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Hello! It's been a long time since I've updated my blog - apologies - but I have been pretty busy enjoying my time here.
I am now as happy as a Larry with a tin in mud. On Saturday, me and Will jumped on the train to Beijing so that he could buy some tickets for a gig and I could visit my "local" bank. We also went shopping for stuff that we can't buy where we live in Xing Cheng. I spent an absolute fortune on chocolate, coffee, anti-perspirant, shower gel, bread, cheese, olives and balsamic vinegar. As anti-perspirant is still an up-and-coming thing here, they were £5 each! All of the bread here in Xing Cheng is sweet, for some reason so I bought a load of freshly-baked stuff. On Sunday, I sat in my pants and ate 4 blocks of cheese, 2 crusty loaves, drank a litre of coffee and smelt nice.
In the train station on the way there we were pulled to one side by a policeman. We'd had our bags scanned on the way in and they'd noticed that Will was carrying some knuckle-dusters. Ah. It's safe to say we were both uncomfortable when we were ushered into an office with an over-zealous, power-mad dibble. Eventually, Will signed something to say he was a bad boy and he'll never do it again, the policeman took the knuckle-dusters and we went on our merry way.
It was excellent being in a major city again - Beijing is always heaving with people and I love it. It's great being surrounded by so many different eateries and shops, too. Here in Xing Cheng I'm pretty much in the middle of nowhere. There's a beach but that's essentially it and it's still too cold to go in the sea. Nobody except those who are studying speak any English here so it's good for learning Mandarin at least.
We went for something to eat the other day and were presented with a bowl of what looked to be ji rho tang (chicken broth). As I took some meat from the bowl, a chicken's head floated to the surface of the broth. I was half expecting it to open its eyes like in some weird chicken horror film. (Suggestions for chicken-themed horror films are most welcome! I'll start the ball rolling with 'Chickens on Elm Street'...) If you haven't already tried chicken head or chicken feet, by the way, don't bother: they're rubbish.
Oh, also, big news! I today managed to beat my sensai at ping-pong! I was truly happy and he was truly impressed. He looked straight at me and said a whole bunch of things without subtitles. I think he called me Grasshopper. Can't be sure though.
Terrible, terrible news about the earthquake. Some of my students have family in that part of China and today was the National Earthquake Mourning Day. Nobody was sombre, though; all it meant was that the Chinese flag in the middle of the college was at half-mast.
During the past week, I've had my students invent mobile phones and sell them to the rest of the class using various spoken language features that we've studied. One class invented a phone that can change the face of anybody you dislike - that was one of my favourites! My absolute favourite was a phone that could translate at both ends so you can talk to anybody in the world, provided they have one too. Impressed by this, I told Roe and she non-chalantly slipped into the conversation that these phones are real and her dad knows the man that invented them.
In other news: Not much. The HSBC wouldn't let me make a deposit because I'm not a Premier customer. Wes had a note left on his desk from one of his classes saying something along the lines of, 'We don't like your teaching.' (He and Will are now VIPs at a gig in Beijing so I'm sure Wes is over it already!) Super Dragon bought me a hot-dog on a stick. My students and classes continue to be excellent and they'll be doing exams for me in the coming weeks in which I know they'll do great!
I have been here 2 months! It will be July in no time at all!
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