July a month of clarification and confusion and signing up for another year here in China


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Asia » China » Guangdong » Guangzhou
July 31st 2014
Published: September 1st 2014
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Messing around at workMessing around at workMessing around at work

Theres a video that goes with this somewhere haha
My last blog was a quick jumble of what’s been happening since I last wrote so I thought I’d give some more details about some of the things I wrote about amongst new things too.

As I write this its 79 days till my sister arrives in Hong Kong for a 2 week stay with me. I’m so excited I could pop, and I know she feels the same too. If it wasn’t for the wonders of the internet and having WeChat I think I would have gone insane not hearing her voice (or the whinging) and keeping up to date with things back home. I have some big plans that I want to put into place and hope the few extra days leave that I’ve requested will be accepted so that when Mouse arrives they can be achieved. The general plan is 3 days in Hong Kong, 1 day in Guangzhou to shrink down the luggage, 3-4 days Beijing. Possibly the train to Chengdu for 3-4 days back to Guangzhou where I’m starting to organise a staff fancydress/KTV event on the Wednesday and then back to Hong Kong for Mouse’s 18th birthday. I seriously can’t believe that she’ll be here for her 18th. When I accepted the job my one negative was that I wouldn’t be there with her to celebrate like I had always promised. Like come on, I’ve been prepping this girl for serious alcohol intake for years and been waiting to party with her for so long. So yeah October couldn’t come soon enough, although not sure how the parents will take that I’m away for a week at the start of October because its a national holiday over here so theres no classes then I’m back for a week then away for 2 weeks with Mouse and then back for 3 weeks before I’m away for four days in the Phillipines for my old SFT Casey’s wedding which I’m uber excited about too. It might only be four days but it’ll be the first proper get away break I’ve had for me in a long time. And then its only a few weeks till December in which I’m fully intending on going back to the UK in as I’ve decided that I want/need to renew my contract for another year and therefore entitled to 28 days bonus leave. The plan currently is to go back to the UK on the 17th December (the schedule for my classes means I can do my EOTPS on the Tuesday rather than the Friday) and therefore means I get two extra days (technically flying and sleeping day) with my Wednesday/Thursday weekend. I’d best warn my parents that their heating bill will be crazy or go stay with my Aunt Lizzie for that time because I won’t be able to cope with the temperature changes. So yeah, I’ll be back for Christmas and New Years and then probably plan on coming back on the 13th January so then I have my Wednesday/Thursday weekend to recover before my crazy weekend schedule starts with lessons. But that also means I have 8 spare days to play with for the rest of the year on top of my other holiday allowance. So I guess I’ll have to start thinking about where I want to go during Chinese New Years in Febuary/March and more too.

I guess these plans kind of make up for the fact that I haven’t been up to much lately here in Guangzhou in regards to adventures like I used to have in Hangzhou. It’s just too hot most days and aircon is just so amazing and my dvd collection is just so awesome I don’t really want to go outside. However my social life its 10 times more amazing here and I’m really enjoying going every Wednesday to quiz night and have made some awesome friends inside and outside of work.

I guess people back home might be sad that I’ll be here for another year, but they shouldn’t be. It might seem selfish but I’m doing this for me, to find myself again and actually enjoy life for a change. The last few years back home have been a struggle. Here in China yes things are hard but the way I see it is that actually the work that I do is so much more easier than that back home. Lessons are an 1hr-2hr long, theres only 15 kids max in the class but then I always have a native speaker in there with me (I’ll get to how awesome Sasa is later on) The lessons are all planned and resourced for you. All they want you to do is plan extra activities and make some odd resources every now and then. Life is good. I’m also able to still treat myself every Wednesday to having my hair done and go to the gym and have massages whilst enjoying a super social life but still send large amounts of money home to pay things off that actually by next year (which seems so far away) I will have actually started to save money for when I eventually come back. Which is great really because it’ll be hard I know for me to find a job for when I get back so having some money to fall back on will be a great ease on my mind for making that decision to come back.

But please don’t ever think that I’ve forgotten about you guys back home. I miss you so much everyday and there are days where I feel like oooo so and so would love this or OMG if only so and so was here. Bet then you guys know most of that already because I pester you at stupid o’clock in the morning to tell you hahaha.

I’m looking forward to putting new ideas into place with my classes as we’ve finally started to get somewhere with routines, behaviour and rewards systems and this has all by greatly sped up by my amazing Chinese LP Sasa who I absolutely love. Her previous FT wasn’t that much fun when it came to lesson planning and Sasa has a heap load of experience with kids. But when I took over from the other FTs sudden disappearance we bonded so quickly to the point where nearly 2months in I don’t even have to say most things and I know she’ll be there ready to model at the right time and is super awesome when it comes to organising us both. She’ll tell me like the day before that we have such and such coming up and has everything planned and auctioned ready for me to just do my thing. I’ve been helping out my friend Charmaine (my new wifey) a lot lately as she’s been struggling with 3 classes and the inconsistencies Disney sometimes throws up at you so sometimes I haven’t been as focused on doing something’s for my class but Sasa is always on top of it.

Sasa’s English is great so I’ve started teaching her silly little phrases such as ‘Smelly bum’ ‘nice rack’ although clarification on some other words led to her for about proclaiming around the centre that I liked girls which I soon had to clear up quickly, as I’m pretty sure some people thought that anyway especially with how I act with Charmz all the time.



I’m sure there’s more to write but its too hot to think. So back to the sofa I go to watch some more of my dvds.


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