Thursday, 29 September 2011

Tuesday 27th September

Today the pollution levels were high again so no one was allowed outside. I had grade 1A in the morning working on phonics and this weeks fluency words. One of the children was off on Friday and Monday with head lice and came in today with a shaved head! He is still itching so I am keeping my distance.

In the afternoon I was with 2C trying to get them to improve their sentences with an adjective and grammar. I wrote a sentence on the board and asked the class how I could improve it using an adjective and they all started saying similes! At least I know that they actually understood what I taught them yesterday!

After school I was having people round for poker, it was a good night and a chance to catch up on gossip, although it got to 11pm and there were still 3 people in so we just split the winnings.

Monday 26th September

Today the pollution level in Beijing was too high so no one was allowed to leave the building until the afternoon when it had lifted, bit worrying about what all of this pollution is doing to my health!

I had grade 1A in the morning working on phonics and reading and then after lunch I had grade 2C teaching them similes. It was like pulling teeth, they did not get similes at all! It took the class 40 minutes to write two simile sentences and even then a few still hadn’t grasped it and were just writing a story. It was an enjoyable lesson though and the ones that did understand had written some really good similes so I was really pleased with them.

My next lesson was back with 1A and as I was on my way to the classroom the Chinese teacher was with one of the kids in the hallway, I asked what was wrong and she just said that Ava felt ill and needed to go back to class, so I took her in with me. The teacher in there told me that she had just been sick in the classroom and had to go to the nurse and go home so I took Ava up to the nurse. 10minutes into the maths lesson the nurse brings Ava back, saying that Ava is fine. Myself and David both said that Ava was not fine and needed to go home but the nurse wasn’t having any of it and left, so I took Ava to the office and told them that they needed to phone her mum and send her home. It was then time for my English as a second language class so I took my students upstairs to the hall to play vocabulary games with them, when I returned David told me that the office had tried to bring Ava back twice and were dragging poor Ava round the school looking for me! Poor thing had just been sick and looked so sorry for herself and was being dragged round everywhere, only in China!

After school was Mandarin lesson which I am slowly getting better at, I understand more than can say at this point but I am enjoying it.

Monday, 26 September 2011

Bungee Jump Video

Here's the video of my bungee jump from a couple of weeks ago!

Sunday 25th September

I met Doreenda and Amanda for lunch today and then we went to the Zoo market (it’s across the road from Beijing zoo), none of us had Beijing zoo written in Chinese to show the taxi driver though so we were miming to the taxi driver elephants and lions trying to get him to understand zoo, I bet he thought we were idiots! it was an hour in the taxi (it was 30 degrees, too hot for the subway) and as we got there there was a woman selling puppies out of a carrier bag which was quite sad to see.

The market was not very good as no one would barter with us so we left and went to the silk market which was much better. Amanda is really bad at bartering though and we had to keep intervening, I used a phrase from my Mandarin lessons which I had learnt specially, pronounced “tai qwey lah” which means too expensive! I bought a pair of black Ugg boots for 190 RMB (£19) as in the winter it’s supposed to get to minus 20 degrees (I have no idea how I am going to cope with that!) I also bought a necklace and some postcards (the only time I have ever seen postcards, nowhere seems to sell them).

After the market we went to Pinnacle Plaza for dinner and then went home to prepare for the weeks lessons.

Saturday 24th September




I had a lazy morning today and then a few of the teachers were meeting at the subway to go to a real ale brewery which had a courtyard to sit outside and enjoy the good weather (32 degrees today) and socialise outside of work. Myself, Milzie, Jodie, Doreenda and Mark got the subway and then met Anna (grade 1 teacher)about an hour away in Beijing city centre.

We then got a taxi and walked through these little back streets with food vendors and it was a real shanty town kind of feel, there were little huts made of crumbling stone that could fit a camp bed in and that was someone’s house. When we finally got to the courtyard it was 4pm and there was an art exhibition on so there was no way we could get a table, the place was packed and it was standing room only. I asked what was going on and apparently this was a famous artist and musician who had done 12 pictures of leaves and a song to go with each. I had no idea who he was but had my photo taken with him anyway (you never know, that might be worth something in a few years!). We stayed for one drink as Anna had been raving to everyone about how good the real ale was here (I didn’t, I can’t stand the smell of ale, I was just there to enjoy the atmosphere and get to know some of the other teachers better).

Anna then got a phone call from one of the other teachers saying that they were lost, so we left to go and meet them at another bar called the drum and bell where the roof had been turned into a beer garden and was really lovely, there were sofas and comfy chairs on decking and lot’s of flowers everywhere. Waiting for us were 4 other teachers, Ashley who also teaches grade 1, Shanna who teaches grade 3, Harvey who teaches kindergarten and Kirsten who teaches grade 5. We had a lovely evening drinking cocktails and gossiping away when we heard music, on the courtyard outside of the bar there were about 100 Chinese people doing aerobics! We just had to go and have a go as well, it was good fun. Apart from the apartment crawl I had not seen Ashley, Anna, Shanna, Kirsten or Harvey outside of work so it was nice to get to know them a bit better.

