China – Page 14 – HurricaneMaine

When a bus driver of teachers and staff may have been exposed…. and other updates

The new rules and policies for Covid-19 have become routine now. Students and teachers have settled in. Now that the high school and middle school have it under control, grades 4-5 started at the elementary school last week and the lower grades start this week. Preschool and kindergarten have not started.

We received an email about a situation over the weekend. Here is what we were told:

No cause for alarm.
Note: We all live far from school and are bussed. There are 4 bus routes.
On one route, the teachers and staff were left off on Thursday afternoon.
The driver then took non school people to the airport.
One of the people tested positive after they made it to their home city.
The bus driver was tested and is negative.
All facility and staff were tested and are negative.
Everyone wore their mask.
The CDC and education authority have cleared the employees and allowed us to continue with physical school.

What does that mean?

It means that asymptomatic cases are still a problem everywhere. Since elementary students are going back, I saw more people on the street in what I would consider close to normal activity.
Now since everyone is mingling, those asymptomatic people will spread it to others. But if you don’t want an epidemic….
Protocols, rules, and guidelines are the only way you can operate.
Every time we get on the bus, we have a checklist for our name and our temp is taken.
Wherever we are going whether it be school or airport or a store, our temperature is taken (and our name is recorded).
On our arrival at school this morning, there was police presence in the street checking for compliance (distancing, masks…). I did not take a direct picture as that can get you in trouble anywhere you travel. Also, there were more medical personnel on hand when we went through the temperature scanners, most likely from the CDC.

From an upstairs window. Because of construction I did not have a good line of sight. In forgot about going up to the field…

Before I found out about this I was invited to a hike, a dinner and a brunch this last weekend. There are still many people not going out in the city. Our faculty do not all go out together right now.

I am also grateful my school gave us a little mixer on Friday afternoon before we boarded the buses. Not being in a public school means they can have wine, beer, and snacks for us. We all sorely needed that interaction and it was a great way to start the weekend.

5 rams park (Yuexiu park)

Claire and I were up for some city hiking. I ran half way there and then made the rest of the way to the entrance. That part of the entrance was closed. We are used to many entrances being blocked in parks and malls, etc. to temperature scan and control the amount of people. We went to this entrance so that we can take the skybridge which is an elevated 8 km walk way that goes above ground from here to Baiyun mountain. Unfortunately it was closed due to impending bad weather.

I moved this cute little frog off the path before it was run over by a bike or messed with by kids.

From here we decided to do walk to Baiyun but on the street. Definitely not as scenic and it is a part of the city I am not very familiar with. Once at Baiyun we were to tired to hike the mountain. I snapped some pictures.

From here I walked part of the way back to where Claire lived to walk through a garden park I had not been to yet. Jufang garden park was very pretty and on the other side of it I took a Didi home as it was another 11km from here.

This park is in between two different districts within the city.

That night I dined at Mercato with a couple people I know and more teachers from other schools I had not met before. It was great to hear what their schools are doing. I’m lucky as no one at my school had lost jobs, been asked to go to school on Saturdays, or had our year extended. It was excellent food, but I was so hungry I forgot to take pictures. I did take a picture of the view from the terrace though.

The next day I met Claire and Morgana at 13 factories for brunch. (Again too hungry I forgot to take a picture).

13FACTORIES takes its name from the area of the same name in the old part of Guangzhou. This area is where the first foreign trade was allowed during the Qing dynasty, and much like America, a unique place where people from all over the world came to interact. Today, 13FACTORIES aims to create a place in the spirit of the original, a gathering of international friends combined with the sharing of delicious food and drink in a comfortable, casual atmosphere.

But we decided to splurge and we went elsewhere for cinnamon rolls after we had talked for a few hours.

It was great to have different interactions over the weekend.

