2nd and 3rd week in Shunde, Daliang

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Back to work again on Tuesday evening with my kindergarten class to kick start the week. I thought this would definitely be my easiest class, but actually it is perhaps one of the hardest! I forgot how little attention span a 5 year old has, so for 75 minutes I’m constantly trying to come up with ways to keep them all amused and interested in the lesson. There’s not much book work to do so it’s mostly just running around and having fun whilst teaching a few English words at the same time. I love playing games (mentally I’m only about 10 years old), but if I hear ‘what’s the time Mr Wolf’ one more time I’m going to cry! It does take longer for new words to sink in, and communication is tough as they know very little English, but we get by with lots of smiles and laughter, and they seem to have fun which is the main thing.

For the rest of the week, classes are a mixture of ages from 7 years old up to 13. I think my favourite classes so far are ages 8 – 9. They are still young enough to play games and have fun with but also to keep in line, and their English is better to the point where I can ask them questions or give instructions in English and they generally understand what I mean. It also opens up the range of learning games we can play too, including ones where they have to read, spell or say the words.



As I’ve already mentioned, the weekends are the worst time of the week for us, as its when we have the most amount of classes. Working weekends isn’t a big deal as we’ve done that for about 8 years now, but it’s the fact we have to work so early in the morning. Those who know us well will understand! The worst is my 3 hour class on a Sunday morning with a bunch of bored and tired teenagers. That combined with the fact I have only had about 5 hours sleep and am not functioning until about 12pm does not a good class make! This week I was teaching them how to say sentences about hobbies and things they like to do/not do. In their books was an article about a girl who was learning to fly helicopters so I decided a great idea would be to show them some articles and pictures about extreme or unusual hobbies. What proceeded to happen was me trying, for nearly an hour, to explain what guerrilla gardening, photo bombing and extreme ironing were! I learned a very valuable lesson that day…



Life outside the classroom is getting better now that we’ve managed to make a few friends and find out more things to do and places to eat. I bravely decided to give McDonalds a second chance, and this time hit the jackpot with a proper mcchicken sandwich, which was a complete highlight, and not a temper tantrums in sight. We’ve also been hanging around a lot in Starbucks which is definitely a guilty pleasure, and Walmart is still a daily occurrence. On Wednesday we met up with another English teacher who works in a school nearby. He took us out for lunch and it was nice to have other company, and the fact we got on so well. We’ve arranged for him to come over for some food and a few beers next Wednesday night which should be fun.



On Sunday night we went out with another group of ex-pats and some of their chinese friends, and it ended up being a really fun night. We started off having a beer in a little bar on one of the backstreets near to the shopping district, and then moved on to another more western type bar. Chinese attempts at creating a western atmosphere are quite amusing as it was all laser lights and really cheesy europop in the background. It felt like we were back in a bar in Magaluf on our first holiday away. Anyway, Andy our new English friend ordered some kegs of beer for the table and we drank and chatted until they ran out. The waitress kept bringing over little nibbles for us, but I’m not talking crisps or nuts- we had cucumber with a mustard and soy dipping sauce, duck’s neck and a whole orange which had been cut into pieces to look like a flower. Keg’s exhausted, and feeling slightly hungry (duck’s neck wasn’t really cutting it for me), we hint about going somewhere to eat. A Korean barbeque is suggested and we end up in a little canteen with plastic chairs and tables which is tucked away in what looks like the middle of an old abandoned warehouse. Thankfully we have a few chinese friends on hand to help us order some food. Basically the process goes like this - you go up to the waitress and point to various vegetables and meat skewered on sticks, and they put it in a basket and then cook it on the grill. While what is going on, a huge container filled with what looks like clams arrives on the middle of the table. It’s a feast and a half, and before long everyone is tucking in to deliciously cooked food both Asian and western style. I’m not quite brave enough to try one or two items on the table, but all in all feel I did pretty well given that 5 years ago I thought an aubergine was pretty exotic. However, I have to laugh when I order 3 peppers hanging on a stick. Sarah (Andy’s chinese girlfriend) looks at me strangely and asks ‘that’s really spicy, can you handle spicy food?’. I laugh at her and assure her it will be fine- the spicier the better actually. She raises her eyebrows and we leave it at that. She clearly knows better, as after I’ve only managed to work my way through half a spicy pepper, I feel like my mouth and ears are going to explode. I keep trying in the hope she won’t notice my pain, until I scream ‘aaaah, I can’ take it anymore!’. She looks and smiles at me in that smug way you do when you know you’re right. Sarah and the pepper =1, Nikki = 0. The night ends rather messily back at Andy’s flat before we waddle off to try and find our flat, a fete which ends up taking us about 30 minutes.



On our day off we decide to take a walk down to the temple and surrounding gardens in our area as they are meant to be really nice. After about half an hours walk, we finally get there. It’s such a serene place and lots of little ponds and rivers with cois carp and turtles everywhere. The strangest thing we see is a huge swastika sign carved into the hillside in flowers. Apparantly though this is a symbol of prosperity rather than mean they are all nazi-loving weirdos (I hope). We walk back again and on the way we come across a bunch of young people outside a shop singing ‘‘ole, ole, ole, ole . we are the champs, we are the champs”. It’s bizzare and I decide to take a picture of them and they all start to giggle and wave and shout hello at us. I love the reception you get from a lot of the chinese people over here, most of them are really keen to say hello to you as you walk by, and many tip their hat or smile. There is, of course, the other extreme where they look you up and down in complete surprise but we don’t really notice that now. Our final stop for the evening is our faithful friend Starbucks. I can’t help it, I have an addiction! Hello my name is Nicola, and I have an addiction to coffee… And, as I sit here writing this with my coffee frapuccino, a young Chinese teenager has just sat down next to us in his school uniform with a coffee and a rubiks cube… (which he then goes on to complete in 2 minutes before bringing out a second one to do, which he then also completes in 2 minutes before bringing out a third- I’m actually not kidding!!). What a crazy but endearing place 😊

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