Culinary surprise of the day was a plateful of ant eggs at lunch! I had downed a surprisingly tasty mouthful before the translation filtered through. On closer inspection, the occasional egg did indeed have a fried baby ant emerging from it! After eating, we went to see one of the tree-based nests [see photo] where the eggs are “harvested”. I think the ants could smell their babies on my lips as they were crawling up my leg and jumping on my head before I knew it! We had more for supper. When will I have them again ... oh, the “egg-citing ant-is-a-passion” of it ... (having “ant” and “egg” in one phrase is a punsters wet dream!)
Today’s teacher training visit was to BaoZang, the smallest of the eight schools I visit and in the poorest area. One of the English teachers today was practising, “What does your father/mother do?” and every student she asked replied, “He/she is a farmer”! She had to ask them to lie, just to practise the other jobs they had learned in the lesson!
Culinary surprise of the day was a plateful of ant eggs at lunch! I had downed a surprisingly tasty mouthful before the translation filtered through. On closer inspection, the occasional egg did indeed have a fried baby ant emerging from it! After eating, we went to see one of the tree-based nests [see photo] where the eggs are “harvested”. I think the ants could smell their babies on my lips as they were crawling up my leg and jumping on my head before I knew it! We had more for supper. When will I have them again ... oh, the “egg-citing ant-is-a-passion” of it ... (having “ant” and “egg” in one phrase is a punsters wet dream!)
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JD's new Secondary School in Chippenham was finalised yesterday when we accepted an offer of a place at "Sheldon School" (our first choice). Another small step towards our relocation to the UK.
JD has spent the last couple of days photographing and pricing the many toys he realises he won't be able to take to the UK. We've sent lists to my private students, to friends with children and to our local neighbourhood. I think he's found the whole downsizing (and money-making) process quite cathartic!
JD and I shared a nice meal at Swedish IKEA yesterday with a friend of over 20 years, "Nita", and her cute 7-year old daughter "Julia". The last time I saw Julia, she was two years old. Now she speaks some English, thanks to her Mum's ongoing efforts to bring her up bi-lingually. It was lovely to catch up with them. And share some western food!
Despite the last fortnight being a National Holiday, my private lessons have continued apace. In fact, many of the parents have asked for extra lessons because their kids have more free time in the holiday and they know I'm leaving in a few months - cramming in as many lessons as they can, while they can!
JiaJia, JD and I visited Kunming's newly relocated Science Museum yesterday with another Foreigner/Chinese family we know. It has more exhibits than before, and more of them are now in working order! We had a fun couple of hours exploring. Can you see what's unusual about the pillars [above left]?
I'm in no doubt that all of the family will miss Kunming for their own reasons, when we leave in a few months. Jiajia will pine for her friends and the spicy noodles. JD will have to leave a lot of toys and books behind. And it's been a comfortable life for me here for some 16 years. I know my way about and I've investigated every nook and cranny over the years [such as the super-thin "Moon and Chalice hotel", below].
We visited an outlet mall yesterday (primarily to buy new sports shoes for JD) and stumbled across some rather good Chinese New Year celebrations with dancing dragons, stilted monks giving out blessings and acrobatic lions leaping from one high pole to another.
This weekend is likely to be our last Spring Festival in China. JD enjoyed letting off his fireworks yesterday evening and, with no home-schooling for a few days, we can have some late mornings and play some games [eg Risk]. With the Spousal Visa application finally in, we are focusing more now on packing, saying goodbyes and the practicalities of leaving the country. Three months and counting. A gift for me when I was one year old [left], now JD looks after Big Ted and arranged for him to be restuffed a few days after this photo [right] was taken.
Ten weeks of compiling paperwork culminated in the upload of about 40 documents today, hoping that's enough to convince the British Government to give my good wife a Spousal Visa. We head to a biometrics centre on Tuesday for fingerprinting and iris-scanning, after which we have a nervy 3+ months to wait for a decision!
As I pound around my neighbourhood running 20 laps (3km), I can get pretty bored. So I've started to look out for puddles and cracks in the concrete which look like famous land-masses ...as you do! I photographed a few of them the other day and I've posted them here alongside the relevant maps ...hmmmm, well they looked a bit similar as I ran past them.
It seems like my e-bike might well survive all the way until we leave China despite, over the last decade or more, having new brakes (twice), 3 pairs of tyres, 4 boxes, 3 sets of mirrors, 8 sets of batteries and a new seat. It's done over 60,000km in total!
So I sketched a picture [above right] while JD made a 3D train [below left] out of card and glue. He was also in charge of planning our journey there and back by underground train. So, a pleasing mix of academic, art and life lessons!
JiaJia took her IELTS English language proficiency tests a fortnight ago and the results came through yesterday....
We woke yesterday to see two guys in a basket hanging from a crane outside our upstairs window! They were apparently "pruning" the trees outside, swinging a chainsaw around, with no harnesses or safety lines. Life here is cheap!
I've been home-schooling JD for three weeks now. I feared he might try and take some liberties, but he's been working really well - getting up by himself on time, focusing on his work (whether I am sitting next to him or not), and trying to master the endless spellings which are definitely his weak point. As well as English reading, writing and spelling we have been doing topic work each day in History, Geography and Science. These are areas which his Primary School rarely covered and, when they occasionally did, it was inevitably China focused. So far, JD has done reports on subjects like the Romans, Canada, A380 aeroplanes, Spectacled Bears and Volcanoes. He says he really enjoys the lessons but I put that down to the later starts in the morning, less homework and a more relaxed atmosphere, as much as any curriculum planning on my part!
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AuthorPaul Hider lives and works in Kunming (SW China) and regularly updates this blog about his life there. Past blog entries
April 2024
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