This is it. I'm giving back this laptop tomorrow night and for the last 3 weeks i'll probably not blog anymore! So he's a big catch up on what i've been up to and what i plan to do. Do expect a blog at some point after my return though, which, for those still unsure is the 16th of July.
So, a list of my activities, a 10 day German beer festival, horse riding in the middle of no where, my last ever English Corner for the local primary students, plenty o' shopping, a haircut and the beginnings of some packing!
The last English corner was actually an unfortunate let down. We dodn't have as many kids as most weeks because of the summer rainstorms we've been having. It was a shame not to say goodbye to all of them, and it also leaves Thyra and I with about 20 mickey mouse notebooks and pencils that we signed and can't do anything with! Gutted! But we did have some fun doing the 'Peter Piper' tongue twister!
The German beer festival was a complete, welcome surprise. They have one here in Shenyang occassionally because we have good connections with a part of Germany apparently! Had some crazy Chinese and german bands, all sorts of music and plenty of beer! One band worth mentioning were Panik! Worth looking up! Really enjoyable! So we moshed and had some fun on many evenings at Zhongshan park!
So, next Tuesday is my last day of teaching! So until then i'm just doing revision and games lessons with the kids. I've bought 300 sparkly smiley face stickers which will please my students greatly. I've also got 4 presents for the ladies with whom i share an office. 2 Chinese English teachers a craft teacher and a dance teacher. All have been so lovely to me! I'll miss them!
This weekend i'll be heading out to Dandong to take a peek into North Korea and all things Korean. I expect many things with my camera's oh so wonderful 12X optical zoom! And preferably, i won't get shot! :D
Somehow, my 'stuff' from the past 6 months has to whittle down into a suitcase and a hand luggage size suitcase ready for my flight to Shanghai on the 3rd of July! We'll stay in a youth hostel for a week or so. Visit the sights, do some clubbing and have ourselves a little holiday! Then one the 11th ish i'll grab an overnight train up to Beijing, maybe making a few stops on the way and then spend my last 4 or 5 days hanging out, doing last minute shopping and sight seeing and say my lengthy goodbyes to my friends and to China.
That's the general plan! I really can't say if i'll make it online at all until then. I might try to visit the internet cafes occassionally so don't be suprised if a mini blog appears here and there. And please, feel free to still email and write on my wall. I'll still get them all when i get back!
Well i'm not sure what else needs to be said. Just to ask you not to worry when i seem to be ignoring you! And to say thanks to those who i know have been following this. It really helped knowing i had people at home keeping up with what i'm doing!
And thanks Craig for keeping my blog updated for me! No thanks to China for blocking it...grrr!
As you know very well, i love you all dearly! take of yourselves in the next 3 weeks. Would realy like to come home to all my friends in one piece! And i'll try and return the favor! ;)
Zai Jian!!!!!!!!!! See you soon guys!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, 22 June 2009
Saturday, 6 June 2009
Holidays
Hey!!! I got back from my holiday in sunny Dalian Monday night at around half past 11 (which, I must mention, is when I applied for my student housing! You won't believe how tired I was. But I take this while first come first serve thing seriously. And I wanted those halls!!)
Anyway, as promised to most of you, i'll give the account of my time away...
Wednesday I worked all day and packed after work. Just a little suitcase of things (thank you DT – that thing is invaluable!) Then me and Thyra had our 3rd ritual of beer and cake! Honestly, the cake in China is amazing! Shortly after, the 2 guys coming with us arrived at our place and we hung out till around until 1am. Then we grabbed a cab to the train station.
Our train was an hour late so we actually didn't leave Shenyang until 3 in the morning! But fear not! The Big Mac that I had definitely made me feel much happier about the waiting time. We paid for hard seats for the 6 hour train journey because we're cheap. It cost is about £5 intead of £14. And the difference is huge here in China!!!
I didn't actually sleep the entire journey. For those who know me well enough, i'll sleep through/on ANYTHING! But this train, no. the other 3 did though. So I listened to my ipod and read some of my book. Then we arrived! We headed straight for our hotel, which is the most difficult hotel to find ever! It's just like the Chinese to shove a hotel in a back street ally outside of the main city! Whatever! It was very nice, a family run thing. As Thyra and I were shown to our room we were told in Chinese by the 2 young girls working there that we were beautiful! (I knew I learnt that word for a reason! :P)
So the first day in a seaside town, of course, we head to the beach! Golden Pebble Bay, to be precise! It was gorgeous! Upon arrival we swam in the sea! The Chinese people thought we were crazy (we were, to be fair. It was FREEZING!) So we tanned, we walked, we swam, we buried Kenrick in the sand. Then it was dinner time! To get back to the station to get the train back to the main city we grabbed a ride on a (DONOT READ THE NEXT BIT MUM) a motorcycle! I had complete faith since I only paid 20p for the journey. :-/ I might not try it again. I didn't like it much, in fact I was terrified. I blame my parents. :P
So we head to the hotel, shower and go to a nice local restaurant recommended by our hotel. We ate ridculous amounts of food, drank plenty of beer and then when we holla for the bill, we're told (in Chinese BTW – i'm getting quite good if I do say so myself) that it's free. The manager did not want us to pay. How sweet! We were very touched.
