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

How do you say watch in Chinese?!

After living in another country for a few months, you start to become acclimatised and even immune to the differences in culture. For example, spitting in the street, taking the food they don’t want out of their mouths, and children using the steps of the supermarket to have a quick toilet break rarely bother me now. The only two things which I cannot get used to is 1) the toilet situation; I really like sitting down for the toilet because with squatting comes a risk of falling in and 2) staring – yes I am a foreigner and once you have had a quick look at me, there is no need to stare at me until I pass. What I like to do in this situation is have a stare out and I always win because they usually walk into something! That’s another thing, the Chinese have no inbuilt sense of direction so someone walking down the street will literally zigzag or somebody coming from a side street will walk into you. Even better, they often like to stop for no apparent reason, which is fine until they do this whilst crossing a road with 8 lanes of traffic.

A couple of things I have also noticed that are so different to England. The first is the lack of frost anywhere. Even on a freezing cold morning I never see frost on the ground or cars – you probably can’t even buy a de-icer in Wuhan! Another difference is the sunrise and sunset times. When I arrived in September and still now, in December, the sun rises at 6.30am and sets at 5.30pm without fail. This is really strange as normally in England, you enjoy lighter nights in Summer and dark nights in Winter.

This week in my lectures, I have been teaching the students about Christmas, from the nativity to house decorations. I showed them a picture of my house and they were so shocked by it. In Wuhan, NOBODY owns a house; in fact I have only seen houses for people who work for the government. It was very difficult to explain that living in a house was normal in England.

On Wednesday, I finally made it to my first Ladies night, at a bar called Helen’s. It is a popular bar with foreigners and I met some French girls and an English girl there. Ladies night consists of paying 30 RMB (£3) and getting unlimited cocktails for 3 hours! The guys all bought one bucket each and then Mel and I kept pouring our drinks in these buckets for everyone to enjoy. It was an extremely cheap night – for a tenner, I got a taxi there and back, a burger and chips, one mint chocolate mojito and unlimited cocktails! I also managed to lose my hair bow, and take a piece of the interior slate wall home. Ooooops.

Helen's food!

The infamous 'buckets' - contents unknown

My favourite cocktail - Blue Hawaiian

Mel was very jealous of my mint chocolate mojito

RIP hair bow - sadly lost during a dance off to Cotton Eye Joe

My 8am class on Thursday morning was so hard to get up for, but once I had walked to the faculty building, I felt fine. After my class, I nipped to the vegetable market, stocked up on fresh veg, and then came home to make a chicken dinner with GRAVY! (thanks mum). It was a rehearsal for my Christmas dinner next week because cooking with one pan at a time is difficult! In the afternoon, I decided to learn a few Chinese phrases and here are the results:

Coca cola – Kĕkŏu Kĕlè

Excuse me – duì buqĭ

Too expensive – hu bu suan

Straight ahead – zhào zhí

Friday was a brilliant day mainly because I get to start celebrating the weekend at 9.35am! After my last class of the week, I headed on the subway to Huquan market. My major issue was leaving Huquan subway station, as my travel card wouldn’t swipe. After being marched to customer service and reassuring them that I had plenty of money on there, I was let free. I was in search of a watch after mine broke but for some reason, the Chinese only have words for watch strap or watch face and not one that’s combined. After a great miming performance of me telling the time, a local stallholder took pity on me and led me to the watch man. He couldn’t speak any English apart from the number 5 so I had to bargain in fives! A watch, necklace, bracelet and xmas socks later I was done and so headed back home.

Part of Huquan market - much quieter than the weekend!

On the way home, I stopped for a late breakfast and got a steamed baozi (meatball in bread) and a steamed soy bread which was lovely as the soy sauce had become almost sweet. After a quick food shop on the way home where I FINALLY found salt in the sugar aisle (who thinks of these things) and white vinegar, handily named ‘9 degrees of separation’ vinegar, I got back home and had a longggg nap before the evening.

Friday evening was probably one of the most random nights I’ve had in China. We were invited to a Christmas gala for foreigners, organised by Hubei province and so Brendan, Dean and I decided to get a taxi to the venue, Wuhan Conservatory of Music. However, we attempted to get a taxi at 5.45pm, which is when one shift ends and the other begins for taxi drivers. By 6.05pm we still had no taxi and time was getting short. Then, a random man obviously on his way home from work pulled up and said that he would give us a lift for a slightly higher price. We jumped in and then got stuck in the worst traffic jam ever! 50 minutes later, he dropped us off at an unknown location and we then had to find the right place and eat dinner in the 30 minutes before the show began. A quick bowl of noodles later in a Chinese diner and we made it to the show with seconds to spare!

Our diner on Jianghan Road

Making my noodles

Drinking soy milk - bleurgh

The show was fantastic, they played a mixture of Chinese and western music using a full orchestra, although at one point a man came on to do a piano solo and when everyone started cheering after his piece, I was surprised. It sounded like he was still doing the warm-up! After the show finished, we met up with Olivi and proceeded to take a few ‘souvenirs’ from the concert. The boys were tame with their Santa hats, whilst I managed to come away with a Santa hat, a mini tree and a reindeer. What a success.

Amazing view from our seats

I think he was improvising

Far too excited bless her

Post-show picture

Me with my 'souvenirs'...

