Friday 9th December

Last night Doreenda, Amanda and Raena came round for a surprise visit to cheer me up and so we could order a takeaway for dinner which was really nice of them. I don’t know if the spicy food helped, but I felt much better this morning and only have toothache which is a bit of a relief as yesterday every time I blew my nose I got a nosebleed.

Today as I was getting ready for work disaster struck! I was putting my eyeshadow on and then knocked my favourite Barry M eyeshadow down the toilet! For a second I considered fishing it out, but it had gone round the bend and I did not want to go putting my hand round there! I am so upset that I was so clumsy.

When I got to school I had a secret santa gift waiting for me from yesterday, it looks like another tea thing and is sellotaped to a jasmine drink thing. Whatever it is, it does not look nice! But there were talks about going out for dinner and drinks after work to the new English bar we went to the other day as it is happy hour from 5pm-8pm which should be good. I had a few easy English lessons with grade 1A in the morning and then a easy English lesson with grade 2C in the afternoon, then maths with 1A and an ESL lesson at the end of the day with 3 of the lower level English children from 1A. Not a bad end to the week!

At 3.30pm we all met at the school gate and got a taxi to Pinnacle Plaza and went to “The swan with two necks”. We realised that it was the open party and that instead of happy hour it was going to be an open bar from 5-8pm. We all ordered food and at 5pm the place was packed and everyone was making the most of free drinks. I stayed on soft drinks as I am still not feeling 100% but there were a few people who were quite drunk by 8pm which was funny to watch. I shared a taxi home with Amanda at 9.30pm, after making plans to meet up with everyone for my leaving do tomorrow.

Thursday 8th December

On Tuesday I started with what felt like really bad toothache on the upper right side of my mouth, it got progressively worse throughout the day which made me panic as the dentists here are even more expensive than the ones at home!
By Wednesday it had gotten so bad that during the night, every time I rolled onto that side the pain woke me up and I was wide awake from 5am. By this point the whole right side of my face was really painful to touch. When I got to school I googled my symptoms (apparently it could be a heart attack) but the most likely was that I had blocked Maxillary sinuses - affection of the maxillary sinuses causes an ache in the upper jaw (maxilla) and teeth. The cheeks become tender to touch. Apparently among others, this is brought on by persistent cold and flu symptoms, flights and high pollution.
Throughout the day this got worse until it felt like my right side of my face was throbbing. Painkillers made it a bit better but I felt awful being in lessons trying to be cheerful. I couldn’t face eating anything either at lunchtime so just sat at my desk feeling miserable. After school I went to Euro Plaza to try and get some antibiotics, but as no one speaks English (although I did find someone who spoke a little bit) and all of the medicine is in Chinese characters and the fact that I am allergic to penicillin, I didn’t want to risk it. Especially when the pharmacist said there was no penicillin in one of the antibiotics she was offering me, but there was the ingredients in English and I could see it said penicillin and the Pharmacist said “how allergic are you? It’s only a little bit”. The truth is, I have no idea how allergic I am to penicillin, but I sure don’t want to find out here in China, where I don’t even know where the nearest hospital is or how much of an allergic reaction to something I was told had no penicillin in I would have and how much that minor error would cost me in hospital bills!
Today (Thursday) I woke up with the right side of my face throbbing so decided to stay at home today and try and sleep it off. I have run out of Beechams and cold n flu stuff (and will be flying home before any parcels arrived if Matt posted more over) so I have just been taking painkillers which sort of helps. I just have to get through the next 11 days and then I will be able to go and see my own doctor back home. Looks like I am not going to be much fun on my leaving do on Saturday as well, when all I want to do is sleep!

Monday 5th December

Monday 5^th December

Today the smog was so bad that I could not see the ground from my fourth floor apartment, this is by far the worse that I have seen it, with the pollution level reportedly being 450.

API	Air Pollution Level	Health Implications
0 - 50	Excellent	No health implications
51 -100	Good	No health implications
101-150	Slightly Polluted	Slight irritations may occur, individuals with breathing or heart problems should reduce outdoor exercise.
151-200	Lightly Polluted	Slight irritations may occur, individuals with breathing or heart problems should reduce outdoor exercise.
201-250	Moderately Polluted	Healthy people will be noticeably affected. People with breathing or heart problems will experience reduced endurance in activities. These individuals and elders should remain indoors and restrict activities.
251-300	Heavily Polluted	Healthy people will be noticeably affected. People with breathing or heart problems will experience reduced endurance in activities. These individuals and elders should remain indoors and restrict activities.
300+	Severely Polluted	Healthy people will experience reduced endurance in activities. There may be strong irritations and symptoms and may trigger other illnesses. Elders and the sick should remain indoors and avoid exercise. Healthy individuals should avoid out door activities.

