Time fly’s in China

I woke up at 4AM this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep for another hour, that was horrible. When I did get up, at the back of 9AM, everyone seemed to be gone… Eventually Goa A Yi turned up and Benjamin not long after, by himself, said he was at the zoo. We had lunch which included bing (yas!) and he set off again but this time to watch a film, I took this opportunity to wash clothes and pack.

Wow packing feels weird. Has it been 6 months all ready?! I’m not even going home! This has been my home whilst in China and I’m excited for new adventures but a wee bit sad to see it go.

When Benjamin came back from the cinema we built the other Lego kit he’d got from his Dad, a hovercraft. His Dad and Mum arrived home just before tea and handed over a brand new iPhone 5 to Benjamin. A 7 year old has a better phone than me, jebus. To be fair he is off to Taiwan tomorrow and this means they can always be in touch, I got his number as well so we can WeChat. 🙂 Talk over food was fairly standard, they are quite preoccupied with travel plans for tomorrow (they are off to Japan on a business trip), I will be joining them to the airport. My flight isn’t technically until Monday (2AM) so I’ll have a long wait at the airport, I would stay at the house but no-one will be there so I can’t.

After food it wasn’t long until Benjamin needed a shower and I finalised my packing. He’s been OK today, definitely acting sad but overall fine, kids get over stuff quite quickly really. Randy and Suzy were out and obviously wanted me to join them for some last drinks but with Benjamin leaving so early in the morning and me feeling knackered I couldn’t go out. Glad I got to see them yesterday though, that was good. 🙂

So an FYI my blog will have some delayed updates whilst I’m travelling but I’ll make sure and update it when I arrive in Oz. Tomorrow will be my ‘Goodbye China’ post.

Does exactly what it says on the tin

Noodles for lunch (Nothing but noodles these past few days! Thankfully I love noodles.) then off to class. The basic structure of our lessons is definitely 90% chat with 10% learning new words. I think she has picked up on this though as I’ve been given homework, write about Christmas Day back home compared to what I did here. I also learned (The 90% chat includes a lot of cultural lessons) that in the North of China they like to eat salty food but in the South they prefer their food sweet. I explained “Smoked Corn Chicken” (If you’ve not eaten that why not?!) back home and thought it was made up for us Westerners turns out it could be a Taiwanese dish called “Sanbeiji” or “3 Cup Chicken”. Turns out it’s not the same dish but looks good.

Nom’d some baozi on the way home and when I got in, all relaxed, Goa A Yi had realised she’d run out of oil so asked me to nip to the shops and get some. Nothing gets in the way of food! I was the Hero of the hour. Tea wasn’t noodles either it was pork (Surprise!) but I do love this though, the meat clings on to fairly large chunks of fat but they almost melt in the mouth. Nom. Talked to Yu more about Australia and found out everyone will be leaving on the same day, so the parents are off to Japan, Benjamin is off to Taiwan and Goa A Yi will be heading back to her home town. Everyone is apparently leaving in the morning (I was hoping to go with them to the airport but I have a late flight) but Yu said she would try and get her driver to take me there. Yas! One less thing to worry about.

When Benjamin got home we played a tad of Lego and a bet was made (as usual!) but if I lost it would mean I couldn’t leave and had to stay here forever. Awww! Cute little sod. He’s been mentioning this more as it gets closer to OZ-DAY, it’s nice to know he will miss me. 🙂

Oh and all of a sudden today I’ve been hit by, possibly, another cold. Yup! WTF. I was sneezing a lot today, then a running nose in the evening and at night my throat went. This better just be a passing thing… 😦

Escargot Hut

I just wanted to chill today so that’s exactly what I did.

Read, listened to music and mucked about on the laptop. The main topics of my reading were stuff to do in Japan, updating my beer making instructions from what I have absorbed, catching up with the news and plans for next week. Need to get that Great Wall hike booked.

I had my left over lunch from yesterday, it was still very nom.

When Benjamin got back from school I was able to pry him away from the iPad to play ‘Dots and Boxes‘, uber simple paper game, love it. And so did he! Tried to teach him tactics, about knowing the other player will get some boxes but make sure you give them the least. Screw you iPad we use paper.

We went to Pizza Hut for tea and I ate snail. Yup, that’s right, snail. Now it’s not so shocking eating snail, I may have done this before, but at Pizza Hut?! WTF. It was server in a garlic butter sauce with some garlic bread, and tasted chewy. If I’m ever homeless I’ll at least know how to prepare this meal.

Weekend tomorrow but I have written it off in honour of the family so fudge knows what I’ll be doing.

Gig Night

Up until around 4pm I did next to nothing. I did start researching and planning what I’m to do when my 6 month stint ends with this family. The plan was to be here for at least a year and go to another family (easy done once your in China), my worry is that the other family would be shite. I’ve heard from other Au Pairs about their families and it hasn’t all been great, my family are brilliant and I don’t think they can be topped.

In brief I’m fairly certain Japan will happen, 2 weeks there would essentially complete my life travel plans. Australia has interested me even before I came to China so I’m looking into that too. Following other endeavors here in China is also in consideration but getting a Visa here can be difficult. Still a wee while away, time will tell…

I headed to Zhang Zizhong early and did a little recon of the area, I’ve been before but was killing time. Eventually headed to ‘Slow Boat’ where I met up with Randy. I had the very nice ‘Monkey Fist IPA’ to begin with then we ordered food and a pitcher of the newly in imperial vanilla stout, I had been waiting for this bad boy. Oh it was nice (even with my fecking cold destroying all my senses), definitely a desert beer as it was heavy, full of vanilla and strong with chocolate. Our burgers arrived, patty style, one with blue cheese the other with fries and cheese, served with a slice of gherkin, oh they were nom.

Get in ma taste buds!

Beth, another Au Pair that was going to the gig, followed my instructions on getting to the pub and she joined us for a drink before heading to the venue. Yugong Yishan was far more alive now, people filling most of the hall and the first band (don’t know the name) was in full swing. They have a lounge upstairs so if you want to get away from the tunes and grab a seat you can.

The drinks were expensive (25RMB/2.50 for a bottle of Tsingtao) we nipped to the shop across the road between each act to get some cheap beer, 5RMB/50p a tin.

Not sure who this is…

The mix of bands was good, including a reggae rock band where it looked like some dude proposed on stage, but the best was easily ‘Nova Heart‘. The tunes they produced were trippy, mesmerizing and laced with a funky beat, Helen Feng (the lead singer) had great stage presence as well as easy on the eye. (Listen to some of their tunes here)

The last band finished, Beth left, Randy and I went for another beer then some food. DJ’s were left playing at the venue to end the night (95% of the crowd had left), I danced like an idiot for two minutes then we got taxi’s home.

Boom – good night. 😀