Tasty treats!

Went for a tasty meal yesterday, ordered a speciality, duck's tounge. Previously we thought they ate everything but the quack, turns out they got that too! 

Tastes a bit odd, a bit boney really, will try to post some back especially to the old office! When my first paycheck comes through!

First few days

All done now, my first 3 days of teaching, and it was amazing, tiring, hectic, so hard work, and so easy, all at the same time!

I also found out that Chris and I have very different teaching styles, Chris is a bit more authoritarian and teachery, mine is more relaxed and casual.

The second day we we talked about the film from last night, forrest gump, and the children remembered an amazing amount of information! We also talked about the English royal family, about a map of the UK, and then played a simple game, similar to countdown, the longest word beginning with a certain letter, it went ok but not active enough for these kids! 

We also went for a walk around the site, teaching them the word observatory! and heading to the music room where two of the children played swan lake and the nutcracker on a piano there! Amazing! lucky I got a video of it too! 

The rest of the teaching went in the same style of spending ages planning some sort of lesson and worrying about it, then winging it and the children loving it when we got off topic, since I was teaching oral english as long as we speak english it's fine! 

After I had finished, all I wanted was a lovely long lie in, as I went to sleep I got a text that a 3rd year student was visiting at 8.15 for a chat, ouch! 

I woke up to 15 minutes of loud knocking on the door, and in the end, I answered it. 
3 hours later the student left and I ended up pottering around before heading back to bed for a siesta, then dinner, then a real sleep, nice.

The next day we went to buy some train tickets, and I ended up booking a flight! A little more expensive than I hoped but still it looks like I am getting up north, although the train I booked to hangzhou is on new years day here, the train will be empty!! haha, even the shops and restaurants aren't open! 

Now I have some time again I will try to blog more often, the crazy longs hours were pretty painful. Just trying to think of what to talk about for 6 horus a day! 

Teaching photos to follow! 

Meet my extended Chinese Family!

Lol, this picture still makes me laugh! It was taken whilst we were in Hongzhou, we found this amazing statue 

whilst it was snowing. So I figured, instead of standing to one side, why not be in the centre.... only that three

random Chinese people walked by, thought it was hilarious and took photos on their phones to!  

Crazy

also we have been given these classes as our own! we can do what we want, when we want, all day, and anywhere across campus, difficult but rewarding! 

More english teaching!

After the success of yesterday I woke up at 7 to sort out some ideas for the lessons, I wrote a bit about the queen and the royal family, and talked about them, I wrote down a few english games, and by the end of the first classes (8.20 - 10.55) I was out of ideas for the afternoon! 

I have talked about holidays, and my traveling experiences, a little about europe and where I have been there, thier ideal holiday destinations and why, their families and siblings, 
I think tomorrow I will have to find a lot of new topics! 
I asked them to find a news story which interested them and prepare to talk about it tomorrow, but that may not take that long at all. 

After lunch with the kids and a sit down in the flat we moved onto some more talking and again, I ran out of ideas, and then games with the class including chinese whispers, (ironic) and getting them to all head outside and ended up playing a chinese variant of duck duck goose with english questions as a forfeit. 

Madness! 

In the evening we watched a film and we chose forrest gump, the subtitles were 2 minutes out of sync and then stopped altogether so I am not sure how much they understood but they were all very sad over the main characters trials! 

The kids are great though, crazy and so sheltered, the limited sexual references in forrest gump were enough to provoke fake vomits from the guys and cries from the girls, and luckily the child abuse, racism, black panthers and drug use scenes, all of which I had forgotten, also went over their heads a little I hope!! 

I did manage however to leave all my memory sticks plugged into the virus riddled staff computer, hopefully they are still there tomorrow!

First lesson!

Had my first bit of teaching today, will write more tomorrow as this cold has really hit me, but it went well.

We introduced ourselves first and I said a little about my travelling history, which seemed to impress them, then Chris started talking about the depths of the petrochemical industry and its products... then we split off for a ten minute talk which became a two hour talk! and then when they finally called time we came back, grabbed some food and have to be up again at 7 to teach until 9 at night, ouch! long days and I have started to run out of things to say! 

Apparently the fact that my class had constant laughter was strange for the other teachers but good.

hangzhou snow photos

hangzhou snow photos

hangzhou snow photos

hangzhou photos

hangzhou photos

hangzhou photos

Sleepless night and sleepy day

Chris slept really poorly, constantly woken up by randoms arriving back and making noise so when we both got up at 6.30 and left, making a small amount of noise as we did, it brought a little satisfaction back for Chris.

