East Lake? No not this time

Well as usual in China, either the info comes at the last minute or the info is not completely correct or sometimes it's both. The school trip that was planned for East Lake was only for half the school. The other half of the school went to the Botanical Gardens. This is where I went with one of my classes. The number of times my name was called, can't even be measure. Maybe it was a million times, I don't know. Anyway had to get up earlier and got to the office. About 10 mins after that I was on a bus with my grade 1F class. This is one of my good classes.
The bus ride was very nice. I went through parts of town that I visit regularly and then I was introduced to a new part of town that I have never been at. The bus ride was about 45 mins or so and we finally got there. The gardens were beautiful as they usually are. I was happy to spend time with my kids outside of the classroom and the question du jour was "what's this?" Everything they saw was followed by the question "Litisha laoshi, what's this?"
At one point we came up to this small field and stopped for the morning snack. I didn't bring anything with me except a bottle of water but...... have no fear, class F to the rescue. My kids were ever so eager to share their snacks with me and Lily. I was force fed so much junk, chips and cookies and bread things and jube jubes and skittles. The list was endless. I couldn't even eat everything I was offered, some of the stuff I put in my purse for later. One kid even gave me this thing I've never seen before. It's this paper thin green thing that I was able to find out was seaweed. It wasn't bad. It had a fishy type smell and wasn't bad tasting.
Another one of my kids wanted to share his bread with me. It's this sort of sweet type bread type thing. His name is Mitch, he is by no means the smartest kid in my class but he does try very hard. Anyway, at first he brought me a piece, then he kept coming back, breaking off these little pieces and shoving them in my face. I got fed up and told him to go away. He was feeding me as though I was his pet or something. I don't think he's "all there".
Anyway, we finished our snacks and picked up to keep walking. The head teacher was stopping to take pics of kids in the class in different poses. I got a few pics myself and even got a class picture.
All in all a good day.
When I got back home, I just sat around for a bit. Eventually Bre and Matt came home and we all swapped stories on how our days went. Matt went to the gardens as I did and Bre went to East lake. After chatting for a bit, we played around on our guitars. then everyone left me and I practiced my guitar playing. Heck I even wrote a song.
Evening eventually came and turned into night. Daisy loaned me her Friends DVD and I watched that and Matt joined me for a bit and we sat around and drank beer.
Things are just not the same without Patrick. Our first weekend without him and it completely sucked. So needless to say, he is missed.
I went to bed with very little umpf or enthusiasm.
Then I woke up this morning to update this blog and the earth was shaking. A mild earthquake, no damage, in fact it probably wouldn't even be noticed by many people, but a quake nonetheless.
So that's how it goes....

TTFN

yeah yeah yeah

Well went back to class today. My students missed me as usual. Practically tackled me when I got into the classroom. Anyway, the day went on as normal. I met the new guy Mike today, who is now called "the dude". He seemed pleasant enough with me. I don't know if he heard something and just wanted to be on my good side. Anyway, today we found out that the school has a fall outing for the entire school population planned for tomorrow. All the teachers (including us) have to be there. We'll be going out to East Lake. Should be fun but we'll see what happens.
Well we figured that since we weren't doing any actual work tomorrow that we could have a few extra beers tonight. But before that, we stopped at the music store that I bought my guitar at and I was able to buy a tuner for my guitar. Very helpful tool. Then the guys at the store played a bit of Hotel California for us. That was really awesome. The store owner played with an electric and he was damn good and the sales guy played with him on an acoustic. They really did a great job.
Anyway, so we got home (and by we I mean Bre, Matty sticks and I) we played some ping pong, then made fun of the playground the kids play on which I'm convinced is a gym because beside slides and a swing, everything else is equipment you would find at a gym. Then when we got back in, we opened some beers and Matty sticks showed Bre and I how to play poker. Candies were our "chips" and we had a really great time. Mostly laughing at Breanna because she doesn't really drink beer and after half a bottle she was giggling and saying many a stupid thing.
So we just finished up now and I'm going to bed with a smile. I got to talk to my best friend on MSN before she had to leave for a trip and that felt good. I never seem to catch her online.
Anyway, that's about it for me right now. I have to get up a bit early tomorrow because we have to be at the office at 8:30 (as opposed to our usual 9:00) to meet the buses and head out.
I'll let you know how that trip goes and as usual I'll be taking pics which I will hopefully be able to share with you in future.

