It's -22 and we're still smiling!

Ning Hao to all!

 

I havent had any internet access all week so haven't had a chance to write on here! Its been a crazy week and this is a CRAZY place - especially the people! I arrived last tuesday with another 116 people! A group of us got together on wednesday and visited the forbidden city which is where the emperors used to live before they got thrown out by the introduction of the communist party. It was well interesting! The funny thing is we were standing outside getting maps when this chinese guy approached us and said he was a university student studying English and wanted to show us round the city for FREE and tell us about it because he wanted to improve his english! We (typically english) were completely superstitious of him and thought it was all a massive con. After much deliberation (especially as a) there was so many of us and b) it was our first day so no one wanted to be the one who made a decision which could potentially lead to criticism) we agreed. Turns out it wasnt a con after all and Chinese people go out of there way for foreigners! They bloody love us! Its great! So this guy showed us round and then took us back to the hotel on the bus all for free (obviously we tipped him - before discovering its actually offensive to tip! WAHEY!) Then the next day he left a note at the hotel saying he wanted to come on fridays tour with us which had been organised by TTC, so we asked and he did.

He turned up on the friday and joined the 100 other people as we visited some tombs of some important chinese people, the great wall, the olympic stadium, a market, and an acrobat show. Then he came with us for an organised "farwell leaving party". The party was brilliant - free bar and all - but seriously I am never drinking gin again. EVER. ever. ever. ever. ever. The next day I woke up and thank heavens we didnt have to leave for Haerbin until 6.30pm cos I was sick all day. Luckily I was sharing a room with a lovely irish lady called Mary who looked after me! But im never usually sick on a hangover - so i came to the conclusion that I am DEFINATELY alergic to the juniper berrys in gin.

 

So, me and 9 other all set off to Haerbin, we endured a 10 hour over night train journey which was actually fantastic as we all had actual horizontal beds! And even though the ceiling was on our noses and there was no ladder to get up to the third bunk I managed to get a pretty decent kip. Then we woke up to a beautiful sunrise over our snow covered destination (we hadnt seen the sun or blue sky for 5 days due to the smog over beijing - wasnt overly impressed with the city). We were met by about 5 chinese people, who are all students at the university in the city who took us around haerbin and out for lunch. They are so so lovely and have devoted so much time to us! The main guy, angus (thats his english name) is so funny and just laughs all the time, the first thing he said to me is "you beautiful, you look film star" haha - i can assure you, after a disgusting hangover and 10 hour train journey i definately did NOT look like a film star.

 

Im living in a lovely flat with Mary and a guy called Will. Around the corner from us live two guys my age called PJ and Tom, then a bit further on is a flat with two girls my age; Elysse and Smita and a guy called Rob. And then further from that a girl called Becky and a guy called Simon - both my age. Haerbins pretty small though so were literally a 20 min bus journey away. Today we went into the city centre which is beautiful, it was -22 so the duffel coat came in useful and I bought some mittens. There is literally ice everywhere and HUGE ice sculpters in the middle of this one pedestrianised street. Massive lions and castles made out of ice blocks and lit up with coloured lights decorate the pavements. At dusk we went to the river which is so frozen you could apparently drive a double decker bus onto it full of people and it wouldnt break. So we had a walk on it which was crazy, slipping all over the place! They had sledges too, but instead of huskys they just had dogs. They had an ice rink on the river too but we didnt do that today. The river was lit up with strobe lights and everywhere in this city is covered with fairy lights which create different scenes - its like a permanent light festival. Also, because this city used to be owned by Russia, there is a massive russian influence with amazing architecture - it kinda feels like im in Europe!

 

So tommorow is my first day of teaching. Ive been given my schedule and apart from tommorow evening im only working weekends! I literally have 5 days off a week! Haha! Thats only for this month though, it may change next month. Everyones stressing about lesson plans, but at this stage im just gonna bowl up and see how much English  the kids know and work it out from there.

So, in summary its been a good experience so far, however, this may all change tomorrow when I have 60 pairs of eyes staring up at me! Ill keep you posted!

Thats all for now folks xx