le weekend

how many people can you fit on a bike? and this includes 2 children so it's not that impressive.
the hamsters alba and siog
and they say playgrounds are for children!

so back to business... We actually made it to our mandarin lesson on Wednesday, on time and fully prepared. The latter half of the sentence is applicable only to myself but it is an achievement I feel. I can now tell you that I have a cold. Perhaps learning the directions would have been more helpful as I found myself attempting to direct my taxi home on Friday.
On Thursday we went bowling. To begin with, there was nobody else n the place so we let loose and celebrated our strikes and half strikes with victory dances. These victory dances started off as a bt of a shimmy, an attempot at the moonwalk but quickly progressed to something much more animated: The wheels on the bus, the hokey cokey, old macdonald, koo kaka kookaka (i think that's exclusive to our school). All of this was much to the amusement of the staff. Not only were we western, but we were crazy! We stopped by McDonald's on the way home as we hads assumed that there would be food in a bowling alley but it's China baby! and there isn't.
Friday was quite enjoyable really despite being my busiest day.Due to being determined that Will should experience a chinese massage we went to a massage parlour. 3 pounds for 1hour and oh it was good. Dinner included. It was much needed, the lack of a mattress is making me quite tense. I feel as though I am obsessed with the fact that I have no mattress but it rules more of my life than i would ever have guessed! Following this, we had a night out. We met up with some of the other interns which was quite nice. One or two have made friends with some of the staff from starbucks (aplace i may safely assume they spend much of their time) and some fellow westerners they found, also in starbucks. It was nice to spend time with them. One chinese guy of whom i never knew the name and quite drastically resembles one of my P6 students, decided I was his girl and told mike not to steal me....
One late night, followed by an early morning for the extra kindergarten resulted in one tired Seona. I went back to bed as soon as I had finished taking my kindergarteners on a bear hunt. This was kept to the multimedia room which lckily had a sloped seating area for a mountain, a stage to provide a cliff, and a little room off the side for a cave. The chinese word for cave translates as mountain hole. teehee! The remainder of the day was lazy day. Izzie had also been up early taking Will to the airport so neither of us was up for any activity. We went for dinner and nosied round some shops.
Yesterday was a lovely day. To begin with I was very excited to have receiced some post thrust upon me by the guard as i left the school but we spent the day with Aviva, she's one of teh teacher's and she's leaving soon. She's absolutely lovely, she's one of the ones we talk to most. Anyway, we went for lunch with her and one of the K3A students and family. It was a really nice restaurant they took us too (host pays!) it was a buffet and there was alarge variety of food. I got curry, waffles with chocolate, fruit,sushi (Im a pesketarian these days) and other such delicious things. There were also less delcious things which also had to be tried. Namely, crocodile soup served in coconut. It tasted like very salty coconut and it was not nice.
Fun though! Following this we went round carrefour (yes a french supermarket!) where I bought some new bedding and Izzie got a mozzie net soa s not to be eaten alive. I havn't been bitten. Maybe she's tastier than I. The jingle tune here was joy to the world. Immediately I burst into song everytime it played. ah Christmnas carols! We dropped the shopping back at the school and, with Aviva, headed to the arcade. We played on the games and fond this hammer game, the type where you have to hit it as hard as you can,. Well Aviva only went and set a new high score! Thoroughly enjoyable. We also went to the bookshop which sold english books. I didn't purchase as I have quite enough french and german literature to keep me going but it's useful to know it's there.
I came home tired but determined to give my rooma good scrubbing as it had been my intention to do so before such distractions arose. We cooked some soup and had an early night.
Today hasn't been too eventful apart from all the rain. Just a regular day teaching.Actually no, I got ambushed by a group of small boys calling themselves Isobel or Jeanette and pretending to be girls. I have no idea why. Maybe they wanted lollipops from me. I get asked quite often for sweets now.

