day. Don't ask me how I figured that out, but he nodded vigorously when I repeated that to him.

The medical encounters are just one of the things that makes China, China. The other is split pants. I have an aversion to split pants, probably because I've twice been in Walmart and seen toddlers pee through their split pants all over the bottom of the trolley and drip urine all over onto the floor. The mothers just laughed and carried on walking. I was aghast, when I glanced back and saw other people happily pushing their trolleys through the pee, spreading it all over the shop floor. Then, when you walk on the streets, you often see people holding babies and toddlers over the gutter or rubbish bins and letting the babies poo through their split pants. Then again, there is the hoiking, another personal favorite. Wherever you go in China, you continuously hear people hoik as they clear the mucous from their throats and spit it wherever. On the ground, in the ashtray on the table next to you in the Italian Restaurant, on a plane, and then of course - on my motorbike seat! The pollution is also something to grab you. Permanent smoggy skies, sore throats and often funny metallic tastes in your mouth. The list goes on.

But why, you may ask, besides the money, why do expats go and live in a place like China? I have to say that there is something about experiencing a different culture and traveling around and seeing amazing centuries old sights. My first year I though everything was wonderful. The second year you tend to see more of the negative that the rosecolored glasses of your first year hid from you. By the third year you are over the wonders of the new culture and start to get easily irritated. then you know, it's probably the best time to move on to new adventures, see new sights, experience a different culture. When I looked at my fake terracotta warriors already in their shipping cases, the piles of packing boxes delivered by the relocation company yesterday, I felt a little sad. China has been frustrating, irritating, but at the same time beautiful and magnificent. The great wall is definitely a once in a lifetime experience, something that should be on everyone's bucket list. The fact that the Oasis concert I was going to in three weeks' time has been cancelled because the Chinese Government refuses to give them a visa because they played in a Free Tibet concert in 1997, is one of the frustrating things of living in China. However, the friends you make who hail from so many different countries, and the wonderful memories you've made together, the fantastic times you've had - all make living the expat life a very rewarding and enjoyable experience. Even in a country like China.

I am so over China

In retrospect, I think it's the hoiking that has got to me. Last night, sitting in a really nice Italian restaurant in Nanjing, while about to deposit some delicious risotto into my mouth, some Chinese guy at the table next to ours hoiked loudly and then spat his globules of mucousy phlegm into the ashtray on his table. And this happened, not just the once, but three times during the meal. Each time just as I was about to put food into my mouth. I ask you, is this normal in any culture? To sit in a smart restaurant and hoik and spit into the ashtray when people are trying to eat? The sound effects alone of the hoiking are enough to put anyone off. I am so over China and am on a countdown until I leave!

Chines New Year and life goes on...

As I'm currently on a save money and not spend a cent drive, I decided not to go away for Chinese New Year, especially as we had a weekend in sub-zero temperatures in Harbin just before. Actually, in my three years in China, we've never travelled Chinese New Year. This year wasn't quite as noisy as others, but there were still times when all the fireworks going off at some godforsaken hour made you feel as if you were caught up in a war zone somewhere in the Middle East. Staying home proved to be a wise choice and the week holiday soon flew past in the midst of parties, dinners and scrabble playing days. This week was followed with an inset week at school, as my son so sweetly refers to as 'Incest' week. More technology, God, when is it all going to stop!
But, it also flew by so quickly and now it's just back to the normal same-old, same-old. Work, work, work and the occasionally time out to play.
Our summer holiday plans have changed since I got the job in Tanzania starting in August. Hence the decision to work very carefully with finances, as I have to pay in extra for shipping, Tony's Hotel School costs, and Kerri's Great Marathon run trip. I suppose all good causes.
Haven't been too inclined to make sausages of late - too cold and the bloody beef kept getting jammed up in my sausage filler, making me frustrated as hell. Oh well! But, I have already organised my shipper and have managed to sell off some of my stuff to try and cut down on the shipping costs. The school only gives a certain amount which doesn't cover all of it, and I'm keepin the Tanzanian school's shipping to airfreight some of my stuff from Cape Town.
The highlight of the last while has been the 99 Red Balloons Party where we celebrated two staff members birthdays - their combined birthdays added up to 99! A lifetime memory-making moment was when a group of us stood on the upstairs balcony and slowly threw out 99 red balloons down into the lounge area below where the birthday babies were waiting.
Definitely time to go out on the town tonight. I must say, the last few months in China I'm becoming increasingly agoraphobic, having no inclination to go out and be pushed and shoved and narrowly missed by people hoiking up huge globules of mucous and spit.
Catchya later! And check out my new website where you can buy my books as ebooks online! www.cindyvine.com