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