“I can’t speak Chinese, so I let the Chinese person do the talking.....”

I’ve had such a busy week! It was the last few days of the summery weather so I was determined to enjoy all of it. On Friday, I went to Han Jien – Han Street, with all the western shops. There was a H&M, Gap, Pull and Bear, Bershka etc but what shocked me was the prices of these brands. For Chinese people they seem expensive, but they were cheaper than the cost you would pay in England! I am definitely going to be returning soon to get some bargain clothes! The place itself was really beautiful (and quiet!) and there was music playing in the street.

Han Street

Madam Tussauds!

Chinese version of the locks in London and Paris

Another mad thing I noticed was the Christmas lights were already up?! My Chinese friend told me that they just leave them up all year round. Well that’s it, when I come back home I’m leaving my tree up all year. My Chinese friend Janet is an expert on places to eat around Wuhan and so for lunch we went to this posh restaurant, which you enter from a lift! At one end of the restaurant is a wall of tanks with fish and seafood in, so you can pick your own fish if you like. We had some incredible food and there was the added bonus of western toilets!

Decisions, decisions.....

Hong Kong pineapple bread

Prawn dumplings and meatballs

Chicken chow mein!

On Friday evening and Saturday night, I went to do my volunteering at Mr Mai’s coffee house. Friday evening was intense because I had four women who just wanted a sneaky picture of me to show their sons – no, I do not want to marry your child, thankyou. Saturday was very interesting as a Chinese man dared to argue with me over how I speak. He said that I spoke Standard English (the same as the Queen) which is (sadly) not true. That evening, Mr and Mrs Mai invited me for dinner and we went to an international restaurant nearby, called JJ’s. It was such a good feeling to have western menu choices ALL IN ENGLISH! I ordered falafel wraps with chips and garlic mayo and it was the highlight of my day.

Mr Mai's from the outside

Their famous apple pie!

Sunday involved me lying on my bed and watching a whole series of an MTV show so we will quickly move on from this! I taught my new class on Monday evening and it went so much better than I expected. I only have 9 lessons with them and so I can just make the classes really fun and not worry about a syllabus. We played games and did some icebreakers, so it actually softened the blow of my ridiculously late finish.

On Tuesday, all my excitement over the Wuhan climate quickly disappeared. The rain started and it has only just stopped (Friday morning). The rain here brought the temperature right down and reduced me to wearing my waterproof coat every time I stepped outside. I really hate rain so I definitely got a taxi to my teaching building in the afternoon. I don’t actually know the Chinese name for where I teach so I had to use the only three words I know for directions – ‘left’, ‘right’ and ‘straight’. The taxi driver thought I was a crazy but I arrived safe and most importantly, dry!

Embracing my British roots, I still went out on Tuesday evening to a night market near my apartment. It is technically a day market as well but the evening was nice and quiet. I ended up getting some real bargains, as the prices were ridiculously cheap here. Janet and I then went for a late dinner and had barbeque. This is food cooked on skewers and brought to you whenever it is ready. I also tried two local drinks tonight: my favourite milk tea (Nai cha) and a green bean drink with actually pieces of beans floating around at the bottom (bleurgh).

Boots - £6.50

Tartan scarf - £4.50

Furry slipper - £3

Egg fried rice!

Barbeque - potato and cucumber

Barbeque tofu and sweet bread (Mantou)

My Chinese friend Janet

Wednesday was pamper day! After my class finished at 9.30am (I do love my timetable), I took the subway to Janet’s neighbourhood and we went to a huge shopping mall. It had a Walmart in, which we are going to explore next month, but today we went to get our nails done! I had gel nails and toes which I’m so pleased with and they only cost me £17! I also had a cheeky McDonald’s breakfast – sausage and egg muffin, hash brown and a white coffee. It tasted sooooooo good.

Breakfast and main menu available at the same time!?

Sparkly blue gels on my toes

Pale pink gels on my nails

That afternoon I went home and had a nap before dinner with Dean and Brendan. We went to a restaurant in our neighbourhood, which had four tables and a TV. Out the front, was a woman with just one wok making all the food. In China you usually order a few meat and vegetable dishes and then some rice and the dishes will just come out at random. The food was amazing – we had smoked pork and pak choi, spicy cauliflower and tofu noodles with pork. As Halloween is very near, we then watched a scary movie called 1408, which was all well and good until I had to go back to my own apartment!