TTFN

a little from column A, a little from column B

Well I have been locked up in my room for the past 2 days. Two reasons 1) I've had a nasty cold with an incredible cough that is the bane of my existence and 2) I've been missing Patrick. Even before he left. Anyway, I feel better now and I hope to get a decent nights sleep tonight.
Apparently what I have heard now is that they got someone else in to take over Patrick's classes. His name is Mike and he's from Toronto. I haven't met him yet but I haven't heard good things........... from anyone.
So I'll be meeting him tomorrow and I guess everyone is waiting around to see if he passes the Litisha test. I think it's funny in a way. Bre was telling me that she hopes I don't like him because I needed to be on her side, cause he's apparently a real jerk and if him and I teamed up....God only knows what would happen. I'm going in with an open mind and will make a decision on my own. But truth be told, if he is a straight up jerk........then I'm gonna have to bring him down a peg or two.
Anyway, will be going back to school tomorrow. Hopefully I won't be dying when I get there.
I'll let you know how the Mike meeting goes. Should be interesting.

TTFN

I'm a little sad

Patrick probably wouldn't approve of me dedicating this post to him but I have to. Due to something I rather not discuss here, Patrick has decided to go back home to Canada earlier than originally scheduled. He will be leaving us here in China tonight and I have to admit I'm very sad about this. I know he has made the best decision for him and the truth is I think it is best that he goes, in fact I want him to but I will miss him. We grew quite close over the few months I've been here and he has been my buddy that I hung out with. This day was to come eventually but the fact that it happened so suddenly is what makes it hard to digest.
So this is for Patrick.
All the best and I hope he gets home safely.

Lazy days

Well not much happened today.
Reason?
Everybody is sick. Yours truly included. Patrick has it the worse and actually went to the hospital on Friday. Annaick had a 109 degree temperature yesterday. Matty sticks has a cough and now so do I. I had some tests that I had to mark that I got mostly done today but other than that nothing happened.
Everyone has spent their time either in their rooms in solitude or just barely watching TV in the living room. We have our own little hospital ward going on here at ye ole frat house.
I think we'll all be fine in a few days but it is hard to avoid the flu when everyone you live with has it. So I end this night, playing on my computer, listening to music and hacking up a lung. I hope I can get some sleep tonight. I still have 3 stacks of books to mark and still one class of tests to mark, that I'll do tomorrow morning.
Not much else going on but you know what I do when something happens....

TTFN

Whoa!

Well not much to report but as usual whenever I say that I end up with a 20 page post.
Well as I've said before, I love my kids. I teach 3 of the grade one classes and two of the classes I generally have no problem with but one class is always very trying. I even walked out of the class once because I was so pissed. This is my class E. I teach classes D E and F. I told my assistant on Friday that I just give up. Before I would make it a point of making sure that they were paying attention and making sure they were quiet when I spoke and broke up fights between Randy and someone else that would occur. Now I don't even care anymore. I talk and then they start talking and I just keep talking. Whoever wants to listen will listen and unfortunately the rest will suffer. Not my problem anymore. I will go to the class and teach the lesson but that's about it. Lily says that I can't give up and together we could do it. I just don't know anymore. I'm very exhausted after I teach that class and I don't feel that way when I teach the other classes.
Anyway, after a hard day's work on Friday, we decide to have a party. Yeah, you're probably thinking "what else is new Litisha, you seem to do that every weekend" well, yes we do. Well almost every weekend. Anyway, this time the party was in the upstairs living room of the frat house. This time it was very funny because Matt (not Matty sticks) was very very drunk. We spent most of the evening laughing at him dancing. Brian was very drunk and turned in early. Matt passed out a couple times but then woke up just in time to change the music. Then at one point he danced until he fell on the ground. I was fading but the Roy twisted my arm to stay a little longer with another beer. We spent alot of time just talking about how lucky we were to be in China and that we really get to experience the culture better than someone who would have come here on vacation. Also we talked about all th traveling that Roy and Angela had done and how much of it I wanted to do. Which is a plan I do have as long as I'm still on this earth. I really want to see the world. As much of it as possible.
Anyway, Matty sticks said that he wanted to go to the zoo on Saturday and I figured that that sounded like fun so I told him I would go with him.
We all woke up this morning and there was no electricity and for some reason the phones work on electricity so there were no phones. So we were all a bit pissed about that. Anyway, Breanna, Matty sticks and I managed to get our shit together and headed to the Wuhan Zoo. We knew the bus to take and we had a general idea on how to get there by looking at the map but ultimately we didn't know where we were going. We had taken the bus to Han Yang before to go to the museum and the zoo was in that area so we figured we would take the same bus. Then I told Matt that it should be ok if we got out maybe 2 stops after the stop we got out for the temple. Well that worked out nice because we got out at that stop, crossed the street and went down this other road and a 20 min walk led us to the zoo. We were lucky.
For the most part, the zoo was like any other. The only thing is that some of the animals didn't have "natural habitats" and some of the places where they were kept didn't look like they were properly maintained. Also, unfortunately some chinese people tend to be very ignorant and kept throwing food at the animals (which I'm sure most of us know is a big no no) and some people even threw their trash in some of the cages. I saw and ostrich chewing on an empty bag of chips. What was good was that I saw the panda bear that they had in. Also saw another interesting thing. I've never seen a dog at the zoo but there was one here. I guess because some dogs are just not found in China, they have them there for people to see. I saw a dalmations and a beagle though and I felt bad for them because they were in these cages. We saw camels and giraffes and 2 hippos in really dirty water. It was a good trip.
When we got back home the electricity still hadn't come back and we hung out in Patrick's room looking at the pics we took. About 20 mins later the power came back and everything was back to normal more or less. I didn't realize I was that tired from the walk at the zoo until I got home and sat down.
So that means, this exhibit is now closed and the show is over. I'm here all week. Thank you and goodnight ladies and gentlemen. Don't forget to tip your waitress.

