The longest week everrrrr

So this week I survived my first Chinese haircut. I now don't think I will ever enjoy a haircut at home in the same way I once did. I went with the girls I live with, a little bit skeptical about the dodgy looking salon we had picked and the fact the staff didn't speak English so we had simply gestured cutting to ask for what we wanted. How wrong I was to be worried. For starters, they shampooed my hair for 30 minutes... with added head massage, of course. You'd think this would be boring, but it was just amazing. When they rinsed it out, this was followed by another further neck and shoulder massage. Not to stereotype but wow, Chinese people give good massages. Made a mental note to treat myself to a full body massage next pay day. The shortest part of the experience was the actual hair cutting part, and then the hairdressers queued up for photos with my blonde friend - clearly the first blonde hair ever to have been cut in this salon. All in all a very successful experience... and all for £3.50. Result!

Scared faces

 

So we worked 7 days this week because China is stupid and doesn't understand the concept of a public holiday (not that I'm bitter about this at all... obviously). It started well, but by the 7th day (today), the kids have just been insane and I just can't be bothered any more. Even my assistants had seemed to give up on my lessons, one even got up and left half way through. This meant the class turned into complete chaos and ended with me swatting kids off me to try and get out of the classroom as they held onto my legs and pulled my skirt until it nearly ripped and I nearly ended up bottomless in the middle of school. Even the Chinese teachers didn't come to my rescue, despite me having a class of children jumping over each other to wrap themselves around me and ruin my clothes, me shouting 'GOODBYE!!!' to try and get them to leave me only to get 40 children screaming back at me 'NO GOODBYE!!!!'

Before 20 other kids decided to bundle me and pull my skirt straight off me..... hmm like butter wouldn't melt?

I've been a bit ill this week too, not anything serious just a bit of a cold or just my immune system generally letting me down. I've learnt never to tell a Chinese person when you have the sniffles now though, as they seem obsessed with sending us to A&E as if we were on deaths door. I generally mention feeling unwell as small talk when it's not life threatening, so made the mistake of telling my assistant I was a bit tired because I had 'a bit of a cold coming on'. Her response: 'oh... so when are you going to the hospital?' I thought she was joking, then remembered Chinese people don't do sarcasm, and I told her I didn't need to go to the hospital, only to be told: 'maybe you should just go to the hospital' (with a panicked looked on her face). Every time I cough now they tell me to see a doctor.... so I've come to the conclusion China is a country of hypochondriacs.

 Anyway all that seems like a distant nightmare now as we have three glorious days off to go to Shenzhen, and hope and pray it doesn't rain the whole time (as it has been thunderstorms all week AGAIN... so much for sunny south). As much as I love my students, right now I am jumping for joy that I don't have to see them for 3 whole days!