I begin by announcing that the Chinese Govt has now blocked all our personal websites. I or anyone else can access and read my website. People outside of CHina have no trouble. I have verified this with friends and despite the lack of proof, govt blocking of the websites seems the only viable explaination. 

Those cheeky little shits. Bring on Bejing 2008. The world will be watching you China and you will not be able to hide. People will know that its not just Tibetan people having a bad time but many others also, the Uyghurs in Xinjiang to start.

The ability to prevent the diclosure of information makes you wonder about how many events that could be politically damaging are simply not released to the public. 

I'm not sure whether I will continue to write on this website so this could be the last entry

Other things that've pissed me off
-I sent a parcel to England 2 months ago and its now lost.
-My mobile phone was stolen last week. Stupid shit who stole can't even use it as it does not have CHinese language on it.

Good stuff
-I made a TV advert
- Sang a song on stage on the street to a crowd of people and made a quick speech and played some games with the kids
- The new DoS has finally arrived. SHe is easy to talk to and open minded, which is a great relief.

Still together with Krystal, we have a good understanding of each other now.

Don't bother leaving any comments as I cant read them- Photos still at the same place ( see previous entry for link)
Take Care
Rob

Happy birthday Bro, have a good party tonight.
Happy Birthday lil' sis. I can't believe you're driving already. Pick us up from the airport when I get back! (Actually, don't worry about it, I'll get the bus).
And to Pat (Canadian dude, 1 day older than my bro 26)

The preconceptions of a chinese package holiday are all true. In fact its a little more extreme than I had ever imagined.
With the other foriegn teachers off hiking and Krystal off to Illi, I decided to join the company holiday to Dunhuang. Its very common here for the owners of a firm to pay for all the employees to go on holiday. I didn't fully comprehend what I was in for. 25 people crammed in a small mini bus set off for Urumchi on the first leg of the journey, an easy 5 hours.Sleep. On bus again, this time all day and more. An immense 12hrs without any leg room.

I was glad to arrive. At last I could stay out of the dam bus for a while. The full day we spent there was just a rush. The chinese concept of experience (generalisation) is to take a photo. And lots of them. loads. We saw all the main attractions of Dunhuang in one day, which could've taken at least three. The stuff we saw was great and despite the rush, it was still worth the trip.

In the morning we went to the sand dunes. A proper desert, with huge perfectly formed sand-dunes. Everyone toboganed down ("ahh Robert, very dangerous"-everything is dangerous to them), took photos, walked to the moon lake, dressed up in traditional chinese clothes, took photos and left. Me and Sophia wanted to do a bit more. She was the only person to willing to really do stuff. We got on a quad bike and raced up another sand dune to some of the untouched sand. You feel the sense of openness similar to being on a mountain but shrouded with lifelessness.

We rode a camel back to the base because if you see a camel you must ride one. Back on the bus straight to Mogao Ku. These are Buddist caves painted throughout the last 2 thousand years, mostly from the Tang Dynasty 700-900AD when buddism boomed in China. The caves were awsome and the best bit- I had my own personal tour guide to speak English, VIP treatment. After, I ran around taking photos for a while with Sophia and then it was back on the bus to a Buddhist temple. This place specially caters for tourists, but whilst we were there a sevice was in secession with lots of chanting. The visitors were allowed to stand next to them and watch. I also got to try out my chinese talking to a few of the monks. Its times like those which makes learning chinese worth while. One of the guys in particular was filled with such calm. However the Buddists are crafty. Both times I've been to a temple they've tried to rip me off, by trying to sell you something fairly tacky at a very high price and making you feel disrespectful if you don't buy it. When I was in Bangkok I bought a tacky necklace for 5quid, it turned out that the same monk had a collection of sports cars. This time I was ready, he saw I wasn't going to buy his gold credit card buddha thing, wasn't sure what to do and then gave it to me for free.

During the bus trip back the next day, we stopped off at an ancient city, the place where the original Uyghur tribe ruled from over a thousand years ago. 45 mins was the time allowed to see it, then back on the bus. We drove to Turpan and looked at the big Mosque - 30 mins. Then back to Urumchi. We had the next day to wonder around the city. I was glad to my own thing at my own pace. I headed for the museum. I saw the famous mummies which prove the people here thousands of years ago were of the Caucasian race, which explains why a few of the Uyghurs look english.

