Sazzle the TV Chef

I have to admit I am just a little excited about the prospect of appearing on local Wuhu TV as 'a foreigner learning to cook Moon cake'. The school I am working for is the only one in Wuhu that employs so many native-speaking English teachers, so Carolione, the manager, is approached any time the novelty of outsiders might be exploited for light entertainment. One such opportunity is coming up soon; there is a festival in China at the beginning of October, the name of which is translated into 'Mid-Autumn Festival'. During that period the Chinese eat something called Moon cake (it's everywhere in the shops at the moment), so how better to provide a laugh to the seven-hundred thousand plus people of Wuhu than to film clueless westerners attempting to join in with the festival preparations?! I am not sure if it is happening at all, to be fair, but just the idea is worth blogging!

Last Thursday, Joe, Ahmir and I all went to the local medical college to meet the Principal. Again, because we are foreigners even very busy people, like the principal of a university with a total of 7000 students and employees, are interested in meeting us - crazy!! We sat around a board-room table listening to the principal and others talk in chinese for ages and ate mini moon cakes. I think it was amongst the more pointless things I have done recently.

The weekend was busy, as usual. Joe and Ahmir and most of the foreigners have the weekends off (unlike Merim and me) so they are up for having a good night on fridays. I have a lesson at 8.20am on Saturday morning so I am not exactly in the same party mood. nevertheless, I joined them and it was a good night. It was Caroline's birthday so 25 of us (a strange mix of Chinese, Japanese and Western people) went to a Sichuan restaurant to start off the night.
...Merim has just given given me a pretty box that contains moon cake. He is a very lovely boy...
Anyway, the birthday meal was pretty good fun. There was a full bottle of Taiwanese vodka on our table at the start. By the end, the bottle was drained and the boys were even more excited about Karaoke than normal.

At about 11pm we decided to go to the Overseas Students Garden, which is a bar close-by. By then, I was the only girl in a group which consisted mainly of tipsy or out-and-out drunk English/Scotsmen . Therefore, when we got to the bar I was delighted to see familiar girls dancing to Puerto Rican music. Obviously I joined in - any excuse! - but not long afterwards, a cat fight broke out between a Ukrainian girl and another fiesty foreign female, so I left the dance floor. I was actually so surprised to see such violence - I haven't felt unsafe anywhere in Wuhu so far. Foreigners are just so uncivilised!
Ironically, 'foreigners' were cause for further embarrassment the next morning. I had had my first lesson of the day and was just about to go in for lunch when I was informed that I was going to have to pay my fair share for the replacement of the lock and keys for the main back gate of the building we live/work in. Apparently, Ahmir and Merim had been on a bit of an adventure after Rex, Joe, Stuart, Jamie and I went home. This had brought them back to Aston at about 2am in a state of blurriness to collect money for more food and beer, before they went out again until 6am. Somehow, they had managed to lose the main padlock to the gate, so the next morning the foreigners were in trouble from the man who locks after the building.
I must say at this point that no one can be certain of the facts, but both Ahmir and Merim were happy to pay for the replacement in the end.

I did not regret missing out on the all-night fun on friday because my first lesson had been with people from the medical univesity who teach English, which was far more tiring than I expected. They politely refused to do anything more than ask me questions because, apparantly, their English is very good already. Therefore, I had to talk for an hour and a half on England and its culture(s). I will have to do this every week, according to them!

On Sunday, I had another full day of teaching. The six-year olds loved the bingo game I played with them to help them learn the words for different items of clothes and the twelve-year olds were hilarious with their role-plays.

I had meant to go to the gym at some point on the weekend but I didn't have time. I joined A Power on Thursday and it's pretty good. There's spinning and a running machine, great showers and it's far more pleasant than running the streets of Wuhu. I just hope I see at least one other girl there next time I go!
On Sunday night, Joe, Ahmir and I went to a new Chinese restaurant. After ordering our food came and we were all very happy; tofu, chinese spinach, noodles, chicken and mushroom - yum. However, all of a sudden Joe pointed out that what I had between my chopsticks - half a chicken head (the inside of the head was facing me so I hadn't noticed). Immediately, our appetites diminished dramatically and we paid our 10 kuai (about 80/90p) and left!