So Amy and I had our first teachers day on the 10th Sept in China! The school took all of the teachers out for dinner to a german BBQ buffet, we took over the whole restaurant! I’m not sure exactly how many teachers there are but I was number 70 and there were still more teachers to come! It was a nice way to celebrate teachers day, I definitely think we should have a teachers day in England too!!!
My 20th birthday in China was so much fun!! I started off my day by opening my presents from my host family, a lovely bag, necklace and bracelet 🙂 then I went off to school for the morning to teach, where I found a gorgeous pink panda cake on my desk from L’Ardenia which was very yummy! I then came home opened my cards from home (thank you to everyone who sent me a card it meant a lot :)) Me and Amy then got ready together for my party that my host family were throwing me later on that evening.
The party was so much fun lots of my host family’s friends came over and brought me a big chocolate cake and presents! Amy’s host family also came and Jason her host brother brought me a cute present 🙂 Cindy and her friends made so much delicious food and we drank a lot of beer haha! Afterwards me and Amy headed for a night out in Salitun and celebrated my birthday into the early hours of the morning!!! (hangovers are definitely just as bad in China)
I felt very spoilt and had a great day thank you to everyone who wished me happy birthday from home and thank you to my lovely host family and Amy for making my birthday in China lots of fun 🙂
The summer palace was beautiful! It had some gorgeous views and I will definitely be going again on a clearer day as when you are at the back of the palace by the Tower of Buddhist Incense there is a huge lake with lots of boats sailing on it and a big island in the middle of it which on a clear day I think you’d be able to see for miles! Here are just a few photos from the Summer Palace I will upload more in an album soon!
This is my name written in Chinese 🙂
The bridge in Suzhou street within the summer palace
Me and Amy by the big lake!
Inside the tower of Buddhist Incense
Having a medical check in China was definitely another new experience for me!
Apparently everyone who works in China has to have a full body medical check, however, they told me that because I wouldn’t be eating at the kindergarten that I wouldn’t have to have one. So for 5 weeks working at the kindergarten I thought that I wouldn’t have to have one. Once Amy arrived in Beijing this wasn’t the case, they told me that on Saturday I would be having my full body medical check! ☹ (I don’t even want to eat at the school!!!!!) But apparently that didn’t matter.
When I arrived at the hospital with Amy and Jaycee (a lady from ACIC) I was already nervous because I knew I would be having a blood test! I had my blood pressure taken in a room whilst there was another person having it done too, the people in the line outside opened the door to look at me having this done! Haha! (Apparently there isn’t much privacy when you’re visiting the doctor here!)
I thought that was bad enough being watched by a couple of people at a door but no, we went downstairs to the ground floor where we had our blood taken. This was strange, we lined up in line with lots of other people and when you had your blood taken you put your arm through a kind of window where there was a nurse on the other side (if your finding this hard to imagine – imagine waiting in line at the bank and then putting your arm through where you’d usually give your money). This was even worse because by the time it was my turn I was panicking so people were looking at me even more!
When I had an x-ray done, I couldn’t believe how fast it was! I literally walked into a room stood on a ledge and a few seconds later it was finished!
I noticed that everything in a medical check is done a lot quicker here than it would be done at home! It’s very organised each test has its own kind of station that you go to one after another. (no messing around!!)
So when I said to people that I was going to be living in China for 6 months most of them would reply with ‘you’ll be eating cats and dogs!’ There is no way you’ll be able to stay a vegetarian!
However luckily this hasn’t been the case, when I first got here I thought that I was going to struggle A LOT but actually since I have lived with my host family I have really enjoyed the Chinese food I have been given! I am eating a lot of rice, at least twice a day sometimes 3 times a day, I’m not yet sick of it though haha! They definitely cook rice better than the UK it’s got a different texture it’s stickier than rice from home.
So far I haven’t eaten anything to strange (I think this is due to me not eating meat!) Amy however, has tried fish eye soup, chicken claws, turtle soup and duck tongue. She’s decided that the best way to do it is to not ask what she’s eating!
