It’s my golden birthday!

On Saturday, I ventured out into the extreme humidity that is Chinese summer and had some dumplings for lunch, before walking to Starbucks, where I met Brooke and Marie. They were a bit later arriving than me and I found us a table. What I didn’t realise in China, is that reserving two empty chairs is a complete mission, and you have to be on a constant look out for a nippy Chinese person looking to either pinch one or sit down at one. I’d say at least half of the people on the outdoor terrace weren’t even customers of Starbucks, and just wanted a quick rest / sleep before heading elsewhere. This definitely wouldn’t happen in England!

We spent a couple of hours chatting and people watching, and saw a young boy walk out proudly with an ice-cream cone only to bump into a chair and lose the entire ice-cream section. I think he really enjoyed eating just a cone! I also enjoyed the amount of slogan t-shirts that were sported by people walking by, my particular favourites being ‘Don’t cry and get upset, say F you and smile’ and also a couple with the boy wearing ‘Basketball is my girlfriend’ and girl, ‘Basketball is my boyfriend’. Wow.

Celebrating Norway day 

Our dinner that evening was at an Indian restaurant named ‘Cacaja’ and it was incredible. Marie, Brooke and I were far too excited and ordered most of the menu. I then ate myself into a food coma with korma, chicken tikka masala, garlic naan, rice, pakoras and other delicious things. Of course, after every Indian meal, you should always try and use a squat toilet. It didn’t go well for me and after first accidentally entering the men’s, I then proceeded to wee all over my open-toe sandals. They were disinfected within an inch of their lives as soon as I got home (although I don’t know why I bother as I probably step in street urine on a daily basis).

Waiting for our food

The best meal ever

Inside Cacaja restaurant

On Sunday, my plan was to have a relatively decent lie-in before teaching in the afternoon and evening. Oh no, cue 7.30am drilling from the apartment directly below me. And when I say drilling, I mean the sort that is so loud I couldn’t hear my tutoring kids ring the doorbell, and my bed was actually vibrating. Luckily, the parents helped me complain about these 10 hours of hell (plus the same on Thursday and Friday) and hopefully, they’ll schedule their drilling for slightly later in the day.

I was near enough dead by the time 4pm rolled around and my teaching started, but I managed to coerce myself into an excited state to perform all the essentials e.g. ‘Heads, Shoulders Knees and Toes’ and ‘Hokey Cokey’. The children and I were practically napping by the time the class ended and their parents ended up carrying them down the stairs. My bad. Onto the adults teaching and 2 hours of listening to Chinese people speak English sounds really easy, but I’m so used to Chinglish now, that I forget what is grammatically correct and what isn’t. I particularly enjoyed one man using ‘conservation’ instead of ‘conversation’ for the entire evening, despite my attempts to correct him. Therefore, he was protecting anything and everything!

Monday mornings are so difficult to wake up for, but I had a cunning plan. The plan involved 1 hour and 30 magical minutes of Shrek the movie. Perfect timing, the students absolutely loved it (although they laughed at all the wrong times, which in turn made me laugh) and I got all my grading finished. Hoorah for productive lessons. I came home and enjoyed the golden silence of no drilling during the lunch break, but as soon as it started up again (how many tiles are there in a bathroom, I mean seriously?!) I headed over to Dean’s empty apartment and chilled whilst he was at work.

It was unusually quiet and I managed a whole movie without somebody using an electrical appliance of some sort in the neighbouring apartments. Let me give an example of my usual noise level – I have drilling downstairs, a karaoke machine above me, music to the left and music combined with constant chopping to my right. I can safely report that the man on karaoke is horrendous and the chopping hasn’t yet produced a meal, that I have been given to eat. Therefore, these sounds need to stop immediately.

Tuesday was supposed to be a day full of culture with Brooke, but it turned into a scenic ride along line 2 on the subway instead. We met at Hongshan and immediately found a Starbucks and so naturally, that was our first stop of the day. The plan was then to go and explore round that area but on emerging from the subway, we found a park and lots of buildings with not much else to see. The park itself was quite nice (although the water feature had no water so total disappointment). It did however, have the shiniest water fountains I have ever seen, because when leaving the subway you must get a drink. After our ten-minute park tour we headed to Fanhu.

Hongshan Square

The depressing buildings

At least the water fountains were shiny...

I had read online that the Wuhan museum was supposedly nearby but it was a disaster. We emerged to a completely undeveloped area with lots of workmen sitting under trees and in their vans having lunch. Not exactly an ideal location for a museum. It was ridiculously humid and we couldn’t find this museum (probably been demolished for apartments, knowing China) and decided to head back the other way and hopefully back to civilisation. Our next stop of choice was Baotong Temple but I definitely wasn’t climbing a temple in the heat. Instead, we browsed shops, ate a McDonald’s and then went our separate ways. I spent the evening relaxing in my lovely cool apartment. What an uncultured day we had!

Very unimpressed by Fanhu

 On Wednesday, I happily dragged myself to class, knowing that Shrek the movie would be enough entertainment and I could do my work. I then had to try and get a reference number for my flight home (easier said than done as they don’t exist in China). Janet initially thought that the number was my passport number .....it includes letters!? Anyway, I think I have one and so trotted off to Rosa coffee at Zhongnan Road, and waited for Brooke and Paul to join me. We were supposed to meet Marie and then go explore Hankou but this didn’t happen so instead we ended up having lunch nearby before finding the draw of an air-conditioned mall far too exciting.

