Anshun City, Part Two.

Saturday 15th September 2012

This morning we went on a little excursion to Huangguoshu waterfall, the largest waterfall in China... I think. It was an early rise again, but definitely worth it!

If you read my previous blog post, you will be aware that James had an unfortunate incident with his shoes. They had not dried off this morning so, instead of just braving the damp, he thought he would wear the complimentary hotel slippers. Well I say slippers, they were pretty much a sole with a flimsy bit of papery fabric to make them into some sort of flip flop. 

Whilst we were walking towards the waterfall, Georgia thought it would be absolutely hilarious if she trod on the back of James' slipper. Of course, this led to the flimsy thing breaking, a James having to hop his way around.

The walk between the entrance and the waterfall was just over half an hour, and we were given some rather dashing waterproof ponchos to wear so we wouldn't get wet when we got there. The walk was very picturesque and when we finally got to the waterfall it was an incredible sight.

We then walked down some steps to the 'rhinoceros pool', which is the pool at the bottom of the waterfall, and managed to get a group photo! This normally proves difficult as there are twelve of us and we never seemed to be in the same place at the same time.

By this point, James' other slipper had come off and Humphrey was starting to get concerned. The only shoes available at the gift shop where crocs, James was not willing to pay this and kicked up such a fuss that Humphrey ended up buying them just to get him to shut up. Classic James.

He seemed to really like James, as when we were on our way out, he decided to dare James to climb up some rock. This wasn't doable with crocs on, but it was rather funny!

For lunch we went to a restaurant nearby the entrance to the park. Tiny cages containing various birds and animals in cramped conditions. It was sickening. To make matters worse, half way through our meal, James decided it would be hilarious to put a chicken's head and some dried fish into my bowl. My appetite left me completely. So gross.

We then went to another part of the national park  I can't remember what it was called though!  There was a smaller waterfall and 365 stepping stones over the water, each with a day of the year on it. We followed the stepping stones around until we reached what we thought was the end of the park, but there was plenty more to see!

We passed through various rock formations, where Georgia, Josh, James, Ben and I thought it would be a great idea to pretend to be die hard tourists and take photos every five seconds, trying to get as many Chinese tourists in the background as possible. 

The five of us caught up with the others at a building where we all had an ice cream. We were so lucky it was such a beautiful day.  Humphrey told us to have a twenty minute rest before we started off again and ended up walking through some beautiful caves. The photos I took were pretty bad and do not do the place justice, so I'm just not gonna bother putting them on here.

We then drove home for two and a half hours and passed the time by singing songs off of pop party two and now 57. I literally have the best iTunes.

We got back to our apartment at around 6, so Georgia, Josh, James and I decided to go to Dico's and then to the market. What we didn't realise was that the market closed at 7:30pm on a saturday, and they started to lock up. It was quite scary as it is really easy to get lost in there, luckily we found our way out before getting locked in! 

Anshun City. Part One.

Friday 14th September 2012

Today we all thought we were going on holiday to Anshun city to see Huangguoshu waterfall, the largest waterfall in China. 

We all awoke early to get to the train station, we were just given an address to show the taxi drivers and hope for the best. Trying to communicate with the taxi drivers is hilarious. They just chat away to us in Chinese and we're like uhhhh we don't speak your language? I wish we did though, it would've made our lives a lot easier!

The train ride took about an hour, and the seats weren't as uncomfortable as we thought they would be! We then arrived in Anshun, and were greeted by Humphrey, a CC English school teacher. We presumed that we would have these two days off, but as soon as we got there we were taken straight to another branch of CC English school. There seems to be a never ending amount of them!

Thankfully, we were in pairs again today, so I went with Georgia. Our first class were absolutely adorable. They can't have been very old as they didn't know much English, but they weren't as young as the kindergarteners. Naturally, as we are performing monkeys, Georgia had to sing 'Someone Like You' and I had to sing 'Baby'. We were told this, we didn't request this. As we're top friends, we decided to just sing them both together to ease the embarrassment. We ran out of dance moves by the time we got to 'Baby'. We proper went for the high notes in 'Someone Like you' though, and they seemed to think that we were actually good! God knows what they were listening to because I was hurting my ears with my own voice! They were probably just humouring us.