Beijing International Airport was also closed because of the smog.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16034087

Today was also the day I turned down the job offer of being kept on at Beijing International Bilingual Academy until the end of the school year in June. I have made a lot of really good friends here and I really enjoy the job (most of the time anyway) but I have to return to the UK for my PGCE interview, graduation and then a family holiday to Las Vegas so I would have to pay for flights back to China in February and for an extended Visa and I haven’t got anywhere near the money to do that.

Other than that, I had quite a good day today, despite sounding so hoarse and full of a cold. I had a few small gifts from my secret Santa waiting for me from the two days that I was off sick, a hot chocolate, a can of some kind of Chinese milk drink and a small bag of Chinese pick n mix candy. I had some productive lessons with grade 1 in the morning and again with grade 2 in the afternoon and the last lesson was spent making snowflakes for the display board which the children really enjoyed doing. Actually, I think I was into it the most, I love any opportunity to get creative!

After school I went for dinner with 4 other teachers to Michael's place, an Italian restaurant at Euro Plaza and then we went for homemade ice cream at another place in Euro Plaza which was nice. Then it was home and an early night to try and shift this cold before my leaving party on Saturday.

Sunday 4th December

I slept much better last night I had asked for softer pillows and I am feeling a bit better) and I got up at 7am to go have a look around. I went to the park round the corner at 7.30am and had a look around, I wanted to walk along the city wall but apparently that didn’t open until 9am. I then returned to the hostel for breakfast, pack my things and wait for Sam to say goodbye. I thought my flights were later than they actually were and because it’s an hour to get to the airport I had to leave at 9.15am to get my 12pm flight back to Beijing.

I got to the airport with no problems and it was only when I was about to board that I remembered the black terracotta warrior miniature statue and I realised just how naive I had been and how easy it could be to have been tricked into being a drugs mule! Mum, if you are reading this, I take it all back from that time that man gave you that green stuff that turned out to be seaweed in Rome as a present and you brought it home and we all thought you had been naive and it could have been weed you were smuggling into the country! Maybe it’s a family thing?! We just look (and are) gullible enough to fall for the “it’s a gift” routine! Luckily when I landed in Beijing there was no strange man at the baggage claim demanding his terracotta warrior statue back and no Chinese police ready to arrest me for drug trafficking, so I assume that after all my paranoia, the terracotta warrior miniature statue given to me by the tour guide was exactly as it seemed, a gift! Which is quite a relief really, as I don’t have time for a Chinese prison and the inconvenience of explaining my whole naivety to the Chinese police (through a translator I might add, which brings up the issue of things being lost in translation) and possibly a criminal record, what with my PGCE interview coming up and my graduation. That’s not to say that without those plans it would have been ok, but let’s face it, it would have made a funny story to tell the grand kids in years to come!

But anyway, none of this happened and I got through to the taxi rank and got a taxi back to my apartment where it felt good to be home again. I had a text off Jodie asking if her and Milzie could come and use my shower again as they still haven’t had their hot water fixed, and a text off Sam saying what a good weekend it had been.

Jodie and Milzie came round at 7.30pm with dumplings and fried rice from the dumpling restaurant round the corner and we caught up on each others weekends and they used the shower. Bit of an early night to catch up on sleep and so that I am in work bright and early tomorrow. It will be interesting to see what my secret Santa has left for me on my desk from Thursday and Friday.

Saturday 3rd December

Pit 1

Pit 3
Pit 2

I woke up to the sound of my alarm at 7.30am after what was probably the worst night’s sleep I have had since I arrived in China. It was a combination of having the hardest pillows I have ever seen and me still feeling ill with a cough, sore throat and cold, added with the fact that there was a light shining through my window directly onto my pillow. I felt so tired but needed to get up and ready to meet Sam for breakfast. We had the same waitress as the night before and ordered a cooked breakfast to start the day and were advised by staff to wrap up with lots of layers as it was going to be a cold day. At 9am we met the tour guide in reception and 27 of us piled onto the bus. 15 minutes into the journey the tour guide picked up her microphone and shouted at one of the guys who had fallen asleep to wake up. The tour guides name was Jaja and told us that her English name was Lady Jaja which had us all laughing, then she said that she was very single and raised her eyebrows at Sam which was hilarious as Sam is gay. The tour guide was very loud and over the top and Sam and I were in stitches saying that it was like the tv programme coach trip when she asked us all to introduce ourselves. It made the 90 minute bus drive go very quickly.

