R.P. BenDedek
My New Life in SuZhou City Jiangsu Province.
By R.P.BenDedek
Apr 10, 2007 - 5:32:21 AM

The other week I published a series of photographs here at Magic City, in an article entitled: Another City: A Different Country. In that article I related how different things seems to be here in SuZhou, and I shared a little about a bike riding misadventure. Today I want to tell you a little more about my life here.

Throughout this article there appear a number of photographs, most of which were taken on the one day, of the immediate vicinity in which I live. I hope you enjoy them. (More and larger photos appear at kingscalendar.

Building on the right is a hotel. Building in right background is foreign teachers hotel.

In 2005 I moved to Wuhan from Hong Hu, so that I could both teach English and learn Chinese. After 2 years in Wuhan however, I have only spent one semester in formal Chinese study. I had taken my teaching position in Wuhan at a lower salary than had been offered elsewhere, so that as I learned Mandarin I could practice it in a dialectic accent with which I was familiar. When I requested the agency find me a new position for 2007, I stipulated that the salary was my prime concern.

Although the Chinese Government instructed that Foreign teachers be sent home early last semester, so that they could celebrate Christmas with their families (made possible because of the earlier spring festival time) my school did not let me go. In fact, they stipulated that I must remain at the school until the very last day of my contract. This I did (and am still waiting for outstanding salary).

Immediately in front of the College. Nice scenery.

On March 1st I flew from Wuhan to Suzhou. My coordinator Mr. Xu (Shu) met me at the airport and took me straight to my apartment. Dropping off my baggage, we went to a restaurant for lunch, subsequent to which I returned to my room and unpacked.

With everything put away, and not knowing what to do, I set up my laptop, only to discover that it did not work. I had not transported it in it's usual case, but had instead packed it into a backpack (padded to be sure), which was stored in the overhead luggage compartment on the plane. Obviously, or so it seemed, it had sustained damage.

Street in front of the College.

Whilst it did operate, the screen was black, although you could just make out the white patch where you type in your password. A few days later we took it to the computer specialist, who told me that I should just buy a new one. This is a common response from the poor Chinese.

Anyway, he told me that all he could suggest was, that I turn it on, leave it for 30 minutes, turn it off, and repeat the process a few times. If it did not return to normal function, then we would have to copy the hard drive to another computer so that I could access my teaching files.

Canal dredging in the canal that runs along the western side of the Campus.

I went home, did what was suggested, and after 2 days of trying to get it to work correctly, I gave up and stowed it away. Ten days later, a different computer man arrived to copy the hard drive to the computer that the school had arranged for my use.

That that was me for a moment. Fengqiao road behind the school.

He connected something or other to the school computer, then attached my computer. When he turned my computer on, miracle of miracles, everything was back to normal.

Apparently, the only explanation for the previous failure to operate normally, (apart from a loose wire that somehow got back into place), was that the frigid air in the overhead compartment of the plane, had frozen some connections, and it took many days for them to thaw. Well, that was one problem off my mind.

During my first week at the college, I spent a lot of time talking with Sue, an Australian who has been teaching here for one semester already. As I wrote in the last article, although she assured me that the everything here, including the students, was great, I was nonetheless pleasantly surprised to find that the kids here really are happy and attentive.

Canal behind the Campus. The Bridge connects to the Xiyuan Temple

During my second week, I was advised by Mr. Xu that a teacher was arriving from Italy, to teach a one semester introductory Italian course to a group of 7 male students.

Furthermore, he asked if I would consider increasing my teaching schedule from 20 classes per week to 24 classes, with the extra classes being devoted to these selfsame 7 boys.

I gratefully agreed ($'s). A day or so later he telephoned me and asked if I had a few spare moments to meet the new Italian teacher. 'Yeah Sure!' I informed him; 'Why not?' Then he told me that they would come to my apartment immediately. With just a few minutes notice of their arrival, I quickly changed clothes, tidied the place, and prepared for the visit. Then Murphy's Law struck. I got sick.

Grandma's burden.

