I’m having even more trouble with the Internet connection these days… getting onto my weblog is definitely harder. If my posts trickle down to nothing, this is the reason for it.

I’m not too sure what I’ll do if the weblog server becomes completely inaccessible, but I’ll email you all if I come up with any bright ideas / abandon the plan altogether.

Anyway, enough about boring technicalities.

FOREIGNERS…

I’m writing this on Friday, (in essence, the equivalent of my Sunday), I have yet to leave my flat (for the first time since I arrived I am slobbing around my apartment). Speaking of which, I heard the most amusing term for Anglo-Saxons yesterday… I’ve heard us called Big Noses, Foreign Devils… etc etc, but this is the best:

We are “The Leisure Race”

Hahahahaaaa.

I’m starting to think this is true. I can’t imagine any local I’ve met chilling out and writing off a day if they felt they weren’t up to it. My Chinese students especially, work way too hard (in normal school, not always my classes! I should be so lucky!). I used to think that it was admirable, but to be honest, my students work their butts off, and it only has marginal results for most. The rest just get tired, start to resent studying or the subject. All in all, I think leisure isn’t a bad thing at all – someone needs to get this message out to the rest of the world…

LANGUAGE ATTEMPTS…

Speaking of leisure, I’ve started to push my work concerns aside and get out. (hurrah!)

Firstly I’ve gotten some movement on the Uyghur-language learning front. I now have a language partner, Jack – who I met through one of our local teachers. I’d tell you more, but I’m still trying to piece together all his details myself (he speaks limited English, and I speak limited Chinese and minimal Uyghur). We tend to communicate in snippets of English and Chinese, embellished with a lot of mime!


For those interested, here are some Uyghur phrases:

Hello! – “YAK Seam mu SihZZ”
Bye – “Hosh” (the first H is pronounced with a rolling “H”, kinda like a rolling “R”
What is this? – “Boo knee ma?”

I’m getting to the numbers, but they are all completely unpronounceable… I mean REALLY. You though French rolling “R”s were hard??? HA.

When I finally figure them out, I’ll relay them over to you…

GETTING TO KNOW UYHGURS…

This has been the most exciting part of my week. Through Jack I’ve met a lot of his mates and peeps. So far I have such a brilliant impression of them all. Their culture is incredibly warm and friendly – they are also definitely more laid back than the Chinese friends I have here. It’s funny because the city is divided into two different societies, they aren’t really antagonistic differences that keep the Chinese and Uyghurs apart (which I had been told was the case and I expected more of), it’s more a difference in lifestyle which keeps the two sides of the city from fully integrating with each other.

For one, the Chinese work and live off Beijing time, and the Uyghurs operate on time based on the geographical location of Urumqi. Esentially, one population live in one time zone and the rest of the population live according to another time zone – two hours later.

As for me, I work according to Beijing time, but in reality, because I have to work evenings, I live according to Xinjiang time. I’ll eat dinner at 10pm and go to bed around 1am Beijing time – 8pm and 11pm Xinjiang time. The English teacher life just makes it easier to socialize with those who also live according to Xinjiang time, generally Uyghurs.

Now that I think about it, living in Urumqi is pretty perfect for the life of an English teacher… if I were in another city, I’d have pretty antisocial work hours. Yay Urumqi.

WEDDINGS…

Ok, hahaha, that subtitle is meant to be a bit of a tease. I’ve been invited to go along to a Uyghur wedding on Sunday night, after I finish work. I’m thrilled to bits. All I know about it is that there will be a lot of dancing – and these people CAN DANCE. Eep. I’ll write about that sometime next week!

WORK…

It’s going well and getting busy! I love the kind of teaching I’m doing – small classes, real language teaching, and with all sorts: different ages and levels it’s everything I want. Life of a teacher is great as well, it’s quite hard work at the moment, since I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on in general – but is what other job can you go for a 2 hour facial in the middle of the afternoon if you fancy de-stressing?

AMUSING MYSELF…

Life is good! The other teachers here are all paired up into couples, and as friendly as they are, I am still the odd person at the end of the evening. Sooooo, to add to my personal entertainment portfolio I have now invested in a 25quid DVD player. Yaaaayyyy! It’s so great. I even have an Uzbeke music VCD. It’s so cool! (What is hilarious is that it took me a week to but a DVD player, to mentally prepare myself to spend so much money at once. I was thinking of buying 7quid speakers for my computer while I was at it, but that just seemed way too self-indulgent. Hahahaa.)

And of course there are all the new people that I am meeting at the moment to keep me entertained too. My new flatmate Brooke will be arriving in a month…


…JUST AFTER MY BIRTHDAY…

Hahaha

Ok, time to do some work!

Cath xxx