Not your textbook Easter Egg hunt

Well back to class on Monday, when I decided to continue with the Easter egg hunt with every class, so I went out and bought a very large amount of lollipops. It worked well enough until we combined P5A and P6A. All hell broke loose. Well it didn't but it wasn't quite under control and the activity has now been banned. I made sure of the fact that my class P6A knew exactly how unimpressed with them I was. Perhaps they didn't understand what I was saying, but they got the idea. I resorted to my favourite type or stress relief, which is without a doubt playing the piano.
Lunch yesterday was a scrumptious affair in the glorious March sunshine. We had a picnic on the school playground thingy. We had fresh pineapple, ice-cream, pineapple "beer", bread, playing cards. Oh it was delightful! I was playing with my kindergarten class after lesson and with some P1 boys after dinner - my inner child escapes!
The weather hasn’t been quite as nice since. I’ve stuck to staying inside and this morning I took my umbrella with me to open car doors for the children. It kept them dry as well as myself, child welfare, that was the whole reason. I had a lovely P4 class yesterday based on comparative and superlatives. It involved lining them up in various orders, and yelling loud, louder, loudest! They didn’t know good, better, best or bad, worse, worst but trust them to know beautiful, more beautiful and most beautiful. It is definitely the nation’s favourite adjective. The teacher of that year has just approached me asking me to stick to the textbook so as to reinforce the grammar points she is teaching them. I’ve been trying to do that, but from what I can gather, it just bores them, because they are basically doing the same thing again. It’s difficult to keep their interest, so they don’t learn anything. It’s the only year where we can’t deviate from what they suggest we teach. This could be a struggle. I’m also on a mission to stop P6B bullying Leo in my lessons.
I hit the canteen on my own yesterday as Will and Izzie were off out for a meal, only as I was emptying my leftovers into the slop bucket Izzie comes running over yelling “I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” Will wanted to try lots of dishes but didn’t want to order them all in case they looked greedy. The solution? An extra person = less greedy! Bless.
I read 'There Was an Old Lady Who Ate a Fly' to my class today, with actions of course. They loved it so much they made me do it again. I think the ‘wriggled and wriggled and tickled inside her’ went down well. They also keep asking me for lollipops. Scandalous.

monday morning ... in theory

The lack of access to virtually any websites and thus a lack of vital communication make me seriously dislike the government right now. Although, I can't complain; the restrictions have loosened a little since yesterday.

Thursday- We went out to a sushi restaurant on Thursday where yet again they tried to make me eat it. This time round, I was wise enough to refuse. Following this, we went to the cinema. I spotted a westerner who was able to tell us that the green film titles are in Chinese and the red ones are in English. Simple as that! Score.

Friday - I suddenly realised that it was Good Friday around lunchtime. I decided Easter was a very good topic to teach the students and began organising an 'Easter egg' hunt. Easter eggs are fairly hard to come by so the prize was actually a bag of sweets. However, in my own excitement of preparing this lesson, I forgot that the afternoon lessons were 20 minutes early and turned up 20 minutes late. (In my defense, they never warned us that every other Friday or so they change the lesson times, it's not on our timetables and they don't remind us) thus P4B missed out. I was determined to do my treasure hunt and scrapped P3's phonics lesson and took them instead. They loved it. Thankfully Izzie helped out so I only had to control and sprint after 18 kids charging round the school. I repeated it with the additional kindergarten classes on Saturday. The students became very confused and asked if chocolate Easter eggs were real as they didn't get any. You'd think they would be happy with lollipops but no!
We went out for a meal again on Friday during which we were invited to KTV with some of the other teachers. Well how could we refuse? We sang Danny Boy. It was rather fun, especially when we took to shouting out the limited number of Chinese characters that we recognised during the Chinese songs. The Chinese teachers found this hilarious.

