26th
This morning I got up and had a shower, and then I thought that it was stupid having class so early in the morning so i decided to go back to bed. Today was pretty uneventful. I made it to listening class later on, and then ate at Sarahs for lunch and tea because its so good. Fran was going to see Beki after tea to sort out their travel plans so we all decided to tag along. After a while we decided to go and watch a film, but we stopped to speak to Justin on our way home and we ended up arguing with him for ages about the healthcare being crap in America. Altho we will go visit Justin more often because he gave us loads of stuff when we went round, frankie got a webcam and some trousers, and I got a computer mouse and he also gave us 10 dvds!!
27th
This morning I managed to get up and go to class on time, even though it was very boring. We went to get noodles for lunch, and then we watched one of the dvds that Justin had given us. We went for tea at the canteen and then I had to go to work. When i got there I discoverd that they were doing loads of building work at school and it smelt like glue and paint, and I was really concerned that the children would get high off the fumes and be even more crazy than usual, but luckily they moved us to another classroom at bit further away.
After work I went and met fran and justin and we went into town to a club called Bonbon. Vanessa had invited us out to karaOK but Justin and I had to work, and fran had dance, so we said we would just meet them at bonbon afterwards. When we got to the club we saw the tallest man EVER. He was definately over seven ft, he was huge!!!!!!!! and I was actually quite scared to give him my tickets.
We went upstairs and got some drinks and then we went to sit down. But someone came and told us that we could only sit there is we paid more money, so we went to sit somewhere else, and the same thing happened. Eventually they pointed out the seats that were free. We were just sat having a drink and we saw a rat run past - nice!! Apparantly there were several rats running around during the course of the evening. Shortly after, Vanessa arrived and she spoke to someone and got us a nice booth to sit it. We went to go and dance and after a while a chinese guy came to dance with me, but he was getting a bit too close and luckily frankie saved me. Later on I was dancing with some other chinese guys and one of them invited me back to his booth so of course i said yes. We were playing a drinking game - basically we were playing paper, scissor, stone and whoever lost had to down a glass of vodka and orange. I was losing quite badly so I left and went to go and dance with everyone else. I'd had quite a lot to drink by this point as it was £3.50 all you can drink, so I decided to start drinking beer rather than vodka, which wasnt the best idea i've ever had!! Frankie and I left not long after. We were followed to our taxi by a Nigerian man called Wendy who asked for my number, so i gave it to him to get rid of him, but looking back I should have given him a wrong number.
We got back to campus, and i decided to skip back to halls, but this was a bit idea as i tripped over the curb and landed on my knee infront of the security people at the entrance of campus. They were not amused. Despite my injury I managed to skip/run back to the waibinglou, only to discover that we had been locked out!! After banging on the door someone came to let us in, and pointed out the bell that we should have pressed rather than banging on the door.
28th
No suprises that I didnt make it to class this morning. Didnt do anything in the morning, and then we went for korean food for lunch. Watched a film in the afternoon, and then I went to go and teach. I was covering for someones else's class today, and it was the class that i was teaching a couple of weeks ago, where the children have silly names like yoyo and banana. And I discovered today that one was called Snail, hilarious
Just before I was about to go to bed, Wendy from Nigeria called to ask if i was "partying" tonight. I told him that I wasnt, and I couldnt understand what he was saying so i hung up.
Thursday 29 November 2007
Wednesday 28 November 2007
Thanksgiving and Apartments
22nd November
Today I made it to class after only 4 hours sleep!! Got my reading exam result in class which wasnt great, and then in speaking I found out I got 89 which is a miracle cos it went so badly.
Sarah has a teaching job, which is teaching business english and this afternoon we went to her class to help. The people in the class got put into groups of 4 and we each had a group and we had to ask them interview questions and correct their english. It was quite fun and my group were really good and spoke amazing english so it was pretty easy, and then we just ended up talking about music and films.
This evening we went out with Justin for a thanksgiving meal. We went to the spot bar and the food was soooooooo good. I had a massive main course and I was so full afterwards I could hardly move, but I still managed to eat a pudding. All that and half a litre of beer was only £10!!! Amazing.
23rd
Nothing really happened today. Went to a nice Uygur restaurant for tea and then we watched the dvd that Justin brought round. It was really good, its a Michael Moore film called Sicko. I would recommend it.
24th
This morning we went to look for apartments and Sarah asked one of the chinese guys from her class to come and help us. We went into the first estate agent and it was far too expensive and they were blatantly just trying to rip us off because we're foreign. So we went to the estate agent just further down and they arranged 2 places for us to see. We had a bit of time before we were going to see them so we went for lunch. The first apartment we saw was really nice and very spacious, and the one after was really good. So we decided to go for the first one, and sarah and fran would have the other one. I had to go and teach at half 3 and it was really crap today because I didnt have an assistant for the first half of the lesson and the children were just going crazy and shouting. After class we went back to the estate agents to sign for our apartment and vanessa came to help us and be our translator. But we had to wait for 2 hours and they kept telling us that the landlord was stuck in traffic. And then at 10pm they told us that he wasnt going to come and sign the contract unless we paid more rent so we said no, and it was really annoying.
We later found out that the first estate agents we went to had followed us to see which apartments we were going to view, and they had contacted this landlord and told him they they could get someone to pay more than us. Its really annoying especially since sarah and fran had signed for their apartment, and we were hoping to get 2 close together.
25th
Today I got up and went to the antiques market in town and got a few christmas presents. It was so hard to find, and I managed to walk all the way around it before I actually found it - my map reading skills arent good. I went back to the estate agents in the afternoon because they had arranged for 2 more flats for us to see. I got there a bit earlier than everyone else so I just went and sat inside the agency and the woman who worked there insisted on showing me pictures of loads of flats, even ones that were for like 8 people. It was a bit strange.
The first one was saw was a definate no, it didnt have a good vibe and was really minging. The second flat was really nice tho and so we decided to go for it and it was in a good location too because its near a metro station. So we went back to the estate agents and signed for it and we move in in 12 days!!!! Also, I got to ride on the back of a moped to go and see the flats which was most exciting!!! And because we had just signed for our flat we went for a celebratory meal at KFC.
Today I made it to class after only 4 hours sleep!! Got my reading exam result in class which wasnt great, and then in speaking I found out I got 89 which is a miracle cos it went so badly.
Sarah has a teaching job, which is teaching business english and this afternoon we went to her class to help. The people in the class got put into groups of 4 and we each had a group and we had to ask them interview questions and correct their english. It was quite fun and my group were really good and spoke amazing english so it was pretty easy, and then we just ended up talking about music and films.
This evening we went out with Justin for a thanksgiving meal. We went to the spot bar and the food was soooooooo good. I had a massive main course and I was so full afterwards I could hardly move, but I still managed to eat a pudding. All that and half a litre of beer was only £10!!! Amazing.
