Chinese ELLE!

Today I had an oral English lesson and we talked about life at college, most of them said it was “so so” in their own words. I asked why this was and basically they all said it was boring, they don’t have many lessons so they have lots of spare time. I don’t think they really make the most of their spare time though, most say their hobbies are sitting in playing on the computer, and sleeping a lot. I think there is so much to do and see I would want to get out and see everything! They seemed shocked when I told them I had visited Tainyi square every night this week, but I think I get itchy feet and want to get out of my room! This conversation lasted so long I didn’t even have time to go through my own presentation, this is good though as I can use it next week..

After I had my lesson with the teachers, two of the same ladies were the same from last week and there was two other teachers a lady and a man who are going to be visiting England with some students very soon. They couldn’t speak a sentence in English so I had to go back to basics, I gave them both English names. The lady was called something along the lines of ‘Maa leelee’ so I thought Marley and she seemed to really like it, thinking back maybe molly or maisie might have been more suitable!

With my ten minute gap between my lessons one lady came to talk to me and asked to see my portfolio again. She wanted to take some photos of it and took it to show some others, I just thought I would get it back after my next lesson but when I had gone to receive they had scanned every page!!!! I don’t mind but I hope it doesn’t get copied or anything.

Fiona wanted to show me a little magazine shop near my room because I had said I love magazines, so I went and bought a Chinese Elle, cant read any of it but I can look at the pics! I am missing chocolate lots and lots so I took a visit to find some and find the girls. 

2Pac has risen from the dead.....

Last night we ended up going out for some food in Lao Waitan, we picked Indian and seemed a good call. We were very hungry so ordered too much, the sauces were slightly different but it was nice. The food was much richer than everything else weve been eating and I felt a bit icky when I got back.

Chicken Tikka Masala actually tasted good with chinese tea!!

In the taxi coming home I sat in the front, it was a different experience to sitting in the back… very scary. The man was swerving, beeping, shouting, and nearly catching everyone’s back door… I felt my life flash before my eyes!! In the back the girls in the back were talking about ‘2Pac’ a rapper who apparently died quite a few years ago. I asked who he was and they told me he had ‘risen from the dead’ in a concert and that he had faked his death!!! When we got back to the room they insisted we watch the concert with Kate, Laura, Emma and Caroline saying things like “This will go down in history”,“Elton John was seen to be in on the plan”, "Michael Jackson couldn't get away with that", “Diana might still be alive” and "Its recently been said, Elvis could have done the same". To be honest he looked like he had been working out wherever he had been for all them years! 

Earlier in the day I had found a good way of cleaning my clothes with a toothbrush and soap (not my toothbrush I might add) but it worked very well!! So after sitting with the girls I had gone and checked them in the sink and Laura and Kate left the room acting slightly odd, like they had done something naughty. I came out and Emma started laughing at me and I realised that they were taking the micky and 2Pac actually never rose from the dead! How do I fall from these things?? It didn't even dawn on me once... looking back at the videos they even fully say hologram on them!

a little bit of fashion brands!

So I'm just waiting for the girls to finish placement or teaching their lessons in my room. I have just got back from a Fashion Brand recognition class where I was advising students on the tasks set for next week. They have been asked to create a photograph influenced by a designer of their choice, the students all seem to know a few of the very mainstream designers such as 'Versace' 'Dior' 'Vivienne Westwood' etc, and along with Burberry these were the brands they picked to follow. Each had brought some photos or items of clothing that could resemble the designer and I had to find other images on my laptop to demonstrate what they could match together to create an outfit or 'look' with poses as well. 


When everyone had shown me their research luckily I had a powerpoint presentation on 'Mulberry' and 'Stella McCartney' saved on my laptop. I want to show them new brands that they haven't heard of before and broaden there knowledge of designers as they haven't heard of many. After I showed them a few of my favourite designers on style.com and they showed me some images of a 'qipao dress' (a traditional chinese dress).