We then went for a little walk around the city. Anshun is a very pretty city in comparison to GuiYang my photo definitely doesn't portray that, but trust me it was! The buildings were not as modern, which brought about a more traditional community feel about the place. Eventually we ended up at a small all you can eat restaurant. We sat on little plastic stools and all crammed around one tiny table. 

 When we got back to the school, we all went into the main hall, which was relatively big, and split up into six groups, two of us to a team of about four. However, to get into the groups, we had to line up on stage and do a dance to which the students then had to pick who they wanted in their team. Thankfully I was one of the first few to be picked, probably because of my blonde hair, and Ollie then followed me onto team two. 

We then had a series of challenges to complete as a group. This included painting a chinese script, doing origami, attempting some sort of knitting thing and making an outfit out of bin liners and other random items we were given. This was highly amusing. After each activity we were given a score, and at the end the group with the lowest score had to do a forfeit. This happened to be Emma and Dan's group, and they did a lovely rendition of the Cupid Shuffle, this was now our go to song for forfeits. 

After we had finished the challenges, we gathered up our stuff and went to leave. However, before we could leave the hall, we were bombarded with the students asking for photos and autographs. I literally felt famous. It was so weird.

We then all scrambled into taxi's to get to our hotel, naturally Georgia and I were sharing a room again. interestingly, the ensuite was made from glass, with the bottom half frosted. So if anyone walks in while you're sitting on the toilet, then they can see you as demonstrated by Georgia in the photo below, I'm sure she will appreciate this. Delightful. We then dumped our stuff in our hotel room, then jumped back in the taxi's to go and get dinner. We hadn't eaten for ages. Starving didn't cover it.

We were told we were going to a DIY BBQ restaurant for dinner, so we let visions of hamburgers and hot dogs make up for the lack of food for the day. Unfortunately, we were disappointed once again by the lack of western influence on the restaurant. There were fridges full of different meats and vegetables which you put on your plate and then took back to your table, which had personal sized fryers on them. Oh, I forgot to mention, you had one pair of tongs to share between both he raw meat and vegetables. As most of us didn't particularly fancy the high risk of food poisoning, so we politely made our excuses, saying we weren't hungry and we wanted to have a walk around the city. 

Thankfully they let us go, and we managed to find a dico's. I have never been so thankful for chicken nuggets and chips in my life. We then met the others, and Humphrey gave us a tour of the local market we were hoping they would have a few good fake stalls. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything there that we couldn't get in GuiYang. The worst part of this little trip was that it was in one of the poorest parts of Anshun, and there were a lot of homeless beggars. It really hit home how lucky we actually are, and how ungrateful we were about dinner! 

We then said goodbye to Humphrey and went back to our hotel. As it was still relatively early, Georgia, James, Josh and I decided to explore the city a little more. We went for a long walk and ended up at a lake with a ginormous golden dragon boat there. It was incredible. Yep, my photo captures its beauty perfectly. This is what you get for taking photos on your iPod touch. 

At this point James was bored, and this never ends well for anyone involved. He thought it would be funny if he played football with a cup. This ended up with James misjudging how well he tied his shoelaces and a shoe in the lake. It was hilarious. Luckily he managed to fish it out the lake.  

Dat grammar tho.

Thrown in the Deep End.

Wednesday 12th September 2012

Today we had to take a test to see if we could make it onto CIC Camp as a facilitator. I don't really know when it changed from TIP to CIC! Georgia and I figured we could blag it, and just used our designated practice time to have a little chat  and explore the experiment centre instead.

In the afternoon, we had the test. We basically had to pick one thing to facilitate as a pair. Georgia and I decided to do 'blow wind blow' as I had facilitated it before, and it is easy to do! 

After everyone had finished, we found out that eight of us will be going on camp, whilst the other four stay behind in the city. The four not going on CIC camp this time round were Emma, Alex, Ollie and Dan. Emma and Alex were completely relieved, Dan was completely nonchalant, and Ollie was rather annoyed. I still don't know why Ollie wasn't picked, as he was one of the more confident members of the group, and he was good at 'facilitating',. 

