Illness!

The last few days have been pretty uninteresting since we havn't been teaching but we had to go to wenzhou again to hand in our passports and get our residency permit extended. Unfortunately now you need your passport to stay in a hotel or even buy a train ticket and so we are stuck in and around lingxi for a bit. 
We too advantage of this, I have been having lots of chinese lessons and really feel like I am getting somewhere, I always want to learn faster but still i'm starting to get it a bit, there is still so much more to learn but at last, some progress for all my hard work! 

Now we have finished the hard work seems to have caught up and for the last 4 days or so i've had quite bad stomach pains, nothing too serious but pretty painful. Elaine sorted out some sort of medicine, chinese medicine, tasting like fish, yuk, but i've been taking it and drinking lots of water so hopefully it will clear up in a few days, before we go travelling! 

Got started on some web design today but am now wondering if the the technology I was hoping to use is a bit like overkill for the job at hand, I will see when I get more into it.

Elaine was worried about my stomach but i managed to persuade her i was not dying long enough to go and finally climb one of the mountains around lingxi, it was not that high but still good fun and as the sun set we got some beautiful pictures. I wish we had bikes so I could cycle over there whenever I wanted, maybe we should pick some up, I will ask around.... 

Got some amazing pictures to upload when I get a minute! Kind of starting to look forward to coming back, will be great to catch up with friends, a few of which have emailed me recently about meeting up, but also I think I will miss China while I am home, we will see! I'm sure the month will fly by! 

We are trying to go swimming but it is just really not common out here, and maybe tomorrow we will go to another teacher, Nora's, hometown to have a look around, no idea what is there but it should be fun! 

Chris is doing fine and has avoided being blighted by sickness! lucky bugger! hopefully he will have time to blog around writing his novel, all the best.

Crazy Chinese Myths

I found out what Chinese people do with their children's teeth, they don't have a tooth fairy but they believe that the children's teeth from the bottom jaw should go high, so throw them onto a flat roof of the building, and the teeth from the top of the the jaw should go low, and will often be thrown off a balcony, into the street! Crazy! We went for a meal with Elaine and Nora and could not believe what they were telling us! They are both sweet and we had a good meal, it was just a shame we had eaten so much for lunch at Jenny's house!

hazardous business

Teaching the young children is a really tough but today it was extra hard, at first we lost our tape so I ran to the shop in the heat to get some more, we made up a copy of twister on the floor and as soon as I walked back into the teaching room and sat down a student managed to give me a paper cut on my eye! after that was fixed another student then drew blood using a plastic stool.

Hangzhou

On the news there has been a huge storm in zheijiang province, and the first day in hangzhou i found that out! First I got a taxi to a new hotel, a 'pod' hotel like in Japan. I however didn't have a pod I had a private room with ensuite, for less than £15. It was however a tiny room, not much bigger than the size of a double bed, but I didn't need anything more! 

Just as I left my hotel however the rain started, and it came strong! Early heavy showers for this year.

Had a good day around Hangzhou stocking up on things that a small town just can't provide but stepping off the bus with no umbrella I was instantly soaked to the skin.

Met up with a few friends I know in and around Hangzhou before heading back to my small town a few days later, and back to the good weather.

Heard from Gabrielle, she made it to XI'an ok and is enjoying her travelling! Starting to look forward to a trip back home now, but still loving China!

Winding down

After working seriously hard for 5months having this time to wind down and relax is really nice.
Yesterday I went to buy a ticket to go to Hangzhou for a few days and had the usual arguments with taxi drivers over the price, it is good practise for my Chinese, I really want to learn to argue in the local dialect, that would he awesome!