As you can see, I've finally got clever and worked out how to put photos on the site. They're still all at www.webshots.com/user/bobsbits  if you want to see them in full size.
I've also got round to sending postcards and presents home. But unfortunatley I only know 2 addresses home and my old house in leeds. (Luke Leah and Ben I've sent you one already, I hope you're still there). Email me your addresses please!!!
Take Care, and if you've got a moment say hello in the chat room.
Rob

On Wednesday, my DoS (Directer of Studies) spoke to me and told me that I will be given a new contract.

It feels like a war has just ended. For about 2 months its been very tense and stressful. Such an uncertian future in addition to the apparent hopelessness of the situation caused me to lose my desire to fight by the end. If it had not turned out this way I probably would'nt have fought to change the decision, although by this time I'm pretty sure my flat-mate would've. I feel relieved but without really feeling happy about it.

Just to clear it up for everybody. Perhaps people reading this feel that a decision by a superior at work should be respected and accepted without any complaints. However the person making the decision over my future was and is only in the position temporarily and is obviously not trained in the teaching methods that we use. Well EF has taken a very long time to place a properly qualified person in this position and this has lead to some difficult situations over the past few months. It's a bit disappointing that we all had to go through all the stress and anxious waiting.

I think there were problems that needed to be solved. My teaching has improved from 2 months ago and I take more care over the planning, structure and progression of my lessons than previously. A relationship between two people in the office is a problem if one is in a superior position to the other. There are potential problems and Krystal and I had to prove we could deal with not talking about work. This means she knows everything before I do even about things concerning myself.

However I feel things should've been addressed many months before, as soon as we were clearly in a relationship, regardless of whether I wanted to stay for another six months. My teaching was also never assessed during the first two months of my time here, when I could've eradicated some of my faults. Although I also feel that the clash of teaching styles and my inexperience as a teacher would've meant that an assessment in December probably would've resulted in me going back home very quickly.
So perhaps in order to reach this outcome it had to happen in this way.

SO I'm glad its all over and it's calmed down.
I bought some roller blades last week. I'm actually pretty good and I've got loads of pads and stuff. I'm speeding around town most days if it's sunny. It gives the Chinese people an even greater reason to stare at me. Everyting is all good quality and it was all pretty cheap. I even bought Krystal a pair.

I have a confession to my sister - Cath. The present that I was attempting to get for you was a dress made from local silk in the local Uyghur style. This began back in January. Its now almost May. The reason for the delay has been that my friend who was my liason with the dress maker was too busy and kept forgetting to phone to see if it was finished. Its been a bit of an on going joke between me and stu that we will never actually get around to sending anything home, however this has actually come true regarding the dress. The dress shop has now closed and the dress maker has left town without leaving any contact details. The dress has gone with her. I think you were never destined to have a dress sis, but I've thought of something else.
I'm planning to send Cath's, dad's, Geoff's and Mags' birthday presents all in one go, during the first week of May.

We get a week off starting a week tomorrow. I'm going to Dunhuang in a different province for a few days. Should be fun. After that, a new teacher and a new DoS will be arriving. Things are looking up.

Take care
Rob

Some maybe wondering whether the reason for not writing the blog is from a lack of interesting things to talk about and that everything is simply moving along smoothly from one day to the next.

During the past month or so I have had my teaching assessed. What I hoped would simply be a formality turned into something altogether different. Firstly I did teach a bad class when I was assessed. I did many things wrong which I hope I have since eradicated. I was warned after the initial assessment that things had to improve dramatically. I didn¡¯t mind this as many of the things that were made aware to me were easily correctable. I asked to be re-assessed in 2 of my classes the following weekend to show the improvements and to extinguish the doubt over my teaching ability. Things did not go as planned. As the teachers who are reading this know, there is a fairly major difference between the traditional style of teaching (tell the kids what to learn and make them do it) and the style of teaching which new teachers are now taught (eliciting etc). The traditional style is advocated my current DoS (head teacher) and by way of understanding the logic behind the methods I was taught in England, the later style is advocated by myself ( and to my knowledge all relatively new teachers that I have come across). Well, I was assessed on the basis of how well I complied with the traditional style.

