Ball-istic in Ningbo

We have started teaching our own classes – at last! We are 5 days into a 7 day working week, and we have both met 6 or 7 classes out of our 8 and we are knackered! We got back from our 10 day holiday on Saturday and we already feel like we could do with another one, as this week has been incredibly hectic, tiring but exciting. We’ve been falling asleep at 9:30pm, but we are now beginning to feel that we are starting to build up the stamina required to stay energetic during our classes and not be totally whacked when we get to go home to our new flat. We had our first classes on Monday morning. Anette was teaching 7 hours on her first day of teaching her own classes and Joe got off lightly with only 6 teaching hours that day. It was such a great feeling walking into those classrooms and seeing the expectant faces of our new students. Most of them are absolutely lovely and some of them even have decent English proficiencies! A few of them are going to be a bit of a challenge, as they seem to fall at the first hurdle that is ‘What’s your name?’. This is China, and in China there is no special treatment for students with special needs, so it’s up to us, the teachers, to get these students to a level where they can actually pass not just our course but all the courses at the Uni College, as all courses here are taught in English! Oh the fun! But sometimes they do surprise us with the things that they say. One student, who had not spoken at all during class and had looked at Anette gormlessly when spoken to, said after class that she was ‘very enthusiastic and interactive’. Anette nearly stumbled down the stairs in utter surprise, and just mumbled a baffled ‘thank you! – I wouldn’t want to be boring.’ So there is hope for the quiet ones yet – after all this is only the first week, and they are all a little bit shy.

One of the first things we needed to do with our students was to ensure that they all have English names. Some of them did and some didn’t. Most of the names they have chosen for themselves are pretty normal like Nancy, Edison, Byron, Betsy and Doris…ok – so maybe a bit dated and American, but they are nothing compared to names like Monkey, Lucifer (a girl), Will Young, Seven, Gogo, Devil, Cash, Grubby, Swift, Monk and Water. Oh yes – those are their names, and they will not change them! Reading out the class attendance sheet feels a bit bizarre and is a difficult thing to do without laughing and giggling to ourselves! We can already feel that we are growing in confidence and that we are going to really like teaching here, but we are happy that it is at university level, as this is already pretty knackering!

The 10 day holiday was spent well. The first day and the 3^rd day were spent with Sean’s family (see previous post) and on the 4^th of October we took the 35 minute train – first class – to Shanghai, where we were going to stay for 2 nights and spend some time with Jeremy, Lynn and Isla sightseeing and eating lots of food with Lynn’s family, of whom many live in Shanghai. The Sunday was spent sightseeing, and we felt we covered a lot of ground in this huge city. We had never seen so many people in one place before – and we thought Tokyo was crowded, but it was nothing compared to the chaos that met us in Shanghai! – At least the Japanese do crowding in an ordered manner. We went to the Pudong area – that is the area with the really tall buildings and the Pearl Tower and the new “Bottle Opener”. Instead of queuing for hours, paying 100RMB for going up the Pearl Tower and being squashed in the small ball at the top, Jeremy took us to the Hyatt Regency Hotel next door, where we could sit in comfy chairs and enjoy a lovely latte (70RMB) at the 87^th floor and look over at the Pearl Tower and the Bottle opener and see the sun set over Shanghai. It was fantastic! We were also taken to The Bund, the French Concession, Century Park and People’s Square and of course took a wander down one of the longest and busiest shopping streets in the world – Nanjing Jie.

The next day we helped Lynn’s family celebrate a housewarming at a fancy restaurant and later had dinner with some of her family’s close friends – we hadn’t eaten that much food since… well since New China’s birthday 5 days earlier! On the Tuesday we went to Ningbo with Jeremy and Lynn and spent some wonderful and relaxing days playing with Isla and just hanging out with them. On Thursday we had all regained enough energy to do a bit of sightseeing in Ningbo, and it ended at a big square where there was a large pool of water in which there were these plastic inflatable balls floating around, and they all had people inside them… ok children… but we HAD to have a go! We each paid 20RMB, and stepped inside the bubble. The bubble was then inflated and sealed and then we were shoved into the water. It was hilarious! While we were bobbing around in the water nobody else wanted to join us, but rather we attracted a large crowd of people who all seemed to find it entertaining to watch these la-wai (foreigners) mess around in water-bubbles. We were out there for 10-15 minutes, trying to stand up or get close to each other’s bubble, and at the end we were both gasping for air and feeling exhausted due to the build up of CO2, but that only added to the experience. It was so much fun, and we would recommend everyone to try it – only do not drink a strawberry milkshake or Bubble-milk tea before jumping in…

When we got back from Ningbo on Friday evening it was finally time for us to move to our new apartment in another block in Scholar’s Garden. We had managed to negotiate with our uber-boss that we should really get a place of our own, and since that had been promised to us before coming to China, they really didn’t have a leg to stand on – as we saw it. This is China, however, and things aren’t always as they seem, and you really have to get tough if you want something – anything – that you feel you should have or are entitled to. But it’s all part of the experience and we are taking it in our stride. – And of course we won the battle and have now moved in to a 1 bedroom and 1 living-room apartment, which is located on the 16^th floor and we now have a sofa!! We are really happy with the flat and love having our own space to be a married couple in. We appreciate the time we had with Sean in the other flat, as it helped us grow a friendship with him, but having our own flat was always what we wanted.

So with getting back from holiday, moving (and all the trips to the supermarket that are required for that) and starting teaching our own students we have had a pretty busy week so far, and will probably need to blow off some steam at the weekend with a housewarming party! We will upload some pictures of the flat when we’ve tidied up!

It is still warm here. Today we had 24 degrees and we still have to have the aircon on in the classrooms and sometimes at night too. It will get cold soon though, so we are enjoying it while it lasts. Until next time - Zaijian!