Saturday - We were supposed to be going to the safari park on Saturday but the torrential rain put a stop to our plans. We went out to lunch at a pretend Italian place that was more French. On the way we found a wallet in the taxi devoid of anything but cash (including a $1 note). We weren't sure what to do with it at first but eventually we decided that there was no chance of it being returned to its rightful owner and so used it to pay for our food shopping. I finally bought myself a new purse after not having one since the last got stolen. We played in the arcade also and went for another meal that night. It should be an expensive week but Will (Izzie's boyfriend) keeps paying for things. He is thinking in euros so to him everything is stupidly cheap. It's become a sort of competition between the 3 of us; who can pay first?

Sunday - I got up nice and early and headed to Guangzhou. I was going to church! My intention had been an English service which I failed but it was a church at least! I was able to recognise the tune to 2 of the songs and hallelujah and amen are virtually the same. The guy next to me was very helpful and was able to tell me which book the readings were from. They gave everyone a boiled egg on the way out. Must be an Easter thing. One or two people came over to talk to me at the end in broken English which was quite sweet. It won’t be becoming a weekly thing. It would cost 1/5 of my month’s wages just to get there, it is 2 hours of travelling, one way, and it is limited what I can get out of a service I don’t understand! I got a taxi back to the station to meet Izzie and Will but the taxi driver tried to swindle me. He drove me past the station and right round the houses before dropping me off, so I argued with him. In Chinese naturally. I say argued, rather, I repeated the same few sentences over and over and gesticulated wildly. As primitive as this method of communication may appear, I did in fact get my way =) The couple showed up a little late to head off to the safari park so again we altered our plans and went to the zoo which was situated much closer to the station. The zoo was quite enjoyable, although the elephant compound had no elephants and was being used to hang someone’s wet washing. There was also a little circus type thing with dogs and monkeys n\in chains and dressed up. Not cool. We made a swift exit after seeing this. We had made a stop at the goldfish garden by this point. It has a pond where one can pay around 11p per minute and catch oneself some pet goldfish. We named ours Simba, Rajah, Mufasa, Bagheera and Theonethatdidn'tgetawayfromWill. Spot the theme? Unfortunately, since getting them, all but one has died including my own catch Mufasa. Poor things. We bought even more DVD's on the way back (5 Yuan each=35p ish) Our collection is rapidly expanding. Upon our return to Foshan, we headed for dinner at Pizza hut. They laughed at how much we ordered but due to it being rather yummy, we munched our way through 4 starters, 3 pizzas and 3 desserts, 1 jug of an orange E-number concoction, 1 smoothie and 1 hot chocolate. As a result, we were there 1 hour and a half after closing time. They literally came to throw us out. Oopsy

doubleudoubleudoubleudot

Why is it that I can access my blog, which is normally the hardest site to get on to but facebook, hotmail and google are completely off limits? Even the proxy sites aren’t of any use =[. It’s most annoying that they block sites, it just makes things harder.
St Patrick’s Day was relatively tame. Against all Irish tradition, we remained sober and came home at the acceptable time of 2am, after a stop at McDonald’s on the way home naturally. We did, however, play the dice game an awful lot (it’s a Chinese thing) and view some of the best dancing I have ever seen. Why the poor men thought it would be a good idea to get up on stage and showcase those moves, I shall never know, perhaps and excessive amount of alcohol is to blame, I’m not sure they were able to walk in a straight line. Ah the entertainment.
I was quite certain that I had something to write about since I’ve been wanting to write since Wednesday (pesky internet). Alas, whatever it is that I wanted to share has now gone and left the building.
We forgot about our mandarin lesson again. Oops. I did have it through my skull that it was at 8 o’clock when in fact that is when it finishes. Hopefully next week I shall remember.
The school next door peaked my interest when around 6ish and they usually start blaring Avril Lavigne, I heard some soul music coming from the speakers. Maybe they fancied a change but unfortunately their fanaticism over the aforesaid singer is far too great to be replaced at any point and as so they just played her music after this and for longer than usual. Must have been a special occasion or something.
Izzie’s boyfriend arrived on Wednesday evening. She got herself all dolled up to meet him at the airport. His plane ticket had been booked that morning with a travel agent who turned up at school and was wandering around asking if the Chinese teachers knew the name on his ticket, which of course they didn’t. They spent a good 15 minutes wondering who on earth this might possibly be, before realising that I was sat there and asking did I know who it was. Well off course and off I went to fetch Isobel. Panic over, don’t know why they didn’t ask sooner. Had I known that was what they were discussing I would have said so earlier bless them. She is most delighted to have him here though. We went out for dinner for dinner last night before going to the cinema. We were stood in the queue pondering how best to ask if they had any English films or with English subtitles and what do I see, a westerner, with a Chinese friend, speaking English. Well I marched right over and asked. Turns out it’s as simple as the film titles in red are English with Chinese subtitles and those in green have been dubbed into Chinese. No reading of Chinese characters necessary! Quite a fun evening overall. I couldn’t sleep when I came back though, I think I have been re-infected with what I had in Beijing, and thus, I kept myself awake by coughing. Due to a lack of sleep, I have lost the ability to dress myself properly [at least that is my excuse] and this morning turned up with my top on inside out. It was under my shirt so not too much embarrassment to be had.
One small joy, I managed to listen to some radio one via the internet, good old British radio and recent music. There's only so many times I can hear the wo ai ni song and not miss some good choonage.

