People Are In A Hurry!

I don't often see the people in my building, except in the elevator. People riding the elevator are on the way to somewhere, whether they are coming in or going out, with little time to chat. Except for two ladies who always have a nice little natter with one in the hall and one in the machine, holding the door open until they finish.  
I did meet the guy across the hall after I blew the fuses in my con-apt, though.
My washing machine is in the bathroom. Everyone who's lived in Korea or China will know what I'm talking about when I say that when I'm doing laundry, I have to stretch the cord across the room and up near the ceiling to plug it in. Well, one day I was stepping over the cord, lost my balance and came down hard on top of it. The cord pulled right out of the plug, but the wires touched long enough to overload the circuit breaker.
It was a struggle to get things back in order, I can tell you.
At first, I couldn't find the fuse box. There just wasn't one in view, and I didn't know if it was in another part of the building or what. I called my supervisor to ask for some help, but just trying to explain "circuit breaker" over the phone to her was enough to lay me waste for the rest of the day.
But I plucked up my courage, and knocked on a neighbour's door. He couldn't have been nicer, and he even spoke a little English. He found the fuse box hiding behind the wardrobe, reset the breaker, and then reset another breaker in a power closet next to the elevator, That restored the power. He even rewired the plug for me.
But, I digress.
I was going to talk about how much in a hurry the people in my building are, as demonstrated by their behaviour in the elevator.
When ever they get on, they always push the "door close" button as soon as possible. I have yet to see someone  not push it. I've even seen someone push that button first, and then the button for their floor. Impatient much?
I have never worried about the door close button before. It would have to be an uncomfortably long time in the elevator with the doors open before I would think about pushing it. So when ever I get on, I only push the button for my floor. If I'm alone, the doors close after a second or two and I'm on my way, but if somebody else is on the elevator with me, they will push the close button for me. I've even seen someone pushing the door close button as the doors are closing!  
That would be enough for me to award the prize, but the person who takes the cake was a woman who rode down in the elevator with me last week. As we arrived on the first floor, and I swear I am not making this up, she started pushing the "door open" button.
GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE A WINNER!!!

Why I Teach ESL

There is a funny website, engrish.com, that features the misuse of the English language by those who are not native speakers. Since I have been in China, I have seen many more examples to add to their site.
The area I live in is the site of a lot of new building, and there are billboards around the construction that advertise how great they are going to be when they're finished. Some of the English that they use is unintentionally funny.
But why use English at all? It isn't that prevalent here. I have met only a few who speak it, so it's a mystery why a developer would want to use it to advertise their product. Do they think that the people who see it (but can't read it) will be impressed?
But I digress.
One sign reads: "The Great House is on the Eastern City Hall and the Northern River." This is on a complex near the building that is North Harbin's City Hall, and it is close to the river.
Another building site's sign says "Deposit Gold Silver Than Save Shop."
?
Another sign on the same site reads:
"Great Appreciation of Space
Wealth is in our hands."
That's how it looks on the billboard, so I'm not sure if it's supposed to be one sentence or not. It makes a little more sense as two sentences, but as one... what is "Space Wealth?"
Yet another development sign advertises itself as "Water's Fragrant Dike."
Okay.
Here is a picture of a local business' sign:

Now I realize they are probably in the real estate business, but what if they are selling real property? Can you buy fake property, too?A restaurant across the street is the "Lotus Fishing Restaurant." I went there to eat with some of the department heads (both from Canada and here in Harbin), but we weren't asked to catch our own dinner.
Another restaurant is named "Splendid Restaurant" on the front, but "People Restaurant" around the corner. Which is it? And do you feed people, or serve them up? Whatever, I am going to be careful about walking near it.
Other businesses I have seen are: "Love's Witness," "Her Dress Box," "Happy Hour Time Hotel" (probably similar to the "love motels" I encountered in Korea), "Bird Nest Business Lnn" (my italics), and an ice cream parlour that tells us to "enjoy delicious enjoy life."
When I was taken to a hospital for a physical, I left my urine sample on a tray that had a sign:: "Leave urine after duct inserted on top of the shey." Boy, I hope I did it right.
I found a de-motivational poster featuring this backpack:

Heh.
Even my students are exposed unwittingly to poor English, in the form of the notebooks they use. One has this printed on the cover:

 

LONELY HEART

I stood in the memory of

the entrance

A collection of my left chest

Go Ballistic loneliness

Naked loses

Stick out a mile.

So I can not say tears

Because of hair

I walked along the fate of

 the arrow

But moving to the next

 

You could make the case that it's poetry, because it works for me on that level.

But the best, the one that I absolutely love, is this paragraph written on the back of car parked in front of the apartment building next to mine. It reads:

JUNCTION PRODUCE

High Lovely Salloon Gallery

We, coordinate brand for "JUNCTION PRODUCE" of VIPCAR, are proud of be fed back aggresively to make full use of sensibility the tradition for as much of austerity. eeriness. rambunctiosness and austere elegance in which only prestige carhas. By so doing. we, junction Pproduce Would like to aim the way to the pinnacle of VP dress up and we want to be only the first and last memory keeper of by succeeding this point from everlasting to everlasting. 

It's complete gibberish. It's fantastic gibberish, and I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. I mean, you can't make this stuff up!
What is the company selling? Cars (VIPCAR)? Produce, as in vegetables? Or clothes (dress up)? Who cares?

As long as there are signs like this, my job is safe.

   

Why Do Chinese Cross The Road?

