27th October
It nice to have a lie in the morning - the only one this week!! I got dressed and then got the bus into xujiahui to buy my twin a birthday present. After a bit of shopping it was getting really busy so I got the bus back to uni and after lunch frankie and i went to some estate agents because we are thinking about renting a flat next semester, but we couldnt find anything that was right. When we were walking around the estate agents I got a call from Ada asking if i could go and teach in an hours time cos someone had called in sick so obv i said yes. When i got to school it was so busy and i didnt know what i was supposed to be teaching or what class it was, but then someone gave me a book and I had 10 mins to prepare my class which was a bit stressful but it went quite well. The class I had to teach were a couple of years older than my usual class and they all spoke really good english so it was quite easy.
This evening we all went to a bar called windows scoreboard which was really good. It was owned by the people who own windows too that we went to last weeked so they had all the same really cheap drinks. But i was really good and just had an orange juice and a bottle of tiger because I had to teach the next day. There were loads of expats there, but they were all just ugly white men with pretty chinese girlfriends. At half 11 frankie and I decided to walk to mister donut to see if it was still open and luckily it doesnt close till midnight at the weekend!!
Sunday, 28 October 2007
Where is my bicycle bell?
25th October
This morning we got up and went to get our bicycles to cycle to class and we discovered that someone had stolen the bells from our bicycles!!! I couldnt believe it. I reckon it would have taken just as much effort to unscrew my bicycle lock as it would to unscrew the bell, its soooooo annoying!!!
There was hardly anyone in speaking class today and we just had to read a dialogue which didnt take long so frankie and i were chatting to the two korean guys with gold teeth and one of them pointed at my tattoo and asked if it washes off so obv i said no. and then the other korean guy was telling us how only gangsters and prostitutes have tattoos in korea which i thought was quite funny. It was also quite amusing how they dont speak any english, but they know the words "gangster' and 'prostitute'.
This afternoon frankie and i went to find the emirates office and we booked our flights home for next July!!
This morning we got up and went to get our bicycles to cycle to class and we discovered that someone had stolen the bells from our bicycles!!! I couldnt believe it. I reckon it would have taken just as much effort to unscrew my bicycle lock as it would to unscrew the bell, its soooooo annoying!!!
There was hardly anyone in speaking class today and we just had to read a dialogue which didnt take long so frankie and i were chatting to the two korean guys with gold teeth and one of them pointed at my tattoo and asked if it washes off so obv i said no. and then the other korean guy was telling us how only gangsters and prostitutes have tattoos in korea which i thought was quite funny. It was also quite amusing how they dont speak any english, but they know the words "gangster' and 'prostitute'.
This afternoon frankie and i went to find the emirates office and we booked our flights home for next July!!
The class meal
24th October
This morning and this afternoon was pretty boring - went to class and then did some work. But this evening frankie and i went out for our class meal! We met everyone outside the main entrance of campus and then a few of us went to the restaurant. I thought we would be going somewhere nice, but we ended up going to the restaurant in the other foreign student halls across the road. It was alright tho. Because there were about 30 of us we had a private room. On the way there I was talking to the american girl which was interesting, shes so good at chinese and she sometimes makes me feel stupid in class, but i found out that she has been living in china for 2 and a half years so im sure that if i had lived here for that long my chinese would be just as good, hopefuly.
One of the guys said that we should each order one thing off the menu but i think that got a bit confusing and so someone just ordered for everyone. The food was . . . . . interesting. There were the usual things like chicken feet, but there were also some strange things like jelly fish and something involving chicken blood which i decided not to try. We were sat on 2 different tables and unfortunately we had the sexist writing teacher on our table, great!! we counted 8 sexist remarks during the meal, but im sure there were more.
During the meal the guys insisted on having drinking competitions with the writing teacher and with each other which was quite funny, altho it wasnt so funny when we got the bill because we ended up paying for loads of beer that only a few people had drunk. Afterwards a couple of people went to karaoke but we decided not to go, I really dont think my classmates would like to hear me singing really badly out of tune. On the way back to halls we saw the little korean guy from our class who was sooooooo drunk, and when we saw him he was driving into town - safe!