Most of us then went to a steak house in the shopping centre with the aquarium.  It worked out to be the equivalent of £5.80 for a decent cut of steak and chips! Normally, I would go for my steak to be medium rare - medium. They didn't give us a choice here. It came out rare. At first, I wasn't too sure, don't really like the look of blood on my food, but now I have tasted it, I have never gone back!

We decided to go to Walmart for some last minute bits before going back to the apartment. We were in there for quite a while, so long that we must have coincided with closing time as the lights started to go off. We panicked and ran outside! 

Thursday 13th September 2012

This morning Georgia and I went to the market to go shopping. I thought we went to the same place as last time, but we must have come in at a different angle and we ended up in a completely different place, this time with a load more clothes stalls! This was definitely more up our street. We didn't buy anything, as we were just trying to navigate our way around the market, and pinpoint areas of interest.

After leaving the market, we went to CC Experience Centre to find we actually need to go straight to the Qinyin branch. Communication isn't CC English school's strong part. After we got there, we were told to have a rest before going into classes, and this time we were not to be in partners, we were flying solo!

Thinking it would be like the other classes we have been in, I felt quite confident that it would be good. However, when I got into the class I just got told I would be leading  the class. I can't speak mandarin. How on earth was I suppose to teach children when I can't speak their native language! Thankfully, I managed to blag it, by starting with a game, and then using the textbook activities to guide me along. Improvisation was key!

We then had another rest before going into another classroom. Luckily, this teacher was way more prepared and she had already planned out her lesson for me to teach. I familiarised myself with their routine before going into the classroom, and this made me feel a lot more comfortable in a teacher's role. 

We had a 'traditional Chinese tea', I'm pretty sure they just call everything 'traditional' to make it more appealing to us. This was a lot more appetising than KFC. Although, you have to watch out for some of the more spicier dishes! They are definitely more generous with spice in China than they are in England!

In my final class of the day, I actually did what we had been told we were going to be doing before we came to China. I assisted the teacher. The only thing she made me do by myself was teach head, shoulders knees and toes. All the students were really responsive to me, despite the fact they could only speak limited English and I couldn't speak any Chinese/ I love how excited they all get when we go into a classroom with them. It's so weird to think that most of the students in that classroom as never met a 'westerner' in real life before.

Ollie also hijacked my iPad at some point today. I'm ending this on one of his delightful selfies. Enjoy. 

Moving Out and Moving In.

Monday 10th September 2012

This morning I awoke to a note from Lory: 

                                                                                        

I've just realised that I have not mentioned that today was the day we were all going to move into an apartment together! We were all absolutely buzzing with excitement.  However, I really felt like I would miss my host family. They have been ridiculously kind and helpful and have welcomed me, a complete stranger, into their home and treated me like part of their family. I could never thank them enough for how they treated me. I was extremely lucky!

This little guy lives in the block of apartments my chamily live in.
He's such a cutie.

My chum took me to CC English School experiment centre branch at 10am and we said our farewells, and had an extremely awkward hug. Everyone apart from Dan and Hamish were already there.

Whilst we were waiting, Georgia was a bit peckish and decided to have a yoghurt that she happened to have in her bag. The yoghurts in GuiYang were pouches that you really need to drink with a straw as it was quite awkward to consume them otherwise! As she had never had a yoghurt in this packaging before, we were unsure on how to open it. Georgia just decided to go for it and ripped it apart. Unfortunately, it exploded all over the floor, on her legs on on Ben's bag! Not the best start to the day Georgia!

We thought that the apartment would be quite a while away, and when we were told we would be walking bare in mind we had all our luggage with us, none of us were particularly happy with it. However, it turned out that the apartment was literally just up the street, less than a ten minute walk! 

The problem we faced now was climbing the eight flights of stairs. With all our luggage. It was rather heavy. I couldn't make it. I gave up on the fifth floor and one of the CC English teachers Terry, carried up for me thank goodness! I'm so unfit, it's ridiculous.