I have tried new things in China as well.. but most of these have been yummy not like some of Amy’s meat experiences! I’ve tried lots of different teas, glass noodles (they are see-through cold noodles), red bean (this is a sweet bean that is used a lot in China), tofu, dumplings and other things that I’m not sure what they’re called so I’ll take some pictures and post them for you!
Being a vegetarian in China so far has actually been much easier than I first thought, there is always something I can eat when I’m out and about. I have also learnt ‘no meat’ in Chinese, which is very helpful, and when they don’t understand my pronounciation I’ve got it written down to show them! (At least I’m trying to speak the language haha!) However I have realised that I can’t be as fussy as I used to be with things I don’t like.. I now eat cucumber A LOT!
Chinese food definitely doesn’t lack flavour, they have a wide variety of different dishes, and a lot of these dishes are cold!
My host mum is a very good cook and she makes a lot of her own food, homemade dumplings, pancakes and lots of vegetable dishes. They also grow their own vegetables cucumbers, green beans, tomatoes and peppers.
I haven’t witnessed any cats or dogs being eaten like people say however I have seen bugs, starfishes and seahorses on sticks! Ewwwww! Safe to say I didn’t try them! Some of the bugs on the sticks were still alive!!!! When I’ve been into the supermarkets there has been chicken claws (they don’t look like how I thought they’d look..not sure how I thought they would look?!), a whole duck, I’ve seen frogs and turtles alive (I just had to think of it like a pet shop and really they’d be taken home for a pet and not to be killed and eaten!!).
Chinese people seem to eat big breakfasts big lunches and big dinners..so much for losing weight in China!!! Meals usually come with soup rice then lots of dishes to share!
Where do I start..
The buses – in the morning are ridiculous! They are packed with people and even though people are squished against the doors more people still pile themselves on! The first time I had to get the bus in the morning I didn’t get on 3 because I was too scared to push my way on haha! Everyone was looking at me (even more than usual) I think they were thinking why isn’t this girl getting on there’s loads of room! I am getting used to pushing myself on now and I’ve realised if you don’t throw yourself on you don’t get on the bus.
The subway – the subway stations are very big and usually busy. However they are surprisingly easy to use, luckily they have the stations and signs in English so I have managed to get about okay so far! My experiences on the subway so far haven’t been that busy, but I have heard that they can be worse than the buses at times! It was funny on the subway the first time I got on one because you line up to get on them, each door has to lines. So I presumed that you let the people get off the subway before you get on it like back home, this doesn’t happen in China, people are piling on the train whilst people are still trying to get off it. (I did get some funny looks for this!)
Taxis – I am still yet to get a taxi alone, I’m a bit scared because even though you can hand the driver an address and they will take you there, I have heard this isn’t always the case, sometimes they will say they know where they are going but they actually don’t, if this happened to me id have no idea where I was or how to tell them where I wanted to go haha! Apparently taxi drivers here can be a bit temperamental, sometimes they will pull over when you put your hand out other times they just won’t bother!
I’m not sure what to call them but they look like this:
Basically you get in the back or side of them depending on the style of it. It’s like a cheaper taxi, it’s a car (I think) but it sounds like a mo-ped. I have witnessed one of these falling over in the street and the man driving it had to climb out of the window and pick it back up! (a bit scary!!) don’t think i’ll be getting in one of them again!!
The driving in China is mental I mean MENTAL there seems to be no rules on the road, for example the green man is showing so you’d think you could cross the road safely but NO, the cars can still turn and bikes are still coming at you! There is a lot of beeping of horns in China, I think they use these instead of their brakes at times. Cars/Bikes/Mo-peds can literally pull out of anywhere, it doesn’t seem to matter if there is another car coming along. My host dad asked me the other week if I could drive Elena and I to school, I laughed with shock and explained that I don’t think I can drive in China!!
Just a quick post.. I went shopping over the weekend. Wow it is sooooo good! I met Kathryn another intern from the company who has been here since February so she could show me a few places, she took me to one of the markets, there were so many different things to buy clothes, shoes, bags, electronics, traditional Chinese gifts, makeup, perfumes and much more!
I bought some Vans for just £5, a Mac eyeliner for £2, a Mac blusher for £2, a Mac lipstick for £2, a Links of London bracelet for £2.50, a leather Jimmy Choo bag for £20 and a cute little owl bag for £5. Everything really is very cheap as long as you can haggle!
