Having arrived home safely on Friday night I had a quick shower and fake tan before bed. Had a good catch up on some beauty sleep. All in preparation for our modelling job on Saturday. We had been asked by one of the tutors if we could model some of the students clothes, because apparently we look very "high fashion". Ha!
The day was manic to say the least. We got driven to the studio and whisked into hair and beauty with millions of chinese students swarming around us looking at us and chattering on, god knows what they were saying. I was quite nervous at this point. Sammy, the english speaking tutor, came over and told us the looks they were wanting to create. Apparently I am very Megan Fox, and my makeup was to be sultry and sexy. Massive error fake tanning the night before because after the had done my makeup which was ghost white, my body didn't match my face. I then got my arms and neck painted whiter with makeup. Not impressed.
Hair started to be the downfall, a girl started to straighten my hair polka straight then next minute it was flipped up and had some pure crazy miniature hat placed on my head. This was a sign for some crazy stuff to come. The outfits seemed to be more costume than fashion. I was literally shoved and pulled into some crazy burlesque outfit, because they are so small they make clothes to fit more their shape and clearly not mine so a dress was more like a top, not very encouraging and equally not comfortable, especially in a room full of about 30 people gawping at me. I was first to be made up and start modelling. Kate was next, she had the lady style and seemed to be dressed like a 50 year old woman for the best part of the day. Whilst Becca was the angelic bride, and me well i was a combination of Queen and Vampire.
As the day progressed things became tiresome and I got very bored. Some of the outfits were atrocious and I kept having to do the same pose for this crazy photographer. It became so repetitive towards the end of the day I was able to guess which pose was coming next. He was obsessed with very staged, unnatural boring, low end fashion poses. All in all the day was hilarious and the money will be put towards our travelling around China after placement.
After such a stressful day we arranged for us all to go out. It was the first time in pretty much since we got here that we were all able to go out. School boy error occurred when we rocked up to the bus stop to find the buses had stopped an hour early. Crazy how 8.30pm is the last bus. We tried to speak to the guards to get them to order a taxi but they kept saying NO, NO, NO. The only option was to get a pedicab, those crazy men who have 3 wheel bikes with a little cart attached. A few minutes later some students arrived and helped us order the pedicab to take us to the main road where we could order a taxi to Ningbo. This was hilarious and I won't be doing this again anytime soon. I wasn't too scared but Becca and Kate were horrified but I'm glad to say I have travelled in traditional Chinese transportation.
It was lovely being all out together seemed like forever after our busy week teaching and being in Hangzhou. Although the stares were getting repetitive despite being in the foreign area of Ningbo where all the people who are foreign to China go. I don't have to much to say other than many drinks were consumed and lots of fun was had. The journey home was quite eventful looking after two poorly passenger with a taxi man who got himself lost. The result was checking into a hotel with beautiful views of Ningbo. Although we are going to get a new map made as it appears many taxi drivers have difficulty understanding despite it being written in Chinese. The hotel was very much a Hangover film moment at our hilarious situation. Lessons will and have been learnt. No more free tequila shorts, thank you!
After getting the concierge ordered our taxi home a quick outfit change and off shopping in Tiyani Square with mine and Kate's students. They were so sweet taking us out and helping us barter and buy clothes. Time quickly passed and we were picked up by Tong Tong as we had been invited to her home for dinner. What a lovely evening we had. I literally don't know how we would cope with her. Tong Tong is the best. We spent a few hours drinking tea and looking through their photo albums of their travels. Their friend Lucy was there too, which was lovely to meet her again and to finally meet her very adorable daughter. Tong Tong had prepared some lovely food and had even bought us beer as she knows how much we love it. She's so cute she text us in the day asking if she should put it in the fridge or not. I hope one day she will come to England and I can invited her to my home and show here as much hospitality as much as she has shown us. Peter, Tong Tong's husband had just got a piano-keyboard and asked if I would play for him, he was amazed and had me sight reading some chinese music. We had another amazing chat with Lucy, I am actually quite embarrassed by the fact she knows more about my country than I do.
Monday morning I prepared for my english class, where I had done a presentation about Transport and Holidays and got the students to tell me about their travels whilst I showed them some pictures of Ibiza. They found these amazing. Towards the end of the class we recited some tongue twisters they found this hilarious. Had 5 minutes to go before the bell rung and gave them an opportunity to ask me some questions and fell straight into the trap as they had asked me to sing a song the week before and told them next week. To my amazement they had not forgotten and asked me to sing Jessie J - Price Tag. And so I did. This was definitely a New Girl moment for those of you that have seen the american programme. This would not happen in England, I think everyones gained more confidence from our experience out here and I don't think we will be as fazed by things in the future.
Too much rice was consumed this week and we were craving a pizza so off we went to Pizza Hut again. Boring but trust me when the food is so repetitive a bit of greasy pizza is so appetising. Exhausted now and ready for bed need to be up early for Pattern Cutting class tomorrow...
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