View from our lounge.

When we walked into the apartment, it seemed absolutely amazing! But, after a closer inspection, we found that it was extremely dirty and to top it all off, there were only five rooms, which meant there were only ten beds. There were twelves of us. Apparently CC English school though that it would be perfectly ok to solve this issue by putting a double bed up on the landing. What?

Lounge.

Dining area/ Ping Pong table

Girls' bathroom

Kitchen

Downstairs bathroom

Upstairs bathroom

I can't seem to find photos of our rooms anywhere... If I find them I'll put them here!

We decided that the fairest way to decide who gets what room, was to put a number on each of the bedroom doors, get into pairs then pick a number out of the hat, the pair with nothing on their paper had to deal with the landing bed.

Georgia and I ended up with a pretty decent room thank goodness! I don't know what I would have done if I had to sleep on the landing... a girl needs her privacy! We had a blare room with a big double bed right in the centre. There was a TV, a nice chunky one that we just couldn't get to work, a lockable door, air conditioning and... the best bit... it was the en suite room! We also had a guest in our room. Meet 'Hans':

I would now like to dedicate this spot of my blog to Dan and Ollie. They were the unfortunate pair that had to sleep on the double bed on the landing. Despite the fact that it was way less than ideal, they barely complained at all about it, and didn't once ask to swap. Thanks guys! 

Natasha and Terry, the CC English School teachers assisting us today, then took us to another Walmart, basically so we could have a choice between the two. It was about the same size as the other one, and was right next to a shopping centre which had a massive aquarium tank just casually in the middle. Pretty sweet. We ended up spending 1,640 RMB about £164 on cleaning supplies amongst other housewares to attempt to shift the filth from the apartment. As there was way too much to carry, a couple of the others got a taxi back down to the house with the stuff, whilst the rest of us walked back.

After the others had dropped the cleaning stuff back at the apartment, we all got taxis to a restaurant called Pizza Fun. It was an all you can eat restaurant that specialised in Pizza's and other western dishes! This was super exciting to us all, although it was nowhere near as nice as the food back home.

When we got back it was time to tackle the apartment. We all designated areas for pairs, Emma and I got the girls bathroom then just cracked on! We bleached every inch of that place and got it spick and span. We were so proud of our achievement. I don't think I have worked that hard cleaning anything ever... and I used to work as a cleaner!

After we had all finished, we were all knackered and hungry. There was no food in the place. This required another trip to Walmart and, sadly, a trip up and down the eight flights of stairs again! But, as it was desperate times, we soldiered through! Afterwards, everyone except Emma, Georgia, Dan and I went to a bar for some drinks. We couldn't make it, we were exhausted. This also meant that we could have undisturbed wifi time! Georgia and I ended up face timing the gorgeous Gabby as she was getting things sorted before she started uni! Missed her loads whilst we were out in China... Hi Gabby!

After a while we went to bed, just about got to sleep before the others came back and a few of them barged in our room. This was not ideal. We were not impressed. Hopefully, this wasn't  going to be a regular occurrence.

Tuesday 11th September 2012

 Our first night in the new apartment wasn't as bad as expected. Sure, there isn't a 'mattress' on our bed and we sleep on 'wooden boards' but its ok... at least we have two quilts underneath us? Georgia and I share the bed, as its a double bed, luckily, we have separate quilts which makes it way less claustrophobic and more bearable long term!

Today, despite the fact that the girls didn't need to be up until 10 to go shopping, the whole house was rudely awoken by Hamish banging the frying pans together. We were not amused. He was. Thankfully, the boys left at 8, which gave us a couple of extra hours sleep!

Natasha took us to a shopping centre full of really expensive brands well out our price range , and we browsed a bit, drooling over the luxurious items before going to another shopping centre not too far away. The best thing about this shopping centre was that it had a H & M! This was the first shop we had seen so far that we can find in England, it made us ridiculously over excited!

Is that a model?

We went to a restaurant for lunch, and had an amazing meal. Beijing duck and rice! It was so good.  We browsed a bit more before making our way back to our apartment, where we found the boys back already!