This morning and this afternoon was pretty boring - went to class and then did some work. But this evening frankie and i went out for our class meal! We met everyone outside the main entrance of campus and then a few of us went to the restaurant. I thought we would be going somewhere nice, but we ended up going to the restaurant in the other foreign student halls across the road. It was alright tho. Because there were about 30 of us we had a private room. On the way there I was talking to the american girl which was interesting, shes so good at chinese and she sometimes makes me feel stupid in class, but i found out that she has been living in china for 2 and a half years so im sure that if i had lived here for that long my chinese would be just as good, hopefuly.
One of the guys said that we should each order one thing off the menu but i think that got a bit confusing and so someone just ordered for everyone. The food was . . . . . interesting. There were the usual things like chicken feet, but there were also some strange things like jelly fish and something involving chicken blood which i decided not to try. We were sat on 2 different tables and unfortunately we had the sexist writing teacher on our table, great!! we counted 8 sexist remarks during the meal, but im sure there were more.
During the meal the guys insisted on having drinking competitions with the writing teacher and with each other which was quite funny, altho it wasnt so funny when we got the bill because we ended up paying for loads of beer that only a few people had drunk. Afterwards a couple of people went to karaoke but we decided not to go, I really dont think my classmates would like to hear me singing really badly out of tune. On the way back to halls we saw the little korean guy from our class who was sooooooo drunk, and when we saw him he was driving into town - safe!
Tuesday, 23 October 2007
Teaching
23rd October (one week till my birthday)
Today listening class was so boring - about 1/3 of the class went to sit in the smoking room down the corridoor and a lot of people who stayed in the class went to sleep. After it finished we went to McDo for lunch which was really nice - its good to have a break from the chinese food!
This afternoon I met up with sunny and she helped me with some work, and i helped her with some english work. And she gave me a really nice birthday present - its a chinese stamp that has my english name and chinese name on it! and i got a little thing of ink as well so i have been stamping my name in my books cos im cool.
Later on this afternoon I had to go for my training session before my first class this evening. When I got there I talked to Ada and Tina (the other teachers - who are chinese) about what i would be doing, and then Tina spent about 10 minutes telling me what i should do in my class and then she left me to prepare for it. It was quite scary because I didnt really know what to do and i felt like i had been thrown in at the deep-end. But there was a chinese girl called nicole who was my assistant so she got all the props and things that I would need and she helped me a lot. Her job is to sit in my class and stop the children from shouting and being naughty.
So at half 6 my class started. the children are all 5 or 6 and they are really cute. I had to teach them four words - breakfast, lunch, dinner and desert. It was quite fun, and I made them play lots of games to keep their attention and stop them falling asleep cos its quite late for small children. But some of them were really naughty and they kept shouting all the time even after id told them not too, and even when nicole had shouted at them in chinese. But it was still lots of fun, but by the end some of them were falling asleep.
I really enjoyed my first class,even tho it was so tiring, and ive got a couple more training things before my next one so it shouldnt be so scary next time!
Today listening class was so boring - about 1/3 of the class went to sit in the smoking room down the corridoor and a lot of people who stayed in the class went to sleep. After it finished we went to McDo for lunch which was really nice - its good to have a break from the chinese food!
This afternoon I met up with sunny and she helped me with some work, and i helped her with some english work. And she gave me a really nice birthday present - its a chinese stamp that has my english name and chinese name on it! and i got a little thing of ink as well so i have been stamping my name in my books cos im cool.
Later on this afternoon I had to go for my training session before my first class this evening. When I got there I talked to Ada and Tina (the other teachers - who are chinese) about what i would be doing, and then Tina spent about 10 minutes telling me what i should do in my class and then she left me to prepare for it. It was quite scary because I didnt really know what to do and i felt like i had been thrown in at the deep-end. But there was a chinese girl called nicole who was my assistant so she got all the props and things that I would need and she helped me a lot. Her job is to sit in my class and stop the children from shouting and being naughty.
So at half 6 my class started. the children are all 5 or 6 and they are really cute. I had to teach them four words - breakfast, lunch, dinner and desert. It was quite fun, and I made them play lots of games to keep their attention and stop them falling asleep cos its quite late for small children. But some of them were really naughty and they kept shouting all the time even after id told them not too, and even when nicole had shouted at them in chinese. But it was still lots of fun, but by the end some of them were falling asleep.
I really enjoyed my first class,even tho it was so tiring, and ive got a couple more training things before my next one so it shouldnt be so scary next time!
Duck feet!
