Training to be teachers in Yangshuo

James with Brandon and Michelle.
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Arrived in Yangshuo to the sound of firecrackers constantly going off.  Owen Buckland (director of Buckland Foreign Language School) showed us to our room, which on the list we were given was supposed to have a western bathroom and all modern fittings.  Unfortunately, we were one of the last to arrive so we got stuck with the squat toilet.  I hate squat toilets!  Went to the dining room to have a dinner of mushy tomatoes and egg, tofu and spinach with rice.  James braved the meat dishes.  Went out for drinks with a couple others, Brendan and Michelle from South Africa, Gina and Tristan from England, and Joanne and Laura from Ireland.  After many beers, headed out to find a moto (motorbike with some boards strapped on to the back to sit on with a curtain around for privacy) and stopped at the night food markets to look at the live animals on display, waiting to be bbq'd.  James and Brendan tried some bbq'd pig penis.  Quite rubbery apparently.  Went back to the school and was introduced to Brendan and Michelle's pet dwarf hamster which bites you constantly.  It latched onto Brendan's palm and he dropped it but it was ok.

James up the top of a mountain in Yangshuo.
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Breakfast was stirfry, warm soy milk savoury donuts, fruit and toast.  Had an orientation day in the meeting room with Owen.  He was hilarious, telling us funny stories of other people's experiences.  Such as one teacher who thought he might have a Chinese girlfriend for a while.  However, when he went to another school, the father of the girl rang Owen to find this teacher's whereabouts to either kill him or make him marry his daughter.  Owen had to find the teacher and hide him in a remote province.  This is obviously a big no no as now the poor girl will either never get married, or have to move away to a big city where no one knows her sad story.  Owen is actually Chinese and his accent and appearance were quite funny.  He looks like Ray Martin with the extreme weatherman hair cut.  He said "Does everyone understand what the whizzer is?"  I thought, 'Yeah it's what you pee with', and James thought 'Yeah, I just went for one'.  He was actually talking about visas, but due to our confusion we didn't get keep much info on that subject.  He took us all to lunch at a restaurant in the country.  One of the dishes was snail shells filled with minced pork and spices.  That was nice, especially seeing as it wasn't snails we were eating.  Lunch went for 3 hours!  After lunch, Owen wasn't as funny, as we were all drowsy from all the beer we drank, but it was a very helpful orientation class.  Had pizza for dinner at a Chinese/Italian restaurant, seeing as it was Valentine's Day, then headed back to the school for English Corner, where we made dumplings and talked to the students.  Was a bit of fun as one of the other teachers brought his guitar, and GIna is a drumming teacher, so they made an impromptu little band. 

He looks like Ray Martin with the extreme weatherman hair cut.

Yangshuo mountains.
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Had training with Betts, the Canadian TEFOL trainer, the next day.  She was great, very informative.  But after 3 years of living in China amongst Chinese people, her way of talking had gotten a little weird.  She was overly expressive and dramatic when talking, her face was like a rubber mask, and her mouth can open really, really wide.  Spent the whole day nervously preparing our lesson plans for our trial lessons on Friday.  Had Mandarin class that night, we were crap, we acknowledged how hard it is to learn another language so foreign to your own.  However, we did learn to say chocolate ice cream in Mandarin so we headed down to Xie Xie (Western St - the touristy street) to test it out.  People kept on coming up and trying to polish James' boots, but he wouldn't let them.  That night we also learnt "No way" and "Go away" in Mandarin.

Yangshuo, view from a mountain.
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We did our lessons on Friday, practised on Owen's students.  They went really well and we were told we could pick which school we wanted to go to.  We went out to dinner to Karst that night for Brendan's birthday and the whole group of teachers came with Betts and her husband Laurie.  Was great fun, tried shredded beef for an entree.  Chunks of hot dried beef that you shred and then eat.  Had our second last western meal, we thought it was our last.  Everyone piked afterwards but James and I headed to a karaoke place with some students, Jimmy, Sherry, Sally and Smile (they picked their own English names).  It was like a big hotel but each room has a few couches and a massive karaoke setup.  I said we wouldn't sing but James went and chose some songs.  We sang 'Killing Me Softly' and, for some reason, 'A Whole New World' from Aladdin (I still don't know why James picked that).  We drank beer and learnt how to play a Chinese dice game. 

Path down the mountain.
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Next day we went for a scenic climb up one of Yangshuo's many mountains as the Foreign Officer of the school we'd picked hadn't arrived yet.  When we returned to Bucklands, Jennifer (Owen's wife) informed us that he had arrived with the principal and Owen, a bit confused, introduced them to another Australian couple.  Then our principal took them out for lunch to welcome them and they hadn't returned yet!  We later met Claire and Ryan (the wrong Australians), who had just arrived in Yangshuo and were a bit confused themselves, as everyone kept calling them James and Laura.  The mistake was explained and then the Foreign Officer, who's name is Leonard, and the Principal, Mr Wen, and the Vice Principal (can't remember his name) took us out to dinner, though they were a bit hung over from lunch.  They explained that in Yongzhou the school is called Number 2 Middle School.  The foreign officer and principal from No 4 also came to dinner.  It was a confusing meal.  One moment they would ask us a question, like it was an interview.  The next question would be to check that we were comfortable with certain things, like they were hoping we would accept them.  It all ended in a drunken mess, as the custom in China (we now know this very well) is for the host/s to toast the guests, once to welcome them, twice for friendship.  They say "Gambei!" which means, cheers and drain your glass.  We taught them to say "Cheers" and "Bottoms Up" but the principal says "Bottomas Up".  So, even though we were cheers'd twice by each man, they were the ones that got absolutely inebriated, I think they were topping up on lunch.  However, we bonded over this, so next morning we were squashed into the school car and headed to start the term at Yongzhou Number 2 Middle School!