HDR!

Took a pic out the window using HDR, thought I would blog it too!

Hospital Trip

For the week i've been having trouble hearing, my left ear has been really uncofortable and everything sounds like its underwater. Very annoying! After mentioning it to a few of the teachers Jenny said she would help me go to the hospital to have it looked at.

I taught my first two classes on wednesday and then met jenny, the schools driver had volunteered to take us to the hospital as Jenny didn't have a car, although he wouldn't actually get paid for it!

We drove down a backstreet in the town before turning into a building site with girders and steel bars lying in the road, we squeezed through and parked up surrounded by building ditritus and rubbish. Walking around the corner towards a very dilapidated looking building I was a bit worried, and walking through towards the front entrance (we came in the back way to find parking) I realised the hospital was actually having a major refit and so would apparently be quite nice when it was finished. Due to the extensive building works throughout the hospital it was filled with even more dust and noise, building materials and rubbish than usual and that, coupled with the sheer number of people there waiting and walking around didn't help my worries about the doctors competency.

I waited in a queue in the new building which was just having the electrics wired in but was already in full use, this was tricky as they only accepted chinese names but I needed to use my English name for insurance reasons! I was issued with a membership card, health book, receipt and paid the £2.50 registration fee and they managed to very slowly type my name in and just like that i was registered at the hospital. Jenny then called a guy she knew to help us out!

Next we needed to find this man's office so we went up some stairs and at the advice of some staff kept going up, until the stairs just stopped at a door barricaded from the other side with random office things! Guessing this wasn't the way we went down one and walked along the corridor and after asking again found a tiny set of stairs between two toilets that led to the top floor.
Jenny said we were close and started reading the door signs, the first I read was for the VP of the hospital, the CEO, and then the director, Jenny knocked on the next door marked education and science officer and went in. 

Following her in I met a middle aged man who asked us to follow him and told Jenny he would find me a 'good doctor', in Chinese of course, nobody spoke English! 

Back down to the 3rd floor we walked straight past an electronic queue and a line of people outside a room and turned into an examination room with three chairs all with doctors examining patients in. When this guy entered and said a few words the chosen doctor told his patient to get out of the chair and wait in the corner, and pointed for me to sit down, the head guy then left us to it.
The doctor saw me immediately and had a look in my ear, diagnosing it as just blocked and dirty he said a few joking things about foreigners and told me not to get water in my ears when I shower, as if I did it on purpose! 
He then grabbed a vacuum sucker similar to those used by dentists and before I knew what he was doing stuck it on my ear drum! My god was that painful! Noticing my face he stopped and said he would go a bit slower, but that it was the worst he had seen. It really hurt and after that first time although he tried to be gentle it was still painful. 
It was over in around 2 minutes and he wrote a few things in my booklet and off we went to the room we started in. There we paid £3.80 and queued up for some drugs he had prescribed, anti bacterial meds of some sort it turns out after googling the name, the only thing in all the medicine that was in English.

All in all the whole thing had take around half an hour, most of that walking around this big hospital trying to find where to go! and around the hospital are houses overlooking the open windows, and no privacy in treatment or diagnosis really either.

In the car I asked Jenny about her friend and it turns out they are in the same political party! There are more than just the communist party it turns out, they all support the main party but have slightly different ideas, I didn't want to go too into it but last weekend at the meeting she had met him, told him about my problem and he had invited me in as a favour to Jenny, who seems to have quite some influence around here! The final straw was that what I paid was just for the meds I was given, the treatment itself was done as a favour to the head doctor by the doctor who did it! It really is all about who you know here, The Hospital would have taken all day had I not gone with someone who knew someone important, I owe Jenny a big favour! And she must owe the head doctor, who owes the doctor who did it, so crazy! 

My ear still hurts more than a day later but at least I can hear, I think he just bruised the ear drum, it is pretty sensitive! 

Tomorrow is April fools and the students all seem to have it in for me! Oh dear! Nevermind, we will see! I wonder if I can think of any good tricks for them.... A Surprise test maybe?

