Tuesday 29th November

I thought that I would do today’s blog post a little differently so that you could see what I do in a typical day, although it was a bit of an effort to remember to write everything down so I won’t be doing it again!

7am alarm went off, still have a sore throat and feel yuck today, thank you whoever invented the snooze button!

7.15am alarm went off again and I had to force myself to get up and go for a shower

7.26am got out the shower and got dressed

7.30am took some eccinacea and vitamin C, fingers crossed that it helps

7.32am dried my hair in the bathroom where the socket is next to the sink!

7.55am made myself a lemsip to help get me through the day

7.59am packed stuff for work

8am checked emails

8.10am left for school, its a dull grey day and it looks like it is going to rain. It’s cold and still smoggy.

8.20am finally found a taxi, took longer than usual today.

8.22am arrived at school

8.23am went to the middle school building to pick my secret Santa person out of a hat, luckily I have someone who I know which makes it a bit easier

8.30am greeted teachers in the grade 1 office

8.35am started my lesson plan for grade 1A

8.55am did a load of photocopying on the third floor.

9.07am picked up children's homework folders from the 1A classroom

9.10am marked the homework

9.20am finished marking but the folders are a bit grimy so used my hand sanitiser

9.21am started marking 2C classwork from yesterday

9.30am went in search of missing classwork from grade 2C’s classroom

9.38am finished marking the rest of grade 2C’s work

10am checked emails

10.05am went in search of the rest of 1A’s homework folders

10.09am marked the rest of 1A’s homework

10.11am chatted with the grade 1 teachers

10.15am checked facebook

10.20am went to the office to get a new lunch card and submit my claim form for after school activity

10.30am went to teach the grade 1A English class

11.55am took 1A for a toilet trip before lunch

12pm lunch duty in the grade 1 and 2 lunchroom (I hate this duty!)

12.20pm finished lunch duty and went for my own lunch

12.30pm returned to grade 1 office and updated grade 2C star reward chart spreadsheet

12.40pm planned grade 2C lesson plan

12.50pm sat chatting to teachers in grade 1 office, noticed the new toilet sign!

1.15pm checked emails

1.20pm replied to a text off TTC

1.21pm finished grade 2C all about me checklist

1.30pm taught grade 2C English lesson

2.15pm lesson ended, came back to grade 1 office, chatted with other teachers and wrote homework in 1A homework folders

2.35pm went to observe grade 3C class to see the differences

3.20pm came back to grade 1 office and marked 2C’s books

3.50pm put homework folders on top of lockers

3.55pm packed up my stuff

4.05pm left school

4.10pm got taxi to Euro Plaza and the bank

4.36pm left the bank and walked to Pinnacle Plaza

4.45pm went to the supermarket

4.55pm withdrew money from the cash machine

5pm text Doreenda about dinner plans, went to the hungry horse for a mango madness smoothie while I waited for Doreenda.

5.05pm Dinner plans fell through, ordered food at the hungry horse

5.40pm got a taxi home

5.50pm arrived home

5.55pm got changed and finished reading my book.

Monday 28th November

It is 3 weeks today until I fly back home and today I feel like I can not wait! The air in Beijing today is thick with smog, I have started with a sore throat and wheezing a bit today, I can’t wait to get home where there is fresh clean air! It seems such a silly thing that you take fresh air for granted but on day’s like this I really worry about what effect it is having on my health.

My day started off ok with teaching English to grade 1A, there were 4 children off sick today as there’s a bug going round so the class seemed quite small. After the double English lesson it was lunch time and my chance to finish prepping for the afternoon lessons. After lunch I had grade 2C to work on their “all about me” booklets which we started last week. I then had a maths lesson with grade 1A where they had a maths test and then an ESL lesson with 3 of the lower level students to try and improve their level of English.

The day went quite quickly and after school finished I went for dinner with 4 of the other teachers to a Chinese restaurant called Yao’s. I’m not particularly fond of Yao’s, but it beat eating dinner alone and it was good company. I heard a bit of a horror story about the market food stalls as well, there was a report released not long ago that when restaurants have finished with the oil they cook the food with, they pour it down the drains into the sewers, then the stall holders from the Houshayu market were reported to be getting their oil for frying the food on the market stalls from the sewers! I felt sick when I heard that and thanked my lucky stars that I have never eaten food from the Houshayu market stalls! You hear stories like this all the time in China but nothing ever gets done, if that report had been released back home the markets would have been shut down straight away and the public would have been outraged, but over here the attitude is very much “oh well” and carry on as normal. As I have said before, hygiene leaves a lot to be desired here in China.

Sunday 27th November

I had a lie in this morning and then got ready to go to Bubbalicious with the girls at 10.45am. I shared a taxi with Raena, Doreenda and Amanda to the Hilton hotel near the airport and we met Shanna and Kristin there for the 11.30am brunch.

Bubbalicious is a brunch that you pay a set price for the buffet and a choice of either unlimited juice and coffee, unlimited juice, coffee, beers and wine or unlimited juice, beer, coffee, wine, cocktails and champagne. We went for the latter! The buffet is 11.30am- 3.30pm and you can eat as much and drink as much as you want. There are different sections, one section is where you pick crab or shrimp from a tank and they fish it out and boil it for you in front of you (although it takes a while so you can also let them just bring it over to you when it’s ready) a pizza section where you can make your own pizzas and they make it, a sort of English breakfast section with sausages, bacon, pancakes, eggs etc. There is also an Indian section with curries, samosas, poppadoms, then a vegetable teppanyaki area where they cook all kinds of vegetables for you. There’s a sushi section, a roast turkey section, a Chinese section with Chinese food, duck pancakes and BBQ meats. A cheese and cold meat section, a bakery section with all kinds of breads and pastrys, a seafood section with oysters, salmon, steamed fish and other seafood bits. Then there’s the dessert section with a candyfloss machine, popcorn machine, all sorts of cakes, mousse, jelly desserts, it really was incredible. There was also a fruit section and fruit juice bar where you could pour your own juice from a range of 5 different juices, or you could pick a range of fruits and put them in the juicer yourself and make your own!

