Today is Friday. Friday's are good for a number of reasons. Firstly, because I finish early. Secondly, because I know I wont have to get up at 7am the next day. However this Friday is good for more than just those reasons. Today is good because it means I've finally finished the two week period of stress, and potential brain haemorrhaging that my work has caused me. You see, the last few weeks have been a bit of a blur. Last week was Open week, where the parents came in and observed our lessons. It seems like it should be relatively simple, but this is China. More importantly, this is a private school where the parents pay extortionate fees to put their kids in Kindergarten (yes, to be taught my me - I don't get it either). This meant that my head of department (who by the way speaks very little English, despite what she claims) has ultimately decided what I can teach. This involved copious amounts of unnecessary meetings and practice sessions, where she told me to pretend that she was a four year old child. Awesome. However, my lesson on Monday went surprisingly well, and the parents loved it. My boss ran into my office after her meeting with them, and shouted congratulations before hugging me a little bit too tightly, to express her gratitude. I was slightly amused that she had been worrying so much, because I knew it'd be fine. She just needed a bit of the old George Michael faith in me - note to self: investigate if Wham ever made it big in China.

So, after the craziness that was Open week, this week the kids are finally performing their Drama 'productions'. My kids, as previously mentioned are doing 'The Three Little Pigs' and 'Little Red Hen'; although I should point out that it is now 'Little Yellow Hen' due to a wardrobe malfunction.. Anyway, the kids have all worked really hard and I'm so proud of them. I know that it will get filmed and sent to all of their parents (even though they wont understand a word of it) which means I'll be given a copy to show anyone who's interested in seeing it. I would recommend it, because even if you don't appreciate their level of English, they're all wearing adorable animal costumes (yes, the same as sports day - we like to recycle) and you'd have to be pretty cold hearted not to appreciate the little piggies and chicks - this is coming from the well known 'ice queen'.

The kids have been on good form with their hilarity this month. I've found that I've acquired a few new favourites simply due to how much they make me laugh on a weekly basis, which for some children is a lot. Last week, a group of them decided to offer me bogeys in some sort of weird, competition based gift giving session. One boy won by a long shot, as he proceeded to pick his 'present' from his nose, and produce one of the largest bogeys I've ever seen .In second place was a girl who gave herself a nose bleed while trying to pick me a real good'un. She ultimately failed to provide me with anything substantial, but I appreciated her effort. I must admit that I felt quite ungrateful when I had to put the snot filled tissues in the bin, but I'm sure that I did the right thing - despite being in dire need of some new art for my bedroom wall..

Another child that always delivers is a three year old girl. I wont name names, purely because I know she is going to become a huge celebrity and sue me if she ever reads this. You see, she is what Beyonce would refer to as a diva (a female version of a hustla). She is regularly making up her own dance routines in the corner of the classroom, and strutting her stuff down the hall ways. She also makes microphones out of lego, and gives me her latest rendition on whatever material she's working on (yes, it's always Chinese. No, I don't understand). Today she game in wearing a Chanel t-shirt with denim shorts and knee high socks. Again, she is three. She can't drink yoghurt without it coming out of her nose, but she can rock brand names and choreograph her own dance routines. Go figure. I've also been strangled/held in a choke hold by the smallest child in my class. Turns out that while he may be small, he has a death like grip when he grabs on to something, in this case my neck.

I finally visited KTV last week. In China KTV is karaoke, but you get your own private room and you can basically rock out with your friends and nobody will ever get to see/hear how embarrassing it was. However, I went with a group of Chinese teachers from the Kindergarten. The night involved me having to sing songs by pretty much every blonde, western female singer; from Avril to Taylor Swift, I rocked the mic. It was particularly akward when I had to sing the 'bluffin with my muffin' line in Poker face, but I'm praying that they didn't understand what it meant. It was a fun night nonetheless.

I guess the biggest news is that I have a new job. It's a little different to my job now, as I'll be teaching Primary School, rather than kindergarten. I had to teach a demo class to a group of grade 2 students, which was definitely very different to my previous experience with the kindergarten. I was dreading the 40 minute lesson, and was praying that I didn't royally screw up. I walked into the room to sighs of 'oh wow...' which I'm sure was only because I was one of the only blonde people to enter the school, but I'll take it as a compliment nonetheless. The lesson actually ended up going really well, and after I'd finished teaching, the principal shook my hand and said 'Welcome to the school'. This was proceeded by him complimenting me several times on my chopstick abilities, while eating lunch. In all honesty, I'm not 100% sure if I was happier with the handshake or the compliment.

Now it's 4 weeks until I'm home. I'm excited for BBQs, partying, hitting the beach, and eating so much that I fall into a food coma. It's likely. It's exciting. It's so close.

P.S. I hope you've all taken a look at the photo that is accompanying this blog. It's the whole kindergarten, with the 'magician' who came to entertain the kids. Still no idea why there was any need for him to be dressed as a clown, when he was doing magic tricks. It was so creepy. Stephen King's 'It' springs to mind..

Peace out xxxxx