We ended up walking for at least 45 minutes because of the lack of taxis and made a stop off so the boys could buy skittles (a rare sweet in China). We finally got a taxi and on our walk home, got some yummy street food (pork and pak choi egg fried rice for me) and a warm milk tea. A great festive yet random and typically Chinese night!

Trying out my new Santa hat ready for Christmas!

On Saturday, I went to do my volunteering at the kid’s club and it was very relaxed with a few less children. We learnt the song ’12 days of Christmas’ with both hand actions and Chinese numbers so my brain hurt by 5pm! Saturday night was my first evening in for a while so after tidying round my apartment, I snuggled in bed with a hot chocolate – bliss. I also spoke to a few people from home because the 8 hour time difference makes it difficult to speak to everyone! My sister, Lozzy, ended up Skyping me in her lesson the other day! I also woke up at 3am last night to find out that Adele is coming to see me at the end of March and I’m soooo excited! That’s two visits from home now yayyy.

Ready to volunteer

Today is the last Sunday before Christmas but I don’t really feel very Christmassy yet. I have put all my Christmas food out on the coffee table (a tradition we ALWAYS do at home) and I’m planning to sit and watch ‘Miracle on 34^th Street’ before I go for a late afternoon coffee. I’m going to meet an English girl that I met in Helen’s the other night so that will be nice! But first, time to pamper myself ready for Christmas. Now, where did I put my facemask.....

Christmas and culture....

I’m definitely starting to feel festive now that December 25^th is fast approaching. Along with the morning excitement of my Advent calendar, lots of shops and coffee shops are playing Christmas songs and I even found a small Christmas decoration section at my local supermarket! I was so tempted by the snowman boppers but I refrained and decided instead to be grown up and spend that money on washing powder. Such a mature, 22 year old decision.

It is now freezing cold and the heating has FINALLY been turned on at the university. Nothing like waiting until Winter is practically over. Chinese people are just not adept to cold weather - most people fashion a two piece quilted pyjama set for daywear and I have even spotted a husky on its morning walk dressed in a top and bottoms.

As it’s coming to the end of term and the students have their exam to prepare for, I decided to do an activities lesson this week with lots of speaking games. The students LOVED it. They were so enthusiastic and motivated and some of the quiet ones were even talking to me. They also loved it even more when I let them go 5 minutes early – this never happens in a Chinese university!

  

My biggest class - 46 students

I used to sort of dread my tutoring lesson with my little kids because of how tiring they are but I do really enjoy it now, especially now their English is improving. This week, I started to introduce Christmas and they learnt the whole of Jingle Bells. Every time one of the kids sees me in our neighbourhood they start singing to me! Also, one child has also learnt how to write their name in English and gave me a drawing with her name on – very proud moment.

On Friday, I finally got round to seeing some culture at the Hubei Provincial museum in Donghu, with my friend Janet. It is a free museum so I wasn’t expecting much but it was very interesting. They have a tomb and its contents from an Earl of the Ming Dynasty. Also, the museum is set in beautiful grounds with bonsai trees (my favourites!). I’m just fascinated by how these trees look! Museum looking is hungry work so Janet took me to a VERY posh restaurant. This place has a 1 year waiting list if you want your wedding there. My coat and scarf were placed in a dust protector bag on arrival and the food was incredible. I will definitely be going back there. 

Donghu, Wuhan

Art gallery

The view of the city from the balcony

Bonsai tree

An old dustpan and brush

Casket of the Earl

Items found in the tomb

Wine vessel used at banquets and weddings

Kang Long Tai Zi restaurant

My coat and scarf in a dust protector bag!

(from front) Fish, green beans and pork ribs

Tofu crab chowder

Beef and potatoes in a pepper sauce with wild rice

On Friday night, Dean and I tried but failed to make it out. Instead, we found a pizza place in our neighbourhood and ordered pizza. It was like a Chinese Domino's because they even had side orders!

On Saturday, I went to help out at the kids club at Mr Mai’s and we were learning about the ‘12 days of Christmas song’. Trying to explain the difference between a partridge, goose and turtle dove in broken Chinese was difficult! Anyway, after that was over it was back to my apartment to help Dean prep for his party. I unknowingly took on the role of head chef and had to make the majority of the party food. This went down a storm once everyone had a few drinks later on. The party itself was made funnier by drinking Jenga, but sadly, I lost.

Homemade KFC chicken

Dean and Brendan prepping for the party

Will and Paul

Rob, Paul, Daddy, Will and Olivi

Today, of course, is Sunday and the weather is beautiful outside so I’ve got all my windows open (in December I know!) and I’m going to relax ready for a crazy week next week. I may also use some of my bargain washing powder to clean my clothes. Every month the date which has the same day and month number e.g. 12^th December = 12/12, means that everything becomes really cheap in China, both online and in supermarkets. So my washing powder, which is normally about £5 for 3 litres cost me just £2.50 yesterday – very exciting!

xxxxx

P.s. 11 days until Christmas!!

P.p.s - the struggles I face when trying to buy food in China are shown below. Note: There is 10 RMB to 1 English £ and so all of this food is less than a £1. 

A typical Chinese menu

My favourite noodle dish - Rou si mian (pork noodles)