Trees

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The last week or two I've noticed THE most gorgeous smell around the town. Turns out it is a tree, the English name of which I don't know. Well, a girl brought me in a small twig the other day with these little yellow blossoms and it was them! My calssroom smelled beautiful all day. It's the official tree of Hangzhou city and I *think* it's called a camphor tree, though I need to get someone to confirm that. I vaguely recall a Singing Kettle song about Camphor but might be getting confused.

Our gym is officially shit. Both steppers are now broken so all they have is treadmills, bikes and two cross trainers. We keep telling the staff about the broken equipment and each time they act like it's thei first time they've been told. Their customer service generally is appalling. They will frequently cancel classes at the last minute, let people smoke inside and never seem to agree about anything. However, we have little choice. I have decided that I'm only going to go once, maximum twice a week, hopefully to do a class each time (unless they are cancelled) and otherwise just to workout outside. Actually today the class was on, and we did yoga. Fricking ow. I did not feel at one with nature - gymanstics seems a long time ago, I can't believe I used to be able to do the splits, touch my toes etc. I think I'm going to fee sore tomorrow.

Part of the reason I am going to cut down gym visits (apart from the fact it's crap) is that is takes a good 2.5 hours by the time you get there, work out and shower and for the next ten weeks I am going to be very busy. I have signed up for an online GMAT preparation course so need to spend every spare minute practising for that - at least two hours a day, most likely more. I am actually quite excite though, I plan to sit the exam before Christmas so when I get back I can just focus on other things and seeing more of China.

We're going to have a picnic tomorrow so I hope the weather will be nice. Today was very warm so fingers crossed it stays the same.

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