Remember back to 15 years ago while I was in China, I was a young fresh junior uni student, sitting in an English class room, listening to a foreign teacher giving lecture to nearly 200 Chinese students. It was a public university in a normal city in China. The teacher was a handsome young white fellow. He looked around 25 years age, comfortably intelligent and well mannered. He is obviously not coming to China to dig gold since no one would be coming to this place to teach if he/she wants to make any money. I heard salary for a foreign teacher in my uni was around $500 a month. Any job in US would make him a lot more than that.
I was excited. Didn’t see many foreign faces actually speaking English at my age. I was very curious about western culture. Reasons I have given in other posts. From a background where hierarchy was a number one rule in daily life, I honestly unconsciously felt that American people are at a more hierarchy level than we Chinese people. Look at their civilisation, look at their education, literature, science, environment …., what do we have better than them except our long history? There were three young American female teachers as well. They were cute, pretty and smart. I felt me and them are like two type of species in this universe. Although we all can talk and walk with two legs, I think in my hierarchy world, these people should be above the highest. The normal Chinese hierarchy system is like: King of China – Everyone works for him – State captain – Everyone works for him – City Captain – Everyone works for him – Village Captain and his fellows – My Ground Father – Grand Mother – Father – Mother – Younger Brother – Oldest Sister – Second Sister – Me. In this micro system in the uni, the hierarchy would be: USA teacher – Principle – Department Principle – Master Teacher – All other teachers – Class Leader – Classmate with good score – Me . This is almost like a formula we use for all our daily tasks. I have genuinely never thought there could be possibility that me be equal to those Americans. It didn’t bother me too much though. I had been living like that my whole life. I was used to it.
The USA teacher spoke very nice English with clear pronunciation and proper rhythm. I could tell he’s well educated from his speech even though I could barely understand the content of the speech. I was sitting in the middle of the crowd, listening to his nice American English, trying hard to catch what he was saying, like many other students in the class. Suddenly the crowd burst into a loud laugh. I knew he made a joke and I had no idea what the joke was, but I decided to focus so that not miss a joke again. The teacher paused a second then he continued again. “A student asked me today what’s the difference between Chinese women and American women?” He then surprisingly shook his head without answering the question directly and instead said that “maybe it’s a culture thing, but it’s not American women or Chinese women. Women are women! We say women in China or women in America, not Chinese women or American women…” It’s really funny that I forgot all the rest part of the lecture, but I remembered this sentence for 15 years. Women are women. Why we put a frame in front of a person to categorise her / him first? We are all women and we are all the same. From that day on, I realised how amazing this sentence has influenced me. I started to dare to dream big. I started to dig my potential and not give up just because I was at the bottom of the hierarchy world. This teacher gave me my biggest inspiration in my life. Later I found out that he was a church leader in the uni. Isn’t that a coincident?
this by myself. I haven’t travelled by myself before. I decided to take train there. Cheaper, easier to book and a good chance to see the countryside through the train window. I quickly checked the map and found a city called Waga Waga which is between sydney and melbourne. I also booked accommodation through airbnb for those two cities. Was told by the lovely hostess in waga waga that it is the biggest inner land city in australia with up to 70,000 population. If you are from China, you will laugh. Was excited and frightened at the same time. This will be the first time of my life travel to a place all by myself. Even when I came to Australia, I had someone coming to the airport to pick me up to the place, so even back then it wasn’t as scaring as this one. I decided to take train from Brisbane to Newcastle, stay for two nights. Then travel from Newcastle to Waga Waga (there’s a dramatic story during this journey, you will read from below). Unfortunately, the interstate train only leaves Brisbane at 4am in the morning. So i had to pack everything the night before. It wasn’t a pleasant experience to get up at 3am in the morning and sitting at the train station waiting. When the train starts off, I smelled the fuel burning. It really smelled like a 50 year old car, but the smell disappeared a while later after the train left. After I got on the train, i went to sleep straight forward. I was lucky. The seat next to me was empty. And with a height of 5″2′, i could lay most of my body on the seat and slept like a baby. Of course this is just a metaphor compared with sitting. I woke up a few times on the train. It was freezing cold on the train. If you are thinking taking some interstate rail way journey, make sure you bring a jacket!! No kidding. It’s like freezing cold on the train. As it was 4am in the morning, you could still see the stars on the sky through the window. I was shocked by how big and bright the stars look like while you are in country side. At first i thought it was the light from the lamps next to the rail way. My camera was not good enough to capture the beautiful scene. So i’ll leave it to your imagination. Also in order to save the battery, I put both my Samsung and iphone in battery saving mode. There are meals served on the train as well. During the cold weather on the train, you will naturally want to buy the hot meals they serve. Those hot meals are similar as the meals served on the airplane. It’s quite simple really. But I enjoyed it. Mostly because it warms you up. There are other cold fresh food like raps, cake etc like small cafes. But i wasn’t into those food. It took around 12 hours from Brisane to Newcastle. While i was about to get off the train, i realized my iphone was dying out. Because I forgot to turn the wifi off. I guess while the train was moving, it was trying to connect any new wifi it signalled. Luckily i brought two phones with me.
of the hill. It’s as if you found a glowing pearl in a pile of gravel. The church locates at the top of the hill, which gives you a feeling you are achieving some thing while you are climbing. The view is a bit inspiring while you get to the top of the hill. Everything that used to be tall and grand suddenly becomes so clear and smaller in front of you. What’s lying under neath you now are the hotels, the old industrial manufactures, the cruise, the bridge, the everything. 
used as a clock long time ago. Right now, it is standing there humbly. The well preserved bell and hanger still indicates the grace and elegance while during victoria stage what was famous for. It is as if it’s quietly reminding its future generations not to forget the history that so many ancestors and pioneers explored this uncivilised land from scratch and started building the beautiful and colourful city for us to enjoy today. Not sure how many young people nowadays will pay attention to these precious memories their ancestors had build. Young kids are playing in front of the beach, swimming, getting sun tan and having fun. Hope someday they will start to realise it’s a bless for them having history like so.
It is called Chris church cathedral. All the churches in Australia seem to be built for the glory of god. Started around 1800, it took the ancestors exact 100 years to finish the construction of this building. People who started the design, may not be able to see the completion of the project. By looking at the elegantly and fine made artwork, you won’t be surprised that it took so long. Each evenly laid brick, each delicately crafted wall, each piece of colourfully painted picture, all seems telling people the architects, the engineers, the builders, were all trying to pursue a perfect finished project for future generations.
weren’t many restaurants around the walk, either many shops. So if you want to go there as well, remember to bring some water and energy supply if you can carry. It took a while of walk to arrive at the memorial walk. I was a bit tired and hungry honestly. But as long as I stand on the walking bridge, it’s worth it. The view was great. Standing on the bridge, you can almost see the whole view of the city. Interestingly, since I would see everything happening in the city, I observed a fire happening near the hunter vale. No wonder I felt the air was a bit dusty and dry. It’s the fire mist! If you look carefully, you will be able to tell where the fire occurred as well. Is it often fire occurs in a city or just it’s my bad luck? But the view of the city is really incredible. 
