The art of stealing photos

I've learnt the art of stealing photos from facebook and pasting them into blog entries so here's a bit of a backlog!
 tian'anmen square (not worth a visit. it's a sqaure. with these men marching arounnd. and pigeons)
 rickshaw races. ok so the drivers didn't know we were racing but still, nash and I taught our guy to say "off we pop"
 the acrobatic show. rather spectacular though I felt sorry for the poor girl pedalling whilst 17 girls just sat on the bike with her.
 ladies night (unfortunately I was too ill to go out for this. I missed out on fancy dress! and I only lent 2 items of clothing as well. score.)

  the frozen lake and the marble boat at the summer palace where we played football with a chunk of ice

 this is when everybody sat on my bed. I am also sat on it on the left but it was too much effort to move and squeeze in the photo.  You can't quite grasp how small the space is either!
 and finally some Chinglish for you. Double check the apostrophe if it seems reasonable!


all the photos are curtesy of Jonny Potter and Dulcie, not that they know that yet.

phonetics

half way through my first week of official teaching. I havn't yet come across the troublesome class P5B. They threw some chalk at Izzie. I have that class this afternoon and I havn't finished planning the lesson. I had my kindergarten class drawing monsters this morning, it was too learn body parts it wasn't just to shut them up honestly!! I never did find the lady who does all the photocopying. I had the same age class today and I had to change my lesson last minute again so as to avoid the work sheet. Oh well. After our purchase of DVD's and machine to play them on, this has become our evening pastime. Chris popped round briefly on Monday to collect a phone charger as the daft bat left his n Beijing. We had to sign him in which was fun so he just wrote a selcetion of things in boxes on the page and hoped for the best. Tonight we should have our first mandarin lesson. Hopefully they will be more useful than the ones in Beijing as there will be just the two of us. I have decided to learn a word or phrase a day so i have some lovely charts on my wall. it's sprucing up my room nicely. By the time i leave the walls will be covered! Yesterday's phrase was "wo bu yao rou" meaning "I don't want meat" very handy in the school canteen even if I do receive odd looks for saying it. The chinese teachers we were talking to today (also new) said if I asked ncely perhaps they might prepare something especially for me. I think the pair of them want to make friends which is really nice I think. Makes me feel more welcomed that other teachers want to make an effort to get to know us. Now that I am settling into a routine, perhaps I will have less and less interesting things to say but it depends how I spend my weekends and whether children like Blook can produce soem worthy anecdotes to share with you all =)

photos

due to high demand, i am going to attempt to post some photos that I have found in an email attachment.I have had to revert to the old technique of emailing myself therefore I don't know if they will show up but it's worth a try so let me know!
 

 

the birthday party and the cake incident. Izzie and Camila (L-R) being the bad influences obviously.
 

Izzie and I halfway up the great wall.
 

Part of the lama temple
 

Chinese new year's eve
 

New year's day at festival fair. we met hello kitty!! dressed like this we got a few stares
 

me being me and posing outside the olympic stadium, the bird's nest, which yu actually can't see in this picture.....
 
 

flat 4301 from UIBE at graduation
 

me at teaching practice strutting my stuff
 

an example of crazy chinese roadsigns... wait til you see the chinglish.
 
when i can get hold of some from my school, I'll put them up but I hope these are ok!

