My first Chinese Wedding!

I have been invited to a Chinese wedding! Tony, one of the assistants at Aston, has invited Joe and me to his sister’s big day, which is on 9 November - I feel so honoured! Of course, my first thought was ‘where can I buy a hat?’ but, apparently, weddings here are not as formal as the English equivalents. In fact, I have been told that they are very different to traditional British Christian weddings, so it should be a fantastic experience. According to Paul, who went to a wedding here about 9 months ago, a Chinese bride gets changed into numerous different dresses throughout the day. This may explain why there are so many wedding dress shops in Wuhu.

Joe told me about this invitation mid-way through my teaching on Sunday, which lifted my already good mood. Indeed, I had a really good weekend of teaching and enjoyed every lesson (when the kids respond well to my lesson plans my spirits are always lifted). For example, it was particularly entertaining hearing the results of my ‘Supergoal 2’ students, who I asked to come up with their own cockney rhyming slang (!).

I have had my morning Chinese class and, because the weather is glorious today, I am keen to go out for a run. It’s a cool but sunny day with blue skies – perfect for a run, methinks. According to one of the two English teachers who turned up for their lesson on Saturday, the weather here is abnormally mild for the time of year – we shouldn’t still be walking around without jumpers on! Abnormal or not, I’m just pleased it’s not the British-style autumnal rains and grim, darkening evenings. To make the most of this, after Joe gets out of his lesson I am going to take him to Zhe Shan park to show him my 40minute run. The spinning is more fun when we go together, so I’m sure the run will be good, too (if he can keep up – haha ha!).

A lesson on frazzling the brain

I should be in a lesson right now, but only two English teachers turned up this week so the lesson was cut short. Admittedly, two students represents a 100% rise from last week's total but we agreed that an hour of chatting was sufficient. I helped them with some phrases, colloquialisms and idioms that they had come across but had not quite understood. It's only when you are asked to explain the English language, with all its exceptions and obscurities, that you realise how difficult it must be to learn!
I went to KTV last night with a large mixed group of Chinese and foreign people. Some of the Chinese assistants, including one of my teachers, came along, which was cool because they are our age. Sometimes, so I have been told, they don't feel very comfortable around foreigners in situations where we are babbling at native-speaking speed, which is totally understandable. However, last night it worked well and we all chatted (or, rather, shouted over the tuneful/tuneless noises of karaoke) together. I was so delighted when one of the girls (whose English name is Fairy- they come up with all sorts of names for themselves) announced that the assistants think my Chinese is really progressing.
I have been doing so much studying in the last two weeks, so that comment meant a lot! I currently have 3 hours on Monday, Tuesdays, Thursday and Friday mornings at Aston, plus Tao is giving Kaori (Japanese lady in our flat) and me a two-hour lesson every Tuesday and Thursday evening. It's so nice of her to do this but Tao insists that she likes to do this for her friends. On Thursday we sat in MacDonald's (the quieter one of the two in Wuhu) and drank coffee (free refills, so good for studying) whilst we studied. It frazzles your brain a bit to exercise your memory in this way, but frequent practice is the only way to learn, I'm sure. At every opportunity, I am speaking all the Chinese I can, even if the sentences come out as an odd mix of English and Chinese!
I have a lesson in 15 minutes so I must go now. The students are 7/8 year olds and they are learning about numbers and money at the moment. I am going to take in some British money, which should rouse their interest for at least 20 seconds. I also spent ages producing some cards for a card game to play with them, so I really hope it works and that they are not too young to understand.

Old Bookstore Street

I think I should describe my immediate surroundings, largely because it might say something about Wuhu more generally, but also because I have a bit of time to kill before my Chinese lesson:
As a foreign English teacher (I am now officially of that title; I have my own business cards!) I live in one part of the sixth floor of a high-rise building (that's a lot of steps to climb, every time). The other part of this floor contains Aston Language Centre's offices, a 'library' and about six classrooms, so I don't have very far to commute in the mornings.

Our building also contains offices and a hotel. Apparently, at the main entrance of the block, there is a sign advertising the cost of a two-hour stay at this hotel. Of course, I can't read the Chinese characters so the seediness passes me by, but I hear it is popular haunt of loved-up university students (they share rooms in tiny dormitories, where quiet, let alone privacy, is rarely attainable).