Yanzhou Island, Zhaoqing

Tours are just starting up again and after receiving confirmation that we can leave the city but stay in the province, I was excited to see this tour offered. I have gone on trips with Banana Tours since it started. They always put on a great tour. This one was 2 hours bus ride out of the city. We needed a correct Suikang code that is not red, had our temperatures checked multiple places, and needed to wear a mask. We could take it off when hiking. As it was very hot and humid we would often walk away from the group to take the mask off for a brief time.

This is the largest river island in Guangdong just south of the Dinghu mountains. The island has an area of about 6 square kilometers. According to the legend, Bao Zheng (a famous upright official who had true integrity in Chinese history) returned to the capital in the Northern Song Dynasty (1042 AD). When the ship passed the Antelope Gorge, he threw an inkstone and then it became into an island, that’s why it is named as “Yanzhou Island”. Bao stopped epidemics by drilling wells for clean water. He established schools and integrity in government for all to prosper.

Looking towards the island before we boarded the ferry.

A short walk to look over the river. This area is a place to go for the devout.

This mural depicts his government life and the throwing of the inkstone.

This mural depicts his personal life and his devotion to his family and parents.

We boarded two shuttle carts to go to another part of the island to look at village buildings. During the cultural revolution, professionals from the cities were sent to rural areas to help society. I visited a museum with memorabilia from Mao’s reign. Villagers were selling produce very cheap. 2 large cucumbers were 2 kuai or 30 cents.

We visited a temple in the village.

We then went to a great Cantonese restaurant on the island. There were lots of vegetarian choices.

Antelope Gorge ancient plank road is located in the east of Antelope Mountain, it has been well known as one of the “Little three Gorges” in Zhaoqing since Tang dynasty. We boarded a ferry to go back across and then on to hike Antelope Gorge.

We hiked for 5 km and had lots of up and down stairs before turning around to head back.

After returning to Guangzhou I key up with Killian and Elaine to go out for dinner. Fun! Killian ate chicken feet. We all had Western style cheesecake with rich sweet frosting.

A great day with some people from school and a new friend I met, Morgana from Canada who teaches at a school in the city. Finishing up with other friends was an added treat!

All students return

I started out my week on a 6 am zoom call with my kids to celebrate my son’s birthday. It was technically mother’s day in the US and his birthday with me here in China. Becca bought him a cheesecake and candles to deliver to him in advance. It was a great start to the week!

We already practiced school for the last two weeks but starting this week we now have 6 grades on campus. We have about 70% of some of the classes back but not that percentage of teachers. They hired substitutes while the teachers that are gone continued online teaching. Those of us that are back are also covering classes.

Elementary start next week with a few grades with more added a week later.

The infrared cameras detect temperature. If it shows above 37.3 C (just over 99F), someone else takes your temperature to double check. There is a station where everyone must use alcohol gel before entering. Buses still take your temp too.

Both of my classes were combined in one. I planned a lab that was videoed and live. Kids can’t work together so I needed a set up for every student. A bit flustering. There was actually more students who showed up for testing and for school than they originally planned on from family surveys. As a result my class was split between two adjacent rooms and a monitor watched the other room. Only about 8 of my students were still online elsewhere.

Besides that class, I monitor three others. It means setting up zoom calls with the teacher and making sure they are on task and following rules.

Lunch is different as they cannot sit closer to each other. Individual chairs are set up for them to sit at. I think this would be the hardest for the students.

Phys Ed classes are combined and because there is a large number, they use blankets to mark off social distancing but there is lots of room to spread them out for activities.

It was a very tiring week but the students were so happy to see one another and it went well. We have been receiving a lot of press for the proactive work we have done. We are done with school on June 9th as scheduled as we started online learning immediately at the start of February. Only a few more weeks to go!

The last 2 weeks… Before school starts again…

I worked for four days and after my seniors were finished I did not need to return until May 11 when the rest of the high school and middle school returns. Only the 8th graders were there and having extra personnel on site when they are not needed was not recommended. I was still teaching online to my 9th graders and grading make up work for my seniors.

