The weekdays are pretty standard here in Jinan, after the craziness of the weekend, I'm always left feeling like there's something I should be doing! But to be honest, there usually is. There's aaalways lessons to plan, and now that the summer school has started, I've been working hard on my Powerpoint Presentation about England, to discuss with the kids. My first session is on Thursday, and I'm going to be doing the basic geography of England, and comparing it with China. Lots of opportunity for the kids to talk about Beijing in comparison with London... and it'll be intersesting to see what they know about our capital already!

Yesterday was an extremely lazy day, I watched a lot of CSI: New York, and did little work. But I've been in the office most of today. I taught another Get Ready class, and was observed by Bobby the headteacher. He said I have improved, but I need to get the kids to talk more. They're in Get Ready to improve their oral english, so I need to step down and let them discuss things once I've introduced them!
I've spent the rest of the day working on my presentation, although I just stopped for 2 hours to talk to Chris on Skype.. don't know what I'd do without that thing! It's a shame I don't seem to catch anyone else at the right time though.

Tomorrow is another quiet day. Wednesdays we have our staff meetings, so that's at 12pm. The only other thing I have to do is be in the office 4pm-5pm in case any prospective students come in. We do the Placement Tests, and it's just an interview to see which group we put them in. There hasn't been many I've had to do though, so I imagine the time will be spent polishing up my presentation, ready for Thursday! I'm nervous about it, but hopefully things will fall into place. As long as I keep focused on what it is I want the kids to go away with, it should all work out!

Bit of office politics today. There's a bit of drama over the seating plan. Paul and I have come in and ruined the arrangements, and some more 'sensitive' members of staff are getting upset at their chairs being used. Even when they're not here. So we arranged it all today. Frustrating because there is no computer where I have been put, and the school know that I like to access my e-mails regularly, but luckily some of the more level-headed staff have said we're welcome to use the computers when they're not in use! Bit ridiculous to have grown adults react in such a way about a chair... but I guess you're going to get that wherever you go!

Pretty tired tonight, so I think it's going to be a quiet one. I bought some dumplings from the supermarket, full of pork and sweetcorn, and they're really nice so I think I'll whack some of those on when I get in :)

Zai Jian :)
(Goodbye!)