Our first weeks back at Shandong University, attending to the working/money side of the Adlibing Asia Tour, went pretty well - we are now teaching first year students in the general study programme, which means life is easy for us as we can repeat our class lessons from last semester. Another bonus is the reduced hours we now work - 16 hours a week! Plus we get Fridays off meaning a long weekend every week, which we hope to utilise for a few trips. We also get a mid-week holiday on Tuesday! Awesome .... We settled back into our routine pretty quickly, with Adam making his weekly pilgrimage to Wei Wei's and Liv's Chinese lessons starting again. We also revisited our local markets and snack street and were shocked to see that it has fallen victim to China's modernisation and half of the street is now lying in rubble.
We tried to explore more of the area around campus, only to find that this area is called the "High-Tech Development Area" for a reason and that all that exists outside campus are big concrete office buildings. We did, however, come across a Western restaurant and bought ourselves a 'fruit' pizza complete with apples, pears, bananas, cheese and oregano - weird in the West but normal over here!
Although the week started with snow, since then we have been blessed with amazing weather, and almost every day has been filled with blue skies and sunshine. A sure sign spring is on the way, and that means we don't have to wear our well worn jackets out anymore!
Unfortunately, pass-the-parcel was played a bit with our illnesses in our second week back, as the cold that Adam originally gave to Liv, was passed straight back to him once she recovered. It was even enough to stop Adam going to Wei Wei's and drinking all week - gasp!
We did, however, make it out to the Old Campus in town to check out the Gothic-style Catholic Church there. 
The Hong Jia Lou Church was built in 1901 (the same year that Shandong University was established), and although we had seen photos of it, we didn't realise how big (and grand) it was until we saw it for ourselves. 
The Hong Jia Lou Church was built in 1901 (the same year that Shandong University was established), and although we had seen photos of it, we didn't realise how big (and grand) it was until we saw it for ourselves. Our spare time (which we have a LOT of) is taken up with researching for our next adlibing tour that starts when work ends in 3 months time. We are also enjoying the ability to just sit back and relax, with the knowledge that after another year or so of hard travelling we'll have to get real jobs and work 40 hours a week like everyone else!
On Sunday we all (us, Dovid, Matt, and Liv's teacher Carol) ventured out into Liubu Village where the 1500 year old Simen Pagoda (Four-Gate Pagoda) is situated. 
This pagoda is known as the oldest stone pagoda in China and is housed in the grounds of the Shentong Monastery. Also in the grounds of the Monastery are a Stele Forest and the "Thousand Buddha Cliff" hidden in the forest - but if you venture into the forest a little bit you find carved Buddha grottoes lining the cliffside.
This pagoda is known as the oldest stone pagoda in China and is housed in the grounds of the Shentong Monastery. Also in the grounds of the Monastery are a Stele Forest and the "Thousand Buddha Cliff" hidden in the forest - but if you venture into the forest a little bit you find carved Buddha grottoes lining the cliffside.
The most exciting news is that we'll have some new honourary adlibers come mid-May when Mumbles and Pops (and hopefully an Aunty and Uncle ...) come to explore this country that we have fallen in love with. The count is currently at 62 days ... and counting!
Adlibing it the Jinan way.
No comments:
Post a Comment