Ooh I feel like I have a lot to say tonight! Things kept happening and I was thinking "Ooh I must put that in the blog", so hopefully I'll keep you interested :)

It's Day One of the Week of Hell, and it's gone ok! The England Presentation was much better than last week, got the 2nd installment of that session tomorrow. I showed the kids British Bulldog which they LOVED haha. Showing them some British TV and music tomorrow which they'll hopefully find amusing. Also going to research some more games for them to play. On Thursday and Friday I've got the same thing, but for the really little guys - so it's all alphabet and games for that!

I also had my Get Ready class whcih went OK. We talked about 'Motivation'. Some of those kids need motivation like Ant needs Dec. Honestly, I had to squeeeeze them to talk, the whole point they're there is to practise their Oral English... so I had to really press them. Most of the were fine though once they'd relaxed a little, and it was interesting to have debates with them.

After that I was done for the day! Finished at 3.45 so Paul and I decided to go to Daming Lake again, as it was nice and sunny again today :) Was a lovely walk, got some more nice pictures that shall make their way onto photobucket tomorrow for you! Am going to try and upload some more pictures onto the blog tonight.. but due to the mega-slow internet connection here, it takes a while!

After going to the lake we walked through the city again, and Paul got a McDonalds. I refrained, yay me! We then went to the supermarket, and we were looking at the fruit and veg, when we realised it's been weeks since we'd eaten some good fruit and veg in a meal... so I got all panicky and bougt some apples, a brocolli and some sweetcorn. I've decided the reason I'm so exhausted all of the time is because I'm not eating enough good food! I do seem to be living off noodles, chicken and bread. And a LOT of peanut butter. Not ideal.. but better than the diet of KFC and Pizza Hut I had in the first week or so. I wish the local places to eat were more hygenic, it would be much easier. But they're just so grim, i'd rather eat my own food that I cook. At least I know where it's been!

Tomorrow I've got the 2nd half of my presentation, staff meeting, Placement Testing and then... my very first VIP. VIP students pay masses to have a one-on-one with a teacher. Paul has a couple of regulars, but I've never had one. But I know have a girl called Clare. I'm a bit nervous, it just being me and her. But I"m going to use the first hour meeting to get to know each other, and hopefully get more comfortable in each others company. I think that's the best approach for this kinda thing.

It;s quarter to 9 in the evening, and I'm thinking of bed already. Oh dear. No Skype commitments this evening, so I can get a nice early night though. Scheduled a session with Somerset for Thursday evening before they all go off to France for 2 weeks.. Very weird thinking that I'm not going to be there. But I'll ring Mum on her birthday, and I'm pretty sure the 2 weeks will fly by!

Come Sunday, I've been gone a month... I can't believe that. Almost halfway already.. in some ways it feels as if I've just got here! But I've learnt and done so much already, and there's more to come!

The thought of Beijing on Monday is getting me through this week, it's nice to have closer goals to aspire to, Sarah Samuels taught me that one :)

Well, I'm off to cook a light supper... i've snacked quite a bit today so I'm not massively hungry. But I did eat an apple on the way home, and it was possibly the best apple I've ever eaten in my life. I do miss my fruit! And my cups of tea. But Somerset has promised to make me a HUUUUGE one the day I get back, so I'm looking forward to that!!

Zai Jian :) xx