Aston is situated on Old Bookstore Street, imaginatively named after the bookstore that once stood here. Since those days, many other buildings have been built around the site but the book-selling continues. As you walk along this short street, therefore, it's often necessary to squeeze past the numerous shoppers who stand by the book stalls, perusing the pages of Chinese books (many of which I think are counterfeits) and eating snacks from a couple of nearby food stalls. These often include sausages on a stick (they cannot get enough of food on sticks here!), the smell of which emanates quite enticingly from the end of the street that brings you out near the main shopping area, Walking Street. Below is the view of the street from my room.

The books for sale lay on tables that stand with their proprietors under umbrellas or canvases. Everyday the booksellers, most of whom no longer exude youthful spriteliness, unload their books from old carts that have two wheels and can be pulled or attached to a bike (I think). At the end of the day, around six, the books are reloaded onto the carts and taken to an unknown location for the night. That's what happens outside this building, every single day. I must now go to my lesson.
PS. I have seen at least 10 people walking around in pajamas since I last blogged.
PPS. Below is a picture of the statue of the Chairman in Zheshan Park. Mao looks out on the lake overseeing the goings-on of the park.

Sunday night slump

I have just watched Forrest Gump. Merim and Ahmir b0ught the DVD for us to watch, mainly out of utter disbelief that I had reached the age of 21 without seeing this film. In a way, I do feel that my life has been enriched –'Forrest - Forrest Gump' is just so endearing and there are more than enough quirky comedy moments to keep a person engrossed for nearing 3 hours.

In fact, it was just was just what I needed after completing my weekend teaching slog. Apart from Kindergarten on Wednesday mornings, all my lessons are squished together on Saturdays and Sundays – days that sometimes feel like a relentless, blurred procession of students.

On Saturday morning, I woke up to teach my English teachers in our 8.20-10am lesson. However, only one teacher turned up (it is only a voluntary class and I think, quite understandably, the rest didn’t really feel like getting up and climbing six floors that early on a Saturday) so it ended up being a one-to-one chat. It's a shame because I had planned the lesson in quite a bit of depth; I was looking forward to hearing my students’ views on marriage and the roles of women and men within the institution.

Of course, I do not expect such engaging conversation from the rest of my classes, nor do I ever get it. Instead, I am most often confronted with over-excited children whose parents wait outside the classrooms during the 100minute lessons (sometimes, I’m convinced I can hear them pawing at the door), eager to know how well their only, precious child is doing. To be fair, the older children are not nearly as loud, especially as the classes are smaller and many of them have a real interest in learning the language (as opposed to being dragged their by their parents). I will say, however, that poor Grant, my assistant this morning, nearly lost his voice as he strained to get 24 six-year olds to do as we wanted.

On Saturday, after teaching, Joe and I did one hour’s spinning. I had no desire to go beforehand but I am so glad I did – I felt much better afterwards. We were only going to do 45 minutes, but when you are with someone else and there are great tunes being pumped out (Chinese dance music is something that really ought not be missed – especially the remixes of western songs) it is so much easier to keep going.

It's an odd place, our gym. I don't think that many people can afford to go ( it's cheap compared with British prices, but expensive here), so it is usually very quiet. However, when there are others working out, it is very likely that they will not be wearing sports gear as we define it. I have seen many men without tops on and one guy wore absolutely nothing on his feet whilst he plodded away on the running machine. You just wouldn’t see that in England – health and safety, hygiene and fashion snobbery dictates a scary amount.

Talking about fashion, I have of late noticed increasing numbers of people wearing pajamas in the streets and supermarkets of Wuhu. Bright and colourful jim-jam ensembles are paraded around by young and old alike. Joe and I went to Walmart the other day and were stared at by a woman in a pink pair of pajamas. She looked at us as if we were the strange ones (we were both wearing jeans) and didn't take her eyes off us even as she descended to the ground level. Partly as a result, on Friday night we decided as a group that we might just follow suit. The plan is to walk around Wuhu, on a day yet to be decided, in our pajamas (apparently you can get reasonably-priced thicker bedclothes for winter, so we won’t be cold), maybe do a spot of shopping and grab something to eat, and then perhaps take a leisurely walk around Mirror Lake. It sounds good to me – When in Rome and all that.

Now my weekend of teaching is over, it’s back to thinking about learning. I felt a bit overloaded with Chinese lessons by the end of last week so it was cool to have a break. However, I do think I am learning in the lessons, albeit slowly, and I know I wouldn’t put in the required work if I were teaching myself, so I am still sure it’s all worth while.

