The Way of the Scooter

One of my dreams has always been to ride a motorbike of some sort.  Being too afraid to get a scooter previously when living in Beijing, for fear of being crumpled under a speeding bus, and not being able to ride one back home, I've always been resigned to ride a bicycle.  Having said that, I don't actually ride bicycles in Melbourne, not for many years anyway.  Having had an electric scooter thrust upon me, and having to have a quick practice go to get used to it during my Orientation, I've now become accustomed to riding one to and from work almost every day.  Although not as poignant as the healing and philosophical cross country trip with a son, as narrated in Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance, my daily scooter rides have been one of my highlights of being here so far.

Indeed there is a certain level of freedom sitting on a two-wheeler, going at full speed, feeling the air on your skin, even if frigid, despite a top speed of 25 km/h.  Certainly no speed demon.  I've run faster than this  before.  Nonetheless, my commute usually takes ten minutes.  I begin by scanning a QR code on one of the blue Hello Bikes parked at the main intersection nearby my apartment.  After the bike unlocks and the almost condescending 'hello' is played, I wheel the bike onto the road, being careful to avoid other scooter riders, sit on, squeeze the throttle and zip away.  The first half of the ride is bumpy, given the amount of potholes that exist.  At certain times of the day, the ride can be a bit nerve-wracking as there are many other riders, some able to go much faster, as well as other two-wheeled contraptions and carts hitched to their backs.  The general road rule to follow, or that I follow anyway, is not to fall off.  This can be tricky, especially when trying to pass other scooters who swerve all over the place.  I've learnt that when turning left into the main gate of the campus, to wait a a little and look to the left, so as not to ride in front of oncoming traffic also turning left, which includes buses.  I've also learnt that gloves are very useful when the temperature is 5 degrees outside and you're heading to your 8am class at 7.30am.  Another valuable lesson, which I wish had been written down or clearly pointed out from the start, is that the scooters with yellow stickers at the back are the ones bound to the campus.  This would explain why my AliPay app was going haywire, with strange screens all in Chinese, repeately prompting me to pay ten times the normal ride fee I usually pay of about 1.3-1.5 RMB, in fines.

I do enjoy coming home mid-morning or mid-afternoon.  I usually have a lot of the road to myself and it's quite pleasant riding down the side of the university, as the road is nicely tree-lined, as is the last stretch before I have to turn off into my neighbourhood.  I've ridden a couple of times at night, coming home from an evening class.  This is probably the most difficult, because it's harder to see and i definitely ride a bit slower.  Half of the Hello Bikes have an oversized blue helmet, some attached to their bikes by a cord.  Of these, most feature ridiculously difficult to adjust straps, rendering them almost useless.  Although it is a requirement to wear helmets, I've been told the police are lenient when it comes to the pooled bikes and scooters, and rightly so, because these blue helmets would most likley cause more damage when wearing one and falling off than not wearing one!

In the end, all this riding has given me new food for thought, and I'll definitely investigate the possibility of going on trips into the countryside on future holidays to Thailand or Vietnam.  

The Little Night Market

 It was brought to my attention that there was a little food night market nearby, close to the location of the Wet Market, and best to go around 6pm.  I did just that on one evening in my second week here.  It was only a 10 minute walk back up the main road.  Alongside the bike lane, stretching for about 100 metres, was a cluster of food stands and trucks.  There were a few selling some kind of meat from large black vats, others with roasted chickens, a few mix and match whereby you choose your ingredients and they cook it all up. As I was browsing around trying not to get in the way of oncoming scooters,  I bumped into the person who had recommended the market and watched them order some bbq from a friendly old guy.  I ordered as well - two sticks of not so spicy yellow coloured chicken on skewers, and one spicy one.  The vendor fanned away at the coals, regulating the temperature, and rotated the skewers every so often.  Although they were quite big, it did seem to drag on.  He kept speaking to me in Chinese then kept saying that I didn't understand him, with a big grin.  Finally they were done and he put them into a bag, and I waited for the electronic payment to do its thing.  Once, home, I served the bbq on a bowl of rice.  They tasted nice, with a distinct turmeric taste, hence the yellow colour.  The texture was a bit odd though - slightly squashy, a bit like a combination of chicken and dough.  I'm not sure I'd try them again but they were quite filling.  

