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/