Our first stop was at the Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s tomb which was a complete waste of time, all there was too see was a big mountain which you couldn’t climb or go round, just look at from a viewing deck. The tomb is underground surrounded by a moat of mercury so no one knows what’s in there as it is too dangerous to open up the tomb (I’d like to know HOW they know it’s a moat of mercury, if that’s the case). We walked 5 minutes from the bus to the viewing deck, were given a bit of information on the tomb and then 5mins to look around then back to the bus. Just something to pad out the tour and I suppose as Sam pointed out, to get an idea of how far away (1.5km) the tomb was from the terracotta warriors.

We got back on the bus and drove 3minutes to where the terracotta warriors were and had to pass through two security gates, providing our ticket and form of I.D. at each one. The terracotta warriors are found in 3 pits and our tour guide said it was best to start with the least impressive first, so we started at pit 2. Pit 2 had 2000 terracotta warriors discovered in it by farmers digging a well in 1974. The story goes that the Emperor was so paranoid that he had workers dig this pit to put the army of warriors in, each facing the east, to protect him in the after life. The emperor then didn’t want anyone to know where his tomb was so while the workers were in the pits, he had them sealed with the workers still inside, like an underground bunker. Unfortunately over the years earthquakes have caused the ceiling of the pits to collapse and shattered all but 5 of the terracotta warriors in pit 2. The remaining 5 terracotta warriors are on display in glass cases round the sides of pit 2 for you to see. If I am honest, when I saw pit 2 I thought to myself “I have paid to come and see this?!” It was highly disappointing after the photos that I had seen.

The tour guide then took us through to pit 3, a much smaller pit but with 658 in tact terracotta warriors and horses, it was much better to see and there were much better photo opportunities. This was a bit more like it! We then walked round to pit 1 which looked the size of an air hanger and was much more impressive. This was more like what I had imagined and you could see rows upon rows of the 6000 terracotta warriors that were in this pit. Each Terracotta warrior was said to have a different face and detailing, making each warrior unique. It was amazing to see really as to how that was possible, I would have hated to have been the person with that job to check each one! The tour guide said that the area was still being excavated and in 40-60 years there could be far more pits uncovered. I am not quite sure as to why the whole area hasn’t been checked yet as you would think that they would have started looking for the rest straight away?

From entering pit 2 until we had come out of pit 1 took 2 hours and our tour guide informed us that it was now time to go to the cinema to watch a 20minute film about the terracotta warriors, which was interesting. The cinema was inside a big shop selling you all sorts of touristy terracotta warrior things, at extortionate prices. After the film was finished it was 2.30pm and our tour guide announced that it was lunch time and we were off to a restaurant near the entrance that had won awards for it’s food. On our way she stopped Sam and I and said that she had a gift for me and gave me a black terracotta warrior miniature statue. I felt really touched by that but it didn’t look like she had given anyone else one so Sam kept joking that it was full of cocaine and someone was going to stop me at Beijing airport and ask for it back!

We got to the restaurant and the room was freezing, the food was lukewarm and really wasn’t that nice, Sam and I barely ate anything. I am curious as to what kinds of awards they may have won. After lunch we piled back on the bus and headed back to the hostel.

We arrived back at the hostel at 5pm and a few of us went to the cafe for a coffee (mango juice for me, everyone was baffled by the fact that I am from England but don’t like tea or coffee). Then Sam and I decided to explore a bit and find somewhere for dinner as we were both quite hungry by this point. We wandered the streets for a while and stumbled upon what looked like a restaurant. We were escorted to the lifts and taken to the fourth floor, then entered the poshest looking restaurant I have seen in China. We got a bit giddy and were taking photos of us with the ipad menu and getting weird looks from the staff so we said that it was our anniversary and we wanted to remember every moment, which we were in fits of giggles over, but it did get us free drinks! At one point Sam even said to me “take a picture of me buttering the bread!” which at the time seemed the natural thing to do, but afterwards seemed a really bizarre thing to be taking a photo of! The food was amazing, we both had a beef steak with peppercorn sauce and it was delicious. It was one of those restaurants where the portions aren’t very big but they are well presented and the food is to a high standard and we both agreed that it was the best meal we have had in a long while. We had such a nice meal chatting away and giggling about pretending it was our 5^th anniversary, it was such a fun meal. We looked at desserts but couldn’t really justify spending that much on ice cream so we paid and left and went to McDonald's across the road for a mcflurry! We then wandered round Xi’an centre for a bit and then returned to the hostel to look at my photos from what turned out to be an amazingly fun day.

Pit 2 Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/69851917@N06/sets/72157628295187183/

Pit 3 Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/69851917@N06/sets/72157628295225033/

Pit 1 Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/69851917@N06/sets/72157628295276709/

Friday 2nd December

Yesterday I was off sick from work and today I am off as well with this sore throat, cold, cough, pounding headache and everything aching. Luckily I have the hot water bottle that Matt brought over for me and I am on the last sachet of beechams. I am feeling very sorry for myself and wishing I was at home where it is easier to get medicine that I know what it is, everything here is in Chinese characters.

