Tim Horton’s Wuxi, China

 

Metro Line Construction ‘twixt Wuxi and Jiangyin

 

They’re Still Testing for Covid

 

The View from the Top of that Thingie

 

Me and Dora the Explorer

 

Some Students and I

 

National Day Celebration at My School

 

Seen near My Classroom

 

View from My School’s Examination Center

 

The Public Bike Stand near My School

 

The Canal that Runs near My Jiangyin Apartment

 

Suzhou Gathering

 

Suzhou, China Pants Building

 

Tim Horton’s Suzhou

 

The View of My Jiangyin Apartment from the Street below

 

The View from the Clothes Drying Ares of My Jiangyin Apartment

 

The View from the Sleeping Area of My Jiangyin Apartment

 

A Shopping Trip on a Public Bike

 I took a public bike to do some grocery shopping.  Using my phone — which was finally set up so I could do so — I was able to unlock the bike from its stall and go three km to the nearest supermarket.  As long as I returned the bike to a stall within an hour, the use of it was free.  I took the bike on narrow roads and was passed by cars, trucks, e-bikes and other bikes.  I heard a lot of locals saying “laowei!”  When I found the Mall, that I had been told directions to go to, I had to find a stall to park the bike.  I couldn’t find one easily so I had to use a map on the public bike app.

The Heng Long mall, which was not at all as fancy as Wuxi’s Hen Long, was good enough but it was annoying to have to show a health QR code to enter and then have staff tell me to put on a mask.  Give it up already China! I bought snacks and drinks which I put in a shopping bag I had brought along. I then went to the KFC where I had to use my phone to make an order. My number appeared on a screen which I looked at for a long time before my order came in a bag. I guess I had entered the order as take out. I took my food out of the bag and ate in the restaurant.  KFC offers beef burgers which are okay.  A new sensation you could say!

Riding the public bike back was a wee bit awkward because I had my shopping bag hanging off my shoulder, but I made it to the apartment safe and sound.

Another View of the Mountain

 

A Traffic Circle

 

Mr. Andis Kaulins

 

Golden Girl

 

My School and My Jiangyin Apartment Are on The Other Side of This Mountain

 

What the Foreign Teachers Have to Sign at My School

 

Notice of ideological safety for foreign teachers

In order to further strengthen the standard management of foreign teachers and build a firm ideological position in the International Department, we hereby inform you of the relevant ideological safety regulation and responsibilities as follows:

1. Adhere to the leadership of the

Communist Party of China,strictly abide by political discipline and rules,firmly support the Party's basic line, resolutions, decisions.national policies and guidelines. Refrain from making any anti-Party and anti-government statements, delusional comments about the Party Central Committee, national leaders and national policies, attacks on the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, or other statements with political problems.

2. Adhere to the four basic principles and refrain from advocating bourgeois liberalisation, “universal values" , “constitutionalism” and other Western ideological cultures.

3. Abide by the provisions of the national religious policy, refrain from spreading and disseminating religious statements, and refrain from carrying out any form of feudal superstition and religious activities.

4. Abide by the provisions of the national ethnic policy, firmly oppose ethnic separatism, and refrain from making statements that undermine national unity and affect national stability. 

5. Adhere to the promotion of socialist core values and refrain from making statements or expressing views that are consistent with the mainstream values of society, such as money worship, hedonism and extravagance in comparison.

6. Respect Chinese history and traditional culture, do not distort the history of the Party, the State and the military, and do not smear revolutionary martyrs and heroes.

The above terms and conditions are

noted.

Any violation will be dealt with seriously!

Signed.

Date

Saturday Morning NAT Test

 

Petty Annoyances

I went to a gas station in Hui Shan twice on a recent Sunday and wasn’t able to put gas in the car both times.  The first time because the gas station didn’t have electricity.  Meiyou Dian!  The second time because they didn’t have internet and I didn’t have cash.  Meiyou wang! Meiyou qian!

I needed the gas to drive the car to dealership to get the car serviced.  I filled its tank at a gas station near the old Xi Shan apartment.  

At the dealership, to while away the time, I read the short stories that I’ll be covering in the English Lit course I’m teaching in Jiangyin.  However, one of the stories in the course book was not there.  It was a story by a Chinese writer.  The story was listed in the table of contents, but the story’s pages were not there.  The next story that was listed after the missing story in the table of contents was there, so it seemed as if the the missing story was ripped out because its writer was the wrong kind of Chinese.

