The last few days have been pretty quiet, mostly just relaxing in the flat and enjoying having nothing to do, a state I think that will become pretty rare when term starts again!
We have found out it looks like we will be teaching 4 classes a day roughly! ouch! but I think we can reuse our teaching plans for the other classes so that should be ok, and if we can get them watching films etc in english then that is pretty cool.
The day before yesterday we had to go and register with the police as residents, I was a little worried about that as we don't actually have a residency visa, just a 90 day tourist visa that is slippping away fast! Luckily it is up to the agency to sort out sometime for us to go to hongkong to change it!
Eamon helped us grab a taxi outside the school that already had a random girl in, and then we got in as well and shared a taxi ride across town to the district police station, bit weird for her I think.
Arriving at the police station we walked into find around 15 people milling around behind the desk from 16-60 half in casual clothes and most of them smoking, the place was like a drug den, and probably was. After some discussion it turned out the guy we needed was in a meeting and they didn't know when he would finish, but we could wait in the corner on a bench if we wanted.... we declined.
Across the road was a small shop that had a couple of pool tables outside the shop, quite a common thing in china for a local corner shop but a bit crazy when every other shop has them, anyway we decided to play some pool. The table was proper sized and we had a good game, then Eamon stepped in and he is not so good but it was still fun, I ended up potting the black in a different pocket from the one I designated and so forfeited the game, oops!
Heading back in we found that the person may have gone home that organises the residency, they let us go through anyway and once through the back door the police station opened up into a courtyard surrounded by dorm like rooms 5 stories high, a bit of a maze. We had been given a lead that it may be in room 402 and then left with a free run around the police station, a bit odd, we walked up through dirty corridors filled with cigarette stubs and rubbish until we saw 401, the door with the sign ripped off must be 402 we reasoned, the door was labelled ''didict squad room', not a promising start.
Opening the door we found 10 people standing around smoking and talking, Eamon asked and they said no it was the correct place, but the person who does it wasn't here, but we can wait 2 minutes and they should be back, 10 minutes later, no person. We asked again, 2 more minutes, 10 minutes later, no person. Just as we had given up a young policewoman in uniform arrived, apparently she has drawn the short straw and had to deal with us.
She wrote down all our info, and pulled our passport photos down from the computer (when it was scanned at the airport! a bit scary....) and entered all our residency information, when it got to the visa she mentioned about our visa length but said it was no problem and from what I understood if we had a job and did well, then the visa could be sorted out, from what I understand the school principal is a powerful and well known local figure, perhaps he has some clout with the police as well as Eamon did mention his name... madness! I would prefer to get in the usual way, especially if it means a paid trip to Hongkong! As we left the policewoman spoke with Eamon again outside before giving us all a wave and a laugh at my awful chinese. Eamon is still single so we will try to use the millions of stares we get for being the only white guys in town to find him a girlfriend! haha.
We sorted our things and then ate some local food, before walking the mile or so back to the school. Chris still has real problems eating noodles here, they come in a big bowl to share and you have to lift out your portion into a small bowl, a bit of an art that I am only just starting to get!
When we got home we found that the living room heater has broken. AGAIN! and since everyone is off it wont get fixed until the new term, the room is freezing without it! madness!
Yesterday we were relaxing playing some games and we heard a knock on the door, a bit odd since nobody is here, we answered it to find 5 men who came in and introduced themselves as the 2 principles, the owner of the school, and an english teacher to translate. Lots of hand shaking and translated small talk followed whilst they gave us our 'new years lucky money' £50 each, (the second of these!) and also a big bag of 'new year cake'.
New years cake is a big polystyrene box with 16 small shrink wrapped cakes in.
New year cake from local fish, the teacher happily explained! Chris immediately jumped up to get plates to give everyone some, but the headteacher declined saying they must get on, I had been told about this by my students and also told Chris to drop it!
They also left us two crates of canned cold tea in various flavours.
After they had gone Chris fancied some cake and so opened one up, the whole room instantly stank of fish and after a close smell which almost made me actually sick, I declined. Chris however likes fish so gave it a taste, he chewed for several seconds before spitting it into the bin and chucking the rest of the cake away before rinsing out his mouth with anything he could find. A lesson learnt, AVOID NEW YEARS CAKE! The tea however is very nice, some flavours perhaps more so than others, but on the whole lovely.
For the last few days a constant barrage of fireworks has gone off all night and all day to the point where we are starting to really resent fireworks now! A shame considering how novel they are in the UK! too much of a good thing I guess....
Got some more cool pictures though of them exploding just over the block of flats behind us!
Today I am going to buy some food to take with me travelling as apparently nothing is open for the next few days and so getting anything is pretty tricky, and I am a little worried about the buses to the airport not running, I may have to get a taxi instead, if I can find one of them either! luckily on the way out I have a whole day to get to the airport as my flight isn't until the evening, the problem is getting a taxi at the other end, as I land at midnight, I also hope my hostel is ok with a 1am checkin!
I treated myself to a private room for £8 a night so I won't wake anyone, but in the last one the checkin desk was closed at night, I emailed them to check it was ok!
From what I understand travelling now is like trying to travel on a three day long Christmas! It may be quite interesting, as long as I make it up to Tianjin ok I don't mind too much getting back!
Chris has woken up (finally...1pm!) and has a cold, I'm just trying to pack and sort my stuff to take, the headteacher seemed quite surprised that we were not travelling together but I think I could use the break after 3 weeks together!
will try to phone blog whilst I travel,
All the best