23rd
Nothing really happened today. Went to a nice Uygur restaurant for tea and then we watched the dvd that Justin brought round. It was really good, its a Michael Moore film called Sicko. I would recommend it.
24th
This morning we went to look for apartments and Sarah asked one of the chinese guys from her class to come and help us. We went into the first estate agent and it was far too expensive and they were blatantly just trying to rip us off because we're foreign. So we went to the estate agent just further down and they arranged 2 places for us to see. We had a bit of time before we were going to see them so we went for lunch. The first apartment we saw was really nice and very spacious, and the one after was really good. So we decided to go for the first one, and sarah and fran would have the other one. I had to go and teach at half 3 and it was really crap today because I didnt have an assistant for the first half of the lesson and the children were just going crazy and shouting. After class we went back to the estate agents to sign for our apartment and vanessa came to help us and be our translator. But we had to wait for 2 hours and they kept telling us that the landlord was stuck in traffic. And then at 10pm they told us that he wasnt going to come and sign the contract unless we paid more rent so we said no, and it was really annoying.
We later found out that the first estate agents we went to had followed us to see which apartments we were going to view, and they had contacted this landlord and told him they they could get someone to pay more than us. Its really annoying especially since sarah and fran had signed for their apartment, and we were hoping to get 2 close together.
25th
Today I got up and went to the antiques market in town and got a few christmas presents. It was so hard to find, and I managed to walk all the way around it before I actually found it - my map reading skills arent good. I went back to the estate agents in the afternoon because they had arranged for 2 more flats for us to see. I got there a bit earlier than everyone else so I just went and sat inside the agency and the woman who worked there insisted on showing me pictures of loads of flats, even ones that were for like 8 people. It was a bit strange.
The first one was saw was a definate no, it didnt have a good vibe and was really minging. The second flat was really nice tho and so we decided to go for it and it was in a good location too because its near a metro station. So we went back to the estate agents and signed for it and we move in in 12 days!!!! Also, I got to ride on the back of a moped to go and see the flats which was most exciting!!! And because we had just signed for our flat we went for a celebratory meal at KFC.
Thursday 22 November 2007
Nights out and other stuff
16th November
I have booked flights to come home for christmas which is very exciting.
Tonight we celebrated my birthday, even tho my bday was quite a while ago, but we've been really busy because of the exams and the field trip so havent had chance to celebrate it before. The night started at McDonalds which was really good. And then we went to a bar called The Spot because they had ladies night. We arrived a bit too early for ladies night so we had to buy a drink, but then at 10pm it was free drinks so we made the most of those. Then we got a taxi to windows which is really good, lots of cheap drinks. I met a french guy, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to practise speaking french, but I couldnt actually say anything, and then i found out that he could speak some chinese so we ended up speaking chinese because it was easier!!
18th November
Today we went to the Shanghai Museum. It was really good - and only 5yuan with our student discount. There was loads to see and we were there for hours. Outside the museum we met some random chinese people who came to talk to us, and they were wanting us to come to see an acrobatics show with them, so we made Justin give them his number and we said we would call them - obv we didnt. We watched hairspray which was really good.
20th
Today was pretting boring. We went to a Uygur restaurant for lunch which was very nice. This evening I went to teach and I had to teach them 'in' 'on' and 'under'. It was quite easy, I just played games for an hour and a half. At the end of the class one of the girls dad came to talk to me. Usually her mum brings her to class, and she talks to me because she speaks really good english. Her dad was really nice, and told me that he was pleased that I was teaching them now because the teacher before was american, and he thinks its better for molly to learn British English. I agreed with him, and told him that British English was much better than American English! He told me that he was a teacher at my uni and gave me their family number so I can call them if I have any problems.
21st
Today in class we were learning the new words and one of the words was "golden" and so the teacher made up a sentence to show us how to use it, and he said "who in the class has golden hair?" (given that most people are asian, it was obv me) and everyone was pointing at me and laughing, it was tres embaressing.
This evening we decided to have a night out because it was ladies night at a few of the bars. We went to Barbarossa which is in people's square. It was really nice, it was on a little lake in the square and we got good seats on the balcony. AND we got free cocktails which were really nice, so had quite a few of those. Afterwards we went to Zapatas where there was also ladies night there, but it finished at midnight. We got there just before midnight so we went to the bar to get our free drinks. But there was some moody woman waiting at the bar before me, and she was crap at getting served and we had to wait for ages, and so by the time we got served it was past midnight and there were no free drinks left. Bt luckily we managed to get some drinks upstairs. After several free drinks we were pretty drunk and so we decided to go and dance on the bar, so funny!! We met several random people . There was a guy from finland who was hilarious and was trying to teach me sweedish which was hilarious, unfortunately ive forgotten it all though. Met a few english people who were quite funny, and very drunk!!
At the end of the night we decided to go to Lochlan's apartment because Justin had been there and told us it was really nice. It was only a short walk away from Zapatas which was good. It was such a nice apartment, and we were all being really nosey and having a look around. We were quite tired because it was about 3.30am so Beki, Frankie and I decided to go to sleep in Lochlan's bed. After a while he came in to see us and wasnt sure what to do when he discovered 3 girls in his bed, it was funny. Frankie decided to be nosey and have a look through his things and tried on some of his clothes which was really funny. We also discovered that he has lots of Rubix cubes - strange. After a while, Frankie came and told us that Justin had gone to sleep on the balcony outside so we thought we should go home. All 5 of us managed to get into the same taxi, even though you're only meant to have 4 people. When we got back we had been locked out of our halls, so after knocking on the door for a couple of minutes someone came to let us in!! Was a really good night, we will definately be going there again to make the most of ladies night and the free drinks!
I have booked flights to come home for christmas which is very exciting.
Tonight we celebrated my birthday, even tho my bday was quite a while ago, but we've been really busy because of the exams and the field trip so havent had chance to celebrate it before. The night started at McDonalds which was really good. And then we went to a bar called The Spot because they had ladies night. We arrived a bit too early for ladies night so we had to buy a drink, but then at 10pm it was free drinks so we made the most of those. Then we got a taxi to windows which is really good, lots of cheap drinks. I met a french guy, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to practise speaking french, but I couldnt actually say anything, and then i found out that he could speak some chinese so we ended up speaking chinese because it was easier!!
18th November
Today we went to the Shanghai Museum. It was really good - and only 5yuan with our student discount. There was loads to see and we were there for hours. Outside the museum we met some random chinese people who came to talk to us, and they were wanting us to come to see an acrobatics show with them, so we made Justin give them his number and we said we would call them - obv we didnt. We watched hairspray which was really good.
20th
Today was pretting boring. We went to a Uygur restaurant for lunch which was very nice. This evening I went to teach and I had to teach them 'in' 'on' and 'under'. It was quite easy, I just played games for an hour and a half. At the end of the class one of the girls dad came to talk to me. Usually her mum brings her to class, and she talks to me because she speaks really good english. Her dad was really nice, and told me that he was pleased that I was teaching them now because the teacher before was american, and he thinks its better for molly to learn British English. I agreed with him, and told him that British English was much better than American English! He told me that he was a teacher at my uni and gave me their family number so I can call them if I have any problems.