I don't know what caused this sudden illness, but just as I was being introduced to the Italian teacher, my knees buckled underneath me, and I began to shake. I had to quickly sit down. Both my heartbeat and my breathing became erratic, and I felt flushed all over.

Dredging the canal behind the school

I was also overcome by an overwhelming mind numbing feeling of confusion, and found that I had great difficulty uttering even one coherent sentence.

Apparently I am not the only one to experience this sudden type of illness. Something similar happened to Sue the other day while Chiara and I were talking to her, and she suddenly turned and 'dry reached' in the kitchen sink.

I still have no idea what causes these sudden momentary bursts of occurrences. Fortunately my symptoms passed quickly and I was able to spend time chatting with my coordinator and the new foreign teacher.

Her name is Chiara, and she speaks, Italian (of Course), French, German, English, and has spent 2 years studying Chinese. She was a thoroughly wonderful person to meet and to talk to, and over the following days I got to know her much better.

Behind the college.

You photograph me and I photograph you!

Because Sue is often tied up with friends who live outside of the school, I am the only other westerner with whom Chiara can really spend any time.

This, combined with the fact that this is Chiara's first trip to China, and that we are both new to this school and to this city, and that we teach the same class, naturally causes us to find it quite convenient to spend time talking with each other, and jointly exploring the city.

Finding myself working in a nicer place under better conditions, and with other foreigners, has stimulated me quite significantly.

I find myself getting out of the house more, exercising more, and naturally sharing all this new found joy and excitement with my family. Chiara likewise has been writing her family, sharing with them her various experiences, many of which have involved myself, (like getting lost with me while we were bike riding).

Her constant references to me led her parents to believe that I was a Chinese Teacher. She corrected that impression by informing them that I was in fact Australian, but apparently they then assumed that I was a handsome young Aussie male, and that she might be doing more than just exploring the city with me. She however, was not immediately apprised of this fact.

Mmmm! Japanese Chocolates.

Since we have been here there have been two very special events take place. On March 24th we had a special ceremony in which a plaque relating to Sino Japanese Educational Cooperation was unveiled on campus.

Many of the students here study Japanese, and we have Four Japanese teachers here. After the ceremony we were invited to dine with our honoured guests in a very plush hotel down the street, and were presented with special friendship gifts of chocolates. They were delicious (better than Belgium chocolates) and I even scored an extra packet.

These canals are not just for show.

A few days later, a horde of Italian students descended on the campus. I'm not going to pretend that I know what that was all about, but Chiara tells me that they are high school students from several different 'sister' schools in Udine City about an hour north of Trieste by bus. One day there was a reception for them in the auditorium. Although not personally involved in whatever it was all about (everything took place in Italian and Chinese), and despite not being invited to attend, I turned up to the auditorium with my seven students who study Italian.

HanShan tower in the background. Taken from the Bridge.

A day or so earlier, some students had come to my apartment and asked me to correct the speech that they were going to make in English, and while doing that, Chiara came to borrow my iron. Happy to have the assistance of someone training to be a translator, I invited Chiara to assist. An hour or so later the work was done, and Chiara offered to translate the document into Italian.

Ticket office at HanShan.

She later received advice that this would not be necessary, as there would be an official translator with the team.

Shortly before the Italian students arrived however, Prism and Hunter who were to do the only English presentation that day, asked her if she would go ahead and write an Italian translation.

As it turned out, this was a wise decision, because the official translator, a Chinese student (from somewhere), was, according to Chiara, providing a less than ideal Chinese to Italian translation.

The very first thing the Chinese Officials did that day to start off the ceremony, was to present a slide show on the history and activities of our 'Agricultural' College. As anyone who has ever learned a second language knows, there are always funny stories to tell about making mistakes, and for both Chiara and Myself, and quite a few Italian students who understood English very well, the slide show contained one very big and hilarious mistake.