Friday 23rd September






Today’s plan was to go straight to the markets after school and come 3.30pm we were just getting ready to leave when one of the other teachers told us that the market closed at 4pm. A few of the teachers were going straight from school to a beer festival so I decided that this was a good plan B. There were 10 of us going and we jumped into 3 taxis and were on our way, it was only then that I was informed that the beer festival costs 200 RMB entry fee which includes beer and food, which would be fine but I don’t drink beer. I was also told that it was almost a 2 hour taxi ride to get there! At this point I was thinking that I had made a big mistake as I wasn’t really bothered about going but one of the teachers, Mark, had talked me into it, at this point he was also thinking that it was a mistake, but we were in the taxi now so we just went with it.

The taxi ride actually only took 50 minutes which was a pleasant surprise and when we got there one of the teachers knew the host and as I wasn’t drinking beer, got me in for free! The venue was a posh hotel with gardens and a beer tent which had rows of long tables and a stage with a cat walk. There was a traditional German band playing with trumpets and trombone and a big screen behind them showing traditional German dancing. There was also a buffet of basically lot’s of sausages, roasted pig on a spit and mash which was quite nice and pretzels on all of the tables.

I thought it was just going to be the band for entertainment, but there was also a magician who was really good, a beer queen beauty pageant last round (they all did a specialist act like singing or dancing) and then the magician came back on again and the beauty pageant did a bikini round and then there was karaoke. In between all of this the band would do a few songs and did a sort of conga and other dancing, it was good fun.

Towards the end of the night, Doreenda (another teacher) and I decided that it would be a good idea to go backstage and meet the band, so we did and they are from Munich and were really friendly, so we had our picture taken with them and then they had to go back on stage. By 10pm we were pretty much the last ones there and 6 of us went into Beijing centre to a club called sensation and were dancing away when a few of the teachers wanted to go to a karaoke bar. There was one just across the road so we all went there and sang our hearts out (a few teachers were quite drunk by now so there were some sketchy performances) then we all shared a taxi home. That’s another first experience to add to my list!

Saturday, 24 September 2011

Thursday 22nd September

Arrived at school this morning to find that the council have turned the water off for this area so the school has bought wet wipes! I did a few reading assessments with grade 1A this morning to check what they have learnt so far, was quite proud that they knew what I had improved with the phonics I have been teaching them. After lunch we had a new student that I had to do a baseline assessment with, she was so shy but actually quite good at English and starts after the October half term. I then did a writing lesson with grade 2C and assisted with a maths lesson for 1A. The day has flown by and has been quite enjoyable. Then at 4pm it was time for my after school activity, beginners athletics (pretty much just playing games with grades 1 and 2) I have 11 children and the school had previously asked all of the teachers to make a list of all the equipment that they needed, I had put things like bibs, bean bags, hoops, cones etc on my list. I came to pick up my equipment and find out where I was going to be and the school had put my class, rugby (14 students) and American football (13 students) all on the field, which is about the size of a netball court, it’s a good job it’s been a warm sunny day as there would be no where to go if it rained! We also had 8 bibs to share between the 38 students, bit of a joke really. Out of the equipment that I had requested I had 1 ball, 20 cones and a whistle so I had to rethink my whole session plan and play basic games. It was a bit of a challenge as only 4 of the 11 children actually spoke English.

After the session finished I shared a taxi home with Analisa and Milzie. Jodie also came round and we ordered a pizza and played card games which was a nice way to end the day. Just as I was thinking that I have not seen any geckos in a while, one has just run under my bedroom door and into my rucksack, so I am off to deal with that!

Tuesday, 20 September 2011

Tuesday 20th September

Today I was up and at the corner shop ready to buy my train ticket at 8am as they went on sale today from Beijing to Shanghai, but they had already sold out! I panicked a little bit as I have booked and paid for my accommodation in Shanghai for October half term.

When I got to school I started looking for flights to Shanghai and found one for £200, that’s £100 more than I would have paid if I had gone by train, but at least there were flights left.

I had grade 1A in the morning and one of the girls told her teacher that my class was “super fun” so that cheered me up a bit. After lunch I had grade 2C and there was one boy in the class that refused to do any work and I spent 45 minutes trying to get him to do his work and all he would do was argue with me or say he didn’t want to do it. I came out of the class exhausted and with a headache!

Jodie and Milzie are still staying at our apartment and I had arranged a poker night for a few of the teachers to come round and play so we had a really good evening and I won 140 RMB (£14) so I was really pleased with that, I think I am going to make it a regular thing as everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Just checked the thermometer and it’s 11pm and 22 degrees but feels quite cold, I can definitely notice a drop in temperature over the last week.