21st
Today in class we were learning the new words and one of the words was "golden" and so the teacher made up a sentence to show us how to use it, and he said "who in the class has golden hair?" (given that most people are asian, it was obv me) and everyone was pointing at me and laughing, it was tres embaressing.
This evening we decided to have a night out because it was ladies night at a few of the bars. We went to Barbarossa which is in people's square. It was really nice, it was on a little lake in the square and we got good seats on the balcony. AND we got free cocktails which were really nice, so had quite a few of those. Afterwards we went to Zapatas where there was also ladies night there, but it finished at midnight. We got there just before midnight so we went to the bar to get our free drinks. But there was some moody woman waiting at the bar before me, and she was crap at getting served and we had to wait for ages, and so by the time we got served it was past midnight and there were no free drinks left. Bt luckily we managed to get some drinks upstairs. After several free drinks we were pretty drunk and so we decided to go and dance on the bar, so funny!! We met several random people . There was a guy from finland who was hilarious and was trying to teach me sweedish which was hilarious, unfortunately ive forgotten it all though. Met a few english people who were quite funny, and very drunk!!
At the end of the night we decided to go to Lochlan's apartment because Justin had been there and told us it was really nice. It was only a short walk away from Zapatas which was good. It was such a nice apartment, and we were all being really nosey and having a look around. We were quite tired because it was about 3.30am so Beki, Frankie and I decided to go to sleep in Lochlan's bed. After a while he came in to see us and wasnt sure what to do when he discovered 3 girls in his bed, it was funny. Frankie decided to be nosey and have a look through his things and tried on some of his clothes which was really funny. We also discovered that he has lots of Rubix cubes - strange. After a while, Frankie came and told us that Justin had gone to sleep on the balcony outside so we thought we should go home. All 5 of us managed to get into the same taxi, even though you're only meant to have 4 people. When we got back we had been locked out of our halls, so after knocking on the door for a couple of minutes someone came to let us in!! Was a really good night, we will definately be going there again to make the most of ladies night and the free drinks!
Wednesday 14 November 2007
Exams and boring stuff
9th November
This morning I went to reading class. In the break three of the korean guys were talking to me, and one of them asked if i thought another one was good looking. It was such an awkward moment because it would have been really rude to say No, and I couldnt say yes, so i just laughed (quite a lot) and they gave me a strange look and asked again, but then luckily the bell went and class started again.
In the afternoon we went to speaking exam and the teacher was telling us about what would be in our exam next week. I didnt understand what he was going on about so frankie and I decided to ask him at the end of class rather than asking in front of everyone. But during class one of the koreans asked us if we understood, and when we said no, he put his hand up and shouted "the english girls dont understand" - it was so embaressing!!! But talking about the exam took up the whole of the lesson time so we didnt have to do any work.
We went for tea to an Islam restaurant which was really nice. And Frankie got Stardust on dvd - really random film, but really good!
10th November
This morning I got woken up by some really loud music outside which was soooooooo annoying. I had a pretty boring morning, just went to the supermarket and did some other stuff.
This afternoon I started teaching another class. The children were only 4 years old and it was their first ever english class. I had to teach them 'A' and 'B' which was actually quite difficult. When the parents left their children in the classroom, some of the children started crying. It was so bad! But I just gave them all some stickers which helped to cheer them up.
11th November
Today was very boring. Did my washing, did some revision and then phoned my twin because it was her birthday. But in the evening we decided to go out for a nice tea, and we went to an Indian restaurant. I have missed Indian food soooooo much!!! I had a chicken biryani, pineapple raita and a potato stuffed bread! It was all so nice, although it was quite pricey (well the same as it would be in england - but very expensive for china).
13th November
Had my listening exam today - it wasnt great. All the questions were ones that we had already done in our textbook, but I couldnt remember any of them! In the exam, the koreans we all blatantly cheating and the teacher didnt seem to care! As a treat after the exam, frankie and I went to KFC for lunch.
In the evening I went to work. Today I had to teach the children a song which was pretty easy, altho I had to sing in front of them which was quite embaressing.
14th November
When I woke up Frankie told me that I had been speaking and laughing in my sleep - im such a freak!!!
We had the writing exam today which was ok, a lot better than the listening one yesterday.
After class I went back to halls, and when I got there the man (who has the job of telling you where to put your bicycle) told me that I couldnt leave it outside where I normally put it, and he said I had to put in the underground bicycle room. I told him that I was going out in half an hour so I would need it again but he didnt care and made me put it downstairs! So annoying! (I hate putting it in the underground thing because our bicycles were down there when the bells got stolen).
This evening I went to teach again - I was covering for someone else. The class was quite good, I just had to teach them colours. In this class some of the children had really funny english names, the best ones were Banana, Yo Yo and Rain. So funny! At one point I didnt have my chinese assistant in the class and one of the boys hit a girl and everyone started shouting in chinese and it was all a bit mad - but I managed to deal with the situation (and succesfully speak chinese well enough for the children to understand me) and I made the boy sit at the front of the class by himself which he didnt like. Hopefully I wont have to cover for that class again.
On the way back to halls I went to the fruit stall on campus again and the wierd guy with long finger nails was working there, and he made the woman who works there tell me that he thought I was beautiful, and then he gave me a piece of watermelon to eat but it looked minging so I said no thanks and quickly left!
This morning I went to reading class. In the break three of the korean guys were talking to me, and one of them asked if i thought another one was good looking. It was such an awkward moment because it would have been really rude to say No, and I couldnt say yes, so i just laughed (quite a lot) and they gave me a strange look and asked again, but then luckily the bell went and class started again.
In the afternoon we went to speaking exam and the teacher was telling us about what would be in our exam next week. I didnt understand what he was going on about so frankie and I decided to ask him at the end of class rather than asking in front of everyone. But during class one of the koreans asked us if we understood, and when we said no, he put his hand up and shouted "the english girls dont understand" - it was so embaressing!!! But talking about the exam took up the whole of the lesson time so we didnt have to do any work.
We went for tea to an Islam restaurant which was really nice. And Frankie got Stardust on dvd - really random film, but really good!
10th November
This morning I got woken up by some really loud music outside which was soooooooo annoying. I had a pretty boring morning, just went to the supermarket and did some other stuff.
This afternoon I started teaching another class. The children were only 4 years old and it was their first ever english class. I had to teach them 'A' and 'B' which was actually quite difficult. When the parents left their children in the classroom, some of the children started crying. It was so bad! But I just gave them all some stickers which helped to cheer them up.
11th November
Today was very boring. Did my washing, did some revision and then phoned my twin because it was her birthday. But in the evening we decided to go out for a nice tea, and we went to an Indian restaurant. I have missed Indian food soooooo much!!! I had a chicken biryani, pineapple raita and a potato stuffed bread! It was all so nice, although it was quite pricey (well the same as it would be in england - but very expensive for china).
