Duck neck and honey roast fish satay...

That's what the ladies in the office fed me Friday afternoon. Not so bad actually.

I had a really productive weekend. I decided that we would not all crash on the sofa for 5 hours in the mornings like usual. no, we would do things. So Saturday we headed to the imperial palace, discovered it was quite expensive for a ticket so decided we'd go back another day when the weather was nicer and we could spend a whole day there. So we did some shopping, had some lunch and then we went to countless bookshops on a mission for Josie. Then had some dinner. Yummy. We went to this gorgeous little Italian restaurant - i had Carbonara (not sure how that's spelt) and some garlic bread. Finally we ended up in this crazy club where they put on a show until midnight then it turns into a night club where the only real dancing space was the stage. So an hour or two of dancing and i was ready for bed.

Sunday morning, wide awake at 7.20am - no idea why. At 8 i was aggitated at the lack of doing anything so i took myself off for a run. Got lost. But found a landmark i recognised eventually and managed to get home. Then went to a church service full of Koreans that was in Chinese (we were told it'd be in English). So 2 hours of sitting and watching, then lots aand lots of walking around. Had dinner at a Vegetarian restaurant down the road. but we got there and the menu was full of meat dishes (peking duck, mutton, pork chops) we were very confused. So this boy, maybe my age approached and translated that it was all fake meat and made up of vegetables. Like the mutton was made from mushrooms etc... weird.

Then he and his mum chaatted to us throughout our meal and she basically wants us to work with her in building up her language school. Got her contact details. Their English was the best i ahve heard from any Chinese person so far. Even their accents and pronunciation were perfect. It was amazing. We were all stunned.

And today. I'm supposed to have parents in my lessons this week but none have showed up yet. So this week is a revision week to show the parents what the kids can do. My 2 and 3 year olds were amazing. 4 year olds, not so much. I got very close to killing them. It was a good thing their parents wern't there to see it.

It's lunch time now, i've had lunch, watched TV with my roomie and now she's gone back to work and i am here, as you see.

Having a movie night tomorrow which will be nice a relaxing. It's becoming a bit of a Tuesday night tradition actually. Which is cool. Then Friday my roomies parents arrive in China! Crazy! I'll have to be on my best behaviour. And impress them with my well rehearsed swedish alphabet and odd words.

Missing everyone at home. On the 7th of April i'll have 100 days in China left. Countdown starts then.

Love love, peace out. xx

Address

Lots of people requested/have requested my address so here it is:

Miss Rachel Bradley
Room 2311 Tower B GreenFreeTown
346 Fengtian Street
Shenhe District
Shenyang PR
China
110013

Well that's not my address, but i collect it from there. PLEASE make sure my name is on it fully and clearly. Stuff should make it without difficulty. Just write as i have. They do all the translation into Chinese characters.

I'm not posting it to make people write. It's just i know some people wanted to. And some people like Chris promised birthday presents :P

And for anyone unaware, it does cost a bit more to post stuff to China, naturally. So be good now!

AOB: Apologies for my silence of late. For those who don't know, Daniel's Aunt passed away last week and I've been silent out of respect, or because i haven't felt up to it, or something. I miss her. 'Nough said.

Expect another blog soon. Love to you all. xxx

I love China

I'm not sure why but i think the place grows on you. I'm becoming so content with walking around and doing my own thing. And i'm getting by. I'm becoming street wise in Shenyang. I've stopped using supermarkets so much and i rely on the little old vegetable lady outside my building and the little fruit shop nearby and the other smaller, more friendly shops.

I'd like to think that one day i could come back here. Not sure for how long or what to do. But the people and the place, i dunno, it's good. That's all i can say. I really like living this way.

That's not to say i don't miss home. I'm ready to go home now if i could. I do miss everyone so much. But i wanted to reassure those who thought i might be hating it. I'm not. There was always hope. I'm happy.

Frightening children into submission. Or hitting them. Still not sure how to deal with seeing it everyday. It's not the debate of right or wrong that concerns me, it's the cultural acceptance of the practice and what it achieves. I don't think it's the most productive, but it's quick. And in China, time is passing by for these people. There's always things to do, learn, sell or see. Time can't be wasted on my 'naughty step' methods i guess. Odd. Different.

My laptop was half way to being fixed, until two rebellious screws decided nothing (and i mean nothing) was going to budge them. Trying has halted in case i hurl my laptop or have a seizure.

I played the guitar for my students for the first time today. They loved it. I'll definately be doing that again. I'm glad it worked. Somthing new and different to catch their attention. Plus they all seem to respect me more. Which is fun, gone are the days of carrying things or picking up dropped things. These kids just wanna be my slaves. And who am i to say no? :P

[INSERT NOTE: The author of this blog has merely made a joke and in no way agrees with child slavery or anything attactched to it. Any offense that has been taken can call 2341383647 for more information.]