Tomorrow evening the students are doing some sort of show so I think I will try and watch that, will take photos if I can! 

Next week is Tomb Sweeping day on Tuesday so the students have sun, mon, tues off school, and so I don't have to teach! But it seems that I may have to teach mondays class on Saturday instead! Damnit! Even so, I want to try to travel somewhere with the three day weekend we have, not quite sure where though, wenzhou doesn't seem to have that much to do but would still be nice to have a wander around maybe? Need to decide soon though and get some tickets! 
Had another chinese lesson today, difficult but if i put in the practise I hope I can improve quickly! and a real teacher is much more useful that rossetta stone, but two is better than one! 

Wan Shang Hao! (good evening)

photo update

1/. Students every morning and evening standing at the school bowing and welcoming each teacher to the school.

2/. Getting involved in the process! and bowing to myself?

3/. Porridge, Shelly and Chris in peoples park!

4/. Students doing eye exercises

5/. Chris in Mr Lin's office, the big boss of teachers! We were left there for a while and told to amuse ourselves.

6/. Bed behind the bookcase in Mr Lin's office, for those afternoon naps.

photo update

1/. When a builder needs to get lots of rubble from the 5th floor to the ground floor......

2/. When driving in china sooner or later this will happen.

3/. Our poor bathroom!

Pictures!

Some of my student friends!

1/. Left to Right, ChenChen Me and Rabbit. Great kids!

2/. Tracy, Chocolate, Zero, Porridge, Shelly Porridge is truly mad!

3/. Me Amy and Louise, so sweet! Asked for our autographs!

All grade one students! photos 1 and 2 are from the new school, and amy and louise the old.

Paid for our tutoring

One small blessing was that on monday we didn't have to teach the insanity of the young childrens class, and tuesday when we taught the older children the mother of one turned up with 1300RMB to pay us for the last few weeks, £65 each for 5 or so hours work, that will do nicely on the side! 

Taught about festivals this week so easter, cheese rolling, may day, morris dancing etc, when I was talking about april fools though I found out its big in China, and next friday I have 5 classes! Crazy! And it lasts all day so morning and afternoon classes are affected! I am not sure how I am going to deal with that one...! 

Want to do movies this week, get the kids to talk about their favorite movies and the plot, characters etc and why they like it, but I think it may be better to give them some notice, so kind of want them to have a week to think about it and prepare for it.
Think this week maybe I will show them the first 20 minutes of a film, then brainstorm on the board about it, so the characters, the plot, the main events, what they thought about it, opinions, similar films, errrm... a rating out of 5stars maybe? and then build up to getting one student to talk about it in a full paragraph. Then tell them for next week to prepare a review of their own for a film, and they can tell the class. Could be interesting...
I want to show them the first 20 minutes of Disney UP, or maybe..... something else too.... some japanese Anime? Or some TV? Or a romantic film... just so I dont have to watch the same introduction to a movie 22 times! haha! 

Tomorrow back to wenzhou for more....'fun' to collect the visa, and then teach the horrors! I have a long weekend next weekend I think , hopefully 5 days! 3 days for tomb sweeping day, I would like to travel somewhere as 4 days is long enough to be worth it! Not sure where though. South? or more North? who knows! 

Went shopping with some students yesterday and saw one of their houses, very nice, and Friday night Jenny invited us to her house near the school, its gourgeous! nicely furnished, so clean, very chinese but very classy. Our shower broke so she offered us a shower at her place which I thought was very nice of her.

Last night hear a sound outside but thought nothing of it as bella and a few of her friends were over and hanging out so didn't take a look. Later on I glanced outside and saw a crane turning a car back over, turns out there was a full on car crash with a bus and two cars outside our flat! I dont think anybody was too badly hurt but still, one car on its roof! No idea what happened and since it was dark not sure how the photos will come out. 

Got a few pics to chuck up when I have time of various things too.... All the best

Wenzhou trips!

Friday seemed like it was going to be a good day, the students had exams and so after lunch we had no classes and a nice long weekend that was until Friday morning the school called us to say the agency was coming to Cangnan to take us to the police station to get a permit for our residency.

