25. M50

The trade-off

I got in on Wednesday night from work and remembered about Monday nights proposition with one of the party guests. The deal being: Art lessons in calligraphy and Chinese art as long as we spoke in English. Not bad. So after a mug of tea, set it up and luckily, she was just finishing her working day and thought it was a good idea also.

An hour later, former Art student and a new teacher, Darren was on board, and Sheila, another Monday party goer from the other night.

We turned up at the meeting place, an art gallery, Loftooo. It was one of twenty or so small galleries in Shanghai's main art gallery complex, M50. Literally down the road from where we live. Her gallery was showcasing this artist called Dan Fu. He had all these ink works on the walls. Some of them were valued at like 800,000 yuan (£80,000).

It was quite an extraordinary experience, one I'd never think I would fall into. There was all the material  provided an artist would need let alone a novice and we had our own personal teacher giving us advice.

Painting (hua hua in Chinese) runs through the family, my brother and sisters are quite excellent at it. It really has never done it for me. However, the setting was just too atmospheric and the opportunity too great, so I was a practical teacher's pet.

First we had to look through books of Chinese art. The Chinese methods of painting are very distinguishable to them. Scenery with mountains and lots of trees, seemed to be a main focus for most of the artists.

Anyway below is my effort, it took me about an hour and a half and it is now hanging up proudly in my bedroom.

Ink as you can imagine likes to run quite a lot along the page, so if you brush over a bit where it is too damp, the ink will run horrendously. There is a phrase which seems to be very true in successful lessons as well and thats, to roll with it.

Plans are there to follow, but more often than not, they're not. Things happen which make you go off the planned route, and you have just got to roll with it. Note the many shadows and random ivy like branches on the painting.

If anyone is mentally impressed with my skills btw, the painting was valued at 100 yuan. Hitting the big time here.

Routines

Its been about two and a half months now since arriving here. That's longer than my Fresher term at York, twice as long as the post school Eurotrip and nearly three times as long as the trip to Bolivia in 2007.

Its mental to think how time flies a lot quicker when you are old. Those trips or experiences I had which all occurred last decade were incredibly memorable and hence seemed to last longer than they actually did. 

With this in mind, the plan is to go to Japan over New Year. We have three days off on the 1st to the 3rd, which thankfully doesn't overlap with my Friday and Saturday day off so plans are in the pipeline to go on a little excursion a bit further east.

I apologize to anyone reading this who due to restrictions is not able to go off to Japan just like that. 

I blame routines for time going so quickly. Weeks fly by because of them.

Very recently, I have signed up for a 2900 yuan Mandarin part-time course lasting 12 weeks, so this is now what my weekly schedule looks like in the evening.

Monday: Mandurin lesson (7.00-8:30) at Mandurin House

Tuesday: Poker at Alan's and Adam's (8:00-12:00)*

Wednesday: Mandurin lesson (7.00-8:30) at Mandurin House.*

Thursday: Mandurin at Shane Head Office (5-6), Football/ Rugby 7-9

Friday: Night In/Out. 

Saturday: Tuition lesson with Bobby. Lesson plans/watching BPL on TV.

Sunday: Rest.

* Despite giving it the title of this piece, the proposed Mandurin means that more M50 art lessons may have to be put on hold. I could potentially swap it in for poker which I haven't gone to the last few weeks anyway, as it was pretty good. Decisons, decisions.

and its my Decembeard

I've found the French have a great passion for the facial hair.  Hence my curled up lip expression  which in France is meant to mean 'we'll see'.

A beard is something that sets Westerners further apart from our Asian counterparts. As you will not find a Chinese man with a consistent beard. I'm growing one not to distinguish myself, nor to make me look older, but it was first muted so I can be an even more effective Father Christmas. The Christmas party is tomorrow and I'm due to dress up as the big man, then ask questions, then perform, first by singing Christmas classics, then with a dance which has been decided by my helper as Justin Bieber-Baby. I will then have to teach the chorus dance to the kids with my helper. Choose the best one. Give out loads of other prizes. Then pose for photo's. This is on my day off. God help me.

However back to the beard, if I can keep it up for the whole month to be a true Decembeard, well we'll see!