I seemed to be missing half the class for my lesson this morning - and no one could tell me where they were! Still, it quite nice working with 30 kids instead of 60 for a change! This afternoon, Mrs Wu (one of the Chinese English Teachers) asked me if class 2 could watch an English film about Helen Keller during my lesson as this had been one of their topics and they were very interested in seeing it. As I was bored of my lesson plan anyway, I thought they may...

I was talking to some of the teachers today who were admiring my nail varnish. They were telling me that the dress code is very strict here in the country - that if teachers wear skirts they must be below the knee, and tops must always have sleeves. They also mentioned that the teachers must set a good example by not wearing nail varnish - not sure if they were trying to tell me that I shouldn't!! Classes went okay today - I have nice classes on a Thursday whi...

Had a very noisy lesson this morning - it was fun but the worst piece of teaching I think I have done mainly because the class kept distracting me from actually teaching!! First, I had one boy ask me if I would answer some questions for a 'game'. Since he was trying hard with his English I agreed, and he asked me "Where are you from?", "Do you like skating?", "What is your favourite colour?" and "What is your favourite sport?&...

Back to school and I found out that once again the Grade 2 students have lost their free period this week as they have 'Emergency Escape Practise'! Not quite sure what that is, but it means that once again they will not be able to come to English Corner - I don't know why I am even bothering!! Had my picture taken this afternoon for the class 3 intranet site - I didn't even know they had one so I shall have to get someone to show me it. This evening we decided...

Had an amazing day. First we went into Beijing for curry - it was the first time I had had curry since I arrived in China and it tasted amazing - Paneer masala, Lentil Dal, 2 types of bread and popadoms. It was the most expensive meal I have had here at £9 a head, but worth every penny (or jiao!). After this we went to the friendship store to try and buy some souveniers, but it was not at all what we expected and turned out only to sell expensive jewellery, s...