Hung Zhou (Sunday 22nd August)
Today, a group of us took an excursion to Hung Zhou, which is a town about a two hour train journey from Shanghai. It was an early 6.15 start to be at the train station for our 7.45 train. Chinese train stations are very different to British ones, much more like an airport, you have to go through a security check, and there is then a departure lounge with various gates to go to; we made it just in time.
Once we arrived we took a walk around the lake that the town is famous for. It was a little bit like being back in the Summer Palace, and much calmer and quieter than Shanghai. We saw boats for hire on the lake, and there was no stopping us; we got an hour for just £1 each, and these weren’t pedalos- they had engines!! It started nice and peacefully, but before long we got started on a water fight between each other, a little difficult though when the boats move at literally a snails pace, but still our boat (Me, Joe, Imti and Thai) was victorious. We did get taken down by the lake Police though for putting our legs over the side!
After the boating we walked round the lake a little more before heading off for lunch, which ended up being KFC to keep things quick. When I’d finished I was sat outside waiting for the others with Imti for a bit, when I realised there was a major problem, and it was something I have been battling with since arriving- and that is t-shirt tan lines on my arms. It stems all the way back to Beijing, when the smog made it seem like it wasn’t funny, but in fact I ended up tanning quite a bit, but with stupid sleeve marks. So I’ve been trying to sort it out by rolling my sleeves up, which I did today with the idea of “I’m not out sunbathing, and I don’t really burn so it’ll be fine.” I didn’t realise though that on the boat my right arm was exposed to the sun, so I’ve ended up with a bright red right arm, but not where I actually need it -only on the already tanned part, and still a bad tan line on my left arm. I looked like a walking Neapolitan ice cream.
After lunch we went for a walk to a mini-pagoda, like the one we climbed in the village in Beijing. Again, really picturesque and calming, and just like how you imagine China to be. We then started to head back for the train, walking around the other side of the lake, and across a bridge that holds the legend of splitting up two people if they walk across it holding hands... We saw a bride and groom having some wedding pictures taken by the lake, and we found out (I’m not sure how) that it only costs 9 yuan to get married in China, that’s 90p; if it weren’t for the fact it is legally binding worldwide, I think a few of us would consider having fake weddings. Also while watching the Bride and Groom, we realised we’d lost Thai, Keshi and Suraya, we found them eventually but this meant we were running late, and so after the most crowded bus journey I’ve ever been on we were running towards the train station, which was attracting so much attention; probably because in China it is considered very bad to be late so I imagine it’s not often that people have to sprint to the platform. Unfortunately being held up by security and things, we missed the train, but we were able to get a free transfer to a later train; although there was standing room only (as was the case with the earlier train). We weren’t fussed though, instead we just sat along the aisles, I say sat I ended up lying down and falling asleep in true Chinese-sleep anywhere fashion. While we were waiting at the station we all witnessed something of how you imagine China to really be like... It seems that Chinese people aren’t big on using nappies for their children, so often you see children having a wee in the street or anywhere, which isn’t that big a deal really. However, at the station today we got to see a child ‘doing the other’, and it was not pleasant; weirdly though the cleaner was just stood there waiting for him to finish, and looked totally fine with it! Needless to say, I chose to stand the rest of the time we spent in the station.
I went straight to the Indian for dinner with Keshi, Michael, Imti and Aman, which was as good as ever, a before heading back to the hotel. When I got back I heard that a group were going out clubbing, and as I’d missed the past two nights I decided to go, regardless of how tired I was. We went to a club in a shopping mall, which was a little strange walking through it when it was deserted, but we soon heard the noise of the club. It wasn’t the best club in the world, but it was good enough and we even saw the same rappers from last weekend who were just as cringeworthy but made for a good laugh. When we got home, me, Katie, Lily and Ravi headed out for McDonalds, and when we were done, we decided to fully embrace the Chinese Maccy D’s culture and take a nap on the table, although after about ten minutes we realised our beds were far comfier, so went home!
Night night!
