The daily life of Jade

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So, things have been a little quiet on the blog front of late. I think I used my quota of time and energy on the Beijing blog. Luckily Im starting to feel re-enthused!

The average week for Wayne and myself consists solely around where and when we are teaching. With only 1 full day off it's hard to fully embrace any quality down time. In saying that we do have some down time and have good memories.

On Mondays I aim to sleep in and attempt to go with as much as the flow as possible. This goal can be hard to consistently obtain as Monday is an ideal day to also get all of those chores out of the way so the coming week can be as carefree as possible.
A Monday many months ago, we were going to head to the other side of town to check out a lake but it started snowing! So we spent a lot of time just looking out the window. We went downstairs to go and stand in the snow and then realised how crazy we were for wanting to just go and stand in the cold! lol
It was about 4 degrees outside and was expected to dramatically decrease in temperature. (And indeed it did! - We're now dealing with -10 or colder!) (At the time of originally writing this - -10 was cold, nowadays - 24 is cold)

On Tuesdays I teach 4 classes at the middle school from 8 to 9.45am/11.30am and then 2 classes at the high school from 1.40 to about 3.30pm and then teach at Joy from 5.30-6.20pm.
I get home just before Wayne so try to have dinner ready, or at least get it started. On Wednesdays I teach at the high school from 2.30 to 4.10 and then at Joy school from 5.30 - 7.20pm. On Thursdays I have the same classes at the middle school and teach at Joy school from 5.30-6.20pm. On Fridays I now just have office hours at Joy which is great because I can spend more time on preparation, designing new games and making resources to use in class. On Saturdays I teach from 9 to 12noon, then tutor at 2pm for one hour, then teach from 3.30-4.20pm. I also do more preparations Saturday afternoon. On Sunday I teach 5 classes which takes me from 9am to 5.20pm.
The weekends are the busiest so we veg out on Friday and Saturday nights. Overall we teach about the same amount of classes - I teach at the high school, Wayne doesn't - Wayne teaches more at Joy School.

We try to cook most nights and are learning some chinese recipes. The Chinese food back home isn't actually Chinese food, its a weird western interpretation. The closest thing to real Chinese food is the fried rice and sweet and sour pork - The batter is similar to a pork dish here but the sauce is quite different. As expected, the real thing tastes incredible!

A coffee shop in Daqing
One Monday we ventured to the opposite side of town where we wired our salaries back to oz. It was so easy, generally the clerks have no idea what they're doing. Sometimes they'll even say the system is down when they don't want to do the work! yikes!
After this we went to New-Mart where we bought some special goodies such as, sugary-not malted milo, unsweetened french stick and garlic bread (yummo), butter, mayo, high gluten flour (so we can make bread) and most importantly whipped cream filled eclair's. Hell yes.
Post this, we venture up the 2 or 3 levels of escalators to find the food court where we munched on some fenbo (rice filled cabbage leaf). We noted a coffee shop on that level as well. Please note that a coffee shop is an extremely rare occurrence here in Daqing. This is the only coffee shop I've seen so far in Daqing.
We ordered a long island tea (which came in a champagne glass and tasted like it had a fair amount of bitters in it), a french onion soup, some onion rings and a mocha. There was a grand miscommunication about the need for them to make the mocha on soy milk. This just doesn't happen in China - soy milk in a drink other than soy milk served warm for breakfast - hello culture shock! lol Wayne worked out that we got everything for AU$14! lol but in China terms it was a very very expensive afternoon treat.
Soon, we're going to dinner at a Pizza restaurant in Ranghulu which is only 10-15 minutes away. That will be nice also 😊

So the date for me to finally finish this blog entry is the 29th dec! We've just had our first o/seas Christmas and are about to celebrate our first NYE o/seas. I will write an updated blog to fill in the last couple of months soon -- as we're having a break from teaching at the middle/high school + I'm really sick again!

Jade (and Wayne)

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Photos

Joy School
One of my 'K' classes. This was their graduation day, they are now in level 2 K class. So cute!
Between 3 and 5 years old.

Middle School
one out of 4 of my classes at the middle school.
Students aged 10/11 years old

Middle School
Some of the gals from the middle school.

Middle School
'xmas hats!'

High School
I got the students to make 'xmas' hats.
Aged around 16 years old
One third of one of my 4 classes.

Comments

[Jade n Wayne]

Photos
'Photos are of some of Jade's students'

[renier]

such fun
yeah me and liese found that same coffee shop ha ha had their pizza and onion rings, was a treat just to sit there! tell us about the ice festival pls!!!

[anna]

hi
wayne and jade,miss you so much!