What are we doing?!

On one of the floors was a North Face shop, and next to it was an area set up to be like a campsite, with a tent, table, chairs and even a disposable BBQ. We decided to play camping for a good 20 minutes (this included playing in the tent and using the blankets), whilst a crowd of Chinese shop assistants gathered. Eventually, somebody who spoke English was called to tell us that we couldn’t be here, at which point, Brooke proceeded to ask how much the chairs were. The woman actually ran off to check and we scarpered quickly!

Getting the blanket out

Relaxing in my tent

Anyone for a drink?

After all this excitement, we all travelled home and then I went to drink cocktails for the entire afternoon with Dean. By 8pm I was pretty tipsy and ended up going for dinner (where a child was walking precariously close to our table with two badminton rackets the entire time) and then onto Radio Rock for a few more drinks. I can’t handle my alcohol anymore as I was home in bed by 11.30pm. I’m so rock and roll.

Before things went downhill

The next day wasn’t exactly productive as I slept until midday before finally, summoning the energy to do something with my day. I did however, salvage the remainder of my day by cleaning and batch cooking my final set of foods before coming home. It’s like a food countdown – once the freezer is empty I can leave! I also got my dates wrong and thought I had tutoring, when in fact I didn’t so it was another excuse for me to get back into bed and relax.

After finishing my classes on Friday, I met Dean and he bought me a Burger King as an early birthday treat. We also got some delicious mango smoothies, which came with no lid, so I had to balance myself on the back on the moped with a smoothie in each hand for the ride back! It was a risky time for all involved. We ate our amazing food and watched a film before I headed home to nap before my birthday night out commenced. I turned up at Dean’s house later on and soon after, everyone else started arriving for pre-drinks. We played this game where you stick a card to your head and have to ask questions about (probably has a proper name but I don’t know it). I also had this vile drink, that sadly I’d made myself, so I definitely wasn’t having that and we headed out to Radio Rock instead.

Before we headed inside the bar, Will and Olivi wanted to get a very late dinner so I joined them and had some rice. Olivi was so drunk that he could barely use his chopsticks, so I pretty much had to feed him peppers and aubergines! It was very funny. We got to the bar and everyone was there. Literally, the whole population in Wuhan that I know were in the bar. I got bought many drinks as the birthday girl and we counted down to midnight before dancing with a group of random people – what an excellent start to my 23^rd. I went home earlyish and got a good sleep, ready for the next day.

Pre-drinks!

Excellent photography skills by the Chinese lady

Hating all the tequila in my drinks

Unbelievably, I woke up on Saturday morning at 7.30am, hungover-free and wide awake. It was a complete miracle but I wasn’t wasting my day in bed. Instead, I got up and after a highly nutritious breakfast of rainbow cookies (all the e numbers), I opened my cards and presents, although I’m still waiting on lots more from people because China takes 10 years to deliver mail! I got ready and headed out to meet Brooke at Starbucks. I arrived to find a present and drink waiting for me, which was obviously the best thing ever and so my day was already off to a good start.

We both headed up to China Normal University (yes, that is its real name) and met Marie and Carley, before heading to an international culture festival on campus. It was super busy and crazy, but I had a fabulous time eating Vietnamese spring rolls, getting a Yemen sticker on my arm and visiting the inside of a yurt from Mongolia. However, there were definitely countries there that I’d never even heard of, I’m sure some were made-up! My favourite part was how they spelt my country – United Kingdon....oh the shame. I had to pretend to be from somewhere else!

Culture festival entrance

Nobody turned up from America - it was a sad day

Fabulous spelling...

The festival was ridiculously busy

Some form of band playing (not sure which country)

Oh the irony...

Tucking in to potato salad and chicken from Rwanda

 After our snacks from around the world, we were obviously starving, so headed to meet Paul and grab some lunch. I had this delicious pak choi, spicy cabbage and rice meal and felt very virtuous for all the vegetables (we won’t mention the apple pie that happened later on). Our adventurous day then took us to Fuxinglu station, where there was supposedly a park. In China, you take the mention of a park with a pinch of salt, as a park on the map is usually 16 apartment blocks on close inspection, but this park was real. It was a very quiet, rather beautiful park with some gorgeous views and we just wandered round and relaxed. Brooke did bring her badminton set but despite the best of intentions, it remained firmly inside the bag. The walking was enough for us!

At the park

Attempting the titanic pose

Having a rest

Paul wasn't overly pleased!

I didn't want to come down

After a very chilled afternoon, we headed back on the subway for some dinner at Grandma’s Kitchen. It’s a western-style restaurant with THE BEST burgers and I had to have one, even though it took four napkins to cover up all of my white top in case of spillage. The things I do for fashion. Anyway, we had some delicious food and then desserts before saying goodbye and all heading home. It had been a pretty full on day for everyone, so I came back to Skype my family, before crawling into bed and watching a film. Overall, it was a very relaxing and sociable birthday and having my 23^rd on the 23^rd (Golden birthday!) in China, is something I won’t forget. 

My amazing spicy burger

Waiting for food at Grandma's kitchen