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.