Canal by a ticket gate at HanShan Temple

The slideshow had been prepared in English and Chinese, and was obviously a very professional piece, but in the midst of it all, a series of three or four slides showing various 'sections' of the 'agricultural' side of the college were presented, and under the circumstances, the first slide should have been shown last. At least it would have put the title on the slide into context.

Now I am not going to repeat the title here, but it showed a room in which plant roots are used to grow new plants. Unfortunately, whilst the caption may have been strictly correct in an Agricultural context, the words also constituted a very vulgar idiomatic expression in English. As the particular slide lit up on the big screen, there was an audible gasp from numerous people (including Chiara and I), followed by muted laughing, and serious attempts by individuals not to break into hysterics.

No idea, but actually within HanShan area. We did not actually enter the park.

Canal running through HanShan Temple area.

When I later explained to Mr. Xu, the reason for the reaction, he apologised for the incorrect phrase. I had to explain to him that it was not exactly incorrect, it was just that it is also used in idiomatic English, and that appearing as it did without context, it caught us all off guard. Such is life! (In the photo file at KingsCalendar associated with this article, there appears at the bottom, a fine example of what happens in translation. Just be warned that it might offend you!)

That was just a little bridge but it was steep.

Bearing in mind as stated earlier, that Chiara's parents were afraid that she was running around with a young Aussie man; during the period of the two events listed above, she managed to take a number of photographs which she emailed to her parents and friends.

Amongst the photos of course, were some of yours truly. These photos prompted two different reactions, the first of which was that her friends could not believe that she was 'running around' with a fat balding old man. The second reaction, to which I take much exception because it was much worse than the first, was that her parents were relieved to know that she was 'safe' in the company of 'an old man'.

Part of the Canal is blocked off while workman build something.

I have made Chiara promised to send her parents a personal message from me, to the effect that "While I may be old, I certainly am not dead!"

I do understand their reaction of course, and can certainly assure them that they have no need to fear for their daughter whilst in my company. As I explained to both Chiara and Sue, "Chiara is too old for me.

Parted not by Moses but technology.

If I was going to get involved again, I would want it to be with a 16 year old that I could train up in the way that she ought to go." (Actually it was while saying that, that Sue had her mysterious bout of illness, and 'dry reached' into the kitchen sink.)

It really is funny how people's minds work and how they can jump to conclusions. My own daughter, my youngest in fact, after receiving my email about getting lost on the bike trip with Chiara, sent me an email saying: "Father! Please remember that I am older than her!" Her sister's email was worse. She wrote me that she would love to have a 21 year old step mother.

Fortunately not everyone's mind turned to such things. My sister-in-law, always concerned about my health in China, and obviously worried that I had overdone it riding for so long, sent me an email suggesting I "Take a long cold shower!"

Scene from the bridge.

The reactions that Chiara received combined with the ones I received, really makes me wonder about people! I just take people at face value. Up until being made aware of how people perceived the friendship I have with Chiara, I had assumed people like 'Hilda from Mississippi' (just over the border from Memphis), an American on vacation in SuZhou (while her son conducted some business), was constantly smiling at Chiara and I because she was a happy friendly person who was enjoying our conversation. Now I have to stop and think; "Just why was she smiling so much?" People do assume the weirdest things these days. "Hello Hilda! I'm sorry I didn't have my camera that day or I would have put a photo of your lovely face here."

An Island on the right of the canal and forming part of HanShan.

Anyway, the other day Chiara and I went riding again with the specific intention of taking the photos shown here today. Almost all of them were taken in just one city block, with the rest (HanShan Park Photos), taken just two blocks over and two down. There is a lot to see in this small district.

From the bridge, a main thoroughfare canal.

In due course, I will provide photographs of the walking street and other interesting sites within walking distance of the campus. I do hope that you have enjoyed this sample.

Y'all come back now ye hear?

UpDate: Inside HanShan Temple 2009 Pt. 1

R.P.BenDedek
Email: rpbendedek@kingscalendar.com

SuZhou

• An Honoured Guest in SuZhou
• Centenary Celebrations in Suzhou 
• Finding Myself in China
• Tiger Hill
• Xi Yuan Temple