This weekend was (I think) the first time having all the volunteers stay in Karamay at once. A friend of ours invited everyone to take part in a Colour Run by Karamay river and Calum, whose birthday was on the same day, was the last to confirm that he could make it. He rearranged both weekend work and a couple of Friday’s lessons, but it would have been ironic for everyone to gather on his birthday only for him not to be able to make it.

I decided to hit my classes with a curveball: The Game. If you know what it is, sorry, you just lost The Game, and if you don’t, there is only one rule to The Game: every time you think about The Game, you lose The Game. Simple, right? It really messed with them. At the end of the lessons I taught them the cup song (popularised by Pitch Perfect) for which I used paper cups bought in bulk from the supermarket (40 for ¥5: bargain).

Sometimes my students play a variant of Rock-Paper-Scissors where the loser is slapped. I decided to embrace this (the game, not the slapping) so I taught them Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock (from The Big Bang Theory) after seeing Mac mention it on WeChat (thank you, Mac, if you read this). The addition of Lizard and Spock turn the old triangle into a full-on pentagram. Manic. Spock beats Scissors and Rock while Lizard beats Spock and Paper; meanwhile Paper beats Spock, and Rock and Scissors beat Lizard. Lizard I could teach using a Chinese-English dictionary, but Spock was a nightmare without the context of Star Trek (unknown to my students). I led a champion-style contest with the class, declaring the winner King or Queen of the class.

Five PT volunteers trickled in on Friday: three by train at 10pm, another by bus, and the last on the 1am train. I spent most of the evening trekking around Karamay to collect them. Tom prepared a roast, ready by the time Kieran (the last) got here, which was impressive, not least because the damn thing had to be gutted and beheaded; I was absent at this point on collection duty. Excellent it was too, enjoyed with the four Vaccines songs I have on repeat and a spot of chilli-naan (thank you Mac, if you read this, for adding the chilli).

The run made for an early start, and the runners were treated to a primary-school troop dancing to a popular song by TF-Boys (a very Chinese way to start an event). The race went along the riverside paths from the main shopping centre (Han Bo) to Nine Dragon Lake at the far end. We all made it to the Red Bull stand for a free can and gathered at the finish line. It turned into a bizarre photoshoot; loads of people wanted to take photos with us (the foreigners). At one point we even lay out on the grass to spell ‘PT’, until someone told us off for being on the grass.

I recreated Sharon’s Butternut Squash soup recipe for lunch and hastily baked Calum a cake (chocolate) while he was out at the free Chess centre nearby. It was cooling in the corner when he got back, but thankfully he didn’t notice. We then took the cake to Essen for another fantastic (mostly Italian) meal. His face was a picture when they brought out the cake. The evening ended in a bar with the other ex-pats and card games.

I finally got fed up of a paper-strewn bedroom floor, so got around to making my Travel Wall which consists of an outline map of China surrounded by all the various tickets and pamphlets I’ve picked up along the way. Definitely too much effort for the two months before I have to take it down, but a few days and several kettles of tea after I started I’d eventually cleaned my room. There’s a time-lapse of the mural on YouTube.

—TJC

Featured image: the Calumns and I, shortly following the colour run.