Monday 19th September

Analisa and I met up with Jodie and Milzie at 8.30am outside our gate to share our usual taxi to the school and catch up. I told them all about my bungee jump and we watched the video on my laptop when we got to the office, the other teachers watched it as well. I’m quite proud of myself for actually doing the bungee jump and the video is quite a funny reminder.

My first lesson today was English with grade 1A doing phonics and reading, then in the afternoon I had grade 2C for a spelling test and then back with 1C to play maths games. A nice easy day to start the week! After school I had a mandarin lesson (I’m slowly getting the hang of it!) Then I went with a few of the teachers to the American restaurant for tea. Milzie and Jodie have a leak in their apartment and can’t stay there so they are staying on our sofa tonight, it feels a bit like a slumber party! Feeling quite tired and have to be up early to buy my train ticket to Shanghai for October half term (Golden week) so that’s it from me.

Sunday 18th September

I woke up bright and early so that I would have plenty of time to get to the train station. The temperature in Zhengzhou was 10 degrees and I was really worried that it would be colder in Beijing as it is further north.We went for breakfast and there were some classic quotes coming from Sonya, such as “in Australia we don’t have the great wall, but we have big fences” which had me and Sam in stitches! We went to the train station and then I said goodbye to Sam and Sonya and boarded the train 15 minutes before it was due to leave, which was a relaxing change. I was in a soft seat this time which are like airport chairs and I think is the Chinese version of 1st class which was a nice surprise, although an hour into the journey I was wishing I had the hard sleeper bed to stretch out in as 6 hours is a long time to be sat in the same position.

I finally arrived in Beijing at 5pm and tried to get a taxi to the subway (which should cost 10 RMB = £1) but the taxi drivers were all trying to con people thinking that they had just arrived in Beijing and wouldn’t know the prices and asking for 100 RMB (£10) which is a real rip off! I finally found a taxi driver that would take me to the subway for 20 RMB (£2) and I was finally on my way home!

Sunday, 18 September 2011

Saturday 17th September






Got woken up this morning by what sounded like a really loud air raid siren! Me and Sonya both jumped out of bed to the window, neither of us had a clue what was going on, but couldn’t see anything and the people below were just ignoring it so i’m guessing it didn’t really mean anything bad. Sonya (who is a chef) made us both a ham omelette for breakfast.

Sam came up to Sonya’s apartment and we made plans for the day, first stop was Renmin Park, a free park which is half gardens and half a theme park. We started off on a roller coaster which was really scary, not because it was too fast or anything, but because it felt rickety and it honestly felt like it was going to go off the rails at the corners! We then went on a ghost train which I hated (I find ghost trains too scary!) I clung on to Sonya the whole way round and jumped at everything!

We then went to the bit we had all been nervous about, the bungee jump! There were two parts that you could go on, the first was a ball that you sat in and it launched you in the air and you bounced up and down in, which Sam and I went in first. It wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be and after Sonya had had a go, we were ready for the actual bungee jump!

We had all decided we were going to do it and we went to watch if anyone else had a go first and how they reacted. We saw 4 people have a go and they seemed alright when they got off so we drew straws to see who would go first, as by this point we all just wanted to go first and get it over with before we could back out! By this stage me and Sonya had been the ones saying we were definitely going to do it and Sam had been really nervous and not sure if he could! We drew straws and Sonya was to go first, then me, then Sam.

Sonya went up and Sam and I stayed to take photos and video her, it is roughly 6 stories tall and over a lake and Sonya went straight up. The girl before Sonya was a bit hysterical though and clinging onto the gate at the top and screaming and the man just pushed her off! That put me and Sam off a bit and we were beginning to get a lot more nervous about it, I had butterfly's and felt a bit sick! We were waiting for Sonya to go and could see her waving her arms and we were shouting “come on Sonya” and the crowd of Chinese people who were stood around watching were shouting “come on” as well, but Sonya shouted down “I can’t do it!” and came back down the stairs. This made Sam and I worry more as Sonya had been the most enthusiastic about doing the bungee jump! We gave her a hug and then it was our turn, we paid 50 RMB (£5) and climbed the never ending stairs to the top! We got to the top and I was glad Sam was there as I was beginning to have second thoughts, but I went over to the bit where the man put this harness on me and sellotaped my trousers to my trainers (don’t know why that was) and I walked to the edge of the platform. I asked what I was supposed to hang onto and the man just said put your hands out, so I was stood on the edge thinking oh my god I can’t do this and I said to the man, “you’re going to have to push me” (as I’m holding onto the railings! He did and I fell forward with my arms out, free falling and it was amazing! (I didn’t actually realise until I saw the video afterwards that I did a somersault at this point) as the rope pulled I flew back up and it was such an adrenaline rush! I swung and bounced around a few times and I was then lowered towards the water and there was a man in a boat with a long bamboo pole held up for me to grab and be guided into the boat. The man was trying to tell me to stand up when I got on the boat, but my legs were like jelly and shaking! I got off the boat to where Sonya was and then it was Sam’s turn. I filmed him and my legs were still shaking by the time he got off the boat as well.

