Does freshers flu count if you’re the teacher?

You’ve probably guessed from the title of this week’s blog that I have been ill. And not just slightly ill but dying of some sort of horrible flu thing with a cough, and a cold and aches and pains. It started on Sunday evening but I thought going to bed at 8.30pm would cure everything. I woke up on Monday morning feeling awful and knowing that I had a full day of teaching / tutoring ahead wasn’t the best.

I managed to get myself to uni (because if you miss a lesson you have to make it up) and played my students the ‘Idiot Abroad’ episode in China to save my voice from giving up completely. Their faces and reactions alone were hilarious and then marking their written task on the episode had me in fits of laughter. One of the questions asked, “What would be the most difficult part of British culture be if you visited?”. Here are a few of my favourite responses:

- “I think it would be the afternoon tea party. I only want to eat three meals a day”.

- “The Queen, I don’t know what she does”.

- “I’ve heard that British people eat a lot of beef, cheese and butter and I don’t like these foods”.

These responses cheered me up immensely when battling through my illness on Tuesday. I didn’t do much that day, but I hate wasting time being ill so as well as marking some work, I planned my tutoring lessons for next week and my first class for lecturing the professors and lecturers. The first week topics include greetings, ideal conversation topics and social DOs and DON’Ts so it will be a very interesting lesson!

I was feeling much better by Wednesday and met Brooke, Carley, Paul, Marie and Charlotte for lunch at the restaurant near my apartment for some delicious Chinese food. I’d already had two breakfasts because my first breakfast at 6.30am leaves me hungry by 9am, but the food was just too good to leave. After lunch we came back to mine just to chill for a few hours as everyone was free. Paul, Carley and Charlotte left first and then Marie, Brooke and I decided to venture down to a stationary store near to my area. I’d never spotted it before but it was exciting and I got a few things to use when I do my scrapbook of my year abroad.

Marie, Carley and Charlotte ready for foooddd!

Why my hair looks so grey I have no idea. Probably from the stress of trying to order in Chinese.

 We then spontaneously decided to get some dinner at JJ’s, and walked there in search of more delicious food. I swear Wednesday was a continuous buffet. I was extremely hyper by the time we arrived and our meal consisted of multiple fits of laughter whilst the waitress seemed scared to take our order for a good while! After dinner, and reviewing our purchases, we headed next door to Mr Mai’s for some dessert. We ended up staying until 9pm because the time just flew by and then I walked home to Skype my mum.

Chinese posing!

My haul from the shop - grand total of £2.40

Looking very pleased with myself

Happy with life

Dessert time!

Thursday is another one of my day’s off (my working week has now completely altered) and I woke up early to be productive. It helped that the weather was lovely and sunny so I got on with all those little jobs that take a bit of time before relaxing in the afternoon. In the evening, I went to tutor my younger children, having not taught them for nearly 5 weeks. Surprisingly, they’d remembered so many things. One boy, who I swear was mute before the break, has now found his voice but only in Chinese. So every time I showed something in English, he shouted the Chinese word! Here’s an example of that tutoring session....my life.

Me: Fish

Boy: Yu!

Me: Yes, fish

Boy: (Shouting even lounder) Yu!

On Friday it was a beautiful spring day, (average temperatures of 17 Celsius now – think I like Chinese weather more than English) so I walked to get my food shop after teaching. Despite the warm temperatures, the Chinese are still insistent on wearing coats, and wrapping their babies in a million blankets and I’m there dying in my leather jacket! I spent the rest of the day running around until I’d finished all my tasks and then sat down to watch a film.

On Saturday, I woke up at 7am and couldn’t get back to sleep. I cannot remember the last time I woke up so early on the weekend with nothing to get up for! After having all my washing done by 8.30am (what to do now?!), I just relaxed until it was time to head to Mr Mai’s. Sadly, I’ve decided to stop my volunteering here and made this day my last session. I’ve taken on the extra teaching job with the professors and it leaves Tuesday as my only day without teaching so I think having a Saturday free as well will keep my sanity levels in tact.

Telling everyone that I wasn’t going to volunteer anymore was really sad! However, I will still pop in whenever I can. My little friend, Abby was back again and made my last session a fun one. I particularly enjoyed her asking me “Why aren’t you American?” and telling me that the way I write the letter ‘y’ is wrong. Oh the life of a three year old. Once the kids club ended, I walked to get a meat pitta and then went home to relax. I was going to go out but I thought that I best not turn up hungover for my new job teaching the professors tomorrow. That wouldn’t be the greatest move seeing as I’ll be in a room with 100 teachers. I’m rather scared!

My plans for next week are definitely going to involve a trip to Metro (foreign food everywhere, hands in the air like we don’t care) and hopefully Guiyuan temple, if the weather stays nice. I also really want to make a curry so my task for the week is to find a non-Chinese version of curry spices. I’ve found that anything the Chinese try and do usually fails e.g. ketchup (spicy!), mayonnaise (sweet!) etc. So wish me luck!

xxxxx

p.s. this is probably my favourite food in Wuhan and I think I'm becoming obsessed with it. This morning, I wanted it from approximately 7.03am. I need help...reganmian you're too nice!

Sesame noodles topped with carrots, spring onions and green beans <3