A few more photos of Wuhu

Ahmir and I were taken to Zheshan park during the first week we were here by Rex and Neo. It is a twenty minute walk away from the centre and contains Wuhu's public exercise machines, a fine statue of Mao, many fairground rides, a few mini man-made lakes, a tower (from the top of which you have a 360 degree view of the city) and also a Buddhist Temple. Actually, during this first visit it was raining so I didn't get to see a lot of the park, but there are two photos here that give an idea of what it's like. I was particularly fond of this statue, but there were a few others on the way up to the temple that were nearly as good.

On Tuesday this week I returned to the park and got to see the aforementioned attractions on what became a two hour walk. I think I am going to have to reconsider this as a place to go for runs (the gym is fine but the scenery isn't massively inspiring). It is definitely large enough, with loads of steps and paths, to make decent running terrain - if I really tried, I could imagine I was in the Bourne Woods at home! This time, there were a lot of people there, mainly older men and women, and what looked like a traditional Chinese play was being held near the entrance. The actresses were dressed-up in elaborate and colourful costumes, and their audiences were crowded around them as though they were about to reveal a great secret (Chinese people really do have a very different sense of personal space to us Brits!). Unfortuantely, I was without my camera so I just walked past, listening to the tradtional Chinese instruments being played nearby, and stared just as openly at the actresses as everyone seems happy to stare at me.

On another occasion, Rex showed me Ting Tang Park (fantastic name). There were literally no other visitors in the park that day. One bloke was painting a Chinese dragon on a mural on a wall, but that was about as much activity that we found there - not that I am complaining. However, I was told on 'good authority' a few days after the visit that the little huts, which are dotted in the water of Ting Tang Park's lake, sometimes house prostitutes and their, er, clients, so perhaps my visit was unrepresentatively tranquil? This is a photo of me on one of the bridges at the Park. They seem to like zig-zag bridges here.

I am supposed to be going out now, so I can't blog anymore. It takes so much time to do this (slow connection here) that I can only upload pictures a few at a time. Below is a night time shot of Walking Street - very typically Chinese, methinks. x

Consequences, recognition and a plastic tree

Due to the national vacation, I taught on Friday and Saturday last week, instead of Saturday and Sunday. I focused on injecting some creative and/or competitive opportunities into my lessons this weekend, largely because the students work so very hard at school and this was supposed to be their vacation, but also because it makes the 100 minutes pass a bit faster. On Sunday, we played the classic family game of Consequences. I could play this with my siblings for hours as a child and it rarely failed to amuse us. Thankfully, the students also enjoyed it and we ended up with some very amusing scenarios after unfolding the pieces of paper to discover ‘where they met’, ‘what she said’, ‘what they did’ etc.

In one of the lessons, one boy announced that he’d seen me on TV recently and inquired as to whether I did actually like the Moon Cake I had made. I must say that one passing comment in a lesson of only 18 people was hardly the level of recognition and fame that I had come to expect from my TV debut. I have received no offers of further work, nor any fan mail; I haven’t even been stopped in the street. Do they not realize who I am?

Yesterday, I dedicated the morning to learning Chinese from the book I bought in Wuhu’s Foreign Book Shop. I was pretty impressed with my concentration span because it held up, despite the jazzed-up airport lounge version Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’ (among other musical gems) sifting its way through my open window from the hidden speakers of the Mirror Lake area. Have they not got bored of that song by now?! Titanic was release about a decade ago!!!! A thirteen year-old boy responded to my question about the future, in a lesson on Friday, by saying that he believed ‘My Heart Will Go On’ will be one of those songs that people will still be listening to in fifty years. I am not joking; he was deadly serious.

Last night I went to a new restaurant on Restaurant Street with Joe, Ahmir, Paul and Kaori. It looked fairly normal as we entered and were shown to the table. For example, there were a lot of hanging red lanterns, which are often used as decoration here. However, when I sat down the first thing I noticed was the life-size plastic oak tree that occupied a large area near the stairs, its smooth branches looked as though they were baring the weight of the ceiling. The next thing was that there was a big TV screen nearby, showing food being prepared and eaten – that’s a bit strange, surely?! As my eyes moved further around, I noticed a small table sitting on a little raised platform under some regal-looking columns. Apparently, this is where the married couple eat when weddings are held at this restaurant. Chinese people often base their wedding in a restaurant, as opposed to a religious building or registry office, so I suppose some restaurants are permanently geared up to these ‘big days’.

