Stormy Holidays

So Thyra and i planned to spend our beautiful summer evening going for a walk. Then an hour before a huge thunder and lightning storm breaks it! Such a juxtaposition on the beautiful day we'd just had! So following the brief, but very large storm, we still went for our walk. It was still really warm and the rain was already half dried. It was very surreal. And also my 1st Chinese storm.

So now, it's back to gorgeous weather and i get to go on holiday tonight! I'm going to Dalian tonight on an overnight train. I'll arrive early Thursday morning, check in. And i won't be checking out till Monday afternoon! All the Chinese have to work Sunday but i've been let loose an di don't have to work till Tuesday!

Following that i'll only have 6 weeks left in China. Crazy! It's gone fast. I'm a mix of emotions, i love my new home here, the language, the people. But i miss home terribly!

I'll blog again when i'm back with my activities over the holiday!

BYE!

Major Update

Hey everyone! So much has happened and i've been awful at blogging it, so here is my catch up attempt.

First off my blog is actually blocked in China, apparently blogspot have done something to upset the government and they've blocked it. This also means i can't check any one elses blog, this is frustrating. So now i'm blogging via my brother! (Thanks bro!)

This past weekend i have been a busy girl. It also means that both Saturday amd Sunday i had to wake up ealier than i do on a weekday! Not good! So Saturday was spent earning some extra pennies judging an English speaking competition for the children in the local area. They had to first introduce themselves, then sing an english song or tell an English story. Then finally they should answer questions that we ask them on the spot. It felt much more like the X Factor or something. We had renditions of 'Adelweiss' and 'Big Big Girl' a few times. They dance too. Quite cute.

Then Sunday i woke up early again to go to my Kindergaton's performance/sports day. It was very cute and i plan to upload photo's soon. Races included: run in your Dad's shoes and for the 2 years olds, waddle to Mummy. VERY cute! Quite difficult to catch on film so my lengthy descriptions when i get home will have to suffice! :D

I've been offered two extra jobs within 2 days as well. This would be really good news if it works out. The first is to tutor one of my 3 year olds privately on a Sunday morning. The 2nd is to work in a local school for £20 for an hour and a half in the evenings. Not every evening. But i'm not sure of the exact details yet. It would be great to collect some extra money.

Last week i taught my 4 year olds the stroy of the 3 little bears. (There is a video on my facebook if you're interested.) I had to read through the story a few times then demonstrate acting it out to them. To understand what that was like, all the Lee Evans fans out there (especially Craig), should cast their minds to the sketch about how to give yourself a raise. I'm a one woman show playing all the parts, narrating and changing scenery. It's not easy! Plus its nakkering!

This week i am going on Holiday! Wednesday night or Thursday morning i'll be catching a train down to the south of the Province to Dalian! I can't wait! Some seaside time! Some sight seeing! Nice hotel! I saved half of my wages this month so i've sacrificed for this! And i need it. Just one last break from school before the final push untill i come home! Apparently Dalian is great so i can't wait to come back and show you all the photos. Well in the words of some looney toon character who i believe was a pig...that's all folks!

Love and peace. xxx

Bad luck comes in 3's - Or some rubbish like that...

Number 1: MASSIVE cockroach that came from no where!

Number 2: I drop my perfectly fried egg!

Number 3: Thyra gets spat at by the frying pan and drops a raw egg!

The timescale: 5 minutes!

Bit of a premature blog I know, but I needed to share my hardships! :P

Love and hugs!

A whole cucumber? Really?

Just got back from lunch, (well not just, i have put a wash load on first) and i had to tell you about what i had for lunch.

It was the traditional dumplings that we have every so often with accompanying soya sauce etc...blah blah blah. But also, a whole cucumber. One for each person. So Thyra and I took ours, brought them home and they'll be used in a salad on Friday evening. Very unusual! And surreal!

The other thing to mention is the crazy weekend i just had dressed as a Hip Hop girl. Yes, MC Li, to be precise. Photo's (and unfortunately videos) are on facebook if you're interested. Here's one for those who won't look though!

