Everything's alright, yes everyting's fine...

I have to keep telling myself this or I will not get through the day.

Good morning,

I have turned it into a good morning by putting on some music and bopping around my new apartment to some of my favourite songs. The first one I played was "Everythings alright, yes everythings fine" then I started to believe it so put on some more songs that make me feel good. Now I feel ready to face the day.

I think the culture shock is setting in, I am finding every little thing is bothering me. Yet, all these little things that are bothering me, I could have done something about had I known about it previously. For instance: I have no towels in my apartment. Do you think it might have been possible for someone to tell me when I had four days to fill in while I was staying at Sam's Guesthouse, no towels, no eating utensils, I can cook, I have pots and pans, nothing to strir what's in the pot, but I have pots. Oh, I have a dishwasher, no dishes to put in the dishwasher, but I have a dishwasher.

Oh my God, I'm sitting here laughing hysterically. sombody help me... You know the kind of laugh, where if you don't laugh you cry. That's where I'm at.

I did have sheets for the bed, but they do not tuck in, so that business at dad's place was the prequel to here. There is a reason for everything.

Last night I had written a blog about my day but when I went to post it, the internet connection had broken and I could not get it back. If I had been able to use my own comeputer I would have been able to save it in a word document, but the computer the school supplies does not have the programe. I am going to have to figure out how to connect my own computer, because this one is all in Chinese and when a popup comes up to tell me or warn me about something I don't know what it says so just shut it down. It was probably me that broke the internet connection last night but I have no idea what I did or how I was meant to fix it. So, I do have a computer and the internet from my apartment, so that's good news.

Yesterday when Fiona arrived at Sam's Guesthouse she told me she had been in touch with the teacher who had the key to my apartment and that she would be arriving back at the school later, so Fiona and I went to the China Mobile, I got a Chinese sim card for my mobile, then we walked back into town looking for the Foreign Language Bookstore that I had gone looking for the night before but was unable to find. It turns out I was standing right in front of it, but the bookstore in on the second floor and all the writing on the outside of the building is in Chinese (of course) so I did not know it said "Foreign Language Bookstore" on the door. You'd think if someone was looking for a foreign language bookstore, they might have even a small sign in at least one foreign language to announce the place. I was glad I had Fiona with me yesterday. I didn't need to worry about trying to communicate with anyone.

We had lunch before we went into town and Fiona ordered for us, I said just pick what you want, game I know, but I had had it. I didn't want to think anymore. Fiona picked some wonderful meals, a pork dish, an eggplant dish, which was my favourite and another with a type of cabbage but it was not cabbage, that one is Fiona's favourite vegetable.

I have to go, the teacher with the key, Claire, is coming to my apartment in five minutes. I'll come back and whinge more later. :)

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Ok, I'm back, who wants to hear some more whinging? Not me.

Although, I don't have a lot of good news. Well, let's see if I can put a spin on things. Ok, my kitchen, the kitchen benches come up to my mid thigh, so I don't see myself doing an awful lot in there unless I want a broken back. The good side to that? Well, I will become very familiar with all the local restaurants so when you come to visit I will know what is best and what to avoid. The good news is the school does have a cafeteria where I can get a good meal, so I am thinking about having my main meal in the middle of the day and just having somthing light for dinner.

Speaking of dinner; last night I went to dinner with Matt (the other foreign English teacher), Fiona and Eric (another English teacher in the school who is from China). They took me to have the local hot pot. I was expecting it to blow the top off my head, but I didn't find it too bad at all. Now the things you throw in the hot pot, well I'm sure some of you will find it a little unsettling. There were a couple of things I just didn't want to try. I tried a few of them though, like the throat of some animal or other, it just felt like I was eating a long thin strip of rubber, no taste to it what-so-ever, the taste is all in the bowl you dip the food in before eating it. There were some nice things, like a vegetable I have never seen before, Matt called it 'Lotus', that was very nice, and a few of the other vegetables. I couldn't believe how much they all ate. Particularly Fiona, she is the tiniest little thing and we had a big lunch (in my opionion - but when I said this to Fiona, she just looked at me strangly) and then at dinner they just kept throwing more food in the hot pot to eat. I was full by the time they were  only halfway through. After the hot pot, Fiona got us all some Chinese dessert. We had these little pumpkin things. Like little patties and they were delicious, I made sure I found room for one of those. They certainly like their food here. I don't know if I will be able to keep up with them though, but I'll give it a good go. :)

This is what my lonley planet says about Sichuan food.