When I first went to Korea, I couldn't believe how poorly they drove. It was like they were given cars without being told how to use them properly. But I have written about that on "What the Kimchi?" I did not think that there worse drivers.
Then I went to Vietnam.
I find somewhat the same situation here in China. They just do not drive with any care or attention. I have been in cars where the driver will make a turn or change lanes without signalling or even looking to see if anybody is there. And the result is plain to see. It seems like every time I have been out on the road, I have seen an accident, or its aftermath. Most of them are simple scrapes and fender benders that could be avoided if the drivers hadn't been trying to one-up each other.
I have seen vehicles driving the wrong way, just to avoid making a little detour. Our bus driver has to avoid these idiots at a certain point on our trip to school each and every day.
So I have made it a rule, I am not going to jaywalk. Even crossing in a crosswalk with the light, I have had to avoid drivers making what in Canada would be illegal turns. You have to keep your head on a swivel or risk certain death.
But the average Chinese are braver (or stupider) than I am. They jaywalk at almost every opportunity, and turn their noses up at safety devices like crosswalks and pedestrian overpasses. They will cross wherever and whenever they want to, despite the traffic. Sometimes I think they are even trying to mess up traffic, like when they wait to cross until just after the light has changed against them.
In front of my apartment building, there is a huge traffic circle, which I have to cross on the way to the bus stop. There are pedestrian underpasses that I use all the time, but the average Chinese will avoid. They would rather cross the road just above the underpass, rather than take the few extra steps. I took the following pictures just in the time it took to go around the circle a coupla times.
Here's one of the underpasses:

and a woman crossing RIGHT NEXT TO it:

Here are two men, walking in the street, RIGHT NEXT TO the underpass:

and then crossing in between speeding vehicles:

Here's another coupla mooks walking on the road:

and crossing straight towards the underpass.
I MEAN, IT'S RIGHT THERE! ARE YOU BLIND?!

A woman walking on the road (at least she's facing traffic. Many people don't):

Here's a woman actually using the underpass, the only person I saw doing so that day, though there were some tracks in the snow:

Here's a woman that I followed around the circle:

She walked on the road rather than the sidewalk, with her back to the oncoming traffic:

and she crossed the road while I took the underpass:

I don't know, maybe she thought I was the crazy one.
But how did the population of China get to be so large, with poor judgement like this?

A Chinese Fire Drill

This week we had a fire drill at the school. We were warned what day it was going to be, but I was a little disconcerted with the instructions about how to act during the drill. The supervisor of my department, "Linda," told me to run to the exit. I wasn't sure I would have to do this, and I didn't plan on trampling over the students in order to make my escape.
They do strange things here at the school, things I am sure would not pass muster in the west. Some of the exits from the school are padlocked shut. There are plenty of other exits, but I wonder what would happen if someone absolutely had to use one of those padlocked exits to escape.
Anyway, the siren for the drill sounded last Wednesday morning, and it was LOUD! It was like one of those old air raid sirens, only it was just in the hallway, so it kind of startled me. By the time I put on my hat and picked up my coat, the other teachers and the students were GONE.
I was astounded. In those few seconds, they had done what they were told, and had run right out of the building. By the time I descended from the third floor out to the walkway in front of the building (through an exit unlocked for the drill, and re-locked the next day), they were all in the athletic field.
They left me to burn to death!
Heh.
"Annie," who co-teaches History with me, said that I should have run. And when we had a second drill later that day, she kept urging me to go faster. She even got behind me and started giving me little nudges in the back.
Oh boy.
So that is a genuine Chinese fire drill.

JFK 50 Years Later

November 22nd next week will mark the fiftieth anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination, as you may have seen on television. The National Geographic channel is marking the occasion by airing "Killing Kennedy," which is adapted from a book by Bill O'Reilly.
I haven't read the book, but most reviews said good things about it. And the movie wasn't that bad, either. But it did stick to the "Oswald did it" storyline, which in my mind has been thoroughly discredited. I've written about my visit to Dealey Plaza before, and my reasons for believing in a conspiracy are explained there.
There is a principle known as Occam's Razor, that in general says that the simplest solution is probably the most likely. When people come up with insanely complicated conspiracy theories about who killed JFK, they are dismissed as nuts who just can't accept that a man as great as Kennedy could be killed by a non-entity like Oswald.
But the more I have read about the assassination, the more I believe in a conspiracy. Yahoo news recently ran a story called "Ten Facts You Don't Know About the JFK Assassination." I'm always interested in learning more, so I gave it a read.
The facts are derived from a book by Brad Meltzer, History Decoded:The 10 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time. They are things that not a lot of people know, such as that the window Oswald shot from disappeared and is in the hands of a private collector. The Sixth Floor Museum has a window it says is the one on display. I don't know, maybe they're mistaken.
Another fact given is that plenty of shooter's replicated Oswald's feat of shooting three times in less than six seconds. I don't think anyone ever disputed this. I think even I could (probably) fire the Carcano in six seconds. Whether I could hit the target, or an expert could replicate the wounds that the "magic bullet" is supposed to have inflicted, is another matter.
I have seen some documentaries try to demonstrate this, but I'm still skeptical. Even with computer modelling their conclusions do not shake my conviction that a bullet struck Kennedy in the front of his head, driving him back and to the left. Simple physics proves a conspiracy.
Meltzer's fact about the magic bullet is that rather than being pristine, which he says most people believe, it is flattened on one side. After traversing the bodies of two men, smashing bones and piercing tough skin, it is flattened on one side.
I roll my eyes.
Another fact, that Oliver Stone's film "JFK" damaged history, is probably true. People may have missed Stone's statement that he merely wanted to start a conversation, or that "JFK" is a film made in Hollywood, which is also known as the "Dream Factory." Anyone who relies on Hollywood for their facts probably believes there's a dinosaur park in Central America.
Heh.
The investigation by the Warren Commission was done behind closed doors, and the Kennedy family kept some of the photographs of the autopsy (as well as Kennedy's brain, probably buried privately by Bobby). Things like this led to theories gaining more credence and taking a foothold on the public's imagination. But the Watergate scandal and the revelations that followed also gave people a sense that their government wasn't to be trusted.
There are not a lot of files left in the vaults (the government says) because of recent freedom of information disclosures.
Meltzer pooh-poohs the statement that there were a lot of mysterious deaths after JFK's murder, as if some agency or organization was trying to keep them quiet. He says a lot of these "mysterious" deaths were merely serendipitous accidents or natural causes. An interesting article about some of those deaths can be found here.
Meltzer does say that people should investigate and make up their own minds, which I agree with. Whether or not you believe that Oswald acted alone, you are going to see a lot of films and documentaries, or read a lot of books, this month that may help you make up your mind.

