Little High, Little Low

Monday

Monday was filled with lesson planning, well for a few hours at least. This week's lessons were on British Festivals. I quickly finished my planning and decided to spend the afternoon outside in the sun. It was very hot! I took my audiobook (Airman by Eoin Colfer) and had a good listen. It was hot so I decided to try and get a bit of a tan, I found a secluded spot and took my shirt off. There were no cries of 'There she blows!' and no one tried to shoot me with a harpoon so I guessed I was safe at least for the time being. After an hour or so, kids started to appear so I slipped on my shirt and decided to head to somewhere cooler. Now I had definitely caught the sun a bit on my face but I don't think I was too bad. I concluded that I needed to give up and pay the extortionate price for sun cream here.

Tuesday

Tuesday was good! Teaching went really well! I really like my kids at Beidajie! For lunch I was taken out for Szechuan food (i.e. very spicy) and I was not disappointed. I got given a dish of giant dumpling things in a chilli soup. SO SPICY! Nice though! I then went back to the office to chill out for a while. What with all these periods of rest, I am getting through my audio books! The afternoon lessons went well despite me being vastly under prepared as I forgot to do some important photocopying! I got to the car and Fish called me to tell me that Matthew wanted me to stay for a meeting with him. Joy of joys.

The car drove off and I was left waiting for Matthew. An hour passed by, still nothing. Then Fish turned up with Michael and we were whisked off to an incredibly posh looking restaurant. We were ushered in and into one of the most ornate rooms I have ever seen. The Lazy Susan was electric! In the room were headmasters from some of the schools and a representative from the Xining Educational Bureau (Matthew's bosses!). Of course no one spoke English so Fish was our translator the evening. We got Matthew to one side and talked to him about some problems we had been having and some problems he was having with certain people.

Then it was dinner time! My goodness the food was amazing! Meat with no bones, fat or gristle, delicious delicacies from around the province and food we couldn't even identify it (but it looked expensive). Then the baijo appeared. Oh God, please not again. I have to teach in the morning. There was no getting out of it though so Michael and I had to grin and bear it. One toast turned into twelve and soon our little jugs of baijo were empty, Fish took them to be filled ready for the next round but as soon as the liquid hit the back of our throats we realised we were drinking water. Fish had filled our jugs with water! She really does have our backs! Naturally Michael and I decided to pull the baijo face after every shot to avoid suspicion! However more than once our water was topped up with baijo creating an even worse blend... Oh well c'est la vie! 

We soon found ourselves full and I was exhausted (especially after teaching as well!). Michael Li and Mr Qi were drunk which is always funny but not when they were the ones who had to ensure we got home! We eventually got a taxi and dropped Fish hope then went to drop us home. We got to the school in one piece and found that they had locked our accommodation doors, so I had to climb in through Will's window. Now even full of energy and stone cold sober this would have been a task and a half but in my state it was nigh on impossible but somehow I made it! Then it was definitely bed time!

Wednesday

Wednesday was a great day! I always feel happy going to my Wednesday school because the kids are amazing. The morning's teaching went well! For lunch I was taken out to a restaurant and given rice and lots of yummy dishes. It was really good food! I then went for a wander with one of my students and we got ice cream. The afternoon's lessons went well! The activities all worked really well and some of the kids had prepared presentations on Chinese festivals and they were fantastic!

Thursday

Hmm well Thursday wasn't a good day. Now my Thursday school isn't my favourite namely as the kids don't seem to have any personality to share with me. I had found out that Michael was to begin to teach in my school on a Tuesday, so naturally I felt a bit upset because I felt like I wasn't good enough. That topped with my lessons going pretty badly all day (years 4,3 and 1) and a rubbish lunch. I was also so tired, so incredibly tired and that was making me over emotional. We watched The Snowman in my afternoon class and that upset me so much I had to excuse myself. It just made me homesick for the first time. I was just have a really down day. Not even talking with Cecilia and Deena helped. I was just so negative about everything. We got home to find out that we were no longer being fed on the weekends because the chef had complained, now this isn't too much of a problem but it is so much harder for us as it means we HAVE to eat in Xining which is a) expensive, b) difficult to order due to the language and c) VERY difficult to get back past 730! It seems like no one but Fish gives a damn about us here. China was really beginning to get me down. I was just sick of China, so much so that I opened my 'Homesick/sick of China' bar of dairy milk that I had brought from home. I was so upset I ended up going to bed as early as I could, 9pm as I had to prepare Friday's lesson. Not a good day at all, in fact one of my most demoralising days so far.

Friday

Friday started badly, the driver did not turn up so I missed my first lesson. I hate China when things like this happen. I felt so awful. I got to school and straight into teaching grade 2... Now Grade 2 is fun but it requires a lot of energy which is difficult to supply on a Friday. It didn't go too badly though, in fact it was quite fun. Lunch was good! I had some noodles and tried these traditional Dragonboat festival desserts which were odd but ok. Then I had to have a meeting with Matthew, I decided to get the office staff some cake share because they work so hard. I got to the office and Matthew just helped himself without asking!! He is so RUDE. I talked to Fish about my worries about the food situation and we are going to work together to find a solution. I went back to school, Matthew in tow.  Now my afternoon lesson went AMAZINGLY, despite Matthew's interruptions. The kids made cards to celebrate different festivals! They were so good. Oh and the little terror who had made my life very difficult for the last few weeks, decided to speak English!! I was so proud but he is still a little terror. 

Chris 'The Trouble Maker' 

Andy 'The Little Terror'

The kid who won't stop humping my leg.

I think Matthew appreciates how difficult my job is because he seemed surprised that I had grades 1-5 in the same class...  Very good day and faith restored for now!

Saturday

Faith gone again. The driver failed to pick us up again so we missed the first hour of our excursions. For me this meant missing my kids perform in the Children's day performance! They were so disappointed! I promised I would be there and the driver made me break that promise and I was so incredibly angry. I missed out on my kids performing and they had worked so hard!! I watched the other performances which were very good, there were even a couple of Swiss kids who spoke English on stage (this was the only part I really understood). 

We then went and got food which was delicious, I then got persuaded to delay my departure to the English corner so I could go to the park with the kids. It was great fun because I started a water fight and we all got soaked! Luckily it was a hot day so we dried pretty quickly!

The English corner was in Culture Park today, Deena and I had 5 students from my Thursday school and we played games. We looked at English money and learnt about getting a bus. It went pretty well but was still very awkward. It seems that English ability was not a factor in deciding who went to England and who did not.

After the English Corner, Cecilia, Michael and I went to the flower market and then to a cafe for a drink. I got an iced coffee that was to die for! We then went and got some food for dinner, in my case a bagel with chicken and bacon in it. It was really good! 

The Flowerless Flower Market