We didn't teach our first class as we were waiting for the agency to turn up, we then got a phone call from the school that we needed to actually teach our class, even though we had asked them and they told us not to! They also said that the agency had changed their mind and were now meeting us in wenzhou.
I ran to class and taught it as normal, starting off with a rant about how crazy our agency was! 
After our lesson we got a taxi to the bus station, the bus to wenzhou, and then a taxi to the police building to meet the guy from the agency at 2. We got a call at 2 saying he would be late, and we would meet him at 3. 3 oclock came and we got another call to say he would be there at 4pm, and that if we didn't get the permit by 5pm when the office closes we would officially be illegal aliens in china! 

5pm comes and goes and we have the head of the agency on the phone to the governor of the province trying to sort it out, turns out we have a form missing and despite the best wishes of the agency we couldn't get permission with it. The agency called me in the end and tried to explain why this was no their fault that they brought the wrong film and sent an employee all the way from hangzhou for no reason. I explained that the agency looked stupid, the school was angry, I was angry, and that they need to sort this stuff out as it was getting stupid and made them looking like amateurs, they seemed less than happy about this.

Rushed back to Cangnan and spent the weekend hanging out in town Saturday the weather was awful, but Sunday was lovely and sunny! 

Monday morning the school car took us to wenzhou again to try to get the permit again, we arrived with the new form and after a wait of an hour we found out that another form had expired on friday, so we had to get another copy, from the police station, in Cangnan!
Back to Cangnan to get this form and in the police station the only woman that could do it was MIA, and could not be found, and we would have to come back tomorrow. Luckiy as we were leaving the teacher Jenny saw a friends husband and asked him, he immediately went and sorted out the form we needed! No bribe needed, but its all about the circle of who you know, and who owes a favour to who! 

With the form intact we headed back to wenzhou to sort it out once and for all and were finally told that we could come back NEXT monday to collect our passports and the damn form! What a pain in the backside! 

Wenzhou trips!

Friday seemed like it was going to be a good day, the students had exams and so after lunch we had no classes and a nice long weekend that was until Friday morning the school called us to say the agency was coming to Cangnan to take us to the police station to get a permit for our residency.

We didn't teach our first class as we were waiting for the agency to turn up, we then got a phone call from the school that we needed to actually teach our class, even though we had asked them and they told us not to! They also said that the agency had changed their mind and were now meeting us in wenzhou.
I ran to class and taught it as normal, starting off with a rant about how crazy our agency was! 
After our lesson we got a taxi to the bus station, the bus to wenzhou, and then a taxi to the police building to meet the guy from the agency at 2. We got a call at 2 saying he would be late, and we would meet him at 3. 3 oclock came and we got another call to say he would be there at 4pm, and that if we didn't get the permit by 5pm when the office closes we would officially be illegal aliens in china! 

5pm comes and goes and we have the head of the agency on the phone to the governor of the province trying to sort it out, turns out we have a form missing and despite the best wishes of the agency we couldn't get permission with it. The agency called me in the end and tried to explain why this was no their fault that they brought the wrong film and sent an employee all the way from hangzhou for no reason. I explained that the agency looked stupid, the school was angry, I was angry, and that they need to sort this stuff out as it was getting stupid and made them looking like amateurs, they seemed less than happy about this.

Rushed back to Cangnan and spent the weekend hanging out in town Saturday the weather was awful, but Sunday was lovely and sunny! 

Monday morning the school car took us to wenzhou again to try to get the permit again, we arrived with the new form and after a wait of an hour we found out that another form had expired on friday, so we had to get another copy, from the police station, in Cangnan!
Back to Cangnan to get this form and in the police station the only woman that could do it was MIA, and could not be found, and we would have to come back tomorrow. Luckiy as we were leaving the teacher Jenny saw a friends husband and asked him, he immediately went and sorted out the form we needed! No bribe needed, but its all about the circle of who you know, and who owes a favour to who! 

WIth the form intact we headed back to wenzhou again, this time with Eamon in tow, and managed to sort the document out. Though we have to come back next monday to collect the damn thing!