13th November
Had my listening exam today - it wasnt great. All the questions were ones that we had already done in our textbook, but I couldnt remember any of them! In the exam, the koreans we all blatantly cheating and the teacher didnt seem to care! As a treat after the exam, frankie and I went to KFC for lunch.
In the evening I went to work. Today I had to teach the children a song which was pretty easy, altho I had to sing in front of them which was quite embaressing.
14th November
When I woke up Frankie told me that I had been speaking and laughing in my sleep - im such a freak!!!
We had the writing exam today which was ok, a lot better than the listening one yesterday.
After class I went back to halls, and when I got there the man (who has the job of telling you where to put your bicycle) told me that I couldnt leave it outside where I normally put it, and he said I had to put in the underground bicycle room. I told him that I was going out in half an hour so I would need it again but he didnt care and made me put it downstairs! So annoying! (I hate putting it in the underground thing because our bicycles were down there when the bells got stolen).
This evening I went to teach again - I was covering for someone else. The class was quite good, I just had to teach them colours. In this class some of the children had really funny english names, the best ones were Banana, Yo Yo and Rain. So funny! At one point I didnt have my chinese assistant in the class and one of the boys hit a girl and everyone started shouting in chinese and it was all a bit mad - but I managed to deal with the situation (and succesfully speak chinese well enough for the children to understand me) and I made the boy sit at the front of the class by himself which he didnt like. Hopefully I wont have to cover for that class again.
On the way back to halls I went to the fruit stall on campus again and the wierd guy with long finger nails was working there, and he made the woman who works there tell me that he thought I was beautiful, and then he gave me a piece of watermelon to eat but it looked minging so I said no thanks and quickly left!
Thursday 8 November 2007
Recovering from the field trip, and lots of cycling
3rd November
I was really tired after the field trip because of the very early wake-up calls and all the walking - I still have nightmares about our guide shouting Zou La. Today i had a really really exciting day. I got up, did my washing, finished unpacking all my stuff from the field trip (its amazing how much i took even though I was only there for 4 days). Then I went to get some photos developed and I went to the post office. But in the 4 days that I had been away the post office next to campus had been closed and was now just a building full of rubble!! So I went to get my bicycle so that I could cycle around and look for another post office, luckily there was another one 5 minutes away from uni.
In the afternoon I read the OK magazines that mum had posted to me, and one of frankie's friends has posted Heat so that was good, I have missed the crap english magazines.
In the evening Beki came round and we watched the sound of music - its such a good film.
4th November
When we were on the bus back from the field trip we passed a xinjiang restaurant that was really near to uni so we decided to go there for tea tonight. We decided to cycle there because it would have been quite a long walk, but Francesca doesnt have a bike so she sat on the back of frankie's - the bikes in china are designed for 2 people because they have a flat bit on the back over the back wheel that someone can sit on. The xinjiang restaurant was so nice - I had a beef and carrot thing and it was really nice meat - not like the usual stuff we have that is mainly fat and bone. On the way back Fran wanted to cycle back to see what it was like cycling in shanghai so i sat on the back of frankie's bike which was fun, i could get used to someone cycling me around!!
5th November
This morning I had class at 8 so I had to get up really early. In writing class today our horrible teacher only made 2 sexist remarks which is quite good because there is normally at least 5!
This evening frankie, sarah and I went out for tea, and we thought we would try somewhere new so we decided to cycle and go somewhere a bit further away. Sarah was too scared to sit on the back of a bike though so she rode mine and I sat on the back of frankie's again. After cycling around for a while we ended up going to a sichuan restaurant. Sichuan food is known for being really spicey, but we were all really boring and asked for non-spicey food, but it was still really nice. On the way back I thought I would have a go at cycling with someone sat on the back of my bicycle, but it was a disaster. I could balance and I kept almost falling off, and then I couldnt stop laughing and it wasnt the safest place to be doing it because there were cars going up and down the road so I just sat on the back of frankie's bike to go back. When we got back to halls it was really quiet so I decided to try again, and i succesfully cycled with frankie sat on the back of my bike!
6th
This morning was another early start. I was a bit early going to class this morning, and so I was talking to a couple of the koreans that were there early too. And the Korean guy (i think he is called Minshou or something like that) was asking me if I wear contact lenses every day, which I thought was a really random question, and obv I said no. And then he looked really suprised, so I asked him why he thought I would wear contacts, and it was because I have blue eyes and he hadnt seen anyone with natural blue eyes before!! Class was pretty boring today. Part way through writing class the nice korean girl came and sat next to me, and she spent quite a lot of time pulling out Minshou's grey hairs which kept us amused.
This evening I went to work and I got paid, wooooooo. Im really enjoying my job. When I arrived at the school all the teachers came over and were saying 'hello laura' even though I havent met them all and dont know what they're called, but everyone is so friendly. Today I had to teach the children 'run', 'swim', 'jump' and 'fly' which involved me doing the various actions and making myself look stupid to help them understand, but they found it really funny though. At the end of the class I said bye to my class and they all ran over and gave me a hug which was really sweet.
On the way back from work I went to the fruit stall on campus and I dont like the guy who works there because I find him a bit creepy (mainly because he has really really long fingernails) and he told me that I was beautiful so i left very quickly!
7th November
This morning we didnt have to get up till 8am!!! Class was pretty boring today, altho the teacher did something that was sooooooo rude (this is the sexist teacher from our writing class). I really dont think he likes me and frankie at all. We were learning this grammer structure (which we've already learnt twice in england) which is when you say 'in adition to something, there is something else' and so for an example he said, 'in our class, in adition to korean students, there are italians, americans, japanese and indonesian students' and purposely didnt say english!!! he is so rude
altho maybe he can understand english and he understands when frankie and i are bitching about him.
After class we met sunny and vanessa for lunch and we went to a really nice restaurant on Guilin Road. We had a really nice lunch - the food was so good. The rest of the day was pretty boring. I did a bit of revision and then had an early night.
8th November
This morning I got up at 7 and went to reading class, which like all my other classes so far this week was pretty boring. But afterwards we had speaking class and the teacher told us that we were going to be playing a game. He would write a word on the board and then someone would have to stand with their back to the board while everyone else had to explain what the word was without saying the word. Once I got over the initial stress of being picked to go and stand up infront of everyone and be made to look like a complete idiot it was actually quite fun. (a couple of people volunteered to do it so i didnt have to). The fact that I found this fun shows how boring our class usually is!
