Typhoon on the way!

Hello friends,

As I write Shanghai is currently under a Typhoon warning, how exciting! Schools had to close yesterday as a precaution, but nothing seems to be happening except for heavy rain, and constant lighting and thunder.

Last week saw the ending of summer camp. Finally I’ve got rid of them little brats who I’ve had to entertain everyday for a whole month. It was sad to say bye to a couple of them I suppose, namely ‘Kitty’, who despite being annoying, is the biggest character. Some of the others I was happy to say goodbye to, they offered nothing and will only go on to be just be another Chinese person (one of the little international students you see walking around Liverpool with an oversized rucksack, glasses, scent of soy sauce, slight look of a virgin).

Normal weekend lessons still continue though, and surprisingly continue to be fairly enjoyable. Daniel had someone from head office come in to assess him on Saturday, and then I got a phone call asking me to cover 2 classes on Sunday morning. I therefore assumed that I would be assessed so spent most of Saturday worrying and trying to plan lessons. I wasted the evening listening to palace updates on the internet, this done nothing but put me in a bad mood. The next morning to my relief nobody turned up to assess me. With a new class I always spend the first 10 minutes letting them guess my age as a time wasting activity. They guessed the following ages; 31, 33, 34, 37, and 39! Piss off!! No way I look in my 30’s. Stop squinting and make a proper guess.

Sunday was the class with Winnie! Bless her, her English is improving, (So is her dress size). It’s my favourite class though as the TA is so cool. She goes by the name of Manny, and we spend most of the class chit-chatting, whilst involving Winnie, so it’s all very easy. After class, myself and Daniel went for dinner at one of my TA’s house (Keysee). It was a bit surreal, she came to the station to pick us up, and we walked anxiously to her flat, where we were greeted by 2 other girls, and 2 other boys. The boys had limited English, but were friendly enough. One had no English name, so he’s now officially called Wes, and one of the girls didn’t have an English name, and so has now taken up the name of Fisty. (The nickname of Sarah Lynn) They had no air conditioning in the living room, which was a pain; it was so hot and sweaty. The food was ready, there was lots of it, and so all 7 of us crammed round the little table and ate. They were so hospitable, it was cute. One of the girls (Clara) was genuinely one of the funniest people I’ve ever met, but I can’t really explain in words what she was like. When you eat Chinese food, everything is placed on the table, and then you take the food as you wish, but the table was so small, which resulted in me literally dropping my cup and spilling my drink three times through dinner, and the chopsticks were flying all over the place. So much delicious food, but I’m still none the wiser as to what it was. Clara kept offering ‘shoooup’, it was lush, and it tickled me the way she said it.

We finished food, and sat around on the sofas, and chatted. It became awkward when asked whether we were looking for Chinese girlfriends, and then I realised that I was being set up for some sort of relationship with Keysee. Sensing I wasn’t interested, she brang out what I thought was her trump card, by saying ‘mixed race Chinese babies are so cute though’… Yeah, but no thanks. She’d gone so out of her way to impress, and I had no idea how to let her down, so I said, ‘oh, I’m too young, maybe in 5 years ill find one’. Without being a big head, she was clearly a bit gutted, but still persisted in flirting, ‘I like your eyes’, ‘I like your nose’…. My nose?! She couldn’t be serious; I’ve never received such a comment before. She then pulled her actual trump card. She said she can do salsa dancing, but was too shy to show us, so she tried showing us a video on a youtube type website of the dancing she does. Little realising that it was a stripper she was showing us. I would have died if I were her. She was so happy with herself showing us the dancing she’d been learning, but had put on the wrong video, and we had a classless stripper on the screen, erect nipples, pointing us right in the eye. Ouch!

To prevent her further embarrassment we had to leave. It was too sweaty as well, and there was a lingering BO in the room. We left, happy that we have some new friends. We’ve promised to take them to some bars, which should be interesting.

I’ve now received my full time schedule, 1 Wednesday evening class, and 9-5 Saturday and Sunday. Score! One week till we get paid, and then I can begin to adventure properly.

There’s no other main news to report, we’re pretty much home bound till pay day as money is running very low, so until next time, traaa!

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