So I'm ill. In China. It's a great experience - not. It would seem it is simply a summer cold, but I spent most of the morning in bed drinking tea with honey - mmm yum - & then went off to Medical College this afternoon. Surprisingly, they could understand me amidst the flem & coughing! God knows how! However, when I returned back to Aston, Rebecca, one of the Chinese girls who works here, was making Andy (who has 'man flu' - *Amie seethes as Andy copmlains of impending death whilst Amie sniffles & gets on with her life.....* such a typical man!!! - Andy I mean, not me!) & I some kind of ginger soup concoction... it's umm, what's the word... disgusting! Think I'll keep to the tried, tested & tasty method of blackcurrant lemsips before bed!
The big killer is that tomorrow is Wednesday which means, Shui Yang day, which mean, up at 5am. *winces* Ironically, it's the two Shui Yang-ers that are ill so tomorrow will be fun...
My question to you, however, is this: How is it that a woman continues her life as normal with only minor complaints of a nose which appears to be attempting the marathon run & a cough yet a man is 'dying of flu' when in reality, they both have exactly the same symptoms & illness?! I was not impressed...
This seems to be a recurring issue in the Aston household as, for example, Habby managed to Superglue her fingers together the other week. She laughed this off with a blazay comment about how her fingers were now peeling - delightful! The next day, Andy scurries into the living room fussing about having super glued his fingers together as well. However, this resulted in a wimpish squirm to Aiyi, the Aston cook; after much frantic motioning & attempts at bad Chinese (as Aiyi doesn't speak any English bar, 'potatoes' & 'OK') she fetched some random Chinese remedy to unstick his fingers. He then managed to do the same thing only a few hours later. I despair!
What do you want to do when you leave school?
This is the question I asked my students at Shui Yang last week. I received some of the most interesting answers including, Superman, a thief, a policeman so I can use an AK47 & a beggar. I was laughing quite a lot last week as the boys stood up to tell the class their answers. I asked AK47 boy if he had ever shot a real gun; when he replied no, I smiled & shocked them all by saying, "I've shot a real gun (not an AK47 mind)" I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head! - it's probably seen as un-lady-like here or something. Woops!
They all have problems with the 'th' sound here as well. So last week, a few of my students said, "I want to be a seif". I looked blankly & said, "A what?!" It took me a few minutes to realise what he meant! We did some pronunciation work then... Bet this week they still get it wrong!
Who would have thought it - Amie in the kitchen!
I'm finally learning to cook more than just a Seeds-of-Change jar & some pasta or a baked potato & chicken escalope! I know, it's hard to believe but I have actually managed to make a few good meals since I've been in China - & trust me, that is no easy matter! We can only find pork mince & we don't have an oven, so already, our possibilities have been dramatically cut down. I've managed a spag bol which was pretty damn good & we attempted chili concarne this weekend, but due to the lack of chili & kidney beans (which I wasn't too bothered by as I don't like them anyways!) it was more of a spicy mince with veg & rice thing. Tasted pretty good though.
Melissa has also taught me how to do fried rice which is definitely a meal to remember for when I get to uni next year! Very easy & only takes a minute. However, think I need to perfect it yet as I attempted this on my own on Friday and it was not quite as successful. I went about boiling the rice as you would do at home - all was well. Then Melissa entered the kitchen & it began to go down hill as she was shocked by how I was cooking the rice, telling me it was wrong & starts adding more water. The rice was then over done & more like a gloopy risotto rice... but without the herbs & just as plain, bland boiled Chinese rice... niiiice. Melissa then continues to try & add water - bad idea, as I & now Jenny & Habby were also trying to tell her. In the end, I took the pan away from her & dealt with it. I fried to veg but the rice was no longer fry-able. It was not a pleasant meal by any means.
It turned out that she had never seen rice cooked in a pan before as they all have rice cooker machine things & so that was why she was so confused. Despite clearing up this misunderstanding, she's never coming near the kitchen again whilst I'm in there!
I hasten to add that when I cooked rice the next night for the chili that wasn't chili, it was a great success without anyone's interfering.
Company BBQ
On our only full day off - Monday - we were asked to attend the company BBQ this week. Although we thought it would be a nice day out in the park, we were all a bit annoyed as we lost our only full day off which we would usually use for more helpful activities such as lesson planning, food shopping and such like.
It turned out to be an ok day actually, we played tennis - which Neil had never played before & managed to hit the ball directly at Melissa's hands which was holding Caroline's, now broken, camera & send it flying. It was a good day for him!! We also played badminton, which I am rubbish at, as the others found out the hard way - I stopped playing in the end! And after searching the whole of Wuhu, we had found a plastic bat & ball which nearly ended up in the lake a few times!
The BBQ itself was, Chinese to say the least! A small oblong metal box on the ground filled with newspaper & coal! We weren't entirely sure the meat would be safe to eat but actually it was fine. It was the potato salad (which Caroline "was up ve'y earee to make" as she kept reminding us) that disagreed with people. Ironic to say the least!
It was a bit sad in the park as there was a 'zoo' which consisted of 3 tigers in cages that were literally metal bars & they could barely stand up in; same with the lioness, skrawny black bear which was pacing & rocking from side to side - classic signs of dementeur in captive animals - & a horse & goat. I was mortified & nearly in tears when I saw them.
On a lighter note, I am home in 8 weeks, so see you all then - there are some times when I am counting down the days! Others I am not. I'm usually online around 6pm or 10pm my time - 11am or 3pm your time - on a Monday & some other days. Hopefully speak to some of you soon!
Zai jian
xx
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