We went for lunch at the korean place on campus and then i did some revision in the afternoon. Frankie and I decided to go back to the Xinjiang restaurant for tea, and sarah came round so we asked her if she wanted to come too. However, because we only had 2 bikes it meant that 2 people would have to cycle while 2 people sat on the back. Sarah wasnt too keen on sitting on the back of a bicycle so she decdied to cycle fran while I sat on the back of frankie's bike. However sarah was finding it too hard so she decided to sit on frankie's bike while i cycled fran. I think it was probably one of the worst experiences of francesca's life! Because I've only cycled and little bit with someone sat on the back, I was finding it quite hard to get my balance, but it was ok once i got going. But Francesca wasnt happy when I turned down a road and started cycling into the oncomming traffic - don't worry this is a normal thing to do in china, people usually cycle on the wrong side of the road if they cant be bothered to cross to the other side. Tea was really nice and I successfully cycled francesca back to uni.
I was really tired after the field trip because of the very early wake-up calls and all the walking - I still have nightmares about our guide shouting Zou La. Today i had a really really exciting day. I got up, did my washing, finished unpacking all my stuff from the field trip (its amazing how much i took even though I was only there for 4 days). Then I went to get some photos developed and I went to the post office. But in the 4 days that I had been away the post office next to campus had been closed and was now just a building full of rubble!! So I went to get my bicycle so that I could cycle around and look for another post office, luckily there was another one 5 minutes away from uni.
In the afternoon I read the OK magazines that mum had posted to me, and one of frankie's friends has posted Heat so that was good, I have missed the crap english magazines.
In the evening Beki came round and we watched the sound of music - its such a good film.
4th November
When we were on the bus back from the field trip we passed a xinjiang restaurant that was really near to uni so we decided to go there for tea tonight. We decided to cycle there because it would have been quite a long walk, but Francesca doesnt have a bike so she sat on the back of frankie's - the bikes in china are designed for 2 people because they have a flat bit on the back over the back wheel that someone can sit on. The xinjiang restaurant was so nice - I had a beef and carrot thing and it was really nice meat - not like the usual stuff we have that is mainly fat and bone. On the way back Fran wanted to cycle back to see what it was like cycling in shanghai so i sat on the back of frankie's bike which was fun, i could get used to someone cycling me around!!
5th November
This morning I had class at 8 so I had to get up really early. In writing class today our horrible teacher only made 2 sexist remarks which is quite good because there is normally at least 5!
This evening frankie, sarah and I went out for tea, and we thought we would try somewhere new so we decided to cycle and go somewhere a bit further away. Sarah was too scared to sit on the back of a bike though so she rode mine and I sat on the back of frankie's again. After cycling around for a while we ended up going to a sichuan restaurant. Sichuan food is known for being really spicey, but we were all really boring and asked for non-spicey food, but it was still really nice. On the way back I thought I would have a go at cycling with someone sat on the back of my bicycle, but it was a disaster. I could balance and I kept almost falling off, and then I couldnt stop laughing and it wasnt the safest place to be doing it because there were cars going up and down the road so I just sat on the back of frankie's bike to go back. When we got back to halls it was really quiet so I decided to try again, and i succesfully cycled with frankie sat on the back of my bike!
6th
This morning was another early start. I was a bit early going to class this morning, and so I was talking to a couple of the koreans that were there early too. And the Korean guy (i think he is called Minshou or something like that) was asking me if I wear contact lenses every day, which I thought was a really random question, and obv I said no. And then he looked really suprised, so I asked him why he thought I would wear contacts, and it was because I have blue eyes and he hadnt seen anyone with natural blue eyes before!! Class was pretty boring today. Part way through writing class the nice korean girl came and sat next to me, and she spent quite a lot of time pulling out Minshou's grey hairs which kept us amused.
This evening I went to work and I got paid, wooooooo. Im really enjoying my job. When I arrived at the school all the teachers came over and were saying 'hello laura' even though I havent met them all and dont know what they're called, but everyone is so friendly. Today I had to teach the children 'run', 'swim', 'jump' and 'fly' which involved me doing the various actions and making myself look stupid to help them understand, but they found it really funny though. At the end of the class I said bye to my class and they all ran over and gave me a hug which was really sweet.
On the way back from work I went to the fruit stall on campus and I dont like the guy who works there because I find him a bit creepy (mainly because he has really really long fingernails) and he told me that I was beautiful so i left very quickly!
7th November
This morning we didnt have to get up till 8am!!! Class was pretty boring today, altho the teacher did something that was sooooooo rude (this is the sexist teacher from our writing class). I really dont think he likes me and frankie at all. We were learning this grammer structure (which we've already learnt twice in england) which is when you say 'in adition to something, there is something else' and so for an example he said, 'in our class, in adition to korean students, there are italians, americans, japanese and indonesian students' and purposely didnt say english!!! he is so rude
altho maybe he can understand english and he understands when frankie and i are bitching about him.
After class we met sunny and vanessa for lunch and we went to a really nice restaurant on Guilin Road. We had a really nice lunch - the food was so good. The rest of the day was pretty boring. I did a bit of revision and then had an early night.
8th November
This morning I got up at 7 and went to reading class, which like all my other classes so far this week was pretty boring. But afterwards we had speaking class and the teacher told us that we were going to be playing a game. He would write a word on the board and then someone would have to stand with their back to the board while everyone else had to explain what the word was without saying the word. Once I got over the initial stress of being picked to go and stand up infront of everyone and be made to look like a complete idiot it was actually quite fun. (a couple of people volunteered to do it so i didnt have to). The fact that I found this fun shows how boring our class usually is!
We went for lunch at the korean place on campus and then i did some revision in the afternoon. Frankie and I decided to go back to the Xinjiang restaurant for tea, and sarah came round so we asked her if she wanted to come too. However, because we only had 2 bikes it meant that 2 people would have to cycle while 2 people sat on the back. Sarah wasnt too keen on sitting on the back of a bicycle so she decdied to cycle fran while I sat on the back of frankie's bike. However sarah was finding it too hard so she decided to sit on frankie's bike while i cycled fran. I think it was probably one of the worst experiences of francesca's life! Because I've only cycled and little bit with someone sat on the back, I was finding it quite hard to get my balance, but it was ok once i got going. But Francesca wasnt happy when I turned down a road and started cycling into the oncomming traffic - don't worry this is a normal thing to do in china, people usually cycle on the wrong side of the road if they cant be bothered to cross to the other side. Tea was really nice and I successfully cycled francesca back to uni.
Saturday 3 November 2007
The last day of the field trip
2nd November
This morning I got a lie in - I didnt have to get up till 7am!!! We had another nice breakfast of fried rice and strange bread things, and then we all got on the bus and went to Xidi Villiage. It was another nice village with old buildings, and they had some massive stone arches that were built for some special reason but I dont know what because I couldnt be bothered to read the information things or listen to the tourguide. But just for a change our guide was being really annoying and didnt give us time to look at anything - when i say she didnt give us time to look at anything, I mean she didnt give us time to look at any of the shops, and they all looked really nice and there was lots of nice bracelets and things that i could have wasted my money on.