By this point Sam and I were on a roll and a real adrenaline high so we went on another roller coaster and then on the Zhengzhou version of the London Eye which gave an amazing view of Zhengzhou.

We then went to the market for lunch and had some yummy noodles and also had a look around, then it was back to the apartment to grab coats as it was pouring down with rain, and then back out for Peking duck which I had been looking forward to all week! The perfect end to an unforgettable day and definitely one of my favourite days in China so far.

See all the photos here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/66580104@N06/sets/72157627714786270/

Friday 16th September






Just another day at Beijing International Bilingual Academy, I had grade 1 for 2 hours in the morning and again for an hour in the afternoon concentrating on reading and speaking. Straight after school at 3.40pm, I got a taxi straight to the subway station as I had a real race against time to get to Beijing West train station for my train at 6pm. I got on the subway and figured I had 22 stations to do in 2 hours with 3 changes. As it got to 5pm I still had 11 stations to do so I decided to give it until 5.15pm and then try and get a taxi. At 5.15pm I had 6 stations to go so I got off the subway and got in a taxi which was fine until we turned the corner and I realised it was gridlock traffic! The taxi driver spoke a bit of English and told me it was a 30min walk and I only had 20mins so I had no choice but to stay in the taxi. We turned a corner onto a highway and it was free of traffic and I could see the train station ahead when the taxi stopped (in the middle of 12 lanes of traffic) and told me to get out and run, shouting good luck after me! By this point it was 5.50pm, the train station was in sight, I was thinking “I can do this!” I ran all the way there but then didn’t know where to go once inside so I asked a station/ porter man who shouted something in Chinese and grabbed my arm and started running, so I’m running after him with my wheelie hand luggage towards a train platform just as a train is pulling away, this man runs onto the platform shouting and waving his arms and luckily the train actually stops! I got on and had to walk down a really long carriage to lots of muttering Chinese people and into my little compartment all sweaty and out of breath! In this compartment there are 3 beds on either side (mine was the middle bed, really hard to get up onto) and your luggage goes up there with you, it was really hot and there was not much room and it was a bit smelly!

The train was supposed to arrive at Zhengzhou at 11pm so I set my alarm for 10.45pm and tried to get some sleep. At 11.15pm the conductor came round waking everyone up that was getting off at Zhengzhou so that was a bit of a relief as I was worried I had missed my stop. We arrived at Zhengzhou at 11.45pm and Sam and Sonya were at the station waiting for me and we went for a McDonald's and then to a pool hall near their building for a few games of pool. I’d had enough by 2am (and really wanted a shower after that train ride) so it was off to their apartment building where they each have their own apartment (sort of like a studio flat, it’s ok but I prefer mine!) quick shower and then bed!

Tuesday, 13 September 2011

Tuesday 13th September

I didn’t want to go into school today, I could have done with another week off after the hectic weekend! The first lesson was with grade 1A and we were writing about tigers, I was asking the children to write about what the tiger looked like, what it ate, where it lived and anything else they knew about tigers and I was trying to prompt for one of the boys asking what a tiger looked like when one of the little girls piped up with “Miss Pippa, can you please be quiet, I am trying to concentrate” which made me laugh.

After lunch we were taken to open a bank account which took so long but that is now finally sorted, which is a relief! Not much else to report, it’s another early night tonight!

Monday, 12 September 2011

Monday 12th September


Happy Mid Autumn Festival!

Today is the mid Autumn Festival here in China (hooray, a National Holiday!) it is sort of like a harvest but also known as the moon festival, a day where people eat moon cakes while looking at the moon (I did ask why, no one seems to know, or they don’t know how to say it in English) Sam bought me a moon cake but I havn’t tried it yet (it looks a bit like a pork pie so I don’t really know what to expect).

Today Sonya, Sam and I took the subway into the centre of Beijing for a wander round, we had lunch at a traditional family run Chinese (I want to say restaurant, but it was a small room with a few tables and chairs in, and a tank in the corner full of frogs, fish and other creatures) the food was ok but not particularly nice and i’m not sure what the meat actually was (I don’t think I want to know either) we wandered around for a while and then I got the subway back home (first time all on my own, quite proud of myself) and Sam and Sonya went to the train station to catch their train back to Zhengzhou. It’s been a long weekend so I am off to bed to catch up on some much needed sleep!

Sunday 11th September

Woke up this morning feeling a bit worse for wear, Sam phoned me to get directions to my apartment and Sonya, Analisa and I all got showered and dressed ready to go out for lunch when Sam arrived. We went to the American bar at pinnacle plaza, they do such yummy smoothies! After lunch we tried to find the lake that I had been told about but no one seemed to know where it was so we came back to the apartment and played cards, listened to music and just mooched about and catching up on the last 2 weeks. Analisa is from Norway, Sonya is from Australia and Sam is from London and we were sharing stories and experiences and I think it’s fascinating how different countries can give such different experiences but then there can be a lot of similarities also.

