Update in China

Hi,

So sorry for the late message. The internet is not very good over here and hotmail is the most gay thing ever!! It took me about 40mins just to sign on the last time I went on it. But yeah, I am here safely. There has been so much happening, everything is so fast and busy and a bit surreal at times. It also feels like I am on a holiday and not like I'm here for the whole year!! Hopefully when I am in Beijing I can be more frequent with my mails. Also posting pictures too!!

It has been really fun and like a fresher's week. Me still very sleepy and tired. Dont go to bed till late most nights. People keep coming in to chat, because we leave our main door open. The dorms are one building with just us in it (well about 80 of us). I am sharing with the girl I met up in Munich on the same plane as me, she was flying from Birmingham and next door is two other people. So it is like a flat Rm 303 and then there is another door to room a or b. It is like a massive sleep over.

People do such silly things here!!! And the language barrier just makes things even funnier at times too. My room-mate got back at 9.00am once, because we were all together on a night out in Shanghai and people left at different times. So she and this guy called Dave suddenly found out that they were the only ones left in the club. Decided to go karoke by themselves, but then because they had drunk so much, they couldnt tell the taxi driver the exact road that we are staying at instead of Bo Xing Lu, they said Bo Shan Lu. Which sounds similar, so they ended up on the other side of Shanghai. They decided to walk back instead with the map that the accommodation gave us :s hehe, stopping along the way in a park to join in with Tai Chi!!! Crazy huh? Some people were also in similar situations, but managed to find their ways back too.

Yesterday they were singing karoke till 3 in the morning. Whilst other people are trying to sleep. It is very popular over here. I have yet to go, but I would like to. People just book out a big room, and you can sing with friends and then have dinner their too. Sounds like a lot of fun :D

I have lots of blisters on my feet over 10. :( I was wearing a new pair of shoes when I went to walk around Shanghai central for 6 hours. That wasnt a good idea!!! The guys in our group and a lot of the girls went for a massage the other day that was really good and cheap. I couldnt go because of my blisters. Apparently they fix your blisters. But I think they just pop them :s painful!! I think I will get a massage later on in the week, when my blisters are better and also before I have to take a 13hr train journey to beijing :s

Er... I'm the only one teaching 3-6 everyone else older, so the training is not really much help. But oh well. I've also been skipping the mandarin class here too, with my new friend steven. This week is teaching practice, so we are practicing in the schools in Shanghai. The class sizes are about 30 people, so not too bad. It was really interesting to sit in to see how the different age groups act and react to different teachers. The younger ones are more interested, whilst the older ones just sit and refuse to do anything. It is hard to find out how much english they know and sometimes it really surprises you how much they do know.

Been to a few places in Shanghai and it was really beautiful, lots of old Chinese places. Like Ju Jia Jiao and we went on a boat ride along a canal, which the guys paid for. Also yesterday we went to yu yuan or Yu Gardens, which was amazing. Only 6 people got to go and I went because this guy called Steven (who is 1/2 taiwanese and 1/2 white: and is also Gay) didnt want to wake up early and go. So the 6 of us went there on a mini bus. It was really weird because we werent told what was happening.

We got off, only taken to a room, we walked on the roof and entered an old fashion building. But when we walked in, it was a conference room with about 40 Chinese people in it. Our faces were really shocked. Some people spoke in mandarin about something and then pointed at us. Which we supposed was to introduce ourselves, so we all had to get up and make a little speech about ourselves :s very scary!!!! But afterwards it wasnt so bad. We were taken around the area which had a load of shops and they were selling things such as fans, glasses with paintings on it, chopsticks, chinese clothes, silk, paintings, gold, other jewellery. It was really beautiful (although too touristy too!!) and the buildings were since the Ming dynasty!!!

The people that took us around were english students so they gave us a tour of the area to practice their english. There was a girl call vivien who was the leader. Also another student called Arnold, I finally managed after 5 minutes to understand that his name was Arnold (after Arnold Scharzneggar). That was really funny (well to me that is.). But yeah it was really nice to be taken around on a tour, and they took us for free into the gardens whilst explaining customs such as girls walking on the right and men on the left, and girls stepping through doorways with their right foot and men vice-versa. It was really interesting.

It was really nice that they also took us out for lunch, and we had dim sum. But even more surprisingly, they even gave us gifts!!! We really were not expecting it, as they had already done so much for us. I got a fan and also a really nice tea set (with pandas on it!!!)

Anyways I better go to class now. Miss you guys hope you are well and having fun in England. Will post soon. There are lots of other things to talk about but no time to write or remember it all. Trying to keep a diary soon

Love you all
Jackie