Day 10- 29 (July 2016)

Day 10
In our mandarin lesson this morning we all learnt how to say 'I like...' And 'I don't like'. For example I like pudding is Wo xy huan bu ding (without the correct tones!). We also learnt how to say brother and sister and the Chinese have different words for older and younger brothers and sisters. However a lot of Chinese people don't have any brothers or sisters because of China's 'one child' policy. This has now been changed to two children so more Chinese people will have a brother or a sister in the future. We also learnt some nicknames that the Chinese have for famous people - some of these are hilarious. Taylor Swifts nickname is 'mei mei' which means bad luck. We think they said this was because she had been up for a lot of Grammys but hadn't won any. Kim Jong Un's (leader of North Korea) nickname is Kim San Pang (3rd fat man) as his grandfather was the first leader and in the words of our teacher Abner 'and he's a great big fat man'. We also learnt the days of the week and how to say when our birthdays were. We also watched a song from a famous Chinese band called 'The Chopsticks' - their song was about how they loved some one like apple. Apple in mandarin is ping uan which we all thought meant penguin obviously. 

After our lessons in the morning we went for lunch. Although the food is nice we do keep talking about the food we'd like to eat when we get home. Jack wants a dominos (China doesn't really have cheese) and Alex B would like chicken Kiev. 
After lunch we met in the lobby. We made sure we were all covered in sun tan lotion as it was hot today. Mrs Hudson keeps reminding us to put on sun tan lotion and drink lots of water but we're always one step ahead and so far none of us have been burnt. Jack would have liked his hat but unfortunately he dropped it into the waterfall when we visited the sun island yesterday. We all watched it sink into the lake.

Once the coach arrived off we went to visit Heilongjiang Museum where we all walked around and enjoyed the art and models on display. They also had a huge dinosaur section with fossils showing bones and teeth and even some tigers which Dannielle and Roxana were very happy about. It was very hard to find out much information about each display as all the signs were in Chinese and we haven't worked on our Chinese characters yet. We (Alex, Alex and Rosie) decided to play a game where Alex B and Rosie would try and 'sell' a museum artefact to Alex DLB, giving her all the information about it. 

Once we finished in the museum, we went to a shopping mall where we ate in a German themed restaurant. We all struggled to use the knives and forks because we're all so used to chopsticks now! The food was lovely though and they even had pizza (although it did have dragon fruit on it)  We then had free time to go around and shop. They had a huge brightly coloured kids area with amazing little rides. So Alex B and Rosie paid to go on a children's ride where they went round in a circle but it bounced up and down at the same time. We were all crying with laughter at the craziness! 

After arriving back to the hotel, we went over to the main hall where a master taught us Chinese calligraphy. We were then given ink and tools to paint some Chinese characters ourselves. Sadly, we were the last in and there were no seats left. We told our volunteer, Joy, that we would happily sit on the floor but she insisted us not to and was very unhappy about it (we have been treated so well while we've been here). However, we all sat down on the floor to show Joy that it was fine and we were happy. She then sat with us to help us with the Chinese characters. Mrs Hudson joined us and 5 minutes later one of the volunteers accidentally kicked a cup of black ink over her. The volunteer was very embarrassed (as Mrs Hudson was covered) and Joy quickly ran around trying to mop her and her room key down. Mrs Hudson was laughing and had to go and quickly change her clothes. Rosie also ripped her paper twice which was annoying her but eventually we all got the hang of it and produced some amazing Chinese calligraphy. We even sent some pictures to Mrs Davis to show her. 

When we got back to the hotel we were all so tired but we managed a few games of 'Werewolf' and 'I doubt that'. 

Alex De La Bastide