Finally, this Friday we have a girls night in planned. Face masks, cocktails, movies, pedicures and a yummy home cooked meal. I look forward to a chilled evening after the craziness of the weekend just gone.

Missing you all. 65 days left till I land at Heathrow! Crazy!

Love and stuff! xxx

Peter, Benxi and Birthdays

That's me, 2nd from the right. In case you weren't sure what i look like anymore! :) From left to right it goes: Zhou Xi, Tian Tian, Li Rui and Dai Na! Or in English: Josie, Thyra, me, Nawwal!

That's us in beautiful Benxi. It was so great to get away from a city to this!!! I breathed in some fresh air, had some laughs, scrap that... many laughs and now i'm fully refreshed. So, the breakdown of the weekend:

Friday: depart at 7.30am!!!!! 5 hours on a bus. Then white water rafting till dinner! Lovely! Got very wet, and subsequently very cold! Then dinner and to end...Kareoke! We reted out the kareoke room in the Hotel we stayed in and had some drinks and cheesy pop music! Good fun.

Saturday: We started at this awful museum. Which, i might add, had no gift shop!!!! They did however have a comment book, so we righted this wrong by recommending they build one. It wouldn't suprise me if they did so withing the month. They'll do anything for foreigners.

Anyway, then we climbed a mountain. yep. 999 steps later i reached the top and had an icecream. The picture here was taken at the top, so as you can see, it was worth it! We then took a boat to a Buddhist island thing. Just devoted to monks/statues and other stuff. We met a dog which we named Happy there. That was the best part!

Then dinner. Yummy. Then we thought we'd chillax in the hotel Sauna. Reckon! No! Oh no! So, a group of us go, boys and girls. We arrive pay our £1.50 and we're seperated into genders. Okay, so we'll have a strictly girly sauna, fine. Oh no!!!! We're then taken to a locker room, told to get naked and enter the next room. They open the door to the next room and 'hello lots of naked chinese ladies showering'. that was it. A public shower. So, still in bikini's, we're like, 'sorry, bye bye' to the employee and leave. The guys however are gone for like an hour. Why? Because they had a sauna! Not just that, but a hot tub and these very funky face on shower things! Albeit they had to be naked but that seems to have helped their bonding.

At least we girls got our £1.5o back! :D

Sunday: This was the dave of the cave. So stunning! I've uploaded a whole album on facebook dedicated to just that! Got a bit lost with Eric. Well you shouldn't trust a Chinese guy whose never been there before really. So, we're lost, in a huge cave, alone. Gutted. But we retraced a bit a found some others form the group eventually! Nothing lost. Except maybe half an hour! So, i come out of the cave, zip wire 400 metres across a river and back onto the coach. Shattered.

It was a good weekend.

On a somber note, Peter Scott passed away last weekend. Hence some silence form me on my blog. But he's no longer suffering, whichh is a blessing. Apparently the funeral went really smoothly and it sounds really touching. I think he would've been proud of everyone who contributed to it. He was very supportive of my journey in China though so I will have a good time and do my job, because he would've wanted that.

Thyra's birthday was Monday. I bought her a watch as her main pressie. Then lots of little things to go with it. She got a hilairious array of pressies! We went to this gorgeous Swiss restaurant for dinner. Everyone came which was great. had like 14 of us! I also had my first, and probably only steak in China! And it was worth the money! Yum-my!

This Friday evening we're having another BBQ in the park so i'm looking forward to relaxing there and playing some hacky sack and footie and stuff. Then Saturday we're making our 2nd appearance at Armani. the new club in town. It's like a performance untill 12, then it's turns into your standard club. It's Thyra's proper birthday night so we're dressing like gangsta's! We've all got bling baseball caps and some chavvy clothes and some bling and we'll rave it up for her! I'll definately get some photos taken! Fear not!

Well, i'm going to end it because i know i've taken up so much of your time already. Love you all muchly! Take care!

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