Doesn't everyone climb the school gates?

That budget completely went to pot. It’s a good job we’re not actually short of money! I decided on Friday evening that we should do something, nothing big as I had kindergarten the next morning. We hit upon the idea of having a few drinks in a jazz bar. So Isobel and I set off in a taxi and after 5 minutes we saw a group of incredibly familiar people standing on a street corner. I successfully managed to explain to the driver that we had seen our friends and could he turn around… in Chinese!!! Impressive. Turns out they were stood on the corner because they couldn’t decide which way Nanhai Plaza was. We pointed them in the right direction and ambled along with them. They were looking for a cinema, gave up and went to McDonald’s instead. They didn’t want to come to a bar with us but Mike showed up and off we went. After a while in the bar, he said Aaron was over in a different club and did we want to go. Naturally, we went. We were talking to lots of Chinese people and we named the bouncer, who later declared that he loved me…. as you do. I left my cardigan there too. Maybe one of the guys will collect it for me. It became a rather late night, resulting in another episode of clambering over the school gates. We should probably stop doing that at some point. They do have CCTV after all. I completely overslept on Saturday and was woken by an incessant ringing of my phone and relentless knocking at my door. True typical Seòna style, I was late. So I rushed out of bed and down to the classroom in less than 5 minutes but the only problem with this was that I was still half asleep and thus my body didn’t take very well to being vertical. I’m quite well acquainted now with knowing when I’m about to faint (it was fairly common when I worked at the airport) so I sat myself down and explained to the assistant. She went off to get some sweets and to see if Isobel would take over. Whilst she was gone the children came to see if I was OK and fetched me glasses of water. Such sweetie pies. It’s a fair point that had I not had a late night I would probably have been fine but then again it’s just lack of sleep and I do that regularly. I blame the fact that I am not in full health. I think Izzie passed on her illness back to me. Not fun in the slightest. Needless to say we did very little for the rest of the weekend except do some shopping (our most expensive one yet I believe, like I said, what happened to the budget?) Further to my progress in Chinese, I had a text conversation with Mike (an intern from last year so his Chinese is pretty good) in Chinese characters. Hahaha I was extremely impressed with myself. Ok so it was a very basic conversation and I did eventually confuse ‘we’ with ‘mine’ but I am still proud of myself. 我能写中文.我是英文老使. Yes I do actually understand what that says ‘wo neng xie zhongwen. Wo shi yingwen laoshi’[. I can write Chinese. I am an English teacher] Ah the pride! We have done a fair amount of cooking this weekend. We experimented with our rice cooker. We can cook more than rice, we can use it to boil almost anything!! If we could find stock cubes, I’d make a soup. I will be a master of boiled food by the time I return. Today has been fairly uneventful so far but we are going out later to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Isobel is Irish after all!