Power walked to the train and caught it without a problem, first class is not that impressive though, basically the same as standard class just a bit bigger, at least my shoulders fit in the seat! Managed to catch a bit of sleep for 2 stops in a mostly empty train until suddenly loads of people piled onto the train with babies etc.

Got a phone call as we arrived and Eamon had brought the car to come and drive us back, a welcome relief from the walk back, and made a bit up for the crazy call back.

Made it back and after some food had a siesta before relaxing in the room for a bit.

Found out a bit more of what we have to do, tomorrow evening we have to introduce ourselves to the students, (around 50 in 2 classes) and tell them a bit about ourselves. 

The next 3 days we have 2 classes a day to improve their spoken English along with their listening, we also need to think of some games to play with the students and other ways to improve their English skills for a national competition.

The worst part is that as of 2 hours ago I started to develop a horrible cold, great timing for a first impression! Hopefully it will die down overnight.

I will upload some photos now from the last few days!  

Bloody hostels!

Stupid American girl left her light on and fell asleep and our air conditioner seems so so loud!

Also many pictures to come, tomorrow I hope!

Mountain climbing

Again I was up and showered before Chris even got out of bed and I had a craving for a tasty croissant for breakfast. Giving Chris his half hour notice I walked off to a nearby bakery. Unfortunately they were out of croissants by the time I made it there but I grabbed a nice cup of coffee, something I am really missing, and two things that looked kind of like croissants with meat in and choosing them over the mini pizzas.
Heading back to find Chris still asleep I went into reception to wait.
I tried a small corner of my baked thing and hated it so drank my coffee and waited for Chris.
He eventually appeared looking haggard, the night had been horrible for him on these lovely hard mattresses. He tried a big mouthful of breakfast despite my warning before spitting it straight out, turns out it was dried haddock.

With Chris now looking even greener than before we decided on a Starbucks to wake him up, a coffee and blueberry muffin later he was sorted.

Since the snow had stopped today we decided to head over to where I stayed last time the other side of the giant west lake to see that in the snow and climb the north peak hill.
The very familier k7 bus dropped us off near a small track down to the village and we walked through admiring the snow covered tea fields around us.
The hostel was still there but definitely a summer hostel! My room was lacking and temperature regulation save windows!
We then climbed up the north peak hill to the bushier temple at the top, a nice half hour climb and took many photos.
Around the back of the temple we could see a path in the snow from a few shoes so we followed it and found a much quieter area out the back underneath the high walled temple. Further still we found a small passage towards the next peak along and decided with an hour or twos light we could do it.
We managed it easilly and took some breathtaking pictures looking out over the valleys and the city.

Just before our descent I got a phone call from Eamon at the school sounding a bit worried as the headmaster had introduced a winter camp for some students to improve their oral English starting tomorrow in cangnan!
Eventually it was decided for the day after tomorrow but we needed to book our train as soon as possible!
We even made it back down keeping the light and went back again. To the station.
The line was much shorter and after only 15minutes we got served and got a partial refund on our now impossible Beijing tickets and booked tickets back home.
At such short notice we could get either stainding only tickets for the evening or first class tickets for 7am. For a 5 hour train ride we chose the later and then went back to the hostel to pack, picking up some food on the way.
All packed now and Chris managed to weasel our hostel advance payments back so the loss as not too great, it is a shame though as we were really looking forward to traveling some more, and even had highly converted train tickets! Nevermind, I will sit down with Eamon tomorrow, sort out what is going on and when we are needed, and then book some tickets for whenever we can!
I must also remeberuto check we are getting paid for his winter camp thing.
Early start tomorrow so guess this is GD night! Maybe Chris can stop being lazy and do some blogging too soon!

