It’s finally summer!

On Sunday I went to tutor my new group of children (the last new thing I’m taking I promise!) and was supposed to use a room where I tutor on Thursday. However, the owner of the apartment was out and had left me a key, and surprisingly, I had no idea how to work Chinese electrical items. Therefore, with no idea how to even turn on the computer, we ended up in my apartment – all four children and 6 adults...it’s a good job that there’s plenty of space! The kids themselves were extremely cute, a shy boy called Ben, two twins called Stella and Caroline and a girl called Peggy, who looked like she was in a nightclub whilst dancing to Old McDonald Had a Farm!

Monday was a total waste of a day and in-between teaching and tutoring I needed to do lots of jobs, but chose to nap instead. Excellent. Tuesday was a much more exciting day, with Brooke and I deciding to visit Zhongshan Park. We met for lunch and I had this lovely beef stir fry and rice, before heading over to the park on the subway. The weather must have been at least 22 degrees but I had so many people staring at my apparent lack of clothes, whilst they swanned around in wool coats and boots. I kid you not.

Zhongshan Park

Oh I'll just take a quick selfie!

Pretty bridge

Wish I could tell you what this monument was for but the information was in Chinese...

The park itself is huge, with lakes and even theme park rides and lots of people were there, including, it seemed, half of the patients from the nearby hospital. I have never seen anything like it with people being wheeled around in wheelchairs and attached to drips, and wearing hospital gowns! After our walk, we got an ice cream and sat down to eat it and during this 10 minute period, had numerous people stop and stare and take photos of us. One guy came past and just said ‘please’. That’s fine, but you need a few more words for us to understand you. Once a group of students tried to set up a tripod for filming on the same rock as me, we swiftly moved on, much to their disappointment.

Yummy mango ice cream

We found some cherry blossom at the park, and decided to take a few pictures. We were there for ages, snapping away, until a police officer came over and started escorting everyone away from the trees. However, there really is a total lack of law abiding in China and two women were determined to keep taking pictures, even with the police officer near enough shouting at them. Hopefully, they moved on soon. We then headed to Jianghan Road and had a walk in the sunshine along the shopping street. We went to our favourite cheap shops, Domesky and Miniso and I got a very cute wall decoration before heading back to my area. We finished our day trip with a coffee at Mr Mai’s before I headed home to relax for the rest of the evening.

Cherry blossom

Disgusted by the bees in the the tree

Being escorted away from the blossom...

On Wednesday, I taught my one lesson (working day finishing at 9.35am) and was supposed to be giving them their projects to work on. However, I got far too distracted and ended up discussing rice dishes that are easy to make and the history of Berlin. Oh my life. Anyway, after my ‘productive’ teaching session, I headed to Mann coffee to meet Brooke. During our time here, a woman was obviously doing a fashion shoot and kept posing in different chairs around the coffee shop. Even better was that when the photographer was taking a break, she then proceeded to take selfies of herself! It was pure entertainment for over two hours.

Photoshoot!

 After Marie and Carley finished their class, we met up with them for lunch before heading onto my campus to see the cherry blossom. Normally, you have to pay 20 yuan to see it but as we were heading into the campus, I told the woman that we were all teachers here and she seemed very happy with this story and we kept on walking. What an excellent start. We wanted to be complete tourists that day so bought flower garlands, that made me feel about 7 years old, before heading up this steep flight of steps to look down on the blossom.

Wuhan University 

Just bought flower headbands

Cherry blossom!

Had many concerned people watching me do this pose!

 Considering people from China travel hundreds of miles to see this blossom, I think that they were wasting their time as they seemed to take more pictures of us than the actual blossom. The amount of people asking me for photos was ridiculous, and every time a sneaky picture was taken, we shouted out that they had to pay 10 yuan – they soon scuttled off. Another tactic I used was to take a picture of them, every time they took one of me. I honestly felt like a celebrity that day and after two hours, we could no longer face another phone or selfie stick being pushed near our face!

Unhappiest looking bench ever!

Taking pictures of the Chinese back!

I think this was his 9th photo...

However, the blossom itself was stunning, and the sunny weather made it even more enjoyable. We met Paul and then stopped to get our Chinese names written by this guy. My Chinese name is ‘Allisi’ and he decorated my painting with pandas so I was overjoyed. After admiring the trees, everyone headed home whilst Brooke came back to mine to relax for a while. We sat relaxing, still in our flower headbands because obviously, and I did some planning.

My painting being started

'Allisi' 

Look at my painting!

 Thursday was a very relaxing day, starting off with a huge lie-in. I got all my planning finished ready for Adele coming and caught up on my TV from the week. In the evening, I tutored my crazy children and got given a mango (of all things) by one of them. That was Friday breakfast sorted. On Friday I finally got my afternoon nap that I’d been craving for weeks and just relaxed until I needed to get ready to go out. By needed, I mean that Brooke and Marie were on their way and I was still in my pyjamas.

We had pre-drinks at mine before heading to Prison and Vox. It was one of the most random nights out I’ve ever had. We only spent around 40 minutes collectively in both of the bars and spent the rest of the night sat at a table eating food and talking to random Chinese people. Even the food sellers were getting involved with pictures and talking to us! I partook in a card game of some sort and lost immediately so my new Chinese friend wasn’t best pleased. Eventually, Brooke and I headed back to my apartment and fell straight asleep.