The Joke of My Life (Monday 23rd August)
“The Joke of My Life” is one of the Fellowship expressions that we’ve all started to use, and it comes from Niketa. We use it to refer to anything that is negative but a bit funny at the same time and it sums up today well. I have had so many laugh or cry moments, luckily every time it’s been laugh!
Having finished the work placement meant no getting up early, and as we weren’t doing anything until half one I didn’t wake up until about eleven, and then went for lunch at Starbucks. At half one we had to go to our school for the briefing about our two day expo visit and also to finalise plans for the home stay which starts tonight. Our task at the expo is to research a topic relating to a continent, we’ve got people and community in Africa, which works well because the queues for the African pavilions are the shortest. We had about two hours to plan, but in all honesty we didn’t know what we were doing, and we later found out this was because we didn’t have a copy of the questions, having said that though, I’m sure it’ll be easy enough to research as we go.
So that was all fine, the home stay part, however, was slightly more problematic. First, me and my partner had not at this point really spoken at all, and whenever we needed to speak to each other it had to be through a translator, which could prove problematic when I’m there for six days without someone to translate. Even better than that though was when me and Imti were trying to sort out when and how we’d take our luggage to our partner’s homes, thinking back now it was probably a translation issue, but at the time it seemed that they didn’t realise we were staying overnight, let alone for a whole week. We spoke to Jackie, and in the end it was all sorted, actually no, at this point it wasn’t really sorted, it was left with us calling each other; which wasn’t really going to work considering we struggle with a face to face conversation! Luckily though we saw them again as we were going to get a taxi, and decided we’d meet after dinner.
By this point I felt totally exasperated with the whole thing, it felt like I was about to go and spend a week living with someone who I didn’t know at all, and who I couldn’t even talk to, not the best scenario for a home stay. Anyway, I got back to the hotel and Shahbaz left pretty much straight away, which felt so strange, and then I started packing. Most people had left by about six, which left the hotel feeling really bleak; Becky and Jackie came down for a bit to let me know that if I had any issues during the time I could call them, which was good to know. For dinner, I’d been invited, along with a few other, to have dinner at Sasha’s (whose got Bridget) parent’s restaurant. I should point out though that the entire reason for me being invited is because they all think I look like Justin Bieber, to the extent that a lot of them call me Justin instead of Zac! The food was lovely, and really healthy compared to what we’ve been eating; me and Imti had to leave early though because we got a call to say that Tommy (oh yeah, that’s the name of my home stay student) and William (Imti’s partner) were waiting for us at the hotel.
So, we got back to the hotel, I collected my things and then left with Tommy and also a friend, who I haven’t as yet been introduced to. Before we left, in my attempt to make small talk and also in the vain hope of the answer being yes, I asked if his parents spoke any English. The answer I got wasn’t what I wanted, but neither was it not what I wanted, instead it turns out that he doesn’t live with his parents; although he’s only 17 he lives by himself. This is the same for Imti’s partner, who is 15!!! The taxi journey felt a little awkward for me because of the lack of conversation, and also because suddenly my expectations were totally changed and I wasn’t sure how to feel. On the one hand, it meant that I didn’t have to worry about offending his parents and possibly meant I’d have more freedom with going out and things, but on the other hand I wasn’t sure what kind of place I’d be living in and how it would all work out.
Tommy’s apartment is quite nice, not massive, but then from having seen a few apartments working at B&Q I didn’t expect it to be. More importantly Tommy has been really hospitable, my room is nice there’s plenty of food and he’s been doing his best to make sure I’m happy. It’s still really weird though because although we’ve spoken a little, the language barrier is still quite big and we have to rely a lot on sign language and also because he and his friends, another one turned up later, have been sat in his room on the computer, and I’ve been left in my room to, um..... write my blog I guess. Overall, I’m not really sure how I feel, I feel more relaxed about it then earlier but that may be just because I got to the point of not caring rather than it being sorted. I’m not unhappy because Tommy is so friendly, and trying his upmost to be a good host; but at the same time I’m not happy because it feels a little odd to be not with a proper family and being hosted by someone who is two years younger then me, and I’m not sure that in this set up I’ll get the best experience, after all this is meant to be the chance to see family life in China.
