Ric Swenson on mon 26 jun 06
Hi there folks,
Time to check in from Jingdezhen...or Jing De Zhen ...as you wish. Weather
here is steamy. Some rain...a lot of sun and temps hover around 85-95 F.
(About 35-40 C.) They DO metrics here...and C. of temp. Hard to believe it
has been a month since I last wrote. So much has happened. Where to
start??
I was surprised last night to see PORN on Chinese TV...but then I realized
it was POR NED
(Portugal and "Ned"erlands) playing the world cup game at 3:00 AM !! That's
really late night entertainment..? It has been great to see so much soccer
("football"...sorry) here. College kids do Football (soccer) Basketball,
Badminton, Ping pong and ride bikes. There are huge wonderful courts for
playing basketball on both campuses here. Two large tracks, as good as I've
seen anywhere...with that rubbery bouncy surface. Ya know? Nearly everyone
has a bike...motorized or not. Mothers would shutter to see young children
riding on a Vespa -type motorbike..standing in front of the driver.
Helmets? Seat belts? Naa.
I have yet to see a dishwasher in China...except the two legged type, I
mean. Few clothes washers also. They also have two legs and own a washboard.
Life id simple here for most people. We have one clothes washer ( but no
dryer!) in the dorm for us foreigners on fourth floor but the rest of the
dorm and the campus has no showers in their rooms...or AC. We are special
(HA!) I suppose no Americans would agree to come here if they didn't have
SOME conveniences. I admit I would have trouble with no AC. I tried to
started explaining to someone the other day about clothes dryers....I got
such a blank stare that I stopped halfway through my explanation. Hard to
explain how spoiled we really are in the west sometimes. My Grandmother
Schroepfer hung her wash on the line...and now I am learned how.
Pretty impressive to see the work done here. Just the act of a single man
strong enough to load a 7 or 8 foot tall piece of pottery on an old two
wheeled cart and pull it several miles from the factory to the store near
downtown. To see a man with a yoke on his back balancing a dozen large
ceramic jars, raw glazed blue and white porcelain, on two platforms on
either side of the yoke...trotting along to the kiln from the decorators'
shop. The streets by the end of a day are littered with trash, and I
ask"why the hell do people do that?"...then I see the peasants (they call
them the simple people) picking up and sweeping and constantly making the
place better again. Jobs...it creates jobs...(so let the general population
be slobs, it gives the peasants something to do to help society.)
Went to Hangzhou with one of the Ceramic Grad. students a couple weeks ago.
Fabulous place to see. Silk Museum, Tea farm run by the Red Chinese Army,
several Universities, art shows by students were facinating! A Performance
piece with 12 guys in camouflage dancing and ...well...too much to explain
in that one. Lots of great student work at both Universities we visited
there. Had a REAL Italian lunch at a wonderful restaurant near Westlake.
My first experience with fork and knife in 4 months, but even more
interesting was Shirley's (her 'English' name) reaction to eating in a
western restaurant. She had never held a fork in her hand. She asked so
many questions about which fork to use for this and that..what's this for?
Why do you do it that way? She quite like the linguini and the caesar salad
and so did I. It was a beautiful room, 4 star type place and the food was
on par with anyplace in NYC or Boston...and I do LOVE Vinnie Testa's.
The brown/gold and red taxis still race around but I don't close my eyes as
much now. We hit a motorcycle the other day and I hardly flinched. Didn't
hurt the bike or the man and woman on board...but there was come yelling and
gesturing going on. Taxi's are all Suzukis made at local plant near the
Ceramic Institute. I met one of the Chinese-Japanese translators just after
I arrived here...I want to ask him if he can get me a tour. I worked in a
steering wheel assembly plant in Bennington partime a long while
back...interesting to see how its done now.
774 days until the Olympics in Beijing. Get your tickets now folks.
Actually you should come see the old Beijing soon, before they have torn it
down to build venues for the sporting events. Hutongs are disappearing as
China grows and advances. Hutongs are "communities" neighborhoods. Some
quite old and interesting architecturally.
Even the clothes hangers in China are smaller.
coming soon 20 new Walmarts...that will make 60. One is now being built in
Jingdezhen. I won't be at the opening. Carolyn Broadwell, just returned
from Nanchang from a speech competition there, she said she went into the
Walmart there. She thought she was in California...or Nebraska...or Oregon.
Same -same.
I harken back to Hangzhou and Westlake. Dancing at 6 the morning at the
restaurant overlooking the lake...just near the tower that juts into space
on that high hill. 30 or 40 couples dancing ballroom style...other doing
Tai Chi close by. The man with his long brush writing with water on the
sidewalk...characters I couldn't know, but so beautiful...A poem? A protest?
A novel? Calligraphy advertisement?? The weather was wonderful, boating to
the islands was great. Museums, galleries, bike rides on the jetty across
the lake. Foliage galore. Sculptures,great food, great company.
Our Finnish Grad student had her show at the Pottery Workshop and has now
left. Priska Falin. We did dance her out of town, however, until 1 AM the
night before she left. Wonderful girl and a good friend. Priska heads back
to Helsinki and will finish her studies and probably end up head of design
at Arabia! Talented person! She turned a lot of heads in China with her
blonde hair!
I taught the last two weekends at Peter's English School. They needed some
extra help at the end of the term. I was happy to help and it paid very
well. Oral English to 7-12 year olds. Also visited in the past week with
three groups of kids, 5-15 year olds at various places. People always want
to connect and have their students, children, etc, meet with a
foreigner....practice English. We never lack for a dinner or lunch invite.
I meet a lot of very nice folks here.
I was honored to be a judge for the final thesis examinations for English
seniors and they invited me to their graduation party too. I was also one of
a team of evaluators for BFA grads. I believe it was the first time
foreigners have been asked to evaluate BFA students. I was asked by Jin Wen
Wei, ceramics Dept Head and Wong Wei, faculty member here at Jingdezhen
Ceramic Institute, & grad. of Alfred U.1998, ( no relation between the two,
even though they have the same surname...and please no more jokes about
'Wrong Way', he pleads) Jin Wen Wei heads to Finland soon to University
exchange. I admire both of them and their work very much.
Now I have a couple months off, paid, and reimbursed for travel
too......Hmmmmm.... what SHALL I do? So much of China to see. Let's get on
with it!!
Remember to "Keep your stick on the ice".
Regards to all,
Ric
:)
"...then fiery expedition be my wing, ..."
Wm. Shakespeare, RICHARD III, Act IV Scene III
Richard H. ("Ric") Swenson, Teacher,
Office of International Cooperation and Exchange of Jingdezhen Ceramic
Institute, TaoYang Road, Eastern Suburb, Jingdezhen City
JiangXi Province, P.R. of China
Postal code 333001
Mobile/cellular phone : 13767818872
Tel. +86-0798-8494257 (res.)
+86-0798-8499600 (ofc.)
+86-0798-8499012 (fax)
E-Mail: RicSwenson0823@hotmail.com or ricswenson082347@yahoo.com
_________________________________________________________________
FREE pop-up blocking with the new MSN Toolbar – get it now!
http://toolbar.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200415ave/direct/01/
| |
|