Temple of another city god

Was up way before Chris and then he took an incredibly long shower so that we barely left the hostel before midday.
First call was to the station about 20minutes away on foot and great fun walking in the still falling snow. When we got there there were queues right accross the ticket halls and out into the snow and considering how much I hate queueing we decided to give it a miss for now and try again later.
Walking back we saw so many cars with their wheels slipping and just sliding all over the road, and suicidal motorcyclists out in this mess!
We grabbed some food and headed out for Chris to find a phonebox to call home (the one in the hotel didn't work) and I headed out to meet up with a friend.
We met up again at 4 to go to see the temple on thehill behind our hostel.
Chris had a pretty rough time with phones until the 5th one let him argue with the operator until his calling card worked!
We wandered up the hill with snow still falling and had the temple to the city God to ourselves. It is a 5 story pagoda on top of the hill and the views down accross the town were amazing if a bit spoiled by the lift that takes you up the 'ancient' (replica) pagoda.
We walked Down the scenic way through snow covered trees until we hit the road then walked back over to the station to try our luck again.
This time the queue covered 4/5ths of the ticket hall but was at least inside, since it is spring festival and everyone wants to get somewhere we settled in to queue.
45mins later (after a few cheeky queue dodgers) we got seen and booked two tickets to Beijing for the 24th, the only day available!
We stopped off on the way back for some food and ate tasty if a little cold food from one of 5identical buffet restaurants all right next to each other before relaxing in the hostel warmth with a book and a hot chocolate.

Snow day!

I have found a problem with the Hangzhou infrastructure.
10cms of snow ànd no grit for the roads at all! Buses cars and bikes sliding everywhere!

Snow in Hangzhou!

Grabbed some breakfast dumplings with Colin and Greg the Canadian and American guys we met last night and headed out into the snow!
It has settled quite deep in places and makes everything look gorgeous! So many photos!

Did a little shopping in carrefore, which was a bit odd to find a French supermarket out here but hey! I bought some mouth wash and shaving stuff that we couldn't find back in our town.
Colin and I then grabbed a cab over to the Nokia shop as he wanted his phone fixed and I wanted the back cover on my phone fixed ideally.
They sorted his but my cover was too pricey, I will try taobo. China's answer to eBay!
We tried to get a cab back but couldn't find one in the lunchtime rush so decided to just walk back the couple of miles in the snow.
Found out that my nice summer shoes really suck in the snow but remembered a shop on route selling shoes so stopped in an bought some smart leather walking shoes, they were not that cheap but not bad, and appqrantly real merrels!
We met up with Chris and Greg in the hostel and had 2 hours to kill before the meal we planned with tilly an Aussie girl as well. The guys were really after a foot massage and wash and Chris fancied it too but I know I'm way too tickleish for that so left them to it and went out and found a load of small caves and worship sites on the hill behind our hostel and in the snow it was deserted which made it very surreal.
Met up again and went for a hot pot dinner with a central boiling soup you dip in different foods to cook and eat.
Chris took some time to stop eating the food raw and work out that you put them in to cook but after that we had a nice dinner of meatballs mushrooms etc etc and even some quails eggs which were very tasty in the spicy soup with a peanut sauce!

Tilly had heard of a place nearby with an open bar for 50kwai (a fiver) with as much as you can drink so we jumped in a taxi over there.
It was all foreigners but it was 50kwai for unlimited beer and spirits so we got involved! However it did not end well, a very heavy night was had by all.
Chris lost his coat somewhere and walked back 5 miles in the snow at 3am without it.
I have no clue how I got back but luckily lost nothing an the other guys had similarly blurry memories.
Learnt some cool drinking games, one involving making a rule secretly then everyone says a word and if it doesn't meet the rule they have to drink, until you guess the pattern and then it changes.
Today was spent in bed recovering from awful hangovers before venturing to the shop to replace chrises coat and grab some food before chillin out and reading in the hostel loft watching the snow out the window. Took some pictures in the snow and they look good, will try to upload some soon!
Going sightseeing tomorrow so that will be cool. Still predicted snow though!

Cangnan to hangzhou

Up early for the 9.50 train front cangnan to Hangzhou. No idea how long it would take so fell asleep in shifts but it wasn't too bad and arrived at Hangzhou at 2ish. A bit quicker than the bus we took last time.
Jumped on the y7 bus that I used last time to get to my hostel until e got near west lake then jumped off to find some lunch. Ended up in pizza hut as it was right at he bus stop and had an unsatisfying starter, some overcooked escargot for Chris, and an overly rubbery pizza with a not very nice iced coffee.
Mental note, avoid western food! Craving sorted!
We walked back to our new hostel right in the heart of pedestrianised old town an checked in, dropped our bags and  headed out for a wander.
Walked up the hill to the temple of the city God but Chris wanted to go in while it was light so we saved that for later. We then headed up into town and Chris bought some hiking boots for 35quid. I may do the same ask left min behind, nit sure if j should get some nice black leather ones or some gortex  ones.