Taught our classes tonight for the younger kids and got out first paycheck for that, £130 between two! nice! 

So tired now, need to sleep, can't even check for gramatical errors....! Night.

Wow! Japan is not that far!

Last night I heard of people in the phillipenes that had been taken in by a fake text about radiation from japan affecting them, and also the mention of buying salt to protect you! somehow! 
Today in class one of the students explained that he had bought some salt at lunch to protect himself, although he was not sure of the exact details....turns out the same text hit china! crazy!

Cool weekend!

Saturday was a cool day, first a student invited me for a walk in the sun and we ended up walking most of the way across town with his female friend (read girlfriend), seeing all the kites and lots of people said Hi to us as we walked around! Pretty cool.

I got back around 4 and after a while Bella and Daphne came over to cook for Chris and I, which ended up with Chris cooking them scrambled eggs, them cooking us fried rice and friend potatoes, which was cool! Bella is not a great cook but very enthusiastic, and it was very sweet of them. They ended up staying here until gone 11 and leaving back for their dormitory way after lights out, but since it was a Saturday it was ok, although they did have a test the next morning and ended up a bit behind on homework!

Hoping I can play some sport with them at some point, that would be cool! 

Sunday Chris and I walked into town and walked down fashion street, we also found where the other english teachers school is in the town center, then Chris's student came over for extra english help and ended up staying around and chatting and watching a film, something his parents wont let him do at home! They just pile on more work!

Monday went ok, my lesson doesn't quite work as getting them to speak is a real pain, but nevermind. I will press on and see if it develops into something better. 
Monday evening was tutoring time with the 6/7/8year olds, they all turned up upstairs and luckily one of the mothers (an english teacher) stayed in the class and translated for us, and helped us to handle the class.

That was tough going! We only made it through the first half of the alphabet, 1-15 and a few shapes in the class but the kids really are so sweet! Chris was very smitten with their cuteness. 
I ended up not talking too much and leaving it to chris in full on teacher mode to drill the alphabet into them.

Tired now! and the other tutoring class tomorrow...! bed i think!

few more phone pics

Also a pic I took in the place we got our medical done, the rooms off to the side are the (usually open throughout) doors to get the various tests done, and some people waiting, the queue and mass of people had died down a little when I covertly took this pic, (hence the wierd angle!).

The other is taken on the way from Hangzhou to Lingxi by bus, we stopped at the services and I went off to the toilet leaving Chris with the bags, I came back to let Chris take a break but the Bus drive had locked the doors and buggered off for a smoke and some food so Chris was left stuck in the bus looking less than impressed! made me laugh a bit anyway!

Another week teaching!

This week has flown by, mainly teaching my family tree and then playing some games on the board, trying to get their confidence up and make them a bit more comfortable around me, some classes are more active and awake than others but I'm getting there. Got to think of something for next week now though! Maybe some TV.... My Family maybe? But another teacher wants to sit in on one of my classes so I need to think of a speaking exercise for this week, and then some TV next week? 

The young kid tutoring went ok, we were a bit more prepared for what to expect, and had another kid too so we are up to 6, its a nice size and we went through a few things, describing a monster then having them all draw it, then showing their different ideas, and then got the kids to describe a monster, moving on from talking about the human body and the various limbs etc. Got a few things up our sleeves for next week, hopefully we can do colours, thinking of making the kids a big sheet of colours names written in various different colours from the word, the kids have to say the colour of the word, not the word, it melts your brain after a while! 

It seems we did O.K. as a teacher from the new school has asked us to run another class for some of his children on monday as well! Another 300RMB between me and Chris but £15 for two hours work doesn't seem so great, even out here! but once we have prepared the lesson for one I guess it is not too hard to do the same thing again, and to be honest at the moment with eating at home/in the canteen we are living on about £5-£10 each a week, so that would cover that! Although the free rent sure helps....

As I was walking home on Tuesday across the school two students asked if I wanted to watch their kite flying class, I went back and picked up Chris and we went and watched as the kids all flew kites, with various levels of success! Just so happens that we walked past the headteacher as he was doing the rounds with some important looking people, so I think we earned our months keep right there! 