On St Paddy's Day i drank free green beer at my local. VERY ODD. But kinda nice. It was nice to get out of the apartment and from lesson planning and work.

I will end this now, love and hugs to everyone.

JAG ALSKAR DIG!!!!

Amazing Discovery!

Well, maybe not amazing...

You know how we as kids would always find the closeness of the word 'six' and 'sex' was funny, in school we'd 'confuse' the two because we were little rebels, well me and my friends did. Turns out that in Swedish, the number 6 is spelt 'sex' and sex is the same word too! They got the joke handed to them on a plate! That has absolutely nothing to do with my journey through China. I just enjoyed that fact.

What you can know is that one of my friends here has a laptop and he can't get internet in his place. Actually he's the guy who is mine and Thyra's weekend lodger, and Tuesday night lodger too. (He has a curfew at his, it's not an interesting story...) but he's here a lot and now he's going to start leaving his laptop here which means i can email and blog more often than i could with the internet cafe. Yay!

Also, one of my classes tomorrow has moved leaving me with a 4 and a half hour empty slot smack bang in the middle of my day and a very long afternoon of back to back classes on Friday. Meh. As we say out here...it's China. They do these things. We get over it. We do our job.

I'm going to have dinner now, which is at the middle school down the road. Normally quite yummy. We've had chicken nuggets and breaded prawns or whatever it was. Yummy.

So anyway, peace out homies. Stay cool. xxx

I can't comment on my blog

This internet cafe is restricting me from doing anything but read this blog so i'll reply to comments in here.

The swedish title from the last blog is an "exclamation" shall we say, for when something bad/annoying happens. we have similar terms in English i believe. ;) It was in realtion to the whole laptop breaking thing.

I have my camera battery now! Yay! Shenyang will now be photographed to death! But obviosuly i still can't show you pictures just yet. But it's all coming together. Fear not, little ones. That brings up a good point... the Chinese arn't all stereotypically small. I am still considered small. The women are quite small. I guess i'm average for them. I'm definately older than my school kids though. Thank God they're not over 6 years old. Even some 9 year olds are a bit too close for comfort!

Thanks for your nice comments. I love hearing your opinions and encouragement. And i put that extra bit about not doing housework at home just for you Dad. Apart from when i have to be your slave nurse :P

I kept you informed with my last blog so this is the end now. Missing you all lots and lots. Stay safe. And don't eat yellow snow.

Love and hugs all round. xxx

JÄVLAR!

Well, as most of you know, my laptop is broken :( The plan of action is in motion but it could be up to 3 weeks ish. So i'm using my local internet cafe for now. This might explain a lack of emails/posts or general information about what i'm doing, so i'll try to inform you properly.

Firstly, it's no longer the first day of school. Gone is Monday. Gone are the uncontrollable nerves. Gone is the care taken to look presentable. And gone is the faceless/nameless white girl. I am now Rachel - Teacher. No really, that's what they call me. I'm feeling more positive now. I had some friends who encouraged me a lot and i'm settling in. Obviously it's only my first week over and i still have many more to get through. I expect more snot, more tears, more puke, more English, more smiles, more laughs, more naughtiness, more telling off and more hugs. Should be good! :)

Friday evening i will/have depending on when you read this, also led an English Corner at the local library. Apparently the previosu 4 tenants of our flat have all led English corner there for the 5 months they stay here and it's always well appreciated. So the local council/community person man has turned to us and asked the same of us. We're happy to do it though. It will be lots of fun. Basically we'll sit in the library with an uncertain amount of local kids and some parents, speak some English, teach some stuff, play some games, sing some songs and all for only an hour a week. According to our guide in Shenyang, the parents also invite you for dinner and buy you things and it's normally reported in the local newspaper. I'm really looking forward to teaching a different age group and mixing with the community here. Hopefully i'll brush up on some Chinese too :)

Saturday i plan to go shopping, just a bus ride away we have an underground market, it's absolutely massive, you could seriously get lost. I plan to! I've been 3 times already but never for long enough to buy much so this time we plan on having a good look around. So, that's my girly Saturday with some of the girls, the evening will no doubt involve some bar or another to hang out, catch up and chat over a beer.

Sunday is undecided. I'd like to do something cultural though. I don't think many of us have lessons to plan so maybe a day out. Who knows what though. Maybe i'll go swimming or something.

The week will be filled with lessons, early nights and watching Charmed (i have all the series on DVD - only 3 pounds! I just needed something short for the evenings rather than films all the time.)