In the afternoon both Chris and I had a Chinese lesson and afterwards Elaine's parents were away so she wanted an excuse not to cook herself so invited us out for a meal in the big hotel near the school.
We went and it was a mainly seafood buffet but still tasty, as I was choosing some of the waitresses came over to talk to me and I ended taking a picture with them all. After the meal another few waitresses arrived and one in a beautiful Chinese dress really wanted a picture so I posed for 5 more pictures, so funny but they were all sweet girls. Afterwards we walked with elaine back to the school and saw a Chinese lantern being set off from the park near Elaine's house. We went into the park and found a woman selling them, we bought three, one for now and two for later!
Elaine showed us how to light the ball of flammable stuff at the bottom and wait for it to fill with hot air before setting it free and watching it dissapear into the night. Beautiful.

Silly kids

We were teaching our class of younger kids and trying to teach them some basic actions, swimming, running, dancing, etc etc so first Chris says running and starts to run, and of course all the kids immediately run out of the classroom! 
A few minutes later when we had found them and rounded them all up we learnt from our mistakes and decided to go for something more simple, swimming, and they immediately all swam out of the room!! crazy little kids but very sweet!

Finished!

Got word through that as of yesterday we are finished for the term. All the students have no more non essential lessons like music and oral English. So now lessons until September! A seriously long holiday! 

I think I will go to my classes next week just to say goodbye but not teach a lesson unless they want any help with anything.... No idea what to do with our time though, except I will go travelling to Guangzhou as soon as I can! 

Went out last night with the guys from DD long again and met some of the new ones, nice to meet new english speaking faces! 

Heard that Gabrielle is in Beijing and doing ok, I guess no news is good news....

More as it happens......

Wan Yao

wan yao photos

Wan Yao photos

wan yao

Chris's lunch, 

Jenny and Elaine making some bowls

Chris, Gabby, Jenny and Elaine

wan yao

The view from the restaurant

Photos from the bowl making village

Chris striking a pose,

Jenny and Elaine

The view down the valley from the village

Arrival in Cangnan

Left the station and jumped into a taxi, he took us to the school but tried to charge £2 for us both, a scandal when £1 should take you anywhere in town! I argued in chinese until he took £1.50 which was fun, not that i was hugely bothered but still!

I took Gabby up to my flat and found Chris hungover on the living room sofa not sure of what day it even was! We dropped off Gabby's stuff and went to take a look at what the school had done in the 6th floor flat. Turns out that when they found out my sister was coming they bought or found a brand new single bed which they installed in an upstairs bedroom, crazy! So kind of them just for my sister to visit for a few days but it meant she had her own flat and her own front door and even her own air conditioning! 

After dropping off her stuff my sister and I realised we had not eaten so dragged Chris in his semi hungover state out for a healthy quchaqu breakfast! This was a chance to let gabrielle try a few random things and we included some duck's tongue just for fun as well as all the tasty things we usually like, after the meal we decided since we were already most of the way into town we may as well just go to the supermarket and stock up whilst we were here, also picking up anything else that gabrielle needed (mosquito repellant for example!). 
When we got back we headed up to the roof and watched the sun set over the mountains from the roof whilst drinking beers and chatting, a peaceful and relaxing evening and ended up watching a film together.

Wednesday morning I had to teach my class so I woke up early and went off to do that, after my class I decided gabby needed an introduction to the most unhealthy but most tasty breakfast that lingxi has to offer. They do a gorgeous spicy pancake with chicken and egg and it is just amazingly tasty, i bought one for gabby and I along with a drink we ate it in the apartment and caught up.

In the late morning one of my students Louise and her friend came over and chatted with us, we made some coffee and I forced Louise to try marmite, hehe. We chatted for a while and then got hungry so we all went for dumplings outside the school. After the dumplings chris and gabby chatted downstairs in the teachers lounge whilst I chatted with Louise upstairs until it was time for them to go.

Elaine and Jenny were dying to meet my sister and so that evening we organised a meal so that we could all meet up and Elaine proposed a new restaurant called 'black fish' in Lingxi town centre. This sounded like a good and we met Elaine and went to the restaurant with gabby and Chris. There we met Jenny and Elaines husband as well as Eamon and Lilly Jenny's daughter. We ate all sorts of tasty food and had a great time, as we tried to pay Elaine sneaked in and bought it, despite my protests! 