We mutually decided to do group meals, and put money into the 'kitty' to get ingredients. James volunteered to make carbonara as the first meal, and we were all up for this! Unfortunately, it took him just under four hours and didn't taste overly great when he had finished. He had used yoghurt instead of milk. In his defence  the milk and yoghurt containers look exactly the same!

Back To Qian Ling Park.

Sunday 9th September 2012

Today was a chamily day. This morning we went to Qian Ling Park again. It is breathtakingly beautiful. We got a lift half way to the park with BD's, one of the boys, dad. Seven of us were crammed into is five person car. Really legit. I felt so safe...

 Sam and his mother met us outside the park, and then we paid, well Chum paid for me, the equivalent of 50p. It is definitely worth that! After being in the park for less than ten minutes, some random old man came up to me and started speaking to me in fluent English. I was bombarded with questions, and he presented me with a music sheet. He wanted me to sing in front of at least fifty people. This was not going to happen. Unfortunately he was not taking no for an answer, and he started getting a bit angry with me. I didn't know what to do! Luckily, at this point my chum saw my distress and told him where to stick it! Well she said something in Chinese that made him leave me alone!

From left to right:
Lory, BD, me, Sam, Linda

We then had another trauma; I stubbed my toe. Well, I didn't realise I stubbed my toe, I just happened to see it was bleeding! I asked Lory of her mum happened to bring any plasters with her it really wouldn't stop bleeding, to which everybody started acting like I needed my toe amputating! They bandaged me up with tissues, which did nothing, but it's the thought that counts right? I was just worried that the monkeys might be feral and the scent of my blood will trigger a group attack! I'm not even joking, that was a genuine concern of mine. 

We managed to find an area where they had a few rides, like in Hebin Park. We went on the bumper cars again. I was driving, and Lory was holding on for dear life. I don't think she could handle my extreme speed...

We carried on walking up the path and eventually we spotted some monkeys! It was so weird to see them in the wild, just like we see squirrels running around Bournemouth Gardens. Crazy! Loads of people were feeding them, you can buy little packets of nuts for about 10p from various stalls dotted about the park. One old lady had bought a bottle of water and fed a monkey like it was a baby!

We then continued up some steps where we found to casual camels just chilling at the top. China is very random. You could pay to sit on them and have a photo, but they looked flea ridden and just generally ill, so I didn't want to get close enough to touch!

Lory then asked me if I wanted to feed the birds. I thought why not and let him do it! I felt like the lady from Mary Poppins! The birds were landing on my hands and even my head! It was such a weird experience, but pretty cool! Loads of random people took photos of me, it was weird I felt like a celebrity! A couple of people even made me have photos with their children! Apparently it's good luck for a child to have a photo with a westerner or something... 

We then continued up the mountain to a temple, there were so many Buddhas, it was absolutely stunning. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take any photos in the temple area, but I took some before and after I went in! At the back of the temple, there is a wall where you close your eyes and have to stick your hand out in front of you and try and touch the metal circle in the middle. If you manage it then apparently you have good luck for the rest of your life! After a few tries, I managed it! Yay!

That's the wall I was chatting about.

 

We then went to Dicos for lunch, before going home for a nice two hour rest. Not that I needed it! Lory set me up a 'QQ' account, which is China's equivalent of twitter and Facebook. It is all in Chinese, but it's retry similar to twitter, so I could just guess what I had to press!

We then went to the cinema to see Batman, obviously my chamily are fond of superhero movies! Lory bought popcorn, and it was genuinely the nicest tasting popcorn I have ever had in my life.

Chad then came and joined us I hadn't seen him since the welcome ceremony day!, and he took us down a really dodgy looking street, where Lory told us we were getting food. There were a lot of super dodgy looking street food stalls, that I felt like you could get food poisoning from just looking at them. Thankfully, we went into little restaurant, so tucked out of the way you would miss it unless you knew it was there! 

In this restaurant, you basically picked the meat and the vegetables you want, and they bring it all out in separate bowls. You then have a cooker in the middle of the table and use chopsticks to put in what you fancy and you cook it up yourself! It was a lot nicer than I've made it sound.