Zigong

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Following day, get up a little later and then Susan...our second link teacher, who lives above us...knocks on the door and takes us up one flight to her appartment where a nice lunch awaits us to be eaten. We chat meet her husband eat food and then depart feeling rather full. Later we again find ourself shopping in RenRenLe. Then Victor, comes around a grade 3 student, so we eat dinner together and chat and then Victor leaves and well yeh that was about it...days getting a little less filled with things.

Monday and Tuesday consisted of thinking of lessons plans, shopping in RenRenLe, me cooking a lot of food - Chinese and Western - reading books, watching TV and not doing a lot else really. Having a walk around the city of Zigong...yes it is a city, its 17 times bigger than Southend and is home to 3 million people...so its preeeety big. Tuesday evening we went out for dinner and it was Hua Guo time. That was rather nice and also so was being Ganbeid - cheersed - by random people in the restuarant beacause we are foreign, Rob was a little reluctant but I went straight for it!!! Also 2 Juniour students came and introduced themselves to us, its great being a foreigner in Zigong!!

On Wednesday we go and observe a Grade 2 lesson, and then the rest of the day is pretty muich the same as Monday and Tuesday, then on Wednesday it was time to go and view a 2 Lessons in the Juniou School....naaaaww these kids are sooooo cute, they may b 12-13 but they look...and act soo much younger. That was good fun, it was nice for me to be back in a school environment. After that the day pretty much went the same as Monday Tuesday and Wednesday. Although I did manage to cook a good western meal, or pork kind of chops we'll call them, roast potatoes and vegatables!

Friday, not a lot went down on this day, not a lot at all, just looking for tours going to Tibet...hmmm yay!! Decided to go out for a quick dinner again today to survey the local restuarant scene. After the food had just arrived a rather junk two men stumbled over to the table and the ganbeing thing proceeded again, once again I dived right in and went on with the processions thinking that may be it...but oh no the whole meal was spent with this rather drunk guy continously repeating, MY ENGLISH VERY BAD and sometimes speaking to me in Chinese which some i understood and if it took me a while to understand he would repeat louder and closer to my face as if that is really going to help your situation and help me understand it more! Anyway 40minutes later after talking on his phone using his sister as a translator and sometimes his girlfreind we are ushed to leave he pays for the meal for us, so good things come from wherever in the land of Zigong, just because your a foreigner!!

Saturday led to another easy day with a bedtime of around 5am due to me and Rob having many debates on various issues. Sunday, Hillary calls (a grade 3 student) and invites herself round at 12:00 bare in mind its now 11:30 and were both still in bed...so Hillary comes round, then we go out around Zigong, we eat dumplings and then go and see the college. ON the way we meet this random guy called Wei! Such a dude, so we go to a place to drink some tea...this place is going to be a haven because they show live football from England and Spain lol, and they will also show the world cup from the 9th June!!! Wohoooo!! Will be returning to that place very often!! We say goodbye to Wei and then Hillary comes back to the appartment and I took a Chinese meal for the 3 of us, Hillary left around 10pm and then we went to bed around 2am.

Monday bought the day of new teaching in a new school, only one lesson all be it but i couldnt wait to get started...but had to wait till 3:35pm!! Anywhay when the time eventually rolled around to go to my lesson, it was great, a Junior one calss, they are so lively and so active and so just adorable aswell and they are so interested in you.

The rest of the week was similar 1 lesson on tuesday and then the week gets busier with 4 wed 3 thur and then 4 again friday with 3 junior 1 classes in the afternoon which is a killer becasue its Friday...time befor ethe weekend and just like any normal school kid they wanna get away from school as quickly as possibly and as soon as possible on a Friday so they very soo noisy and so active but it was all good fun!

Friday lunchtime also held in store a English corner with the seniour students - a time when they can discuss issues they wouldnt normally talk about with other teachers and also a time to practice there Englsih in a much more relaxed environment and time to relax which is good for them as they are so pressured!!

Saturday saw not a lot happening spent the whole day in the apparment chilling out, then Hillary and Janet came round...Hillary busied herself in our kitcher for 2.5 hours cooking a wonderful dinner while we chatted to Janet...we then ate dinner talked a lot and also decided it would be good to sing loads of songs...chinese and englsih lol!! and yes i can sing a chinese song lol!!!

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