pets

In an attempt to ensure the correct grammar and spelling, I shall write my entry up in word. I noticed lots of typos in previous entries you see. Izzie and I have been out for dinner the past two days, despite both of us saying that we were on a budget. The more often we see the canteen food, the less inclined we are to put up with it. Bad food is one thing; the same not particularly nice food day in, day out is well just not that great! We completely missed our mandarin lesson on Wednesday by the time we came back from having dinner. We went to apologise to our teacher who handed us the sheets for this week.
I’m trying to get as much sleep as possible. I’m suffering from slight insomnia at the moment but I think this is due to the lack of a mattress. I wake up and I ache, particularly my neck.
This week I have made much more of an effort to integrate with the Chinese teachers. They all seemed to want to make friends but I didn’t go out of my way to talk to them. They ask us for help sometimes with their English. Just small things, like double checking whether its ‘play in the computer’ or ‘play on the computer’. Two of the girls, Marina and Michelle, are actually lovely!
HuanQi yesterday went OK. There seems to be quite a big difference between the pupils there and the ones here at the school. They were also very disappointed that I hadn’t brought any stickers with me this week. Oh dear. I made a note of the bus journey so that Izzie would know where she was going. Despite it being my 3rd visit, she hasn’t been yet. However, despite a detailed map and descriptions of landmarks, she completely missed the stop and stayed on the bus until it reached it’s final destination in the next town over. Oops!! Bless her.
We had a wander round the plaza again last night seeing as we were already there for dinner it seemed like a reasonable thing to do. We bought some hamsters. We couldn’t resist. We had wanted to buy two bunny rabbits at first but this was the safer option. Mine is called Alba and Izzie’s is called Sìog. There may be a school policy against pets though; Jeanette said it was OK, Vicky said it isn’t…… They shall just have to remain a secret. Jeanette will look after them after we leave and pass them onto the next set of TTC interns in the Autumn. It can be our legacy if you will!
I’m learning that incorporating conga lines into my classes are an exceptional way of making sure that each student says the target sentence correctly. They cannot join the line unless they have done so. Furthermore, they think it’s the best thing ever! Our P6 students now have nice posters on the wall consisting of FINE BEAUTIFUL INTERESTING NICE all with big red crosses through them. These words are banned in all contexts. It is possibly am little frustrating for the teachers as they also overuse these phrases but it is for their benefit and the variety f their language. I was very impressed with one boy the other day actually. He managed to explain to me that he had left his glasses in the computer room which was now locked and that he needed to find somebody with a key because he couldn’t see. At 12 I couldn’t have explained that to anyone in another language!

Smells like sherbert

It smells like sherbert or those refresher sweets today. I'm not sure why... It's quite cool today for which I'm quite glad as yesterday was hot and humid. Stupidly I was wearing boots and had to run around at one point trying to get a lesson plan for the lesson that I was covering. Izzie was sent to see a doctor yesterday you see, she's got the same medicine that I had. I shouldn't laugh but at least somebody else will understand exactly how foul the stuff actually was.
I also went to the post office yesterday to post the postcards that I had bought in Hong Kong (the disorganisation of it all) and I had a fun time trying to explain what I wanted: a stamp, well 6. I managed it in the end and moved onto the bank to exchange my Hong Kong dollars. Only, being the ditz that I am I had forgotten my passport (one needs ID to change money) However, the bank staff decided to help me out as I was so beautiful (piao liang - we hear it alot, it's what we get for being pale) they sneakily got one of the staff members to do it on my behalf using his ID etc. How very kind of them! To treat myself on the way home, I bought some ice-cream and a DVD which of course warrented getting a motorbike home otherwise the ice-cream would have melted. I also bargained the price he was asking for the ride. Just because I'm a Westerner does not mean that I do not know how much things should cost. I've been in China for nearly 2 months now (seems like much longer though)
I finally got the school to give in and buy me a mattress. They handed it to me yesterday. It would seem that they do not understand what a mattress actually is. Instead, I got an extra thick blanket. It made no difference whatsoever; I still had to sleep on one of my pillows and it is at this point I'm glad that I have Dulcie's pillow as well as my own! I'm going to try again and get an actual mattress soon.