Apparently we have a curfew

Friday involved playing lots of games with classes so it wasn't really working although in between classes, I did have to respond to a few texts and tell people that I wasn't Nash and give them her number. Inexplicably, she managed to give everyone my number instead of her own. Bless her. She was amongst the 4 from Zhongshan that came up to Foshan in order to celebrate Nikolaj's birthday. We all met round at Ali/Aaron/Pete's (APA's) which is a super sweet apartment before heading to a club. Most of us were out that night. I think there were 19 of us in the end and not one of us paid for a drink all night, we would order at the bar and a chinese person would come over and refuse to let us pay for ourselves. Most of stayed over at APA's also as it was easier than trying to get home. As a group we had a bit of a mooch around on Saturday. It rained! It's the first time it's rained the entire time I've been in China. Well, we felt a few raindrops last weekend but this was proper rain. Reminded me of home... We managed to run into 3 other people from the TTC crew on the streets which was a bit random. We had lunch at Macdonald's. It was the most expensive meal I've bought whilst out here (until lunchtime yesterday where we went to a very nice Japanese place.) Macdonald's isn't exactly veggie friendly in the UK but it defo isn't in China. I was so hungry I didn't care and bought myself some chicken nuggets. Izzie also made me try sushi at the japanese restaurant. It is foul stuff. I had to try really hard not to spit it back out. So I've had a veggie blip which really confused Pete who wondered why I was picking meat out of my noodles on Saturday. He was further confused when I wasn't sickened/offended by the sight of meat and merely didn't like the stuff. I'm just a bit fussy!! Saturday night was spent round at APA's. We had a few drinks and played some games before the majority headed out again. Izzie, Ali and I, however, stayed in. They went to a shop to get popcorn for the movie whilst I mopped the floor as it was pretty dirty (20 people in one room, it's to be expected I suppose) Izzie then cleaned the fish tank and eventually we sat down to watch Juno. We hadn't realised how late it was so Izzie and I returned to our school at around half 2 to find ourselves locked out. Apparently we have a curfew. We had to clamber over the gate. Such an example we're setting. Oh dear. We have also discovered that at weekends, there is no hot water. We are contemplating moving out every weekend and staying over elsewhere just so we can have a shower! Sunday we popped into Walmart (yes walmart where we ran into more people we knew) and bought some household necessities i.e. a mop and bucket and other cleaning propucts, a DVD player, some DVDs, spoons and some extension cables. I then scrubbed my bathroom. Well, most of it. I can't reach the top so there is a line where it goes from sparkling clean to quite obviously not and I can tell that it is going to annoy me. Alot. We watched some DVDs last night whilst vaguely planning our kindergarten classes for the week. I have two little boys without english names in my class so we used our alphabetical list that we made last week and a stop the bus technique to decide that from now on they shall be Hartley and Sammy. We are naming them after people both from home and from TTC. I havn't had very much to do today. I've been trying to print off some work sheets for my next class but I can't seem to work the scanner. Gah. There is supposed to be someone who does this for us but I don't know where she is. Phht. This school could prove rather frustating at times!

Living in a LauShi bubble

We haven't really started teaching yet. We're still observing lessons but we have gone into the classes on our timetable but spend them introducing ourselves. We havn't met all of our students yet and we are constantly getting children asking us what our names are. There are some real sweetiepies though. In the kindergarten off campus there is the cutest little Brazilian girl! Yes I get to teach nursery, ages 3-12 quite a variety but as it is an international school the standard of english is actually pretty high. Some children tried to teach me chinese today. I didn't have the heart to tell them I could already count from 1 to 10. They also tried to teach me banana and pear but at this point there wer 6 of them all talking at me at the same time and I hadno idea what they were saying.
Last night, Izzie and I made an attempt to explore the surrounding area. We found out that our school is right next to one big ass park. It's massive but really nice. When I get my camera sorted and a new memory card (as mine is now full) I shall take some photos.
I haven't spoken to anybody from the nearby schools since we were split up which reminds me that perhaps I should. It would be nice to meet up since they don't live all that far away. As my room is on the school campus I feel as though I'm living in a bubble separate from the rest of the world and I see the same few people everyday. I want to make an attempt to get out of that little box before it loses it's charm. I think at the weekend I shall thoroughly explore and just hop on a bus and see where it takes me. I shall be armed with my school address just in case I get really lost.

