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Tomorrow night Nicole and I will be embarking on our 32-hour train journey to Lanzhou, in Gansu province, where all of the Project Trust China volunteers will be converging for a much-need language course. Immediately after this, we will all head to nearby (relatively speaking) Xi'an together for a few days of sightseeing and the such-like, so altogether we'll have about two weeks holiday. Booking train tickets and hostels for this trip has been manic - even now, it's not all sorted - but I can't wait to do our first bit of travelling!
I mentioned Anti-Japanese Day in my last blog; well, it was underwhelming to say the least. Nicole and I slept through the morning alarms, and the "parade" was actually a small, mismatched motorcade playing the national anthem that took maybe two minutes to pass. There were a lot of "One China" stickers around amongst the students, and Chinese flags popped up all over the place, but that was about it. The main difference between Anti-Japanese Day and most days was that the ancient padlock on our front gate finally broke, leaving Nicole locked in and me locked out. I went to cover for Nicole's Junior 1 class, whilst Winston came to break Nicole out; she arrived mid-way through the lesson, fist-pumping and shouting "I'm free!" which completely baffled the class! We are starting to hear more about the dispute over Diayou/Senaku islands, though. Our Senior 1 classes have started asking us for our opinions: who do we think is right? do we think they should go to war? People here also compare their relationship to Japan with England's to Germany, which means lots of questions about whether we hate Germans.
The fun continued this morning with mine and Nicole's medical examinations. We were woken at the ungodly hour of 8am (our lessons being so late in the day, we don't usually get up til about 10. It's beautiful) for blood tests, blood pressure tests, sight tests, X-rays, EKGs, ultrasound scans... Nicole had to go first for everything, which meant I got to hang back with Winston, giggling at everything. Winston was having the time of his life! He found absolutely everything funny, including the sign on the door of the ultrasound room ("it says you cannot use the equipment to find out if you're having a boy or a girl. Because if it was a girl, people might abort the baby. Ahahaha!") and he nearly died laughing during Nicole's EKG, because neither she nor the woman performing the EKG could understand a word the other was saying. The EKG itself was... an experience. I've no idea what it's for, but we had to lie down covered in clamps and suction thingies whilst this Chinese woman fussed and muttered around us. I barely managed to keep a straight face through that, and I lost it completely during my ultrasound and burst out laughing. A lot of it was pretty pointless - and I'm thinking predominantly of the sight tests when I say that. I didn't even bother explaining that I was wearing my contact lenses, because Nicole had just done the whole test with her glasses on. Amongst the highlights were Nicole's forlorn voice calling out for a translation during her ultrasound and the X-ray technician manhandling her into a really camp hands-on-hips pose for her X-ray. The whole thing took place in a somewhat-suspicious looking building on the outskirts of town.
Teaching is still going quite well: we're still doing introductory lessons with seniors, and I've been teaching "Time" and "Big Numbers" with my younger classes - with the help of a bloody brilliant (if I say so myself) clock I made from a cardboard box and some coloured paper. Who said A-level art isn't useful?! The students are still really sweet, walking me to class and giving me flower blossoms as thanks. Hangman is proving very popular, although Bingo crashed and burned. I had a very uncomfortable moment after one senior class earlier in the week though. A girl followed me out of class to tell me she didn't think her classmates liked her, and then burst into tears. I did my best to comfort her and thankfully she chirped up pretty quickly, but there were a couple of minutes when it was looking pretty dire! I met the same girl and her twin sister at lunch the next day, when she was in a much happier mood. They were with a friend, and the three of them took it in turns taking photos with me and gasping over how white I was. "You are so white! No, but you are soooo white! Look how black I am; you are SO WHITE!" Looks like my holiday tan has officially gone then!
Nicole and I are still keeping up with our nightly walk/jog around the lake, which we enjoy. I've got into races with a Chinese jogger a couple of times: it started with us subtly trying to overtake each other and ended in a full-on sprint that nearly killed me, but it made me laugh. It's definately the same guy each time as well! I've been invited to participate in the teachers' weekly football match as well, because I stupidly told them I used to play. I agreed to go down and watch on Sunday, and can now say with absolute certainty that I will never be playing with them. They are much better than a teachers' team has any right to be, and if I play with them, there is a good chance I will not survive.
Now, for my most exciting news: this week I got post from home! Mrs Liu rang me at 7am to tell me, and to tell me to come collect if from her in the playground, so I duly fell out of bed and staggered off to meet her. The playground was full of thousands of kids doing their morning exercise but I somehow found Mrs Liu amongst them. She told me I looked awful, should drink more water and should go back to bed (which I did happily) BUT I GOT MY LETTER! Now I know the post works, I'll put the school's address at the end of this post... hint hint... Internet is also a lot better now: we get online for a bit most nights, and we're even managing regular Skype conversations - mainly with other volunteers, but also with friends and family at home, which is brilliant.
Finally, when we get back from Lanzhou, Nicole and I have been asked to start tutoring the 11 year old daughter of an acquaintance of ours, Bettina. We were advised by other volunteers not to let ourselves be persuaded into doing this, but we're still in our newbie 'say yes to everything' phase, so have agreed to an hour a week on a Friday - this negotiated down from 3 hours a week, including the weekend! We'll be paid for our time and Bettina has invited us round for dinner as well, so it doesn't sound too bad so far. I'm still surprised that people think we're actually capable of teaching their children but at least it's better than being thought totally useless!
Ella
xxx
PS. Just because I can use Skype now doesn't mean you're allowed to slack on the emails! I love my emails and I'll be upset if I stop getting them :(
My address: Tongwen Middle School, 34# Nanhu Road, Jiujiang City, Jianxi Province, China (obviously).
- comments
Nicole's mum Excellent blog - I laughed til I cried reading about the examination
Jo The letter Ella received was posted in Leeds 01/09/2012. Definitely slow mail - but like slow food, it can be worth the wait, just need to factor in the time required! Bon voyage and good luck with the course XX Mum
Beth C Missing you loads babes! Glad you're having fun xx
Alex Aww Ella I miss you! I'm building up gossip and things so I can email a big email instead of lots of little ones :) hope u Hve a lovely 2 weeks and snogs from Elizabeth xxx