We then fancied a beer and after not finding a bar for half an hour ended up in a swanky hotel listing to loanable music drinking their cheapest beer (that was still overpriced massively) . After a few beers we headed back hostel wards and picked up some lovely street food on the way for a couple of quid. Noodles with beef in a nice sauce.... lovely.
When we got back Chris chilled out while I jumped online and then ended up chatting to these Canadian/American guys, an Australian girl and a German girl. Many beers later we agreed to meet up tomorrow for a session and a meal.
They are all currently teachers in hunan province and gave us a few tips.

The Chinese old streets are really pretty with a river running through it under and next to the path, the only problem is there is no water! Also walking around west lake all the inlets are filled with ice! Took some pictures I wouldn't have believed visiting last summer!

more travelling to come!

Texted Eamon when I woke up about going for some lunch and he agreed so we went over the road for tasty dumplings, dumplings for three and change from £2, nice!

Afterwards we went to buy some train tickets but since we only have one bike one of us would have to ride with Eamon by electric bike, since Chris is not a very keen cyclist I agreed to be the one on the bike. As it turned out this was a wise decision as Eamon pulled out in front of lorries and went the wrong way up the roads in true local style while I kept to the correct side and watched the roads like a hawk, often hanging back to avoid what I though was Chris's fate!

We made it in the end and bought some tickets for tomorrow morning to Hangzhou to re group and see if there is anywhere else we fancied, and if our bank balance would allow more travelling!

Went shopping after that for some food and supplies before cooking our first meal in our flat. Rice in a rice cooker with xuialongbaio in the steamer section above, the rice came out very glutinous but very tasty with a little soy sauce, and the dumplings were ok too, very filling and super cheap. 5kg of rice is £4 or so.

Off traveling again tomorrow, as far as the budget allows I guess... we will see. I have a week or two before I need to head back to here so might as well see as much as I can!

Chilled out day

Woke up after a little lie and headed to shower, unfortunatly Chris had beaten me there and used all the hot water! Grr! after a brief cold shower we moved all the other things from upstairs down like the TV and the other computer.
I am hoping to setup the desktop here as a wireless router for the single wired network connection we have, lucky i brought my own USB wireless card!! Unfortunatly I can't get this machine to stay up long enough to do anything, I made a linux boot USB but it crashes out after 10 minutes, I suspect it is only USB 1 and that's not really good enough. 

Trying to make either machine work I had both in pieces stretched out across the lounge mixing and matching the pieces to make one that even beeped!

After messing with it some more and deciding we needed some food we headed out into town for a walk.

First we walked to the station and found out where that was, nearly dying in the process on the crazy roads, it's like crossing the motorway as it is three lanes each way and infrequent breaks in traffic, you just have to wait and be patient, madness!

The station is about three streets down, around 15 minutes walk, not bad and in the sun and slight warmth a great little walk.

We then headed into town for some food and Chris spotted a small place with lots of locals, we went in an this time ordered three nice dishes, a bacon and peppers in black bean sauce, a chicken (with bits of bone) in another sauce, and a plate of small fried eggs, with two bowls of rice and two beers.

When we came to pay after this tasty meal the total cost was...35kwai. £3.50 for two meals and drinks!! we will be visiting there again!

Also we spotted that out the back of our room is a little bar with a pool table, nice for the summer to relax!

Did some shopping on the way back and bought many random food things while we are in the process of finding ones we like.

Watched a film in the evening and tried some frozen rice balls with peanut butter, or at least thats what I think they were, but they were also very nice.

Going to try and head back to hangzhou tomorrow! 

Love the internet here!

I love the speed of the internet here! sustained 2500kb/s downloads, faster than my connection back home!

Guide to our school!

To find our school type into google maps: 

27.523981, 120.418578

then use the attached guide to find what is around us!

Sunset from our apartment roof

Hi all! Nathan's left me the keys for the blog for the night!

Just trying out the blog, with a message to everyone to say hi!

All's going well here in China! We've settled into the flat and we have most things working

now. We've had the great honour of meeting the rest of the teachers from the English

department of the School and we have drunk with the multiple head masters (as they all

seem to be head masters ) from the two schools which seem to share teaching staff.