Groups in the city that hold events here have suspended these but people were still chatting. Claire in Internations posted about hiking so we agreed to meet at a mountain park I had not been to. It was a lot of fun and happy to hike for 5 hours. I was whipped since it is hot and humid now.

The view after you get to the top is fantastic.

Huolo mountain, Tianhe

We actually thought we were at the top but then found the stairs. It was a lot of stairs…

After this picture was taken, the woman who took it for us wanted me to stay there so she could get a picture with me too. That has actually happened several times.

Picnicking along the river

Buying snacks

I know I need to stop but I love to snack…. These are hawthorns. They look like little apples. They are cooked in a syrup and they are so good. Hawthorn alone is a bit sour without the sugar coating. It is it addictive.

Running

I am back to running. Slowly as I’m trying to retrain my running and save my hamstring. It lets me get out and get fresh air in different places. When running you don’t need to wear a mask but it needs to be carried with you and you may have to put it on in a crowded area. I have avoided those crowded areas and times to not have to wear it. It is also really warm now and humid so getting out early helps with both. And I do a lot of walking.

Stopped to visit a friend and have some carrot and apple juice.

Eating out in Cantonese restaurants

I also started going out to eat, though not often and only recently since Guangzhou and the rest of China has been downgraded with no new cases. Still concerning to me after my last bout of quarantine however. They still require restaurants to have servers tested and must display a certificate. They also record the names, IDs and phone numbers of patrons for contact tracing.

A recent holiday allowed people to move between provinces and so far so good. Hopefully this summer maybe I can go to view some places in China. We will have to see. But I won’t be able to go home. I don’t see travel opening up between countries for casual travel for awhile.

Elaine, Killian and I. It is Killian’s birthday.

Foshan pottery

Thanks to a colleague, a group of us rented a bus to Foshan. It is not too far away from Guangzhou. There is an antique dragon kiln, pottery museum, and pottery stores.

Nicole and I started the day buying a ticket to see the kiln. Outside the gate has pottery accents.

In this area there were 100 dragon kilns which are long mounds of earth. The area used to look like this model. The long cylindrical pieces are the dragon kilns that point down the hill. The tiny pieces are homes.

Inside you can climb the stairs to see the view of Shiwan town as it was known. This ancient town has many dragon kilns and made it the pottery center in south china. The stairs are flanked on each side by dragon kilns. They are under cover here on the right.

A picture in front of the God of fire.

At the top of the hill looking down at the artisans shops. We never made it out of here to the rest of the town as there was so much to see. The details on the roof lines are gorgeous.

This is the dragon kiln. This ancient Nanfeng kiln was built during the Ming Dynasty in the early 1500’s. The fire inside has continually burned since then and is the oldest surviving and used kiln. The kilns mouth faces South and gets the south wind (nanfeng in Chinese). It is 34.4 meters long and has 29 lines of fire holes.

As we wandered through the old town every corridor and turn had beautiful elements.

There is a tree that is growing on cement. This is soil-less rhizome growth.

At one spot we took a selfie. What is really funny is a group of Chinese women who wanted their pictures taken with us too. This actually happens every once in awhile as we are the token foreigners in most places.

There were many water features throughout.

This is a waterfall flowing over a wall of pottery pieces.

It was a great day looking at the pottery work of so many artisans.

The details through the area was fascinating.

I loved this row of bamboo trees growing against the house.

This is called the Manger waterfall.

Throughout were interesting feature walls.

We found a great restaurant that is some of the best food I’ve had yet. There is no English menu but with the help of a translation app we managed. Waiters are always nervous with foreigners as ordering can be contentious but we are easy going. We ordered potatoes on a clothesline. It is potato noodles served cold with a spicy tasty tomato sauce poured over top. There were cherry tomatoes in an orange infused sauce.

We also ordered cauliflower in the lightest tastiest sauce. Lastly, was the shrimp in a sweet yet spicy sauce that was delicious. Even the rice was flavorful.

