Slept in this morning and then went for a walk in downtown looking for a suitable gift to take to Tony's (private student) mother who had invited us for food at their house. We wanted flowers, but couldn't find a florist and then considered chocolates but they were hugely expensive and so settled on some nice biscuits from one of the bakeries. She came to pick us up at 4 and then we picked up Rick (other private student) and his mum on the way to their house. ...

Korean school this morning which was a bit better than previous weeks but still not greeted by very enthusiatic students! Meet Hannah after she had finished teaching and we caught the bus into Beijing where we had arranged to meet Liz (one of the other interns) for lunch. We stopped off at the train on route to buy our train tickets for next week - Hannah is going to Shanyeng to see some of the other interns who have been placed there, and I am off sightseeing ...

Went for a walk this morning to try and find the mountains! We can see them all around us but have never found a way to walk up them. Today was the same as all the other efforts - they are like rainbows - you can see them but as you get near you lose all sight of them! Meet Hannah for lunch and as it was a nice day we got some lunch from the supermarket and took it to the park to each. As we were sitting there, I noticed a big sign on the top of the building ...

Went into work early to do some prep and then had a lesson. Had an extra lesson this afternoon to make up for getting Tuesday afternoon off and after one really good lesson I had some really rude students in my last 2 classes. One told me I was welcome when I thanked him for stopping talking, and one girl kept getting her needlework out! Whilst I don't mind turning a blind eye to people catching up on homework during the lesson, that really was taking the piss...

Had one of those days today when you realise why people want to teach - the students were all interested in my lesson and we even had some good discussion groups going. It's wierd how the same lesson plan can fall flat on it's face on day but work brilliantly the next! I spent some of lunchtime with one of the Chinese teachers who was explaining to me why some of the students know very little English. It was difficult to understand exactly what she was saying,...