T Minus One and Familiar Sights

T Minus One

On the day before teaching officially began, and one week after leaving Melbourne, I felt it quite necessary to go on a nice walk from my apartment all the way to the main gate of the university, and from there directly to my office and then to the teaching buildings, in order to gauge distances and timings.  Walking out my aprtment, and turning right on Daxue Lu, I walked at a brisk pace for about 15 minutes, passing a big apartment complex with Disney-ish turrets,  before I got to the south road of the university.  I crossed over and followed along the eastern edge, along a tree-lined path on the side of the bicycle lane.  On the other side of the fence was a woodland area, and I'm sure I saw a squirrel dart across at one point and up into a tree.  It was all very picturesque and serene as I made my way to the East gate or main entrance.  Out the front were a bunch of cars, presumably DiDi drivers and taxis waiting for a ride, and a security building with lanes for cars and a few lanes for bikes and pedestrians.  Everyone entering has to pass through a security check, done by facial recognition, that when completed allows passing through the barriers.  

It had taken a good 30 minutes just to arrive here, and then another 13 minutes to reach the administrative building where my office was located.  From there I walked south along one of the university roads, that has a wide pedestrian landscaped pathway in the centre, that leads up to a commemorative gate showing the year of the university's founding.  Beyond that was the lake.  I walked around that on narrow paths, stopping to look at a large crested bird up in some branches.  I then reached vast grassy areas and some more tree-lined roads, with the teaching buildings in the distance.  Another 10 minutes and I reached them, and worked out where I had to go the following day for my first class.  So far, so good, I had my key bearings, distances and times downpat.

The Familiar and Not So Familiar

From there I went back to the lake and looked at the swans in their enclosure near the imposing central library compound, then found the cafetaria that had a McDonalds at one end, complete with its own entrance.  I walked inside, using the said entrance, (golden arches on the side of a building aren't exactly hard to miss)and discoverd I was actually in the larger cafetaria that had a small seating section with high booths for the McDonald's customers.  The rest of the cafetaria was spread out, very shiny, and looked much like any shopping centre food court, just all with Chinese eateries.  Most were closed, and I went back to order my first western meal in a week.  However, I was in for a rude shock.  Unlike in the past, where one could just grab a physical menu and point to the desired item and ask for that in Chinese and then simply pay physcial cash or scan a code, I was made to scan a code at the counter, which then launched the McDonald's mini program ordering app.  There were a bunch of preliminary pop-up screens and then lots of speaking in CHinese of which I didn't understand, but I gathered that the serving of fried chicken that accompanies the regular meal sets of a burger fries and drink wasn't available, and neither was my choice of burger.  Settling for a spciy chicken burger meal, abd without the extra morsel wing thing, I was finally able to proceed to the payment section.  This entire charade had taken almost 10 minutes.  My goodness, just to order a burger meal.  I waited a few minutes and then carried my tray to one of the high booths.  My annoyance soon waned as I shove handfuls of fries into my mouth, relishing the familiar unhealthy goodness.

Cafetaria #3

After my lunch, I made my way further along to the next cafetaria.  This one has many steps leading up to it on one side and with a KFC on one outer area.  Inside, the cafetaria has a bakery, many different restaurants, and another large food court style eating area, with all kinds of Chinese specialities.  Apparently this building is open 24 hours, ideal for hungry students needing something to eat in between late night gaming.  I walked up to the 3rd floor to try and find the lesser known Teacher's buffet, but  it seemed closed.  I stood for a while, admiring the east facing view of some mountains, before I made my way past dormitories to the universitiy's south gate.  This gate appears to have been built in a much more traditional design than the main gate.  It's also much smaller.  I passed through and immediately on the other side of the small street, down a few steps was a ngiht food market and various shops.  I did notice quite a nice looking dumpling store and a Lawson convenience store.  From there I headed down the university south road, back on to Daxue Lu, and then at the adjacent mall, hopped on a blue motor scooter, the Hello Bike ones run by AliPay (so aptly named as when they unlock, a helium-esque voice says out loud "hello", as if a chipmunk was answering a phone. 