When we arrived they asked us if we would like lobster as it was made to order, of course we all said yes! Then we could go round the buffet as many times as we wanted and our champagne glasses were kept full all morning/afternoon. It was like Christmas, and with it being at the Hilton hotel the food was to a really good standard, especially the lobster! Everything really was delicious and the champagne that I had mixed with orange and pineapple juice was also really good. It was such a fun atmosphere and really good company that the time flew by and by the time the brunch had ended at 3.30pm we were all completely full and a little bit drunk. The girls decided that it was a good idea to go into the city to do some shopping, apart from Raena who hadn’t been drinking as she had a hockey game later that afternoon and had left a little bit early. I decided that there was no way that I could think clearly enough to barter properly and decided to go home for a nap.

Saturday 26th November

I woke up really early this morning at 6am and couldn’t get back to sleep. By 8am I decided to get up and go to the supermarket to get phone credit and some other essentials, if you run out of phone credit it is as if you have been cut off, you don’t receive any messages or phonecalls until you have credit again which can be frustrating.I got ready to go out for the Thanksgiving staff meal and met two of the teachers to get a taxi together at 1.30pm to be at the Green cap in plenty of time for the meal at 2pm. There were 8 of us ready at 2pm (there were supposed to be 27 in total) by 2.30pm 8 more had arrived but we were still missing 11 people. By 3pm 5 more teachers arrived and we decided to eat without the others as they were now an hour late and we were so hungry. The starter was pumpkin soup which was a very welcome change from the watery “soup” the Chinese have, this was a thick creamy soup with proper bread, it was delicious. The next course was a turkey lunch, there was roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potato, carrots, green beans, corn on the cob, stuffing and turkey and it was yummy. I had been looking forward to roast potatoes all week as nowhere does them! To finish off the meal we had a pecan pie with ice cream which was also nice, by this point 4 other people had arrived for the meal. We stayed until about 6pm chatting and there was also an engagement announcement so there were lot’s of toasts and generally a really nice day.

Friday 25th November

This week has flown by but today has really dragged on. All of the teachers seemed to have no energy today and everyone can’t wait for the day to be over as we have our staff Thanksgiving meal at the Green Cap tomorrow. All everyone can talk about is how much they are looking forward to a proper roast turkey dinner with real roast potatoes! It will make a welcome change from rice everyday.

Today is also the deadline to submit a form to take part in secret Santa which I am so excited about, I love things like that. The school is so big though, it will be hard to know who everyone is. The way the school are doing it is from the 1^st December until 12^th December you put a small gift (like a chocolate) on the persons desk each day, then on the 12^th December (the day of the staff Christmas dinner) you put a big present under the tree. We are drawing the names on Monday, I am hoping I get someone I know!

After we finished school a few of us were going to another teachers apartment to play the board game risk. I love this game and we had been talking about doing it for a while and we finally got round to it today. When we got to the apartment it turned out that there was 11 of us! We split into 5 teams and it all got a bit competitive, but was so much fun. We also got an Indian takeaway and it was a really good, relaxing evening. After playing for 4 hours though with still no clear winner, we decided to call it a night and we all went home at about 1am, global domination will have to wait for another day!

Thursday 24th November

Happy thanksgiving! Today I celebrated my first ever Thanksgiving with a few of the teachers from school. Unfortunately most places that were offering a traditional thanksgiving meal in Houshayu had been booked up for weeks, so we went to a place called the Iron Horse, not far from school for dinner. The only criteria that a few of the teachers had was “as long as they have pie” so we had a not so traditional meal of cheeseburgers and then apple pie to celebrate thanksgiving and we all made a toast of what we are thankful for.

We had a really nice evening but when it came to leave the drop in temperature was unbelievable, I was glad I was wearing my new Ugg boots because it was freezing! Later found out that it had been -6 degrees Celsius so no wonder I was so cold. Apparently it get’s to -20 degrees in January so I am kind of glad that I won’t be here then!

Saturday 19th November

Today I had agreed to be a judge for a speaking English competition. I had to get the subway at 10am to Wukesong, the other side of the city which took me an hour and 45 minutes to get to. I met the other 9 judges and David from TTC and we then drove to the school that it was held at. We were given criteria of how to judge the contestants (voice, body language, grammar, eye contact) and were split into pairs. I was judging the seniors (16 years old) and I was with another guy from TTC called James and with us we had a Chinese University student graduating in English with us.

It was a bit of a shambles as we hadn’t really been told what to do or what the contestants would be doing and it appeared that the contestants hadn’t been told what to do either. We were told under no circumstances were we to laugh when the contestant was in the room, but for some of them it was really hard not to! The contestants had 3 minutes to give an introduction and to then do a talent show and we had all sorts, from singing Westlife to readings, rapping and even break dancing. It was good fun and the Chinese students English was really good so we had fun with him too, his name was Mike and he laughed at every contestant, he got the giggles so much that he was constantly having to leave the room! This made me and James want to laugh but I felt bad for the contestants as they could see and hear him laughing at them, it must of put some of them off! We had to mark the contestants out of 5 and it was quite hard sometimes as some of them had a really bad introduction but their talent was really good, or vice versa. There was one girl who had a really good introduction and then said she was going to sing for us and had we heard of “Dohrayme”? James and I looked at each other, “Dohrayme”? No we hadn’t heard of that! The girl put her headphones in so she could hear the music from her Ipod and sang us Doh Ray Me from the sound of music! She was awful though as she didn’t know the words and kept only singing the bit she knew so she didn’t get a good score! There was also a guy who came in and kept talking about his passion for “bricking” which we had no idea what he was talking about, then he said he was going to “brick” for us, he was talking about break dancing! He was actually really good though and was spinning on his head and everything.