Fiona who had been translating to the students throughout the lesson had told me its very good I use my 'Initiative'. She had to translate this on her phone, and she also said I work much harder than her students do, and can work things out for myself when they would have to be told to do something. I think these are lovely things to say... I could get used to this!!!

PIZZA HUT YES PLEASE

Today I have been working with my company for the second time. Tong Tong came with me this morning to help translate and I am much happier now that I understand what I have to do. I am so excited to be able to design what I want! I will have to source my own fabrics from markets, and get 4/5 sample outfits made for in a few weeks. The other designers were in today so it was good to meet everyone else, another girl called Angela could speak a bit of English after coming to Manchester for a couple of weeks a few months ago which was nice. I like how they just let me get on with what I wanted. Throughout the day I kept being passed strange looking foods which i politely had to turn down - "Im so full, sorry"! (didn't fancy a green salted egg!)


After work we decided a visit to pizza hut was in need!!! It was lovely to have something a bit more normal and it tasted the same as the pizza in England thank god! No-one could speak English but luckily we got everything we ordered. After we had a trail round the shops, I liked 'Peacebird' it is quite similar to 'Topshop' my fave..

We found a love heart in Tiyani square... every moment is a photo opportunity and some random boys joined in on the picture?? We feel like celebrities getting photographed all the time!

Flaunt that pout/ 'The Hangover three'

Half past 12 on a monday night and I'm thinking back to what I've done this weekend.. just been so busy theres been no time in the day to write up what we've got up to!


Saturday morning we wake to go meet a bubbly girl called Sammy, she had asked me, Laura and Kate to model some of the students clothes from the college earlier in the week so we thought why not for some extra cash! We drove to a little studio where there was a proper little make-up room and a few girls and an older woman waiting. They gave us all different looks and I ended up with the girly, smiley, barbie one and ended up in all the wedding dresses! hahaa..

Again.. so why do I get put in all the wedding dresses!!??

After about 6 o-clock we had finished and were all starving so we went for beef and peppers and a beer and then got ready to go out for the night in Lao Waitan...

Here is us planning to take the mick out of Laura for her famous 'pout'!! she never noticed till she looked back at her pictures haha...

Kate and Emma left earlier than us three and after 'one too many shots' getting back in the taxi was a struggle... even a chinese speaking man who was trying to communicate to the drivers couldn't get them to understand where the place where we were staying was. Showing our map didn't work and the taxi ended up in the middle of nowhere, there was only one option... check in to a hotel...

The morning after, waking up I felt like I was in the film 'The Hangover' what happened exactly I thought before opening my eyes to find I was in the most comfy bed I have slept in for weeks! Laura and Caroline were layed next to me looking 'not so fresh'!!!! hahaha

Waking up in the 'Shangri-La Hotel' a beautiful view of the city

On Sunday we went shopping in the town centre, I found a couple of bargains.. a nice top and a leather belt. 

Me and Laura in Tiyani square 

Chenghuang Temple Market - Just over the road from Tiyani square

In the afternoon we had all planned to visit Tong Tong and Peter's home for tea, they had also prepared a few of our favourite beers 'Tsingtao'. We also had some traditional chinese, rice noodles, soup, and beef.. pretty good stuff, they are both so sweet!

Chinese tea set... I definitely want a set of my own to take home

A few others joined too including Lucy's little girl who is very cute, and so well behaved!

snails and chicken feet!

Its a drizzly dull day in Ningbo and I didn't really know what the plans were for today, I went to Jasmines office for about 8 and she told me we were going to be visiting a company called 'Osier Girl'. Me, Jasmine, Tong Tong, and Sophie (who is my tutor but can't speak any English) all came and we visited a factory where the boss (Jack) gave us lots of lovely chinese tea and biscuits! After I went on a tour around the factory, first the sample room with lots of clothes for brands such as 'Tommy Hillfiger' and 'Fossil' I was scooting round the room and then was told I could choose some garments I liked to put on the rail in case they had other samples I could have for myself!! I really hope so!! Then I got taken to the rooms for making the samples and another for the patterns.