After doing our best to order what we wanted and paying upfront (I wonder if they'd ask the happy couple to hand over their cash in this way, too?), we tucked into steamed dumplings and other dishes. I was very happy with all this, despite the slightly surreal surroundings, until the man on a nearby table came up to us, laughing, to point out the rat that had just run passed. I hardly think the presence of the odd rat is any different from many English restaurants, but it was the icing on the proverbial cake – I felt obliged to write about this particular Wuhu event!

I am just about to go to the gym now, after a Monday morning of Chinese lessons. Joe wants me to teach him spinning and the inevitable competitive element of spinning in a pair will make the whole thing more fun, I'm sure.

First photographic mini-tour of Wuhu and the plant/pet market

Now that I am able to place photos on this blog, I have taken the opportunity to photograph Wuhu from the windows of our twelth-floor flat (the photo to the right was taken from my bedroom this morning - you can just see Mirror Lake behind the trees) and also from an old section of Wuhu that Rex showed me yesterday. I decided that a walk in the sun (the weather is still very warm here) and Rex's mum's cooking might help me feel a bit better after my tummy bug episode, so it was an offer I gladly accepted. What was particularly lovely, if not so good for my recovering stomach, was that Rex's Mum (I cannot remember her Chinese name - arhh!) remembered I like red wine, so she bought some especially (they don't drink much of it here so I actually had to open the bottle to show them how to break in!). We happily drank it together, although I'm not sure rex was a fan, and she said she actually liked it more than chinese alcohol, so I think I have a convert!

Regarding the 'old district' of Wuhu (which is pictured below), Rex is sure that it, along with all old areas in Wuhu, will not survive for more than a few more years. There is so much construction going on in this city (like throughout most of China, as far as I can tell) and the government have no qualms about pulling down old buildings and re-housing people, at a scarily quick pace.

The image of the old town is an interesting contrast to the area in which we live (the centre). Indeed, Wuhu's shopping district is largely modern and, according to those who have travelled, looks much like any other Chinese city: the neon lights, high-rise buildings, street stalls next to KFC, crazy taxi drivers and hoards of bustling, queue-jumping shoppers. There are what might be described as more 'run-down' areas right next to our building (pictured below, from the bathroom window), but generally the centre is far more modern and new than its sprawling suburbs. What I think is fantastic about living here, as opposed to visiting it whilst backpacking across China, is that you get a chance to see far more areas of the place; I am sure I will be learning new things about this city until the day I leave!

Apropos new sights of Wuhu, Joe, Ahmir and I were taken to a market this afternoon by Rex. I had asked him where I might be able to find some plants to make my room more homely, so he led us only a little way from Walking Street, behind the buildings that look over the far side of Mirror Lake, into what appeared to be a combined plant and pet covered market. The first thing that struck me were the animals, not the potted greenery. There were fish, guinea pigs, rabbits, turtles, terripines, cats, dogs (from tiny yappy dogs to two fully-grown golden retrievers) and much more. The apalling thing was that most of them were squeezed into cages that were far too small for them - it just would not be allowed in England. I am no animal activist, but my first impulse was to buy all the dogs and take them home with me to care for properly. Of course that wouldn't have been particularly wise, so I stopped myself and continued, deeper into this bizarre, hidden market.

Retrospectively, I feel quite guilty for having effectively dimissed suffering animals in order to obtain a couple of pot plants. However, my attention was indeed diverted when I undertook my first ever attempt at bartering in Chinese. I will happily admit that it actually gave me a bit of a buzz getting a 25% discount on a tiny little chinese tree/plant with pink flowers, using only my own feeble Chinese mixed with animated body language. That I could actually communicate with the little old lady who sold it to me was sooo cool, considering Mandarin is proving so bloody difficult to learn!

One last point before I go is that, although I am certain that the Chinese do not treat their animals/pets anywhere near as well as they should, they do have a healthy understanding and appreciation of the link between animals and food. For example, on my way to the gym today, I saw two separate shoppers holding bags of freshly killed chickens - their feathers and heads etc were still very much present, despite the bags squishing them up a little bit - which I presumed were to be eaten over a celebratory Mid-autumn Day meal. Contrastingly, I am sure that there is a large proportion of people in Britain who make only the vaguest connection between the breast fillets they idly place in their shopping basket in Tescos and the actual bird from which it was torn. Having said that, I will never eat chicken's head, however accustomed I become to these Chinese ways.