Judgment Day: It was admitted to me that my faults which were irrelevant to choice of teaching methods had improved. However I was told that if I did not comply with the style of teaching proposed by superior then my contract would not be renewed. I apologize if this all appears very serious and dull but it's difficult to be light hearted about this matter. On top of this I was then informed that my relationship with Krystal was a breach of contract and it would have to end or again I would have to go. Catch 22: the main reason I wanted to stay in Karamay and renew my contract was to stay with her and this had now become the main reason why I couldn't.

A few days later I made the situation worse by arguing with my DoS about my contract. I couldn't simply walk away as I felt I was being treated unjustly. You can decide for yourself, can I be assessed fairly by a DoS who is simply unaware of the methods we are trained in and who also neglected to admit that the fact that the person who was previously in her position was engaged to one of the teachers shows that relationships do occur within EF schools. Things got pretty tense.
In addition to this, I might add that I was not given a chance to talk with the Boss and also told that I couldn't phone Shanghai EF and get a second opinion.

I think at this point I should thank my flat mate for his part. A compromise was met. Very fkin unexpected! About a week later she gave me a list of things to help me improve my teaching which I am grateful for but without forcing her teaching style upon me. The relationship issue was laid to rest on the basis that we never talk about work, a hard but fair request.

Now: I'm being assessed again (by the same person) during the next couple of weeks. If my teaching is deemed good enough then I will be told my contract can be renewed at the end of the month. This gives me precisely no time to prepare for the alternative situation. My visa runs out on the 3rd May. Without a contract renewal I may have to leave the country. If I come back, then I would have to find a job. The only contracts available outside EF are for a year or simply for the busy summer period. Plus of course, I will have give EF lots of money for a flight and my training.
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.
The question you must be asking is 'Is she worth it?'
Barring any more valentines day tricks (see other entry) and outside over-rule from her parents
YES

Blogtime It¡¯s been a while since I wrote, opening up my life to the world, even longer than planned due to the fact that the computer crashed just as I was publishing an entry last week. (This is pretty normal and I should¡®ve been prepared). I¡¯ll begin with a great bit of history from Mafioso Xinjiang: When the Qing Dynasty was reaching its end in the late 19th century, there was amoungst others a leader of Xinjiang known as President Yang. He is known in this area¡¯s history as one of the most absolute rulers ever- ruthless. This man was of course Chinese. Actually, for the people of Xinjiang the times during his rule were relatively quiet as there were fewer internal uprisings, riots and general fighting. Yang had an intriguing way of dealing with his enemies. There came a time during his rule that some of his ministers plotted to overthrow Yang. Instead of purging them off in a subtle manner, disappearing etc, Yang invited them all to dinner. Dinner proceeded as usual until Yang stepped out of the room and reentered with a big sword. He calmly walked up behind one the conspirators and cut off his head. He walks back to his seat and carries on eating and drinking. A short while later, he does it to someone else. This continues until mayhem breaks out and the conspirators are all headless. Yang was good, but he also came to an apt end. This time one of his ministers had realized that his time was up and it was either kill or be killed. He invites Yang to dinner. Yang¡¯s personal guard are disarmed and are taken into a separate room on arrival. At the start of the meal the plotter Zing, stands up to make a toast. He says, ¡®Is everything ready?¡¯¡­¡­.At this moment seven fellow plotters pull out their guns and shoot Yang simultaneously¡­¡­.Yang is mortally wounded but, hard to the end he shouts, ¡®WHO DARES THIS?¡¯, in the ensuing gun fight that followed Zing apparently stood over Yang and finished him with two more bullets. Walking I¡¯ve been walking around the local area recently. A couple of weeks ago, Krystal and I went walking 38km to the east of Karamay in the less than originally named 38 kilometre point. It was very good to get out of the city as work does become overbearing at times especially for Krystal who barely gets a day off at all. We walked around this valley inhabited by some shepards with various small flocks of goats and sheep. It was cool to see the way they made up these small holding pens out of the shrubs and trees. We had to hitchihike back as the taxi driver never came back to pick us up as promised. We were lucky as the place had no phones and very few vehicles driving past. The following week we walked to just outside Karamay. It¡¯s called 9 Dragon Point. Despite the lake, fountain and waterfall all being dry, (the river is turned on during the summer), its got some cool oldstyle architecture there and I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll be going there many times in the future. This brings me to my decisions. After a lot of consideration, I want to stay in Karamay for the full year. I can¡¯t be a bum all my life. If I leave in May it would probably ruin things with Krystal, I won¡¯t be able to complete my year with EF without extending my time in China way into next year and plus my CV would still be crap. I can still go traveling when I finish anyway. SO what was I thinking! After I finish writing this, I going to surprise my ¡®boss¡¯ (Krystal- who knows already) and the DoS (Pia who¡¯s probably guessed already). I only hope that there¡¯s a job for me. I¡¯m still studying Chinese and its slowly improving. Swimming making me stronger and I love the swimming pool here, although I do have to wear skin tight black shorts and a swim hat. (42 lengths 2.1km). I¡¯ve re-read my book on the history of Xinjiang, in light of my experience so far in the area. The recent riots and reprisals and nothing new, they have been going on throughout the last 2000yrs at least. The Chinese have seen Xinjiang as useful every now and then and have conquered it when a dynasty has seen the need and has been strong. Except for very brief periods the last 1980-1989 when the Chinese feel that it¡¯s a good idea to let the minority people freely express their religion and culture they generally sought to use the area and ¡®put up with¡¯ people. Should the area be allowed independence? The Chinese and Uighurs have never lived in harmony and are about as different as a Scot and a Kenyan. The government of China will simply not allow the area to split but at the moment the current repression will not eliminate the long-term desire for a split it will only make it worse. However I believe the occupation by predominately Chinese people and the fact that any ¡®splittists¡¯ are now labeled as Islamic terrorists has meant that a struggle through violent means is too far gone. When the world examines China during the Beijing Olympics things may take another turn. The best policy seems, as the Uighurs appear to be doing around here at least, is to sit and wait. That¡¯s enough of that. Things are so much simpler back home. Well time to finish. I don¡¯t here much about what¡¯s going on back home so please leave a comment and tell us how you¡¯re doing. Good to speak to home the other day, hope the lambing goes well. Geoff- good luck with one-armed lambing! Take care