"Hot and Spicy

The Chinese have a saying: 'Shi zai Zhongguo, wei zai Sichuan' (China is the place for food but Sichuan is the place for flavour).

Sichuanese may start their day with only some spicy pickles to enliven their breakfast xifan (porridge) or baozi (steamed buns), but later on, spice truns up in nearly everything. Huajiao (Xanthoxylon, often called Sichuan pepercorn) is a predominant flavour; its tingly, almost numbing effect is known as ma (literally, 'numbness') to contrast with chilli pepper's ta (spicy). Many dishes pair the two pepper flavours, the huajiao's anaesthetic effect allegedly moderating the chilli's fire.

With such fiery food the Sichuanese themselves have a reputation for being a little hot-headed. Local women are even referred to as la meizi (spice girls)."

I should fit right in. :)

This morning Claire came to my apartment to take me and show me around the school. I will be teaching the grade 7's which is the youngest year in this school. The school has about 3000 students and I will have 20 classes from Tuesday through to Friday, I was surprised to learn I will have a three day weekend each week and my Friday classes finish by lunchtime, so if I want to go away for the weekend to explore, that will fit in perfectly.

After giving me my schedule Claire took me into town where we had to take my passport to the local Police station, I didn't ask why and I wasn't told. Then we went to the main shopping centre so I could buy the things I needed. When I went to pick up some plates, Clair asked me what I needed these for, "to eat off", of course! Then she said I should have some in my apartment, I told her I looked in all the cupboards in my kitchen but didn't find any, she said they were in the drawers. I don't remember seeing any drawers, so I didn't buy any and then when I came home I went in search of the drawers. Nope, I can't find any drawers, they must me hidden somewhere. So, I will tell Clair and she can come and find them for me. she also said I should have some coathangers, but again, unless they are invisible, I can't find them. I am glad I bought some coathangers anyway, because now I can at least unpack properly. I made a start on that earlier.

My head hurts, and I can't think. I thought I was starting to get my brain back the other day, but it seems it was a false alarm. I have a few days to rest up and then I hope to be back in full swing by next week.

Earlier, I met some of the other year 7 teacher, and I will be joining the class of Francisco on Wednesday, I hope I get to join some other classes as well, before they throw me in the deep end on Thursday. One of the other teachers I met today was Amsterdam. Maybe I should change my name， 要棚。。。。

Uh oh, I have somehow changed my text to Chinese, what do I do now? Phew, It's ok, you can all stop panicking. Not sure what button I pressed, but it seems to have fixed itself.

Well, that's one way to learn the language. What I wrote above is, "Well, lets see..." then I was going to think of a name I would liked to be called instead of Elke, not that Claire calls me Elke, she only pronounces the Elk part of my name, and no matter how many times I correct her, 要秋骨Elk， Oh, shit, it's doing it again. LOL Well, that worked、 What I just said was, "She continues to call me Elk." This is fun. I can write in Chinese.

Bugger, I was going to write a secret code that you could only read if you knew Chinese, but whatever was happening with the computer has stopped now.

So all I need to find is some decent chocolate and I'll be set. I have my coffee, but I think I had weaned myself off that, I only had my first cup the day before yesterday, and then my second just now, but it has given me a headache. Oh, wait, I think I already had the headache... I brought a 'desperate measures' supply of Tasmanian fudge with me. But I don't think I brought enough. I'll have to get one of my friends to send more. I was going to save the 'desperate measures' fudge until I got to China, but I ate a square while I was staying with my dad. There were only six squares...

Ok, I just killed a mosquito the size of a daddy long legs, time for the mosquito repellent...