I triumphantly rode home, feeling like some long-lost member of the Sons of Anarchy bikie gang, but in reality I was King of the Potholes, tryingr not to crash. Thankfully I didn't, and grabbed my iPad from home then checked out the bakery cafe across the street.  A small affair with a few sad pastries, I ordered a cappucino and the solitary chocolate donut and sat in the only booth amidst a nice backdrop.  I started reading, while wondering if my coffee had been made with rat droppings instead of coffee beans,and then noticed my foot being nudged.  I looked down and there was a fluffy puppy on a very long leash.  Holding the other end of the leash was a very proud little girl who I'd seen earlier outside the shop.  After lots of pats, I went back to reading and eating the passable donut.  Reading in a cafe on Sunday was part of my weekend routine in Melbourne, and so Imm happy I can still do this here.  Fluppy puppy  an added bonus!

Fried Chicken Grandma and the Live Music Bar

Fried Chicken Grandma

Immediately near the main entrance to my apartment complex are some wonderfully smelling hole-in the-wall shops selling things like piquant deep-fried duck and what I believe to be some kind of mala-flavoured duck.  Being raised on chicken though, duck won't suffice.  Home and relaxed and happy after assembling IKEA lamps, suffering only a minor stroke from shoddy instructions, I crossed to the other side of the street to the small shop with two elderly ladies gabbing out loud out the front.  I went in, and got eyeballed by one who hurriedly went in after me.  At the counter was a window with various chicklen portions, including various wings and drumettes.  I ordered a few of each, and the fried chicken grandma set to work.  It looked like she was first massaging the chicken and shaking some powder on them, then deep fried them in a vat of oil.  I was then asked if I wanted spicy or some other powder.  I told her I wanted a little spicy, then she shook the cannister quite a lot, put the wings on some paper in a box, and the box in a bag.  

Back home I took the first bite.  It was amazing!  A flavour I'd never had before, with fried chicken anyway.  Different from the Taiwanese salt and pepper and plum styles, this had a delicate mala flavour, slightly fragrant and sweet, although not particularly spicy.  Mala or hua jiao, is Sichuan peppercorns, which have the spicy, numbing sensation, especially when simmered in hotpot.  I suspect there may have been a miniscule hint of star anise and perhaps cinammon, given their popularity here as well.  I think I paid about $2 for 6 wings all up.  Unbelievable value for something so good.  

The Live Music Bar

Invigorated from my fried chicken extravaganza, and being the last Saturday before work commences, I had to go out.  I contacted one of the Chinese people I'd met a few days earlier and asked for a recommendation close by.  He suggested a place called Bar 22, which was some new live music bar. He said he could meet up with me later on.  I booked a ride and it seemed to take forever to get there but it was only 20 minutes all up.  The bar was locaed quite close to one of the Wanda Plaza shopping malls here as well as Jiangsu Normal University. but I had no idea where I was.  I was let out in some shopping street tha thad a few student types milling around.  I could here some loud music a few doors up, and so walked over and then followed the stairs up.  

The stairs opened out onto a side room with a bar area and beer fridges and tables, which joined directly onto the main room. Ahead was some band belting out songs in Chinese.  In the fridges were a few standard foreign beers, like Budweiser, Heineken and Corona, but also there was an interesting mix of strong Belgian varieties such as Trappist beer and Vedett.  The attractive bar owner, who spoke zero English, via the power of technology asked if I wanted craft beer.  I was trying to work out if they had beer on tap, but in the end I settled on the craft beer.  It came in a glass and had a kind of fruity beer taste.  It was quite nice but after 2 glasses, didn't really seeme like it had much alcohol content.  By then my friend had arrived, and he promptly ordered shots of tequila.  The music was loud and raw but alright .  

We stayed for quite a bit but I don't remember much of what was said other than my friend yelling out at one point "that's why I f#cking like you from when I first met you".  Not sure what prompted that, but it was nice to hear nonetheless.  We did end up in some big chat with the owner, and then it was time to go.  I do remember quite a few bottles on the table, and arriving home to be locked out of the gate and following someone else into the complex.  

