Saturday 9th June

I was up bright and early today as it is supposed to be 33 degrees so we are spending the day by the pool. I was picked up at 10am and we picked up Amanda on the way and met Raena there. The weather forecast said that there were going to be thunderstorms in the afternoon so we only stayed until 2pm but it was just what I needed, being able to relax by the pool with my book. The temperature of the water was lovely and warm as well and up until lunch time we had the pool to ourselves. We had lunch at the hotel next to the pool which we hadn’t done before because its quite expensive and the food wasn’t even that nice!

After the pool we went to the supermarket to stock up for the week and then went home for a few hours before Janie’s leaving party at 6pm.

Just before 6pm I met up with Raena and Amanda again and we went to Janie’s apartment for her leaving party as she is not going to be here next year. Janie was giving away a lot of her things and I got a few books and a really nice handbag. We played a quiz game which was fun and it was nice to hang out with people I don’t normally see outside of school. We all left at around 9pm as everyone is really tired this week, I can feel it myself that I am constantly exhausted and I can see it in a lot of other teachers as well. We just have 19 days left to get through!

Friday 8th June

Today is the grades 1 and 2 field trip. We were supposed to be going to a place called “fun dazzle” which is like a big wacky warehouse, but because there have so many outbreaks of hand, foot and mouth disease we had to change it. We ended up going to a big park in the city (I’ve forgotten the name). The park is a lot like any normal park, except there is a lake, a science museum, a 3D cinema and a small theme park inside as well!

I was going with grade 2 and had two children that I was assigned to. When we got to the park the children were allowed to go on four rides for free. This would have been really good except that the school had picked the four rides and they were pretty lame compared to the roller coasters we could see around us.

After the rides we went in search of somewhere to have our picnic lunch, it was 33 degrees so it needed to be somewhere with a bit of shade. The school lunch that we had been given consisted of a sandwich (a bit like a cheap version of subway, but covered in mayonnaise, tomato, gherkins, everything I don’t like!) a pear, a bottle of water, a hard boiled egg and a yogurt (nothing like what we would call a yogurt back home). Pretty horrible so I only ate my pear!

After lunch we had a walk through the park and a parent paid for us to go on a boat ride on the lake which was nice. By this point it was almost time to get back on the buses so we stopped for an ice cream and then piled back on the bus back to school.

After school a bunch of us went out for dinner to The Avocado Tree for Mexican food, then home by 8pm. Report cards are due next week so everyone is stressed out and trying to get them done.

It was a lovely day, and I have decided that I want to go back to the theme park without the kids! I had put suncream on and still managed to get sunburn on my back and shoulders!

Saturday 2nd June

Today we had planned to spend the day by the pool but it looked a bit overcast, even though the weather forecast said that it would brighten up by lunchtime. We decided to go anyway and Raena, Doreenda, Amanda and I took a taxi to the hotel. The pool wasn’t very busy and by the time we got there the sun had come out and it was 29 degrees. We had a lovely day in and out of the pool and reading our books. At one point we were even doing acrobatics in the pool, we were doing handstands and then we had the baby pool to ourselves so we were doing human pyramids and stayed there until we started to get hungry at 4pm. There was a strip of restaurants on the way back home so we stopped there for a late lunch after a very chilled out day. We got back home at 6pm and Doreenda and I went to another teachers house as they had had a BBQ so we joined everyone there for drinks for the rest of the evening.

Friday 1st June

I woke up Wednesday morning feeling fine and didn’t need to go to the hospital which was great news! The rest of the week has dragged really, I’ve been in bed early each night and not much else has happened.

Today was teacher appreciation day and I was given lots of gifts from my students which was a big surprise as I didn’t realise it was a special day. From my grade 4 kids I was given lots of chocolate, a stationary set, a jigsaw puzzle, a bottle of Malibu and even more chocolate. From my grade 2 kids I was given chocolate, a silk scarf, an incense set, sweets and a picture which each child had written a thank you message on which is by far my favourite present! I was also given a ruler from one of the kids from my grade 1 class which was really cute, it’s been like it is my birthday, what a great start to the weekend. 

