What a couple of days!

The trip to Penglai and Chang Dao was amaaazing. I will eventually get around to putting the pictures on here, for those of you not on Facebook... but there are almost 200 of them so I'll need some time!

The trip started extremely early, at 4am. I woke up quite well though, I think due to excitement! I made myself some porridge, got a shower and dressed and was out the door well in time to get the coach. We picked up the Hong Lou school staff (Hong Lou is the other Optimum English school here in Jinan) at about 5ish and hit the road! The journey wasn't as bad as I first thought. When I heard 6 hours, I wasn't really looking forward to it! But I had two chairs to myself, and managed to sleep for most of it so I was actually quite comfortable. We got to Penglai at about 10.30am and we stopped at a restaurant for (early) lunch! I knew that seafood would be the main thing seeing as we were on a coastal trip, but that still didn't quite prepare me for the excessivley large amount of it plonked down in front of me. Mounds of shrip, octopus and clams. Disgusting. Even Paul, who loves seafood, wasn't keen though - so it's not just me! The Chinese staff didn't seem to mind though.

We left the restaurant and headed down to the coast. We were then told that we were going to be taken on a tour, but we foreign staff decided we'd do our own thing, as the school had hired a tourguide that only spoke Chinese. So we headed to the beach and grabbed a table and sat and had a few beers. It was absolutely lovely and I could've sat there all day! The sun made a brief appearance but for the most part it was quite grey and cloudy. At least it wasn't cold though! We were then joined by the Chinese staff a couple of hours later, and we sat there for a bit longer, before making our way back to the coach to be taken to the ferry port to be shipped over to the island of Chang Dao, which is where we would be spending the night.

The ferry ride was great, we were sat on the top of the boat - we were all accosted for photos with the Chinese as per usual, but that's kinda a given that we've got used to now! The ride was only about 45 minutes, so we were in Chang Dao before we knew it! We got off the ferry and were taken to our hotel which was a lovely place! I was sharing a room with Sarah, one of the Chinese staff, and we headed up to our room which was gorgeous. We had about 20 minutes before we had to go down to dinner so I quickly changed and freshened up! Dinner was pretty much a repeat of lunch what with the seafood etc... I've definitely taking a new liking to rice being here! After dinner, we split into two groups again... the foreign teachers and I went in search of a bar. But alas! No bars on Chang Dao. Go figure. The boys were determined to find one, but I was exhausted so went back to the hotel at about 7.30, got into my PJs, climbed into bed and watched Superman. I found it on te TV, in English! I was very chuffed. Sarah joined me at about 8.30, and we were asleep before 10pm!

Early start yesterday though, we got up at 7.30am and headed down and had breakfast. We were being taken on a tour of the cliffs and coast of the island, and I didn't want to miss that. It was fantastic actually, I absolutely loved it. I got some kick-ass pictures, so those are the ones to look for. The water looked great, it was very clear. There was also so much to look at. It's bizarre how much culture you can find on a Chinese cliff-face. Unfortunately, after we got back to the bus it started raining, so our next stop - Moon Beach, wasn't as fun! I mostly just sat under my umbrella watching people search the beach for pretty rocks (I'm already going to struggle with my luggage weight, so I didn't bother!). After about 45 minutes we headed back to the bus, and stopped at the hotel for people to pick up their luggage.

And so began the journey home! As a treat for us foreign staff who were starving after not eating much for the whole trip, we were dropped off at KFC in Penglai before we left, whilst the Chinese staff went to eat more seafood. We were very grateful! We were picked up an hour later, and we set off at about 2.45pm. The journey back was fine, even better than the way up there. I slept a lot! The weather was awful, and we passed two road accidents involving lorries... I don't think the Chinese will EVER learn to drive safely!! But we made it safe and sound back to Jinan at about 8pm.

I had such an amazing time, and it was brilliant to spend time with the staff outside of school. They're a fabulous group of people,and it was awesome to be with them socially like that :)

Today was a full day at school, and I had my 3 classes that I normally take on Saturdays. My replacement isn't coming untill Monday, so I've got these classes before I leave. I finally said goodbye to my devil class, and then I had two lovely classes with the others! HF5a at the end of the day was so horrible to say goodbye to... I'm going to miss them all ridiculous amounts. I got a picture of both of those 2 classes though, so I'll have their lovely little faces!! I also got given a couple of gifts which really touched me.. they're such amazing kids.

Tomorrow I say goodbye to my final 3 classes! That'll be hard too, as I've got some great kids in my Sunday classes. Unfortunately I have a parents meeting to do for my HF4a class (my other favourite) which means the poor things will have to do some actual work on my last day... but I'll take it easy on 'em :)

Friday I have Oral English for the last time (thank goodness I don't end that on that nightmare class from last week...) and then my FINAL CLASSES in the evening! Can't believe it.

*phew* Well, if you managed to read through all of that, I'm very impressed. I guess I'm actually kinda keeping this thing more for me at times... I just don't want to forget a single thing. Definitely wanting to buy a hard-copy when I'm done...! It's been such an amazing journey, I don't want it to end :)