I might as well describe the place

I decided alongside my more factual recall I would write a few descriptions. I never really said what Beijing was like or mentioned the fact that the moon is a different way round over here. It really is! Instead of being a crescent like this ( it's more of a smiley face if that makes sense. A few of us noticed it last week and it's quite odd. It shows just how far from home we are thought. Mind you, the differences between Beijing and Foshan are fairly monstrous themselves. You could see the landscape changing gradually throughout the train journey. It was quite a shock for those who had fallen asleep looking at the brown, flat plains just south of Beijing but woke up to find lush green mountains. It's another world down here. Beijing was an eclectic mix of architecture; high rises from the 60's or 70's in the midst of the modern and the slightly wacky. It's amazing. Neon lights and taxis were everywhere. Here in Guangdong it's more shanty towns and slums than skyscrapers. There are more trees as well. Quite often it looks as though a city has been built in the middle of a rainforest. Despite all the trees, the air is smoggier so even on the brightest days, the sky appears more grey than blue. The roads are the most unusual. They seem as though most of the time the road was an after thought resulting in fly overs left, right and centre, sometimes four pretty much in the same place. It's weird! As is the sense of road safety. It was bad in beijing but we never saw 4 people of a moped! It's also far warmer down here, about 20 degrees warmer; I feel sorry for those who went up north where it's below -10. I feel like more of a tourist attraction in Foshan as well as there are fewer Westerners around so we get stared at a fair bit. Oh and the food is spicier but I can live with that. I miss Beijing, but I think I'm going to like it here.

relocated

Friday didn't hold much of an improvement for me. I was still pretty ill. We had our graduation too. Izzie and I went shopping to try and find a new outfit but I gave up because I felt so unwell. The whole affair was quite fun though. As a group we made friends with Pan, the senator. He even invited Will round for tea lol. We moved on from the meal to a bar where I got myself into a right state thinking my camera had been stolen. It wasn't, I did get it back eventually but it is broken. Lovely. The consolation is I still have my memory card with all of my pictures. Another phonecall to the insurance company trying to claim that back. They're gonna love me! I hadn't finished packing so I had to get up extra early on Saturday to pack as checking out was at 8am. There were 38 of us on the train. We made the most of it. A few people spent the 22 hours sleeping. Since I had the bottom bunk it was a little harder as people often came in to sit on it and chat or use it to climb up to the other bunks. Not that I minded too much. We had 9 of us in our cell at one point. It got a little overheated!! We finally arrived though. Guangdong. We are now at the school, have completely unpacked and are making ourselves at home. We have been discussing things we think we shall buy to make it easier/nicer for us. I already bought a broom. I found mops I could use but no broom. Izzie thought I was mental. We have sent today observing lessons and meeting teachers etc. We have 3 days grace before we have to teach. We made a list of english names that we want to give out but within a few minutes we had found an Esther, an Oscar and a Winnie. Darn! Best of all..... there's a piano in every class!! Ok so the keys stick sometimes but it's a piano!! woohoo!!!!

poorly

I'm going to go on a complete rant because I'm feeling less than great right now. I'm ill. I was trying to keep myself wrapped up so as not to get more ill but to no avail. I had to go to the hospital yesterday, which isn't quite as grave as it sounds as they don't have GPs in China but still. I now have some pills, some powder and some syrupy stuff to take, all of which taste absolutely foul. I spent yesterday in bed and most of today also. I'm also rather stressed out because my purse got stolen on Tuesday and my phone has decided it doesn't want to make or receive calls anymore. Therefore, not only did I have the hassle of cancelling my bankcards etc but I had to borrow someone's laptop to disappear to an internet cafe and ring all these places using skype which is a most baffling thing when I've never been to an internet cafe before and I've never used skype. Most inconveniant. I've found out where my placement is and I've been put in a primary school which I didn't want. I wanted older students, 6 months of games and songs?? It's gonna drive me insane! On the bright side, there's loads of the people I spend time with going to the same city and I will be sharing an apartment with my current roomie, which brings me to another point; she had her drink last spiked so i spent 2-3 hours sitting with her in the bathroom last night trying to coax her into drinking lots of water and going to bed instead of falling asleep with her head down the toilet. Not the most pleasant experience but undoubtedly worse for her. Eurgh it's just not been my week.

