So Thursday came at last and it was pouring with rain, all day!! This is almost unheard of in Xining! It made me miss home slightly. So Thursday morning's teaching went really well! I was teaching grade 4 and they were great. Since the snowball game developed into 'lets pelt the teacher with stationary', I decided not to do it again... Instead I played some less violent games and introduced myself to my new classes. I was very happy when it all worked out well!
It got to lunchtime and the headmaster wanted to take me out for lunch. We headed to this posh restaurant called the Little Wheel Door Restaurant. He ordered a kilogram of mutton, some noodle dishes and a big bowl of chicken and mushroom soup. So it was the three of us, the headmaster, my teacher and I, there was a lot of food for us all! Then they said that they didn't like mutton so the kilogram of mutton was for me... That's a lot of mutton... We tucked in and soon I found myself stuffed with delicious food. This is when things went downhill. The headmaster disappeared and reappeared with a bottle of Baijo (rice wine 50%) and 2 glasses. Despite my pleas that I was teaching in the afternoon, he insisted I drink with him as we toasted various things (most in Chinese). He wouldn't let me stop until after my 11th shot. By this point I was completely gone. Of course he found this very funny but I now had to teach in his school!!
After stumbling back to the school and somehow managed to climb the 4 flights of stairs. I made into class, well that is to say I tripped over the step and fell into the classroom. The children thought I was putting on some sort of slapstick routine so thought I was hilarious... Needless to say my lesson wasn't one of my best. But I got through it without throwing up or making too much of a fool of myself. All I can say is thank goodness for Mr Bean. The headmaster is a bad, bad man.
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| A Text I sent to Michael |
Friday
ABOUT BLOODY TIME. I AM SO EXHAUSTED.
We got in the car and the driver forgot to drop me off at my school as arranged so I had to make my own way and was late. In the morning I was teaching grade 2! I was worried about how I could cope with 60 six and seven year olds but it was really fun!! We played some games, including a board race where I split the class into 2 teams and whichever team wrote the most words to do with a category (such as colours) won. It was great fun! The kids in the first class were really eager and pretty impressive! The second class was much lower ability though. Still was great fun though!
Lunch was normal (THANK GOODNESS), Ms Wan (I am pretty sure half my teachers are called Ms Wan...) too me out for dumpling with her son Chirs and one of my other young'uns Linda. The dumplings were delicious! They then got me to try something I wouldn't normally try, pigs trotter. It was weird, very fatty but it didn't taste too atrocious.
The afternoon went ok, though by this point I had no energy left to teach. It just sucks that my most challenging class to teach is on a Friday afternoon! I still have 40 in this class which is a bit of a pain, especially as I have this one child who does't speak any English but insists on being the bane of my life. Seriously he rubs things off the board when I am not looking, shouts in Chinese while I am talking and he even punched a 12 year old (he is 6...). There is another kid who insists on humping my leg during a game of 'Huggy Bear', I try to get away but he won't let me. Oh and to quote some of my students 'Teacher! Teacher! Look! It takes 4 of us to hug you!' Gee thanks, I would like to point that these students are small and have short arms...
I got told to finish my lesson so we could evaluate it, in this case they meant have the kids scribble something in Chinese and run away. I still had 2 hours before my car was going to pick me up so my teacher took me out for a wander, we got some sour yoghurt and then she forced me into KFC so we could sit down. Next thing I know she has bought me chips. Now to say I was full by this point would be an understatement. I was stuffed from lunch still but I mustn't be rude...
Saturday -
Saturday could only mean one thing! Excursion! Mike had been told to come with me to my excursion as his school had exams. We met up with Beidajie school and we went to People's Park for a wander and a picnic, which inevitably ended up with Michael and I being forced to eat all sorts of food, including fermented grain water...
Michael now appreciates how picnics are challenging...
After the excursion finished (we had finish early), Michael and I wandered towards the office to see Fish because in the afternoon we had our first English corner...
The English corner was weird. We were taken into this estate and up some stairs to the apartment on the top floor. Apparently this was one of Matthew's houses, Fish tells us he has lots. Inside there were rooms set up like classrooms, one for primary, one for junior and one for senior. The kids arrived and I recognised a few. These kids were the ones who were going to England in the summer and we were supposed to give them informal lessons. Deena and I were in charge of primary so we took our 5 kids into our room and began by getting them to ask us questions about England. It was a bit awkward because we didn't quite know what they expected us to do... We ended up playing games with the kids including 'Consequences' which was great fun.
I can't say their English is great overall but then again I think if they have the money they can go!
After the English corner, Fish took us out for Korean Barbecue and it is quite possibly the best food I have had in China! The meat was so good! It was great fun! We had to cook them on these hot plates in the middle of the table. We also had sushi too! We had a banquet and it only cost us 30RMB each (£3!!!!!).
After the amazing meal we decided to go for a drink seeing as we had missed the last bus home anyway! We went to a bar and had a few beers (£1 for 500ml bottles) and chatted with Fish and Kelly.
It was really lovely until Will through a hissy fit when we wanted to go home. He wanted to stay out but none of us wanted to, he then tried explaining to Fish that we were all 'too old to understand', he was really giving Fish a hard time. He is such a spoiled brat with no social skills whatsoever. If he continues to act this way he may find himself out of a job. Already Fish hates him.
We got a taxi home with 'the Incredible Sulk' (aka Will when he doesn't get his way) and went to bed.
Sunday-
Michael, Cecilia and I went to town for lunch we got burgers at Bill's Place and they were delicious, even by western standards! We then went shopping and I bought an umbrella and a bag for a grand total of £3!
We went for Fika (its a Swedish thing, basically a drink, a cake and a natter). We got some amazing donuts things and then headed back towards the bus home.
Nice chilled out day!!
Monday - Lesson planning and normality!!
Oh and by the way I have been here for over 100 days!!!!
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