Out with the old, in with the new

The speed with which Chinese cities keep changing is amazing. Most of the buildings in the centre of Kunming are from the past few years, and virtually nothing of the previous decades, let alone centuries, is visible anymore. Around our school, there have still been a few older 2-storey buildings, made of brick with old style roofs, grass pushing up between the tiles. All in all, very nice looking little buildings, with small shops occupying the ground floors. Until now. The destruction is well under way, a couple of days ago one of the building was still there when I went to school in the morning and when we came out for lunch, there was only a heap of brick in its place. And the previous day the shops were still open as usual, makes you wonder how much warning the people were given. Apparently the people from around had been protesting the demolition, and they were all taken into police custody. Just like a friend said, their building were destroyed but hey, the got free accommodation in the cells instead... Now it looks like all the other old building around the area are facing the same destiny.

Changes.

Moving

I'm back once again :)
In the little while that I haven't written, I've changed my life here quite a bit. Although I was very much enjoying my Chinese family experience in many ways, I suddenly came to a point where I realised that I longed for my own peace and freedom, and having my own space. so, after stressing about for a couple of days and worrying how the family would take it, I called a girl who had posted an advert at a cafe, went to see the flat and decided to take it. So, it all happened very quickly and now I have been living happily in my new home for over a week.

I'm now atsying with two Chinese girls, both of them English teachers and absolutely lovely. We have a good time just sitting and chatting, or cooking together. My current room is about 3 times the size of the previous one, so I feel like living in a palace, and best of all, I can see the sunset directly from my window :) How lovely is it, just sitting on the window sill, watching the clouds turn red, listening to the silence.

Lots of other things have happened, as well, I'll try to take time this weekend to write a little more.

To teach or not to teach

My brilliant career as an English teacher in China goes on...maybe...one of these days. Over a month ago I got involved in the work of a local HIV/AIDS centre as a volunteer. As a part of my volunteer work, I agreed to teach English to the staff of the local HIV/AIDS hospital once a week. So I went to visit the hospital, had dinner once with the doctor who is the contact person at that end and so on. But until today, I haven't taught one single class... Once again today, we somehow managed to avoid having the class -- this time because the students simply didn't show up after having misunderstood the time... The week before that I wasn't here, the week before that they had something else at the same time, the week before that... I can't even remember. But, but, next week we'll definitely get started. ....maybe :)

But I'm still doing other things at the centre, which is a nice little interesting extra to my student life. Tomorrow we're going to take advantage of the Miss China hullabaloo in the city centre and go with a big team from the centre to put up stands and hand out leaflets and condoms etc. And something else in the evening, which I quite didn't get but will find out when the time comes. I've adopted the Chinese way of thinking of just going with the flow and seeing where I end up ;)