hot water bottle

I went to a sports bar last night (amazingly there were less guys with us) We went to watch the rugby. Quite heartbreaking really, cotland getting battered yet again. oh well. It was fun and being an american bar we got western food like wedges and steak sandwiches (not for me clearly) That was quite a late night then last night especially as izzie woke me up when she came home. Sh ehad stayed out later than I did to watch Ireland play. I think I'm getting ill. There's been a bug of some sort going round and I thought I'd avoided it but I have picked up a nasty cough recently. I'm fairly susceptible to chest and trhoat infections so i wrapped myself up in far too many layers and carted a hot water bottle around with me. Oh that made people jealous; they all wanted to share it! I am well equipped though, so I've been taking the beechams I brought with me. I've earned myself a reputation as a bit of a clean freak. I think this is because I always clear our mess off the tables or at least pile it neatly in restaurents, I swept and mopped our flat and I tried cleaned somebody eles's kitchen (can't remember whether I've mentioned that already) but yes i am the maternal/domestic clean freak! That ought to be of amusement to some people =)
I'm slowly getting more and more photos up. It just takes a while and I have to make sure that a certain computer is free because they are all on that one. I will get them all up someday!! My class seems to think I'm some sort of genius at Englsih because I understand tenses and leical forms etc so when I told them my GCSE english result they were shocked. hehehe. I was helping lots of people with our final assignment because it's grammatical. I'm going back to the sports bar tonight for the derby and I suppose i could stay and watch the rugby with the rest of the guys ....

chinese new year

This week has been quite awkward. It's Chinese New Year and spring festival so everything is shut! including the campus canteen. It's been quite daft getting food. The staff have finally realised this though and are taking us to a restaurant for every meal payable on our meal cards of course. Some people had been living off fancy pot noodles for a day or two. Yeurch. I bought some eggs and bread from the supermarket and had soldiers and toast. It was an inventive way of making them though as it involved boiling the eggs in the kettle and using chopsticks to hold bread over the hob. Nevertheless, it was better than a pot noodle!!
We spoke to the headmistress person about the woman who observed us. Apparently there have been a few other complaints. We found out yesterday that she had been fired. =/ there were a few birthdays this week. We all gathered in one flat on Tuesday (it was seriously crowded) before so going for a night out from which I have picked up a large number of bruises. As in my left thigh is blue. I didn't see a fence and I fell over it. Before anyone asks no it wasn't because I was too drunk because in my defense it was tiny; it didn't reach my knee! I'm proud of myself for remembering to ring my parents to wish them happy anniversary too!! Wednesday was New Year’s Eve. Aaron and I made an attempt to go shopping but didn't realise how early the markets were shutting. Instead, we found a little Italian restaurant and had pizza and tiramisu! It was soo good! We made everybody jealous lol. For the evening TTC had rented out a bar for us so we had a party. I'm telling you, you haven’t lived until you've seen Chinese New Year in Beijing. It was amazing!! We were around this lake which was frozen over so we went out to the middle to watch the masses of fireworks which went on for an hour or so. Seriously cool. Only problem was when I tried to climb back on the wall to get off the lake I put my foot through the ice. Clever of me I know. We all had a good night though. New Year’s Day was spent at a festival fair. It was stupidly busy but good fun. We lost most people so there were just four of us wandering around together. We decided to buy these crazy wigs and 2008 glasses. we stand out enough as westerners anyway (plus one of the guys is 6'something" ) but dressed like that we were stared at and more than 20 people asked for photos lmao we even ended up on stage with Hello Kitty teehee. And they say you have to be sensible to be a teacher! We have worked out that everyone on the course is at least a little crazy, this just proves it! Yesterday was back to lessons. We have started on actual grammar, as in learning names of tenses etc. it's not that interesting tbh. Last night, we went for a 2 hour long massage. I somehow ended up with the only male masseuse even though we had some guys with us. This just meant that it was slightly more painful when they were doing things like cracking your back. Faith was so ticklish. She kept squealing and nearly kicked her masseuse in the face poor girl! It was hilarious. Have to admit though, we all felt so good afterwards! I spoke to Esther last night! Had a good girly chat. I had to wander round in the cold because my flat mates were trying to sleep but it was worth it. She said hello to one of the guys who thought we sounded exactly alike and thus must be sisters! We got set our final assignment today. Most of the work is done now. We finish our training on Thursday and we have another tour day on Tuesday. This time next week I should be off to a much warmer climate yeah!!!

