Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I apologise for my last entry, it became more of a collection of incessant ramblings than first anticipated. This one, I promise, shall be far more invigorating!
A week off, what bliss! Students busy taking exams and then the May holiday meant that our wonderous teaching skills were not required and so we embraced this freedom with much enthusiasm. Mostly, we spent a great deal of time being thoroughly greedy and incredibly naughty by quenching our hunger with a variety of bad yet delicious treats. We went to a tea house and indulged in coffee and cake, this time actually getting coffee in our drink as opposed to the hot water, condensed milk and sugar that was served to us in Haikou. We bought many a sweet, caramelised bun, costing us a mere kuai for four, the equivalent of seven pence, and were seduced by the collection of biscuits in the shop next door to our humble abode, these costing about three pence each.
On Thursday though, we were much more active as we set out to meet our group for an activity day. We rose early from our beds in order to catch our "bus" at 7.30am. This journey in itself was enough of an adventure; the windows were held together with tape, seats had no belts and the ticket collector spent most of her time hanging out of the precarious door. Furthermore, the number of people quickly exceeded space and very soon I was faced with the unshaven armpit of a highly fragrant chinese woman. On leaving the bus, we tried in vain to get a cheap taxi, all were more than happy to rip us off and after much arguement we walked away, seeking the services of a motorcyclist. Now, I may love motorcycle taxis and they may be the cheaper option, but for 50km, three people, two backpacks laden with walking boots, one old, rickety bike and the dusty, bumpy, hilly tracks before us, suddenly our decision seemed somewhat obtuse.
After an uncomfortable, sweaty journey, where we drove through the festivities of dragon dancers, left chunks of bikes behind us as we desperately tried to make it up hills and crossed over flimsy bridges while our driver talked on the phone, we were more than happy to see our friends again and eat yet more food. After that, we were kitted out in some highly fashionable life jackets and then leapt into an inflatable raft. Halfway across the river however, this raft began to deflate and thus all fifteen of its passengers started sinking, meaning that we swiftly abandoned ship.
Eventually, we were jungle trekking, being constantly stalked by a cameraman. I was more than willing to be the first to abseil down a sheer rock face, with jagged rocks and swirling water below me. We swam to some waterfalls, some of which we abseiled down, others where we leapt from their mighty top, down passed their cascading water and splash into their deep plunge pools below. Utterly awesome. We went white water rafting too, although saw little white water, really I felt like ratty from "Wind in the Willows" just bobbing along on the river...
Back in Wenchang we collapsed into our beds, exhausted. At 6am, I was awoken to what I believed as being a terrible storm, the metal roof of my balcony clattering horrendously. I leapt from my bed, closed the balcony door and, remembering Selina's words, unplugged anything electrical. Little did I know that Zoe had also risen from her slumber thinking that we were under attack and that, for some bizarre reason, Wenchang was being bombed. After these initial panics, we realised that we had been disturbed not by some life threatening occurrence, but by fireworks and firecrackers announcing the start of the holiday. We gazed for a while on our balconies until the noise ceased and we returned to sleep. Two hours later, the same roaring and crashing echoed through the air, no leaping lights to distract from this awful, overpowering sound. For every two hours that day and night we were greeted with this highly frustrating acknowledgement of the May holiday. You can imagine our utter joviality.
Back to the normal routine now, and aerobics yesterday! Learnt some new moves and have some now, even funkier songs to boogie along to. A motorbike whizzed through the middle of the crowd at one point, closey followed by a 4x4, almost crushing people, their belongings and some tiny children!
The police continuously visit our road, we have realised that this is not to investigate us or our neighbouring school, no no. They go to the rave shack opposite, the shack that I once suspected as being a brothell but which we now know, through observation, to be the place to purchase weed. The police are not, as you might imagine, there to arrest the owners and close this successful business, no, they are there to stock-up on their weed needs, among many a stoned student. The number of people stumbling down the road at night has vastly increased...
Morning off today, as always and this afternoon I have my most enthusiastic classes. Tongue twisters this week; 70+ chinese teenagers trying to say "red lorry, yellow lorry" at top speed simultaneously can provide so much entertainment, for both them and me. The Olympic torch is going through Haikou today, sadly I will miss this event.
Photos are now up on Facebook, please take a look, message board is message-less, do write. Until next time....
- comments