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!