I had classes first thing on thursday so I got up and did them and then we got a call from Elaine asking if we were free to go to a nearby town where they made bowls, we all said yes but chris unfortunately had to teach in the afternoon, luckily Elaine spoke to Eamon and he got Chris excused from work so we could all go together! 
It turned out that this small town was actually a tiny village nestled in the mountains next to a large large and it was gorgeous. We arrived and Elaine knew one of the owners of the only restaurant in the village and so we were invited in the back way (and didn't have to pay to get in), because it was a week day the place was deserted, literally we were the only people there, and so had a free run of this beautiful place. First we went to their restaurant and had a lovely meal in a small room perched on the hillside looking out over the valley and after this we walked up to a big waterfall nearby. I really wanted to swim in the waterfall but it was not allowed unfortunately, although we did get the chance to play chinese poo-sticks down one of the tributaries which Elaine won. The chinese play over a long distance and Elaine's leaf was the only competitor seen again! Winning by default! 

Elaine left her phone in our bag and so as we got back and showered she came over and we ended up deciding to go out for hotpot, another thing I wanted to show Gabby in her short time here! The hotpot was great, something I will really miss, and the fun of cooking it yourself and knowing the food is really hot is great!

Since we were showing my sister around Elaine decided that should do something really different and all go for a foot massage, despite my trepidation she took us all to a nearby place she knew to get one done. Her husband was already there and there were 6 or so chairs in a line, we all chose a chair and one by one a masseuse came in to service us while we chatted and laughed until all 6 had a simultaneous massage. 

Elaine tried to order a male masseuse for Chris and I but we decided that we would prefer a female one and so she had the only young man and Chris and I had young women. Chris's was very infatuated with him and so we spent a funny half hour chatting and laughing with the girls as they tried to give us a massage with Elaine translating anything we didn't know how to say and Gabby sitting in the corner and laughing with Elaine at the stupid things we were trying to say. They did give us their numbers so we can go back and make sure we get the same girls as last time, number 8 for me and 68 for Chris, sweet girls, haha.  

During the massage Poppy, a girl I met a few weeks ago on the bus, called me and asked if I was busy, I told her I would be free after the massage but that I had my sister and friend with me, she invited us all to a bar nearby for a bit. We went along and poppy and her friend were waiting outside, we went in and it was an awesome little bar! The music was not too loud, the beer was very cheap and overall it was a great place! We will surely be back! We stayed for an hour or so chatting and drinking before we had to leave, I had classes early the next day. Gabby got on well with her friend and I liked talking to Poppy so between us we had a good evening.

Friday morning I felt awful and very sick, I'm not sure why, I woke up and got ready to teach but as I was walking to the door decided that no way was I teaching and went straight back to bed. All morning the house phone kept ringing but I stayed firmly in bed until half past 11 when I finally made it to the phone. It turned out to be one of the grade 3s as they have finished school now wanting to go for lunch! I pointed them towards where Chris was and left them to it as I was surely not eating. Chris took Gabby to the canteen and they ate together and an hour or so later they appeared back with the students in tow. I went back to sleep, as did Chris, but they carried on playing cards for an hour over lunch. 
I resurfaced after they left to sleep and decided I would take the chance now I felt a bit better to show Gabby some of my town so walked through the park to town and walked all the way to peoples park and the hill in the centre of town before turning back and showing her the clothing street through the centre of lingxi. Emma, the 3rd year from lunchtime wanted to meet us but I was too tired so I let Gabrielle go off shopping with her for some girly time and I got a taxi back to the flat. 
After a rest we met Emma again with Gabby on their way back and Emma went off home, we bought some beer and cooked some dinner before playing some poker in the flat using chinese coins as poker chips!