We also had a surprise visit from a couple of students the other day who's first question

was if we were gay? To which we said no (the thinking being that the last two teachers were a couple)

but asked if they knew of any ladies looking for strapping white men of British origin.... (just kidding ;) 

but we found out a lot about the school, what to expect and what to look out for! All very useful.

So at the moment we're reaching a cross roads in our time here. We have 20 days or so

before the school starts the new term, because they are breaking for the spring festival or Chinese 

new year, our thoughts are to return to Hangzhou and possibly go as far north as Beijing.

But we'll let you all know as things unfold!   

And so hi Mum and Dad if you're reading, everything's great out here it does feel a bit weird,

like a cross between Africa, with the extreme contrasts of poverty and wealth, Sarajevo

from the 1990's with all the rockets they keep letting off as celebrations of moving into their new houses,

and Dubai with the speed at everything is being built. From sudden slums, you can step onto a newly

built train station with fresh tarmac and the only english for miles around. Nath aptly put it "its like being

on the moon!" as things are just so far removed from each other that it just all feels disjointed and uncoordinated.

With a municipal system that cannot support the volumes of people, their rubbish and need for water, 

heating etc, yet they have better & faster train links (at 400km/hr) and faster broadband than the UK?

It is quite a culture shock... although I think we have shocked them more as they expected to have to

nurse us a lot, and have found us to be very confined and independent which they have commented on.

Thus revealing how the intense pressure placed on the Kids to study, here in China, doesn't afford them 

any time to grow as people by gaining confidence or learning life skills. 

With a six day week and lessons starting at 7am, lunch for 2 hours and lesson sometimes until 9pm they 

have long days and a very limited social life. The party demands much of them and life even more! I have 

a lot of respect for them. Tough times, and our kids feel pressured at school. Not so I think! 

But enough of the ins and outs of life here in China for the now and I hope everything is going ok

back home. We're keeping a breast with the news in Europe and the Uk and heard about the eruption

of mount Etna! they've been predicting her to blow for a couple of years now!

Get in touch as it'll be great to hear from you and Mum or Dad I will try calling on Sunday! 

  

 

more photos then I'm done!

Flat a bit more lived in,

Kitchen post clean,

A last shot of the festivities!

you asked for photos! You get them!

Chris learning from some books left behind,

The midnight fireworks show from my bedroom window!

More flat photos

1/. A western toilet thank god!

2/. More fireworks!
3/. My room

4/. My room from the other side

Fwd: flat photos

photos in our flat!

1/. Kitchen in the door on the right, study (now chris's room) on the left, 

2/. front door first on the left, my room through the wall directly on the right

3/. Chris being chris

Photos

a photo of a security guard at the rest stop, 

a photo of the pristine brand new motorway that is all over china, along with the hundreds of miles we saw being built as we drove along,

a photo of a gorgeous secluded valley i wanted to stop in overnight, but I dont even think its on the maps yet!

Day 3 in Cangnan

Got woken up at 1am by an improtu fireworks display from the locals! About 20 meters up the road some locals set off some fireworks to welcome themselves into the neighbourhood, although that doesn't seem like the best way to me! I hate them already! although worryingly in the run up to the spring festival it is only going to get more common!

We really need to decide what we are going to do about the spring festival as travel is so difficult we will end up getting stuck wherever we happen to be! a difficult prospect! 

I am hoping we can drop off our things here now and get traveling again until the new term, which may be as late as the 17th of feb now!

This morning we arranged for Chris to come down at half 8 so he could shower and so i set my alarm earlier, after snoozing it at 8,8.10,8.20 and eventually turning it off at 8.30 I was woken up by hammering at the door at 9 (which i barely heard over the AC) and the head of the building was there to look at the problems that are still in the flat, he, of course, speaks no english! 

Still no sign of Chris so after pointing at a few things I retired back to bed again where it was nice and warm for the first time in days! 

I fell back to sleep until half an hour later I woke to more pounding on the door. This time it was Chris moving his stuff into my spare bedroom/office to make it a two bed flat. Turns out they finally switched on the water in his room this morning and every single pipe leaked, the kitchen, the shower, the toilet and the sink, so badly that they had to switch it straight back off again.

I left Chris moving all his things down the help of some maintenance guys and again went back to bed.