Anyway, I’m going to sleep now and I’ll speak to others tomorrow to sort out what to do!
Night night!
Expo Day 1 (Tuesday 24th August)
I woke up today and as promised Tommy had made me breakfast, which was nice as I can’t remember the last time I had a proper breakfast. When we were done we took a taxi to meet up with the other Fellows, and it felt such a relief to be back with familiar faces; I’d called quite a few people last night to tell them about my situation so lots of them were asking how it was going and checking I was ok, which I was honestly quite touched by to think that the others were thinking of me even when they were having a good time. We had to go through airport style security at the metro station, and despite it being only about 9.15 in the morning it was still totally rammed with people, and Chinese people seem not to be fans of queuing so there is lots of pushing and general stress!
We escaped the tube, but in doing so also escaped the air conditioning and even in the mid morning it must have still be over thirty degrees. All around the park they have covered areas that spray a mist of cool water, some outdoor fans and lots of drinking fountains so I think the heat must be a real concern for the organisers (and rightly so because it did get really hot). Our first point of call with the UK pavilion for a speech by the deputy director to tell us about the expo in general, why the UK was there and give us some information on the pavilion. He said the purpose was to “brand” the countries and attract business and interest while sticking to the theme of “Better City, Better Life”, very different to the first world expo at the Crystal Palace which was to show of inventions of the time. The UK pavilion, he said, was very different to all the others because it was trying to totally change the perceptions of the UK around the world, so there were no big red buses or phone booths, and instead the focus was on green cities and to encourage the Chinese to build there new cities with considerations of parks and open spaces. When he was finished we went to see the actual pavillion, and although a lot of the fellows who went during their work placements said it was rubbish, I went with the hope I’d think differently. I didn’t. The main building (that looks like a dandelion) forms the “seed cathedral” and when you walk inside you’re surrounded by thousands of acrylic rods with seeds at the end, and it does look very impressive. Me and Shahbaz also had a bit of fun asking one of the stewards which plant the seed was for as we wanted to plant one in our garden, he ran off to get someone else who also, not surprisingly, didn’t know, so we just had to walk away looking disappointed. There are then three other sections, not that you realise they are actual sections until you reach the end and find out there is no more. The first is just an open area, with the idea that is like a British park, and it’s been home to lots of performances; including the Global Fellows who gave a rendition of the National Anthem. The other two sections were pretty much just plants, no joke.
So all in all the pavilion is strange because although I understand the idea is to “rebrand” the UK, I think that it should have still had at least some clear links to the country. In the way it has been done there is nothing at all to tell you what country it is, apart from the Union Flag thats flying. I think also the small size and lack of things to see make it a disappointment, both in terms of if you’d queued seven hours to see it, and also because as a project our presence at the expo cost between £20 million and £25 million, and I cannot see how that money has been well spent.
Once we were done with the UK we had a quick lunch stop, where en route we went and saw a Brazilian music and dance act which was amazing! So vibrant and energised! Then we had to get started on our project so we went to the joint African pavilion, which housed all the majority of African countries, only a few had their own pavilions. It was different to the UK, but still not better as it now seemed to be like one massive tourism office, and so we weren’t able to learn anything for our presentation. After a while we were fed up in there, so we went and queued for Egypt; we were in there 45 minutes, and back out 48 minutes later! At this point quite a few of the Chinese students started to leave, but we stayed. Fay tried to queue jump us into the France pavilion by speaking French, but to no avail, and as we couldn’t face queuing for hours to see it, we went to the Monaco and then Serbia pavilions. These were both better, although the Serbian pavilion was just about a very accurate calendar invented by a Serbian.... a little odd. When we were queuing for the Monaco pavilion, the other Fellows waited till I was alone and then started shouting “Oh My God! It’s Justin Bieber” at which point the entire queue turned a started staring at me- it was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life!! Although, it was pretty funny and helped detract from the reality of how bad the expo was!
