Today I chronicle a couple of little milestones: I went to a restaurant and managed to carry out all the necessary conversation in Chinese- I even managed to ask for the name of a dish.
The second was last night- I successfully co-taught my first class. One of my fellow teachers will be traveling next week, so I'll get to teach her class for a while. It's a nice to feel li
ke I'm finally doing something to earn my salt.
I've also gotten new batteries for my camera, so I can get the pictures from Duhua off of it. They came out almost as lovely as I remember.
This is the dormitory of the high school we visited. The "bathroom" is in another building- one trench runs through all the stalls, and there are no door on them. We saw a number of students washing their hair and the lines of sinks outside. No hot water, btw.
The tiny group of people standing in
front of the building to the right is most of our team. After class, an astounding number of students packed the Balconies of the classroom building. I don't think many foreigners come by!
The Duhua porcelain museum was facinatiating. I love whiteware, and I discovered that Duhua is famous for it's white ware- blanc de chine, as I've since discovered.
I took lots of pictures so I wouldn't forget a detail. Things like this make great inspirations for all sorts of projects.
The second was last night- I successfully co-taught my first class. One of my fellow teachers will be traveling next week, so I'll get to teach her class for a while. It's a nice to feel li
ke I'm finally doing something to earn my salt.I've also gotten new batteries for my camera, so I can get the pictures from Duhua off of it. They came out almost as lovely as I remember.
This is the dormitory of the high school we visited. The "bathroom" is in another building- one trench runs through all the stalls, and there are no door on them. We saw a number of students washing their hair and the lines of sinks outside. No hot water, btw.
The tiny group of people standing in
front of the building to the right is most of our team. After class, an astounding number of students packed the Balconies of the classroom building. I don't think many foreigners come by!The Duhua porcelain museum was facinatiating. I love whiteware, and I discovered that Duhua is famous for it's white ware- blanc de chine, as I've since discovered.
I took lots of pictures so I wouldn't forget a detail. Things like this make great inspirations for all sorts of projects. There are also some colored wares, and even furnishing display. The musical instrument in the center really caught my eye- it's smaller, but otherwise nearly identical to a appilacian hammer dulcimer. This makes me want to finish mine even more!
Duhua has more than history though- they still make ceramics. After the musuem I toured a factory. The order of the day was little tooth mugs- maybe for dentists' offices? It was strange seeing the exact styles I am used to seeing at Wal-mart in the states being produced.Now I know what is behind that ubiqutous "made in China" sticker
To cap off the whole adventure, we went shopping. Much of what we found was just the same stuff you'd find anywhere in the states, albiet at a fraction oif the prices, but some was really lovely and unique. My favorite find was a tea set, white of course, which looked just like one in the museum, and so thin that you can see every petal of the relief plum flowers right through the cup when you hold it up to the light.
The bus ride home was nearly as gripping for a newcomer as the destination. Here, far from the shiny new cities, the China of stories shows through a bit more. 
No comments:
Post a Comment