Tuesday, 2 April 2013

April Fools, Clumsiness, Fire and Cake

OK so yesterday started off normally, it was a Monday so filled with lesson planning for the week (only 2 lessons yippee) and the next week (one less thing to do in Shanghai!). It was hard going, I am starting to struggle to find ideas...

Anyway Will popped in and told us that Mr Qi (one of the big bosses) wanted us to help plant trees that afternoon (at 230). Will was teaching that afternoon so we didn't give it a second thought. We turned up ready to plant some trees in the holes we saw them digging throughout the week and there was no one around. Everyone was in a meeting. Then it hit us, April 1st is April Fools day! We weren't going to take this lying down! We walked back to our rooms only to find that Will's door was still open and he was teaching... Too good an opportunity to miss! Next thing I know Siz has stolen all of his left shoes, Alex has his lamps, Mike has his beloved HDMI cable and Deena has put spider pictures all over his room (he HATES spiders). 

Anyway we were chilling out until there is a knock on the door. Guess what? Mr Qi had come to get us to plant some trees... We couldn't stop laughing! We donned our boots and followed him out into the gardens where ALL the teachers were mucking in spades in hand. We joined in and made quick work out of it. It was all going well until my clumsiness got the better of me when I ACCIDENTALLY hit Deena in the face with my spade, I felt awful. She's fine by the way but I hurt her lip, still feel bad about it. Anyway needless to say that everyone gave me a much wider berth after that. 

On the way back to our rooms, after planting trees, Alex and I popped in to see the cookery lesson. They were decorating their cakes with cream and icing. Before we knew it we were given a slice each, the cake wasn't bad either! Very different to cake back home though. The teacher even invited us back to make our own cake the next day! We took a slice for Mike but Alex tripped up on the way and it went flying. This was due to a mixture of my big feet and general clumsiness and Alex's inability to walk in a straight line. Either way Mike didn't get his cake and Alex scraped her knee. Not been a good day...

Dinner came along and it was time for phase 2 of the prank on Will, we all went to dinner wearing various items of Will's. I got his woolly hat and tie. He failed to see the funny side though and Deena felt bad so went to his room and tried to make things right. To be honest I think he was just being a sour grape. 

In the evening we joined the students for a talent show by the bonfire. Some of it was really good! We then had to sing a song which was less good. Once the students had gone to bed it left us and the teachers. They went and got some meat and began to cook it on the fire, the meat tasted delicious! However when they started cooking a whole chicken it was slightly odd. We weren't allowed to leave until midnight! 





So after a rather short and fitful sleep I was up and ready for breakfast and our cake making class. I soon met up with Alex and we made our way to the classroom. Baking is lots of fun and rather challenging when all the instructions are in Mandarin! The cakes here are odd too, they only use eggs (4!), flour and sugar. It is strange! The cake came out lovely though!

We decorated it with whipped cream and what we think is some sort of berry compote/sauce (they don't have icing here). It looked pretty good and it tasted pretty good too! Alex and I had lots of fun! We gave most of the cake to the senior staff here as a thank you for looking after us.




School today went well! The teachers keep saying how happy they are to have me and how well I am doing! 

Oh and I finished Jasper Fforde's 'The Fourth Bear' and loved it sad that its over. 

Off to Shanghai on Thursday! Can't wait!

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