After Monaco we saw a bit of a parade of countries, which then meant the whole thing seem like Disneyland; it was good though and provided a party atmosphere which was more enjoyable. Then we decided to go for the Poland pavilion, so as we were walking by the door I shouted to one of the guys inside who came out. I explained I was Polish and I had a passport but I’d left it at home (a slight lie, but I am entitled to a Polish passport if I want, so I figure it’s only a white lie). He wasn’t worried though, and he made not just my day, but probably my life by saying “It’s ok, I can see you are Polish.” It turned out he was the restaurant manager, and he agreed to let us in if we bought a few drinks, so we went to the exit where sure enough he was there to let us through! Inside the pavilion they show a 3D film on the history of Poland, the downside was there was a forty minute queue; but this time playing more on the British Council side of things we were able to queue jump that- all 19 of us, we went straight in and got front row streets. I may be biased but the Polish was the best pavilion of the day, made all the better by the fact we didn’t have to queue, and tomorrow I’m going back to see Marcin in the restaurant for some food!
I don’t want to sound really negative about the expo because some of the architecture is really impressive, as are some of the pavilions. But overall I can’t see the point of it, and how it justifies such an enormous cost and everything else that goes into it. The majority of the pavilions seem to have not bothered with the “Better City, Better Life” theme and instead have acted either as tourist offices or as sales offices for businesses. But even if they were more focused on the theme, I still don’t think it would really be clear why it’s there, after all the majority of visitors are ordinary Chinese people and I can’t see why it would be that interesting to them and how they would benefit the countries at the expo. Still though it was fun to see everyone and felt more like the fun of Beijing!
For dinner a group of us went to the Indian, and then I joined some other people who had gone to karaoke. This is the upside of Tommy not living with his parents as he had no worries about me getting back home at 12, or that he hadn’t seen me since he left the expo at about 3. Also as soon as I walked in the door he checked I wasn’t hungry, and then gave me a towel as he assumed I want to shower in the evening like last night, and so I can see he is trying really hard to be a good host and make me feel welcome. I’m still not sure though, but at the end of the day 6 days isn’t a long time, I’m already practically a third of the way through, and I have lots of opportunities to visit other Fellow’s families so I imagine I’ll just leave things as they are.
I must sleep now, it’s been such a long and tiring day and we’ve got the same tomorrow!
Night!
Expo Day 2 (Wednesday 25th August)
This morning didn’t run quite as smoothly, because I don’t think Tommy realised we were meant to be meeting at the metro station at 9.00 like yesterday, so at 8.15 I had to go knock on his door and sort out what was happening. There was a little bit of confusion at first, but actually the conversation went fairly well and ended with me leaving for the station; as I was walking out the door Tommy said to me “I think I am very bad” for not being up in time. This made me realise that actually for all I’ve been moaning, he actually does really care, so I told him he wasn’t, which wasn’t a lie, I was quite happy to go meet the others by myself.
We had a bit of drama getting the metro because as we reached the platform the train was already boarding, and so we were rushing on; about half got on and then the doors started to close, not a problem though because we could just meet up at the other end. But Sean didn’t realise there was a group of us who were still on the platform, so he tried pushing to get on while there was a man putting up a rope across the gap, before we knew it there was a Police Man over and some other employees to resolve the situation. For a few second it did honestly seem like Sean may have been in serious trouble, after all this is China and they don’t seem to like messing around. As it happened though they just told us to wait on the other side for the next train, naturally though we called up the others to tell them Sean had been taking away for questioning, which they did semi-believe.
