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Easter, Lessons, YhongZhou, Dancing and a leggings purchase!
A quick update on my wildlife concerns in China. I discovered a lovely little market the other day, near to the school, with all the usual vegetables for sale on the floor, which included dandelion leaves… and the usual suspects of ducks, snakes, cow, pig and now peacocks… yes a cage no bigger than a refrigerator with 6 peacocks, tail feathers everywhere. They were beautiful. I wonder are these endangered species? Iv only seen them in zoos. It was at this point I contemplated the thought of 6 beautiful peacocks milling about on my balcony. Along with the doves iv seen in the cage by the school. Thoughts on the message board please.
So Easter weekend came and went not a chocolate egg in sight, just a strawberry ice cream from the school shop and so I decided to venture out of town to the nearby city of YhongZhou, where there are 6 foreign American teachers working. My minder put me on the local bus with a note saying in Chinese "im special, look after me; take me to YhongZhou middle school number 6, many thanks!" So doing my best Paddington Bear impression with my suitcase and note off i trundle on the smelliest, dirtiest form of transport there ever could be. The others on the bus spend the first 20 minutes staring at me with astonishment like I was a green alien with some kind of radio transmitter sticking out of my head. After a while they settled down and the usual spitting, smoking, coughing up phlegm started. Nice. Finally after 3 hours I arrived into the arms of the Americans and the normality began!! Rebecca and I ventured into town for a hair cut. We chose the pinkest salon I have ever seen and with the help of washing hair and cutting actions (and my excellent art work of my future hair do idea) we were having the most amazing head, neck, arms and back massage! Then a young (he looked about 12) chap started snipping away as per my art work. And god did he do a dam good job!!! So sporting our new cuts we head back for dinner, beers and a very late night of partying in her flat. YhongZhou is much more civilized than my town, there are many more shops and it is quite a large city. Even sports a Nike store!!
Saturday started with being taken for lunch by a principal of a local dance school (Rebecca is a dancer) and again, it was hair of the dog and "gumbea" with the beers!!! Along with the usual fodder of blood duck, leaves in oil, celery and pig gums… I had already asked what is was before I tried so there was not a chance of that entering my mouth! They took us to the dance school which was lovely. It was full of 5-8 year old girls dancing away, with the biggest smiles I have ever seen. I even welled up at one point!! And they all squeal together "hello" in the highest pitched voices!! See the pictures. After the dancing, we headed to the local Turkish bath! Where we were scrubbed of our Western impurities by a little Chinese lady and sat in the sauna which was cool and a great chill out. Also great to finally get so clean!! What wasn't cool was the staring at our chests and backsides, but we know they were just incredibly amazed and jealous! After my bath i opt for a footwash and foot reflexolgy...ow but absolutely great! The little chinese man was brilliant and made me so relaxed. Ah. Why wash your own feet when someone will do it for you?!
After this we head into town to a relatively "western restaurant" very nice, but my western pallet has disappeared and so I ordered steak with spicey Chinese sauce instead of pizza. Then we headed to the local night market for beers and Bajio!!! Bajio is like 80% alcohol proof. It is disgusting!!! But a local delicacy. The night market was cool, a random chap called Eugene who could speak some English just came and joined us because he heard us speaking English. He was real nice and said asked if he could stay and drink with us to improve his English! So then the "gumbea" started again!
Sunday I got the spitting, phelgmy, filthy bus home to XinTian to prepare the weeks lessons. It wasn't half a struggle on Monday. (my worst classes) With every word I said they just looked blankly. I said to one boy about 17 years old, do you understand? Yes or No? He just burst into a fit of giggles?! Im still wondering what the hell was so funny. So rather irritated I was forced to change my lesson and make it so simple. This week I was given 2 days off for their exams they were doing. Then Thursday was great! (my best and most clever and lovely class, apart from 6 boys at the back) They totally understood my lesson, enjoyed it and learnt something. Bingo! But… clearly is was not at all interesting or enthralling enough for the 6 naughty ones at the back of the class. As when my back turned for a mere 20 seconds to write on the board…they legged it to play basketball!!! Charming. So I had my class snitch write down their names. This is unacceptable and they will be reported…ha!!!
Also this week I was invited to a dance class! So I went along wearing casual, jeans, sweater, trainers and my friends who I went with were sporting also casual, polo necks, coats, 6 inch heel boots. As the class started it turned out to be Aerobics!!! How cool! As I stripped off my sweater to reveal a nice black t shirt, there is much staring and "wow!" coming from my fellow dancers. This is because they think I have very strong arms and they are big. Yes they are big, and they also compare in size to these Chinese girls thighs! So after this awesome dance aerobics lesson, I signed up for 2 months to go 3 times a week! At last an aerobic fix!!After the lesson my friends and I head to a local tea house!!! How great!! Along with the tea they ordered the most random selection of snacks. So we have traditional Chinese tea (very weak, like hot water, slight weak taste, quite refreshing, will be bringing leaves home with me) then some sunflower seeds arrive, with popcorn out of the microwave, a fruit selection (with umbrella) and some squid. The squid is small and has been baked, fried, left and coated in spice. Quite honestly, this squid looks and must be at least a few weeks old! I am no where near the sea, it looks horrid, can only just tell it once was a squid and is so rubbery!!! But actually kind of tasty…?!
The next day I go to purchase a pair of black leggings to wear to my new dance class. I try on the "X Large" which yep, they are fine and they fit. Sold. So as I approach the till with my cash, the woman rushes back to the rail and picks out another pair and shoves them at me. They are only the "XXXL" ones!!! Cheeky Bi*ch!!! How rude is that!!!? So I insist on purchasing my X large. I am still fuming about it now. Just because you cant see her backside!!!
Anyway, that is all for now. Get back to work!! I am sure I will have much more entertaining updates for you all next week! Remember to keep the messages coming and check out the pics! Love Sal xxx
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