In the evening we got a tuk tuk to a Mexican at Pinnacle Plaza. It took longer because we were going so much slower but we got to see a lot more of the scenery because he took us through the park. Now if I had been anywhere else, alarm bells would have been ringing because the park has no lights and we were on our own and going down dark alleyways, but because everyone keeps telling us how safe China is and that there’s no violent crime, we weren’t bothered. You are literally taking your life in your hands going in these though as if they take a corner too sharply or fast you feel like you are going to tip up. Also any other road users just speed past and came so close to hitting us my heart was in my mouth for most of the journey!

We got to the Mexican corner, a small Mexican family run restaurant and had fajitas which were delicious. As we were leaving there was a live band on a stage in the car park playing covers of Pink Floyd as part of the supermarkets 12th anniversary and there were tables, free BBQ, drinks, decorations and a dance floor with lot’s of people there so we stopped to listen to the band who were very good and played a lot of rock classics.

At about 10.30pm a few men put some fireworks in the road behind us (literally 2 metres away from where we were sat) one of the men had a box of fireworks and a lit cigarette in the same hand (honestly, health and safety is shockingly bad over here!) I turned to Sam and said “is that safe there?” and Sam replied “no, they won’t light them so close to us” well he was wrong! They lit the fireworks and if I had reached out my arm I could have touched them, the firework was spitting at me and was so hot and bits were flying in my hair, we were trapped by the table though and had to crawl under it to get away! We couldn’t believe it and as soon as we were out of the way just fell about laughing.

Sam and Me
Sonya and Me

Saturday 10th September

Today I had my friends Sam and Sonya come me to stay with me from Zhengzhou (5 hour train ride away) they arrived at around lunchtime and we went to Little Italy, a really nice Italian restaurant not far from me at Pinnacle Plaza. It was so good to see them, I had become very good friends with Sam and had missed him, although we have been texting and phoning a lot comparing notes about our placements, we were all excited about seeing each other again. We returned to my apartment for showers and to get ready as TTC had planned a night out in Beijing for everyone that was placed there to meet each other and catch up. We got the subway but then got completely lost and it took us an hour to actually find the street that the bar we were meeting people at was. We finally found everyone at 10pm and had a good night doing a bit of a pub crawl and finding out about each others placements and dancing the night away. The shoes Matt had posted for me were with the TTC staff (Matt had posted them to the office) so I was carrying a box of shoes round with me all night which was a bit weird! We were in Bar Blue when a few of the guys (Sam, Adam and Reece)decided that they wanted to go to a gay bar called Destination, my friend Sonya had already met a man and they came too. As we walked into Destination it became very obvious that Sonya and I were the only girls there and it felt a bit awkward but within minutes of being there I had been befriended by a group of Chinese gay men who wanted to practice their English and were all very friendly, although there was one awkward moment when an American very drunk man mistook me for a transsexual. The club closed at 4am and David, the man Sam had been with all night invited us all back to his hotel room for drinks so at 4am we were cruising through the streets of Beijing in a really posh car that had TV screens on the headrests on our way to David’s 5 star hotel! We stopped at McDonald's on the way but weren’t allowed to eat it in the car which was funny. When we got there the suite was amazing, everything was marble and so posh. We stayed until 6am and then Sonya and I got a taxi back to my apartment as the sun was rising and it was so pretty, the perfect end to an extremely fun day!

Friday 9th September




Flowers I received on teachers day and another gecko from my apartment!

Saturday, 10 September 2011

Friday 9th September

Today is National teacher day and we were met at the gate by security holding a red flower for each of us. I then spent the morning photocopying and putting books into alphabetical order in the library, and then finishing the reading assessments for grade 1A, so boring! The lesson I had before lunch was getting grade 1A used to writing. I was going round the class and one of the little boy’s was writing about his new cat and as he was telling me about him told me that he has named his new cat “Pippa” not sure whether that is a compliment or not? Although this is the same little boy that drew me a picture a few days ago so I am going to pretend that it is! I carried on round the class and another little boy was writing about a monster, I asked him what his writing said and he told me “I like big scary monsters that eat Miss Pippa” oh right, err thanks for that.

Lunch was horrendous again so I have come to an agreement with one of the other girls, if I buy the bread and peanut butter, she will make me sandwiches everyday! I just can’t stomach the pig trotter “soup” basically, just water with pigs trotters in. Yuck!

