Yesterday we went to watch the Women's Triathlon. Australia did a great job and one of the girls called Emma got a gold medal and another Emma, got the Bronze medal. A girl from Polland won the silver medal. It was about 3 hours away from where I live and we had to catch buses and trains and more buses to get there. It was in the bush and it reminded me of Kuranda a bit, but Kuranda has more rainforest. I liked it out there very much. There was a big lake and a big track for the bike riding [View Full Entry]

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In Kayaking we didn't get to see all of it because there was a big storm and it was postponed until the next day. The bit we did see was two people in boat, kind of like fast canoes. It reminded me of the the Barron River. My Dad misses kayaking very much. We cheered for the paddlers, especially when it was Australia's turn. The Chinese flipped their boat and pushed off the side to come back up. They lost a lot of time when they did this so they didn't make it to the final. It rained a lot but [View Full Entry]

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Today we went to see the Trampoline Gymnastics. First in the girls round China was doing really well. When one of the Chinese girls did her trick she jumped a bit high and fell over so she didn't make it to the final. We cheered for Ben from Australia in the mens competition and he did a good job but didn't make it to the finals. The Russians were really good and the Chinese did a really good job too. At the trampolining they jumped really high and did some flips and pikes. We went to the national stadium to watch [View Full Entry]

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We went to watch Australia play Water Polo against Spain. Australia lost by one point. I learnt about the rules of Water Polo. They have 4 quaters and they have a rest in the middle of the quaters. Sometimes they stop the clock when they call time out and the coach talks to them and they switch players. We cheered for the Australians and they looked a bit sad at the end of the match but they still waved at us to thank us for cheering. There was one really good goal, when the ball hit the post and bounced in. [View Full Entry]

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What to say?!?! It’s been a LONG time in the making. Seems like so long ago and also only yesterday that I was a Uni student in Jinhua. At that time I was thinking about the possibility of joining in with the celebration of Beijing’s 2008 Olympics and now here I am!! Getting information regarding the requirements of the Australian Olympic Team has been like getting water from a stone! Not their fault of course; everything here happens in China time and quite often at the last minute so in very recent moments, the Chinese Olympic Committee has offered the services [View Full Entry]

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The food here is pretty good. I do like pumpkin chips very much but I have other favourites too, like sour potato. You cut up the potato into small pieces like matchsticks and fry it with a bit of oil, salt and vinegar. For my birthday night, we had hotpot. It is soooo yummy. There is a big pot of water in the middle of the table with some spices inside and when the water boils you put in some vegetables and tofu and wait for the water to boil again before you eat it. I like to put a bit [View Full Entry]

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The knee update is that there was an accident at the pool and left knee now has additional cartilage damage… The MRI (cotton wool for my ears did next to nothing to counteract the noise of the scan!) interpretation recommended surgery though the Doc saw my reaction and said it wasn't absolutely necessary if I was not in a lot of pain. He said as long as I didn't climb mountains I could get by, though it would be weak… and of course degenerate with old age (he doesn’t know about my elixir)! I guess the Doc did know how to [View Full Entry]

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My new school is called Nancy Shuangyu Youeryuan. It means Nancy's Bilingual Kindergarten. I am in middle class and I will go up to big class in September. I have three teachers. My English teacher is Alice. My Chinese teacher is Mao Laoshi and my life teacher who brings the lunch is called Lucy. I have lots of new friends at the Kindy. I also have a Kung Fu teacher called Jiao Lian. My Piano teacher's name is Li Laoshi. We have a big outdoor playground with a vegie garden. When it's raining we can play in the big indoor playground. [View Full Entry]

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I have made lots of friends near my apartment here. Sometimes they come to visit me and we get in trouble from the lady who lives under our apartment because we are too noisy. Chinese kids are on school holidays because it is summer here. We play in the courtyard downstairs when it is cool. We can play a coin game where you try to flip the other persons Pokemon coin over to win it and we also play Badminton and Ping Pong. Across the road from our compound is the school I will go to in September when the school [View Full Entry]

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So now we live in Daxing. It’s an outer suburb of Beijing and a 10 minute walk or 5 minute bike ride to the Kindergarten where we work. The apartment is on the 7th floor and initially I was a bit hesitant about moving in. It is a lovely place, though too many fancy trimmings for my liking. Big fancy ceramic pots and lots of glass display cases don’t mix too well with the shenanigans my boys like to get up to! Note to me to entertain them outside as often as possible! The Kindy is a pretty massive set up. [View Full Entry]

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