22nd October
This evening frankie, fran, sarah and I deciced to try somewhere different for tea. On the bus into town we always go past a mongolian restaurant called little sheep and it always looks really busy so we thought it must be quite nice.
We ordered a big hotpot and then we had to choose what we wanted to go in it. So we choose chicken and duck palm (which turned out to be duck feet - which is pretty obv if you think about it) and then we just got some bamboo shoots and potatos. It was all really nice apart from the duck feet. I decided to try one even though they look so unappetising. So i picked out one of the claws and tried to eat some. But all there is on it is skin and bone. I had a bit of skin but it didnt taste of anything and it wasnt very exciting. Loads of chinese people love eating chicken and duck feet but i dont really know why - its a bit gross and very overrated!
This evening frankie, fran, sarah and I deciced to try somewhere different for tea. On the bus into town we always go past a mongolian restaurant called little sheep and it always looks really busy so we thought it must be quite nice.
We ordered a big hotpot and then we had to choose what we wanted to go in it. So we choose chicken and duck palm (which turned out to be duck feet - which is pretty obv if you think about it) and then we just got some bamboo shoots and potatos. It was all really nice apart from the duck feet. I decided to try one even though they look so unappetising. So i picked out one of the claws and tried to eat some. But all there is on it is skin and bone. I had a bit of skin but it didnt taste of anything and it wasnt very exciting. Loads of chinese people love eating chicken and duck feet but i dont really know why - its a bit gross and very overrated!
the hairdressers!
21st October (9 days till my birthday)
Today we all met up for lunch in the canteen which was nice. Afterwards frankie and I went to meet vanessa and we went to the hairdressers!! It was . . . . . . .interesting. In china you dont need to make an appointment which is good, and the best thing of all .. . . . . its so cheap! It only cost £2! and you can get your hair chemically straightened for only £10 so im going to have to get that done sometime soon.
We went to sit down and they gave us some magazines to look at, but i couldnt find a picture that i liked so i said that i just wanted it the same style but a bit shorter. Then we had a dry-shampoo which was interesting, and while they were doing that we had a head massage which last quite a long time. It was nice and relaxing at first, but then the guy started doing wierd things like flicking my head which i didnt really enjoy so much. After they rinsed the shampoo we had to wait for about 10 minutes for a hairdresser so the guy who had given me a headmassage gave me a back massage which was quite nice, but a little bit painful.
Then my hairdresser came over - vanessa said that he looked very proffessional because he had a box full of products and stuff! Vanessa told him that i wanted it the same but just a bit shorter and i showed him how short i wanted it, BUT he kept cutting and cutting and it was getting soooooo short and it was getting a bit worried so i had to ask vanessa to tell him to stop cutting because I dont know how to say that in chinese. He did cut it really nicely, but its just really short.
Afterwards we went out for tea, and then when we got back to halls i got frankie to dye my hair blonde again :) altho it is quite yellow, but never mind.
Today we all met up for lunch in the canteen which was nice. Afterwards frankie and I went to meet vanessa and we went to the hairdressers!! It was . . . . . . .interesting. In china you dont need to make an appointment which is good, and the best thing of all .. . . . . its so cheap! It only cost £2! and you can get your hair chemically straightened for only £10 so im going to have to get that done sometime soon.
We went to sit down and they gave us some magazines to look at, but i couldnt find a picture that i liked so i said that i just wanted it the same style but a bit shorter. Then we had a dry-shampoo which was interesting, and while they were doing that we had a head massage which last quite a long time. It was nice and relaxing at first, but then the guy started doing wierd things like flicking my head which i didnt really enjoy so much. After they rinsed the shampoo we had to wait for about 10 minutes for a hairdresser so the guy who had given me a headmassage gave me a back massage which was quite nice, but a little bit painful.
Then my hairdresser came over - vanessa said that he looked very proffessional because he had a box full of products and stuff! Vanessa told him that i wanted it the same but just a bit shorter and i showed him how short i wanted it, BUT he kept cutting and cutting and it was getting soooooo short and it was getting a bit worried so i had to ask vanessa to tell him to stop cutting because I dont know how to say that in chinese. He did cut it really nicely, but its just really short.
Afterwards we went out for tea, and then when we got back to halls i got frankie to dye my hair blonde again :) altho it is quite yellow, but never mind.
