Fast Food

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United Easy Systems is the Chinese equivalent of Mcdonalds. Given that most Chinese food is fast food (and by the I mean cooked and served quickly, not nutrionally suspect!) it seems like such a restaurant would not be necessary, but it is quite popular. The layout and seating is very similar to a KFC or MaccieDs but very, very clean and with loads of staff. We've had really good fresh meals there, steak n pasta for 3 pounds, mixed rice, sweet and sour chicken. (Incidentally, Tarik has just read this over my shoulder and says by comparing it to McDonalds I am 'such a foreigner!' oops)

Anyway, today he asked for vegetarian rice for me. The Chinese struggle with the concept of vegetarianism so he explained it really clearly to three members of the counter staff. When I got my lunch it hand little pink bits in so he went back and said, 'I asked for no meat, this rice has meat in eat.'
'Thats not meat,' said the girl, 'it's pepperoni!' After a debate about whether or not ham counts as meat they swapped it for me. I felt a little uncomfortable afterwards when I was told that normally itf a staff member makes a mistake in China that costs the company money, it comes out of their wages. When oyu consider that the average UES worker takes home 60 pounds a month it seems churlish to complain... A while later all but 3 of the staff went and lined up outside (including the chefs). When I asked Tarik about it, he said that they were having their staff meeting. Obviously I couldn't follow it, but I saw them all inspect each other's uniform before listening to a talk and them coming back in. Taz said in some of the fancy hotels the staff meetings finish with the people marching up and down.

I taught in the local high school yesterday with Tarik, we played Bingo and then Tarik did some questions and word games with them. It's soooo hard teaching in a different language, I hadn't really considered it before. Luckily Tarik was there and we got through it ok. Tomorrow I am teaching some corporate adult classes, have planned a lesson to do with talking about the weather (well, that's a very British thing to do, isn't it!)

We've just got back from marketing outside a local school. It was awesome. Tarik and the other teacher were laughing at how excited I was, but it was very cute. All the kids surrounding us, practising their English or just staring. We just had to stand their and looks foreign while Tarik and his colleague Tom spoke to parents and handed out flyers. The kids were lovely and the teenage girls were totallyl fawning over Tarik and the other foreign boy. Really cold here though at the moment so I was glad when we finished.

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