We got back on the bus to go to the next place which was litterally 1 minute away. We got on the bus, drove down to the end of the road, and then got off the bus again .We could have just walked there, but the obv think we are really lazy because they drove us. We had a look round a nice garden, and the sun came out. We spent most of our time sat in one of the pagodas on top of a building enjoying the sunshine.
After that we went for lunch - even tho it was 11.30am. i dont know why that have to eat so early in china. But after lunch we got back on the bus, said goodbye to our tourguide (thank god) and then set off back to shanghai. The journey was so boring. It was alright to start with because the scenery was really pretty, but then I got so bored, and i was really tired but it was too uncomfy and i couldnt get to sleep. We had to stop at a tea place as well on the way back, and some woman gave us a boring talk about tea, but we left part way through and went to look at the gift shop, but I didnt have any money with me so i went back to the bus with frankie. There were some guys sat on the bus next to us (they were chinese so obviously they were staring because that is what chinese people do best) so i waved at them which they found quite funny, but then they didnt stop staring so we had to get off the bus and wait outside for everyone. But we didnt have to wait for too long and then we set off again. We eventually got back to shanghai, and when i got back I had a parcel from my twin which was full of sweets and chocolate :)
We went for tea at sarahs and had some normal food, and then I had an early night because I was soooooooo tired.
I had such an amazing time at the mountains though, altho it was really misty, the scenery was really pretty, and it was nice to get out of the city and get some fresh air!!
This morning I got a lie in - I didnt have to get up till 7am!!! We had another nice breakfast of fried rice and strange bread things, and then we all got on the bus and went to Xidi Villiage. It was another nice village with old buildings, and they had some massive stone arches that were built for some special reason but I dont know what because I couldnt be bothered to read the information things or listen to the tourguide. But just for a change our guide was being really annoying and didnt give us time to look at anything - when i say she didnt give us time to look at anything, I mean she didnt give us time to look at any of the shops, and they all looked really nice and there was lots of nice bracelets and things that i could have wasted my money on.
We got back on the bus to go to the next place which was litterally 1 minute away. We got on the bus, drove down to the end of the road, and then got off the bus again .We could have just walked there, but the obv think we are really lazy because they drove us. We had a look round a nice garden, and the sun came out. We spent most of our time sat in one of the pagodas on top of a building enjoying the sunshine.
After that we went for lunch - even tho it was 11.30am. i dont know why that have to eat so early in china. But after lunch we got back on the bus, said goodbye to our tourguide (thank god) and then set off back to shanghai. The journey was so boring. It was alright to start with because the scenery was really pretty, but then I got so bored, and i was really tired but it was too uncomfy and i couldnt get to sleep. We had to stop at a tea place as well on the way back, and some woman gave us a boring talk about tea, but we left part way through and went to look at the gift shop, but I didnt have any money with me so i went back to the bus with frankie. There were some guys sat on the bus next to us (they were chinese so obviously they were staring because that is what chinese people do best) so i waved at them which they found quite funny, but then they didnt stop staring so we had to get off the bus and wait outside for everyone. But we didnt have to wait for too long and then we set off again. We eventually got back to shanghai, and when i got back I had a parcel from my twin which was full of sweets and chocolate :)
We went for tea at sarahs and had some normal food, and then I had an early night because I was soooooooo tired.
I had such an amazing time at the mountains though, altho it was really misty, the scenery was really pretty, and it was nice to get out of the city and get some fresh air!!
Going down the mountain
1st November
This morning I woke up at 5.30am because the room was so cold!!! (altho i had been woken up a couple of times during the night by someone ringing my english phone to confirm my accupuncture appointment - after about the 3rd time of them calling me i answered and told them they had the wrong number and then hung up). at 6.50am we had our wake up call and i quickly got into the shower to try and get warm. We went down to breakfast and I had rice porridge which was pretty minging, but then they brought out some cake which was nice.
After breakfast we went to wait at reception for everyone to get ready, but for some reason it took ages and it was so cold sat there. Eventually we set off and we only had the annoying tourguide woman because the other guide had to go during the night. I was really pleased to be walking again because it made me feel less cold. We only walked for a couple of hours, but some of it was quite hard and we had to go up a lot of steps. Because we only had one guide we all had to go down on the cable car which was quite annoying because we had to pay 65yuan for it, and it was a nice day so i would have walked down if we'd had the choice.
When we got off the cable car we got on a bus down to the bottom of the mountain and then we got on our coach which took us to a restaurant nearby. We had such a nice lunch - there was the usual chinese stuff, but we got some really nice meatballs, and then we got chips!!!! yummy there was a bit of a fight over chips tho! We couldnt leave the restaurant through the door that we'd come in through - they made us walk out through the shop which sold ridiculously expensive carvings, jewels and pottery - did they actually think that a group of students would buy anything??
Afterwards we went to Hongcun village which was really pretty. It was a traditional village with lots of nice buildings, and some of crouching tiger, hidden dragon was filmed there. But it was really annoying because we had to follow the annoying tourguide the whole time and we didnt get chance to stop and look at anything because she kept say ing ZOU LA (keep walking). Although at one point we just ignored her and ended up losing everyone, but there was a guy from the uni there and he showed us where we had to go. I was carrying a flag that said shanghai normal university on it, and when we saw the tourguide woman again she waved her special tourguide flag at us, which i think was supposed to make us hurry up, but i just waved my flag back at her - she did not like that at all, ive never seen anyone look so angry. Altho, i think maybe she was slightly jealous of my flag because it was better than hers.
Anyway, after we were rushed around the village we got back on the bus and we went to the old street where we had been on my birthday. We couldnt be bothered to follow the annoying tourguide woman again so we asked if we could go to the bar where we'd been on my birthday, and the guy said that it was fine and that he would ring us when they would be going for tea. We got to the bar and had some yummy hot chocolates, and the guy who owned it remembered my name!! We were there for ages and the guy never called so frankie called sarah who said that they were sitting down at the restaurant about to eat, so we quickly left the bar and went to meet everyone. After tea we went to the hotel where we had stayed on the first night. We didnt do anything in the evening because we were all pretty tired from our mountain expedition, so we just went to the supermarket next door to stock up on chocolate.
This morning I woke up at 5.30am because the room was so cold!!! (altho i had been woken up a couple of times during the night by someone ringing my english phone to confirm my accupuncture appointment - after about the 3rd time of them calling me i answered and told them they had the wrong number and then hung up). at 6.50am we had our wake up call and i quickly got into the shower to try and get warm. We went down to breakfast and I had rice porridge which was pretty minging, but then they brought out some cake which was nice.
After breakfast we went to wait at reception for everyone to get ready, but for some reason it took ages and it was so cold sat there. Eventually we set off and we only had the annoying tourguide woman because the other guide had to go during the night. I was really pleased to be walking again because it made me feel less cold. We only walked for a couple of hours, but some of it was quite hard and we had to go up a lot of steps. Because we only had one guide we all had to go down on the cable car which was quite annoying because we had to pay 65yuan for it, and it was a nice day so i would have walked down if we'd had the choice.