Swedish Meatballs and the Great Shopping Expedition

Let There Be Light

Really wanting a bedside lamp as well as a desk lamp for my kitchen table home office, I ventured far out to Xuzhou's IKEA.  The taxi ride took a good 30 minutes, and at one point, the driver made a grunt to signal my attention, and then proceeded to take a selfie with me.  I'm unsure if he was put out when I wrote in Chinese I didn't want my face appearing on buses tomorrow!  He dropped me off by the side of the road upon arrival.  A stand-alone store situated on one of the major thouroughfares here, Heping Boulevard, it wasn't as crowded as I expected it to be, nor were there that many people sleeping in the chairs and beds.  It had the same generic layout that most IKEAS have - winding around through different designs for different sections of houses.  I made it eventually to the lighting section, and after some translation confusion, settled on a basic bedside lamp and some multi-touch flexi desk lamp.  Happy with my selection, and needing lunch, I found the restaurant and ordered the ubiquitous swedish meatballs.  It tasted alright, nothing special.  Served next to some mashed potato gloop that was swimming in what I gather was meant to be meatball sauce but was like a broth, and a smidgeon of cranberry sauce, complete with two blue and yello toothpick Swedish flags, my lunch was at least filling.  Not so nice were the local children running havoc all around, screaming and screeching at the top of their voices while their parents sat like drones scrolling on their phones.

Show Me The Fika!

Realising I also needed a cutlery organiser, while at the cutlery section, I eventually found a staff memeber and discovered that such items are actually located back upstairs in the kitchen decoration section.  Silly me strolled the gauntlet all over again to find only a few items and discovering I didn't know the exact measurements.  I then went all the way back past the restaurant to the Swedish food products section whereby I grabbed a bottle of Felix branded Caesar Dressing.  Seeing giant posters on the wall extolling the Swedish tradition of 'fika', I searched high and low for Swedsih coffee beans but couldn't find any.  They did stock cinammon buns BUT alas, no coffee.  I felt quite cheated by this.  I mean, how can they have posters showing steaming cups of coffee and cinnamon buns with the word Fika underneath, and then not stock coffee?  And Swedish coffee is good, especially in cold weather, as I recall, some ten years ago.

RT Mart

From IKEA, I spen 30 minutex trying to work out where and how to get a taxi and once achieved, headed to Suning Plaza.  A sprawling mall, and Xuzhou's largest, it also sits at the bottom of Xuzhou's tallest building.  I found the Uniqlo, not without first taking a quick look at he adjacent food court, featuring eateries such as Putoto Sauce Fries.  I found the Uniqqlo's prices the same as in Australia but purchased a thermal long sleeved tshirt anyway.  From there I went on a bit of a walk retracing my steps from a few days prior, then remembered there was an RT Mart somehwre in the area.  The map was putting it somehwhere inside some Golden something Mall, about 500 metres away.  I got lost in the mall, then discovered RT Mart was by the side back on the main road.  Formerly Carrefour, a place I loved shopping at in the past in China, due to their excellent quality, cheap prices and foreign products, I hoped RT Mart (the new Chinese owners) would be similar.  Indeed it was, and I was pleased to not only see the cooked chicken section but also a little imported food area where I managed to pick up a jar of proper coffee, pasta and pasta sauce.  I got a local spice mix that I thought was going to be some kind of 5 spice powder, (translating almost all the items on the shelf using Google), a bag of chicken wings, a packet of spicy Doritos some good chocolate.

A bit of a walk straight down the main road and I eventually arrived back at Nice Cafe for a nice cup of Australian flat white, and began reading the 2nd book in the spectacular Anno Dracula series by Kim Newman.  A good day of shopping, even if the bedside lamp required the patience of a thousand bus stops to assemble.

The Zoo, Orientation, and the Giant Bowl of Noodles

The Zoo and the Orientation

On the first Friday after arrival, I had to attend a work orientation with the other newly arrived teacher.  We were met at the main entrance of the apartment complex by a different student, who booked a taxi to take us to the main gate of the university campus.  Situated about 2-2.5km back along the wide thoroughfare of Daxue Lu, my new workplace is ranked in the top 100 universities in China and is a household name locally.  Once through the entrance and not before photo ID was registered with security in order to get through the barriers, it was announced that one of us would have to use a motor scooter, while the other would sit behind the student on his own personal one.  Finding a scooter wasn't the issue - they're everywhere in Xuzhou, and pools of different coloured ones, depending on which company owns them, are found near every apartment, interesection, and conveniently near the university gate.  They also run through either We Chat or Ali Pay, the apps that power society here.  It was decided at first I'd be sitting behind the student.  This I didn't mind, as up to that point I'd never ridden a scooter or any electric-powered 2-wheeler.  I did have plenty of opportunities back when I lived in Beijing, but had fears of being crushed under a speeding bus on my first day.  