TTFN

Last time on "Tisha in China"

I've been meaning to update for a while but our internet was down for a couple days and I was a bit lazy.
Well on Monday I had a show lesson. This is when the parents come in and see what their hard earned Yen has been paying for. They watch you teach a lesson to their kids and I think they make comments or something after the fact. But have to make the class a little more entertaining than usual. Alot of the parents don't even speak english so they want to see how their kids are learning. Anyway we all want to make good impressions so I wore my suit (which is about a size and a half too big for me now) and I just give a lesson that I would do on any other day and I try to ignore the parents standing in the back. It was pretty good. The kids were great as usual and at one point impressed me with this game we usually play.
They learned some new vocabulary and we made actions for each word. The class would be divided into 3 teams and one person from each team comes up to the front. I say a word and the first person to do the correct action wins a point for their team. At the show lesson we did the same game but a harder version of it. I mouthed the word and they had to read my lips and then do the correct action. I made it a point of saying that this was harder than before and Lily translated accordingly for the students and of course for the benefit of the parents.
One of my kids did the action for a word before I even completed saying it. This was very impressive and I'm sure the parent of that kid was very proud.
Anyway, all in all that was a good day.
Some of you may remember a couple months back we all went bowling and I met Damon's friend Sophia. Very nice girl, took a shining to me for some reason. This was the same night that Patrick fell and subsequently went on crutches. Well on Monday night we got a surprise visit from Damon and Sophia. Sophia was very happy to see me. Then (with the assistance of Damon translating) she was telling me that she really enjoyed spending time with me. She wanted me to come to her house and I was welcome to spend the night if I wanted. She kept kissing me on the cheek and then she called me jay jay (<--- spelling is wrong but that is the pronunciation) which means big sister in chinese then she said that she wanted me to call her may may (once again spelling is wrong) which means little sister in chinese. So I gave her my number and extension here at the frat house and she gave me her cell number. I think her and I will spend quite a bit of time together. When I get a replacement chinese english dictionary, communication would be better for both of us but until then we have to sorta fudge through. She knows just as much english as I know chinese, which isn't alot. Sometimes I just undertsand when she speaks and sometimes she understands me when I speak but for the most part we just gesture to get our points across. I think we'll have to teach each other.
Anyway I will be sure to keep you up to date on that and any other adventures. She said that she would take me to a Thai restaurant and I absolutely love Thai food.
So that's the dilio.............
TTFN

