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| The red shop is where I buy dried fruit. The green shop sells nice tea. |
In China they have not gone health-and-safety crazy. This big hole in the ground does not need a disco-circus around it to warn people against their impending doom should they fall into it. No, the Chinese give their people more credit than that. They assume that they will have enough smarts not to walk straight into the hole. Younger kids may not be so wise, but they are kept under a close watch by their parents or grandparents anyway.
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| Big hole in the ground |
Many people in China, or maybe I should say most people in China, still hold Mao in high reverence. Here is a picture of him dangling on this dude's rear-view mirror.
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| Chairman Mao |
So, my math skills are so rusty, I am quite ashamed. A person who once got an A in A-level Further Maths was put to shame by a bunch of 10-years olds. Here's what happened.
I decided to start my lesson off slightly differently. I'd had enough of the standard lesson introductions 'How are you?', 'I'm fine', bla bla bla bla bla. So instead I put a simple maths sum, something like 25/5. They got that easily so I put 225/5. To my shame I calculated this wrong, I thought it was 25, but the kids said 45 right away. Luckily they said it in Chinese, so by the time they figured out the English I was able to correct my mistake. So although they never knew how mathematically incompetent their English teacher had become, I knew. Oh the shame. But to their credit, they are lightening-fast at mental math. Something kids in England aren't usually that sharp on.
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A funny thing happened to me in a class this week. A boy who is very intelligent, I think he's 13, was talking to the boy behind him. I got confused because this boy is usually quiet and engaged in the lesson. 'Stop talking', I said.
I turns out that the boy got his index finger well and truly wedged into the circular back rest of his chair, and he was trying not to draw attention to himself. Of all the reasons why he was talking, this one hadn't crossed my mind.
I tried to ease his finger out, but it seemed to have swelled up inside. No fear, Soaperwoman is here, I knew just what to do.
I remembered when I was younger, my gran would ease rings off my fingers using soap. I ran to the bathroom and made my hands slimey with soap. I ran back to the kid and applied the soap to his finger. It took a little focus but finally, his finger came out. It felt so good to have reacted so instinctively and quickly to this boy's issue.
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On a different subject, I have found a way to bypass my cravings of sweet, fatty foods. My uncle Aiman once said to me, 'You can't quit smoking if you have no cigarettes in the house' (quite sound wisdom, except from the caveat that he has never completely quit smoking before).
So what I have done is put a plate of very sweet cream in my fridge. Just knowing it is there is enough for me. I don't want to eat it, nor do I want to eat any other sickly sweet foods, it's just comforting to know that I could if I wanted to.
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I love these orange-dressed cleaning men. They are usually very short, but they have the kindest, sweetest faces. They'll carry a portable radio at their waist and a whining woman will sing traditional Chinese songs.
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