aberdeen

It’s my Monday morning blog entry yet again. It's becoming quite a feature. Friday, I’m not entirely sure of my actions in all honesty, it seems such a long time ago and it isn't now is it. Memory of a fish. I thoroughly cleaned my room that I do remember whilst on the phone to my parents, my mother was also cleaning up; it was a cleaning frenzy phone call!! We didn't set off for Hong Kong Friday night as was originally planned but then not a lot went to plan this weekend. We adapted our plan to get the first bus at 7am except we weren’t ready in time. So we set off for the 9am bus except halfway to the bus station I realised that I had forgotten my passport. After turning around to go get it, we missed the bus. The next one wasn't until 1.30 so we got the ferry which cost more one way than a return bus ticket =/ However, eventually we arrived and got to our hotel. I was shocked by the price difference between China and Hong Kong. Everything was so expensive! I spent more in 2 days than I have in the past 3 weeks. As the aim was to buy laptops we hopped in a taxi which then got lost and left us somewhere and still cost us $70. That’s 7 times what we are used to paying!! We eventually got ourselves to a landmark and spotted some tourists, with a map. They were kind enough to let us borrow it. After this, we successfully reached our destination of WanChai Computer centre. I didn't have much luck here. I couldn’t find a suitable computer in the price range about which I got a little upset/frustrated. I helped Izzie find a good model though. A whole tub of Ben and Jerry's ice cream soon had me feeling better though and we wrapped up the day with dinner on Avenue of the stars, overlooking the bay. It was quite stunning actually. I like a nighttime cityscape though. It is impossible to imagine the size of some of the skyscrapers, it really is. I like the little ferry that crosses the bay, an old puffer boat thing, very quaint. I got up really early on Sunday with the intention of going to the English service at the church I'd spotted down the road from our hotel, only I seemed to have no concept of time and I didn't quite make it. We checked out and headed over to the main part of Hong Kong (by ferry naturally) We hopped on an open top bus up to the tram stop (I'd missed the noonday gun by this point too =[ ) Took a few aimless photos, some of which are pretty good. we decided against getting the tram up to the peak after we saw the HUUUUGE queue. Instead we went for lunch. At this point I spotted a cathedral, nestled between some skyscrapers and trees and immediately insisted upon going. It wasn't what I would describe a cathedral, more an Anglican church but I caught a communion service. I can't tell you what a relief I felt to have been to a church service. Following this we set off for the zoological gardens. Lovely place, signs about bird flu and hygiene EVERYWHERE though =/ WE ambled around some more, went to the bay, checked out some pet shops (heartbreaking to see the tiny cages the animals are kept in) and it was around this point I decided not to come home empty handed and replace my camera as even the blind snapshot method was a bit iffy. The camera had to be turned on in favourite mode and then changed to shooting mode if I wanted to take a photo; otherwise the camera had a heart attack. We set off back for diner at the Irish bar but on the way realised the time and rushed to get the bus. We arrived in time but were told that we couldn't buy tickets for the bus on the day. We thought we were stranded in Hong Kong! However we caught a ferry and bought the last 2 tickets, one first class, one super class. Fantastic. Coincidentally, Maya and Saskia, 2 other TTC interns were also on the ferry and sat right behind me! Small world. We swapped stories and had a natter about Hong Kong. Ah customs yes, they took Maya's temperature because she has a sniffle and the sniffer dog went for my bag. Maybe my shoes smelled bad or something. Oh it was fun. I was glad to get back though. I even got that feeling you get when you come home showing that I'm well and truly adapted to living in China!