Tuesday 29th May

On Monday we had VIP visitors from Hong Kong visiting the school and I was given the task of making folders for each visitor for the meeting in the afternoon. I worked all morning and through my lunch making these folders (12 in total) and I was so hungry I felt sick by the time I had finished by 2.15pm. I had a bite of the sandwich that I had bought for lunch and felt even sicker and could feel a headache coming on so I lay down behind my desk. I felt so ill that my boss sent me home and I slept from 4pm until 7pm when one of my friends phoned saying they had bought me a sandwich for dinner and they were outside my apartment. I still felt really sick and couldn’t eat it so I went back to bed. I had set my alarm for the next day as my visa expired today and I had to go to the visa office at 8.15am. If it wasn’t for this I would have stayed home as I felt sick every time I moved. I got to the visa office and was back at school by 10.30am and I went to see the school nurse. Now at the moment there are a few cases of hand, foot and mouth and one of the symptoms is feeling sick and loss of appetite, along with spots on your hands and feet (which I didn’t have). The nurse thought I might have hand, foot and mouth disease and wanted me to go to the hospital to see a doctor but as I couldn’t find my medical insurance I didn’t want to do that so I went home instead. I slept all day and by 4pm I felt a bit better and also hungry (I hadn’t eaten anything since Sunday) so I went out for dinner with a few other teachers for Amanda’s birthday. I was back in bed by 8pm and slept through until the next day.

Sunday 27th May

I was just dropping off to sleep last night and I heard the tell tale sound of a mosquito. When you are just falling asleep I don’t think there is a worse sound because you are now faced with two options. A) cover your whole body with the duvet and hope it doesn’t get in during the night and bite you
B) get up and sit in wait with mosquito repellent until you see the mosquito
I chose option B and I was sat for a good 10 minutes waiting for the mosquito, but then I had peace of mind that I wouldn’t wake up with multiple bites the next day. The mosquitoes have only come out this week really and that was the first that I have seen in my apartment.
I managed to sleep in until 7am and then at 11am I was picked up to go to a hotel that had an outside pool and sunbeds as it was forecast to be 36 degrees today. I went with 3 others and we lay by the pool for most of the afternoon. It was really good to just do nothing and read my book and chat with the girls for the day and even better to dip in the pool when it got too hot. By 4pm the sun had gone behind the hotel so we decided to leave and go for dinner and then home. A very relaxing day, just what we all needed!

Saturday 26th May

Today I managed to have a lie in until 8.30am. Now if you had told me that this was a lie in a few years ago, I would have thought you were crazy! Seen as my day usually starts when the sun wakes me up through my curtains between 5.30-6am, today was bliss!

The driver we use all the time (Mr Wang) picked me up at 9.30am and we went to pick up Amanda and Raena to go to Badachu. Now I had been told about Badachu when I was in Shanghai in October by another tourist. I had been told that it was a temple on a mountain and when you get to the top there is a toboggan that you can take back down the mountain. This was the bit that I was looking forward to!

It took us over an hour to get there as the traffic was quite bad and by this point it was already 34 degrees. In my guidebook it had said that there was a cable car up the mountain but it wasn’t very well sign posted so Raena (who speaks the best Chinese) asked a man which way we went to get the cable car and he went to ask someone for us. He then came back to tell us that he thought it was down the hill, but then surpassed our expectations and ran down the hill to check for us! Now if this was the other way around and a Chinese tourist had asked me which way something was and I didn’t know, I wouldn’t go and ask someone and I certainly wouldn’t run down a hill in 34 degrees heat and check for them! We were really grateful that he did though and he walked with us to the cable car to check we got there ok, then asked for a photo with us which was funny.

We took the cable car up the mountain, which we were glad we did because it took 15 minutes in the cable car, can you imagine how long that would have taken hiking?! We then walked round the temple at the top and had an ice cream from the little shack up there. It was a clear day so the views were really good, then we got the toboggan back down the mountain which was really fun. At the bottom there was a nunnery and another temple that we looked around and then we got our driver to pick us up again and went back into the city for lunch.

We went to a BBQ restaurant that Raena had been to before which was really good and sat in the sunshine enjoying a Dr Pepper (a very rare thing in China, we were excited to see it on the menu). We then went back to Houshayu and I was home by 7.30pm and started reading a book that I have borrowed called “Chicken for the soul: teachers tales” from another teacher.

I am really enjoying these day trips and that is another place that I have been wanting to go to ticked off my list and also my new thing/place for this week.