The second round was the contestants were given a picture before they came into the judging room that they had been given 1 minute to prepare for then they had to speak for 2 minutes about that picture. Each round we were to mark them out of 5.

We were there until 6pm and then we were driven back to Wukesong subway station where I got the subway to Sanlitun to meet up with Doreenda and Kristen, then we got a taxi to a bar where 3 of the teachers are part of a band and everyone had gone to see them play. The food was ok but it was quite expensive and I had had enough by 11pm and came home.

Friday 18th November

It has been a really stressful week this week and with it has brought a change that I wasn’t expecting. I received an email from Derby University offering me an interview for the PGCE, which this is the third attempt I have made on getting onto the course so of course I was thrilled to get to this stage again. Unfortunately the date I was offered was the 15^th December, which there is no way I am going to be able to make! I knew that the University had interviews at the end of January as well so I emailed them asking if I could have that date instead. It turns out that the interviews this year have been brought forward by 3 weeks and are on the 4^th January instead, when I will still be in China.

The first thing that I had to do was to find out off TTC if I could end my contract early, meaning that I would miss the last 10 school days. My option was either hand in my notice, which would mean that I wouldn’t get my completion bonus, that I wouldn’t get paid for the last month and that I wouldn’t be able to use TTC as a reference or receive my certificate for the TEFL weekend course that I did during those first two weeks in Beijing. My second option was to get the school to sign an early release from contract form, which would mean that I would still get my bonus, reference, certificate and pay. The latter seemed a much better option so I approached the vice principal, explained my circumstances and then had to make an appointment to see the principal to get her to sign the form the next morning. Thursday morning I went to see the principal and explained my situation and luckily the principal signed the form there and then! I was so relieved as I had been so worried since I got the interview offer on Tuesday and barely sleeping, it was a real weight off my mind. All I needed to do now was to accept the interview offer of 4^th January and change my flights. I am now flying home on Monday 19^th December so I will be home for Christmas and my birthday which will be nice, although it is a shame that I won’t be able to travel to Inner Mongolia and Hong Kong in the Christmas break like I had planned.

Saturday 12th November

Today is Matt’s last day in China, I am trying not to think about it as it has been so good having him here with me. We started the day by going to the school so that Matt can see where I work and for him to check in online and print his confirmation. We then got a taxi into the city to the silk market, the plan being to buy gifts for people and buy a few souvenirs ourselves. I gave Matt a quick lesson on how to barter and then we went round the silk market, there is a whole floor of jewellery and arts and crafts so we started there. It was a bit intense as every stall holder is shouting at you to come look at their stall when all you want to do is browse in peace without being grabbed at or questioned “what are you looking for?” then given a list of what they have. I have gotten used to this and learnt to just ignore them and carry on, which would seem quite rude at home, Matt however was trying to say to each stall holder no thank you, which to them seemed like a conversation starter and they kept grabbing his arm and telling him they had a good price. I have learnt that the trick is to keep smiling and I know that they are going to try and rip me off, that I probably am going to get ripped off, but to pay a price that I am happy with. Most jewellery items they will tell you a price of about 450 RMB (£45), then tell you that you look like a nice lady so they give it to you for 400 RMB (£40) then I always offer a price as low as I can, and usually come away with it for between 15- 40 RMB (£1.50-£4). Quite a big difference really. My guide is that if the stall holder still looks happy, I have been ripped off, if they are unhappy about the price then I have got a good deal.

After the silk market we went out for Tapas and then on to the Ya Show market for more shopping. It’s quite exhausting so when we were all shopped out we got a taxi back to Houshayu and Matt finished his packing. He is taking all of the souvenirs and gifts that I have bought since I have been here home with him, along with my summer clothes which is good of him, I never would have got it all home in January otherwise.

As it was Matts last night I had said that whatever his favourite place to eat was, that we could eat there for dinner so later that evening we were on our way to the Daily roast duck not far from my apartment. We ordered a few sides, a thing that looked like a spring roll with sesame seeds on, an onion thing that looked like omelette for matt and we had seen what looked like poached pears go past in batter so we ordered one of those each aswell as the duck pancakes. The spring roll things came first and I can’t put my finger on the taste, it was both sweet and savory at the same time, a grey almost mash potato texture inside but looked like a spring roll, it was quite nice. The onion omelette thing looked more like a slice of pizza and the smell of onions was so strong, I passed on that but Matt had a few and really enjoyed them. Then there was the poached pear. How wrong could we have been. It looked like a pear covered in batter, but inside it was a gravy with carrots and peas in, I only had one bite, it was horrible! Then there was the roast duck pancakes which were delicious. It was a really nice meal and with drinks cost us 145 RMB (£14.50) a real bargain!

On the way out, Matt wanted to buy cigarettes for a friend and there was a shop just outside that sold these, a pack of 200 was 48 RMB (£4.80) no wonder people smoke so much in China when it’s that cheap. We got a taxi home and then watched a film before having an early night as Matt is getting picked up for the airport at 3am.

