Two weeks since my last update and its been busy busy busy......

Am getting stuck into school life in Beijing, kids are all really nice and they are just beginning to get used to me and getting involved in discussions. I have a year 12 boy who wants to be a doctor and he asks me questions constantly, that class are loving "Miss Sands random fact of the day", keeps them amused!!

School has an assembly every morning and the year 11's are the MC's and they have random things like yesterday a girl played a masterpiece on the piano and today they had a cultural assembly to mark the moon festival on Monday all in chinese. Yeah for the long weekend!! Had a school bbq last thursday night to mark the new semester. Got to meet parents and its nothing like my last school. Clowns, face painters, candy floss, pizza stalls, indian food, burgers, fireworks. You kinda have to expect this when fees are £20,000 a year. Tomorrow is spirit day, get to dress up in your house colours (Im a green dragon) and have inter house sporting activites.

I am the coach for the under 14 badminton team and have a few good players, so doing that twice a week and cycling/walking everyday I can feel myself getting much fitter. You can feel a dip in the temperature and gonna be needing to wear a jacket soon so may invest in a scooter for the winter, not nice cycling in the rain. When it rains here it really does rain along with thunder and lighting so forget getting a taxi.

Out with a friend for dinner last week and somebody got their light fingers into my bag and stole my purse as I was walking towards a taxi. Trying to explain to the security gaurd had he seen a purse, the next thing a very old police car arrived with 4 officers carrying guns and ushrered my friend and I in. We were a little panicked as to what was happening. Five minutes we arrived at a police station and they took statements etc. One police man spoke limited english so was a nightmare but I rang the lady from HR in school and she sorted it out. Pouring rain and now 10pm I managed to get a rickshaw home, that was another experience!! This then led to a one hour stand in the bank trying to get a new card, things are not very straight forward here!!

Last Friday after school, I was invited to a teachers house with another teacher. A Sri lankan lady and an Indian lady, her maid cooked up a massive indian feast was so yummy. They are mothering me, its so funny. Satrurday found the flower market and got some colourful plants to jazz up my apartment although I think one is starting to die already!! In the evening went with a few friends to a pub out in Shunyi about 40 min drive, felt like in the middle of the countryside. The football team were having a charity race night, was a great night and stumbled back home at 2am to find my gate locked and had to walk to the main entrance on the other street.

Ordered my first takeaway tonight from Annies pizza who speak a little english. After numerous phone calls to verify where I live it arrived. I think I need to learn the name of my block in chinese as they cant understand the Oriental Rose. Lasange and salad were very yummy and reasonable so my new weekly treat.

A bit of an essay

Miss you all

Katherine xx