When we got off the cable car we got on a bus down to the bottom of the mountain and then we got on our coach which took us to a restaurant nearby. We had such a nice lunch - there was the usual chinese stuff, but we got some really nice meatballs, and then we got chips!!!! yummy there was a bit of a fight over chips tho! We couldnt leave the restaurant through the door that we'd come in through - they made us walk out through the shop which sold ridiculously expensive carvings, jewels and pottery - did they actually think that a group of students would buy anything??
Afterwards we went to Hongcun village which was really pretty. It was a traditional village with lots of nice buildings, and some of crouching tiger, hidden dragon was filmed there. But it was really annoying because we had to follow the annoying tourguide the whole time and we didnt get chance to stop and look at anything because she kept say ing ZOU LA (keep walking). Although at one point we just ignored her and ended up losing everyone, but there was a guy from the uni there and he showed us where we had to go. I was carrying a flag that said shanghai normal university on it, and when we saw the tourguide woman again she waved her special tourguide flag at us, which i think was supposed to make us hurry up, but i just waved my flag back at her - she did not like that at all, ive never seen anyone look so angry. Altho, i think maybe she was slightly jealous of my flag because it was better than hers.
Anyway, after we were rushed around the village we got back on the bus and we went to the old street where we had been on my birthday. We couldnt be bothered to follow the annoying tourguide woman again so we asked if we could go to the bar where we'd been on my birthday, and the guy said that it was fine and that he would ring us when they would be going for tea. We got to the bar and had some yummy hot chocolates, and the guy who owned it remembered my name!! We were there for ages and the guy never called so frankie called sarah who said that they were sitting down at the restaurant about to eat, so we quickly left the bar and went to meet everyone. After tea we went to the hotel where we had stayed on the first night. We didnt do anything in the evening because we were all pretty tired from our mountain expedition, so we just went to the supermarket next door to stock up on chocolate.
Friday 2 November 2007
The trek up the mountain
31st October
We had to get up at 6.30am which was far too early. This morning I had my first chinese breakfast, even though I have now been here for over two months. There was fried rice, noodles and some kind of bread stuff which was all really nice to eat so early in the morning!! Afterwards we went and packed our bags and got on the bus to the bottom of the mountains which was only half an hour away. When we got there a few of us needed to go the toilets so i asked our guide where they were and she pointed us in the right direction. When we got there and saw the toilets we didnt know what to say, I had heard that there were "public" toilets that didnt have any doors on, but I hadnt seen any before. It was an interesting experience.
We got on another bus which took us part way up the mountains - the driver way crazy, he drove so quickly around the bends, it didnt feel very safe. When got off the bus we had to wait for ages, but eventually we got our tickets and we got a cable car part-way up the mountain. When we were in the cable car it was so misty and at one point we couldnt actually see anything and it was a bit claustraphobic. But then when we were near the top we got above the mist and the views were amazing. We had to wait for everyone to get to the top and then our crazy tourguide made us all start walking.
The guide was soooooooo annoying. She walked too quickly all the time and kept getting ahead of us. And then when she was tired she would stop for a break. But by the time we had caught up with her she would just start walking again so we would hardly have anytime to rest. And she had a really annoying voice as well. I did not like her at all.
At one point tho we got a 20minute break so i took a few photos and had a rest. But i saw that there was a little stall that sold random stuff so i went to have a look and i bought the best thing ever. I got a medal which said i had climbed the mountains and i got my name engraved on it and the date, its sooooooo cool. But then the walking started again and we had to walk down a bit that was sooooooo steep. It was really frightening because there was nothing to hold on to apart from the rock, and if you fell down to the bottom you would just fall off the edge of the mountain because there was nothing there to stop you - in china there are no health and safety laws! When we eventually made it down the really steep bit we were faced with the steepest rock and hundreds and hundreds of steps - there were 633 because I counted. At one point we had to walk up a really really steep bit which was so narrow, and near the top the rocks were wet and slippy and it was really dangerous. I didnt enjoy it. And then when we got to the top we couldnt see the view because the mist was so thick!!!! We got to have lunch afterwards so we got a bit of a break.
After lunch we had did some more walking. After lots of steps we reached a meteorological observatory thing and we sat down for a bit and had a rest. There was another tourguide there and he looked really confused and we thought that he looked as though he had lost his tourgroup. He went over to talk to our guide and I decided that he was probably trying to swap a chinese person from his tourgroup for one of us, but then our guide hit him with our flag which was so funny and we carried on walking again. We got to one bit where the was a massive rock and a huuuuuuge drop off the edge and i was a bit too scared to go near the edge so i was just stood taking some photos and then the best thing happened - a chinese man asked if he could take a photo of me!!! Everyone else has had their photos taken by random chinese people but this was my first time, I hope he has it framed and put on display somewhere in his house. Eventually i got some courage and i went and lay down on the edge of the cliff, it was really scary tho.
we eventually made it to our hotel near the top of the mountain. we were all really tired so we just stayed inside and chatted for a while before tea. Our rooms we so cold tho, but luckily frankie discovered the massive coats in our wardrobe so we put those on and we were all really cool and went for tea in our matching coats. After tea we decided to go and sit somewhere outside on the mountain in the dark and tell ghost stories because it was halloween. It was really scary. We went and sat on a path that had a few dim lights going up it so we werent in total darkness. At one point and guy ran down the stairs past us and I was slightly concerned that he was running away from a murderer/bear/tiger.
After a while we got too cold and tired so we went back to the hotel and I had a nice warm shower and then went to bed.
We had to get up at 6.30am which was far too early. This morning I had my first chinese breakfast, even though I have now been here for over two months. There was fried rice, noodles and some kind of bread stuff which was all really nice to eat so early in the morning!! Afterwards we went and packed our bags and got on the bus to the bottom of the mountains which was only half an hour away. When we got there a few of us needed to go the toilets so i asked our guide where they were and she pointed us in the right direction. When we got there and saw the toilets we didnt know what to say, I had heard that there were "public" toilets that didnt have any doors on, but I hadnt seen any before. It was an interesting experience.
We got on another bus which took us part way up the mountains - the driver way crazy, he drove so quickly around the bends, it didnt feel very safe. When got off the bus we had to wait for ages, but eventually we got our tickets and we got a cable car part-way up the mountain. When we were in the cable car it was so misty and at one point we couldnt actually see anything and it was a bit claustraphobic. But then when we were near the top we got above the mist and the views were amazing. We had to wait for everyone to get to the top and then our crazy tourguide made us all start walking.
The guide was soooooooo annoying. She walked too quickly all the time and kept getting ahead of us. And then when she was tired she would stop for a break. But by the time we had caught up with her she would just start walking again so we would hardly have anytime to rest. And she had a really annoying voice as well. I did not like her at all.