When the car was serviced and washed, I drove to IKEA to buy things at its food store.  After parking, I had a hard time finding the store entrance because some doors that seemed to be entrances were closed.  When I found the entrance, I saw there was a lineup of people having to show their health codes.  The procedure was changed and people were confused.  Instead of just showing your code you had to put your face in a temperature detector.  And they wanted to see a ID code instead of your health code.  When it was my turn and I showed my codes, I was told I hadn’t been tested in three days and couldn’t enter.  I should have been more annoyed than I was, but the finding the entrance debacle made me want to turn around anyway.

I drove to Hui Shan and had to endure a long lineup to get tested.

View from My Bedside in Wuxi

 

Who Cares if the Queen Was Rich?

 I don’t.  And the people who do are fools.

For there will always be rich people because there will always be hierarchies.

What we can insist on is that the people who are wealthy act with dignity.  And that is what Queen Elizabeth II did flawlessly through her whole life and reign. 

It is for that reason this Queen’s person should be honored.  She was the most remarkable woman of our age.

The Queen is Dead! Long Live the King!

 My favorite blogger said it best:

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has been, for seven decades, the only reliable point of sanity in the English-speaking world. 

I am proud to say I saw her in person once.

My Classroom in Jiangyin

 

Saskatchewan Stabbings

 I learned of the Saskatchewan stabbings at lunchtime from foreign colleagues.  Joseph, from Africa, told me that 10 people had been killed and 15 injured in Canada at a place he couldn’t pronounce.  I guessed Saskatchewan and was right.

Reading about the stabbings on my phone, I read aloud PM Trudeau’s overwrought tweet about it.  My colleagues asked how Trudeau could be Prime Minister for he was so inexperienced.  Was it because of his last name? I agreed but added that in the last election, he only got a third of the vote.

Opening Ceremony at My School

 

A lot of students I tell ya!

Jiangyin Grand Hotel

 

Idle Days in Patagonia & First Impressions of Downtown Jiangyin

 The Darnedest thing. At least I think it was. I found a travel writing anthology on archive.org.  It was entitled Modern Travel Writing — a title which would have scared me off if it had been written after 1980, but thankfully it was published in the 1920s. So, there was no way it could have been woke.  In the anthology, was a passage from Idle Days in Patagonia by W.H. Hudson.  It was so good that I searched archive.org again and found a pdf copy that  I could download and read.  Halfway through reading the book, My favorite blogger David Warren of Essays in Idleness published an entry where he mentioned that W.H. Hudson’s book was a model for his writing.  I thought it was great that for once I read an obscure book before David Warren recommended it.

I’m just back from the pub where I made my previous entry.  I have taken a DiDi downtown and back.  I went to the pub to have a beer and walk about what I suppose was downtown Jiangyin.  My impressions?  It was dark, not at all well lit.  The bar street seemed to have seen better days before Covid.  The streets in the area were winding and narrow. I lost my bearings and found myself walking down the street that the pub was on, not knowing till I saw the pub where I was.  I thought I was going down a street that was a block over from the street where the pub was.  Better than being really lost I suppose.

I’m now a DiDi rider (like an Uber rider) in Jiangyin because my wife has the car in Wuxi and the public transportation near the Jiangyin apartment is not good.  I will also become a public bicycle rider once I get registered for the the Jiangyin public bike app.  There is no subway station to which I can walk.

One more thing to mention.  I have taught students at my new school this phrase: “Because Covid!” There was no point in asking them if they had had a good summer.  They didn’t because Covid!

2,100,000 Views

 Not on this blog. Alas.  I now have over 2,100,000 views on my YouTube Channel.  I would give a link to it but I’m at a bar so I don’t feel like I can do this.  It might be on a sidebar of this page anyway.  Now, the thing is if it wasn’t for one video I made that had over 1,300,000 views, my YouTube channel would still be under a million views. You can visit my channel to find the video. My second most viewed video was the one I took after my son To y was born.

I am doing this entry at a pub in Jiangyin. A first for me to be blogging from a pub.  It’s called the Monte Carlo.  The Blue Bar of Jiangyin!  There are foreigners here but they ain’t speaking English except for a Chinese person strangely enough.

I’m going home.  I got stuff to do tomorrow.

My Classroom

 Check it out!

Scenic?

 

What do you think?  It’s a five minute walk from my school.

Find AKICdo!

 

First Day of School

 The teachers are outside welcoming the students. (Can you spot AKIC?)

However, the opening ceremony was cancelled because Covid.