I guess the time has finally come to settle in and just work and live for a while. The big festivities are over, (although there is a muslim one soon) and I've now entered a relatively quiet period. This is not to say that I've not been having fun and been bored. It has allowed me to think deeply about my life and future in China with regards to my work and personal affairs.

The past week or so has been marked by a small number of interesting occasions. Firstly, this week's passing has become the longest I've been away from home in my life. Time seems to move faster here and the year is almost a third through already. I sometimes think of family and friends back home but generally I'm very happy here. I promised my sister a birthday present which is now already a monthe late. Sis I hope you understand that things take time over here, but you will get it eventually!

On the 12th Feb, my house mate, Stu turned 34. His adult class, and all friends went to a big Uyghur restuarant. It was the first time that we'd all been to a Uyghur restuarant together and danced Uyghur style. The main idea behind Uyghur dancing for the men is to look as macho as possible, akin to a show of strength, while the women look all pretty and graceful. They also have a habit of having tables solely occupied by men and others by women. After numerous jaunts on the dance floor, which proved the immense size of my manhood, the Bajio was brought out again. After the restuarant, Stu, Geoffrey (Aussie 50ish big guy) and I went to Geoff's appartment to, well, be merry and get really drunk away from anyone who would otherwise feel uncomfortable watching us poison ourselves. I was the first to crack. I made good friends with the toilet basin for an hour, then left Geoff passed out on the floor with the empty bottle smashed over the floor, in addition to what I had produced earlier. Stu had made a mess on our door and tried to wash it all away by pouring buckets of water over it. In fact all he did was move it on to the stairs. Needlesstosay the next day involved a lot of sore heads and some clearing up.

Two days later came Valentines day. I bought some flowers for Krystal and got ripped off in a very predictable way. Then, after work we went to restuarant for a meal. However half way through the meal she dropped a bomb! She just let me know very matter of factly, that because of a previous bad start she didnt want to be with a foriegner. After learning from her not to judgemental when regarding Chinese people I was hugely surprised and disappointed that she could think in such a way, let alone be blind to the consequences of saying such a thing. I spent the following days away from her and came to the conclusion that I'd let myself get in too deep. It was a relief to admit to myself that there was no future as she could never go against her parents wishes and didnt really feel anything anyway, and also that I too young to make a committment to stay in China. On the third day, I lost my Monkey necklace (we both have similar jade monkey necklaces, ahh how sweet) which I thought to be a sure sign that things had changed. However, the next morning, I discovered that Chris had found it again. And guess what, she has said that she will try to think about things more deeply and I will recognize that it is sometimes hard for her to express herself given that she is using her secound language. I am sure of one thing, that we both want to be together at this time and we are open to the consequences that the future will bring.