Saturday morning Gabrielle was leaving so I got up early and took gabby to the station and made sure she got her train ok. After dropping her off I tried to get a taxi back as it was really warming up but the taxi driver asked for £3 for a £1 taxi ride, I laughed at him as I walked off and decided to walk back, funny man he laughed too but I didn't know how to say he was crazy for thinking I would pay that. 

I got back and had a chinese lesson with Elaine, we started at 10 and finished at 1 when Chris met me in the office for some food. Elaine offered to take us to buy MaZhan Mian Bao, a bread from MaZhan, (horse station) with meat inside that is so tasty! 

After lunch Elaine said she was bored so we jokingly asked her to teach us to play mah-jong, which she accepted! She picked up one of her many sets from her house and started to teach us this ancient and complex game. 
After 3 hours we started to understand it, or some parts at least! One of my students came over and did not realise Elaine was Chinese, asking her if she could speak Chinese! Crazy! 

In the evening I cooked some food and we chilled out and had a few beers.

Sunday I was woken by Chris calling me from his bed in the flat asking if I wanted to play pool, wei ping a chinese guy we met a while ago was playing pool and he wanted to know if we wanted to play too. We accepted and walked over the pool hall, we played pool for an hour before going for some food. We learnt some more about Chinese culture and it made us want to start some sort of business in China, which would be cool! 

After the food we looked outside at monsoon rains and decided to wait it out and sat in the entrance to the deserted restaurant with the staff for half an hour until a gap in the rain lasted long enough for us to run home without getting too wet. chris taught his class and I had a rest. 
In the evening we went to get some food outside school and prepared for lessons tomorrow. 3 weeks of teaching left at most! awesome!! 

many pictures to upload which I will do ASAP but probably tomorrow, its 1am and I have class tomorrow but I needed to catch up on all this blogging! 

Hangzhou in a day

Hangzhou is one of my favorite cities in china, probably my favorite big city but unfortunately I have to work Wednesday so we need to get a train Tuesday leaving only one full day to get to see all the sights.
We got up and left with one shoe completely sopping wet, I tried to do what I could but it was bettyshang horrible to walk on, but any cheap replacement would soon be soaked too.

First we walked to the leifeng pagoda in the rain and climbed that, the foundations underneath are over 1000 years old which is pretty cool and the view from the.top over the lake was very nice.
I got a few puzzled looks for my sword/umbrella I was carrying and before long gabrielle was collared into a photo with some young tourists, her first time, the first of many I expect!

We walked over the lake causeway next before investigating and island with a bridge out to it.
We still had no train tickets but I remembered the number 7 bus route and we piled into a packed bus to get us there.
We queued behind two confused looking older guys trying to buy tickets so I gave them a hand, standing only for them though. As we got to the front I remembered I had not got my passport! I asked one of the older guys we had been talking to and used the ticket of a 50 year old bald man to get my ticket!
We walked back to west lake through tourist town again and gabrielle did lots of looking but little buying.
We got back to the lake and grabbed a boat out to the island in the middle Of the lake, Hangzhou 's most famous attraction.
we explored the island and got stared at by many young children, on the boat he was calling my shushu (uncle), very cute until he hit himself in the face with a fan...
After the boat we had a quick look around the supermarket as it has a good foreign food section but didn't find anything worth carrying.

Nearby was the city God temple which we walked to but didn't go inside instead exploring the caves outside. And around the hillside.

We walked back to the Hostel past an art shop and looked at some beautiful pictures in there before drying my feet in the hotel. There were no bars near the hostel so instead we just bought a few beers and looked out over west lake and watched the pretty lights which was cool.

Woke up early today for the train to my town, 7.44 the train left, but we will arrive at student lunchtime which should be interesting....

