I've just come back from the most amazing weekend in Hong Kong!! Rugby 7s 2007!! I had such a fantastic time! I left on Thursday night got into hk at 3 in the morning, went for a run (after a sleep) then into central to see my dad then met Ravenna, Anna and a couple more in the Cricket Club for lunch then onto the Friday rugby! We had fun working out which people were tourists and who were locals (like us!) So Friday was rugby watching with Anna and Ravenna then went to see my parents in the east [View Full Entry]

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I went to Shanghai a couple of days before Chinese New Year to stay with Scarlett, it was pretty fun! most of the time we just chilled out, but i also went running round the French concession, ice skating, and had some nice days wandering around Shanghai at the Longhua Pagoda, the Bund and some markets and things. I'd been to Shanghai before so i didnt do much of the touristy stuff, although we did manage take a ride in the 'tourist tunnel' which is the tackiest thing ever, its a kind of train thing which goes under the river. [View Full Entry]

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wow.... what a weekend! On Thursday 6 of us laden with backpacks went to Shenzhen. Me, Laura, Em, Nadia, Sian and Doris. While the rest of them chilled out in a cafe and went shopping, i attempted to find us a way for us to get to Guilin by nightfall. Trains, buses, Sleeper Buses...all booked up! I was beginning to think we would never get there but in the end we paid tripple the price of a bus, hopped on a plane, and were there in an hour. So it really was rather convienient if a little stressful at the time! [View Full Entry]

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Due to Chinese govt regulations, there is only so much i can write about our time in the Welfare centre, and i cant add photos...but if you want a more detailed review of it i can send you an email! HENGYANG (ICC MISSION TRIP): > SETTING THE SCENE: ICC (International China Concern) has been working with a state run orphanage for about a year now. There has been an enormous improvement in the quality of life of the children since they stepped in, but it still obviously not the nicest place for the kids to live in. Since ICC have been [View Full Entry]

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Immy stayed in Beijing for another week and Mum and Dad came up for the Christmas weekend, which was fun. Unfortunately I had exams so I couldn’t really see them all that much… On CHRISTMAS EVE we went to my church and then in the evening I went out to a very fancy French restaurant with some friends. It was a 6 course meal and was so good! We had prawn pate, snails, salmon, soup, turkey and Yule log. They were the 6…After it we went to the South Cathedral in Beijing, which is a Catholic church open to anyone. It [View Full Entry]

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As our class is made up of a load of different nationalities, and our 'class monitor' is Korean, our class nights out are usually to a Korean restaurant and then to Kareoke! The place we went to the other day we all sat down on the floor for the meal (tables were very low) and apart from eating korean food (which to be honest i'm not a huge fan of) we were all drinking this absolutly terrible drink, The Korean version of Bai Jiu, i cant remember what its callled but its about 80% pure alcohol so you can imagine [View Full Entry]

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Immy came out to Beijing with Oundle people on a school trip and one weekend they went to Xian, so I tagged along. I flew there on Hainan Airways on the Friday, we were staying in a pretty cool hostel. The city of Xian is one of China’s oldest cities and it actually still has quite a lot of authentic ancient Chinese buildings, and pretty much a full city wall (which we biked round on a tandem!) On Saturday we went on a tour to the Terracotta Warriors, which would have been really cool, but I wasn’t feeling too great…but [View Full Entry]

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At the weekends I’m now teaching art and crafts to some of Beijing’s Migrant Children. They are the kids of migrant workers who have come to Beijing from other provinces and because of this they are denied various basic benefits that other children get, like education. So there are some schools set up by the migrant communities for their kids, but its not up to the standard of proper Chinese schools. So as a result, an NGO (non-governmental organisation) has been set up by Westerners to accommodate these kids, The vision being for these kids is for them not to [View Full Entry]

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On Thursdays I go to Wudaokou for my church small group, its in someones flat and there are about 15-20 people in it. Its so great I really enjoy going, we have worship, and then a bit of bible study and discussion and then we split up into groups to pray at the end, then go out for dinner afterwards. Wudaokou is the Leeds equivilant of Headingley and has some cool shops, cafes and bars. One place, Lush, is open 24 hours a day and on Sunday evenings they have an Open Mic night which I love going to! A couple [View Full Entry]

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Before we moved into our flat, our teaching building was actually attached to the bedrooms so we could get up pretty late! Our apartment complex is only about a 10 minute walk away now though (or a 5 min bike ride with our new Beijing bicycles!) So now I get up at about 7 every day and head into uni for classes at 8am every morning (its tricky) We have 3 classes, Hanyu (Chinese grammar), Kouyu (speaking) and TingLi (listening) Tingli is by far the worst lesson I have ever ever had to take, including GCSE Physics! Today our teacher [View Full Entry]

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