now that's just rude!

we did in fact go to the jazz bar on saturday. I loved it. There is just something about watching talented musicians, especially in the atmosphere like that of a jazz bar. It was so chilled and ever so slightly hypnotic. Back to the teaching practice and planning and assignments. it's getting a little hectic. I have managed to upload a limited number of photos at last though, finally! We went for a meal last night. Izzie's dad's friend is chinese and he invited 5 of us out(Fenja, Izzie, myself, Camila and Basti). As host he chose all the food and paid for it all but he ordered veggie dishes especially for me! We had a really good time, there are now a lot of personal jokes around now =) After that we joined Nash and Chris in 24 (can you see a pattern yet?) where I finished off some clouring for today's lesson. We were getting observed today. As a group, we actually thought our lesson went really well, ok of course there were a few niggles but they were learning but the woman observing us was so harsh in her feedback. The written feedback was rather positive but when she spoke to us, all he could say was that we didn't do enough drilling and she basically told us to book our plan tickets home because we wouldn't be able to cope. Plus she kept swaering at us. When we asked how we could improve, or for constructive criticisms she told us she could say a lot worse but she was a nice person so wouldn't because it's not her job. All four of us we're so angry with her. No group has been told anything like that. she didn't even say anything positive at all except that the children like us. I think the other 3 have been doing a great job, obviously I can't comment on my own teaching skills but her reviwe of us was so unfair and apparently it has an effect on our final placement. The four of us want to speak to the person in charge, see if somebody else can watch us and give us a bit f encouragement. grrr. I've been sat here for ages now, I've been re-writing Jack and the beanstalk to tell as a sensory/interactive story tomorrow but i never realised it was so compicated. Nor did i realise it had a fairy in it. I have edited that out but it should be fun. I really have been sat here for too long, I'm going to go get some dinner from the canteen.

spaghetti and bananas

we went out for kareoke on wednesday night (it's a fairly popular out here) and oh my gosh it was so much fun!! Everybody got up and sang at some point and we chose the worst/cheesiest songs ever. Basti got up and sang man! i feel lke a woman better than shania herself, and christopher belted out a cracking version of cher's 'if i could turn back time'. I found myself in front of a mic when 'everything i do' came on. hugh was also supposed to be singing but couldn't work out which song it was so I serenaded Faith instead. After which everyone decided i had a "great set of gills". oh and i've also learnt that i sing out loud in public far more than i realised, apparently i was singing along to my MP3 in the cafe and my teacher overheard. oopsy!! Incredibly fun evening though. Thursday was our first proper free day to do whatever we pleased. Naturally most of us didn't emerge from our rooms until midday or so. We did make it to the Lama temple though as it really isn't that far away. That was so good. I loved it and there was lots of incense burning so it smelled yummy too! We trekked around beijing to find the best fish and chip shop (according to the lonely planet guide anyway) the boys got real english ale. It was a home comfort night! Our first teaching practice lesson yesterday didn't go so well. it wasn't bad, just not good. We were told we could assign them english names but our class all had them (even if one girl is called Coffee. Another class has Obi-wan, Talent and Crazy) Chinese culture class yesterday involved tai chi which is amazingly relaxing and thereputic. Meditation most definitely! It was back to planning more lessons and assignments and work work work! No wonder we decided to chill out with a few beers in 24 noodle (it's quickly becoming our favourite restaurant) there were around 15 of us and I think we spent 3 hours laughing solidly, always good for mental well-being but it's great that everyone gets on so well! I get to learn how to write chinese characters this afternoon before more prep and work but i think we might head to a jazz bar tonight, we heard of a really good one in town so we thought we might hop along. I love jazz =D