This week has flown by, i’ve loved starting to teach properly this week, my classes are lovely. The children are between 3 – 5 years.
My first lesson I was introducing myself and getting to know the children so we started hello my name is Lorena what’s you name the middle  classes got this and would tell me what their names were. The small class however, thought that there name was Lorena too and were saying my name is Lorena, so I had lots of Lorena’s in my class haha! (toooo cute)
By the time I have finished my 5 classes at 11:10 I am so hot, the classrooms do have air-conditioning but it isn’t always put on, they mainly just put on 2 fans in the classroom and all this jumping around, dancing and singing i’m doing it gets so hot!
The middles classes that I am teaching actually know quite a lot of English words, I am teaching them how to use these words in a sentence for example this week we’ve been doing this is a… next week I am going to work on I like.. I don’t like.. and I am going to the…
The teaching here is very different from home as I have said before, it is very structured compared to back home, it is generally a lot stricter and if the children in the lesson get to loud the child can be taken out of it or made to stand out.
I am aching from dancing to I’m a little teapot all week teaching them the song and the actions. The children love singing, dancing and playing games!
This is the kind of plan I use for a lesson plan if anyone is interested in that:
Teacher:
Class:
Date:
Length:
Subject:
Objective/s:
Greeting:
Song:
Main Body of Lesson:
Game/s:
Song/s:
Recap:
Goodbye:
I’ll keep you posted on what else I’ve been up to throughout this week!
I have had a very busy week this week observing in the school I will be working in from tomorrow. I have been given my classes I will be teaching from 8:30 until 11:10 which doesn’t sound like much at all, but in that time I have 5 classes to fit in! I have four middle aged classes and 1 small class.
I got to teach one of the baby classes which are children aged from 2 -3 years, they were adorable! I found out just before lunch that I would be teaching and then taught after lunch, I was a bit nervous but it went fine!
The kindergarten is very big and has 3 floor with different classes, the children start school at around 8 and finish school around 4, they have lots of different lesson’s during this time. They have a long lunch time of a couple of hours maybe a bit more, this is where they can eat there lunch and have a sleep.
On friday I went into the ACIC offices to prepare my planning for the week ahead and print any resources I need, I also chose some books that I can use for my lessons to teach the children. I had a long journey getting there which took over 2 hours to get there, I first took the bus, imagine the most crowed bus you can then triple it and people are still throwing themselves on! CRAZY! After about 4 buses going past I managed to throw myself on, I was on the bus for about 18 stops, after that I got on the subway which I was thinking would be as busy but surprisingly it wasn’t to bad and I managed to arrive successfully at my destination!
Each evening I have spent with my host family we have been out on their bikes, been food shopping, ate meals together, Elena’s taught be Ti Quan Do (not sure how to spell it!) and we have been making dances together. The whole family have been so welcoming and kind to me throughout my first week living with them.
I am looking forward to starting teaching this week, I will post and let you all know how I get on 🙂
So basically the family get a new kitten, me being a real animal lover finds it hard to not really stroke or hold her remembering what the nurse at home had told be about if they scratch or bite you they could have anything. So I was doing really well not really going near the cat too much. Then the family all go out so the cat won’t stop meowing so I give her a stroke and she keeps following me to my room I then fall into the trap of picking her up and giving her a cuddle. The next thing I know I see I have a small scratch on my arm which I didn’t even feel, when my family arrive home I show them the scratch and they take me straight to the hospital. I started to really panic not really understanding what is going to happen or how serious this was.
We arrive at the hospital with me in tears, very worried and the family trying to calm me down saying its going to be okay, I then understand that I have to have vaccinations, and if you know me I’m not good with injections at the best of times let alone when I don’t actually know whats going on! The people in the hospital couldn’t speak English so I found it really hard to explain anything that I wanted to. They had to put something on the scratch which stung then I went to the next room and had to have my injection the family were so kind and all held my hands! I have to go back for 4 MORE injections over the month WAHHHH!
Lesson learnt, don’t touch ANY animals, however cute they may be!..
