Xiaoshan walking and the apartment

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Always look on the bright side of life

Work

So after beers with the FT crew on Monday 13^th I had one more day of work before my weekend started. Now since just after I arrived I’ve been covering Casey’s lessons and then last Sunday when Casey managed to make it back I covered Rebecca’s classes that day as she’s been really ill. They have been a great experience and although somewhat chaotic because everyone has their own routines but it was great teaching kids, learning new lessons and generally having fun with the students and the content of the lessons. I don’t think I’ll every come home from a day of work not singing one of the songs from that day. Having only heard one song twice so far I already know it word for word eeekk!!!! I love break times in the treehouse (staffroom) when we start debating the Mickey shorts – Short cartoons we let the kids watch during the water/bathroom break which have various themes. I guess you have to watch them to get what I mean but some are pretty controversial from an adults perspective such as ‘o Donald your naked’ – he’s always naked he only wears a shirt, and a crazed Hotdog that does a runner gets into trouble and then Mickey tries to give it back to Minnie all beaten up and dirty. But yeah my favourites and least controversial involve Mickey’s pet fish and Pandamonium. Come on who wouldn’t love a Panda in China. Yes Chelsea its not a red one but still a PANDA that wears a fake moustache and glasses, AWESOME.

Since the meeting that we had on Thursday 9^th we’ve had various people from the company and HR hanging around doing various things and on Tuesday they finally all went home. It was nice not having your clubhouse (15min prelesson session we use to review sentences etc before the lesson, parents usually observe from the gates but still its weird) routine being filmed by someone from HR. I know I’m way overdue having a lesson observed by someone senior but its still weird, mainly because I always think I HAVE MY TEACHING DEGREE LET ME DO MY JOB. I know its different because this is teaching English as a second language and its not secondary school kids but its really not that hard. I have the max of 15 students in my class, I don’t take any work home with me. It’s like being in a dream, and Wyvern was the nightmare of all nightmares haha. But yeah no more HR everyday and only occasional visits as per the norm. So I’ve been writing and reading through lesson plans so when I do eventually have classes again I’ll be ready to go with some fun activities to test out HEHE.

Out and about exploring again

On Wednesday Rebecca and I decided to go for another walk this time to a lake nearby called Xianghu. Well I say nearby but the walk there took forever and we kind of stumbled on it in the end. We did however walk past an abandoned theme park called World Park. I think from my very little understanding of signs and research that it was built for the 2011 World Leisure expo and hasn’t been used since. We also came across a Prop graveyard which sported a 20ft Santa and Budda. Was a little surreal to say the least. The lake was beautiful, nestled between 2 sets of mountains with no development to disrupt the beauty apart from the occasional ‘science’ office. About half way down though there is the Polar park, which is a zoo with what I believe to contain Penguins, Dolphins and Polar bears (noted from posters in the metro) I might give it a visit after pay day. Although its winter here some flowers were starting to come through and it was still very green. As you can see from some of the photos I got very preoccupied with the many signs around the lake with very random English translations on them, it made the walk a great laugh. Next time we go we shall be getting on one of the boats that do tours around the place as we only made it half way round in 4hrs and there was still a far way further south to walk around. It was a nice day but was getting a tad cold the later it got. We also had a laugh at some of the passerby’s who spoke English to us 1. A guy literally walking past and saying ‘nice to meet you’ and that was all I felt obliged to answer ‘nice to meet you too’ in return 2. A dad trying to get his kid to say hello to us 3. A guy cycling past saying ‘ooo American’ which I quickly replied back ‘No not America, English’ although yes Rebecca is American but it annoys me to be labelled. Apologies to Americans but it’s just me rambling.

It’s a wonderful life - sometimes

I thought I’d say some more stuff about my apartment as I was quite general in my last blog about the final details of it now that it actually contained a complete kitchen and bathroom. It seems to me that the Chinese don’t actually cook that much, well not the western way. As all I have to cook with is a hob, a gas hob. Underneath it in the cupboard is a drying rack – well I assume it is lol