Next weekend is unplanned. BUT! The weekend after, my good friend Jenny from Beijing is coming to stay, yay! It's gonna be so great seeing her again! I miss her lots. She was like my mummy in Beijing, looking out for me and looking after me when i was sick. She's just so cool, i love her to bits! And she comes from Windsor so when i talk about London she knows what i'm on about! She also is the only one who understands my slang!

After that i don't know but i do plan on updating you before then anyway. As a whole group we're thinking of trips back to Beijing, up to Harbin (northmost China) and hopefully into Russia too since we're so close. There are also skiing trips planned and people from all over China coming to visit us too. In my last week or two of school, my friend Jon who went to a city south of Shanghai is also coming to stay! I'm looking forward to seeing loads of people that i had to part with in Beijing.

For all those who care, i do actually, cook, clean, do washing, lock up, make beds, make tea and coffee, take rubbish out, change bin bags, sweep and mop my floors. So i'm fully house trained now. But before you say anything, since i'll have been doing it for 5 whole months, don't expect me to do it when i get back. Anyway it's China, they do stuff differently here. So, i'm Chinese house trained. NOT, England :)

I'll leave you all alone now. Much love as always. xxx

1st day of school.

Does anyone remember their first day of school? Bad memory or good? I'm leaning towards bad.

2 year olds know absolutely nothing. They don't even get English lessons from the main English teachers so I don't know what I'm supposed to do!

3 year olds - very cute! My favourite age group! But know nothing. Don't get my games. At least the teachers left me to it though. Not too bad.

4 year olds - just don't get the games. I can't explain the games therefore they can't play them. Simple as that.

6 year olds - not at the level that i was expecting. Plus their teachers make them sit in rows properly, hands under desks, backs straight, in order to practice for primary school. (Who, by the way i caught sight marching earlier - weird regimes.) Anyway, so the teacher gets really antsy if i let them shout out (which i do) and run around (which i do.) Actually it's quite funny. Until the kids get a bit playful and the teacher smacks them or drags them away. I feel like it's my fault when that happens. but they're 6, they need to move!

I wouldn't be able to control them without their class "mothers". Their the ones who clean the snot and tears. But at the same time, every time i approach a kid, they flinch because they think I'm about to smack them one. It's not really nice to have that with such cute kids. I wanna give them a chance to tell me their names or whatever but the "mothers" just shout at them and then move on so they never get to speak.

I dunno. I'm no expert, but I'm realising more and more how differently the Chinese view education.

And feeding - they feed the kids umteen times a day. I'm not sure why.

I'm going to drink my tea and relax now. I have great respect for all my teachers. Very brave!

Peace out. xxx

My Boyfriend needs to get Skype

I miss him.

Let's hope this gets his attention.

Also, when's Mothers Day? Have I missed it?

Skiing, lesson planning and flashcards

Skiing was soooooo much fun. Only one small injury, just a tender spot on my back. Thyra's pretty good at skiing because she's used to it in Sweden so we were on the middle slope and she's teaching me how to do turny things and is like, "come on, give it a go" - I took her out. Just completely smacked into her and took her out. Amazingly she came out of it unharmed and laughing a lot. She's cool with it. I landed on the handle of my ski pole but it's okay. That's the worst injury and it's nothing. I'm definately not having any issues lounging on my sofa and faffing on the internet.

Anyway, we plan to make the most of being up north and go skiing at least once a month. It's pretty cheap for the whole day compared to the prices I've heard that others spend on it. It's like £20 for the days. Including rental of equipment, transport and stuff. And since we're so high up, the air is clear - no smog!

Lesson planning is my next job. I've written about a quarter of my weeks lesson plans so i need to do the rest ready for translation on Monday morning. My activity/song choices are: "the rainbow song" for the littluns, "one, two buckle my shoe" for the 4 year olds, "head, shoulders knees and toes" for the 3 year olds and finally "old macdonald had a farm" for my 5 and 6 year olds. I need to make some flashcards for the songs as prompts since they won't understand a word of English.

My roommate made chips last night without the use of an oven. They were amazing. I miss chips. I also got my bed to myself for the 1st night for 3 nights so that was nice. Lots of space!

Got my first lessons tomorrow, quite nervous. I wish i could be shoved in a room alone with the kids but since they're so small, they need their teachers there. That's the real pressure. I don't wanna be judged compared to their previous foreign teacher because they'll only remember how she was towards the end and much improved as a teacher. But hey, we get on with it. It's about time i got to work and got into the routine.

I better go and have breakfast, shower, get ready and do something today. It'd be so easy to sit on my laptop all day and catch up with my emails but i need to prioritise. Maybe later i can catch up.

Love to everyone. xxx