Friday 11th November

Excitement levels were running high today as it was the grade 1 and grade 3 field trip to Beijing zoo! We piled onto the buses and off we went, thankfully with 3 parent helpers on the bus and 4 parents meeting us at the zoo. First on the agenda was to go to the aquarium and watch the dolphin show, which the kids loved. We then split up into smaller groups and I was with 2 children and the other teacher had 2 children so we went round the zoo together, starting with the elephants. The enclosure for the elephants was a bit depressing as it was a small room behind bars where the elephants could just about walk round in a circle in, but luckily for us the kids were not interested in the elephants, they were more interesting in something else. “Miss Pippa, look at it’s poop! It’s soooo big!” one of the kids shouted, it was true, it was bigger than the kids head! We ushered them out pretty quickly as it wasn’t a nice enclosure and we went to see the tigers which their project was on. By this time it was 12pm so we stopped for lunch at some of the benches, then it was off to see more animals. We had to meet back at the main gate at 1.20pm so it was a bit rushed, but overall I would say it was a successful field trip and everyone seemed to have had a nice day.

We got back to school and let the kids play on the playground for 30 minutes, then it was home time! Matt met me at the school as we were going to the green cap with some of the other teachers for food and a few drinks. We got to the green cap, an Irish bar about a 20 minute taxi drive away and had a really nice dinner (the school packed lunch consisted of a ham and egg sandwich, a packet of crisps, an apple, two hard boiled eggs and a juice, I had given most of it away and just had the juice, crisps and traded my apple for an orange) I think most of the teachers had done the same because we were all really hungry. We stayed for drinks and it was a really nice relaxed evening, then shared a taxi home with one of the other teachers.

Thursday 10th November

Today I have an unexpected day off school as it is teacher parent conference day and as I haven’t got a fulltime class (I am English support for a few classes) the parents hadn’t requested to speak to me. Matt and I had a big day planned so it was another early start. Shortly after my alarm went off at 8am, I learnt an interesting fact about my apartment. The bathroom door doesn’t lock! I was just getting into the shower when my roommate, Analisa walked in on me! It was too late for me to do anything but shriek “someone’s in here!” with nowhere to hide as we have a glass shower door! Oh the shame!

Shortly after I dried my hair we were ready to go. I had already prepared “please take us to Happy Valley Amusement Park” on a piece of paper, written in Chinese characters and a badly drawn map of the general area that the theme park was in, so all we had to do was find a taxi! Luckily the taxi driver that alway’s waits outside of my building for me to take me to school was there so we jumped in and thankfully he understood my map and we were on our way. It was a gorgeous day, clear skys, warm sun of roughly 17 degrees C, so much so that we wished we had brought our sunglasses, definitely the perfect day to go to a theme park. It took 40 minutes to get to Happy valley Amusement Park and cost a mere 130 RMB (£13) but as we arrived two men got into the taxi as we were trying to get out (not a big deal, that happens a lot in Beijing) but then a man shouted after us wanting to know where we were from. He had a badge (a bit like an American police badge) and a walkie talkie and asked us again where we were from. I asked him why and he said that there was a problem with the taxi. I didn’t want to get the taxi driver into any trouble as he takes me to school pretty much every day and is always very nice so I was slightly worried about what the problem was, but told the man that we were from Houshayu. The man then asked us how long we were in the taxi for and how much we paid, and I saw that the taxi driver was handing over the receipt to the other man with a badge. I realised that these men were checking up on taxi drivers to check that they weren’t ripping off tourists. I thought that was really good that they were doing that and a lot safer and reassured that there were people around checking up on the well being of tourists (although at the same time I felt bad that the taxi driver was being interrogated, even though I know that it takes roughly 45 minutes to get from Houshayu to the Sanlitun area and that it usually costs around 100 RMB) The man seemed satisfied with our answers and let us go through to the park.

The taxi incident was then quickly forgotten about as we paid 180 RMB (£18) to get into the theme park and were greeted with the sight of a huge rollercoaster! We decided to do the rollercoasters first and started off on the one in front of us, “Extreme rusher” supposedly the biggest, fastest rollercoaster in Asia. Even though it was 11am there were barely any people around and we hardly had to queue at all, then we were sat in the third row waiting to go. I have to say, I have never been on a rollercoaster before that literally takes your breath away. We were at the bottom and a siren went off then we were launched so fast that you couldn’t breathe round the rollercoaster at such a high speed, it was amazing! We both got off (or should I say wobbled off) in fits of giggles and on such a high! We then went in search of the next rollercoaster, Crystal Wing, set in the Atlantis area of the park. We were both surprised to find that there was again no queue and we were on the rollercoaster without having to wait! This one is a lot like Air at Alton towers, you are tilted so that you are looking down, almost in a plank position. The rollercoaster starts straight away with an extremely steep climb to the top, then an incredibly fast drop and loops where you are upside down, it was so much fun. We then went on a train rollercoaster which was good, but a bit of an anti climax after the other two rollercoasters.

By this point, Matt had spotted the log flume and we went over to have a look at just how wet you would actually get, the people coming off looked soaked! I was trying to decide whether to go on it there and then and be wet for the rest of the day or go on it last and be wet all evening. The deciding factor was that it was a nice day and Matt kept saying that we would dry in no time, so I found myself in the queue to buy a waterproof poncho (more like a very thin bin liner with arm holes and a hood) and we were walking through the queuing area to the log flume (once again, didn’t have to wait, we were straight on!). Nothing could have prepared me for the wall of water that hit me (straight in the face) as we made the first drop (which wasn’t even half the height of the big drop that I had been dreading) Matt and I just looked at each other in total shock, my trousers (luckily thin combats instead of jeans as I had changed my mind at the last minute) were soaking through, my bag was however surprisingly dry under my bin liner and I was praying my hair was too (the frizzy hair look is not flattering on me). We then went through this dark creepy cave and climbed up to the big drop where I was pulling the hood as far down my face as I could manage without ripping it and hoping that it would keep me dry. We started down the drop and as we hit the water it was like a sheet of water falling down on you, then there were people spraying us with water guns aswell! We got off the ride in one big sopping mess, but as I pulled off the poncho to put it in the bin I was pleasantly surprised to find that other than my combats (which I just wanted to take off and wring out as the cold, wet material was sticking to my legs) I was actually quite dry.