After that we headed to the prak were the Chinese tend to congregate for evening kareoke, ball games, hacky sack kicking and general socialising. It's always a nice atmosphere. And we are always treated like celebrities! Then we kicked back in a nearish pub for a cranberry bircardi breezer (well the others drank beer or something – but I couldn't resist! It was a holiday after all!)
The next we decided not to put our skin through another day of tanning (or burning in some of our case.) So we started by visinting the Russian Street of Dalian. I guess it's like China Town in London. Of course we were mistaken for Russians many times and spoken to in Chinese and Russian most of the time. Not so useful! We detoured around the back streets to check out the Russian slums which was really interesting too.
After all that we made our way to a famous park in Dalian. It was full of street performers, fair ground rides, snack places and Chinese people! We took a cable car to the top of the big hill from where you can see pretty much all of Dalian from! Then we took the mountain slide back down! Imagine a tabogan type situation, except less safe and i'm wearing a skirt! :S As they say in Chinese 每时, never mind, doesn't matter!
We visted some other non-interesting sights then back to the area around our hotel for some dinner. The evening was spent at Noah's Ark Bar which was advertised in someones guidebook. They had 4 guys playing guitars on stage and they were very good! It was pretty enjoyable!
So the next day we hit the beach again. Lao Hu Tan. Well, that was the plan. But we arrived and discovered that some ocean park had claimed the length of the cost there and were charging £20 to get in! Shocking! So some randomer approached us and asked us if we'd like a lift in his mini van. So he took us to another beach for just 50p each – much more managable! It was a gorgeous beach! We would have missed all the gogrgeous scenery and that beach had we paid the extortionate price of the water park! It was hard to believe we were in China. It was more like a tropical island! Plenty of sunbathing and ocean swimming was had!
That night everyone but Thyra and I left. They all had to work either Sunday or Monday. So they take off and Thyra and I are alone! Yay! Shopping! He hit the markets and shops big time! We got a fair amount of very cool purchases. Clothes, jewelery, shoes and a blow up frog chair (don't ask.) And all for about £25! I love Chinese prices!
Monday evening we grabbed our train. I slept this time for a couple of hours. It actually arrived home and hour and a half before we were expecting which was a huge blessing since i'd planned to do my student finance!
And there we have it! I wish I could tell you much more but i'm dying here! That's taken ages and the heat in our flat is ridiculous! And this hot laptop on my lap isn't helping!
A quick update until now...
Tuesday night I had my usual Chinese lesson, Wednesday I taught an evening class of 7 year olds for some extra cash. And this weekend i'm running 4 houres worth of training for kindergarton kids entered into an English speaking competion. That'll be an extra £40! Next weekend i'll do the same for some more money. Thyra can't do it because she's not a native English speaker which sucks. She's got more of an English accent than most and she's the most fluent non native person i've ever met! She's too modest! But i've passed over the evenign class job to her so she can earn some money that way since I have the weekend thing.
And now, I am closing. I'm so sorry for the length of this! Pictures of my time in Dalian and the sports day/performance put on by my Kindergarton will be on facebook as soon as I can!
I LOVE YOU ALL! xxx
Anyway, as promised to most of you, i'll give the account of my time away...
Wednesday I worked all day and packed after work. Just a little suitcase of things (thank you DT – that thing is invaluable!) Then me and Thyra had our 3rd ritual of beer and cake! Honestly, the cake in China is amazing! Shortly after, the 2 guys coming with us arrived at our place and we hung out till around until 1am. Then we grabbed a cab to the train station.
Our train was an hour late so we actually didn't leave Shenyang until 3 in the morning! But fear not! The Big Mac that I had definitely made me feel much happier about the waiting time. We paid for hard seats for the 6 hour train journey because we're cheap. It cost is about £5 intead of £14. And the difference is huge here in China!!!