Joe's Birthday, Chairman Mao's Restaurant, Hangzhou and Dodgy Hargen Dars

On Friday it was Joe's birthday. He had to teach during the day, unfortunately, but in the afternoon the assistants presented him with a dark chocolate and cream birthday cake (yum!) and we had a really good evening, too. Starting at the HongKong restaurant, we then went back to the flat for a while and played drinking games (at points I was hysterical with laughter) as more people arrived. I have a few amusing photos of that night and I'll try and post them soon. Joe wanted to go to karaoke because it's so much fun when there's a big group of friends doing it. It was indeed much fun and, once again, we finished the night at the Overseas Students' Garden - there's really not a great choice here! (Above photo : Stuart, Jamie and Tony loving the drinking games; Below , Stuart, Rex and Ahmir at Karaoke)The next night, Joe's friend Tom, his girlfriend Izzy (who are teaching English and studying Chinese in Shanghai and who'd joined us for his birthday) , Joe and I all went out for a meal to Chairman Mao's restaurant. This is located on Restaurant street and inside there is a massive golden bust of the former Chinese dictator and red-coloured decoration everywhere. The menu explains (in English as well as Chinese!) that Mao had visited the restaurant once and every dish mentions him for some reason or another - i.e. Chairman Mao liked to eat this because it is particularly nutritious. The Chairman obviously had good taste because the food was delicious. Aside from the food, though, it was so nice to have a chat with Izzy, a female native-English speaker (so rare!!!) who was intelligent, well-travelled and really reminded me of Sara Priestly (fellow Goldney resident who studied Law at Bristol). That evening, I spoke to Mum for the first time since arriving in China. I was a bit concerned that it might generate feelings of homesickness but, thankfully, I was just delighted to hear from her and it made me feel closer to home than further away.

Temporarily fast-forwarding from Saturday's to Tuesday's events, I woke up this morning and immediately feared I might be unable to cope with the five-hour return journey from Hangzhou to Wuhu that lay ahead, after having been sick during the night and developing a most horrid head- and backache. Actually, I'm surprised it has taken a full month for me to pick up a tummy bug, considering the sorts of new foods I have consumed(amongst the most notable being cow's stomach, a mackerel lollipop and ducks' feet) and the sorts of establishments (including one or two of the many open stalls that line the streets of Wuhu) from which I have consumed them.

Falling ill was not my ideal way to end the trip, but then its beginning was hardly desirable either. I bought the coach tickets to Hangzho last week (a five hour return trip cost us less than twelve pounds each) and told my travelling companions, Merim, Joe and Ahmir, that we needed to leave the flat at 9.15am on Sunday morning, in order to get to the coach station in plenty of time to make our 9.50am coach. At 9.06 I double-checked that I had packed my ticket and noticed that, actually, departure time was half an hour earlier than I had thought. To cut a panicked, hurried story short(er), we all legged it down the twelve flights of stairs from our flat into a passing taxi and managed to board the coach with literally less than a minute to spare!

It took me a little while to collect myself after that, but as we left Wuhu I began to read Lolita. I had heard of this book before and was curious to check it out. To my delight it is quite engrossing and wonderfully written, but I have been pretty shocked by the content though! For this reason, I barely noticed the scenery outside the coach. Joe informed me afterwards that I missed out, because much of it was fantastic. I did notice the mountains we drove through and some of the rural homes and farms. The mountains were covered in the sorts of trees that, to me, are always in the background of images of quintessential rural China.

Upon arrival in Hangzhou, we got into a taxi and showed the driver the piece of paper that detailed the name and address of our hotel (the Chinese assistants at Aston had printed this out for us in order to make the process easier). The taxi driver, understandably, had a bit of a chuckle at this point and then pointed behind him; the hotel was about 300 metres away! I am getting used to this feeling of complete ignorance and helplessness here. We did manage to check-in and find our rooms, though. We did not know what to expect, but the hotel was pretty nice. Nicer than a Holiday Inn anyway, and much cheaper! The cheapest accommodation had been unavailable because, due to the October Vacation when the whole of China is on the move, these places get full up very quickly.

We made our way into the city centre in the late afternoon. We hadn't eaten since leaving Wuhu so hunting down food was a priority. Like most visitors, were gravitated towards West Lake or 'Xi Hu', which is the main tourist attraction of the city. In fact, this lake is amongst the most famous in China, according to the Lonely Planet Guide. During our stay we came to understand why this was, but our mission for food took us first into a nearby Tea House. It transpired that we had wandered into an All-you-can-eat establishment; you buy your (rather expensive) tea and then can gorge yourself at the buffet. This concept suited our empty stomachs well, but as people who pride themselves on our polite English tradition of queueing, the dog-eat-dog reality of this system was not so wonderful. We soon learned that Chinese can be lethal with their chopsticks, especially when choice dishes such as chickens' claws and spring rolls are there for the taking. I must say, I thought it was just us Westerners who were greedy with our food, but from witnessing the all-you-can eat madness of that Hangzhou TeaHouse, I am now not so sure.