We were happy to find this restaurant. It was the statues out front that caught our attention!

More pictures from wandering around. On this site there is also a temple.

We had tea with the gentleman who owns this shop after making a purchase. He did not know any English and we communicated with our broken Chinese.

This sign was funny. There are many weird signs throughout China. This would actually be truth in advertising!

In the end, I bought a few pottery pieces including a Buddha head.

The small pieces are water whistles. When filled to the correct amount with water they actually make bird calls.

This tour was on Saturday which is my son Ryan’s birthday. The fun part is I talked to him on the phone while I was writing this post on Sunday morning. Not only was it still his birthday in the states but was now mother’s day here in China!

Pottery

Even though I saw a lot on my vacation, this became somewhat of a pottery tour. I began and ended with the purchase of pottery.

In Japan I bought two porcelain bowls and a tea mug. Both bowls would work well together combined into one serving piece.

In Yixing, I bought a teapot from one of the sellers near the pottery museum. The family was very nice and they are artists who make many of their teapots.

The teapot had bamboo etched on one side and Chinese characters on the other. The cups were bought in a different store.

The family invited me to drink tea with them. This is the daughter of the owner of the store and one of the artists.

They were very nice and even through broken English and Chinese we were able to converse. The translate feature in We chat is helpful too. The best part of traveling is meeting new people.

Yixing half marathon

I was doubtful I would be able to complete the half marathon given the hamstring strain from 12 days ago. Generally it takes up to 8 weeks to heal and have me some trouble in Japan on my heavy walking days.

A trainer would probably not recommend this but I supported the spot at the back of my thigh with a tight band. My plan was to walk when needed and if I had to walk most of it that would be okay (except I might have missed my train).

It was a gorgeous day and was 18 degrees C (65 degrees F) at 7:30 am. It was a hot one by the end of the race and 27 degrees C. During the race there were many stations including sponges and water hoses.

We were separated into groups based on speed but they have their hands full trying to separate. I was in group C, but 5 minutes before starting they pushed the boundary and did not listen to the police. Crazy. I am good at saying “Zai gan ma” or what are you doing? There is no sense of personal space. I am not sure a hard barricade would help here.

We ran through a local park that was beautiful.

I walked more than I wanted as the hamstring have me trouble and other muscles compensating were tight as a result. I finished in 2 hours 11 minutes and 42 seconds. My next to worse ever but wanted to finish as the medal is made of the clay from this region. They also give you green tea ice cream right away.

After you finish you actually walk a distance to get your medal. They give you a lot of goodies by the time you go through the finishers tent. It’s like trick or treating.

I’m not sure what the snacks are but I’ll find out. Yes the plastic banana is a banana keeper. And good thing I checked that there was a banana inside. I drank the soy milk and finished sushi from the night before. I now have snacks for the train. After I take nap.

A close up of the medal.

The past two weeks

Before I write about going to Shenzen, Zhongshan furniture shopping, and other things I have been doing… What I’m thinking about now…

All educators know that even though teaching is rewarding it is so tiring. I am really looking forward to retirement in a few years (okay, more like 5). Teaching is a sprint every year. The pace never ends and teaching international baccalaureate biology is crazy. I have great kids but the content is so heavy that there is no time for fun projects.

I am struggling to get to all the content I need to cover this year. It is a 2 year class so there is more content for next year too.

I am really fortunate to be here. I landed in a top tier school on my first try and will be here most likely until I retire. I work with amazing educators from all over the world and have incredible students. Being able to travel and see this part of the world is the icing on the cake.

This past week I had a massive ear infection that required IV antibiotics and steroids. A digital detox was unexpected but great for catching up on work as high level government meetings shut down VPN’s across the country. I practiced my mandarin and binge watched the first few seasons of Game of Thrones before the new season starts to rest while my ear healed.