At one point tho we got a 20minute break so i took a few photos and had a rest. But i saw that there was a little stall that sold random stuff so i went to have a look and i bought the best thing ever. I got a medal which said i had climbed the mountains and i got my name engraved on it and the date, its sooooooo cool. But then the walking started again and we had to walk down a bit that was sooooooo steep. It was really frightening because there was nothing to hold on to apart from the rock, and if you fell down to the bottom you would just fall off the edge of the mountain because there was nothing there to stop you - in china there are no health and safety laws! When we eventually made it down the really steep bit we were faced with the steepest rock and hundreds and hundreds of steps - there were 633 because I counted. At one point we had to walk up a really really steep bit which was so narrow, and near the top the rocks were wet and slippy and it was really dangerous. I didnt enjoy it. And then when we got to the top we couldnt see the view because the mist was so thick!!!! We got to have lunch afterwards so we got a bit of a break.
After lunch we had did some more walking. After lots of steps we reached a meteorological observatory thing and we sat down for a bit and had a rest. There was another tourguide there and he looked really confused and we thought that he looked as though he had lost his tourgroup. He went over to talk to our guide and I decided that he was probably trying to swap a chinese person from his tourgroup for one of us, but then our guide hit him with our flag which was so funny and we carried on walking again. We got to one bit where the was a massive rock and a huuuuuuge drop off the edge and i was a bit too scared to go near the edge so i was just stood taking some photos and then the best thing happened - a chinese man asked if he could take a photo of me!!! Everyone else has had their photos taken by random chinese people but this was my first time, I hope he has it framed and put on display somewhere in his house. Eventually i got some courage and i went and lay down on the edge of the cliff, it was really scary tho.
we eventually made it to our hotel near the top of the mountain. we were all really tired so we just stayed inside and chatted for a while before tea. Our rooms we so cold tho, but luckily frankie discovered the massive coats in our wardrobe so we put those on and we were all really cool and went for tea in our matching coats. After tea we decided to go and sit somewhere outside on the mountain in the dark and tell ghost stories because it was halloween. It was really scary. We went and sat on a path that had a few dim lights going up it so we werent in total darkness. At one point and guy ran down the stairs past us and I was slightly concerned that he was running away from a murderer/bear/tiger.
After a while we got too cold and tired so we went back to the hotel and I had a nice warm shower and then went to bed.
MY BIRTHDAY
30th October
well i had a lie in this morning, we were supposed to go to class in the morning but i decided to have a day off because it was my birthday. Altho i did get woken up at 6.55am with a text from william to wish my happy birthday, and i think he had done that on purpose because i texted him really early yesterday to get him to go on skype.
I finished packing and then at 12 we went to get on the bus to the mountains. We had to listen to 2 guys talking at the front of the bus for ages, and i think one of the guys was giving us some kind of cultural talk because he was going on about different cities and provinces and other boring stuff, but i just sat there eating the cake that gemma and beki gave me so i was happy. We watched Mr Bean on the bus for a bit which helped to pass some time, but i got bored of that after a while. Spending 5 and a half hours on a bus isnt fun!! We went to a restaurant when we arrived at the town at the bottom of the mountain and then we went to the hotel afterwards.
It was quite early when we arrived, so after we left our stuff in our rooms, we went with the italians to the old street. we went on one of the bicycle taxis which was really good fun, and frankie got our cyclist to sing happy birthday to me!! the old street was nice, but a bit touristy. At the end of the street we found a nice bar so we all went and sat in there and had a couple of drinks, and the guy there gave everyone a free drink because we told him it was my birthday. When we were walking down the old street we bought some small backpacks because we were told on the way to the mountains that we would be spending a night at the top of the mountains and i didnt want to have to carry my massive backpack all the way to the top, so i bought a small bag that i could put all my essentials in (make-up and hairstraighteners).
Afterwards we got in a taxi back to the hotel and we kept asking the driver to sing happy birthday to me but he kept saying that he couldnt sing, but when we got at the hotel he sang one ine so i was very happy. And the best thing of all - i put the tv on in our room and they had harry potter on and it was in english!!!!
well i had a lie in this morning, we were supposed to go to class in the morning but i decided to have a day off because it was my birthday. Altho i did get woken up at 6.55am with a text from william to wish my happy birthday, and i think he had done that on purpose because i texted him really early yesterday to get him to go on skype.
I finished packing and then at 12 we went to get on the bus to the mountains. We had to listen to 2 guys talking at the front of the bus for ages, and i think one of the guys was giving us some kind of cultural talk because he was going on about different cities and provinces and other boring stuff, but i just sat there eating the cake that gemma and beki gave me so i was happy. We watched Mr Bean on the bus for a bit which helped to pass some time, but i got bored of that after a while. Spending 5 and a half hours on a bus isnt fun!! We went to a restaurant when we arrived at the town at the bottom of the mountain and then we went to the hotel afterwards.
It was quite early when we arrived, so after we left our stuff in our rooms, we went with the italians to the old street. we went on one of the bicycle taxis which was really good fun, and frankie got our cyclist to sing happy birthday to me!! the old street was nice, but a bit touristy. At the end of the street we found a nice bar so we all went and sat in there and had a couple of drinks, and the guy there gave everyone a free drink because we told him it was my birthday. When we were walking down the old street we bought some small backpacks because we were told on the way to the mountains that we would be spending a night at the top of the mountains and i didnt want to have to carry my massive backpack all the way to the top, so i bought a small bag that i could put all my essentials in (make-up and hairstraighteners).
Afterwards we got in a taxi back to the hotel and we kept asking the driver to sing happy birthday to me but he kept saying that he couldnt sing, but when we got at the hotel he sang one ine so i was very happy. And the best thing of all - i put the tv on in our room and they had harry potter on and it was in english!!!!
My birthday eve
29th October
This morning we got up a bit late because we decided to be rebels and go to class ten minutes late to miss the test because we couldnt be bothered to learn all the words. Today I had to organise all my stuff for the field trip because we are going tomo. so i went to the trust mart (im not sure if ive mentioned this before in my blog, but it is the best shop in the world, and just up the road from the uni and it sells everything), and i got a backpack which is huge and only £7!!!
The rest of the day was pretty boring, but this evening i had a suprise birthday celebration. frankie had been all the way into town and got me an amaaaaaaaazing chocolate cake and i had some really nice gifts from sarah and fran. it was so nice!!
This morning we got up a bit late because we decided to be rebels and go to class ten minutes late to miss the test because we couldnt be bothered to learn all the words. Today I had to organise all my stuff for the field trip because we are going tomo. so i went to the trust mart (im not sure if ive mentioned this before in my blog, but it is the best shop in the world, and just up the road from the uni and it sells everything), and i got a backpack which is huge and only £7!!!
The rest of the day was pretty boring, but this evening i had a suprise birthday celebration. frankie had been all the way into town and got me an amaaaaaaaazing chocolate cake and i had some really nice gifts from sarah and fran. it was so nice!!
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