Yesterday, I had a very bizarre morning. My plan was to finish my morning class and then go food shopping but the lady at the university told me that her and some surveyors had to come to my apartment with me to do a electrical equipment survey. This meant that they drove me to the supermarket and I had to do a Chinese version of a supermarket sweep whilst they waited for me! The Chinese usually go food shopping everyday and so when I came out laden with bags, they were totally shocked! On a bonus note, I got to go up to the empty apartments upstairs and see if there was anything that I wanted from them – a mirror, canvas and plate for my microwave later I finally got my apartment to myself!

My recycled canvas

In the afternoon, Dean and I braced the rain and went on his moped to an Arabic supermarket. The place itself is in a little courtyard of quaint shops and there are also a few western restaurants. The Arabic supermarket was more like a corner shop but I got so much food. We also went to a fancy dress shop so Dean could get his outfit. I had the pleasure of seeing a fat Chinese woman determined to fit in a Snow White outfit.....it didn’t end well.

Fancy dress shop!

3kg of spaghetti, real butter and a litre of vodka - all the essentials....

Today is Friday and it is Halloween! I am so excited to wear my pumpkin outfit and see everyone for a catch up tonight. We are going to the bar, Wuhan Prison and then maybe the music venue, Vox. Hopefully it will be a good night.......

xxxxx

Being British really does have its perks.....

I have really settled into a routine now, with working and then at weekends, seeing the sights of the city. My lectures are going well apart from the small issue of everything about the multimedia e.g. computer, projector, sound all being in Chinese. Luckily, my student are majoring in software and they are being very helpful setting up my lessons for me!

Why do Chinese people sleep everywhere! I mean come on....its lesson time.

On a plus not, I have conquered a bit of the Chinese language barrier concerning food (of course!). I realised that I want to try all the street food, so everyday I have been learning how to say what food I would like and then going to practise my newly acquired skills! So far, it isn’t going too badly.

Pork baozi (bread dumplings with a filling), milk tea and a custard cake

Ro baozi (meat dumplings!)

I have taken on two other jobs this week. Firstly, I am teaching English to university students from the business department, although the lessons are 6.30pm-8.15pm at night, which is not ideal. However, when they suggested weekends or 9pm, I quickly realised that this is my best option. In addition, I was approached (I’m thinking stalked) by a lady who lives in my apartment building wanting English lessons for some young children in the area. Being British means you are in high demand and of course, I have my teacher qualification so she was practically jumping about in excitement. I met the parents last night and was expecting them to state what they would like their children to learn, for example the alphabet or phonics – typical 4-year-old skills. Oh no, these parents are extremely happy to basically let me play with the children for an hour. One parent’s response was ‘lots of singing and games’. So every Thursday I will be leaping about to ‘Hokey Cokey’ and pretending to imitate a frog and actually getting paid a lot of money for it....excellent.

The one area of living in China I am struggling with is cooking facilities, as I am limited to one pan at a time. I read online about a pasta recipe, whereby you put all the toppings in with raw pasta and water and it cooks to make a creamy tomato pasta and sauce. This is the best meal I’ve ever made! It was creamy and filling and the pasta cooked perfectly so just call me Delia.

Put dry pasta in a pan with onions, garlic, tomatoes, oil and water

Boil mixture just like you are cooking normal pasta until the sauce reduces

Enjoy!

Today is Thursday, Dean has the day off, and he normally goes food shopping on his moped. I decided to join him today after my lessons and we went to Metro. Metro is a German supermarket but I was told that it has a lot of imported food so I was extremely excited to find some essential ingredients and I wasn’t disappointed! I found HEINZ BAKED BEANS, tortilla wraps and even a Halloween outfit. (Yes I am going out in a age 7-9 years old pumpkin outfit).

Metro!

Rè gān miàn - hot dry noodles. Made with sesame oil and sesame sauce...delicious!

