Chinese Life part 2

Hallo there my friend!
here is so unbelievably humid that you must forgive my spelling mistakes but the keys are slippery (good one, isn't it?).

Anyway, where were we?
Oh yeah, my first day. on Monday I didn't work, so I was planning to sleep and sleep and sleep. what else? But obviously I was wrong. First, I had to call my family to tell them that I was somehow surviving, and to do that I had to get up at 6. then, when I was gladly falling asleep again, my colleague stood under my balcony calling my name. What? I go downstairs and she tells me (at 7am) "Should we go for breakfast?" what? "Mmh...maybe a bit later..." "Oh you know, breakfast is served between 6 and 8" and that is the deepest and darkest hour of the night for me "I see" I said "I think I'll skip it for today". I haven't been since. but she forced me to go with her at lunchtime, at 11am.
see how Chinese work? breakfast is actually a midnight snack; lunch, between 11 - 12, is breakfast; dinner, between 4 - 5.30pm, is actually lunch. and then? I throw some dumplings in the microwave at 9pm and I feel better. The Chinese way...

Anyway! we get to the canteen and I see a room as big as my village (no, seriously...it looked like a stadium) packed, and I mean PACKED, with minuscules children, all the same, running and screaming up and down hunting for food. I stood still. What? Song smiled and I followed her to the teachers quarter, as a big as a napkin, where more less 200 teachers were packed sucking their lunch. Chinese eat sooo fast that in 5 minutes they've swallowed a bowl of various stuff (normally rice+hot vegetables+hot meat+spicy soup). I sat with my bowl and I attacked with my chopsticks. Ya hi! To be honest the food was GORGEOUS on the Italians' face (on my face, then...mmmh...). it's so tasty and varied...all this unknown things floating in I don't know what, but for some reason soooooo good. I loved it. Obviously we had to eat in 5 minutes, giving me a very heavy stomach all day. I'll never get used to that! After lunch Song forced me to have a rest (?)...and I actually needed it, and a lot of hot tea to free my stomach from the massive ball of stuff I had in it..."I'll come to pick you up at 5 for dinner" food again???? "Ok...see you in a bit" and I went back in to burp loudly!

Later we went to see my future classes. and a long shiver chilled my spine.
Ok, there are 2 big buildings with more less 6-7 floors each. Each floor has 4 classes. Each class more less 80 kids. You count them...
Obviously even the kids were staring at me, jumping on each other to get a better view. Oh god...I decided to get sunglasses and a black wig...that could help!

Whatever! Dawn came, and with it...gym time! At 7am a very loud music is unleashed from the loudspeakers all over the campus, and the Chinese exercise! Now, you have to see that the earlier I start working is 8.50am so I have the damn right to stay in bed till 8, at least! No, wake up at 7, and they keep playing music for a hour or so...don't ask me why.
but I stay in bed, skipping breakfast and gym! ole'!

But the real nightmare is the classroom. I got in and counted them. 86. 86! eighty six, my god! All looking at the green alien standing in front of them. WHY ME!!!?!
In some way we went through the lessons, and I noticed the most strange thing!
At around 2 o'clock in the afternoon a relaxing music is unleashed from the loudspeaker with a voice giving instructions, I guess...and the kids start massaging their heads, eyes, noses...for 5 minutes or so...and then we start the lesson.
During lunch time I was eating happily (fighting with my chopstick) when a lady approached me and started talking to me. how nice! She said I speak English very fast (clearly, so you won't notice my mistakes) and she underlined that this is the best school in the city. and so I thought...is it not the ONLY one???? But I didn't say it. She kept asking me question for half hour and, came 12, the canteen guy kicked me out because they had to close. Nooooo, my rice!!!! Oh well...

The big problems start in the evening. there's nothing to do in this city, it's very small. No bars or pubs. People just sit in front of their houses and chat with the neighbor...but unfortunately I can't chat much...so I have to stay at home on my own, writing this stuff, chatting on skype or watching movies. The fact is that it takes me between 2.3 and 5.7 minutes to plan a lesson, so I don't have much more to do. and anyway, 2 lessons are enough for one week, since I have 18 different classes in 5 days. Rock on.

Between one class and the other I go back home for a quick nap (I don't sleep at night, I will have to sleep sometimes) and at the end I just go home and sit.
This is the problem of being a celebrity! they all look at you in awe but nobody seems interested in getting close to you. how depressing.
And another good thing! Soon we'll be 5 below 0, and there's no heating in the whole house and/or school. Well, I have the air conditioning in my bedroom (that can work as heating as well) but what about bathroom???? I will wash myself with blokes of ice.

So, it's all uphill, and yesterday night I found a mouse in my house and today my fridge broke. Bye bye dumplings, had to throw everything away.
So I ask Song if someone could come and properly clean my house, and she finally revealed me that the house hasn't been clean since the last teacher left...4 months ago! Well done! So...this week end I'll be away and meanwhile they are supposed to clean. Fingers crossed.

Let me just take a short digression and explain you about the weather in Hu Bei. We are on the tropic, even if I don't remember which one. So...it's SLIGHTLY humid. just a bit. I'm so sticky that everything I touch get stuck to me. I feel a bit like a blue tack. It's never sunny in Tianmen, just cloudy (or too polluted? probably the second) so the heat stays on us. Oh well, it's breezy, but never enough. I visit the shower very often (not as much as I normally do in August in Italy, anyway) but it's completely useless, because, as soon as you are out, you're sweating again. and the whole house smells of humidity. My clothes never dry!
And now came the rainy season...you can imagine the smell...HAPPY HAPPY DAYS!

But let's talk about happy things! Tomorrow after work I'm leaving Tianmen and going to Wuhan! Yahiii, to the big city! There I will meet up with Stevie, a friend I made while studying for my celta. yes, she live close to me (in Chinese terms, obviously...). But she lives in a real city, stays in a real flat (no mouses!) and work for a university. Now you see what is the difference between being mother tongue and not be. ah ah. but we, mixed race, are stronger!!! ahahahahah! Anyway....I complained so much to her that she decided to leave her shiny tower and come down to visit the mortals. how nice...sigh sob...I can't wait to see her!!!!!

Ok, I leave you now and go packing.
Bug hug to everyone, I'll update you next week!

Ellie

Fun fact of the day: at the ticket office everybody approaches you telling any timetable, but the one you need. And once they got what you want, they can tell you up to 5 different journey lenght for the same route. How can you plan something here???