This week I have mainly been so tired from rushing round at school and trying to get back into the routine, I was exhausted Monday and Tuesday and I was even in bed and fast asleep by 7pm Wednesday!
I had an observation for grade 2 on Tuesday which went well, only minor things to improve on which I am really pleased about. The class seems to be getting better everyday and I am really pleased with them. I was marking their books one day from a piece of writing that they had done about what they wanted to be when they grew up. One of the kids (these kids are 7-8 years old) had written:
“When I grow up I want to be 009 so I can kill people if the government want me to. I heard about 007 and I think that he was silly because he liked girls”
This had me in fits of laughter, some days these kids really make me laugh with what they come out with. For the rest of the week I was proof reading all of the elementary school report cards and we have also been preparing for the school sports day in two weeks. I have probably done more interesting things than that but this week i’ve been so tired the days have just blurred into one. The best thing about this week has been the weather, it’s been between 20-30 degrees all week and lovely blue skys.
On Friday I went out with everyone as one of the old teachers came back to visit so it was a bit of a reunion. I’d never met her before but she was really fun and we had a great night out. On Saturday I went round to my friend Raena’s house as her sister was coming to cut everyone’s hair (a much safer option than going to a Chinese salon when I don’t speak Chinese) there were 7 of us there all day just chatting and having a girlie day together which was really nice.
Today I had organised for me, Doreenda, Raena and Raena’s sister to go to a part of the great wall where none of us had been before. It took us about two hours to get there in a taxi, have the taxi driver wait for us for 3 hours then drive the two hours back to Beijing for only £40! I am going to really miss how cheap China is!
We got to the great wall and there is a lake at the bottom of it that we had to walk round but it was a gorgeous day and the scenery was beautiful. We got to a part where there was a sign saying no admittance (my guide book said to ignore this sign) so we went past it and we had to clamber down to where the great wall started where there was pretty much just a drop into the lake as it had crumbled away. There were no safety hand rails as this part of the wall hadn’t been restored at all. We were at Huanghua great wall which is a genuine wild part of the great wall. It is believed that the renowned general Cai Kai masterminded the construction of this section of the great wall and was extremely strict on quality control. Apparently each inch of the great wall represented one labourers whole day of work! According to my guide book, when the ministry of war got wind of the extravagance, Cai was beheaded for his efforts. Years later, his work was judged to be exemplary and he was posthumously pardoned by the emperor.
At the very start of the great wall you had a choice of going west which if you travelled for a few days would lead you to Badaling (the part of the wall that I did during my induction) or you could go East which after a few day’s would lead you to Mutian yu (the bit I went to with Matt last year). We chose to go East as it didn’t look as steep, which I dread to think how bad the west was because the East was pretty hard going. We had to stop for a rest quite a few times and only made it as far as the first watch tower. The views were amazing though and we had a really good day. By this point we had been there for 3 hours so we decided to turn back. It was a lot easier going down, but still really steep! Instead of walking round the lake, we got a speedboat across it and we were all really tired by then. We left at 9am and it was now 3pm and our feet were hurting from the hike, it had been 28 degrees so we were all hot and tired from that too.
When we got back to Houshayu we went for a late lunch and then called it a day. On my way home I passed my friends house and they were having a BBQ so I popped in to say hello to everyone, then went back to my apartment to chill out. I really loved today and I am looking forward to exploring more now that the weather is nice again.
All the photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/78649657@N03/sets/72157629823274203/
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