Eating

I thought that for this post, I would share with you something about the food here. Taking influences from Russia, Mongolia, Korea, and of course, China, Harbin's food is a lot "heartier" than the rest of the country. Stews are very popular, and because the winters are a lot longer, you'll find that cabbage, potatoes, cucumber, and corn are used more here. Chinese BBQ and hot pot are also very popular.
I eat most of my meals at my school. The students board there during the week, and they and the teachers all eat in the dining hall next to the main building.

The dining hall (left), opposite the main building

I take the school's bus in the morning, along with other teachers, getting picked up at 7:10 and arriving twenty minutes later. I go straight to the dining hall to have breakfast.

A typical breakfast consists of a hard-boiled egg, a couple of diced vegetable dishes, some watery rice (called congee), and some kind of biscuit. The ones pictured here are my favourite. They're baked to a golden brown. The other teachers go more for the other usual offering, which looks like a cinnamon roll. Except it doesn't have any cinnamon, and it's not baked but steamed. The consistency is kind of like raw dough, so I tend to avoid them.

After breakfast I head up to the third floor where the International classroom is situated, and gather my materials for that day's lessons. I teach History, Geography, and ESL, and I have a fourth class that is an extra helping of one of those three. So I have two classes in the morning, and two in the afternoon.

There are three other teachers in our staff room, plus a supervisor, and we all (except the one who is teaching) head down for lunch about 11:30, just before the student body. 

Lining up to be served lunch

Serving up the food, noodles in this case

Utensils: wooden chopsticks, a spoon, and a wet cloth

Selecting sauce for the noodles

Lunch: a Chinese version of spaghetti and meat sauce

This is an unusual lunch, as we more often than not have a variety of Chinese dishes to choose from. I think they do this lunch for me. The cook asked for a list of food that I like, and this was one of the things on my list. It's pretty good, but I always wish for a fork when I eat noodles. I can use chopsticks fairly well, but I prefer a fork and a knife. 

I like a little salt with my food, too, but my supervisor Linda looks askance when I bring out my salt shaker and keeps telling me it's bad for my health. I tell her that life needs a little extra spice to make it more interesting, but she's still dubious.

The students line up to eat

The dining hall 

Dirty dishes: one big bowl for the soup bowls, another for the utensils, a garbage pail for leftover food, and stack the metal trays at the end

After lunch, I take a half hour walk around the school's athletic running track. If no-one walks with me, I listen to a Chinese language (Mandarin) learning course, and practice the words and phrases. I am getting a little better at it, and what I have learned has turned out to be very useful when I have to communicate when I am shopping or banking or whatever. 

I also have a room where I can go to lie down if I want. Sometimes I listen to my language course a second time, but most of the time I just read. At 1:00, it's time to get ready for afternoon classes.

I head down to the dining hall at 4:30 for dinner. I have to eat early because the bus leaves just before 5.

A typical dinner is three or more of the six or seven dishes there are to choose from, a generous helping of rice, some soup, and a piece of fruit. 

Like I said, there are a lot of stews on the menu, whether it is stewed vegetables or something with meat in it. There is a lot of pork and chicken. Beef is more expensive, so it is a rarity. 

It's not usually very spicy, but sometimes I run into these pieces of a bark-like substance that is like to burn my tongue off if I bite into them. 

The serving of rice you see here is considerably less than most others take. They really pack it away.

The soup is usually a clear broth with some vegetables or an egg stirred into it. And the fruit is usually an apple, an orange, or a banana.

On the weekends, I either eat out or make something for myself at home. It is then that I indulge my craving for western style food. But I haven't eaten at a lot of restaurants as it is still early days. There's a place near my house that makes fresh dim sum that I quite enjoy. You can get a plate of about 20 dumplings for about $2-3 Cdn, and a bottle of beer to go with is about another dollar on top of that. Pretty good.

I have seen western restaurant chains here, too: KFC, McDonald's, and Pizza Hut. Sigh. It's too bad that these represent us to the rest of the world.

I wanted to show you some pictures of the smog that enveloped Harbin a couple of weeks ago. It was a real pea-souper that literally shut down the city.

