After we checked out of our hotels this morning, we went straight to the CC English school experiment centre branch for our 'Welcoming Ceremony'. This ceremony was filmed and played on GuiYang TV... some of us even had interviews! I wasn't one of the chosen ones though. I lost count of the copious amounts of speeches, basically all saying how everyone is really grateful for us to be here and it will be such a beneficial experience for both the school and the twelve of us.
After the speeches, it was time for the 'entertainment' section. The first half consisted of Chinese entertainment. A young Chinese girl performed a Chinese minority dance, not that we were told which minority it was. She had dressed up in traditional clothing, and shoes with little bells on. It was very sweet. I would also like to note that she was a lot better at dancing than I could ever hope to be.
Unfortunately, after the dance had finished, it was our turn to give entertainment. None of us were prepared for this. None of us enjoy giving a performance. None of us if I'm being brutally honest can sing particularly well. Yet, we were told we had to sing a song associated with England. We had no idea what to do, so eventually we just decided on Hey Jude as it seemed like an easy choice! Luckily, the music in the background was quite loud so our voices were over powered!
To make matters worse, Mr Smith was giving us a look as if to say that we weren't being entertaining enough and we needed to up the game. Georgia and I took this to heart and starting waving our arms and jumping. Everyone else just stood still. We must've looked ridiculous.
After the entertainment, it was time to meet the host families.Thankfully, the family I was to go home with were really nice! Lory is 12 years old and she goes to CC English school, it was just her and her parents. We took to referring to the parents as 'Chum' and 'Chad' as it was a lot easier to say than their Chinese names I still don't know how to pronounce their names let alone spell them. Lory was the only one in the family who spoke English, so that proved to be very awkward when it came to communication! Luckily she was more than happy to translate.
We then all left pretty abruptly, which left no time to say goodbye really and then took a taxi back to their apartment via Dico's. For those of you who don't know what Dico's is, it's very similar to KFC only spicier. Luckily, they have a picture menu so I just had to hope for the best and order something that looked relatively edible.
Their apartment was on the 6th floor, and there was no lift so it was a it of a work out to get there. It was much nicer than I expected it to be! It was very spacious and had a merge of modern and traditional Chinese decorations. Here are some photos of the apartment, although I've just realised they do not do it justice at all, and the quality is pretty awful so I do apologise!
Dining area, living area, my bedroom and the view from my bedroom respectively.
Pretty much as soon as I got all my stuff sorted, and had the tour of the apartment I was asked if I wanted a rest, so I thought why not. That's when it really hit me. I was on my own. I could barely communicate with my 'chamily' and I had no way of contacting the others, let alone my real family and friends back home. They didn't have wifi, so I couldn't use iMessage or FaceTime on my iPad and we hadn't sorted out our sim cards yet so we couldn't even text each there.
This evening, my host family were having a party for a family friend and some of his friends as they had got into a prestigious college. The restaurant was absolutely packed. Lory and I bonded by playing I spy and Where's Wally on my chum's iPhone. It is so weird sitting in a room where everyone is speaking a different language to you, it was almost alienating. The food was incredible though. It was like a banquet. I had so many duck pancakes and also quite a few local GuiYang dishes that were amazing.
We then went to Walmart, which happened to be across the road from the fancy restaurant we went to. They took me around the imported food areas and also literally got me anything I looked at or said that I thought I liked. They were completely going out my way to make me feel comfortable. It's so sweet, and I was completely grateful for everything they did.
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