We arrived at the Expo and got moblilsed quickly, after the success at the Poland pavilion yesterday and stories from a few other fellows, we decided today would be queue free. The first port of call was India, we got to the VIP entrance and Shahbaz, Aman, Ravi, Keshi, Pooja and Imti worked their magic and we were all straight in, not only that but the man then bought the dance and music show forward so we wouldn’t have to hang around to see it, and gave us stamps in our Expo passports, which is something the Indian pavilion had stopped doing for the general public. We spent about an hour and a half there, watching the show and then taking a look round the exhibition and also the many shops there were. After India we went to Pakistan, where again we were straight in. The Pakistani was quite different to the others I’d been in up to that point, it had a lot more information in it and focused very heavily on Pakistani-Chinese friendship, which is very strong I found out. From Pakistan we went to Israel, and although we don’t have anyone with Israeli heritage, Nadia said her Mum was from Jerusalem and we all used the British Council research excuse, and despite there being about 15 of us we were let in. The Israeli pavilion was one of my favourites, I learnt so much from it such as that Albert Einstein was going to be the first Prime Minister of the country, but died before he took office; and also that Shanghai offered asylum to 30,000 Jews during WWII, and so there is a strong link between Israel and China- I also got to see the E=MC2 manuscript! The main part of the pavilion was a video that was projected in a planetarium type building, which was really interesting and also kept a close link to the Better City, Better Life idea.
When they opened the doors of the theatre for us to leave, we were greeted by the sight of rain absolutely pelting down. We huddled under a bridge for a bit and then ran off for lunch, me and Shahbaz had decided yesterday we’d go to the Polish restaurant in the pavilion, and a few others joined us. By the time we arrived we were soaked, and I mean literally soaked, I may as well just have jumped in a swimming pool. The lunch was good, not totally authentic Polish food, quite a lot had been adapted to be a mix of Polish and Chinese but it was still good- although the lack of beetroot soup did upset quite a lot!! Also while in the pavilion, one of the Chinese workers I was talking to described my accent as “elegant”- something I’ve not heard before! After Poland we went for Russia (thankfully the rain had stopped by now and we were just starting to dry off) which we had heard was really good. The queue jumping was a little harder this time as the two Chinese workers wouldn’t play ball, but we managed to speak to a Russian worker who was more than happy to let us in, and she even gave us a brief introduction to the pavilion. What I learnt from this was that even when someone says “No, it’s not possible” it probably still is if you push some more and manage to speak to the right person! The Russian pavilion was focused a lot on children and the future (reminds me of a Whitney Houston song) and was one of the visually most impressive as the upper level resembled Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory with films showing design ideas children had had for inventions of the future. The pavilion was also focused on changing the perception of Russia to show that it is a friendly and co-operative country, and unlike the UK’s idea of rebranding, I think Russia did a good job.
Australia was next, where we didn’t manage to queue jump, but as it was only 20 minutes we stuck it out. I don’t think I can very well describe the main part of the pavilion, which was a film, but more than just a film displayed on a screen because of the way in which it was done; it was good though. On our way out, me and Shahbaz got talking to one of the Australian pavilion employees who among other things was telling us about how aggressive Chinese people can be when it comes to queuing and getting things, and we’ve witnessed it ourselves. I can’t remember who it was that old me, but they told me that at one pavilion Chinese people had been biting each other to get their passport stamped- yes, biting! It is quite incredible how forceful some people are to get to the front and be first in! After Australia we had a look round a couple of the smaller South East Asian countries, before me and Pooja went for the Chinese dinner we’d promised ourselves earlier, which was so good and satisfied my craving for Chinese food!
I went back to Tommy’s via the Motel, where me, Luke and Becky had a really interesting chat about Chinese society, and then after Luke had left about education, which now means I have officially started my final project!! In the taxi en route to Tommy’s I had a revelation about the whole home stay thing, I don’t know where it came from or why it came, but it did. I suddenly realised that I had been quite narrow minded about it all, after all it was the chance to learn about family life in China, and to see the differences, which is what I’m doing. After all, this is an example of how a Chinese family live, it’s totally different to the UK, but that’s the point; so where I think I’ve been missing out on the family experience, I haven’t, it’s just that my family is very different. I think also what Tommy said this morning about him feeling bad bought it home to me that he is really happy to be hosting me and care about it, and also tonight we held out first proper conversation (only about what’s happening tomorrow, but still, a conversation). So I now feel much happier about the set up, and I’ll be definitely staying until Sunday!