The dining hall from the main building. The smog was a bit clearer in the middle of the morning, but got worse as the day went on

Looking towards the athletic field

As less than half of the students had shown up that day, classes were cancelled, and we were given the next day off, as well. We had to make up those days we missed on two successive Saturdays. At least we would have, if on Friday the power hadn't gone out. They figured they couldn't get it repaired in time, so yesterday was a day off.

About the middle of last week, I felt an odd shaking as I was sitting at my desk. It was kind of like some sort of construction was causing the building to vibrate, but I later learned that there was an earthquake in Mongolia (just to the west of Harbin), and I had felt the tremor. It was a very odd sensation.

So there have been a few "disasters" here, both natural and man-made. I hope that that's as severe as they get. 

This week coming up is going to be a short one for me, as I am going to Hong Kong on Wednesday to sort out my visa. The one I'm using now is only a temporary one, as this job came up so near to the start of the term they decided to bring me over as soon as possible rather than wait for a regular visa to be approved.

But that's a story for another time.

I Am Hot

Well, not really.
But I will be once the management company that runs the building decides to turn on the heat. I have heard two dates: the 10th and the 20th of October. Flint will know what I am talking about. In Korea, they did not turn on the heat before a certain date, even if everyone was freezing to death. And in the spring, there is another particular date they wait for to turn on the air conditioning. At least in Korea, the con-apts that I lived in had personal controls so you could heat up or cool down on your own. But not in this worker's paradise. You have to wait just like the rest of the peons.
That's one of the things I will miss about Canada; the thermostat. How did Azrael put it?

No pleasure,

no rapture,

no exquisite sin is greater...

than central air.

On Wednesday last, the owner of this place came in with a workman to replace the radiators.

That's right. I said radiators. Hot water, hissing pipes, the whole bit. I haven't seen radiators since... well jeez, I may be old, but I'm not that old. I don't think I've ever seen a place heated by radiators.

I keep getting warnings from the locals about how bitterly cold the winter is going to be. I'm Canadian, so I just smile quietly to myself. But I guess they think I won't be able to handle it, so the existing rads in my place were replaced with much bigger ones.

The owner and a workman first arrived about 10:30 (I was expecting them at 9:00), looked over what I had, and went away for three hours. When they came back, they spent the afternoon replacing three of the smaller ones with two larger ones, and adding two small ones together.

So I guess I'll be warm enough this winter (once they actually turn the damn hot water on).

By the way, someone asked about the hot water for my shower, if it lasts long enough.

Don't worry, it stays warm plenty. I couldn't say the same about the first shower I had (in Korea), I can tell you. The roommate they stuck me with wasn't too bright, and he couldn't figure out how to make the hot water heater work properly. So he made the school put in a whole new water heater, similar to what I have here in China (only smaller). The problem was, the gas line for it, she came in through the bathroom window (Heh) so that you couldn't close it all the way during the coldest winter in Korean history.

The second roommate I had was much smarter, and he figured out how to fix the water heater so it worked properly.

So to keep on with the upgrades, I've been going to the main part of town as well as exploring my own area, and seeing what there is in the way of shopping. I went downtown to a Carrefour, just to pick up some things to eat. It's a pretty good store. There's not a lot of foreign foods, but I'm used to finding what I need in an Asian supermarket.

Yesterday (Saturday), I went to the big shopping centre, Hongbo Century Square. It is near Harbin's train and bus stations, so there were a lot of big crowds milling around aimlessly. As a manly man among men, I don't like shopping. I like to get in and get out as quickly as possible. But I had to put up with a lot of slow-moving objects in my way. Flint would hate it.

But I did get a good look at what they have there. It's a big underground shopping mall, built somewhat like a maze. I saw some mooks panicking when they couldn't find their way in.

Heh.

 I did see some nice looking clothes that I would like to buy, including some jackets that my sister was talking to me about a while ago. They have these high Manchu-type collars. Very cool.

And I got lost. I got on a bus that I thought was going to take me back to my own neighbourhood, but it went in a whole 'nother direction. I was able to use what Chinese I have learned so far to ask for directions and tell people where I wanted to go, so it all ended happily.

At least I've got that going for me.

Today I went to another shopping centre near my house, just the other side of a university. It's a big one, and it has a lot of stuff that I need. I just may make it my primary shopping place, as it's so convenient.

So it's all coming together.

Now, about that hot water...

Life in Harbin (so far)

October has come in with fog and rain. Typical. I have a week off for China's birthday celebrations, and I'm stuck inside writing this post. Oh well.
On Sunday, our school had a "Sports Day," and all the parents came to see the students (and the teachers) take part in some running events. Even I got roped in to a three-legged type of event. Only it was a seven-legged race, as there were six of us tied together. There were three teams, each with three teachers and three parents. Our team came in dead last. We were co-ordinated enough to reach the finish line without falling over, we were just too damn slow.

The park near my house.

I'm glad of the break, as it will give me some time to get ahead on my lessons. I want to add more than just me talking and pointing to things on the board or the Smartboard, which is what the students are used to, but not quite Canadian style.
I want to start doing a once a week class that will introduce them to some elements of the "Canadian lifestyle," so they won't be quite at sea when they get there. I know more than most how difficult it can be to make the transition to a new country, and I'd like to give them a little heads up.

The city hall for that part of Harbin north of the river.

