Week 5 in China

What I Learned

They have excessive packaging.

Everything here seems to be packaged insidiously. We got some fruit leather/ fruit snack type things and they had an individual package for each little bite-sized piece. They just really like to have it all seperate.

Chinese yogurt is better.

I’ve got to say, the ice-cream, yogurt and yogurt drinks here are better than what I’ve tasted back home, at least in my opinion. They’re lighter and creamier, and I really like them.

Never try durian fruit.

It’s not even worth it. Not even to say that you’ve tried it. It’s just a waste of your money. It’s so gross and it stinks up everything.

Read all the reviews.

I’m sure This extends to a lot of other things, but I learned this lesson with our hotel booking. Do your reseaarch before you book a hotel. Read all the reviews you can find.

What I Did

Monday

It was the worst rain that i had ever seen. It had been raining for two days straight so none off had really gone outside until Monday when we had to walk to our classrooms. The streets were literally flooded. There was not a dry space to walk. I had a rain jacket and an umbrella and there was not an inch of me that was dry below my waste. My shoes squished wherever I walked. It was so nuts that it was almost fun.

Tuesday

So, it’s kind of become a tradition that when you have some weird food hat you bought from the Suguo (store) you go around to everyone’s room and have them try it. Last time it was cucumber-flavored potatoes chips, this time it was Durian fruit. Now, I don’t know what you’ve heard about Durian fruit. Here in China they put it on pizza and I’m glad I was never brave enough to try it because it would have been a waste of my money.

Anyway, so some of my group came around with a lump of white, fleshy fruit, told me it was the infamous Durian and asked me if I wanted to try it. Of course I took a bite... and I gagged. It tastes like rotten onions and has the same texture as curdled milk. Not a good experience. I had gotten egg-waffle ice-cream earlier that day so I was good.

Wednesday

When they told me that I would be teaching kindergarten, one of my few comforts was that I wouldn't have to lesson plan. It's my second week teaching them and I still don't have lesson plans, at least not the right ones. So I'm basically making stuff up as I go along, which really is not good for my mental health when I'm standing in a room with a couple dozen kindergartners. Oh well, the school is really cute.

Thursday

Nothing to report for this day, just teaching and chilling in China.

Friday

So after several false alarms and rising hopes, Friday turned out to be out school’s “Sports Day” I don’t know what that means for my kids but for me, it means a day off. I basically spent the whole day in bed and it was great.

Saturday

I spent most of this day packing and resting up because I knew that the next week was going to be a crazy one and I wanted to be ready for it. We had an issue with the hotel we were gong to stay at in Beijing. We started looking at reviews outside of the ones we saw on the site we booked it on (Ctrip) and we didn't like what we saw. The reviews and the pictures looked awful and we were really flustered trying to find a new hotel and get a refund for our hotel. None of us were willing to stay there, especially when we were sneaking in three extra people to sleep on the floor. So we booked a couple rooms at the Holiday Inn and waited to see if we could get our money back.

On a separate note, we kept the tradition arrive as someone came around with a mango boba drink that had red beans at the bottom instead of actual boba. It wasn’t terrible like the Durian was but it made me long for some good Mexican more acutely.

Well, that's all I got. Hope you enjoyed it.

Happy Travels,

Challis Hackley