We wondered around the lake after dinner and watched a great fountain display from the water's edge, but it is about 3km in diameter so we only walked around a little bit that evening (and hid behind trees, as demonstrated in the above photo with Joe and Ahmir) It was pretty busy but not as hectic as we had feared. I had thought that there might be more foreigners in this tourist hot spot, but it seemed that we attracted just as much attention in Hangzhou. I'd say about five or six separate groups of people asked to have their photos taken with us during our stay (they all do that V sign with their fingers - what an amusing cliche!) and many more called out 'Hello' and giggled as if they were being really original.

We decided to go to a Jazz Cafe for a drink afterwards. Everything is more expensive during this vacation week and our drinks' prices reflected this. Still, I enjoyed the live jazz, even if the boys took an instant dislike to the arty-looking westerners that had also found this bar and sat nearby. It did indeed seem like a place that people go to be seen, unfortunately, and no-one was dancing or even moving to the music, as you would expect when live music is playing.

The next morning (Monday), Joe and I got up early and made our way back to West Lake, in the hope of beating the crowds. Ahmir and Merim are not early birds so the plan was that they'd meet us later. I am so glad we did walk around the lake earlier because it wasn't too busy at 8.30am (comparatively speaking) and so we could really enjoy the scenery in relative peace. The landscaping is well done, with all sorts of trees and plants and places to sit, and the backdrop of mountains and temples was stunning. It took us nearly three hours to get all the way around and, once we had, I was in real need of my first coffee of the day! The only main irritation on the walk was the presence of little golf-style buggies that drive around the lake carrying tourists and constantly beep in a tuneless way as they push past the pedestrians - arghh!

The afternoon was less fun than the morning in Hangzhou. We had a very cheap lunch from the street stalls, which most people seemed to be doing and consisted of tofu on a stick with chilly and corn on the cob (the Chinese love food on a stick) - far more healthy than the offerings you would expect at tourist attractions in England! Everything, from pedal boats to entry into temples, was expensive and we couldn't understand the bus system so we couldn't get to the botanic garden either. We actually ended up walking round the whole Lake again, which was ridiculous and far less fun with so many people doing the same thing. It was packed with tourists and golf-buggies so, by 6pm, we were all delighted to find a curry house in which to have dinner and rest our aching feet. I had a vegetarian Thai curry (ironically, I thought I would try to lower my chances of eating anything dodgy by avoiding meat), which was delicious. It was in a mad restaurant with vines on the ceiling, brightly-coloured, eclectic decoration and a group of quite talented singers/guitar player/tambourine player - this made us all perk up!

After dinner we sat for ages at an outside cafe that was sandwiched between Armini, Hermes and other designer shops on one side and the Lake on the other. It was really relaxing and the people-watching wasn't bad either. The only irritation, but also a source of amusement, was the serious way that the Chinese policeman berated people who were walking on the grass nearby. He stood there for ages, taking himself far too seriously, and we couldn't help but take the piss a little bit.

Obviously I have no way of telling what we ate that made both Merim and me throw up last night (or make me run to the toilet twice the night before, thinking I was going to be sick), but we both indulged in some Hargen Dars ice cream while we sat at the cafe and, seeing as this is the only thing that we both ate that the others did not, there must be a slim possibility that it was that which poisoned us - how funny it would be, if that were true and western food was the culprit!

The evening for Joe and myself ended with a difficult taxi drive home. The driver clearly did not understand which qi che zhan (coach station) we meant - there are numerous ones in hangzhou. Eventually we got back, but it was quite frustrating being unable to communicate and feeling, yet again, pretty vulnerable in a strange city. Merim and Ahmir stayed in the centre, ended up in a club and got back to the hotel at 3ish in the morning. Unsurprisingly, none of us apart from joe perhaps, felt that happy about the trip home, but we got back and all felt great fondness towards 'our' city and flat. I have drunk loads of water this afternoon and feel much better. I just hope my appetite returns properly soon so I can return to Chairman Mao's restaurant asap. x