So let me tell you a little bit about Harbin, which is China's northernmost city, with a population of about 10 million, with over 4 million in the city centre alone. The area where I am in is north of the river, and more sparsely populated. A lot of new development (including my school) being built.
The city was founded in 1897 as a camp for Russian engineers surveying the Trans-Siberian railway (see my earlier posts about my trip). The city takes its name from the original fishing village, which means "a place to dry nets." It kept on growing throughout the 20th Century, enduring occupation by the Japanese during the Second World War, and being fought over during the Chinese communist revolution after that. It is now a major city, a major player in China's economy, as well as the capital of the province of Heilongjiang.

Walking down by the river.

People keep warning me about the cold winter that is coming, but I just come right back with tales of Canadian winters, and tell Harbin's winter to "bring it." I have a fairly warm coat.
So there.
Getting around is pretty easy. Cabs are plentiful and cheap. I took one from the south end of the city to my place for 30 yuan, which is about $5 Cdn. The buses are even cheaper. The one I take to the market costs about 1 yuan (around 16-17 cents. The buses are very similar to the ones I used to take in Korea. Old, uncomfortable, and driven by maniacs who race each other down the street, laying on the horn the whole time.
My first trip to the downtown area took me to the Zhongyang Dajie, or "Central Street," which is blocked off to vehicular traffic. It was Saturday, and the weather was good, so everyone was there. I saw the monument to Flood Control, which commemorates the several times the Songwha River has broken its banks.

A lot of the buildings are in the Russian style, and most of them have been kept up, though they have a variety of different kinds of stores and shops in them now. We found a bookstore where I got a map of the city (all in Chinese), and passed by several beer gardens. There is a beer festival every August, and the local brew is not too bad.
Of course, the big festival occurs in winter, when the main park on Sun Island becomes home to various ice sculptures and houses of ice. I'm looking forward to it.

Tour boat on the river

I am studying Chinese, with a course from Pimsleurs, and I already know a few phrases, enough to get me around somewhat.
There is a Walmart on the central street, and there are various Carrefours, but the selection of foreign foods is limited. There is only one medium sized market in my area, and there are no open air markets at all. The one special treat that we had was an ice-cream bar that is particular to Harbin. There was a steady stream of people going to the various kiosks set up. The ice cream is not bad, kind of a cross between vanilla and white chocolate.
There were a lot of street foods available, from fresh fruit to barbecued meat on a stick. I also saw a lot of stalls that reminded me of the odang stalls back in Korea. Very thick noodles and fried dough. They also do a mean hotpot, and the Russian influence is still seen in the offerings of sausage and bread.
Near the market I go to is a string of restaurants that I have yet to sample. Nearer to my con-apt is a dumpling restaurant (dim sum) which cooks up some really good food.
I've read that there are some Korean restaurants in town, which might be good. I miss Korean food a lot. And when I get desperate, there are a couple of western style buffets at hotels like the Holiday Inn.
All of these things still have to be found and evaluated, the which task I am looking forward to.

Stig Goes to China

It was a long summer of job searching. I must have sent out over a hundred resumes to schools looking for teachers in Alberta, B.C. Saskatchewan, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. I had one interview, in a school near Edson, but they offered the job to someone else. Friends and former teachers offered me advice, and I tinkered with my resume and fleshed out my online portfolio, but I still received nary an offer.
A friend of mine who I knew from Korea was urging me to apply for a job teaching and China, and so I got in touch with a recruiter that he recommended. I got a job offer from them, but it was retracted after the principal of the school read this blog and "What the Kimchi?". He was upset by the language.

I was beginning to despair when one of my professors passed on information about a job in Harbin, China, teaching Canadian subjects to Grade 10 students who would go on to live and study Grade 11 and 12 in Canada. The recruiter and a representative of the school talked to me via Skype. I think I did most of the talking and asking questions, and I was offered the job fairly soon after the interview. There was some urgency about getting me there, as it was already late August, and classes started the day after Labour Day.

The school, the Harbin American-Canadian Foreign Language School (not sure I like the billing there), was a brand new facility, a branch of an already existing school in Suchow. There were 16 students when I arrived, and two have joined since then. I am thinking that more students will swell the class size as the year progresses.
When I was studying for my degree, and the conversation turned to what kind of school we wanted after graduation, I was always 50/50 on whether I wanted a job in Canada, or a return to overseas work. Since I have made the decision (and especially since I made the trip), I have committed fully to this institution, and intend to do the best job I can.
The need for me to be on the job so quickly necessitated some subterfuge reminiscent of how I used to go to work in Korea. To get a  proper work visa  would take too long, so I came as an exchange teacher, and I will go to Hong Kong at some point soon and get a proper work visa.
The visa process went smoothly, and the recruiter arranged for the ticket. All I had to do was endure the flight from Calgary to Vancouver to Shanghai to Harbin. I wish that I could sleep on airplanes, but nothing I try seems to work, especially when there are a lot of young children and babies making a fuss in the cabin.
I was met at the airport by a couple from the school, and we loaded my bags into the small car for the ride to the school. We all just barely fit inside. The school is set up in the northwest of Harbin, in an area of new developments the other side of the river from the main part of town.

It is quite a river. It is in flood right now, and some islands that are usually parks in the summer are under water. You can see trees and houses sticking up here and there.

The school is quite a facility, and it is so new the builders haven't finished yet. As I was escorted up to a third floor office with the classroom next door, I wondered where everyone was. It seemed like we were the only people in the whole structure. It turns out there are about 100 or so other students in the school. I wondered where they all had been hiding when they all trooped into the dining hall for the afternoon meal.

The teacher's room, with my desk on the far right.