My metro purchases! (Mandatory red wine and pumpkin outfit)

The issue with our spontaneous shopping trip was the transport. The scooter decided to give up on us when we were barely halfway home, so we had to stop and find a place to charge it. The mopeds out here run off electricity and so you pay around 10p and that gives you a couple of hours of charging time. Whilst it was charging, we wandered down a few streets and found a tiny noodle bar to eat. I decided to try the local speciality of Wuhan - rè gān miàn –, which translates to hot, dry noodles. They were amazing! I can’t believe I have waited over a month to try this 40p bowl of deliciousness. We made it home safe, well ¾ of the way and I ended up having to walk a little bit. Overall it was a really good afternoon.

Tonight, I am going to relax as my apartment is all clean and my lessons for next week are all planned. Tomorrow I am going to explore Han Street with my Chinese friend Janet, which I’m very excited about. I really hope the Marks and Spencer’s sells Percy Pigs. Keep your fingers crossed for me......

xxxxxxx

You all speak English?!

I have had the best week since arriving in China, especially this weekend. I started my teaching to the freshers who were so much keener than I was when I went to uni. I have 8am lessons four days a week and so on my first morning I arrived at about 7.45am. There were at least 80% of the students already there waiting! I just hope this level of keenness continues. The lessons themselves are straightforward. I am teaching English listening (but I’ve deduced that this must also involve speaking) and so I teach the same lesson 8 times a week. Lesson planning time = 1 hour A WEEK!

Had a very proud moment this week learning how to catch the campus bus. I live a 40-minute walk from my teaching building, which isn’t too bad in nice weather. However, being a girl and therefore highly impractical, I have brought very little suitable footwear. Catching the bus home means only a 15-minute walk, which is much more appealing, especially if I have a split day and go home in-between classes. Another bonus...the bus costs 10p a journey.

The faculty where I work

Oh hey chalkboard

My teaching building with all the classrooms in

The campus bus!

With classes out of the way, it meant that I had a whole weekend off to enjoy. I haven’t had a weekend off work in about 7 years so by 11am on Saturday morning I was horrendously bored. I decided to go exploring and firstly ventured to a nearby hotel to see if it was any good for when my mum, dad and sister come to stay. It turned out to be lovely and the beds seem much comfier than mine! On the way back I decided to pop into a coffee shop called Mr Mai’s. I’d read about the place on the internet, and knew that the owners were American, so I was very excited to go and get a proper coffee.

It was the best decision I’ve made since coming to Wuhan. Within seconds of entering I was greeted by everyone in the café and had ordered a tea with milk (hurrah) and brownie with ice-cream!! The owners (Faith and David) introduced themselves and it was so refreshing to speak English and also have people so genuinely nice have a proper conversation with me. Anyway, I ended up talking to David and he explained that Chinese people come to the café for a language club where native English speakers volunteer to talk English with them and play games. Before I knew it, I had volunteered myself and was talking to a group of Chinese people! I am going to volunteer here on Friday evenings and occasional Saturdays so I’m really looking forward to it.

Craig, who is in charge of the volunteers invited me for dinner with his wife, two adopted Chinese daughters and his niece, who is visiting from America. We ate some amazing food and I even got homemade banana bread for dessert. I went to the coffee shop at 2pm that day and didn’t leave until 9pm!

Yesterday (Sunday) I decided to tackle the subway. The Wuhan metro was surprisingly easy to use, mainly because of everything also being in English. I bought a city card, which I can use on buses and the subway around Wuhan so that I’m not worrying about change and got off at Baotong temple to visit the Buddhist monument. It was incredible. There were many different buildings for people to go and pray in, although I had to lots of walking up steps! There was a huge queue for some free food offered by the monks and people were queuing up with bowls and tubs that they had brought with them! It was a beautiful day so I got some amazing pictures. I spent a couple of hours there and then went home to have a lazy film afternoon...perfect.

Today = back to teaching but I do get Monday mornings off!

One of the Buddhas

Baotong Temple

So so beautiful

You buy a ribbon and tie it somewhere in the temple to bring you good luck

I just want ketchup....

It has been two weeks since I arrived in China and so far I have managed to go to supermarkets with native Chinese people, therefore giving me a translator. Today, however, after realising that I cannot survive on two slices of bread, I had to go it alone.