China is Bhagdad

Well once agin I apologize for the lack of update, but really there isn't as much to tell on a daily basis anymore. We are all slipping into a routine and not much goes on. Here is what has happened this weekend.
Well the week went by like any other. On Friday we decided that we needed to celebrate something, so we decided to have a little party in Patrick's room. It was great! Practically the whole frat house fit into his little room, including additional visitors. We had a blast and also took a moment to remember our fallen soldiers that fought for our freedom since it was Remembrance day. We had lots of laughs, enjoyed good music and each others' company. I spent alot of my time laughing at the silly things Patrick was doing and the silly things that Matty Sticks was saying. One by one the crowd died down till it was just me, Matty Sticks, Brian, Patrick, Damon and Brian's brother in law who spoke very very little english (side note: at one point he asked if he could call me sister and I though he asked if he could sleep with me. it was a funny moment) In chinese culture, once you marry into a family, siblings of your spouse become your siblings. So you would never say "This is my brother in law" you would just say "This is my brother" Brian's brother in law is just referred to as 'brother' and I guess because we all live in the house and he doesn't really know how to refer to me he just asked if he could call me sister. This is a very big deal for the chinese that they feel that comfortable to call someone of no relation, by marraige or otherwise, something like that and the fact that I'm black makes it an even bigger deal because chinese people are afraid of black people (long story on that one).
Anyway, I digress. So after having many many drinks the boys decided that they wanted to get something to eat at midnight. I passed on that trip. Brian and I just stuck around and talked for a bit while brother watched and listened, then around 1am, I had had enough and was off to bed.
Saturday morning, well actually early afternoon on Saturday, Annaick and I decided to got out and do some shopping. I went back to that store that has clothes that fit me and got a few more sweaters. The store is called BreakThrough. We hung around for a bit more then came back home. A few nights ago Annaick met 2 gentlemen that are here from France. She was in heaven because she found people that she could speak french to. Their english is not too bad but they are french and speak mostly that language. Anyway, she called them to join us for dinner. We decided that for a change we would go to Pizza Hut. Well, the service was really bad and the food was ok. I was eating pizza like I do back in Canada but then my stomach reminded me that I can't do that anymore. I got so very tired after eating because now my stomach had to work overtime and I felt so very full. Anyway, Patrick and Matty Sticks (who will be known hereafter as 'the boys') left and Breanna left even earlier than that because she had to teach the next day. So that left Annaick, Roy, Angela, myself and the french guys Patric and Jean-Jacques. They were really nice guys. We all decided, after we left Pizza Hut to go to this cafe for after dinner drinks. It was a nice evening except for the fact that Annaick did most of the talking and spoke 98% of the time in french. I was happy for her because I know how good that would feel to talk in your mother tongue. My french is really very bad and I can't carry a conversation, so I spent most of the evening just listening and catching a few words here and there. When I did understand something, usually I would laugh because it was a joke and Annaick was happy that she didn't have to translate but for the most part, I didn't understand anything and Annaick did very little translation. Angela studied french and understood alot more than me and translated to Roy whenever possible but I was on the otherside of the table and couldn't catch alot of it.
All in all it was a good evening, it just sucked that I couldn't follow it all.
Today Patric and Jean-Jacques were going to take us to another part of Wuhan in Hankou for more shopping. I was able to pick up a few things but after a while I started to get tired and once again was faced with the language barrier. Then it started to rain and I knew it was time for me to go.
So I hopped on my bus and just got home a few minutes ago. I really feel like I'm living here now. It's a difficult sensation to explain, but I have this level of comfort. I'm getting to know vendors and they are getting to know me. If I want to buy something I know exactly where I can go no matter what time of day or night. I really feel good about this and the best part is I'm learning more and more chinese. I won't be fluent when I get back to Canada but atleast I would have another language under my belt.
Now to explain my title.
There is always construction in Wuhan. All the time. Everywhere. Sometimes stores just close down without warning. You'll see a shop you like and you could come back in a week and find it demolished. Then you would see a new shop just pop up out of nowhere. So we describe the torn up streets as being in Bhagdad. Then bhagdad became an adjective, not a noun. So you can use it to describe things or even yourself. "Those shoes are bhagdad" or "I feel very bhagdad today". Sometimes, China is bhagdad.
As I said once, "it begins with a 'C' and ends with an 'A' but it ain't Canada."
TTFN

