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Published: December 9th 2006
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Christmas is coming...
our Christmas tree in our front room Oh yes it's only 2 weeks on Monday til Christmas...
Won't really mean much to me as here in China they of course don't celebrate it, so we are only getting Christmas Day and New Year's Day off, but better than nowt! As soon as it hit 1 Dec, shops here started displaying massive Christmas trees in their windows, fairy lights, and a lot of tack (well it is China, gotta be OTT!) However it's just enough to make you fee Christmassy, and not get pissed off by the commercial-ness of Christmas in the UK which seems to begin in October with Christmas songs everywhere you go and manic shoppers filling the aisles of every shop in town. So I think I'm going to like Christmas in China! My friends and I are also having a Secret Santa and having a big Christmas lunch at a restaurant in town on Christmas Day........wonder if they'll have mince pies....?
Anyway, so what's new? At the Junior 2 campus (with students aged 10, 11, 12) some of the classes have been preparing plays. They perform them after school and the teachers judge them, and then the best ones perform it in a few weeks in front of the whole school (ooh). We sat in on the plays even though surprisingly we weren't asked to actually JUDGE them (which I thought was somewhat strange seeing as the students were performing in English and surely we are the best judge of English?!). Anyway they were quite funny (probably unintentionally so!) and I enjoyed seeing my students perform. More to see next week...so on Wednesday and Thursday we didn't get home til 7-8pm!
We have reached a bit of brick wall when it comes to getting to know some of the Chinese English teachers. They just seem to be too polite and formal around us, and there is the language barrier - they have been speaking it for years, but sometimes it's still a bit stilted. But guess I will keep trying....also I/we get annoyed that we are not invited or asked to things at the school. They seem to think that they are sparing us the boredom of attending eg a play, or a singing competition, but we only see our students once a week, so it's nice to see them out of class. However we only find out about school performances either AFTER they have happened or when we accidentally pass by.
Some of the students in one of my Junior 2 classes have been pestering me for weeks about going to an English corner with them in the city. So finally after a meal at Dave's, my flatmate and I went to this 'English corner' (a place where Chinese people can practice their English with foreigners) which is opposite the Sofitel Wanda Hotel, on Binjiang Zhong Rd. It starts at about 8pm every Friday, but there was a whole crowd of people there already when we went at 8pm, so it probably starts a little earlier. Anyway as soon as we got there and met my students (dressed up in very fashionable outfits 😉) were like 'OK now we can go to Chunxi Lu?' Honestly what are they like? Obviously the English corner was their way of luring us to meet them so we could go 'shopping' in Chunxi Lu! So we put them off and talked to some people. It was quite fun, I would do it again, you feel like a bit of a superstar with 30-odd people hanging on your every word! However one man was like 'oh why did you study English and Music, what's the point?' Grrr I have met enough people in the UK like that who look down their noses at people who do 'arts'. So politely as I could I explained that I did not like subjects such as Business Studies or Law or Maths, I wanted to do what I was interested and had a flair for, who cares how much money I might earn or what jobs I do. For f***'s sake (I didn't say the last part).
Anyway so after 15 mins or so the girls and us went to Chunxi Lu. Although we just wandered around talking, as we tried to explain to them that we were not loaded and could not afford to go in the expensive shops they wanted to go in! So after a while we just hopped in a taxi and headed off home, via the supermarket to pick up a Christmas tree! Being with pre-teenage girls reminds me of what I was like at their age, pretty much exactly the same! I thought I was pretty cool and what I wore was pretty cool, and as I didn't have much money bar a few quid for pocket money, my friend and I used to go to Croydon High Street pretty much every Saturday and window shop for 6 hours, then go home! and that is what these girls do, it seems!
So, on the way home we bought a Christmas tree at the supermarket, and decorated it last night, so now it is in pride of place in the living room, and looks so pretty! Today I'm off to do some Christmas shopping for the Secret Santa thing, and meeting someone for dinner in town tonight, then heading off to the Shamrock bar which has a deal on tonight!
Til next time......
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