"Square one, we meet again!"

Hong Kong: half way between China and home.

 I spent three days there and saw very little of it, this is because of the VISA office and its ‘once in you’ll never leave’ horror film style of dealing with people after working Visa’s. Sadly I was held captive for a grand total of two of my days out of Kunming and on the third I had to return to pick up my shiny new tourist Visa.

The nut shell version is; I didn’t have all the right documents and the school weren’t able to Fax them so, I had to get some kind of Visa or I would get stuck in Hong Kong with no-where to go. I was very lucky, I had been hounding all of the miserable gits in the office for two days about getting a working Visa and then had to turn around and get a tourist one. I was insanely lucky and the shifts changed literally a couple of numbers before mine was called. Not sure what I would have done if they hadn’t got a tourist one. Panic and drink I suppose.

So I have to go back on the 4^th of September, at least this time though I shall be going with someone else and not on my own. Hong Kong is the sort of place I think I would have enjoyed a little more with a little more company, so anyway. Take 2 is imminent!

Despite the Visa issue it was just a fated journey, my plane was delayed leaving Kunming so I spent hours in the airport where there is very little to do, and so by the time I arrived at the hostel (if it can be called so) they had given away my room. It’s about 3 am at this point and I was pointed at a chair and told to sit for 30 minutes until someone was checking out and so I fell asleep in the chair. When I was finally told I had a room, one which they said had just been cleaned, I found I was sharing it…. With the biggest cockroach I have ever seen! This thing was so big it had had to book into a hostel for the night, think Men in Black bug size! Oh and a dead rat in the bathroom. Once these little oversights of the cleaning staff had been addressed I collapsed onto the bed only for my alarm to go off only a few hours later. The Visa office on a Monday and Tuesday is stupidly busy and so I was in there with hundreds of other people. And thus began my troubles.

In other news….

I have now finished Phonics and can go to my regular schedule! I woke up on Thursday in a panic as I thought I had overslept through some o f my lessons until I remembered and rolled over to go back to sleep. Best feeling ever! Although it was very weird not having to start work until 5pm, found myself wondering what to do with my time and how Tom could say he is so busy?

Its also 4 weeks until mum and dad are over here so I have been booking hostels and trying to decide on things to do with them, thinking park in a bar will do.

Right I have to go and plan some lessons now, stand by for more from the fated world of Claire’s Travels in China.

                                              Modesty?---------->

How many Chinese men does it take to cut one persons hair?

It would appear it takes about 10 Chinese guys to wash and cut my hair as well as about an hour. I walked in at 9 pm with long and unruly hair and walked out an hour and a bit later with still unruly but now much shorter hair. Language was a problem as it always is and so the collection of gay Chinese Cruella Deville look-a-likes all pushed each other towards me and very generally very blatant about the fact they didn’t want to have to deal with a Westerner, something that still really bothers me regardless of how many times I see it.

Anyway one of these idiots finally lost and came over so I wowed him with my limited Chinese and my hair cut routine (pick up scissors and take a chunk out of my hair and say everywhere-has worked several times now) and my hair was then cut. It’s much shorter than I planned but it is much better.

Other than that my week has been the start of the second batch of Phonics kids, some of which are alright and others are a bit of a nightmare. Tracy and I see to be coping OK but we still have 2 weeks to go. I have ten kids this time round which makes most games more of a riot than a game, 6 was much easier to handle. Big bonus being though I have no Helen she is now in Karina’s class. Tonnes and tonnes of self restraint were employed to stop the pointing and laughing impulse when we worked that out. It would seem that I am in fact a good friend. So I am back to A B and C and thoroughly knackered again, pay check was very nice though, nearly £200 of over time pay! Roll on next month!

I also found out when I am going to Hong Kong too. 21^st of August which is annoyingly after phonics as I really wanted to make Tom cover one of my lessons. Lucky git gets away with it and still has the nerve to say he is tired and has no time to which Karina and I hurl things across the office at him!

Also I finally got my bike from Cath and sadly the gears died as the handover ceremony was being completed. Lucky for my still nameless bike I am a modern day McGiever and managed to stick the gears into the top gear with the aid of a teaspoon and some string. I feel Grampy would have been proud and to quote Dad "blind man would be happy to see that!" it worked perfectly anyway, until I played with some screws and sort of fixed it. It will last until Dad comes out anyway!

So it is about 8 weeks until Mum and Dad come out here (with oodles of stuff for Karina, Tom and me) and I have managed to get myself a little under two weeks off. Lizzy (our Chinese boss) suddenly sadi that I could not have holiday time as it is a national hoiday, despite having said yes a week previously. So I implied that I would not be working these days anyway and she might as well be warned and arrange cover. It would appear I have found a way to make sure we don't get screwed by the Chinese staff. Threaten to leave our already stretched to the limit school. Handy!

Right I am off to see Harry Potter with Jenny and Karina, fingers crossed not in Chinese again. Stand by for Tales of the traveller in Hong Kong.