Relaxing around Lingxi

Spent a few days around Lingxi, not really doing much, some shopping and bits and bobs really and just sleeping and catching up with my friend.

We were trying to decide between going south to Xiamen with its beaches and cleanliness but that we have both been to once and going north to Hangzhou, a city I have been to way too many times, but Okeeffe has never been to, with its lakes, temples, etc etc! 

In the end we decided on Hangzhou and managed to get two train tickets for tomorrow evening, unfortunately it seems our luck ended there as looking online we could find no hotels for less than around 600RMB a night, £60 I havn't got since I STILL havn't been paid! These 6 weeks are really starting to drag! 

In the end I booked a special rate hotel for only £33 a night, in quite a nice looking place, but didn't book anything for the first night, pretty sure we could find a place around the station or somewhere...

The next day we realised at 3pm that our train was at 4 and so ran around packing and getting a fast taxi to the station and made it into the train ok, after the journey we arrived at half 8 and found that Chris and his friend from chongqing were at the station too! We all met up and Chris said he had a lead on a room in the hotel next to where he and his friend were staying. I had met her before and she was nice so we all headed off in a taxi together to find the room. 

Upon arrival we found another guy had just taken the room, and was in fact still checking in! Damnit! 

Chris and his friend went off to get some dinner and we walked off to find somewhere to stay. As we walked up through Hangzhou we tried a few places we saw but had no luck, eventually we found an all night McDonalds and grabbed a coffee and a donut whilst making a plan. 

We decided to try a few more places before finding an all night Internet cafe if that didn't pan out and sleeping on the table! We walked along for a while looking at quite a few hotels and the ones with spaces wouldn't take foreigners! Apparently in Hangzhou only special hotels can take foreigners, crazy! 

Eventually we sat down to take a look at the map and eventually one of the numerous peddle taxis pulled over and okeeffe and him got talking. Soon for 10rmb he promised to drive us around Hangzhou until we found somewhere to stay.

The first few places had no spaces and just as it started to rain he started to let us stay in the cab whilst he ran out into the hotel, and considering it was after 1 a few times he had to wake the people up which he did, shouting in the doors and knocking on windows.

We found one place but after asking it was 500rmb for one room! and 1000 for two was way too expensive! The driver kept on and eventually drove us 30minutes across town to a place he knew, which, had no space either! Just as he turned around and started to leave he saw another place and he and okeeffe headed off to take a look.

I waited with the stuff and whilst I was watching the door realised that a girl standing outside was possibly....for hire... as it were, she was dressed a tad provocatively and as soon as a group of guys walked by perked up, and when they passed let it drop an went back to her phone. I got the all clear, they had space, would accept foreigners, and wern't too bad, i gave the taxi driver £5 in the end, a massive tip, but he was a really nice guy, and stayed out just to help us, so i wanted to repay the favour.

Going in there was a normal checking desk, they took the money and we followed another scantily dressed girl in a pencil skirt past a couple more young women and down some stairs into.....the weirdest place I had ever been to!

All the walls were mirrors, and the lights very low, lots of small rooms with a double bed, a shower, and no toilet, except for the one in the hall. The place was empty as by this time it was 2am but they showed us to a couple of small rooms. 

We chose whichever ones we wanted and on going in, found that they had no main light, only mood lighting, one wall glowed blue, and there was a small dim lamp. The facilities didn't include a duvet, only some blankets from a secret cupboard, and the babyoil was also on the nightstand. This place was definitely a massage parlour but it turns out my friend had done some kind of deal to let us stay, we had to leave by 12 the next morning but we managed to get a good   

bit of sleep ready for the first day in Hangzhou the next morning!

Attached a photo of the outside of the building and a slightly blurry photo of my room! 

Holiday time!

This week was the Chinese national festival and so the kids had no school and both Chris and I decided to go travelling.  We both have friends we know around china and so both decided to go our separate ways, Chris to hangzhou first whilst my friend experienced the amazing sights of our town before my friend and I later went on to xiamen or hangzhou.
I had to pick my friend up from wenzhou train station and so on Saturday morning i got an early start and got the bus to wenzhou and then a taxi to the train station. An hour later my friend arrived! We then had to negotiate getting back to lingxi on the first day of the national holiday! It was crazy!
We managed a taxi to the bus station but then we needed to get the bus, we got a ticket no problems but there was a queue of around 250 people for the bus to lingxi, with seperate huge queues for all the other towns around! I guess several thousand people at this one small bus station and a continual line of buses loading up and then heading out, the queue went pretty quickly, around a 20minute half hour wait i guess but as we left the queues were longer if anything, and this continued all day! Just the sheer number of people is just amazing.
Got back to linxi and got back to my place ok, grabbed some noodles and chilled out around the flat, O'Keeffe taking a quick sleep to catch up after his long trip!

They let him near children???

One of the students came to our house and another foreign teacher, who shall remain nameless, decided to help them download some movies for the holidays.
They really wanted Romeo and Juliet but unfortunately we didn't have it so he (not being good with computers) tried to download it for them whilst I was asleep.
The internet offered ten titles for download, 9 are different Romeo and Juliet films, one was an adult film of the same name, guess which one was downloaded..... Thank god it didn't finished in time for him to give it to them!

