Free drinks sent to the table. 

More pictures of my friday night out!

Last week was really good, I had Mexican dinner with my friends. Although it took one hour to arrive and it was quite small, it was just nice to make contact with adults who could speak English not Chinglish (Chinese English). The restaurant was surrounded by Americans, they seem to be everywhere, all giggly and enthusiastic, pretending they love their jobs and making us British people feel bad for hating the first few weeks of teaching. (LOL) why do i sound so angry right??.....

These are my favorite students of the week. Koko, Jenny, Pat and Melody (i think). In total i teach a total of 600 students (I cant say its meaningful teaching) so i find it really hard to keep up with their text book English names and I have stopped asking after their Chinese names since it takes me 2 secs to forget. These students come to pick me up for lessons!!, I take this as an indication that they are willing and interested in learning but when i get to the classroom, its a different story. Their loyalty is to their friends first before any teacher.

Fast forward to Friday. It was Ria's birthday and the thought of meeting up with friends kept me going from wednesday-friday. It was an eventful night, a lot to drink (free drinks from Chinese people). We met some new people (american and Chinese) who added color to the evening, the birthday girl on the right looked lovely in white and had a lovely night. As usual, it was fun to share and swap teaching stories with others and catch up on interesting things people had done during the week.

I really enjoyed this week and I hope next week will be even better. Pictures of my trip to the beach coming up and also pictures of the cutest 6 year old twin girls in my class coming up!. Hope everyone has a great week ahead, I miss you all...xx

First few days in Shenzhen were amazing!....we were treated like kings and queens. Taken from one hotel to another, taken to expensive banquets, bought beautiful bouquets.  We all look so happy, we saw this as a sign of greater things to come. 

....(LOL)...unfortunately this happiness was definitely short-lived. Dear Simon seems to be looking for a way to get deported, in order to depart from this job....this is what our lives have resorted to. I went for mexican dinner with my ELA friends yesterday and we all found it really hard not to complain about our different problems with our different schools or living situations. To top it all, we were also informed (last minute) that the China govt has declared Saturday 29th sept a working day (ONLY IN CHINA). To be honest, we were warned by the british council that there will be moments like this. They referred to it as a cycle of adjustment. (An upside down semi circle) the excitement peaked when we got here, but has died down due to the different cultural and social differences. I cant wait for the cycle to peak again ( I need this to be real soon).

I miss my friends and family, but I appreciate this independent time i have in china to grow as an individual.

One of my favorite co-workers is trying to base our friendship on politics. I constantly explain to her that i do not watch the news or have any interest in politics, she does not understand this, but goes on to ask me my views about Obama. When i suggested he was OK, her face suddenly changed like I had said (China is bad). So i quickly said, I do not like him. LOL, now she knows where my loyalties lie (at least for a year). Apparently, she does not like Obama because he supports Japan, so in her view that automatically makes him an enemy of China. Again, I have no views on this, I do not care. I just want to get paid and party all night.

Tibet, Taiwan, Japan, Tienanmen square. These are popular issues we are advised not to discuss with Chinese people, due to the sensitive nature of such issues. Also Chinese whispers is real, the language barrier can easily lead to word mis-interpretation, so it is best to avoid such topics either way.

Today was really stressful, I had five lessons and two of my classes were really noisy, so I taught for half the lesson and let them go. This is why i have very little to write, I can bitch about my school kids all day but this would be rude right??

I do not really class myself as a food lover.... In the UK i go out for meals with my friends, explore different restaurants if my pocket allows. However since coming to China things have changed. I got invited to different restaurants everyday at first but now its every week, thank God, all the meat i was digesting was beginning to give me a heart burn. Still I find that i am constantly losing weight, how is this possible? I have been pulled or dragged to Japanese, Brazilian and Chinese restaurants which all have one thing in common. MEAT!! my sister would love this place, the picture shows a variety of dishes like pork, chicken, donkey and duck, these are common dishes in China. This country will spare no Animal or no part of the animal when it comes to enhancing the nutrients in their body.

How much food can these little people eat...A lot!!...the outside world (wai guo ren) should be informed that in China Rice is considered POOR mans food. During lunch time in my school, I am the only one is eating rice, everyone else has a plate filled with assorted meat and vegetable (rich mans food) while i am happy to be eating my starchy rice. 

But Chinese people are very happy when they see foreigners eating different Chinese dishes, so I am encouraged to try everything and by everything i mean everything. I tried hotpot dinner the other day and I tried pigs blood, it was gross but i was glad i tried it, after this I stopped asking about the content of other dishes in order not to upset myself. I also tried cows tongue, it was really sweet and tasted like goat meat (I tried not to think of what the cow ate before it died).

I haven't even mentioned drinks, a 500ml bottle of coke, fanta, sprite is 40p-50p in China, a bottle of water is 10p-20p. The more wine a lady is able to drink, the more praise or fame she receives from hosts or elders around.

This is a step by step explanation of the food culture in China.

The person who invites you to dinner is the person who pays for dinner (so if you invite a Chinese person to dinner you might be expected to pay).

If Chinese people ask you if you want to go for dinner with them, they expect you to say YES!!

In some instances, it is considered rude not to taste the food ordered by your host.

Any quarrel or query is settled over dinner.

In general, the food culture in China is amazing, it is very different from any other country, every Chinese person i meet wants to take me out for lunch or dinner to give me a taste of their amazing food culture. I cant wait to explore more food options and taste more scary stuff.

Where do I start......
I really wanted a journal, somewhere I could write my thoughts on China and teaching each day, something I could tell my kids i had written on my travels. But It seems like Journals are less common in this part of the world. So I have decided to rely on my digital journal.

Although I was going to start this blog from day one, my laziness took control of the situation. Many people on the same program, have set up exciting blogs and this encouraged me to finally start one. It is really interesting to read about the different experiences of other ELA's (English language assistants)  on the same trip. Some luckier than others in terms of accommodation and school schedule, however at the end of the day, it is all a learning experience. Most important thing to me is the people I have and will meet along the way.

The key focus of my blog will be chinese culture, my interaction with my adorable 6-12 year old kids, my exciting experiences and my trials along the way. Hope you find it informative and interesting.