I was woken at 11.30 by Chris walking into my room, partly out of boredom and partly out of hunger and I decided it was probably time to get up. As i lay there working up the effort to get up my phone rang. The Principle of the school was calling to ask us out for lunch in a local restaurant. We accepted and had 10minutes to get ready, that made me get up!

10 minutes later after a quick shower we were met outside and driven to a local hotel, on the 5th floor we had a private dining room with its own balcony and around 10 staff sat around a table

What followed was a lovely chinese meal of all sorts of things (with a lot of seafood!) with lots of languages teachers and lots of the high level faculty walking in and out at random times. They didn't stay as they didn't speak much english but they did wander in and out a lot, possibly back to the school again as it was not far.

The meal included fresh water crabs (nice but a lot of work) all sorts of crustaceans (which I avoided) including oysters, but de shelled and sat on top of some sort of soup. A lovely local fresh water fish which was not salty at all and very nice and black chicken soup which is made from a chicken with jet black skin, which keeps its dark colour even when it is cooked. It looks very disgusting but tastes very nice! 

The best thing about the meal was that most of the food from the fruit and veg through the meat and the seafood was very local, some from the town itself, most from the province and all from within China! How often is that the case in the UK??

At the end of the meal we were each brought a small bowl containing what looked like a floating sea shell which turned out to be a local delicacy and one of the most expensive things on the menu! Chris thinks it was a sea anemone... but either way it was very nice!

We got back to the flat and relaxed for a bit before getting a phone call from some more students wanting to come over, we told them to come over now and so met Zack and Alex, two 18year old students studying for their final exams for university. 141 days left they said! 

They told us a lot about the old teachers and about what teaching is like, also they gave us the email address for the old teachers so I dropped them an email.

We chatted for an hour or so and eventually hinted enough that they left, we also texted Eamon our English speaking friend about the AC and within 5 minutes the building manager was back to fix it.

Turns out the main problem was that as soon as we turned on the big AC unit with anything else it blew all the circuit breakers, so after a clean they are working ok again as long as we only use one at once.

He also helped it by bodging two circuit breakers in side by side with a warning that if we use too many high power things the wires will set on fire.....not sure i'm too keen on the building standards of this country so we are going to have to be extra careful, especially with no smoke alarms!

All Chris's flat and my flat have been pushed together and can now nearly furnish one apartment, we have a dining table to go with my dining chairs (he didn't have any) and a few other bits and bobs.

We then got taken by another teacher to get out lunch card so we can now buy lunch in the school canteen. 
6kwai for lunch (60p) and 5kwai for dinner (50p), very cheap! We then got shown the bike we had at our disposal, an old an rusty one that a security guard kindly washed for us and will need some tuning up! There used to be two bikes but one was stolen at some point, damn! they said maybe they will buy another in a year or two!!

After that was sorted we wandered out to find a local supermarket and found quite a useful one right opposite the back gate, we bought a bucket, and loads of cleaning supplies and then made a start on the kitchen...

Two hours later and we had managed to do the cooker, the surfaces, two cupboards, the microwave and the fridge, but still more to go! One problem is that the sink has a massive slice in the bottom and so is basically unusable, luckily it has a second smaller sink next to it, but that has no plug! Excellent! We will tell Eamon tomorrow.

Famished from our cleaning we headed out to find dinner, we stopped off outside the gate to buy some street food. 

We picked up some random things on sticks which was gorgeous meatballs, quite nice meat circles, not very nice tofu type vegitables, and was we think was either skin or intestines which were not nice at all, very rubbery.

We also bought some crisps and popcorn and the final choice was a kind of pancake with egg and real crispy bacon in with sauce and some other gorgeous fillings all curled up, this was lovely! and about 60p, and quite filling too, we will definitely know for next time!

We sat in and watched a movie again and finished off our crate of beer much happier now that the flat is warm enough to sit in and not have to wear 10 layers!

Also got an email from Anji with another job offer! But I think now we are here we should stay, despite the guidebook hating this province! There is apparently the best beach in china only an hours bus ride away! So in the warm that will be great!

Gonna put up some more photos after this too, also going to set up the crappy PC they have given us as a wireless router so we will both be able to get online at the same time and maybe Chris can do some of his own blogging! In the meantime he says Hi to everyone he sent this out to.

We have also added our email addresses to the end of the page and the comment system should work so if you have any questions or want know more please get in touch! 