After I had stopped moaning, we went on to the next rollercoaster, but made a quick stop at the twin tower heroes (one tower takes you up and then drops you from a great height, the other launches you up to the top) we decided to go for the drop and it stopped at the top for a while which really built up the suspense, before dropping down to the bottom. It was really good, but let’s just say that I am glad I hadn’t had my lunch yet! The next rollercoaster, Golden Wings in Snowfield was right next to the towers so we went on that next and I have to say this was my favourite rollercoaster! We got taken up to the top and then it was so fast with at least 5 turns upside down (it may have been more, I found it hard to keep track of which way was up) and it was so much fun, we both came off all giddy and with jelly legs. At this point we decided to go find somewhere to get something to eat when I spotted another, smaller rollercoaster and persuaded Matt to go on it before we went for lunch. It was fun as it span you around as you went along the track, but not quite as big as an adrenaline rush as the other rollercoasters. By this point my trousers were pretty much dry so I’m so glad we decided to go on the log flume then, rather than wait until the end of the day.

We stopped for a quick KFC for lunch and then it was back out for more action, although I persuaded Matt to ease off on going on a rollercoaster again straight away. We walked back round the park looking for the smaller rides that we had seen to have a go on first and that’s when I spotted the zorbing! It was a ball on the lake and I had always wanted to have a go so I went straight for it. Matt stayed on the jetty to take photos as I tried (and failed!) at zorbing! I couldn’t believe how hard it was to stand up on and spent most of the time in fits of giggles trying to stand up, it was impossible!! I just couldn’t get the hang of it so gave up in the end and returned to the jetty to find Matt had videoed the whole thing! We quickly moved on to a ride called the Trojans horse, a ride that suspends you upside down then spins you, really good but a bit of a risk so soon after lunch! After surviving that ride we decided to go back on the rollercoasters, again there were no queues and we did all three sat in the front cars which made it so much better. By this point it was 5pm and we were ready to leave, we got a taxi to Wangfujing where I was planning on taking Matt to the snack street to try out different meats and critters!

We arrived at Wangfujing snack street and I eased Matt in with strawberries covered in syrup on a stick, delicious! Matt then tried a scorpion straight away, no hesitating like I did! We then tried snake (my second time, but still enjoyable) and wandered round the different food stalls. We tried what I thought was sweet potato (it wasn’t it was some kind of burnt pastry that went straight in the bin) and Matt brought something that was a sweet pastry on a stick, we both tried one then that also went in the bin! I brought some roasted chestnuts (they were cold so not very nice) then we brought some grapes in syrup on a stick (not quite as nice as the strawberries, but still ok). As we were on our way out we stopped for one last delicacy, a sea horse which tasted really salty! I was contemplating trying Monkey but it looked very fatty so decided against it. I had promised that I would take Matt to Hooters aswell so we went there for something to eat, then got a taxi home, I just know that I am going to ache tomorrow for our grade 1 field trip!

All the pics are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/69851917@N06/sets/72157628139408110/

Sunday 6th November

We were up early again today as I wanted to see people’s park before we left the hostel at 11am for the airport. It was another miserable day so at 8am we got a taxi to people’s park which was 20 minutes away from the hostel and had a wander round. There were groups of people all over the park doing tai chi or playing badminton, there were even couples doing ballroom dancing in one of the squares!

After Peoples Park we returned to the hostel to get driven to the airport, only to find that the driver had turned his phone off and no one knew where he was! We ended up taking a taxi which worked out cheaper and flew back to Beijing.

We arrived back in Beijing and back to my apartment at 6pm and decided to go out for tea straight away. We got a taxi to Pinnacle Plaza to try one of the Chinese restaurants that I have been waiting for Matt to try, we went to Alpha and Omega and had a really nice meal of dim sum dishes. We then returned to m apartment and watched zoo keeper. I have to admit, I am really enjoying watching films again, you do feel a bit cut off from the world here in China. I never hear any news about any other country and most UK websites are blocked, so it makes a nice change being able to watch a film that’s not in Chinese.

Sarurday 5th November

My alarm went off at 6.45am today to get up and ready and in reception for 7.30am for breakfast and to go to the Giant Panda Breeding and Research base! Our tour guide met us and we (and 12 other people) all climbed in a mini bus which was to take us as it was a 30 minute drive away. It cost 90 RMB (£9) to get taken to the Pandas, entry fee, tour guide and taken back to the hostel, bargain!

When we arrived at the Giant Panda Research base at 8.30am we went to see the adult giant pandas first and they were so close, literally 2 metres away with a moat in between us, eating bamboo. Our tour guide was giving us snippets of information throughout and kept referring to the pandas as a National treasure. We then went to see the red pandas which were right next to the moat again eating bamboo, but were a bit more active, climbing trees and running around the enclosure. Next was the moonlight nursery where the baby pandas that were born in August were, there were four in a playpen all asleep but so small and fluffy, they were adorable! Next we saw more adult pandas and then it was the bit I have been looking forward to for so long! The sunshine nursery to hold a baby panda! You had to pay at the ticket office and put on blue covers other your shoes and plastic gloves, only then were you allowed into a room with the panda (Matt was going to come and take photos but you are not allowed into the room without purchasing a ticket) When I got into the room there was a panda sat on a bench that looked far too big to be able to pick up and hold, when I asked I was told that you don’t hold the panda, you sit next to it and stroke it. I felt quite cheated as I had just paid at the ticket office to hold a baby panda and had been looking forward to it for so long but could only sit next to a panda, it was really disappointing. One person took photos with my camera and another took a video with Matt’s camera while I stroked a panda. It was really soft and the keeper kept giving it bamboo dipped in honey to keep it’s attention, it really was so cute. After a few minutes it was someone else’s turn and I left to find Matt, it really was an anticlimax after I had been looking forward to holding a baby panda for so long. We went round the sunshine nursery enclosure of pandas aged 1-2 years old and saw the tour guide who told me that a guy who was on the last tour got clawed by the Giant panda when he had his photo with it! Great! I wish he had told me that before I had gone in!