Midnight snack

With our new friends

Pre-drinks!

Olivi, me, Marie and Brooke

Wow

With my food guy (he even took his apron off for this picture)

 In the morning, for some annoying reason, we were both wide awake at 8.30am! Not cool. We dragged our sorry selves to my sofa to watch a bit of TV before feeling well enough to get ready. We were meeting my Chinese friend, Echo for lunch at a restaurant that took us nearly an hour to walk to because we were walking so slowly from tiredness. Anyway, we went to Grandma’s kitchen, an American restaurant selling amazing food, perfect to cure a hangover. I got a burger and oreo milkshake and we chatted about the weird habits of the Chinese...they were literally watching us eat.

Echo with her club sandwich

Oh yes...

Me and Brooke in Grandma's kitchen

 After our lunch and laughing at how hilarious we are because we were eating (astonishing I know), Echo headed to work, whilst Brooke and I went to H&M on the subway. I do mention H&M a lot, but it’s literally the only shop that sells western size clothes in China. By 3pm, I was home having battled my way through Saturday traffic and just lay on the sofa in a relapsing state.

Today, I have a super busy day, tutoring two groups of children and going to teach my adults about western culture at the university later on. Today’s topic is health – American private healthcare I’m coming for ya! And then it’s one more sleep until Adele arrives! I am so so so excited (yes, really) and so I’ll write one long blog once she leaves. So you can all look forward to our tales of laowi life and our trip to Beijing at the weekend.

Freebies for everyone...

My first class with the Wuhan professors and lecturers went much better than I expected. I got a lift with one of my students, who is also the mother of one of the children I currently tutor so I near enough teach the whole neighbourhood now! We arrived to a part of campus that I’d never seen before and I walked into a room of around 50 adults – don’t know where the supposed number of 100 came from. Anyway, I went to load up my PPT off my memory stick and it wasn’t there! Who knows where it had gone but I had to improvise and ended up using a chalkboard for 1 hour 40 minutes and no-one even questioned it.

The time flew by and it was enjoyable because they were so willing to learn and kept asking lots of questions, including about the city of Leeds (I’ve never been!), traffic laws in America (what even...) and how to approach other ethnicities. At the end of the lesson I asked them what else they’d like to learn, and got the usual responses of daily life, health, schools etc but I also got a request to learn about ‘England’s relationship with France and Germany’! Time to get the history books out....

Mondays are by far my most tiring day with lecturing AND tutoring. Halfway through my tutoring, and just as the kids were calmly drawing, there was a power cut. The kids went berserk and I have never experienced so much screaming in such a small time frame. With the power out, I spent the remaining half of the lesson prancing about with a torch trying to keep the kids in an orderly fashion for ‘Simon says’ but they were having none of it and instead kept trying to fight me for the torch. Hint: I’m a lot taller than you so I’m always going to win.

On Tuesday, I celebrated having the day off by travelling to Hanyang, where Brooke lives. After spending the morning sat at my desk desperately thinking of lesson plan topics to teach my 4 year olds, I welcomed some down time. We ate lunch and then wandered around H&M (all I seem to do is shop at the moment!). There was a brilliant sale so I got a bargain outfit for Hong Kong – as it will be HOT (average temperature of 27 degrees) -  and then we went to Walmart, which is always a treat. I found M&M’S that didn’t cost a small fortune and then we went back to Brooke’s apartment to watch a movie. Well, Brooke watched the movie and I napped. I spent the evening battling my way home in the pouring rain, and hating on the fact that Chinese people have little or no umbrella etiquette...so many umbrellas dripped onto me and dangled precariously near my face.

New outfit for Hong Kong!

Brooke's apartment

On Wednesday, my motivation levels were in the minus region. My students got an extra long break so I could have a five minute nap and got to leave early as I practically ran to Mann Coffee for a caffeine fix. I was there so early that they weren’t even officially open, but I pretended to be a confused laowi and they let me sit there quietly. Brooke arrived later on, and we ordered waffles whilst I helped her do some lesson planning, because all the teacher skills in the world over here. In return, she’s going to help me with American culture for my lessons with the adults. To say we’re apparently quite similar countries is a total lie – even their average speed limits are different! We sat and tried to wait out the rain for as long as possible, but in China the same weather continues for at least three days so we trekked in the pouring rain to Huashi cultural street. We went in a few shops and then found a shop with the most incredible one-off things. Everything was unorganised but we were both in heaven and the shop owner was loving us. In fact, when we paid for our items, she gave us about three things for free. Oh Yen (that was her name, yes we’re on first name terms already).

Inside Mann Coffee

Our new favourite shop - complete with a Perfume shop bag, of course

My goodies - all for less than a fiver

We then had to near enough run to the ramen restaurant because we were late meeting Carley, Marie and Paul (blaming it on the notebooks) and I ordered a pork chop ramen. I’d never been to this restaurant but the food itself was really good and the sauce on the meat was amazing. We then ended on the subway to Metro to show Carley, Marie and Paul around because they had never been. We browsed every aisle and between us ended up buying a suitcase, copious bottles of wine and a raincoat. How?! I was actually sensible for once and stuck to my shopping list, I’m definitely maturing. After a successful shop, we jumped in a taxi home and I headed back to my apartment to dry off.