An apartment crawl had been organised for the evening (sort of like a bar crawl, but with apartments) a good way to get to know the other teachers outside of school and also to see where the other teachers lived and who lives near who. I had put my apartment down as one of the stops (stop number 6 to be exact) and there were 7 stops in total with over 30 teachers taking part. It was a fun night and nice to see how homely some of the other teachers had made their apartments. When it got to my stop it was midnight and all was going well until 12.45am when a security guard turned up at my door saying something in Chinese which I’m guessing meant keep the noise down. At that point we all left and were on our way to the next stop when a police van pulled up outside my apartment, I just pretended I didn’t live there and carried on walking! Apparently it happens a lot, the Chinese won’t ask you to keep the noise down, they just call the police! We got to our next stop and were there for roughly 45minutes when the police turned up again and we all had to leave. It was a fun night though and nice to get to know the other teachers outside of work.

Thursday, 8 September 2011

Wednesday 7th September

Another day of assessments at school today for grades 1A and 2C. There is an American teacher at the school and I kept bumping into her and every time she kept saying “I just love hearing you talk” After school I went out for a meal with a few of the teachers which was nice and then I went to the corner shop to try and buy my train ticket for next weekend. The man who speaks English wasn’t there so I had to try and explain what I wanted by using my phrase book and then I phoned one of the Chinese teachers to act as a translator to book my train from Beijing to Zhengzhou next weekend. I’m wasn’t sure if I actually was going to get the right ticket as there is a laptop set up in this shop and the man looks at a timetable, I paid and then the man said my ticket would be there in 1 hour and that he would phone me. If I hadn’t been told what to expect by another teacher it would seem all a bit dodgy to me. I didn’t get a phone call so I m going back tomorrow after school.

As I was writing this I saw a gecko run out of Analisa’s room and under the fridge in the kitchen, going to sleep with my door closed tonight!

Wednesday, 7 September 2011

Tuesday 6th September

Had a pretty good day today doing assessments with grade 1A and 2C in the morning, then in the afternoon I had my first class activity in Science making a collage of a plant which was fun and the kids seemed to enjoy it. The final lesson of the day was introducing the class project of an endangered animal where the class were given pictures of endangered animals in different countries e.g. India = tiger, China = panda and south Korea = deer. The comment of the day had to be when one of the kids held up the picture of a deer and said “this deer is weird, it doesn’t have a red nose” I couldn’t stop myself from laughing!

I got back to the apartment to wait for a man to come and connect a router so that we could have wifi while Analisa then went to the market to get a new set of keys cut. Not long after the internet man arrived, I realised that we needed a Chinese extension lead as we only had one socket, but as Analisa had left with the keys, I couldn’t leave the apartment! So I sent the surprised looking internet man out on his bike to buy an extension lead with a drawn map to the nearest shop!

Jodie and Milzie came round and we ordered an Indian (quite hard when the only address you have is in Chinese characters) the take away phoned us back an hour later saying that they couldn’t find our apartment, I had to run down to the security gate and ask the guards to direct them to us, we finally got our takeaway although I still have no idea how to say our address!

Monday, 5 September 2011

Monday 5th September



Still don’t have my address (well I do, it’s written in Chinese though so I don’t have a clue what it says, although taxi drivers seem to get me back to my apartment ok with it so it must be right) and after further inspection I don’t actually have a letter box or mail box at the apartment. After speaking to the school they have said that it is ok to post letters to the school for me, although make sure that it is recorded and you can track it as apparently anything with English writing on get’s stolen. So the address is: Miss Pippa Wilkinson, Grade 1 Office, Beijing International Bilingual Academy, Monet Garden, No. 5 Yumin Road, Houshayu, Shunyi, Beijing, 101300.

I have been looking out for postcards since I got here but no where sells them which is disappointing. Mail takes roughly 10 days to get here.

So today was the first proper day of my new timetable and I did baseline assessments with grade 1A in the morning and then a spelling test (this is a standard test that every grade 1 class had to take, there are 15 words and after the first 5 we decided that it was just too hard and stopped. Lunch was a mountain of rice (every single meal has boiled rice, I am so bored of bland food) only 1 small chicken wing and 3 small spring rolls. Not really getting my fill of vegetables, in fact other than in western restaurants I have not seen anywhere that has salad and in this heat that’s all I want! With air conditioning on it has been 29 degrees, outside it’s obviously a lot hotter and really humid.

In the afternoon I was back with grade 2C doing more assessments (there are so many start of year assessments to get through it’s unbelievable) Then I was back with grade 1A to finish the maths test that we started on Friday and then trying to get the children to write “I like .....” sentences to work on their writing skills.

At the end of school I took Analisa to the Pinnacle Plaza so we could buy a wireless internet router and then try and find somewhere to get another set of keys made for the apartment which was unsuccessful.

Images: View from my balcony and my timetable.

Sunday 4th September

Got woken up this morning at 4am by my room mate getting ready to leave, she had to get to the airport (it’s only a 10minute taxi ride away) the apartment feels really empty with just my things in it now. Sophie had also left all of the windows open and I have been bitten to death by mosquitoes!

The internet man turned up this morning, I wasn’t expecting him so it was a good job I was in, unfortunately it isn’t wireless so I have had the connection put in my room seen as I paid for it. When my new room mate arrives we will have to try and see if we can get wireless, although the Chinese man this morning didn’t have a clue what I was on about.