Well, plans change. Now everything seems to be coming together, after a period of deep thinking and some warped movies (let us know your views on Irriversible if you've seen it. I thought it was artistic, clever and well put together. But I see no reason to try to find any more extreme films as I had to turn away at some points). Back to my plans, I finish my contract in May. This will give me time to travel around Xinjiang, a bit of Sichuan and possibly some of Tibet. Then I come back to Karamay to work for a couple of months over the Summer. After this I dont know, try to work for EF for longer as still need to pay back the money for the teaching course.

As always I give my best wishes to all those who know me and I hope your lives are bringing you happininess.

May the wind be always on your back, may the sun be always on your face and may the winds of fortune carry you up into the eternally peaceful kingdom of heaven.

Peace
Rob

By the way I've got a moustache/beard thing goin on now and my first grey hairs have appeared. Grey hairs and goin bald already!

Feelin good.

The winter intensive is over. Proboably the hardest I will have to work throughout the whole time I'm in China, has finished. It finished on thursday which coincided with the end of the spring festival, called the lantern festival. Yeah they hang lots of lanterns everywhere. The pedestrian street was decorated with many lights and other things to look at. To be honest, some of the stuff seemed unimpressive. A model oil well, with lights on-WOW, but there were loads of people around and we had fun.

For those who are curious, I earn about 450 quid a month, which may not sound much but I live like a king and still save (beer- 20p meal-80p in the cheap places). I gonna start sending money home soon and pay off my overdraft.

Stu's no Dave Coyle. 33, aussie, he talks slow, abit annally retentive when it comes to being tidy and tells really bad jokes the whole time. But he laughs at himself and we get on well.

Thats all
Be happy

з¢ (Xin Fa)
Rob

(there are 3 more photos on webshots.com)

Had a great time in Illi, over the past few days.



I've been given a chinese name, by uncle No.1. Xin Fa. He thought that having foriegn guests in his house represented a symbollic development for the region. Xin stands for Xinjiang and Fa for some word that means development. (both tone 1). I think its very cool, it even ties in with my ambitions to work in the development field.

I still havn't worked out how to put photos on the dam website yet, but to save clogging up your memory they're on a website too. So if can still be arsed to see the pics, go to:

www.webshots.com
Go to the community section then the photo search. Next click on member search. Type bobsbits and hopefully you'll be there. (If not let us know and I'll sort it out)
If you've read this, leave a quick comment as its great hearing from people. Right, back to the grindstone, 7 hrs of classes today

Take it easy
Rob

---

The farm cultivates 30 acres of sweet corn. The corn is dried and stored, some ground up and added to the cattle feed which consists of the stalks being shredded. Every few months a few cows are sold for meat and 1 cow is milked daily. Milk is sold every few days. There is also one deer, which looks pissed off. The horns are cut off every year and sold.

From one extreme to the other, Last night was my first experience of going to a classical music concert. I expected a good sleep and I went along because everyone else seemed very enthusiastic about a certain pianist called Li Jian. It was magnificent, we listened to the performance of some mozart and other chinese pieces on the piano. The guy was so good. It turns out he has toured the world and is one of the most famous musician in China. He played Yellow River and then performed a famous chinese love story as a duet with his mum, a violinist. This is the story of Lian Zhu. I've begun the winter intensive period. However one of my classes has been cancelled so its not too bad at all. Its the first time I've taught the really little kids (7-10) and I wasnt keen on it. But its so easy, all you do is jump around and sing and stuff, then make them colour in a picture for half an hour. If you forget what the hell your supposed to be doing,they dont even notice. Thats all from me, hows everyone? Let us know, Dan, Will, Jen, + others, its been a while since i've heard from you, Dan have you thought about where you're going yet? Geoff- I heard you had a big fall on the slopes, dyou crash into a tree or something? Laters.........