English competition

Chris was asked to be a judge in an english competition in ningbo for three days, and he accepted, but there was only one space, no problem, good for him, earn some extra money!

I was then called a few days later by the university asking if I could be a judge for an english competition on the same weekend, I accepted as a favor to the dean of may faculty and was driven over for an induction, and some very tasty chicken soup in a small teapot, then i heard that the next day chris also had an induction where they told him they would put him up in a hotel in the city center, a five star hotel, and then look after him for the few days, the my job told me the same, even in the same hotel! 

We found out we were in the same hotel, going to the same school for the same competition, just for different majors completely unrelated, the ningbo university name gives us prestige as being judges representing our university, haha! 

I went over to the hotel, the Howard Johnson, stayed Friday night and then worked Saturday and went home Saturday evening, a good arrangement and nicer than Chris's 3 day stint!

I got some time in the pool on the Friday night, a treat as I don't get the chance to swim much here, then went to work, with slightly chlorine tinted eyes! 

The school was very expensive and very pretty, their library looked like a copy of the White House! They had the same problem though as all chinese school libraries in that there were no books inside!

Chris was a judge but it turns out I was asked to read the questions for the contestants, not too difficult, they were all preprepared for me, but still a tiring days work! The 3000rmb pay, 300gbp made it much more acceptable for a days work!

The judges were lovely people from around china and I ate with them and relaxed with them in the infrequent breaks, however the competition was interesting because several teams complained of racism against minorities, especially the xinjiang team, and instead of simply ignoring it they positively discriminated to place them slightly up from bottom in the next half despite their mediocre performance! In the afternoon after that of course every team complained and second guessed the judges! Madness!

All in all a nice if busy day, and a bit of extra pocket money and a free hotel room!