Pork ramen 

Outside metro in the rain

Far too excited by the store

My metro buys - I was very refined

On Thursday, I woke up early and set about trying to make the most of not teaching until the evening. I went to the printing shop to get a few things printed for my lectures (grand total of 35p), cleaned my apartment but got bored halfway through so I still need to sweep a few rooms, and did some washing. I also received a text from a parent about starting a new tutoring group, so on Sunday I start with my third group of kids. I don’t think there are any children left in my neighbourhood that I don’t teach! They are 4 years old, the same age as one of my other groups so I tweaked a previous lesson in preparation and then went to tutor in the evening.

Friday was pretty mundane and chilly so after teaching I came home to get all my jobs done before the weekend could begin. The famous cherry blossom has started to bloom on my campus and it is a hugely popular attraction. In fact, I think the whole of China has come to view it. All around the university at the campus entrances are stalls to buy tickets. On my walk home, one of the guys from the stall ran in front of a moving car and nearly got run over in order to try and make me buy a ticket. I had to explain I worked here and off he ran again. I think this is going to happen a lot over the next few weeks – first world foreigner problems. I attempted a nap in the afternoon but low and behold, everyone in the world kept calling me, so I eventually gave up on the napping idea. I spent the evening catching up on television and had an early night because I knew Saturday would be busy.

On Saturday, I woke up early and walked down to the subway station. On my way out of my apartment main gate, there was a group of Chinese tourists ‘oohing’ and ‘aahing’, presumably before going to see the cherry blossom. Why they were in my area, I don’t know, as I live at the point on campus that’s furthest away from the trees and I’m still not sure what they were excited to look at. I had a quick look myself and nope, still the same concrete apartments and bazillion cars.

Anyway, I met Brooke and Marie and then we headed to Zhongjiacun to see Guiyuan temple. This temple is the most famous Buddhist temple in Wuhan and there were lots of souvenir shops nearby. After paying just £1 entry, we got some free incense and went to light those. Being the stupid laowis we are, we stood on the wrong side and ended up getting mouthfuls of smoke whilst lighting our incense. Eventually, they lit and we walked around the temple. There were pools filled with koi carp and turtles (extremely cute, especially the one trying to scale the 10 foot wall) and lots of buildings to pray in. We also saw this procession of monks, which people from the crowd seemed to be following, but we weren’t quite sure why. Shame it wasn’t a lunch queue otherwise I would have also joined!

Signs in English - first time for everything

Guiyuan temple

Lighting the incense

Marie forgot her sunglasses...

Me, Brooke and Marie

Having a xiuxi (rest)

One of the buddhas

Have no idea what we're posing for...

Monk procession followed by Chinese tourists

Prayer statue

An older temple

Inside the old temple

After a couple of hours at the temple, we were all cultured out, so we headed to the mall to find some lunch before going back to Brooke’s apartment. Marie and I quickly nipped to Walmart because its highly exciting. I went in to browse and came out with shoes and a snickers (for Brooke not me, obv) and then we went to relax in her apartment whilst she went to teach a class. By teach, I mean play hangman and text us so a winner all round. Marie and I had a longgg xiuxi (I prefer to spell it shoshi), which means a rest. FYI it’s my current favourite Chinese word. I think I also napped for about 20 minutes but it’s hard to tell whether the incessant drilling from outside was what I heard, or whether it just continued into my dream.

After Brooke came back, we headed out to catch a taxi to French Street in Hanyang. Here, there’s an American restaurant called Aloha diner and we’d heard good things about it. The French Street area was beautiful and didn’t feel like it was situated in a big city. There was a huge lake at the end of it and a big pirate ship style boat and it was such a sunny day, that we appreciated it even more. We went into the restaurant not even hungry and left stuffed. My skirt actually dug into me on the way home because I was so full. The food itself was delicious (pulled pork burger come to me) and it was particularly enjoyable seeing three Chinese people baffled by a ‘caesar salad’. Marie and I caught the bus home to Guangbutun, because it seemed easier than the metro, and after the bumpiest 45 minutes of my life, we arrived. I walked home, battling against the tourists and flopped into bed.

French Street

Beautiful lake at the end

Outside a French restaurant

Posing by the lake

Oreo milkshake - it was so thick I had to use a spoon!

My pulled pork burger - it was incredible

SO.MUCH.FOOD

Today is Sunday and the weather is beautiful again. I think I’ve just about forgiven Wuhan for the 4 days of torrential rain in the week. I’ve got my balcony doors open and after having a busy morning, I’m relaxing before I have to teach my new tutoring group. I really hope that these children are slightly less hyperactive than my others, but who knows in China, as their parents normally top them up with sugar before handing them over to me. This evening, I am setting myself up for a Skype marathon as I fell asleep early last night and I’m looking forward to seeing lots of faces from home.

xxxxx