Leaving Shanghai again

Slept ok apart from a hardcore snoring competetion around 6am and met gabrielle down in the bar. We wandered around Shanghai's backstreets for a while before finding Suzhou creek and seeing very few foreigners. I made gabby try some crazy Chinese food which she enjoyed and then met an old man selling his calligraphy by the river, I chatted a bit in broken Chinese and ended up buying one from him, no idea what it says but I will ask my students to translate it for me, and it was fun buying it and not too expensive, and definitely not touristy! Haha.
Walked back to hostel and rested until checkout time before ending up back at the swanky coffee who a few streets from the station to wait the two hours before the train. Gabrielle asked about service in china and I was very positive about it, I should have held my tongue!
In the restaurant we waited an hour before I used my Chinese to chase down our food they forgot about us! We went to the station and the train was late! The first time ever for me in china! Typical.
Now shooting around china at 355kph! Cool!

Another day in shanghai

Woke up a few times thanks to various people in my room getting up and coming in late, met gabrielle in reception before going out into the big city.
First we went to the station and went to a super swanky coffee shop for some breakfast and an iced coffee/fruit tea for gabby. I booked some sort of hostel in Hangzhou for tomorrow, my favorite Hostel was full but apparantly a more local hostel had some space so I booked there.
We waited for half an hour to get tickets at the station and I managed my Chinese ordering which was cool and then went back to the hostel as gabrielle was wearing flip flops in the rather heavy rain! All day it rained but I was thankful as the rain brought lower temperatures than the last few days.
I bought myself a cool umbrella a little over the price I could find it for online but still not a bad price.
I took gabrielle on a bit of a walk around Shanghai and negotiated buying a simcard so gabrielle has a local number now! The only problem was that gabriellea phone was locked to orange so I had to go online on my phone to generate the unlock codes but now that is sorted, very useful for calling hostels etc!
After the phone shop we went to the Shanghai urban planning museum, my favorite place in Shanghai I think! Not sure what gabby thought of it though....
I started getting a bit hungry and so dragged gabrielle across town to a restaurant I know the 'Shanghai test kitchen ' which is known for amazing xiaolongbao, my favorite!
We found it easily and had a tasty meal if 3 different types of xiaolongbao, drunken chicken (a speciality if an aquired taste) and deep fried steak. All with a beer and a bubble tea for the price of a McDonald's each back home.
On the way back we parted ways and gabby went for a wander on her own while I met a friend of mine, we walked through Shanghai in the rain with all the lights and it was very nice before getting a metro over to her part of town and sitting in the park for a while, nice to catch up after so long!
I was not too late back as I got the last metro but got soaked walking back to the hostel which was fun, got an early bed without finding Gabrielle and hoped for a less interrupted  sleep this time.

Gabrielle in china

Got an email Friday morning saying gabrielle had landed in Shanghai and found the hostel ok and made a plan to meet her the next morning in the hotel reception.
Taught a full day at the school and all my classes wanted me to bring my sister in to show her to them, nosy little buggers!
After my last class I had an hour to get to the station and predicatably Friday had heavy rain. Luckily as I left my house it died down to a light drizzle and since all the taxis were busy I ended up walking the 15 minutes to the station.
Got my train with no problems and settled down for my 5 hour trip next to a young girl, I asked her if she spoke English and found out she did not but managed to get talking anyway with my limited Chinese, my Chinese book, and a little unsuccessful Google translating. She was very friendly and we swapped numbers (but since this is china qq numbers) and she left at ningbo.
I arrived at Shanghai at half 10 and noticed people running towards the metro, I walked quickly and managed to catch the last metro train into the center of Shanghai.
Walked to the hostel easilly, I know it well, and checked in. Walking out past the common room I saw many people but not gabrielle and since I was hungry I went out to find some street food!
60p and a tasty noodle dinner later I arrived back at the hostel and who did I meet in the coridoor but my sister! Said hello and retired to the bar for a beer or two before getting to bed around 1 ready for a busy day in Shanghai tomorrow.