After school on Thursday Chris played some volleyball with some of his students, he had good fun but I think it wiped him out! I have no idea how to play but maybe Chris can teach me sometime! apparently he drew quite the crowd! watching the foreigner do anything seems to be a national sport around here! 

Thursday Lunchtime I was invited out for lunch by some of my students in the new school, they promised me my favorite food (XiaoLongBao) so of course I was in! I also brought Chris along and we headed to the local place that does them, we have been before but not with these students. A girl ChenChen with thick classes and not great English but is so keen to speak, and her friend with slightly better English called 'rabbit' (apparently she looks like one!) and also a few other random students who came along! They are all very sweet girls and fun to talk with, although very hyperactive! 

During the meal I mentioned that I wanted to learn how to cook XiaoLongBao as they are my favorite, the girls obviously mentioned this to the chef in the restaurant because as we left he offered to show me how to make them! I accepted and watched him make a few. They are small circles of pastry with a pork and vegetable mix inside, then they are folded/twisted up into a small parcel, and then steamed. After he had shown me some he asked if I wanted a go, of course I did! 
I washed my hands and gave it a try, it is so difficult! he makes it look easy but considering that there was no common language and only basic interpreting skills it was mostly done by watching and trying! Needless to say none turned out that well but I hope I can find a place online and with some practice go back in a few months and show him my new found skills! But a good laugh was had by all with the older restaurants owner (i think the young male chefs mother, who spoke no english at all!) watching over our shoulders and laughing at my attempts. Since the kitchen was right next to the tables with no divider the rest of the people in there must have had a show too! 

Friday came finally and we are so tired, I finished my last class of the week, class one, (lots of winter camp students), and so after chatting with them after class (something I always try to do) then I wandered back. As I left some music started and looking onto the running track all of grades 2 and 3 were doing their weekly run to ensure they stay healthy, not in sports clothes just their daily clothes, they dont seem to get changed for P.E., but then their daily clothes are tracksuits so I guess it is ok. 

The week now, tomorrow a few students asked me to do something so I will see if any of them turn up, if not, a relaxing few days! Although I think Sunday night may turn out to be a night out with the Canadians as they have Monday off! No clubbing for me though, no money and class the next day!  

Will put up some photos of the running and the kites, and one of me playing a game involving them writing all the animals they can on the board, with much shouting and screaming!

Also a picture I took of a student who kept taking pictures of me during class, I get that all the time, and students videoing me on their phones! And after class taking pictures with me! Crazy! 

Another foreigner!

On monday we finished at 3.10 so I texted Liam, the Canadian teacher, to ask if he wanted to meet up for a bit. He accepted and so we met him outside school, he is the same age as us and has been out here for 3 years now. His chinese is pretty damn awesome! 
He works in the DD Dragon pirvate english school in town, they pay their teachers 6/7 thousand, nearly twice our salary, but also they teach younger children (much harder) and also end up preparing quite a few more lessons, as well as teaching grammer and written english too. Ouch! 
Liam seems nice enough and we went and played a bit of pool while he explained what was cool to see and do in Lingxi. Turns out there are 6 Canadians in that school, all guys, but apparently they love going out partying a little too much. haha.
Since Liam works every evening and all weekend, and we work mornings and afternoons, we are basically at polar opposites, not sure we will get that much chance to hang out!

Chris has managed to persuade one of the Chinese teachers to give him a private English class which is very cool, a bit of a shame he didn't feel he could share it with me, and wants to keep it one on one, but nevermind, I am trying to find another teacher who will help me learn some chinese, it would be cool to end up with some grasp of the language!

Been weighed down with loads of stupid student loans stuff that I am slogging through, so boring! and so long distance, i really dislike their approach to anything! Going to have to find some sort of proof, ah well.

Had a strange text from our agency so we called them back, turns out that our expenses havn't been touched because the guy who was supposed to do them has left the company, great! so they are going to be delayed, I'm also concerned we will get taxed on them too! what a pain! 