At 10.30am we went to a cafe to see a short 15 minute film about the pandas and then to the panda museum near the exit. We bought a few souvenirs and then it was back to the mini bus at 11.30am to go back to the hostel and for lunch. We timed it just right as during the walk to the mini bus it started to rain. The rest of the day was a bit of a miserable day but when we got back from lunch we booked to go to a Sichuan opera that evening in a tea room. Now I am not a fan of the opera and wouldn’t of even considered going if I was back home, but my new “when in China” attitude took over and when Matt mentioned that he would like to go I found myself agreeing and the next thing I know we had booked for that evening.

The hostel were having a BBQ in the garden at 6.30pm and we had to be at reception at 7.15pm for the opera so we ate at the hostel and then were taken to the opera in a tea room 20 minutes away from the hostel. When we got there, there was a huge impressive building that said opera house on a main street of old style buildings which we both looked at and said wow! We parked across the road from it and then the driver started walking in the opposite direction through a small garden to a tea room. Once we walked through the gateway we realised that it was a courtyard surrounded by small rooms selling art, antiques and traditional Chinese dress, all covered by a metal roof, like an open air theatre covered by a rather large gazebo! We were on the third row just off the centre and had a pretty good view. We got free tea (which neither of us touched) and a basket of peanuts and there were large coats that you could wear for free if you got too cold.

The opera itself started at 8pm and within the first 5 minutes I realised that I had made a huge mistake, it was horrendously bad, just a woman warbling away in Chinese so I didn’t have a clue what was going on. Luckily each act only lasted about 10 minutes each. The next act was a band of weird Chinese traditional instruments, then we were told that the next act was Romeo and Juliet in China but I think that it was translated wrong as it was just a man on the stage playing an instrument while prancing about and as far as I can remember Romeo and Juliet involved two people and it didn’t end happily ever after as this performer portrayed.

Just as I was contemplating making my exit there was a shadow puppet act, a man came on and did shadow animals onto a screen which was actually quite fascinating how he made the animals so realistic. Just as I was beginning to think that the evening could turn out quite well, the next act brought my optimism crashing down! It was a man playing a traditional Chinese trumpet apparently, but oh my god the noise was horrible! Then the next act was a man with a puppet making it dance, I have a low opinion of these kind of acts anyway as I think a grown man playing with puppets has far too much spare time on his hands and needs to get out more. The following act was a bit better, although if we hadn’t of been told at the start that it was about a man who had been caught gambling and his wife was punishing him, we wouldn’t have had a clue what was going on (although it was all in Chinese so we didn’t really know what was being said anyway, but could loosely follow the story line). Finally was the bit that we had been looking forward to, the fire spitters and “Changing faces and costumes” there were a few performers in traditional Chinese dress with fans and they would change outfits and masks as if by magic, without anything passing in front of their faces, it was incredible to watch. That was the Sichuan Opera finale and as it was 9.30pm, it was time to go back to the hostel and to bed!

More pics! :http://www.flickr.com/photos/69851917@N06/sets/72157628135015120/

Friday 4th November

Today’s the day that Matt and I are going to Chengdu for the weekend! I was so excited this morning but had to get the day at school out of the way first. I had phonics with 1A in the morning and then marking to do for grade 2C in the afternoon. The airline had switched the flight time to a bit earlier so I had to sneak out of school for the last lesson so that I would get to the airport in time.

Matt and I got a taxi to the airport and that went smoothly enough but once we were on the plane it was delayed by an hour! At 6pm we finally took off and it was a 2 hour 30 minute flight and 1024 miles to cover to get to Chengdu, which is south east of Beijing. We landed at 8.45pm and were greeted by 17 degrees heat, not quite the 0 degrees C I had gotten used to in Beijing! We were through to arrivals pretty quickly, but the airport pick up that we had arranged to take us to the hostel wasn’t at the gate as we had been delayed for so long. Luckily we had the print out of the booking confirmation with the hostels phone number on and called them, they phoned the driver and sent him back and we were on our way again by 9.45pm.

It took us 35 minutes to get to the hostel “Sims cozy garden hostel” and from the dark first impression, the garden looks really nice, the staff are all really friendly and when we got to our room it was huge! The bed was also massive, much bigger than a king size bed! By the time we had got settled it was time to go to sleep as we have an early start tomorrow!

Thursday 3rd November

Today I did not want to get out of bed, I was so tired! I got to school and had grade 1A in the morning teaching phonics, then grade 2C in the afternoon trying to get them to write about a time that they helped someone and then a spelling test. I then had to mark their books and I created a star system. If they do well they get a green star, if they could have done better they get a yellow star and if they have not done well they get a red star. Hopefully this will encourage the class to write more as there are a few boys who barely write anything some days.

I booked a table for 6 at a Japanese restaurant called Haru Teppanyaki at Pinnacle Plaza. I have never had sushi before (I am not a fan of fish) but I thought I would give it a go. Matt has never had sushi before either but loves fish so I knew that he would like it. We went straight from school at 5.30pm with three other teachers and got to the restaurant for 5.45pm. We had our own private room that was really nice and the chef cooked the teppanyaki on a grill in front of us. I had ordered 3 types of sushi, a crab roll and squid teppanyaki so that I could try a bit of everything and am I glad I did!