Supermarkets are both bizarre and brilliant in China, and no part of supermarket etiquette that I have learnt in England is applicable here. Firstly, you cannot take big bags into a supermarket, for example, if you have bought something previously. Instead, you are presented with a gym-esque wall of lockers in the entrance that you must put them in until you leave. Next is the trolley issue. They don’t do trolleys in China, you either have a basket or you place said basket into a trolley skeleton to create a makeshift trolley. It felt like my trolley had dementia and was being aided by a walking frame.

There is a HUGE dairy section in the supermarkets with 99.9% of the products being yoghurt. Weird, wonderful flavours and bottles and tubs of yoghurt. The best thing about this aisle though is the way that the Chinese get rid of items near their sell-by date. In England, it would be reduced. In China, they stick the pack of yoghurts nearing their sell-by date onto an in-date pack and tape this into a huge bundle with a ‘free item’ such as a bowl or mug. Moral of this story....avoid the free gifts. The remaining 1% is a choice of two milks, two cheeses and two butters. Oh and did I mention that a pack of butter will set you back £4. Yes, £4! I am currently rationing my butter like I’m in the 1940’s.

I have honestly never seen a bigger dried foods section than in China. You name it, they dry it. From fish to fruit, it’s seen as a ‘quick lunch’ if it’s dried. Moving on to the issue of sauces. You cannot get a decent sauce anywhere without it containing some form of vinegar or soy sauce. This is all well and good until I just want something to go with my eggs on toast. Tomato sauces... forget it. Creamy sauces....in your dreams. However, I managed to find ketchup!!! It was an emotional moment realising that there was at least on edible item in the supermarket.

Other random things I found in the supermarket included a whole section for cooking oil. Not just your average litre bottle of oil but huge tubs of oil which were placed nicely next to sacks of rice! Also, most supermarkets have two floors, and my local one has ALL the food downstairs except the coffee, tea, honey and porridge. That apparently fits in well with the clothing and homeware on the second floor.

Cleaning products are my favourite items in China because they have pictures of what they are supposed to clean on them! Ellis 1: China 0. There are also known brands such as Dettol and Mr Muscle which is excellent. On the other hand, you cannot get antibacterial spray anywhere, yet there are shelves and shelves of collar cleaner for shirts?

This first supermarket shop took my over an hour and I ended up buying the grand total of 7 items! As for vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, rice, flour, eggs and herbs, there is a local market extremely close to my apartment and you can buy all of these very cheaply. For approximately £5 I bought a week’s worth of meat, veg, rice, flour and eggs which is excellent for my bank balance. Overall, shopping in China is an exhausting chore but it’s also brilliant fun. You get to haggle for your eggs and choose your own fish. However, what I wouldn’t kill for a bacon sandwich right now.......

xxxxx

So I did it! I made it all the way to Wuhan in China despite the nightmare of having my flights cancelled the day before. The first thing that hit me was the heat. I don’t know why I thought this but I assumed that it would be autumnal and fresh. Oh how wrong I was. Cue extreme sweating in my layers of clothing. I’m so thankful I brought shorts and flip flops with me.

My first day was pretty hectic and involved looking around at Wuhan University, which is where I will be lecturing the ‘freshman’ (first years to us English folk) and I will apparently be teaching English listening. Do I just talk and they listen?

I arrived at my apartment which was big and airy: usual bathroom, kitchen, living / dining area, two bedrooms and a balcony WITH MY WASHING MACHINE OUTSIDE! That will be an interesting experience considering that all the buttons are in Chinese. Oh, maybe I didn’t mention this before but I can speak very little Chinese. By little, I mean I can say ‘hello’ and thankyou’. Main mission of my year abroad: learn the language.

The first night’s sleep was pretty rubbish mainly because of the rock hard bed. Apparently, Chinese people think that a hard mattress is good for their health. I’m sure I will get used to it. Maybe. The main issue I realised this morning is that ALL of my appliances in the flat are in Chinese e.g. air con remotes, hotplate for cooking and washing machine as mentioned before. This has led me to translating each button using the internet and writing it all down in English!

So I best go and finish my unpacking and cleaning to get my apartment looking like home.

Until next time......

xxx

Kitchen

Scary looking appliances

Living/ dining room

Bathroom - Chinese style!

Spare room

My bedroom

Living / dining room

Made my spare room into a dressing room!

My 'planning area'

My bedroom