Photo Upload

Chris in hangzhou,

A gorgeous pavillion on west lake 

and a temple out of the window of our bus to Cangnan

Flat issues!

In the light of day we took a look at our flats and found a few problems:

In my flat:

The AC doesn't work properly so it is deathly cold as all walls/floors are concrete and it is currently around 5degrees. The inside temp is the same.!

there is no shower curtain, the taps leak, the kitchen light doesn't work. also everything is dirty, but thats ok!

In Chris's flat above:

The Ac works but the water doesn't, so no toilet, no shower no water anywhere!

Eamon called us an invited us to the canteen for lunch, a massive building 3 stories high and probably 25mx25m square filled with tables, the teachers eat lunch in the reserved 3rd floor but eat dinner with the students on the first floor, crazy!

Of the 3000 students in this school half are boarding and half travel in so I guess they split their effort between the two. 

After a random but fulfilling lunch we headed back with Eamon to try and sort out the flat.

After an afternoon of crazy builders and maintenance guys running around and opening all the windows!!!! eventually they left having fixed....my aircon in my room, but only in my bedroom, and that was it, but at least I can sleep warm! 

In the evening we headed out to find something to eat as we still don't have identity cards, we found a small place after 20 mins of walking and finding no places with any english on their menu.

We chose a place in which we can at least point to things we recognised and managed an ok if undescribable meal full of odd fruits that tasted like eyes (and may have been) cold tofu that looked like noodles and some spare ribs that at least tasted like spare ribs! washed down with some pijo (beer), budweiser randomly!

Came back and watched a film in my (heated) room, with a few beers and some pistachio nuts! 

 

Hungzhou to cangnan.

Made it up and out on time with all our stuff today hoping we would be taken to the school today and luckily Joanna, the main contact for us, was back. She said we could leavethis afternoon! After a couple of croissants for breakfast and some tasty lunch we were told we were going by bus to the town our school was in.
The bus was at 2.20 but a good half hour away an so at 1,15 we left.
We were supposed to be driven to the bus in the company car but the boss had apparantly taken the car and we were to get a taxi.
After 30mins outside waiting for a taxi with Gerry and trying various different roads Gerry eventually called the driver who rushed over and drove full tilt to the bus depot. We rushed through security and made it to our bus just as it was about to leave but we made it!
After my initial suspicion of Chinese buses from last time I was very surprised, the bus had toilets, TVs, big comfy leather seats and plenty of room.

It was a one stop service so after a gorgeous rest stop in the mountains we were dumped out in cangnan by the side of the road and the bus drove off.

I called Mr li our contact and he said he was on his way. Half an hour later and still missing Mr Lee we called again. Apparantly he was at the bus station waiting for us...he wasn't. Or more accurately the bus driver had dropped everyone at the wrong place.
After some more phone calls (which kept dropping out) eventually I handed the phone to a random Chinese woman who told him where we were. 2 minutes later they arrived, 3 teachers in a mini bus. Mr Lee, another older teacher Jen and a young Guy of 23 who turned out to be our boss! He speaks great English and I hope he likes us.
First we were shown to our living place and it was in a nice new part of the school on the 5th floor.
When me and Chris walked into this massive flat with alarge kitchen, a big double bedroom, a kitchen, a dining area and a seperate office we were shocked and our jaws dropped. And when we found out this was just for me I was even more amazed, Chris has an identical one upstairs!
After dropping off our things we headed out for a seafood meal. Not ideal but I coped. And then back to he flat to sleep finally.
The other teacher will meet us after his first two classes at 9.30 so I guess classes start around half 7! Ouch!
Photos as soon as I have internet! And I think Chris may help with the blogging after we get his laptop set up!

Night all..

Mad country!

Woke up at half 9 for our 10am appointment, well start as you mean to go on! And jumped in a taxi after waving the address at the driver. He pulled up outside a tower block and pointed at it before pealing off.
As we stood outside the ruined health club I texted our contact to say we had arrived. He eventually met us and showed us up to the 16floor of the tower block, the whole floor seems to be company owned. Inside it was old but ok but could have used several coats of paint and their motto was missing a few letters.
We then got given time to check our email before reading through 30 page introductory 'guides ' written in broken and self contradictory English before filling out forms we had already filled in again and having numerous copies of our passports taken.
We then got shown to a place for lunch then left there to eat.
Since we realised we needed to book our room for another night we had to call the place we stayed, this was tricky as all the numbers seemed broken. Eventually we spoke to the owner who sounded confused an told us to phone another broken reception number. In the end the boss promised to sort it out so we left it.
We then opened a bank account each and then had our orrientation talk which involved having the contract (we have already signed once) read again to us before making sure we knew not to speak about the law or government.