Creepy crawly day!

Last night we were serenaded too sleep around midnight by some fireworks and then at half past five some good morning fireworks followed by a procession including a marching band, vans full of speakers and instruments and hundreds of walking people, for no obvious reason!

Later in class I was talking away when a big cockroach crawled up the curtain to one side. I pointed at the cockroach and told it to leave, just to take the class off the edge and they laughed but someone threw something knocking it into a group of girls, as I made my way over to sort it the cockroach ran to the door, I opened the door for it and it obligingly ran through but Sat in the doorway. Seeing my chance I gave it a good kick out the door and into the bin nearby, to a huge round of applause from my students, I finished by stating, he didn't pay his school fees. Very fun!

The creepy crawlyness continued because after we taught our first evening class for the older kids we went to cook rice and noticed that some nasty little bugs had got into our rice barrel, a shame as its a massive box to throw away. The problem was we were too exhausted to go and buy some more yet had nothing for dinner so making sure we washed it well and checking for bugs we still ate it! Haha. To be honest there are only 4 bugs in a massive tub of rice but still it is enough to put us off. A new bag tomorrow I think!

First lesson at 7.20 tomorrow, bleh! I will be tired! Ah well, at least we get an early weekend with Friday afternoon off!

Wow second week in!

Can't believe i've been teaching two weeks already! Had the monday off last weekend which was nice but my classes are heavily weighted on wed-fri so it didn't make a huge difference.

I forgot to blog about our meal last week, every time we go out they always but a crate of beer and some wine and it turns out its only really for me and chris, this is good when we have the time but last week it was thursday night when we hit the beers and chris got a little merry and didn't enjoy friday morning class as much as he should have, especially for an introductory lesson! This week they tried to butter us up and lunchtime with some beers! Luckily I managed to dodge most of them! 

This week we got short notice of an orchestral night going on in Lingxi and asked if we wanted to go, we accepted and got the free tickets, it was being staged in a nearby cinema and so we went along with Elaine. I had never been to an Orchestra thing before but I really enjoyed it, a variety of music, western, locally composed modern classic pieces, traditional chinese as well as some i actually recognised! They had some Opera as well and it was very fun. 

Having said that it was very chinese, ending on a random piece with a fake blacksmith playing the anvil with his hammers with a classical background whilst wearing a comedy nose... also many people talking loudly and sometimes having loud phone conversations and most people not really caring. Children were also free to wander around and run around the cinema with a free hand, nice to see that innocence! The best bit may have been that somehow a bat got into the building and although it was noticed nobody really gave it a second thought despite it flying around inside the cinema! 

Overall it was a great night, apparently a shanghai classical show that was on tour as our town is having a culture and arts festival! Not that you can notice!! I took some videos but will have to try and get them on youtube perhaps..

Really wanted to go to the beach today but Chris is taking art lessons and so couldn't have a lie in yesterday, so no beach today! so sad! next weekend I will go with or without him! 

The chinese is coming along, remembered most of it now and trying to talk more when I can, except only my teacher understands me! haha! 

Also saw one of my students wearing this tshirt, (obliviously of course) and had to take a picture, bless her! 

Wow what a first week!

The first week went well, I met all my students, they seem more outgoing than last year in the first lesson, and in general seem ok! Chris also met all my old students and seems to be getting along ok! 

This Saturday was teachers day in China, a time when students give gifts and cards to their teachers, and boy was that strange! We got stuffed animals, sports equipment, lots of food, mostly mooncakes (a traditional mid autumn (sunday) gift!) and flowers along with other random things, but it was very cool and the students were very sweet. sometimes standing up to sing happy teachers day to you! 

The weekend was good, hanging out with friends and then going on some adventures with Elaine. Elaine also took us for a meal at leftbank coffee, a swanky coffee place near the school, they give out ipads with the menu on! You can't order on the ipad, but you can look at pictures of the food... Weird, but kinda cool, and shows the type of people they are aiming at! Driving to the place we also stopped behind a nice brand news rolls royce with a very expensive number plate, i had to take a look! 

The parents said they want us to teach our private lessons on friday eve or sunday evening but we told them no, during the week or nothing! haha! we are so english, they really don't understand our insistence on weekends being free! 
Usual agency troubles and still got a month until we get paid anything, and its likely we will already owe that to a lot of people, to make matters worse by the time we get paid most of the terms holidays will have gone and we wanted to get some travelling in, fat chance of that it seems with no money! then we get money when we have no time to use it! damnit!

I'm sure loads more has happened but I will send this for now, maybe add in corrections later! 

Back into the second week now and pretty damn tired, the long weekend was very nice though! 

Welcome back our fellow travellers....

Welcome back and I see you've been kept up to date with our escapades so far... inclusive of our new exclusive snooker  

room with two tables (and extra long snooker queues); the disastrous lesson allocations with Nathan's 'reduced hours'.

