This week I'm going to talk about food and teaching. Now these elements of China were the ones I was most worried about before arriving. Yet they have turned out to be some of the highlights of my time here. And that is in no small part due to our fellow teachers at No. 1 Middle School; Sharon and Stephanous Le Roux. They have given us thousands of tips on teaching here, in our first week as me and Alex followed them around. And they have also shown us some great food in Fukang which we surely wouldn't have found ourselves. So I'd like to say a quick thank you to our South African counterparts who have helped us settled in here. So without further ado, onto teaching...

Despite the fact I've been in China for over 3 weeks this previous week in Fukang was when I really got started. On Wednesday, the 11th of September, at 10.50 I began teaching Senior 1 Class 11.

Well I say 10.50, it was more 11.05. Yeah, I got hopelessly lost on my first full day teaching. In my defence there are 6 buildings (each 5 stories high) with 3000 students. But anyway, I found it eventually and so my teaching began.

I teach half of senior 1, which means 14-15 year olds. I have classes 10-18 while Alex, my partner, has classes 1-9. There is also a couple of Kazach and Uighur classes but we don't get to teach them (although we always have some Uighurs in our classes). Abilities are mixed, although some classes seem stronger than others. Infact as Uighur is similar to English (in terms of stresses on different words and so on) the classes with the most Uighurs seem to be better. Yet alot of the classes have seriously poor English, despite the fact they have been studying the subject for half a decade.

My role here is really in three parts:

1. To actually teach them English. This may sound like it is stating the obvious but I feel it needs to be emphasised. I cannot have a conversation with English teachers here, as their English is so broken. This, inturn, reflects on to the kids. My lessons are very much conversational English, moving away from vocab and grammar and attempting to get the students to speak the language.

2. Cultural exchange. Urgh, what a cliche. Fukang does remind me of home quite a bit, sheltered away from major cities and the rest of the world. By me just being here and sharing a bit of home and my custom I think it is beneficial to the students.

3. To have fun! Students here start school at 8 and work until 8 in the evenings, with a two hour lunch break. They do not get weekends off, and work the same hours. On top of this they get homework set for each lesson, which is often left on the board by the previous teacher. They have 10 weeks holiday (the same as in the UK) but most students are forced to come into school in their holidays to get a head start (one student I asked came to school 4 weeks before the official start of term). Their lessons often involve writing down notes from the board, reading in silence or memorising various streams of data. Its no wonder the majority of students like maths so much, they are allowed to think for themselves to answer problem sets. I am attempting (unsuccesfully) to remain unbiased and just present the facts of the school, which is why I am not going to talk about the various punishments I have seen. Anyway, what I was trying to say is that I am using my lessons as a relief from this system. I get students to stand up and talk, to work in groups, to ask any question they have and most of all I try and get them to laugh and have fun.

So this is my role; teaching English, cultural exchange and to introduce some fun into the classroom. Now for some stories of the classroom...

I have instigated two rules in each of my classes, the first is "TING BU TONG". Which roughly translates to; "I don't speak Chinese" I put this rule in place as whenever I asked my students what any word means they shout some chinese at me, which I do not yet understand...So one lesson I was asking students what 'pleasure' meant and I got various different Chinese back. So I jokingly through a tantrum saying; "TING BU TONG", in the process I threw a tiny piece of chalk. Amazingly I managed to throw it out the window to my right, bearing in mine we were five stories up. All the students stopped in silence and then a collective gasp went up. Aparently, you're not allowed to throw chalk out the window onto one of the busy paths from five stories up. That class has now fully embraised the "TING BU TONG" rule. The second rule is an attention grabbing technique, which can also lead to some laughs. I shout "FREEZE" and everyone has to stop exactly as they are. Someone always carries on talking or turns around. If any of my old teachers are reading, I would highley recommend this!

So last week I did greetings, questions and goodbyes to see where each each class is in terms of their English. This week I'm going to do shopping. We have a list of topics the director of English (Mr.Tian mentioned in the last blog) wants us to get through, so me and Alex will be aiming for that!

Now food. What can I say? The food here is brilliant and incredibly varied. While I have tried so much different food I'm going to write about some highlights.

So for the first week we mainly ate out to try the different resturants, the second week we tried to eat in. Our first meal, on the first night, was at a close Uighur kebab shop. Basically you pick your meat from a fridge, they scewer it, cook it over fire and you eat, nice and simple. Now I have subsequently learnt the Chinese characters for different meats (something I would highly recommend before you come to China) but at the time I hadn't so me and Alex just had alot of different kebabs. Now one was definitly liver, but I'm not sure which animal it was from. Still, it tasted good and we're alive.

Another night we went to a Uighur wedding. The Le Rouxs (and now us) are good freinds with the cooks sister, so we managed to have a huge meal for cheap. Now I can't describe food very well but everything on that table was delicious. From lamb to chicken, chilis to onions and about 20 other dishes which I had no idea what was in them everything tasted great. There was also a return of the mash potato-jam-icing from Beijing. Basically the first plate to come out in several banquets I've attended has been a square plate with a substance that looks like icing yet tastes like jam on mash potato. While I would recommended, I think it has to be tried. The night culminated in me and Alex trying our hand at some Uighur wedding, so infront of 300 strangers we waddled around the dance floor waving our arms. Then, just as things couldn't get any weirder, the music changed. They put on Gangham style. For some reason they thought me and Alex must be able to do the dance (which I have never attempted in my life). Not to dissapoint, me and Alex danced Gangham style infront of 30 people on the dance floor, and 300 people behind them. So in summary; the food was great, the dancing no so much.

One of my favourite meals in Fukang is dumplings. Costing 0.5 yuan each (5 pence) they are also one of the cheapest meals. Just pointing to random lines on the menu with pork meat, cow meat and chicken in seems to provide a nice bit of variety, although you never really know what you are eating. Infact, thats quite the reoccuring theme in China; eat first and ask questions later.

On the topic of eating blindly and hoping for the best, a quick word on banquets. Last week I was preparing a meal (whipping up some sweet and sour chicken) Side note: In China when you buy chicken, you buy a chicken. There is no chicken breast or legs in seperate bags. You just get all the chicken cut up in a bag and frozen, not for the feint hearted. Then suddenly we get a call from Mr Tian. And just like that we were sitting at a banquet table in a completely new area of town. Additional side note: Things here work in what me and Alex have dubbed 'China time'. If you are getting a washing machine tomrrow, it'll come next week. If you request a favour be sure to continue asking everyday. And never get your heart set on doing anything, you might be required at a banquet.

There have been hundreds of other Chinese food adventures, and there surely will be hundreds more. My spice tolerance is slowly building, which I hear shall be useful in the winter (when the food gets even hotter!).

I shall regale you with more stories of teaching and eating in the weeks to come. However I have 3 classes and English club today, so I must be off! Me and Alex are doing our first China traveling tomorrow when we head to Turpan (or Tulufan in Chinese) for a few days. Pictures will be uploaded of the flamming mountains, Buddhist caves and the Grape Valley soon...

P.s This has got to be one of my favourite pictures of China so far. Basically the students will take pictures of me all the time (some asking, alot of the times not). So i suprised them by taking a few pictures of my own.