I didn't actually have to teach anything that first day, just meet the students for a couple of minutes. I slept in a hotel that night and moved into an apartment they'd found the next day.
The hotel was interesting. It reminded me of those "Love motels" in Korea, with the various products that complimented the nuts and pop in the mini bar.
There was a product of a company called "Shantone" that promised, "Let you are in intense emotion the safety slips," and "The Man Controls."
Also, "Woman Joy Sex Oil" magic herbs extraction, and his and hers socks and underwear (just in case).
Heh.
The apartment they found for me is pretty nice. It's on the 7th floor, with a view of the river to the east and west - directly in front is another apartment building. I asked if they could knock it down for me, but apparently there's some regulation against it.
Oh well.

My apartment building.

My view to the east...

and the west.

The door of my apartment, with doors to the kitchen (left) and bathroom (right).

The kitchen. I have one, count it: one gas burner.

The bathroom. Note the hot water heater above the tiolet. I have to plug that in and wait 10-15 minutes before the water's hot enough for a shower.

That's the washing machine in the lower left corner.

My wardrobe and bed, with the usual far east style mattress: hard as a rock.

The "living room," with 'puter station, table, and... refrigerator?!

I started in teaching straightaway, and have gradually begun to incorporate more into the lessons than just me talking to them. I have been teaching History, English, and Geography from the Ontario curriculum. There are four other teachers that work with me. They and the students have all taken English names. The supervisor is Linda, and she co-teached English with me when she is not busy with other matters. The other English teacher is Mrs. Zhang. Annie helps me with History class, and my co-teacher in Geography is "Ocean.
The students' English level is not as high as I was expecting, and there have been some struggles as we get used to each other. I have been trying to keep my voice and energy level up, and have had to ask for some interpreting of some of the more difficult language. I have also been trying to make the lessons as relevant and interesting as I can. I teach nineteen 40-minute classes per week. It's been difficult, as there are not as many resources to fall back on like you might find in the average Canadian school. We didn't even have internet for the first week.
But we have been persevering, and I have been working hard to establish a good rapport with the students. The lessons I learned at Ambrose have not gone to waste.I was told on the q.t. (so don't tell anyone, okay?) by Linda last week that the administration of the school has been so happy with my work so far that I may be in line for a bonus. I don't think that the work I have done so far is reflective of the best that I have to offer, but I do think of it as a good start.

Oswiecim/Auschwitz

The origins of the Polish town of Oswiecim date back to the 12th century. It has many surviving historical buildings, and other traces of the past, but the largest tourist destination (nearly half a million every year) is the KL Auschwitz-Birkenau National Museum. My friend John and I set out to visit this site one beautiful May morning. The sky was blue, the countryside was green, and the birds were singing. It made for a strange backdrop to a tour of one of the most notorious killing centres ever built. The name Auschwitz (the German variation of the Polish Oswiecim) aroused fear in Nazi-occupied Europe for five years.
The camp was established in 1940 for Polish political prisoners, and was originally meant to be used as an instrument of terror against Poles only. As time passed, the camp grew, and the Nazis began to deport to it people from all over Europe, mainly Jews but also including Soviet POWs, Gypsies, Czechs, Yugoslavs, French, Austrians, and even Germans.
Poland had been defeated quickly in 1939, and the idea of setting up a camp had already been proposed. The need for a place to send existing prisoners from too-crowded camps and the new victims of mass arrests was the justification.
The deserted pre-war Polish Army barracks in Oswiecim were chosen because they were some distance from the town, and they could be easily expanded in isolation from the outside world. Another major factor was that the town was an important railway junction - convenient for mass transports.
The order was given in April 1940, and the first prisoners arrived in June.
Initially the camp comprised 20 buildings: 14 at ground level and six with an upper story. During 1941 to 1942 another story was added to all ground floor buildings and 8 new blocks were constructed, using the prisoners as a work force. The average number of prisoners fluctuated from 13 - 16,000, reaching at one stage in 1942 a record total of 20,000 people.

As the number of inmates increased, the area covered by the camp grew until it was transformed into a gigantic factory of death. The first camp became a parent, or Stammlager, to a whole new generation of camps, including: Auschwitz II - Birkenau (about 3 km away), Auschwitz III - Monowice, the IG Farben chemical plant, as well as 40 other smaller camps that dealt with steelworks, mines and factories where the prisoners deemed healthy enough were exploited as cheap slave labour.
The camps I and II are now maintained as museums, containing the remnants of crematoria, cremation pits and pyres, unloading platforms, and the site of a pond where human ashes were dumped. Some of the constructions were destroyed by the Nazis in an effort to cover up the crime, but there are still many well preserved blocks and parts of the prisoners' barracks. The main entrances are intact, as well as sentry watch towers and barbed wire fences. The prison blocks in Auschwitz I contain exhibitions portraying the history of the camp, and trace the torments of the various nations whose people were murdered.

The first stop on any tour is the reception building, where a film about the camps' history is shown. From there it is a short walk to the main gate of the first camp - through which the prisoners passed every day on their way to work (returning 12 or more hours later). There is a cynical inscription over the gate which reads Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Brings Freedom).

A walking tour took us past various blocks where the "must see" exhibitions had been set up. General exhibitions include: Block 4 - Extermination, Block 5 - Material Evidence of Crimes, Block 6 - Everyday Life of the Prisoner, Block 7 - Living and Sanitary Conditions, and Block 11 - The "Death Block."
Other blocks were devoted to specific nationalities and their experiences in the camp: Block 14 - USSR, 15 - Poland, 16 - Czechoslovakia, 17 - Yugoslavia and Austria, 18 - Hungary, 20 - France and Belgium, 21 - Italy and Holland, and 27 - the Suffering and Struggle of the Jews.
In 1942 Auschwitz became the biggest centre for the killing of the Jews, and the majority were killed in gas chambers immediately on arrival. There was no registration or identification with camp numbers, making it difficult to be precise about how many were murdered. 1.5 million is the most widely accepted number, and the search for documentation continues.