I've been trying to help him fight his case that he wants more hours, but they're just not shifting on that front... otherwise

we're fighting fit and laughing with the complete craziness of China and its new system for traffic lights to control traffic

flow ... buy the biggest ones made of steel, lay them on the road and send the traffic of 6 lanes down a three lane road

that usually goes in one direction ;-) works a charm and leaves hilarity at the door and holding onto the seat of your pants

front and foremost in your mind!

So as my departing thoughts, here's a little something to make you snigger! enjoy :)

Zijian,

Chris

Ever wondered what a China man can achieve with just a firework?

First day

Phew, eased in gently with the first day only having two lessons and they went ok, the kids are a bit shy but hopefully they will settle into it (and I will too!) and it will all go ok! Two more tomorrow before things step up Wednesday, peak on Thursday and drop slightly for Friday, crazy times!

Early night tonight but managed to persuade Chris to cycle across town for dinner, picked up a few arm fulls of shopping on the way back too!

A great last week of freedom!

Since we got back and had a week in lingxi to get acclimatised again before we start the new term we have been taking full advantage.
I have been getting as many Chinese lessons as possible and Chris too and just enjoying our last break longer than 3 days for the next few months! We would have loved to go travelling but funding is at an all time low, I made a serious loss going home and spent way too much in England!

As a birthday present Elaine gave us a bicycle each! So kind! Not new, she actually was given them by students leaving for university but the black racing bike I now have is fantastic and after a quick once over to fix the brakes rides very well. Elaine and I cycled out into the area through the rice paddies and next to the river, through some small villiages which no foreigners had been to before and eventually cycled to a small town 15 or so km away. It was a nice ride and had a look around the middle school there which was fun.
I'm hoping to cycle to the sea one day and cycle and then climb one or two of the nearby mountains, I just wish Chris was a more confidant cyclist!
Picture of shiny new bikes attached!

We got our schedules today and it looks like Chris will be taking over my students in grade two and I will take on the new grade ones fresh into the school. Still not technically sorted my lesson plan but hey, I have 10 or so hours from now until I need to teach....

Found out there is a guy from England now teaching in DD dragon school nearby and he lives very close too! Will have to try to meet up for a drink this week sometime!

Chris and I also found out our school has a snooker room with two full size snooker tables in! So awesome! And Elaine managed to track down our own copy of the key! Whilst we were there we also explored a wing of the school we never got around to before and tried to get into the observatory but it was locked! Seems such a waste to have it but never use it! Hopefully we can sort something out.
We took advantage of the key and played a not so quick game but Chris and I will definitely need some practise before taking on the principal!

Elaine and I share an office with 3 other teachers and one day Elaine decided it needed an in depth clean, none of the other teachers turned up so I went to help her and ended up spending a full day on it! Pulling everything out and scrubbing the floors! Whilst this was happening there was a huge rainstorm caused by the typhoon in Taiwan and it was crazy. In various ways the building leaked, the worst being one place where a continual sheet of water blocked a corridor and another when an internal downpipe (don't ask me why) overflowed in the main hall, flooding it! Very funny!

I'm sure I've forgotten some things but will add them when I remember, a bit nervous at the moment, opening night jitters I guess, but after this week it should go more smoothly!

More as it happens.....

Turtle dinner!

The weather has been pretty crazy the last two days and its raining pretty hard now but Nora invited us out for a welcome back meal so we went out for that.
Last time we went to this restaurant they had turtle soup which I laughed at. They remembered and this time we ate it, in its own special turtle shaped container, head, feet, everything. It was ok, not great, not sure I would it again really, and Chris was really not a fan.

Tonight in Taiwan they are battering down for a tropical storm and its not far away, so I'm wondering if we will get an effect, possibly what this insane wind and rain is!

I found out that I need to switch to a new, less popular phone provider, in order to get fast phone internet but in China you cannot migrate your mobile number between networks. No problem, I already had an account but it was based in Shanghai and so a little expensive, I would simply use that number here, nope can't do that either you must reapply for your number too! With elaines invaluable help in the shop eventually we got it sorted out but my god it was stupidly difficult! Luckily the shop assistant was very pretty! Haha.

Got until the 5th to think of some ideas so really should get on it, especially as Chris has 22 lessons ready now!! He was very bored over the summer!

Made it!

We made it back to our flat today in a torrential downpour safe and sounds, including the site of the recent train crash! The train was not bad, the girl next to me spoke english so that was cool, and was also going to our little town! 
The setup was actually a 4 bed private cabin but they sat 6 on the beds below and then all the luggage on the two top bunks, it was quite roomy actually and you could shift about and lie down when someone moved around. There was an old guy in our carriage who alternated between singing badly to his chinese music and putting it on speaker from the shabby radio reception on the train with lots of static, a bit annoying, so i put music on my phone on until he got the hint! haha.

There was also a young kid with an ear ache and we were thinking of offering an ibuprofen when the mother pulled out a massive bag of drugs, i forgot just how bad the chinese are! not that they seemed to make any difference in the crying....

Went straight out with Elaine for MaZhanJianBao, I really missed them! so tasty! and then came back and watched a film and are trying to adjust to local time, a tough task.

We don't start teaching until the 5th though so I have some time to, well, make some lessons up!!