The company also kept asking if we knew where Jenny was, when we said we have no idea who Jenny was they eventually explained that another American teacher in Lingxi had got her visa recently, got back into china and then disappeared! the whole agency were worried, partly because there was a problem with her visa and so it is only for one more month, she needs to get back to HK asap! 

I think the probably just wanted to get the visa then do something else for 6 months and was taking advantage of the company to do it, but then it could be she really has disappeared! crazy!

7am now here and gotta teach in half an hour! then back to bed for sure! see ya!

Another week!

Spent the week teaching various things, sometimes some photos of england, and the geography of the U.K. and food, explaining Haggis always gets a few laughs! Especially considering that they eat chickens feet and face! Also guy fawkes and the houses of parliment is quite fun.

Some classes (earlier in the week before I have found my stride) I rushed through too fast and also talked about advanced family, neice, nephew, step family, in laws, divorce, widow, great grandparents etc, not too tricky and once told they know it thats it, its in there and they remember it, the kids are so damn clever.

Some of the classes I got them to introduce each other, its a tricky thing as in the right class it turns out pretty damn funny (and doesnt need a computer as some classes dont have one! laptop time next week i think!) but if the class is tired or not very active then its a bit boring. Facing the same problem that if every student talks then the class is not long enough (40 minutes for 50 students) and also that it is boring as 39 minutes out of the 40 they are listening to the other students! 

One memorable class the student asked for a 'new fun game' last week, so I told her to come up with one for the class, well she chose to get the class to prepare jokes in english for the class! That was pretty crazy, most were awful, most taken off the internet but some attempted to write some, but it turned into a really funny class, at least I laughed a lot! 

I think this week I want to try a game, but with 50 students that is going to be tough, and I need to find a game with some semblance of english practise in. Some of the students wanted me to show a video of Mr Bean, the comedy is great, very understandable, but it doesn't use language at all and so hardly english practise. Chris is going with a TV show called arrested development but that may be a little tricky, and considering how shy they were about the 'adult content' in forest gump most british school dramas are out too with way too much kissing and dating that is just impossible over here before university. Tricky stuff. If anyone has any great ideas I would appreciate them, for games or good english TV! 

This saterday we stayed in and just played some games and pottered around the flat until a few students showed up, Chris dragged them towards town to take him shopping but I had arranged to meet another student so she could show me a music shop for guitar strings! Found one and bought a few strings, and a few plectrums and then the girls said they knew a restaurant nearby. Turns out it belonged to one of the girls father, we had a private room and they served some lovely chinese food! Amazing sweet and sour pork ribs, really lovely! 

They asked me to come to the cinema afterwards but I thought I should find Chris so they found me a taxi back to the flat, Really need to get Chris a phone so I can get him out to join us! 

Fixed my guitar but wondering if I take it to the shop they can sort it out for me, possibly make it sound a bit nicer, it was bought with a few little problems, they may be able to fix them for not much....

That was...interesting.

Taught all day today, tuesday is tricky with all the gaps, after the lessons, which went ok, After school we had this tutoring thing to go to and we had asked for some chairs and a whiteboard to let us use the room above for teaching now that chris isn't living there.

At 6:20 we had only 10 minutes before the tuition started but still no chairs or any other facilities to actually teach the class! The students showed up, five 12 year old kids, 6 next week! they had all brought chairs, and a white board that they will be charging back to us! 
We made a few plans for things to do, basically putting together two lessons worth of stuff and preparing it for a younger audience.

As the parents left they asked in passing as they left if we spoke any chinese as the kids english wasn't good.... errrr...a little?! 

The kids turned out to be better than we thought and their english was nearly enough, we had fun but burnt through all our material in half the time, crazy! and next week they want 2 hours! 

Afterwards I got a phone call from a 'liam', a teacher in linxi, apparently there are 6 are so teachers who love linxi, good clubs, bars and night life! crazy! 

He wanted to meet tonight as he works evenings and weekends! anyway we are going to meet him tomorrow i think.....

Night all!