The start of 2015.....
My meal with Odille and her
friends was lovely. They took me to a hotpot restaurant, where the tables had
mini hotplates for each person, so that you cook your own food and control the
temperature! The food was incredible; we had everything from mushrooms and tofu
to shrimps and tortoise jelly! They also got me a Christmas present and then
wouldn’t let me pay for dinner! It was a really nice afternoon.
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| All the condiments |
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| My hotpot! |
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| My gifts - hat, scarf and gloves |
In the evening,
I went to the spa with Janet. The building itself was very grand and the spa
was incredibly clean. We first handed in our shoes to get flip-flops, and then
went into the changing rooms. Here, we got some delightful floral pyjamas to
change into and then headed upstairs to get some dinner! I tried turtle for the
first time (it was horrible) and drank milk with rice floating around in it –
it was like drinking rice pudding. After eating, we went into a room to relax
before heading down into the sauna and steam rooms. After having showers and
using all the products (definitely had to guess which one was the shampoo) I
tried to take the subway home. However, it was so busy I ended up getting a
taxi. I cannot wait for all the students to go home so that everywhere is
quieter!
On Tuesday evening, I went
to a New Year gala for foreign teachers of Wuhan University. After a 45 minute
walk across campus (Janet, my boss promised 30!), we arrived at a very posh
building and sat down at the table for the show to begin. The show was hardly a
show – 3 acts including German singing, Chinese violinists happened, and then
it was announced that the buffet was open, whilst a couple more acts performed.
Therefore, we were eating our food as the show was going on, which to me was a
very strange concept. However, the food was amazing (sweet and sour pork with
hundreds and thousands sprinkled on was a particular highlight) and I knew most
of the other teachers around my table so it was a good, yet bizarre evening.
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| My boss, Janet and I |
Wednesday was New Year’s Eve
and after having exams in the morning, I came home and cleaned my apartment,
then started getting ready for the evening. The plan was to meet at a
restaurant then head to prison bar afterwards. However, trying to get a taxi in
China on New Year’s Eve has the exact same difficulty as
in England and after 30 minutes of waiting and seeing no taxis,
I got a lift with a security guard that I recognised from a nearby area.
Picture the scene, I was riding on a scooter, all dressed up and it was about
minus 5 degrees, brilliant. He dropped me off at the apparently correct
location but I soon realised it was wrong.
He had dropped me the wrong
end of the longest road ever. I decided to start walking down in the right
direction and then one of my friend’s went past on a pushbike and saw me. Cue
me getting a ‘backy’ for at least 3 miles down a very busy, heavy traffic road on a pushbike
with no seat. I just about arrived in one piece to the restaurant and
practically ran inside after 90 minutes of being outside in the cold. The food
itself was lovely (although a Chinese man next to me vomited his dinner up. Why
do they always do this!?) and we ventured to Prison bar about 10pm. The place
was packed full of people ready to celebrate the start of 2015. On the countdown
to midnight we opened some champagne and then I taught all my
Chinese friends the ‘dance’ to Auld Lang Syne.
After a surprisingly good
evening, I went to get a taxi home, but even that wasn’t trauma free. My taxi
driver decided that I had not exclusively hired the taxi and kept stopping to
ask people if they wanted to go in the same direction. Eventually a guy got in
and we arrived at my stop. The taxi driver then decided to try and make me pay
the full price of the cab ride, even though there was another passenger. My
Chinese may be awful but he definitely picked the wrong laowi (foreigner) to
mess with. Cue me offering him half the cab fare and jumping out the taxi.
Ellis 1: stupid taxi driver 0.
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| Tofu loaf! |
New Year’s Day at home
usually involves me lounging around the house in pyjamas and then having a huge
dinner later on. Seeing as the dinner wasn’t a possibility for me this year
(crying over the fact that I missed the 5 bird roast), Dean and I headed to
Burger King in search of hangover food. I spent the afternoon eating my whopper
burger and watching ‘Drop Dead Fred’, one of my favourite childhood movies.
Then, I had to pack for the Hot Springs trip the next day, and ended up packing a suitcase for a overnight stay.
Nightmare.
Finally, we arrived at
Tangchi Hot Springs and found a guesthouse to stay in for the night for just
30RMB each (£3!). Our bathroom had no door and our room had no key to lock it,
but they were minor issues and after grabbing some food, we finally headed to
the hot springs centre. It seemed that every Chinese person had also
decided to visit on this day and the place was packed. Even worse, I was the
only girl and had to go into the changing rooms by myself. After fighting over
a clean towel but unsuccessfully managing to get flip-flops, I managed to find
my locker and went to meet the guys.
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| The remainder of our bathroom door! |
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| Lunch - fish, smoked pork with bamboo, garlic pak choi and rice |
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| Hot springs entrance |
The hot springs centre is an outdoor place, with pools of different
temperatures dotted around. There are also saunas, a sandpit where you can get
buried, an indoor swimming pool, a wave pool, and mini water park. You walk
around in your towel or robe and then choose which spring you want to go in.
Our second spring was a hot one and we stayed in there quite a while. However,
when we got out, we realised that our towels and shoes had been taken! The
Chinese are brutal – they’d even left us their wet towels as a gift! This meant
running to every other pool until we stole someone else’s towels and flip-flops
later on. Well, if you can’t beat ‘em then join ‘em.
After 3 hours in the
springs, we went upstairs to a lounge area. I couldn’t find how to get to it
from my changing room, so had to run through the men’s changing room with a
towel on my head! I successfully made it and we got some free fruit, snacks and
drinks to have whilst relaxing. We were the only people in swimwear and towels
/ robes, as the Chinese were all dressed so we got some very funny looks. At 7pm, we headed back down the springs, hoping that most
of the Chinese would have gone by now and we were lucky. The place was becoming
empty and we found a small hot tub size spring to have all to ourselves. After
some sneaky trips back to the locker, we spent the evening in our hot tub with
drinks and snacks and even got to watch some fireworks.
8 hours of water makes you
seriously hungry, so just before midnight we left the resort and went in search of food. Opposite the entrance
were lots of outdoor restaurants, selling barbeque and fried rice or noodles. I
had some chow mien and then we all headed back to our guest room. After taking
some pictures on the Polaroid camera, we all went to bed. I’d had a fantastic
day but I was exhausted!
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| Chow mien |
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| Unimpressed by how cold it was! |
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| Our bathrrom door handle |
I’m so glad that today is
Sunday and I’m not working, because I needed the day off to recuperate! I’ve
spent the morning doing chores with all the windows and balcony door open as
it’s lovely and sunny. I’ve also taken all my Christmas decorations down, which
is a job I hate doing but it’s nice to have a clutter free apartment again. I
then went to get my veg and some lunch in just a t-shirt and everyone kept
stroking my arms looking concerned at me! Tonight, I am going to relax and cook
some dinner before my last week of teaching begins. 6 exams left and 200
students to grade and then my winter break begins!
xxxx