At 2pm my new room mate, Analisa arrived, she is from Norway and had swapped placements with Sophie. I took her to the Pinnacle Plaza for lunch and to the supermarket there to get anything else that she needed and then we came back to the apartment.

We went to Mama dumplings just around the corner for tea, Analisa is nice but really quiet and doesn’t really talk much. Hopefully she will settle in and open up a bit more soon!

Sunday, 4 September 2011

Saturday 3rd September

Found out today that my room mate isn't leaving until tomorrow so I made the most of it and took her to the supermarket with me (so I would have someone to help me carry my shopping home) I’m finding it really hard to do food shopping as I don’t have a clue what most things are. Everything is either really salty or really sweet and what you think might be savoury or looks like it is sweet, usually turns out to be the opposite. I bought what looked like a custard or almond pastry from a bakery and it turned out to be a cheese pastry with a sugar glaze!

I then went to try and buy a train ticket from the corner shop, turns out you can only buy the ticket 10 days before you travel, no later, no earlier. Makes it a lot harder if you don’t decide to go anywhere until a few days before, everything has to be planned ahead.

At 12pm I met up with Jodie and Milzie (who are staying in the other apartment in a complex 200 yards down the road from mine and Sophie’s. Their apartment has just been built and is a lot posher than ours (so jealous) and they have a lift where as we have to climb up four flights of stairs! They had a friend staying with them from Beijing who all she did was moan, we went for lunch at an American restaurant not far from us at the Pinnacle Plaza. The Pinnacle Plaza is a bit like Cheshire Oaks, but with restaurants (American, Italian, Mexican, subway, Starbucks, dominoes, Indian, dry cleaners and supermarkets). After lunch we went to the Euro Plaza which is a 6 floor shopping centre to meet 3 of Jodie and Milzie’s other friends who are also based in Beijing. This just shows how many interns were based at the hotel for the orientation fortnight as I had never spoken to these people before. I then went back to my apartment with the plan to go round to Jodie and Milzie’s apartment later for drinks and then go to KTV (local karaoke bar).

At one point I went to open my door to my balcony today and it was already unlocked, it must have been unlocked since I arrived on Monday! Upon further investigation I realised the door doesn't lock at all, that’s good to know! I will have to report that to the school on Monday.

Friday 2nd September

I have been leaving the apartment at roughly the same time each day at 7.20am and each morning there has been the taxi driver I used on the first day waiting for me at the end of the road. I thought it was a bit creepy at first but it’s actually quite sweet and it only costs me 15RMB (about £1.50) to get to the school.

Today I had reading assessments to do with grade 1 to see what level their reading was at, it was interesting to see just how varied the standard of English was within the class. All of the children in the class are Chinese. There are two children who do not speak English at all, a few that can speak a little English and then a few whose English is very good for their age. The children call me Miss Pippa which makes me laugh, or shout “teacher, teacher” they are really cute at that age.

After lunch I finished the reading assessments that I started yesterday with grade 2 and then I did a lesson on opposites. The lesson started out really well with me explaining that black was the opposite of white and asking if anyone knew the opposite to boy, which the class answered girl, I then asked what was the opposite to up, cold, young, brother and north and got the right answers from the class so I was feeling quite positive. The lesson went downhill pretty fast after that, I then asked what was the opposite of North, to which a little girl put her hand up and replied “not north” erm... not quite what I was after! I had an assessment sheet that I needed to go through to see how much the children knew and after they got five in a row wrong I would stop the test. I asked for opposites to early (not early was the response) wet (not wet) good (not good) dead (not dead) and it really was like pulling teeth at one point, that was a very long 45 minute lesson.

As I am writing this I can hear yelps coming from the bathroom of our apartment, our shower is very temperamental and the slightest turn of the temperature can be the difference between a scolding shower or a freezing shower. My room mate has decided she hates the placement and is leaving tomorrow and her replacement will also be here tomorrow so it is a bit of a weird day knowing that I will be sharing with someone I have never met before in 15 hours.

Day 4 of school placement

Thursday 1st September

Still have no internet at school or my apartment, although one of the admin Chinese girls really likes my hair and let’s me use her computer to check emails when she goes to the toilet. Received an email today saying that the TTC contact will be here at 12pm and the teachers have re done my timetable so that I am teaching for 15 hours a week, but on site for 30 hours a week which is much better than being a teaching assistant. I am much happier with my placement now although I think I would still prefer to be in a Chinese school, immersed in the Chinese culture.