We zipped along an empty road and then down some paths and parked the scooters near what we were told were the teaching buildings.  We then doubled back along paths towards the perimeter of the university.  The scenery was quite woody, like some kind of semi-rural woodland with little paths winding around.  Our first stop was the campus zoo, because, why not?  Held in various enclosures were peacoks, ostriches, deer with big antlers, chickens, geese and more deer.  I did ask some pertinent questions as to whether peacock ever features on the menu in the cafetarias or if students had ever broken into the deer enclosures.  We then continued along the tree-lined paths, up an embankment, and came to a large pagoda and pavillion.  it was explained to us that these had been built only last year, despite their ancient look.

Our next stop was the teaching building.  As it turned out we didn't have any security passes, we were unable to grab a card to operate the classroom computers.  I'd specifically brought my work laptop for this purpose, to test out the classrooms and work out what was what before teaching the following Monday.  After some polite indignation, I convinced the student that I had been promised to see the clasrooms, and so after cautiosuly mortgaging his phone with the building security, we headed up to the fifth floor.  My legs weren't quite used to walking four flights of stairs and I was somewhat puffed out when we reached the classrroom.  I was pleasantly surprised though, to see the room was far more modern than I'd been led to believe, with a very nice large monitor on a flexible swivelling arm and a large TV screen for duplicating my laptop onto.  All was good in the universe!

Boss Hogg

Outside the teaching building, it was my turn to ride a scooter.  This was quite daunting yet exhilirating, as it has always been my dream to ride some kind of motorbike.  At first, the throttle was quite sensitive and it took some adjusting for my brain to coordinate that the handbrakes on both handlebars are for stopping while rotating the throttle is used for acceleration.  I got the hang of it though within a minute and we went on a loop around the university initially passing the lake in the center.  The student kept pointing out various landmarks such as 'Cafetaria #1,' all of which I forgot instantly.  At the other end of the university, we crossed over a bridge,  then weaved between some administrative buildings and came to the building where the English Teacher's office was located.  Up the stairs we were greeted by a chatty lady, whom I ascertained would be our go-to person here, and I gave her some nice gifts from Australia.  She left soon after, and Orientation was thus over.  

The Big Chill

The other teacher had to do some errand with the student, and I setup a computer monitor in my desk cubicle.  I then decided to ride a Hello Bike blue electric scooter again, and try to get my bearings. I wanted to see how long it would take to ride from the office to the classrooms but also to work out how to get back to the office from near the main gate.  Unfortunately, as we'd kind of entered from the rear, I got hoplessly lost and kept ending back in the same place.  Once I worked it out, I did my own loop around.  The outide temperature was a frosty 2 degrees, and I was soon chilled to the bone.  I then spent another 20 minutes riding around, trying to work out how to get from the back of the campus to the main gate.  By the time I arrived and parked the scooter in one of the bays, my hands were purple and I could barely move.  I'd been riding around in the chill for over an hour.  Not the smartest thing to do a few days out from the start of teaching.  Concerned I might get pneumonia, I manged to book a ride and went home and defrosted under a hot shower.

The Giant Bowl of Noodles

Having spent the rest of the afternoon prepping for classes, I needed to eat something and stretch my legs.  I walked the length of the shopping stip, about 300 metres, then settled on the Lanzhou Pulled Noodles place again.  This time I pointed straight to this meat and potato dish which looked quite familiar.  After a few minutes, one of the staff made some kind of noice in my direction, signalling that the huge plate on the counter was my order.  I took it back to my table.  Yes, it did have the meat and potato stew, but this was served on top of a mountain of noodles, with the consistency a bit like al dente spaghetti but even chewier, that was swimming in a savoury broth.  There wewre enough noodles for at least 2-3 people.  I was up for the challenge anyway, and procedded to eat away.  I triumphantly polished off the entire bowl, paid the grand total of A$3, and waddled back to my apartment out of the cold.  Motor scooters and a big feed.....