Busy weekend

well Friday evening, not much happened. We went out for dinner as usual and had a few too many at the restaurant. Seems to be the difinition of Friday nights. Anyway, Matty sticks told me that he wanted to go to the bar again to check out what Fay Fay was doing, so I said I'd go with him. Noone else wanted to go. So we get there and the bar is jumping and Fay Fay and Matt are both very drunk. Matt kept telling Fay Fay to "bring the bitches over". I spent most of the evening laughing. I locked myself out of my room that night and had to sleep on the couch when we got back to the frat house. It wasn't too bad and Bre loaned me a blanket.
Saturday morning I got up and called Mr Ye and told him my predicament. The cleaning lady was there about 20mins later and opened my room. After getting my stuff together we made plans to go to Hankou to do some shopping.
I had my eye on a few things I wanted to get, so that was my mission for the day.
So cast of characters included Matty sticks, Annaick, Mandy (Harry's wife), Angela and ofcourse yours truly. Well we had a great day. I got all the things I wanted as well as a few other things. There was this bag that I saw in the window (the colour got my attention - it's my favourite - blue) and then I noticed that it said Versace on it. Well my first thought was it was a fake, because you see alot of that here. But then on closer inspection I realized that it was real and I only paid Y148 for it. So that's a huge deal for that.
Anyway we were getting on to the end of the day and thinking about getting something to eat. We just wanted to stop in a few more stores before we did. I stopped in this jeans store hoping I would be able to find something that fit. I was actually lucky. Ofcourse I had to slap my ass to show them it was there so that they knew I needed a big size. After giggling they found me something. The first pair I tried on was actually too big, which was very surprising. Then I tried on another pair and they fit perfectly. So after coming out of the changeroom I paid for the jeans then bent down to tie my shoes. When my head came back up my purse was gone. That's right, my purse got stolen almost right in front of my eyes while I was in the store.
I was very very upset and as usual there was nothing I could do. Well I just lost my appetite right then and there and the day was over for all of us. Later on, upon thinking the whole situation over, it wasn't that bad. It was the end of my day and I had spent almost all of my money already. I only had about Y90 in my bag, plus other things like, my umbrella, smokes, my chinese-english dictionay, a pen, chapstick, just stuff like that. There was one personal item, but I can have another one sent to me. The most expensive thing that was stolen was the actual purse itself. I was lucky that I didn't have my camera in my bag that day and I usualy always take it with me.
So the day ended on a crappy note but otherwise wasn't too bad.
Sunday was a better day. I went back to the store I bought the purse at and was able to get another one exactly like it, so that made me feel better. Then Annaick said that she was going to a buddhist temple and dragged me with her. So me, her and Matty sticks went. Wuhan is divided into 3 districts, Wuchang (where I live), Hankou (across the river, where we shop(ped)) and Hanyang (also across the river). The temple is in Hanyang. This part of Wuhan is very different than the other 2 districts. It is alot quieter, people seem to be more peaceful and it's not as busy.
We get to the temple and it is very beautiful. We took so many pictures and video. I got to ring the giant bell which I hope brings me better luck and we had a really good day. There were many statues made of gold and many pagodas as well. It was very beautiful.
When we got home we were very tired from all the walking we did but very happy that we made the trip.
So today, I had to tell Mr Ye that I needed all new keys made for me. We had already called him and told him what happened so he knew why but I had a hard time explaining to the cleaning lady what happened. Mr Ye already told her that my keys were stolen but when she saw me she wanted to know how it happened. I gestured the whole scene to her and she gave me a sad look. Generally people are very nice here but then again you meet people that steal from you. Everyone thinks that it was someone from the store that did it because there were other people in the store and they saw nothing and didn't see anyone run out or anything. So lesson now learned. Usually when we are all shopping someone else holds your purse and now the one time we (and by we I mean I) didn't do that, I paid the price, but like I said it could have been much worse because I would have died if I lost my camera.
So that's how the story goes
TTFN

test day

Well after a long time of going over and over unit three, it's test day today. For the most part the tests look pretty good but I won't know for sure until I correct them. Nothing else is really happening. Annaick and I might do some shopping today. We feel the need to celebrate a Wednesday and to do that, we shop.
On the other side of things. I bought a phone card and went nuts making phone calls. I surprised my mom at work and she was beside herself with excitement. She kept telling everyone that her daughter was calling from China. They were all very surprised as well. So we had a nice quick little chat. Then I called my very good friend Chris and had a nice chat with him. Then this morning I tried to call my best friend Tricia but she wasn't home. However, I talked to her mom for a good few minutes and she kept me update on everything.
Phone calls to or from home are so very very good. They really brighten up your day and you almost have a smile all day long. And everyone here, no matter how often they talk to relatives or friends back home, they always feel the same. You never get tired of talking to them. Just to hear a familiar voice I think is what it is or just the fact that you have that ability to talk to someone. In any event, I feel pretty good.
So that's about it.

TTFN