Room 1 of Block 4 contains an urn with a handful of ashes, gathered from the territory of Birkenau, to commemorate the dead. Room 2 exhibits photocopies from the original Book of Deaths, showing columns of fictitious causes and times of death. In Room 3 can be seen photographs of arrivals, taken in 1944 by one of the SS men in Birkenau, during the extermination of the Jews from Hungary.
Most of the Jews that were deported to the camp were told that they were being "resettled" in the east. The journey was made in sealed cattle cars. No food was provided. Deportees travelled from 7 to 10 days in this way, and many died before even reaching the camp. Those left alive were separated by SS doctors looking for those who could be judged still capable of work, and those who were to be gassed immediately.
Room 4 shows a reconstruction of the actual process of extermination. A model depicts people entering an underground changing room. They are composed, because after the initial "selection" all have been assured by the SS and camp prisoners that they would be allowed a shower. They were told to undress, after which they were herded into a second chamber resembling a large shower facility. Into this room, 210 square metres, around 2,000 victims would be led. After the doors had been firmly closed, the SS would pour a substance called Zyklon B into the chamber through special openings in the ceiling. Within 15-20 minutes the people trapped inside would be dead. The bodies would be searched for jewelry, the hair and gold fillings would be removed, and the remains would be taken to incinerators located on the ground floor. Three photographs, taken in secret at great risk by one of the camp inmates, show some women being driven into the gas chamber, and the burning of corpses on a cremation pyre (sometimes used when the crematoria were overloaded).
Zyklon B was produced by the firm "Degresch," whose profits during 1941-44 were almost 300,000 Reichsmarks. During the period of 1942-3, about 20,000 kilograms (almost 20 tons) was used. According to the camp commandant, Rudolf Hoess, about 5-7 kg was needed to kill around 1,500 people. Piles of empty cans are on display, as well as some of the crystals.

Room 5 contains some of the human hair discovered by the Soviet Army after it liberated the camp. They found approximately 7 tons packed into bags in the camp warehouses.

German firms used the hair for tailor's lining. There is also a display of how the gold fillings were removed from thee teeth of the victims, and how the human ashes were used as fertilizer.
Block 5 contains displays of personal possessions taken from the prisoners upon arrival at the camp. They were sorted, stored, and subsequently transported back to Germany. Luggage, shoes, spectacles, clothes, brushes, towels, prayer shawls, bowls, artificial limbs - the variety and size of the items left behind (only a small fraction of the total) staggers the imagination.
Block 6 has many displays that outline the everyday life that the average prisoner had to endure. Some were admitted to the camp, where they perished from hunger, executions, hard labour, punishments, or as a result of the appalling sanitary conditions. They were told that the only escape was "through  the crematoria chimney." After their personal possessions were taken from them, their hair was cut short, they were sprayed with disinfectant, bathed, and then finally given a number and registered. From 1943 these numbers were tattooed on their arms. Auschwitz was the only camp to do this.
Prisoners were marked by different coloured triangles sewn onto their camp clothing. Red triangles denoted political prisoners, black was given to gypsies, violet given to Jehovah's Witnesses, pink to homosexuals, and green for common criminals. Jews were marked by two yellow triangles sewn into the Star of David.

The thin clothing was never designed to protect the prisoners from the cold, and underwear was left unchanged for weeks at a time. Prisoners could not do their own washing, which led to outbreaks of various diseases, including typhus, typhoid, and scabies.
The inmates' lives were timed with monotonous regularity, and head counts were taken often, not to keep track of them, but to punish them by having them stand in rows for hours on end.
Hard labour was an efficient way to finish off many prisoners, and most of the work done was in the area of camp maintenance: levelling off high ground, building new blocks, huts, roads, etc. They were made to work at a run, with no respite. They were constantly harassed by brutal camp guards. who beat them at the least provocation.
IG Farben had the first choice of prisoners, who were made to produce synthetic rubber and petrol. Other prisoners were involved in metalworks, the mining of coal, the production of weapons, and new plant construction.
A day's food ration amounted to 1300 - 1700 calories. For breakfast a prisoner would receive 1/2 litre of "coffee." Lunch was 1 litre of meatless soup, often cooked with rotten vegetables. Supper consisted of 300-350 grams of black clayey bread, 30 g of margarine, 20 g of sausage, and some herbal tea or "coffee."
Hard work and hunger caused complete physical exhaustion, and the inmates developed starvation sickness, which often ended in death. There are photographs taken during the camps' liberation that show some women who weighed only 23 - 30 kg.
Children were also sent to the camp, and many were treated the same as any adult. Most did not survive the selection process, and they died in the gas chambers. Some, like twins for instance, were subjected to cruel medical and scientific experiments.
In Block 7, we can see how the prisoners had to deal with the most horrendous sanitary conditions imaginable. The first train-loads had to sleep on straw scattered over concrete floors. Later, straw mattresses were introduced. An average of 200 prisoners were crammed into a space hardly adequate for 40-40 people. Three-tiered bunks were installed, where two prisoners to each "bed" was the norm. Their only covers were filthy threadbare blankets. In the main camp, the prisoners were housed in brick-built one- and two-story blocks, while in Birkenau they had to live in barracks with no foundations, erected on marshy ground. There is a reproduction of these, but the real thing is also on display.