I am looking forward to moving to a new apartment next year. This will be my new digs…

I have a week after school ends to move before flying home to spend 4 weeks in PA and another week traveling to Amsterdam before flying back. I will fly to Philly first to go to ISTE.

A couple weeks ago I traveled to Shenzen to visit Chuck Allessie and his wife Wei Ying. She is from Shenzen. Chuck had stomach issues but I still traveled to see her family. We ate at the most impressive dim sum restaurant. The food was amazing…

While we were waiting we walked around the mall and viewed some art on display.

Around the mall.it was great meandering and talking about life in China and the US. Wei Ying, her daughter and her sister are lovely and funny. It was good to be somewhere new and see new sights. I am grateful for their company and hospitality. Shenzen is beautiful and much smaller than Guangzhou.

We walked around the park on a beautiful but overcast day.

Shenzen is right next to Hong Kong which you can see across the water.

The next weekend a group of us chartered a bus to go to Zhongshan where there are many furniture stores in one place. Many of the stores have apprentice programs for youth and make impressive pieces.

I love the apothecary look and have thought about purchasing one for years.

One store had tables with water features in the center. They were gorgeous… And huge.

Lunch was amazing at a little restaurant nearby. Homemade noodles and dumplings.

Lots to see walking around…

In the end (literally the last 20 minutes) I did buy something. I will be moving into a different apartment and there is a lack of drawers in the kitchen.

New years eve

It is already the first here in China. We had a more relaxed day planned for the last day Becca and Ryan were here. Becca liked the work of the tattoo artist for our family tattoos and decided to get her other one she was thinking about. The first is also a bit less here for the same quality work.

We started out the day with the last run before Becca leaves. We ran a little over 4 miles on Ershadao. I’ll miss my running buddy.

After the run, we made breakfast here in my apartment. I made Vietnamese egg coffee, one of my favorite. I have to confess that I was supposed to become an expert in making the drink before becca and Ryan arrived but I kept putting it off. It is my first year of teaching again. Here is our breakfast. Egg coffee, sweet potato hash and an omelet.

Egg coffee originated when milk was scarce in Vietnam and whipped eggs were used as a substitute. Now the drink is made with sweetened condensed milk and eggs white into a froth and piled on top. I bought Vietnamese coffee when I visited in October. To date it is my favorite place for food.

Back to the story. The best part is that our favorite restaurant is in the Buddha temple in Beijing lu and it is not far from the tattoo parlor.

We had more great dishes for lunch that day. It will take some time to work through that menu.

Dumplings with a mushroom filling.

Baked squash with filling, what we thought was fried tofu but think it was taro, and a yummy dish made with coconut milk.

After lunch, I walked around the other side of the temple.

I have heard “welcome to China” often, especially with head scratching events. Such as driving your car onto the sidewalk then yelling at the pedestrians in your way. It sits not happen often but entertaining when it does.

Afterwards we came back to the apartment to relax before going to the Mexican restaurant for dinner. We tried to stay awake for the new year, but needed to get up early to get to the airport. I actually woke up 8 minutes before midnight and because it was cold, stayed under the covers. I thought I would get up to see if there was a light display. I feel back asleep and awoke at 12:30. Oh well, no one seemed concerned of missing out.

Family tattoo

Some time ago I wanted to get a simple tattoo like bamboo.

Even though Rebecca and I got matching tattoos (infinity symbol with the word “run”) before I left the states, I promised Ryan I would get one with him too.

I wanted something that would remind me of China and not just that I got a tattoo here. I like my Chinese character as I was born in the year of the dragon so it seemed fitting to get our respective animals. Ryan would get the dog and Becca the goat.

Ryan was not keen on that. Instead we decided on a minimalist bamboo design which is pretty much my style anyway.

One of my colleagues knows a person who had a tattoo here and swears by this shop. I love we chat. You can send your designs to them, give earnest money, etc. They were located in an area we had explored just a few days before.

They were very professional and are lot of fun. They had 3 people available to work on us at the same time so took very little time overall.