Saturday, 20 October 2007
Windows Too
19th October
This morning after reading class I went for a walk to find the building where my interview was this afternoon so that I wouldnt get lost and be late. After I found it i decided to go for a little walk but i somehow got really really lost even though i was like two streets away from university. After about half an hour I ended up at the back entrance of campus - i have no idea how i managed to get there. After lunch I went to my interview. When i got there someone asked me to go and wait upstairs, and then a chinese woman called Ada came and met me. The first thing she said in the interview was that she had to appologise to me because she had lied, she didnt want me to teach her children, she wanted me to teach at her school. I dont know why she couldnt just tell the university this, it was a bit strange. And then she gave me some books and told me I had 15 minutes to prepare a lesson and then I had to teach it to her, it was quite scary but I think it went quite well.
After my interview i went to speaking class which was in the park next to uni because it was a nice sunny day. It was really fun. We spent about 20 minutes doing speaking stuff and then we just wandered around the park.
In the evening we all went out for a nice italian meal and then we went to find a bar that we had read about in the guide book. However when we got there the guy said that it opened at 4am!!!! luckily there were lots of other bars near there so we went into one called tequila sunrise. This was a mistake. There were lots of ugly western men surrounded by pretty chinese woman we were blatantly prostitues. There was a french guy there called frank who came to talk to us and we asked him if the woman were prostitues and he said that they werent and that they just got commission for every drink they sell - we didnt believe this.
So we quickly drank our drinks and then got a taxi to a place called windows too which was a really nice club, and the drinks were so cheap - so obviously I had far too much to drink. There were loads of western people there! We were dancing quite a lot and then we saw three korean guys from our class which was really funny. But then apparantly I said i had to go home so frankie and sarah came back with me. I dont really remember much else. I was in the toilets in our halls for quite a while and I wanted to sleep there and I said I would scream if anyone tried to move me, but after a lot of persuasion from frankie and sarah and decided that it would be best if i slept in my room and i managed to crawl into the lift and then crawl into my bed.
20th
horrendous hangover today!
I spent pretty much all day in bed and spoke to william for a bit which was nice.
In the evening I managed to get up and get dressed and frankie and I went to the uygur restuarant for tea which was really nice.
This morning after reading class I went for a walk to find the building where my interview was this afternoon so that I wouldnt get lost and be late. After I found it i decided to go for a little walk but i somehow got really really lost even though i was like two streets away from university. After about half an hour I ended up at the back entrance of campus - i have no idea how i managed to get there. After lunch I went to my interview. When i got there someone asked me to go and wait upstairs, and then a chinese woman called Ada came and met me. The first thing she said in the interview was that she had to appologise to me because she had lied, she didnt want me to teach her children, she wanted me to teach at her school. I dont know why she couldnt just tell the university this, it was a bit strange. And then she gave me some books and told me I had 15 minutes to prepare a lesson and then I had to teach it to her, it was quite scary but I think it went quite well.
After my interview i went to speaking class which was in the park next to uni because it was a nice sunny day. It was really fun. We spent about 20 minutes doing speaking stuff and then we just wandered around the park.
In the evening we all went out for a nice italian meal and then we went to find a bar that we had read about in the guide book. However when we got there the guy said that it opened at 4am!!!! luckily there were lots of other bars near there so we went into one called tequila sunrise. This was a mistake. There were lots of ugly western men surrounded by pretty chinese woman we were blatantly prostitues. There was a french guy there called frank who came to talk to us and we asked him if the woman were prostitues and he said that they werent and that they just got commission for every drink they sell - we didnt believe this.
So we quickly drank our drinks and then got a taxi to a place called windows too which was a really nice club, and the drinks were so cheap - so obviously I had far too much to drink. There were loads of western people there! We were dancing quite a lot and then we saw three korean guys from our class which was really funny. But then apparantly I said i had to go home so frankie and sarah came back with me. I dont really remember much else. I was in the toilets in our halls for quite a while and I wanted to sleep there and I said I would scream if anyone tried to move me, but after a lot of persuasion from frankie and sarah and decided that it would be best if i slept in my room and i managed to crawl into the lift and then crawl into my bed.
20th
horrendous hangover today!
I spent pretty much all day in bed and spoke to william for a bit which was nice.
In the evening I managed to get up and get dressed and frankie and I went to the uygur restuarant for tea which was really nice.
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