Today I booked my ticket at the Liyuan Theatre for the evening daily performance by Beijing Opera. The taxis in Beijing are not great unfortunately - note that they often can't read, so handing them a card will not always help you! Liyuan was difficult to find as it is actually inside the Jiangguo Hotel in Qianmen. http://www.qianmenhotel.com/ Turning right out of Liyuan Theatre I came across a several fairly large music shops (selling both traditional and Western instruments) on the main road (I think Yong'an Lu), where I bought my lovely new erhu. It may well have been the X [View Full Entry]

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I managed get to Beijing sans-food for around 4 days. I said goodbye to my students, who all presented me with cards and presents (some had made me a gorgeous chime of cranes which I'll treasure), and took pictures (I must have looked half-dead!). Most of them were in tears!! Imagine after 4 weeks, they would have been full-on bawling!! I didn't think I was that great a teacher, really!! The drive from Mile to Kunming was so beautiful - I'm glad that the last memory I have of Yunnan is that of red mountains and stone forests. Until next time! [View Full Entry]

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*If you don't like stuff about needles, don't read!!* Sunday night I was taken in an ambulance to the local Mile County People's Hospital (弥勒县人民医院). Arrangements had been made for me to leave for Beijing. Before getting in the ambulance I spoke to the headteacher, Mei's sister-in-law, who explained she had been plagued with debilitating stomach problems for around 1 1/2 years since coming to take her position at the school. Thankfully I had my own room, where I was then put on the first of four bottles of drip. I was reluctant to get [View Full Entry]

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Saturday One week of teaching over. It has been pretty mixed I have to say..some things are very frustrating, but I have to say the kids are growing on me a lot. We just had an hour meeting concerning diet, as it seems everyone has fallen ill with diarrhoea, two people having to be put on drips. So we made requests for stuff to eat, but I am still doubtful I will eat much at that canteen, and that the staff there will actually comply with our demands i.e. not fry everything and boil some of the vegetables, and to give [View Full Entry]

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Mile town is about 1/2 hour walk from the school (it takes 15 minutes alone just to get to the entrance of the place mind you!) but only 10 yuan by taxi. While it is fairly modern, the place is lined with tea houses. Often when we went out for drinks we were given free food (and for some, waterpipe-age). Everything is incredibly cheap (I think we paid £2 for 20 beers at one point). We did also find the only bar in Mile however! The school organised 2 fruit-shopping trips a week. However one was cancelled and I was starving, [View Full Entry]

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Breakfast at the Zhu Family Gardens was obviously not the norm for them - we asked to have it at 8am, as did a group of 4 French travellers - and staff obviously tried to give us something as close to a Western breakfast as possible. The waitress didn’t know how to make toast quite evidently! We had a small, dry cake, banana, and toast (the only bread they seem to have in this province is close to French brioche) with some unknown spread they managed to find! Checkout at Zhu Gardens was 12pm, so we got out to the Confucian [View Full Entry]

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Wed 15 Jianshui[/h2) 9:00 Bus from Xizhan station, Mile 弥勒 to JiJie 鸡街 We passed stunning landscapes and mountains covered with subtropical greenery, the further we drove the earth seemed to turn a deeper shade of red. As valleys opened up, more and more cultivation and small villages appeared. As we passed some of the larger towns there were also Muslim areas with enormous mosques in the distance that towered above all over buildings in its proximity. Unfortunately we had made the mistake of sitting at the back of the bus, where the 3 of us were cr [View Full Entry]

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Training has been hard work, but Mei is a very enthusiastic teacher. Despite that I had planned for a while to go to Dali and Lijiang during the next 5 days off, it looks like it will be too complicated to do. We would have to take the bus from Mile to Kunming (3 hours), then a sleeper bus from Kunming to Dali (5 hours). I would prefer to have Sunday free so that I can make sure I’m prepared to start teaching on Monday. If we had 7 days maybe it would be more feasible. Another place I’m interested in [View Full Entry]

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Trained from 9am until 11:30pm today. We had to form groups to create a 40-minute lesson plan yesterday, so we’ve been teaching them to the others today. We had a 2-hour break while the group that arrived last night started their training, so I went swimming in the very large, cold pool! It’s great! I’m not sure why it hasn’t turned into another lake because it’s obviously not chlorinated and the sides and bottom are plastered in algae! Otherwise it seems safe! There are diving boards as well, and all the locals come to watch the foreigners screaming and jumping o [View Full Entry]

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The school is quite amazing, it is far, far bigger than I imagined. It looks like a holiday resort, and it takes a good half-hour or so to walk all the way around it (not that I have yet). We’re surrounded by mountains, eucalyptus trees (look like something out of Dr Seuss!) and man-made lakes. There’s also a (fairly new) pagoda, just off the grounds of the school, which I have yet to visit. We have been informed that the cost for each child for the English summer camp is Y980 (around £96) for the 4 weeks - but I doubt [View Full Entry]

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