I did an observation today in an English class and then took children out of lessons to do one on one reading testing. The children are really sweet and call me Miss Pippa. The classes have a maximum of 15 children in grade 1, which is what I am working with (reception age) and the classrooms are all really modern with projectors, white boards and lot’s of resources for you to use. Grade 1 are all on the ground floor and there are 4 classes, grade 2 on the 2nd floor, grade 3 on the 3rd floor and so on up to grade 5, then on the 6th floor is where the Chinese teachers live, there are 25 teachers, 5 in each classroom (which are not that big to start with) all sharing one bathroom! I am so glad I live in an apartment. Each floor has a teachers office and there is a Chinese teacher and an English teacher for each class, so in my office for grade 1 there are 4 Chinese teachers and 4 English teachers and then the 4 TTC interns (including me) who were supposed to be teaching assistants but they have changed our job title to ESL Specialist teachers and we are actually teaching now. We each have a desk (although at the moment the chairshavn’t arrived yet) and on each door is a western toilet (you may think that is an odd thing to add but if you had seen the squat toilets you would know how important that is for me).

Had the meeting with the TTC contact and sorted out the main issues with the placement, although I’m working 10am- 4pm and I would rather do 8am-2pm. At 4pm one of the teachers took us to get internet sorted for the apartment, I should be connected in 7 day so I will be able to skype again as there aren’t any internet cafes around the apartment. At 6.45pm we met up with the other teachers as we had been invited to go and play football with them (football reallyisn’t my thing but I went anyway just to be sociable) Tried to buy a train ticket today so I can go exploring tomorrow but they had all sold out and I was told that you have to buy your tickets 7 days in advance as they sell out really quickly!

Friday, 2 September 2011

Day 3 of School Placement






Day 3 of school placement: Wednesday 31st August

Woke up yesterday morning feeling really queasy, arrived at the school and was told the TTC contact would arrive at 10am. Spent the morning doing photocopying for the other teachers and 10am came and went and the TTC contact still hadn’t arrived. One of the other girls phoned to see what was happening and all we were told that he was coming later. Spent the rest of the day waiting around and gradually feeling worse and by the end of school at 4pm I had a pounding head ache and felt really sick and dizzy. I managed to get a taxi home and went straight to bed. My room mate woke me up at 6pm and we went out for something to eat, I had one bite and felt really sick so didn’t eat any more. We then started walking back to the apartment and I collapsed, managed to get back to the apartment (really wish we weren’t on the fourth floor) and I went to bed. The other two girls apparently came round to use our washing machine and I had a conversation with them but I don’t remember this at all, apparently I have food poisoning.

School Placement Day 2 (30/08/11)


Last night I got a taxi with Sophie to an internet cafe 20minutes away from our accommodation (the Lakers bar near the University) so that we could use Skype, reply to emails and contact people to let them know that we had arrived. This was fine until it came to us getting a taxi back to the school and our accommodation. The school had given us a map so that we could show it to a taxi driver to get back but although the taxi driver said he could take us there, I realised after 20 minutes that he didn’t have a clue where he was going. In total the taxi driver stopped to ask for directions 10 times! We obviously didn’t have a clue how to get back and didn’t speak Chinese and the taxi driver didn’t speak English. The girl that I was with, Sophie, started freaking out straight away and I thought she was going to have a panic attack. She started phoning the staff from TTC and getting all worked up about the taxi driver being lost and shouting about how awful it was, I had to wrestle the phone off her and explain our situation. TTC got a Chinese speaking woman to give the taxi driver directions to our accommodation, but the taxi driver got lost again! What should have been a 20minute journey that cost 30 RMB (£3) turned out to be an hour and 45minute journey and the taxi driver tried to charge us 154 RMB! We couldn’t even get out of the taxi as it was a quiet road with no one around and no other cars. We finally got to a part that we recognised and we directed the taxi driver to our accommodation but then we had to try and explain that we weren’t paying 150 RMB because the taxi driver had got lost. We paid 50 RMB and I got out the taxi, but Sophie stayed in trying to explain why we weren’t paying the full amount and the driver tried to lock her in the taxi so she would pay him, I ended up dragging her out of the taxi and we ran to our apartment and the driver got out his taxi and started to follow us! We got into our apartment and locked the door and I phoned the staff to say we were back in our accommodation and were safe when Sophie started screaming! I ran into her room to see what had happened and there was a little tiny lizard in her room and she was screaming about that! I definitely think she needs to chill out a bit as it is just one big learning curve and a bit of an adventure.

Today I had to get up early (6am, very early for me) to get ready and leave the apartment at 7am to walk the 45 minutes to school ready to start at 8am. We went to see the principle about what she wanted us to do today as we were waiting for the TTC staff to find us another placement. The principle didn’t want us to be in the classrooms as the children get attached really quickly to staff (which is fair enough) so she said we could have the day off while we wait for TTC to contact us with our new placements. Our TTC contact messaged us at the end of the day saying that hopefully he would be coming to the school tomorrow to sort everything out.

I had two of the teachers phone numbers and asked them where was good to go for tea and they invited us out for a meal with them to a local Chinese restaurant which was a really nice meal. Hopefully placements will be sorted out tomorrow!

Next Step:

the adventure continues in February...