Team Wuxi is go!: Cough! (Courtney)

Another day, and more weird shenanigans. Marcus and I just returned from teaching our last classes for the day (and after stopping at the printing department to collect our 1600 pieces of A3 paper for next week's classes! Times like those I wish we had one of those handy three wheel cart things I see everywhere) when there was a knock at the door. Of course, it was Mr Pan. Mr Pan has developed a somewhat frustrating habit of calling us on the phone to see if we are free, only to be standing outside our door waiting to come in! This makes it somewhat difficult to say we are not free when he can clearly hear us talking, watching TV etc. Anyhoo, Mr Pan is at the door, somewhat out of breath. He comes in, announces "a gift for you" and proceeds to hand me a five litre bottle of cooking oil. Uh, Mr Pan...come with me to the kitchen...we already have a 3 litre bottle of cooking oil! He says that's ok, just use slowly. I point out to him that we have been here over a month and look at how little progress we have made on our original bottle! He laughs, then says he must leave, and literally runs from the apartment, down the stairs and across back to his own apartment. Yet another interaction where we will never know why he decided to buy us a gift of cooking oil. I suspect he went to the shops bought oil, got home, realised he already had some and so as to not get in trouble off Oolan for wasting money, decided it would be a great present for Marcus and Courtney!

There are times when I feel as though we are in a sitcom and Mr Pan is like our Kramer...

Today we had our one of our classes cancelled so that we could meet with some people from the Jiangsu Provincial Education Department. Lovely folk. They seem to go around and see how new teachers are settling in. I was chatting to one of the ladies and she asked me how we were dealing with being lonely etc. This is the first person to recognise that Marcus and I have gone through a huge life change and that yes, we miss our home and family and friends greatly! And yes, there are days when we are lonely! It was so nice to talk to her. What do you think I received from them????

More flowers!!

So just a quick update to say yes, I am alive. I have not been very present on the blog or on emails or any other form of communication for a week or so now due to a nasty flu like thing. It knocked me for six, but I am on the mend today, I can basically talk again and feel much better. But lordie what a week it has been! It's been a long time since I have felt so utterly ill, just like every part of my body had some sort of complaint. I had been warned that bugs here could be severe, and I can confirm that yes they are! The final straw was of course on Monday where I taught three classes in the afternoon with no voice...a challenge to say the least! Last week James sent through some much needed teaching advise, and one of his suggestions was to run a class in silence. Initially I thought hmm, that might be too hard. Well James, I can safely say that I ran a number of classes basically in silence out of necessity! The kids were great though, they all understood that I was sick and for the most part tried their hardest to be quiet and listen. And ultimately they were happy to play games which involved them doing all of the talking - I actually had one class that was overjoyed to play Simon Says for a full 25 minutes!!

So I just wanted to send an update that yes I am ok, as I have received some concerned emails, no I don't need to go to the hospital or be evacuated by air etc etc. But thank you for your concern =) Mr Pan kindly took me to the chemist a couple of nights ago to get some more medicine, which he insisted he pay for. It goes back to the whole Chinese thing of - I ask you to do something, therefore I pay. This was one of those times when I felt mortified that he was paying. I do everything to offer money, which only insults him. He explained to me that he has a card for the chemist which has money on it, like a chemist credit card. I tried to explain thta that money was for him, his wife and daughter not some ill westerner! But he would hear none of it. He is such a generous man, I feel like I need to set up some sort of trust fund where I can deposit part of my salary to him each month. So after that little excursion I am now taking a total of 29 pills three times a day. All herbal stuff of course!

Tonight we are even going to go and get some dinner! Actual food! Poor Marcus has gone above and beyond, trapsing to the shops, procuring food, heating up rice bags for me, you name it. In complete desperation the other night we actually ate dinner at the canteen (at 5:10!!), hoping it would be different from lunch. Sadly we can confirm that the same mostly awful food is served for dinner as well. I suspect the poor kids probably eat it for breakfast too.

Speaking of kids, I was today asked my second grammar question. Which I dread. Whilst I obviously speak English, teaching grammar is a mindfield of problems as I just do not have the training. Whilst I understand English grammar, I can't explain it! Last week a girl asked me if "ponytail" was a countable or uncountable noun. What the!?!? I googled later, and thankfully I told her the correct answer. It's countable by the way. Today one of my fave kids wanted to know why one of his homework sentences was marked as incorrect. It took me so long to explain but we finally got there. Next week I'm going to try and take some pics of my gifted class. I only have one gifted class but I absolutely love them. They make Wednesdays so enjoyable. I'm even getting better with all of their names - there's a Jimmy (who is my fave, and not even because of his name) a George, Ben, Koby, Oscar, Wendy, Cindy, Jessica, Automan or Ultraman (I haven't been able to work out which) and....a Piggy!!! Yes, his name is Piggy and he is completely serious about it. I asked him why he chose the name Piggy, he stood up in front of the class and went into this long winded explaination which took about 3 full minutes. Turns out he wanted to be called Pig (which by the way he described it took him HOURS of deliberation) only to be told by his English teacher that Pig was not a suitable name. Well well, nothing like determination, he decides then that Piggy will do instead! Adorable.