The first roll that I tried was a Michael roll and I knew within the first bite that I didn’t like it and it took all of my will power to finish chewing it and actually swallow it, and even then I wasn’t sure if I would keep it down! The second sushi I tried was a California roll and I was exactly the same, I just didn’t like the texture or the taste. Then the third I just couldn’t eat it, it was horrible! Luckily I had ordered a soft crab roll as a backup which was nice and squid teppanyaki which was delicious. It worked out well for everyone else as they all got to share and try the sushi that I had ordered but couldn’t stomach, especially Matt who loved the food. At least I can say that I have tried sushi now, there was a time I would have taken one look at it and refused to go anywhere near it!

We had a really nice time with good service and even better company and even though I didn’t like the food I really enjoyed myself. Although I did have a subway on the way home!

Wednesday 2nd November

Today is the day I have been looking forward to, this evening Matt and I are going to an acrobat show and then for Peking duck (my favourite Chinese dish). I was pretty much counting down the hours while at school and at 4pm I rushed home to change and then we went to the subway. We got off at the station and took a tuk tuk to the Tiandi theatre to pick up our tickets. We had really good seats on the centre of the 6^th row and the show really was amazing. It was a different one to the one I went to in August but was still really good and had a creepy Halloween theme which was good, we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

After the show we walked to where the restaurant was supposed to be on the map, got a bit lost trying to find it, then I phoned the restaurant for directions, it turned out we were stood right next to it! Da Dongs is quite a popular restaurant that is one of the best in Beijing for Peking duck and quite difficult to get reservations for and as soon as we walked in I realised why! The restaurant was a very upmarket place with lot’s of people in suits and smart evening wear and there was Matt and I, in jeans and trainers! We both felt so under dressed and felt worse when we saw the prices! After the effort it had taken to get there though I was determined that we were going to eat there and we ordered half a roast duck to share. The chef brought out the duck and carved it in front of us and it was such a delicious crispy but juicy lean duck pieces to put in pancakes with cucumber and hoi sin sauce, yummy!

After dinner we got the subway home, or tried to! When we got onto our subway line and were a mere 4 stops away from Houshayu, the subway train stopped! I had forgotten that at 11pm the subway stops, regardless of what station you are at! We had to get off and then there were lot’s of black taxi drivers at the entrance to the subway all shouting at you to try and get you into their taxi, chaos! They were also a rip off, but the taxi driver we were negotiating with said we were in the middle of nowhere and there are no other metre taxi’s around. He had a point, we didn’t really have a choice but to pay the extortionate prices (even after negotiating it down). We got the black taxi home and by this point it was 11.30pm and time for bed as I have school tomorrow.

Tuesday 1st November

Today after school Matt and I went for dinner with Milzie and Jodie to Mama Johns, a Chinese dumpling place (not big enough to be a restaurant, more cafe sized but with proper food) I actually go here quite often because it is so cheap and usually have a dozen dumplings with fried rice and a sprite, costing 26 RMB (£2.60). I had been looking forward to dumplings all day (school lunch was horrible again) and it was another chance for Matt to practice his chopstick skills. After dinner we all came back to my apartment for a game of poker (It is Tuesday after all) and it was a nice relaxed chilled out evening.

Monday 31st October

Another early start today as I had to take Matt to the police station to register him at my address. Unfortunately I then had to go straight to work while Matt went off to explore the Forbidden city and Tiananmen square.

The day couldn’t go quick enough and as soon as it turned 4pm, I pretty much skipped to the taxi to take me home. Matt had taken some good photos and we went out for dinner so I could hear about his day. There is an Indian restaurant at Euro Plaza that I have been wanting to try so we went there. The food was really nice but oh so spicy! I couldn’t finish mine it was that hot, I felt like my mouth was on fire! We returned to my apartment and watched Kung Fu Panda, I have missed watching films.

Sunday 30th October

Matt and I were both up bright and early today to go to the police station to register Matt at my address but when we got there the police station was closed. There was a man in the office next to the room where we were supposed to register so I tried asking him what time it opened, I ended up having to phone the woman from the school who registered me and get her to translate for me and were told we had to come back tomorrow when it opened at 8.30am.

We then got a taxi to the subway and took the subway to Beijing zoo which was 30RMB (£3) to get in. The first thing we did when we got to the zoo was to go and see the giant pandas, Matt got some really good photos. We wandered through the zoo, making our way to the other side where the aquarium was which was 120 RMB (£12).

I hadn’t been to this bit before and it was actually really good, there was an Amazon rainforest section, coral reef, a sort of market and food court area with a touch pool of starfish, giant sea turtles (although I don’t think you were supposed to touch them) and a big tank with two Belugas in which was pretty amazing to see, they are such graceful animals. There was then the sturgeon section which Matt found interesting after watching River Monsters which had an episode featuring them, then my favourite bit, the dolphin discovery section! There were 6 Pacific white sided dolphins which were twirling around their tank doing tricks and jumping out of the water, they were fascinating to watch. Then in the next tank there were 8 bottlenose dolphins with a tunnel leading to a performance arena where they were letting you pay to go and touch the dolphins and have your photo taken with them.

After we had finished at the aquarium, we were both quite tired from all of the walking round so we got the golf buggy style cart tour round the rest of the zoo, then got the subway home. By the time we got back to my apartment it was 4.30pm and we had arranged to meet two of the teachers that I am friends with, Doreenda and Raena, for dinner at Yows, a traditional Chinese restaurant. We ordered a few dishes to share and Matt had a go with chopsticks and overall the meal of 10 dishes and drinks came to £7 each, bargain!