p.s. the masses of photos that i've taken are gradually making their way onto www.seona.myphotoalbum.com

camera

I'm trying to get the screen on my camera fixed. This is not as easy as it sounds and proves and it is quite problematic as it doesn't have a viewfinder either so I kinda need it. However, nobody wants to fix it for me as it is difficult to find the parts but they won't write it off as totaslly broken because it isn't so I am just stuck without a camera. As an addict, this is extremely harsh.
I have had quite a good week so far though.
My lessons have proved fairly amusing. The words 'fine' and 'beautiful' have been banned throughout the school as they are both over used. We want to expand their vocabulary, after all it is our job. This involved making my P6 classes go round the class answering "how are you?" but each with a unique response. I also played chinese whispers with them. Somehow, the sentence "I wish to be happy when I grow up" became a) I wish to a girl b) I wish for lots of girl time and c) I wish to dog. Interesting.
Strawberries and melted chocolate has become quite a feature in our lives. It is one of the only things we can cook/melt/make. We did however make dumplings for lunch today. The sight of squid tenticles (again) was too much.
I was at the kindergarten at our other campus this morning. I had to get the bus there all by myself. I was quite proud of myself up until the bus driver didn't let me off at my stop and kept driving and when he did stop (a bit of a trek away) he tried to make me pay more for my bus ticket. Phht. An arguement with a bus driver who does not aspeak english is nt something I want to attempt ever again. I had a lovely morning though, I taught the classes the word monster and I made a friend. He came running after me when I was leaving to give me a hug. How cute!! He doesn't have an english name so I get the pleasure of naming him. I havn't decided what yet.
I've just ordered daddy's 50th birthday present. Special ages deserve presents, nobody else will get the pleasure =P

How to sound like a native speaker

The planning I was doing for our rogue class P5B?? never got finished. I got thrown into a class where I had a vague idea of the topic and no planned activites, oh it was fun! I didn't lose control of the class about which I am most impressed. It wasn't through disorganisation that this occurred, rather the last minute changes or notifications in China. They filled up my dedicated lesson planning time with a meeting with a specialist from Hong Kong. We did have a laugh but I'm not sure what we were supposed to get out of it as it was aimed at making the teachers sound like native speakers, which I am so I should hope I sound like one!! Our first mandarin lesson was fairly amusing. She was intent upon getting our intonation just right so we can be easily understood. To check, everytime somebody walked into the office, we had to say whatever phrase we had just been learning to them. This involved saying "pass me the chopsticks please", "be quiet!" and "may I have a spoon?" to unsuspecting students.
Thursday lunchtime was spent at the bank. We had to set up chinese bank accounts as well. This was a massive pain. One of the chinese teachers came with us to explain all the forms and we still filled it out wrong 8 times. They pointed out all our mistakes one by one instead of all together so we didn't keep filling out the same form over and over. In the end, I refused to fill another form out so Isobel actually opened my account for me. I didn't sign it or anything whch defeats the object, anyone could have done it. As much as a pain that it was, it did mean that we got paid on Friday and have a bank card that will work at any machine not just selected ones.
We took a bus down to Zhongshan on Friday and spent the weekend there. The company had organised a meal for all the Guangdong interns. We stayed in a flat with 3 of the girls based in that city. It was really nice to see lots of people. Nearly half of the whole training group was there! We had a mooch round the town. Most people went shopping. But Nash, Chris and I walked round this park/mountain and filmed a nature video of the species 'greatus britainus'. It featured the 3 of us attempting to climb a slope with nash's commentary. Quite an amusing way to spend the day! It was so warm all weekend, which made the bus journey home rather unpleasant. We still entertained ourselves. After that Izzie, Mike, Ali and I went to Papa John's for a nice pizza. We ordered one of everything pretty much so it was expensive, but we got cheese!! We all said on the bus how much we missed cheese. It was a very pleasant way to end a busy weekend.
It's back to teaching however this morning. Well my one class which is half an hour. A child got a nose bleed during the class as well. Always fun! They are fixing the broken shower and my toilet which decided to stop flushing on Friday at some point today. If all goes well shall get on to the case of getting a mattress, a microwave and find out what's happening with my camera! Apparently, our contract stipulates certain things we have to have and we don't have all of them and I intend to get them.