But yeah I now have a lovely 2 bed apartment, which having had that meeting on Thursday I now wish I got a studio place or something smaller as the other new FT won’t be coming anymore and Xiaoshan is so far away from anything theres no chance of my sharing with anyone else. Also because I don’t know how long it’ll take me to transfer so I don’t want to by anything extra and homely for it because it’ll be a pain to transport. But still it’ll do for now. Its 4700 Yuan which is about £500 and I think the equivalent place in Warminster would probably cost £1000+, so although everyone at work says I’m paying above the cost to me its amazing and worth every penny for a little luxury out of a hotel. Its furnished amazingly, a massive sofa with Chaise long. I have a TV in every room although they have 100 channels only one is in English and that the Asia News channel so not very exciting. Thinking about asking Manya to find me a Bluray DVD player on TaoBao (Chinese Ebay) so I can watch my Christmas purchased DVDS as they won’t play on my laptop, I’m making my way through my hard drive collection so its probably best. My room has a huge closet (ahhh America influence) I MEAN WARDROBE. Not that I have a lot of clothes, as I’m not sure about when would be good to have my other suitcase shipped over. I have a king-sized bed, which I had to flip the mattress over on the second night as for some reason one side had a piece of ply board type thing underneath (only in china) but at least the other side wasn’t so hard and is slightly better to sleep on and ply board free. I have 3 balconies. One for my room, another for the living room and the other makes up what is basically the utility room where I hang my washing and the washing machine is connected. The spare bedroom has again a closet, double bed but a large bay window instead of a balcony. The bathroom (Aunty Lizzie you thought your ensuite shower was small, well mine is even smaller) its basic shower, toilet, sink and cabinet, super easy to clean though as the floor has a drain. Super cold though. Living room/dining room with the massive sofa, dining table and 4 chairs. Kitchen is long but as cupboard with shelves no draws. Not that the cupboards are even partially filled right now as shopping for food is quite hard when I have no idea what half the stuff is. I need to find the local market so I can buy some veg etc although I only really need snacks and stuff as I eat my main meals at work and the food from the local restaurants is soooo cheap e.g. for board beans, pork, peppers with rice it’s about £1. I was very upset to find out that my fave restaurant that supplied my addiction to cabbage has changed the menu so I have to find something else now, as I’ve been very good not always going to KFC like some of the other FTs. But yeah the apartment is lovely and today I learnt my lesson not to leave my key card in my other bag as 1. You can’t exit/enter the building 2. You can’t use the elevator to get to your floor to get the card, which is very problematic when you live on the 18^th floor, that’s a fucking lot of stairs to climb up to go retrieve the card. I’ve managed to work out the aircon (for heating purposed of course, its bloody freezing here right now) though which made my colleagues laugh but like I’ve said ‘we have windows and fans in the UK’, talking about heating is a whole other story. It’s gotten to the point where I’ve just said that I live in a village to help them understand. Although one of the FT’s Alex is English and was in the military and then moved to Canada and various other places, let’s just say theres been a lot of fist bumping, jibing and high 5’s between us when we get chatting, he mostly backs me up when i’m trying to describe stuff.

The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or, learn from it

There’s nothing a Disney quote can’t fix. There are so many inspirational ones out there its hard to choose one to reflect my state of mind right now.

So yeah although there have been some pretty shit days lately there have been some good parts too and I know that everyone at work is there for me when I need them as at some point something similar has happened to them to. It’s a good feeling and helps me get through the homesickness. Well I say that but I don’t really feel that homesick, more so I was just really peeved off when my phone was taken because chatting to people back home most days actually made me feel less isolated and still part of people’s lives. I think it will pass again though when the landlord sorts out my internet for the apartment so I can Skype and get back on Facebook because sitting in Starbucks to check Facebook is starting to kick start my caffeine addiction which isn’t great, especially when you walk in and the barista starts to prep your Caffé Mocha and strawberry cheese cake before you even enter the queue. This kind of recognition isn’t the same as if it was an alcoholic beverage down at The Organ ‘ The usual please Dan’ but still it’s a way to quickly check things as I can only get on a limited number of sights at work. I know its not convenient or a fast way to keep in touch but please do email on either my yahoo email or Disney email address for now. When I do get to reply it will be about 6am back in the UK but still least you’ll know I’m alive J

Until next time – probably about Spring Festival/Chinese New year and trip down to Guangzhou. Can’t wait to have something like 11 days off to go do some exploring around Hangzhou and go to Hong Kong Disney land, and just experience Chinese New Year in China. I already have some decorations for my apartment. I will probably be cursing the fireworks by the end but thats just my Britishness coming through haha.

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Photos

2014 Year of the Horse
Posing with Rebecca

Hallway
From the second bedroom and bathroom