After the meal Matt and I came back to my apartment and Matt hooked his laptop up to the tv and we watched the film cars 2 which was good, I haven’t watched tv or seen a film since I got here!

For more photos click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/69851917@N06/sets/72157628134833248/

Saturday 29th October

We were up bright and early today as I had a taxi booked for 9am to take us to Mutianyu, north of Beijing where the Great Wall is. I haven’t been to this part before so it was a new experience for both of us. It took an hour to get there and luckily the pollution wasn’t too bad (it definitely cleared up the further away from the city we got, but was still quite misty/ smoggy).

When we arrived it was a steep trek up part of the mountain to the ticket office (luckily there were market stalls along the way to keep us interested) and then a bit of a walk again to the cable cars (there was the option to walk up or get a cable car, but the walk to the ticket office alone had left us breathless so we opted for the cable car). It had taken us 30 minutes to walk this far but we had finally made it to the observation deck next to the great wall. I was feeling a bit breathless so sat down (unfortunately my zombie costume of wearing a sheet over a t-shirt wasn’t such a bright idea as today I woke up with a full on cold and sore throat, making it a bit more difficult to breathe properly) now Matt say’s that he had only turned his back for a minute when I was swarmed by a Chinese family, each wanting photos with me! We then started the climb along the Great wall and the view was amazing (although if it had been a clearer day and the winding wall wasn’t hidden by smog I am sure it would have been breathtaking). We got a few good photos (I got asked for a few more with Chinese people) and we even managed to get a few of the two of us.

It took us 2 hours to walk through 9 watchtowers and then we reached a part where you could either take a ski lift down, or there was a toboggan run that you could go down on a kind of sled (guess which we opted for!) the sled looked far more fun so we jumped on and it was a quick ride down to the bottom where the market stalls were. I put my haggling skills to good use and bought a few souvenirs and then it was back to the taxi that was waiting for us to take us into the city.

It took us 90 minutes to get into the centre of Beijing and we went to the tapas restaurant I had been raving about for a much needed lunch. The food didn’t disappoint and there was a good atmosphere, probably the busiest that I have seen it. After lunch we were just on the main street when we bumped into three of the teachers from school, Matt’s reaction summed it up with “there are billions of people in Beijing and you probably know 30 of them, what are the chances we would bump into them?”. We then went to the Yao Show market to get Matt a “man bag” for his stay where we bumped into someone else I knew that is also on the TTC internship.

We then got the subway back to Houshayu (a dry run for Matt who is going to have to navigate it on his own on Monday, although I have made him a present to help with that) it took roughly an hour and we bumped into two more teachers that are from my school (I never bump into anyone then it’s 6 in one day!) and then a taxi back to my apartment. We had only been home 30 minutes when I realised it was 6.30pm and the Manchester United match kicked off at 7pm so it was back out to get a taxi to the Green Cap, an Irish bar that has all of the sports games on and I had found out were playing the United game that night (so Matt being the big United fan that he is, insisted that we went). We stayed for the football and ordered some food when a few of the teachers from the school arrived, it was one of the teachers birthdays and they were all coming the Green Cap to celebrate. We had a few drinks but by the time the football was over we were both quite tired so we called it a night and took a taxi back to my apartment.

For more pics click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/69851917@N06/sets/72157628134763946/

Friday 28th October

Today I got woken up at 5am by a text off Mat saying he had just landed at Dubai airport, I was too excited to get back to sleep then! I got up at 6.30am to shower and start on my zombie makeup (which took me 45 minutes as the only face paints I could find were the cheap poor quality ones so I had to do about 6 layers!) I put my costume on and then I walked to the gate to get a taxi to school as a zombie. I was stood there a while though as no taxi would stop for me! Luckily another teacher was driving past and gave me a lift to school. He had his 3 children and as I opened the door to get in the car, the youngest (aged about 3) started crying as she was scared! I sat in the front and the poor girl cried the whole way to school, I felt awful!

When I got to school all of the grade 1 office had made a big effort with their costumes and I had said I would do the facepainting of a few teachers, I did 7 staffs facepaint! The children had all dressed up aswell and although we were supposed to teach English 10- 12 they were far too excited so we just played Halloween games and decorated their trick or treat bags and I started to do facepaints on the children.

After lunch the Chinese teachers took the children on a tour of the grade 1 and 2 classrooms (each classroom had a different Halloween themed game) our classroom had facepainting instead of games so I did lot’s and lot’s of facepainting! At 2.30pm the children came back to the grade 1A classroom and we watched Halloween cartoons and the parents had bought in Halloween snacks. We then went outside for the award of best costume, best scary story and best scary picture (competitions that had been going on all week) and at 3.20pm it was home time!

I had a taxi booked for 3.30pm, giving me 10minutes to wash my facepaints off in time to get to the airport to pick up Matt, but by the time the last child had left it was 3.30pm so I didn’t have time to wash off my facepaint!!! I rushed to the taxi (who couldn’t stop laughing at me) He kept saying “you go to airport for boyfriend” and I would say yes, then he would laugh and point at my face, it was all a bit cringe worthy as I was already a bit nervous about seeing Matt anyway and it was bound to be embarrassing enough going to the airport in full zombie mode.

I got to the airport and text Matt where to go when he came out of the gate and then there he was! It was so good to see him, I have missed him so much. We got back to the taxi and went back to my apartment so I could shower and get rid of facepaint and Matt could unpack. We then went to Pinnacle Plaza for tea at the Italian and I showed Matt round there a bit then came home and I had to try and keep Matt awake until 9pm! Early night for us both as it’s a big day tomorrow of sightseeing!

For all the pics click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/69851917@N06/sets/72157628009668707/