Tall Tales from Binzhou

Again I have been slightly rubbish at updating my blog but due to the lack of broadband and sometimes electricity it is proving quite difficult!
Sine my last blog entry I have been attending Tae Kwon Do classes (and yes I can hear you all laughing!) I cannot profess to have any skill whatsoever when it comes to martial arts although I do have a beautiful white suit in which to do it! There were four of us in the class, Chinese guy about my age, Brett, myself and a Chinese 12 year old girl who was some kind of Bruce Lee in disguise!! She was amazing her arms and legs could do things and bend in ways that I did not think was humanly possible. The Chinese guy was equally talented. At one point (after I had fallen while trying to do some jump kick) I looked over to see him laying flat on the floor fully in the splits with the teacher standing on his shoulders!! Arrghh
Well after my limbs had slightly recovered I did them some more damage by climbing Tai Shan. It’s the holiest mountain in china and about 4 hours away from where I live so last weekend Christi, Brett, Bi Si Bao and I set out to reach the summit! I was fooled into thinking that because there were steps all the way it would be quite an easy climb but dear god it was hard. One step is about the size of 5 normal steps so it’s more like heaving yourself up than climbing and there were so so many- 1600 metres is a lot of steps! But it was worth it the views were incredible and so were the random Chinese eccentrics we met on the way up! We spent the night at the top which was not fun. It was so cold, made sleeping in a tent on Duke of Edinburgh seem like heaven and there was no water which equaled very smelly toilets! But all this was forgotten we woke at 5:30 to watch the sun rise -my crap photos do not do it justice. Climbing back down was slightly less painful and we celebrated our achievement in true western style by heading to McDonalds!
Had a brilliant time but woke on Monday morning unable to move -had obviously been using leg muscles that had not been worked for years - for the next few days I almost cried each time I had to walk down some stairs and since I live on the sixth floor it wasn't fun!!
Have made really good friends here - spend a lot of time with Christi and Brett who are from Oz and are amazing and don’t seem to mind me being the constant third wheel. Have got some wonderful Chinese friends too, especially Bi si bao whose English can only been described as pure poetry and eminem who in China is regarded as a bit of a bad boy (he has his ear pierced-pretty wild huh?)
Binzhou, the town I live in has one disco -the infamous eagle rock, complete with bouncy dance floor -so much fun. My friends and I are becoming regulars there and even get shout outs from the DJ! Was there again on Saturday night -so mum and dad, that, and a lot of Chinese medicinal whiskey is the reason for my drunken phone call home!(pretty sad that I am now calling my parents when pissed -well max and juls I hope your proud at least it wasn't AK!)
Am still loving the teaching, the children are amazing am starting to really get to know them now so its getting much better -one of my students has some kind of learning difficulties and the Chinese teachers are horrible to him which I find pretty difficult so I (maybe unprofessionally) adopt the tactic of favoritism and bring him loads of sweets every day -I love him think I might do an Angelina jolie and bring him home with me!
Although I love Bizhou I am starting to realise how fast my time is going and how much more of China I still have to discover. Am also beginning to feel a little bit like a routine is setting in and routines are against everything my world tour stands for! So am thinking of only working until the end of December and then heading off to western china, Tibet and Sichuan until max comes to meet me in Beijing on the 24th January (cant wait sen!!) But Eunice doesn’t worry no decisions made yet!
Hope you’re all well and getting ready for Christmas -I am dreaming of turkey, bread sauce and cranberry!!
Lots of Love

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