So I am back in Xining. Yay. (SARCASM ALERT)
After an amazing time in Hong Kong arriving back in Xining is a tad depressing but its where we signed up to be...
Anyway back to leaving Hong Kong, as I mentioned in our last blog we had to leave the hostel at 630AM to ensure enough time to get to the airport. It took us 4 hours between landing and getting to the hostel on the way to Hong Kong so we wanted to play it safe. Well to say things were easier than we expected was an understatement. There were virtually no queues at immigration and the metro ran smoothly.
Now to say we were bright eyed and bushy tailed would be an outright lie but poor Mike was the worst of us! He went to see a friend the night before and got in at 4AM and was up a mere 2 and a half hours later! He was TIRED.
Anyway we made it to the airport with PLENTY of time. I think we were there by 9 and we weren't flying until 1225. So we headed to McDonalds for some breakfast and, for Mike at least, a nap. Eventually we decided to head through security and into the actual terminal. Unfortunately Mike had ill advisedly introduced Will to 'Would you rather' so he was constantly asking us really crude, disgusting and insulting questions. Gee thanks Mike...
All this time in close quarters with Will was really beginning to get to me and thats saying a lot bearing in mind I spent a fair amount of time away from him in Hong Kong...
So naturally we were sat next to each other on the plane. Great. (SARCASM ALERT)
The plane to Xi'an was ok, I tried to sleep for most of it. Anything to avoid conversations with Will.
We got to Xi'an for our transfer and Will well and truly kicked it up a notch. The things this boy says are so disrespectful, insulting and down right disgusting. I snapped. I said to him calmly that he should stop being so disrespectful, I told him he is entitled to have opinions but that he should be aware that these are opinions not statements of fact. I told him how to use phrases such as 'I think', 'in my opinion' and 'from my experience' before his moronic comments. I don't think he reacted well to my opinion but I told him that most of the rubbish that comes out of his mouth I find offensive and it really upsets me. He then made a comment about being over sensitive because of my sexuality and laughed at the idea of being a father one day. That was it. I had to get away from him. He apologised back on the plane but only as a result of Mike and Deena telling him to. I know Will can be ok, I have experienced him being ok. He says these things and acts this way because he likes the reaction it gets. I have even less respect for him because of this, at least if someone is an arse then they don't have a choice.
We made it back to Xining without too much problem. We got the airport bus and then a bus back to school.
We thought everything would be going back to normal. How wrong were we...
While we had been away Matthew had been planning an overhaul of the teaching. New schools, bigger classes, shorter lessons, etc. We were invited to a meeting on Friday that we assumed would be about all the changes. Nope, we were just being shown off as Matthew's entourage. Anyway we got on the bus and TWO AND A HALF HOURS LATER we made it to the school, the traffic was atrocious. We didn't move for periods of 20 minutes at a time. Matthew hopes to sent some student to England in the Summer so he was meeting parents to discuss the project. After the presentation, all in Mandarin of course, all hell broke loose. The parents were demanding Matthew tell them how to get their children a passport and a visa. There was shouting and crying and people walked out but Matthew just kept smiling... It was brutal to watch. We got back on the bus and yep it took a FURTHER TWO AND A HALF HOURS. 5 HOURS ON A BUS TO BE SHOWN OFF BY MATTHEW!!!! NOT HAPPY.
We were promised a meeting in the future to discuss the IMPORTANT changes being made but nothing ever materilised so we were left confined to the school for Saturday. On Sunday we went out for lunch to a restaurant called 'Bill's Place', I introduced Deena, Mike and Cecilia to the game 'Consequences' and we had a lot of fun creating crazy stories. I got a vegetable calzone pizza, it wasn't too bad! We then went to the super market, then home.
Little did we know that as we were coming home, Will was going out. He didn't come back to this morning, I would say that he was missed but that would be a lie. Even Deena seemed grateful for the break.
Its now Monday and we have been told that the meeting will be tomorrow so another day of not teaching. Fingers crossed we can teach on Wednesday. The lack of anything happening is really getting to me, its like being stuck on a sailing ship in the Doldrums and the wind has deserted you.
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