Night!!
Living a Chinese Soap Opera (Thursday 26th August)
This morning, I was woken up by Tommy’s friend, because Tommy was at a class. He took me to the subway to catch a train for our Chinese class, and on the way we bumped into Jason and his home stay partner Genius. We ended up being a bit late but that was because I’d popped in to the bank on the way, and in all honesty you wouldn’t miss much even if you were an hour late. It was nice to be together with other fellows in a big group and to find out how everyone is getting on, and I think most people are having a good time, and certainly no one is having a really bad time; the lesson also gave me the chance to read some more of my book, so all in all it wasn’t bad two hours.
Most of us went for lunch at the Italian back by the Motel, and then we were on our way to our home stay partner’s schools to prepare for tomorrow. I need to add at this point, to remind myself of the shock I felt at the time, that on the way we stopped for a McFlurry- and it was Aldaine’s first ever one. I realise that I might like McDonalds a bit too much, but still, to have gone 18 years without a McFlurry, I can’t imagine it!! Tommy’s school (Wu’ai School) is old and fairly run down, and very much like how you would imagine a communist era school to be- lot’s of propaganda posters, but little other decoration. We were in the computer room for about two hours, but we still got to the position of having only fifteen minutes left and not having sorted anything else. I say we, I mean everyone but two of the Chinese students who put together a presentation, so the plan is that they’ll do the presentation and the rest of us are going to dance to “Waka Waka” by Shakira. It’ll be fine...
After we’d done, Tommy took me to get a phone charger because along with my English phone it was a victim of yesterdays downpour at the Expo. But it didn’t just break, no, instead it decided to work for a while and then blow the fuse- taking all the electricity in Tommy’s apartment with it!! Luckily though it was no big issue, and I don’t think he knows it was my fault. Tommy left on his moped to go home, and I went to the Science and Technology Centre Market to meet up with some other guys, in the end though I only ended up with about 15 minutes before I had to head back to be at Tommy’s in time for 5.30 when his parents were cooking me dinner. It was one of the few occasions in my life when I arrived early, and I got to meet his Mum and Dad, and also two friends who had come round, one of whom had good English which helped a lot. His mum had cooked loads of food, and it was so tasty. The highlights were Gong Pao Ji Din (Gung Pao Chicken) which has become my favourite Chinese dish, but isn’t so common in Shanghai; ribs which she had cooked in a really sweet sauce, and also dumplings. She said she had spent a long time preparing the food, and it showed. I was really glad to meet his parents, and to get to see a proper family meal, which was much more informal then I thought it would be, and really sociable, I don’t know what was being said but there was lots of laughter between Tommy’s Dad and his friends (I think sometimes at his expense!). After dinner I showed them the pictures I had brought from home, and then in return Tommy’s Mum went to fetch the family photo albums, Tommy wasn’t too impressed by some of his baby pictures!
After dinner the four of us, (Me, Tommy and his friends) went to meet some of the other fellows for karaoke. It was a good night, which at the end turned very entertaining, and this is where the soap opera part comes in. I’m not totally sure on the details, but basically we had two rooms, which became a loud room and a quiet, well quieter, room; and the idea was to put the cost of both rooms together and split it between us all. However, somewhere along the way some Chinese people, not home stay partners just other friends, had left, and also a third room had been used so this got very confusing when it came to paying. The confusion then turned a little to anger, and before long there were group of Chinese students outside the rooms arguing over who should be paying, and then the tears started; and then one guy got really angry and smashed a glass- it was all kicking off. For a while I was worried that Tommy and his friends would end up being at the centre of it all, but luckily they were nothing to do with it, and in fact ended up paying extra to help out, even though we insisted they didn’t. Even when we left and were waiting for taxis the argument was still ongoing, but now between two of the Chinese students who are (maybe that should be were) together because he had not taken her side over the whole thing! So more tears and shouting, and I won’t lie by this point we all found it really funny and so were jokingly shouting at each other to add to the effect, the ordinary pedestrians didn’t know what to think!