Oswiecim had a malarial climate, contributing to the various illnesses that the prisoners suffered. Combined with appalling living conditions, hunger, inadequate clothing, rats and insects, it brought about the decimation of the prison population. Large numbers of the sick reporting to the prison hospital found no respite, as they were subjected to selections that sent them to the gas chambers or to endure medical experiments conducted by such "doctors" as SS Dr. C. Clauberg (sterilization) and Joseph Mengele (genetic research).

Block 10 (left) and Block 11 (right) with the "Wall of Death" in between

Block 11, also known as the "Death Block," was a prison within the prison. The courtyard between blocks 10 and 11 is enclosed on two sides by a high wall, and the windows in block 10 are boarded over so that no-one could witness the executions taking place. Here is the "Wall of Death," where the SS shot prisoners in the thousands. Punishment, in the form of flogging, also took place, and some prisoners were hung from a special stake by their arms, which were bent behind their backs.
On the ground floor, you can see the room where summary trials were held by the Gestapo Police Court. In a session lasting two to three hours, anywhere from a few dozen to more than a hundred death sentences would be handed out. Prisoners would then be taken to a bathroom and made to undress before being taken out to the wall.
Punishment could be given for any number of offenses, or for no reason at all. They were all part of the plan to annihilate the prisoners in any way at all.

Cells in Block 11 basement

The cellars of this building witnessed the first experiments with Zyklon B, the imprisonment in cells of camp inmates or civilians, and the housing of prisoners sentenced to death by starvation.
There was a resistance of sorts within the prison, as people outside tried to smuggle in food, and inmates struggled to escape or send proof of the crimes committed to the outside world. There are photos who worked diligently for this cause, many at the cost of their lives.

The kitchens, with gallows in front

On the way from the blocks to the gas chamber is the assembly square, just in front of the kitchens. This is where the prisoners were assembled for roll call,  and to witness executions and punishments.

The crematorium and gas chamber for camp I is still in existence, just outside the main fence.

In front of the entrance you can see the gallows used on April 16, 1947,  to hang the camp commandant, Rudolf Hoess.

Going inside, the largest room (just to the right) was the mortuary. Converted into a gas chamber, this is where Soviet POWs as well as Jews from the Silesian ghettos were murdered. It is a spooky place. The bare concrete walls stand as mute witnesses to the terrible deeds done here.

The other part of the building houses the ovens, which could burn approx. 350 bodies daily. The firm of Topf and Sons built them, as well as the furnaces in Birkenau. These have been rebuilt by the museum from the original metal elements.

The next part of the tour is a short bus ride to Auschwitz II - Birkenau. Covering approx. 175 hectares, it contained over 300 buildings. 45 made of brick and 22 made of wood survive intact. Of the rest, only the chimneys are left to mark where they were. Row upon row upon row, like the skeleton of some great beast.
The camp was divided into several sections, each of which constituted a separate camp. The total number of prisoners reached its highest population of 100,000 in August, 1944.

The starting point for the tour is the main SS guardhouse, also known as the "Death Gate." It is the most recognizable structure, the one everyone thinks of when Auschwitz is mentioned.

The tower in the centre is a good vantage point, with a view of the whole prison complex. You can listen to a recorded commentary (in 12 different languages), before proceeding into the camp itself. Opposite the tower is the railway platform, where the incoming trains were unloaded and the selections were made.
On either side of the platform, you can actually go into the barracks where the prisoners were housed.

The first barracks were made of brick, much like those in the main camp, but the Nazis shifted to wooden barracks as more economical. The prisoners slept on three-tier bunks, which held up to 8 individuals at a time. There was no floor, just the bare earth.

The wooden buildings' design was based on field stables for 52 horses and given a minimum of modifications so that they could be used to accommodate up to 1,000 prisoners. There were two stoves at each end, with a chimney in between, used to heat the building.

Going inside, touching these berths, and breathing in the atmosphere makes one aware of ... ghosts. That's the only way I can describe how I felt inside those barracks.

At the far end of the unloading platform there are the remains of the gas chambers and the crematoria, blown up by the retreating SS in an attempt to conceal their criminal activities.

In the ruins it is still possible to discern the underground changing rooms, where the victims were made to undress.

Entrance to the underground changing room

Next to them are the gas chambers. On the surface are the hollows left by the furnaces, as well as the rails along which carts full of corpses were pushed.

The gas chamber

There are small memorials erected in places where the ashes were dumped.

To the memory

of the men, women, and children

who fell victim to the Nazi genocide.

Here lie their ashes.

May their souls rest in peace.

It took John and I the better part of the day to make the tour. It is difficult to put in to words what seeing this place meant to me. Everything contained in this museum is evidence of a crime so monstrous that no definition in words is possible. It was built by men who believed in one man's lies, and who followed him into hell.  
Between the ruins of crematoria II and III there stands the International Monument to the Victims of Auschwitz, which was ceremonially unveiled in April 1967.

FOR EVER LET THIS PLACE BE

A CRY OF DESPAIR

AND A WARNING TO HUMANITY,

WHERE THE NAZIS MURDERED

ABOUT ONE AND A HALF

MILLION

MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN,

MAINLY JEWS

FROM VARIOUS COUNTRIES

OF EUROPE.

AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU

1940 - 1945