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.