A few of us decided to go clubbing after karaoke to G+, which has a free cloakroom- if it wasn’t for the whole one party state dictatorship thing, this would literally be the perfect place to live! It was a good night, although half way through there was a random tribute act that seem to be really popular clubs, again it was Lady Gaga for a bit, and then Beyonce, even though she ended up singing songs by loads of other artists. The whole thing is really strange to us, and personally I think a bit cringeworthy, but it seems really popular with the Chinese people! Tommy totally made my day, in fact probably my week in club because I asked Eric to let him know that he should tell me when he wanted to leave, it was his choice. His message back was “We are brothers, we shall decide together.” I cannot believe I ever complained about him.
Anyway, I’m back home now and just about to fall asleep so good night!!
Presentation Day (Friday 27th August)
Nice late start today, so I didn’t get up until about 11.45, but when I did leave my room I saw Tommy’s Dad sat in the living room, so I felt a bit embarrassed about having slept in so late, but he didn’t seem worried so it was fine! Ravi had stayed over the night with me, so us and Tommy went for lunch at the Italian place by our hotel where we met with Fay and her student called Fancy. When we were done with lunch we left for the school to do our presentations on the Expo, at this point still not really sure what we were doing apart from dancing to “Waka Waka”!
When we got to the school we were initially shocked, and then panicked by what we saw, because we were expecting something really informal, where as in reality there was a a long table at the front for the “judges” who were various teachers from the schools we were working with and other employees from the British Council. So we realised we had to up our game and hurriedly put together some things to say, and sorted out words for the song. The highlight of the presentations has got to be Joe, Sierah, Sophie and Ruth’s, they didn’t have any help for their Chinese students and this morning their computer had broken, so they did the best they could in bad circumstances. We all thought it was really funny, hearing their anecdotes from the day, Li Ting didn’t seem so impressed though and I think had Joe not got her on stage to demonstrate the Irish charm he used to queue jump the pavilions, there could have been big problems!
We presented fifth, and by this point it was clear that although it was set up very formally it was in fact a real waste of time. Half the judging panel had disappeared, the Chinese students were talking constantly, and all the groups had struggled to research the topics they had been given, because most of the pavilions had little to do with what we had to find out. Anyway, we got on stage and Ollie started by introducing the presentation in Chinese which was a real crowd pleaser, and after a bit of bilingual speaking we started the songs. Ravi had sorted out to have the disco lights in the room turned on, and we got everyone up and dancing, and it was probably the most fun of the whole day! Best of all though, the judges were really pleased that we had “transcended lingual barriers through the common medium of music!”
We finally managed to escape at 6, and amid escalating drama with the Chinese students relating to a love triangle; me, Tommy, Jason, Genius, Aldaine, Eric and Thai went for dinner to I guess you’d called it a DIY BBQ restaurant. On each table was a metal trough which was filled with coal, and then you were able to BBQ skewers of meat and other things on top. A few of the skewers had strange things on, and I think I may have eaten seahorse, but I can’t be sure, whatever it was though, it was all really tasty. I went back to Tommy’s after to get ready for clubbing. We went to G+ again, but this time a bigger group of us, and Jackie, Becky, Leo and Shuwei came as well. Tonights ‘entertainment’ was a wannabe gangster with two dancers, and then later on two really ugly dancers, again though, they were really popular with the Chinese people. For about half an hour, Jackie and Becky took me to a bar round the corner which they thought would have a jazz band playing, it didn’t, but it still had a live band with a female singer doing lots of disco songs- it was great! I’m hoping to get a few people together and go back next week if there’s time.
I got back to Tommy’s not long ago, and after having some milk and Oreos :D :D :D I’m just writing this and then I’m going to sleep! I think I’m allocating my first few days back in England just to sleep!!
Night!