Number 4, ready or not!

This week has been interesting to say the least. We had our medical examinations booked for Wednesday, we need to pass our medicals to allow us to extend our visas. We'll get to the medical story later on.

We are now starting to teach our students for the second time now and we have decided to teach them about the UK. So we spent 2 hours on Sunday planning our lesson, making what I have to say is the single best powerpoint in the world. We had a simple powerpoint for senior 1 and a more complex one for senior 2. Both lessons were full of stereotypes and misconceptions..we made a whole slide dedicated to the fact that Hamburgers are in fact American. We also included pictures of the other volunteers and our friends back home, which so far have recieved rounds of applause and lots of "oohs" and "ahhs". I have also found my favourite class, they were the very first class we taught in China. They are honestly so much fun and they actually participate which is exciting!!

Anyways, onto the stressful section of the week. So, on Wednesday morning we showed up to school right on time and had to wait for an hour before we left to head for our medical. We left at 9.00 am and made the 2 hour drive to Lanzhou, the Province Capital. Unfortunately we hit a bit of 'bus jam' and consequently were late. So by the time we actually made it to the medical centre at 12.00 pm, it was empty...no doctors there at all. Gina and I were under the impression that we would then go home to Liujiaxia and return to Lanzhou on Thursday morning. Wrong. We had to stay in Lanzhou overnight, with no clothes, no money and most importantly no toothbrush, excellent! We were in Lanzhou with the lady that picked us up from Lanzhou when we first arrived. She speaks very little English and starts every sentence with "maybe". A very common line used that day was "maybe pardon". We then spent 2 hours trying to find a hotel because none of them would "absorb foreigners", slightly harsh but okay. We eventually got a hotel and then successfully navigated our way to Pizza hut and back, totally worth it!

Thursday came and we were poked and prodded and stabbed (i have the bruise to show it). We then had to wait until 5.30 for our results, delightful in a city with no food or money :D But it turned out quite well because we made some friends WHO SPEAK ENGLISH!! It was really surreal, we were having a conversation in 3 languages, French, English and Chinese! Anyways, we passed our medical and headed home for some sweet and sour pork which I think was quite well deserved.

Back to school on the Friday and come lunch time, I was incredibly ill. Had to go home from school early and then spent the rest of the night hugging the toilet, was a rather unpleasant experience! But we have now reached the end of the week alive, a minor miracle I think!

One more week of teaching and then we have a cheeky week off so we're currently planning that with Laurie and Callum, the 2 boys in Gansu and hopefully we'll have an amazing week!

That's me for now,

will post again soon!