We then went to the main factory rooms where lots of garments were being made, these were massive rooms with lines of machines with people working as fast as they could. On some of the lines they had moving boxes in between the machines, the finished part of the garment would be put in the box and move on to the next person for the next process.

After the factory we traveled in Jacks flash Mercedes to a strawberry farm, here was a beautiful place, there were large mountains surrounding with greenery everywhere and it was next to a lake with verandas in the middle to sit in.

We went for some food in the restaurant next door, I got asked if I wanted to go look at the food before we picked. There were lots of fish in tanks just taken from the lake outside moments before, EELS AND FROGS, and lots of very interesting looking plates of god knows what!!  There were some alright looking things and luckily they ordered noodles, beef and peppers and I had some spring rolls which were beaut… I tried baby bamboo shoots, and wait.. it gets worse.. snails.. and it gets worse….. chicken fingers!! I kind of feel like I should try new things though and its not gunna kill me so im up for anything once. The snails I thought were a bit pointless because they were so small and you can only eat a certain part of it so there wasn’t much to eat anyway but I only took a small bite of the chicken finger or foot or hand or whatever it was and it wasn’t good! There was lots of fish too which I like but im never up for the amount of bones ive gotta fish out of it. I got told I was good at using chopsticks which is good!

Happy I can come back to my room and chill for a bit and prepare for my lessons, and company tomorrow. Think im still a little tired from the time change over here, skyping people is a little hard as there is 7 hours difference, so everyone is in the middle of their day when im going to bed. Its strange to think when I finish work, if I was at home I wouldn’t even be out of bed yet!

Tianyi square

Luckily Tong Tong came with me to Tianyi square today, Tianyi square is a big shopping area with a few shopping centres. It was better than I thought it would be, it was very modern and had a few of the same shops and make up counters as in England, Zara, H&M, Max Factor etc.. 

I went to find two shops, Orchirly, and Mo & Co which my brand use as references for their own style. The two brands seem very different from each other Orchirly very girly and pretty, where Mo & Co very classic and lots of use of darker colours on garments. My brand's style is somewhere in between the two, not too girly and not too masculine... Having to take photos in the changing rooms was a bit tricky!


We met Tong Tong's husband and they asked if id like to go for lunch to a restaurant near her flat which is a bit further away from Tianyi square. I really like trying new foods and they said they would pick dishes that some other foreigners they knew had liked. One dish they described as strips of pork that had a fish flavour sounded a bit different but when it came it was quite similar to a sweet and sour in England, this was my favourite of the three. There was an eggplant dish that I wasn't as keen on, and another bowl of beef, mushrooms and other vegetables which was a more spicy dish, but tasted good. 


We walked down the river to their flat and they told me a chinese home was very different to other homes so I didn't know what to expect. It was very nice though, Just like a big open-space flat in England, the only difference was the chinese photographs of their wedding on the walls. I am told every Chinese home should have these pictures up. Also over here I have noticed most flats have bars on the windows in case of burglars but theres didn't which was much more homely. They had a keyboard in one of the rooms which they asked me to play, I havnt played for at least two years so i was a bit cranky at it! I then started feeling like I was at my Grandma's when they got the albums of photos out.. they told me about their travels to Beijing where I will be visiting after I finish working over here. They told me they visited places called liu li chang, Heaven temple. Hou Haiok, and of course the great wall of China. Tong Tong is from Mongolia so they showed me pictures of when she visited in the summer, it looks so beautiful and reminded me of the countryside where I live in England. They were near the border of Russia and China at one point and it takes 20 hours to get there from Beijing.

Me and Tong Tong in Tianyi square

Well at least theres a Harrods here!!?

A Camellia is the plant of Ningbo

Tong Tong and Peter traditional wedding photo's