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Well it's been a nice couple of days and its only a few more until we get paid and don't have to keep staring at that view from outside the window all the time!
We've been trying to make an effort do get ourselves out and doing things that are cheapish or free the last few days and its been really nice actually. We have the week off from our primary school kids this week (and a few other lessons for the other girls) because theres a chinese holiday on at the moment where they have 3 days to remember the dead or something. Im not fully clued up on it but if it means we don't have to go to primary school all week it works for me! Unfortunately we still have kindergarten tomorrow, but you can't win 'em all i suppose!
Luckily it's been quite a nice couple of days with the weather been warmish and sunnyish, so yesterday we decided to go out and do something. The girls were thinking of walking around the city wall but as I had my purse stolen with the cards inside I also lost my tourist card and so couldnt afford but we decided to go to it and see what we could do anyway. Good decision! The sun beaming all day and we got the outside of the city wall to find you could walk part way round the wall along the moat which runs around half of the wall. When we couldnt walk any further there wa a pathway right next to the outside of the wall which was tree lined and really far from the road so you couldnt see or hear any cars. It was so nice and there were millions of people out and just enjoying the sun and weird outside gym equipment which you will be able to see me demonstrating in my next photo upload!
We carried on walking until we came across a crowd of people gathered around some railings. We went over to have a look at which point a woman and her daughter who were standing a foot in front of me decided to look me up and down and talk about me in Chinese while I was standing there! Emma and Sarah came over as I pointed at the two women talking about me laughing at how brash they were! It was quite funny to see their faces when Sarah said hello to them in Chinese and ask them how they were. It's nice to think they thought I knew everything they were sayin and are embarrassed now. They'll never know will they?!
Anyway, inside the railings that everybody was so transfixed on was a roller skating rink. The other 2 immediately went to the akte hire place to have a go but i'll be honest I chickened out with all those chinese watching and laughing, i thought no way. BUT,this is Sarah who I was with and so insisted that I have a go to the point where she paid. It was only 4 yuan and we got our feet into the oldest, smelliest skates you've ever seen and proceeded to try and hobble over the cobble path to the rink without falling over.
We eventually plucked up the courage to let go of the railings and attempt to do one lap. I was disappointed at my lack of skills that I've apparently lost over the years having put in all those bloody hours when I was younger to be good and not fall over! It's definitely not like riding a bike now and I've acquired 'the fear' haha! To be fair, it didnt help that there was a rink full of chinese guys who clearly went there every week to show off with their friends and practice their skills flying around the place at 100 mph! (ok maybe not that fast but it felt like it when they were comin at you and you couldnt stop cuz you're used to the breaks being on the back not the front of the skate!). Emma was pretty good and was able to go backwards after a few laps but I admit that I fell over twice in the same really slippy spot but was pleased to se that even the chinese pros fell over and crashed A LOT too and everyone laughs along with you and helps you up so it was good fun in the end. Plus once I'd fallen over once the fear was ebbing away slightly and I could skate around without looking like someone with diarrhoea!
We eventually gave up and went into the city for noodle soup which was really good. We walked home but i do admit my back was killin at this point from the last fall in the rink but it was worth it!
We've had a less exciting day today just lesson planning but it cant all be fun and games i suppose. We also went into school to see Theo off (who i told you about over the weekend). It was really nice cuz a lot of the staff lke jaoquin, elena, gulhan and sergey cycled out with him for the first 25km of his first day abck on the road and we waved the off.
Quiet night i think after the last few days. It feels like things can still be chaos here in china even when you're not doin much!
I'll try to update the photo albums with pics from yesterdays wall walk soon and update here again soon :)
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