On a brighter note, I was woken up by a text this morning from one of the other teachers saying that my wish had come true. I didn’t have a clue what she was on about until she text me back saying that it was snowing! I had kept saying that I wish it would snow so I can get some photos of the great wall in the snow. Unfortunately I am not going to be in Beijing this weekend as I am flying to Xi’an tonight until Sunday to see the terracotta warriors. Although the way I am feeling right now, the last thing I feel like doing is getting on a flight!

The flight actually wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I expected it to be, it was 566 miles from Beijing to Xi’an and it took 2 hours, although at one point I didn’t think it was going to happen at all as a lot of flights had been delayed by the snow! Luckily my flight was only delayed by 30 minutes and I landed at Xi’an at 8.30pm. I had arranged an airport pick up by emailing the hostel and as I came through arrivals there was a sign saying Sam Evans (my friend who had booked the hostel on his card) I spent the 40 minute journey to the hostel trying to explain to the driver that my name wasn’t Sam, but the driver kept saying “look Sam” and pointing to buildings and saying a load of stuff in Chinese. I gave up in the end. Then when I got to the hostel they greeted me with “Hello Sam!” and I had to try to explain all over again, they finally got it when they took a copy of my passport and my friend, the real Sam, arrived 30 minutes later. In between this time I realised that I didn’t have enough cash on me and they don’t take cards so I had to go and find a cash machine (luckily there were a few just around the corner) and managed to get my first proper glimpse of Xi’an. The buildings were beautiful and from what I have seen so far, this is what I imagined China to look like.

I went to the restaurant at the hostel to wait for Sam to arrive for food as I realised that I hadn’t eaten anything all day, but was told that the restaurant closed at 11pm. By 10.55pm Sam still hadn’t arrived but was nearly at the hostel so I ordered for us with 2 minutes to spare! The waitress wasn’t happy and to say that the chef wasn’t happy would be an understatement, he stormed through the restaurant to the kitchen and the waitress looked at me like “now look what you have done”. When Sam arrived a minute later we fell about laughing at the whole thing. After dinner we went to reception and booked the tour for the terracotta warriors tomorrow and then spent what was left of the evening catching up on what we have been up to. We decided to call it a night by midnight as we had to be ready for breakfast at 8am and ready to leave at 9am.

Wednesday 30th November

Even though I was in bed by 7pm, I barely slept last night I felt so rough. I have a sore throat that feels like it is closing up and everything aches. I seriously considered calling in sick today but forced myself to get out of bed. When I got to school I found out that the second grade teacher that I teach English for had called in sick so it was a good job I had gone in to cover her classes.

I started the day with grade 2C with reading, I didn’t really know what the morning routine was and only had a outline of what I was supposed to do in each lesson. I found the register and realised that there were 4 children missing, even though I had seen them earlier that day, not the best start to the day! I went to report it to the office and then left them to find the missing kids as I had to be straight into the grade 1 classroom as we had an open day at parents who wanted their children to come to the school were observing the lesson. After the lesson I took the class for lunch and then I had my lunch and tried to catch up on some of my marking of the grade 1A homework. Before I knew it, it was 12.45pm and I had to go and collect grade 2C from the playground and take them up to their lesson. I find this class quite a challenging class anyway but today they were bouncing off the walls and before the lesson had even begun another teacher came to tell me that 4 of the boys had been messing about in the bathroom. The lesson I was covering for didn’t go very well as not many children were on task as the parent that was supposed to come in and read with two groups and me to read with the other two groups didn’t turn up so the lesson didn’t go according to the plan I had been given. The lesson I would have usually taken went well until the spelling section as the children had handed in their spelling books to the teacher that was off sick and I couldn’t find them, but by this point a lot of children were completely off task, behaviour really was not up to standard today and I had had enough. I made the children sit in silence completing the work that I had set and said that for every person that talked I would put a mark next to their name and every mark would mean a minute knocked off their playtime. After the 5 minutes, 3 of the children had marks next to their name so I let everyone else go and kept those children in to make up the minute. I think this really shocked the kids as they are not used to me doing that! It really was a bad lesson but when I was going through their work they had completed more in the 5 minutes of silence than in the whole lesson so it had paid off! I had a quick break then I was back with grade 1A and as it was the last lesson of the month we watched Mr Bean and ate popcorn which the children loved, a much better end to the day!

After school I went for dinner with a few other teachers, even though I had been feeling ill all day and then came back to my apartment where I was in bed by 7pm again.