I didn't actually sleep the entire journey. For those who know me well enough, i'll sleep through/on ANYTHING! But this train, no. the other 3 did though. So I listened to my ipod and read some of my book. Then we arrived! We headed straight for our hotel, which is the most difficult hotel to find ever! It's just like the Chinese to shove a hotel in a back street ally outside of the main city! Whatever! It was very nice, a family run thing. As Thyra and I were shown to our room we were told in Chinese by the 2 young girls working there that we were beautiful! (I knew I learnt that word for a reason! :P)
So the first day in a seaside town, of course, we head to the beach! Golden Pebble Bay, to be precise! It was gorgeous! Upon arrival we swam in the sea! The Chinese people thought we were crazy (we were, to be fair. It was FREEZING!) So we tanned, we walked, we swam, we buried Kenrick in the sand. Then it was dinner time! To get back to the station to get the train back to the main city we grabbed a ride on a (DONOT READ THE NEXT BIT MUM) a motorcycle! I had complete faith since I only paid 20p for the journey. :-/ I might not try it again. I didn't like it much, in fact I was terrified. I blame my parents. :P
So we head to the hotel, shower and go to a nice local restaurant recommended by our hotel. We ate ridculous amounts of food, drank plenty of beer and then when we holla for the bill, we're told (in Chinese BTW – i'm getting quite good if I do say so myself) that it's free. The manager did not want us to pay. How sweet! We were very touched.
After that we headed to the prak were the Chinese tend to congregate for evening kareoke, ball games, hacky sack kicking and general socialising. It's always a nice atmosphere. And we are always treated like celebrities! Then we kicked back in a nearish pub for a cranberry bircardi breezer (well the others drank beer or something – but I couldn't resist! It was a holiday after all!)
The next we decided not to put our skin through another day of tanning (or burning in some of our case.) So we started by visinting the Russian Street of Dalian. I guess it's like China Town in London. Of course we were mistaken for Russians many times and spoken to in Chinese and Russian most of the time. Not so useful! We detoured around the back streets to check out the Russian slums which was really interesting too.
After all that we made our way to a famous park in Dalian. It was full of street performers, fair ground rides, snack places and Chinese people! We took a cable car to the top of the big hill from where you can see pretty much all of Dalian from! Then we took the mountain slide back down! Imagine a tabogan type situation, except less safe and i'm wearing a skirt! :S As they say in Chinese 每时, never mind, doesn't matter!
We visted some other non-interesting sights then back to the area around our hotel for some dinner. The evening was spent at Noah's Ark Bar which was advertised in someones guidebook. They had 4 guys playing guitars on stage and they were very good! It was pretty enjoyable!
So the next day we hit the beach again. Lao Hu Tan. Well, that was the plan. But we arrived and discovered that some ocean park had claimed the length of the cost there and were charging £20 to get in! Shocking! So some randomer approached us and asked us if we'd like a lift in his mini van. So he took us to another beach for just 50p each – much more managable! It was a gorgeous beach! We would have missed all the gogrgeous scenery and that beach had we paid the extortionate price of the water park! It was hard to believe we were in China. It was more like a tropical island! Plenty of sunbathing and ocean swimming was had!
That night everyone but Thyra and I left. They all had to work either Sunday or Monday. So they take off and Thyra and I are alone! Yay! Shopping! He hit the markets and shops big time! We got a fair amount of very cool purchases. Clothes, jewelery, shoes and a blow up frog chair (don't ask.) And all for about £25! I love Chinese prices!
Monday evening we grabbed our train. I slept this time for a couple of hours. It actually arrived home and hour and a half before we were expecting which was a huge blessing since i'd planned to do my student finance!
And there we have it! I wish I could tell you much more but i'm dying here! That's taken ages and the heat in our flat is ridiculous! And this hot laptop on my lap isn't helping!
A quick update until now...
Tuesday night I had my usual Chinese lesson, Wednesday I taught an evening class of 7 year olds for some extra cash. And this weekend i'm running 4 houres worth of training for kindergarton kids entered into an English speaking competion. That'll be an extra £40! Next weekend i'll do the same for some more money. Thyra can't do it because she's not a native English speaker which sucks. She's got more of an English accent than most and she's the most fluent non native person i've ever met! She's too modest! But i've passed over the evenign class job to her so she can earn some money that way since I have the weekend thing.
And now, I am closing. I'm so sorry for the length of this! Pictures of my time in Dalian and the sports day/performance put on by my Kindergarton will be on facebook as soon as I can!
I LOVE YOU ALL! xxx
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
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!
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!
Monday, 25 May 2009
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
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
Tuesday, 12 May 2009
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!
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
Thursday, 7 May 2009
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!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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