After that our 3 day introduction and orrientation was over. Weird.

It sounds as though we can settle in the school for free before going traveling again before the term starts on the 10th of Feb. Cool! Might try to get to the north and Beijing again!

After that went for some shopping, food and a coffee, bought a jacket as I needed something smarter than a hoodie for work and it is nice if a little pricey. Nice to know even out here an xxl really is too big!
Also bought a tie just in case we need to be uber smart!

Grabbed a taxi back and chatted at reception for a bit before heading to bed.
The hostel is nice, a small hotel with one room of dorms in, very Chinese!
Now lying in bed phone blogging while there is a girl sleeping on the opposite bunk and two guys below sleeping with their bloody lights on and the one below drowning out my iPod with his snoring...again!
The ac is also heating the room to 28degrees and since I'm top bunk I'm boiling!

Getting Hangzhou!

Woke up early (8) to get our 10am train and after a shower and having packed last night we headed out to the station, after finding one tube station closed we eventually made it at 20 to, plenty of time to get on the train! The on problem being that as we asked where to go for our train the response was 'not this station'. Crap.

Turns out we had to leave from hongquio airport which is now becoming a large train station, it was a good hour by metro we decided and so we bought new tickets for 14.50 that day.
As we had all our bags with us, and especially Chris's crazy heavy stuff! We headed around the train station square and grabbed some coffee and food and relaxed before getting to the station extra early! The main railway station this time!

The train was busy but ok, i had a snooze while Chris read his book, and watched the country fly by at 300km/h, not bad for a standard train (not high speed!).
More rows of houses being built row upon row and as Chris pointed out the country is so flat! You can see for miles and miles of houses surrounding factories.

We arrived in hangzhou (a horrible station) and headed to where the taxis should be, to find none, texting my translator friend I found out that it was a bad time as they all went to eat at around 4 before the evening rush. 

Chris was getting irate as we wandered around trying to find a taxi, in the end we found one and he took us right to our hotel front door.

After unpacking we headed out to look around and I remembered why I like Hangzhou so much in the first place, a big city with so much nature and a giant lake nearby, very pretty at night with the lights etc. (photos to follow).

We grabbed some expensive dinner at £6 inc drinks for both of us and then Chris headed back and flaked out. I went out for a wander again and chatted with a Canadian guy who just started teaching out here nearby.

Meeting the recruiter tomorrow and he seemed to say we would head straight to the school, but I want more time in Hangzhou! maybe after we have settled in I can come up to Hangzhou for a few days again, but best to get into teaching first I suppose. Although I now want a job closer to here! 

Gonna be a crazy day tomorrow I feel so we will see I guess... I think Chris is keen to bite their hand off at the first chance but I want to let them wait and take my time, I'm not sure that they are going to find anyone else whereas I think I could find us another job in a better place if I tried. Maybe not so close to the sea though...

Maybe I will like Wenzhou or Cangan as much as Hangzhou, if that is where the job is, I feel it is a small town type place at best, but that wouldn't be a bad experience as long as I can get out and about sometimes! Ideally by train.

More tomorrow I'm sure, paz y amor as the spanish would say....

A Relaxing sunday...for some!

Had a nice lie in again today still recovering from the flu, woke up to chris trying to communicate with the young chinese guy in the room. The guy asked Chris where he was from but Chris totally missed that and spent the next twenty minutest trying to figure out what work out what he was saying, I lay in bed and let chris get on with it. 

Headed out after booking a hostel in hangzhou and working out how to get there and bought a simcard so now have a local number! 

Also got some internet provision so now can get emails to my phone, and send emails too so I can blog from my phone too! 

Headed back to the hostel after a bit and chilled out, drank some beers and played some beers for a bit and then went for dinner. Afterwards I went to meet up with a friend I made last time I was out here for a coffee whilst Chris made friends with some random locals. Not sure I want to know what went on there!

Met back up at the hotel afterwards for a few more beers and pool and chilled out as I feel tomorrow may get pretty hectic! 

More tomorrow I am sure...

Pictures of shanghai

urban planning and the small temple

More pictures!