Merry Christmas from China!

On Sunday afternoon, I met Charlotte at a café called ‘Caffe in Bus’, where the whole counter and coffee making area looks like a VW camper van! It was so nice to talk to someone from your own country who knows about everything you do, such as TV programmes and food. We decided to get some food after our coffee and she took me to a ramen noodle restaurant. The food was incredible! I had a Korean beef hotpot where the meat and vegetables come mostly cooked in a boiling hot bowl and then when you add the broth, it cooks the food completely. I spent the remainder of the evening at Dean’s watching Horrible Bosses 2, which although not as good as the first, was extremely funny.

Caffe in Bus!

My Korean hotpot

Fried dumplings

On Monday, I had my last class at the faculty of International Business, and this meant testing all the students. I had a class list of 20 students and at least 3 people turned up who I’d never seen before. I was very unimpressed by this and so failed them on their lack of attendance. Don’t mess with teacher Ellis. Listening to all those students in their speaking exam must have tired me out because on Tuesday I felt exhausted all day. It was so bad that I was having to hold my eyes open during the class. I thought a Christmas coffee from Starbucks would help with this and so I took my last class on a field trip. 32 students and I traipsed to Starbucks and in the educational visit; they had to order in English. Field trip over and with all the students safely back in the classroom without the university noticing we had even gone out, I put on Elf to get into the festive spirit. I am definitely their favourite teacher now!

I had my tutoring lesson earlier this week due to Christmas Day falling on Thursday, and decided to throw a Xmas party for the children. I think I had more fun than the children did! We played games, such as apple bobbing, egg and spoon races, musical chairs; sang Christmas songs and even had some food for them to eat. Children in China don’t really have birthday parties so they were so excited and it made me feel like a kid again. I even made them little party bags to take home.

Wednesday was Christmas Eve! After teaching my one class I came home to start the festive celebrations. I made mulled wine but my first attempt was a complete disaster. The recipe said to add sugar and so I was happily adding sugar and tasting it as I went along. The issue was that the wine tasted really salty and at first, I blamed it on the allspice being off (Chinese and their lack of dates on food). However, after at least 10 spoons of ‘sugar’, I realised that I had been putting salt in! Bye bye whole pan of mulled wine. The second lot tasted amazing and made my apartment smell like Christmas. I also put all my presents ‘under the tree’ whilst listening to Christmas carols, a tradition from my mum. 

Look at all my presents from home....

Santa had a Chinese and English mixture this year - English mulled wine and tree chocolate and Chinese cashew nuts and chocolate bar.

That evening, after giving Brendan and Dean some mulled wine, a group of other teachers and I went to Ximen restaurant. We had loads of great food, and Olivi did a speech, before heading to Prison bar to see in Christmas Day. At midnight, I was stood in a circle, with all my friends, singing along to ‘Fairytale of New York’. What a perfect way to begin Christmas.

Table number 1

Second table - much easier to get the food!

A whole fish - it tasted like the water it came from bleurgh

Olivi's speech

                                             

Brendan and I

Chinese Santa!

Who wear sunglasses out on Christmas Eve?!

The gang

 When I got home, mum and dad insisted that I open one present and send me a picture. As it was the middle of the night, I wasn't impressed by this!

Yes, great, lovely. Can I go back to sleep now?

 When I woke up Christmas had arrived!  I woke up really early and managed to Skype my mum when it was still Christmas Eve in England. I opened a few presents with her there and then managed to catch my sister as she got in from work. After this call, it was only about 8.30am so I went back to sleep for a while. I finally woke up and had a shower and got changed into some new clothes, and had my breakfast of stollen and pannetone. Then, I slowly unwrapped the rest of my presents before heading over to Dean’s. There, Dean, Brendan and I tucked into turkey subway sandwiches for lunch and spent the day watching Christmas films and TV specials. I also Skyped home again to see everyone and find out what they had got for Christmas! 

All my presents :)

New Christmas outfit!

My Christmas lunch - sponsored by subway

Very excited by all the food

Lunch and dinner rolled into one

Dessert - Bailey's tea and chocolate orange truffles

I also got to see what Oleg (the reincarnation of me) had been up to and he had a very busy day!

Bucks Fizz!

Yummy breakfast of pannetone

Opening some presents

Showing off my new outfit

In my pyjamas and watching some TV with Jojo

I love Boxing Day because it’s still socially acceptable to have chocolate for breakfast and put yourself into another food coma. So after teaching one class, this is exactly what I did! I put most of my presents away and then watched some Christmas films with lots of chocolate. In the evening, I finally made myself a Christmas dinner (a fantastic achievement considering that I’m in China) and then spent the evening pampering myself.

Today is Saturday and I really struggled to get out of bed and so found myself practically running to Mr Mai’s to do my volunteering. I love doing the kids club because I got to sit and colour whilst watching The Grinch! After this, Jim, an American volunteer and I decided to go and eat at Burger King. As I only know the word for ‘big’ and haven’t yet acquired ‘small, I ended up with a large meal. I also apparently said yes at the wrong time and found that I had agreed to having a side order of onion rings. Food coma day 3: complete. New Year’s resolution numbers 1 and 2: learn the word for ‘small’ in Chinese and be more persistent in your use of the word ‘no’. 

Tomorrow, I am going for a meal with Odille and her friends in one of my favourite areas of Wuhan - Jiedaokou and then in the evening, I'm going to a sauna / spa place with my friend, Janet. I have been told to wear normal clothes and that I don't need a bikini. I really hope she's joking because my knowledge of saunas is that they are extremely hot, so I'm taking it in case! Wish me luck.....


xxx

P.s. This week's blog is dedicated to my lovely mum, dad and sister <3 Love and miss you so much xxx