Weekend Outings

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Weekend Outings

Shenzhen is a big city and even though I tried I didn't get to do and see everything but I thought I'd talk about a few of the things I did manage to see and do during the weekends.

The weekend after Destry and I went to Hong Kong, Laurent, Destry and I went to Happy Valley. Happy Valley is a theme park in Shenzhen which also has a water park. I'd never been to a proper water park before so the aim of the day was to get on all the water rides.

However, when we arrived at the park the water section wasn't open so we went on a few of the theme park rides, including a roller coaster that uses a swing shot motion to activate the car, it was pretty cool. When the water park opened we went in and went on the rides. Some of them didn't open until later that day and some didn't open at all. Once we'd been on all of the water rides we could we left stopping for dinner on the way home.

One weekend Laurent and I spent one afternoon at Lianhuashan Park. We bought fruit and some other snacks and had a picnic. We spent the afternoon lying in the grass. We decided to have a walk around the park and came to the paddle boats. We rented one and went out on the lake. It was dark and seeing the park and surrounding city light up was really nice.

The next day we went to Window of the World, even though I'd been Laurent never had. We walked around and even though I thought I'd seen everything when I went with Kelly it turned out I hadn't!

The company I work for decided to have a day out for the employees. It started with a trip around Dapeng. As Laurent and I had done that we met them all for lunch. After the lunch we went to Dapeng beach. There was a rather large group of us and after taking over a beach bar we spent the afternoon in the sea, sunbathing, talking and playing card games.

The next weekend Laurent and I went for a walk along Shenzhen Bay. The bay runs alongside the river giving you a wonderful view of the river and Hong Kong. It was a really nice walk, we stopped whenever we just wanted to sit and look at the view and ended up walking all the way back to my apartment.

The weekend after was moving day. As I'd agreed to stay for an extra month my company were paying for an apartment for the month of July. Destry and Laurent both had summer jobs planned and were going to be staying until their jobs started and leaving some of their things there. We spent most of the day going back and forth in tubes and taxis moving all our things. Three people accumulate a lot over a year. Unfortunately Laurent’s plans changed and he couldn't help us move and ended up not staying or leaving any items at the apartment.

After having a pretty busy Saturday, Sunday was much more peaceful. Destry and I went to a tea festival. There were three massive rooms full of different teas and things people need to make them. It was lovely walking around at our own pace trying different flavoured teas. There were rice teas, teas with different flowers - so many. After that Destry met a friend for food and I went back to the apartment, I was the only one with work the next day!

The next weekends was Destry's last before summer camp so we spent it together eating street food and watching The Big Bang Theory. Back in September we started season one together and have watched till the end of season nine together over the year.

I knew I had some weekends to myself. The first weekend I decided to go to a park. I had seen the park advertised and thought it would be a nice morning out. My plan was to spend the morning in the park then go to Dapeng art village in the afternoon. After the tube ride it was just over a mile to the park and it was really hot and when I finally got to the park it was shut! So I turned round and went back to the art village. I looked around and bought some pictures for friends and family back home.
Sunday was raining, heavily so I spent part of the day packing and watching TV.

The next weekend was my schools graduation for k3's who were leaving Kindergarten and moving to primary school. I spent the morning getting ready then headed to where it was being held. The graduation was really a show. Each k3 class did a five minute section, they all did 2/3 songs and dances, a few teachers did group dances as well. Over all it was a two hour performance but it was lovely seeing all the children perform all the dances we'd been watching them rehearse for weeks.

The show was held near Lianhuashan Park so I thought for I'd go for a walk in the park. On my way to the park the family I teach privately messaged me asking if I'd like to join them for dinner and ice skating. I agreed and went to the shopping centre where the ice skating is. The little girl has weekly lessons so I assumed the Mum and I would watch the lesson. I was in my nice dress (dressing nicely for graduation) bare legs and arms, not ice skating gear but the mum rented me skates and I was on the ice. Luckily I didn't fall over.

After we went for tea at a restaurant that does food from Shanghai. The mother ordered all the food and we had a lovely mix of different things, some I'd tried before and liked, others were new.
On the Sunday the same Mum had asked if I'd like to join them for lunch at a café they really like and afterwards to give her and the daughter an English lesson. I agreed and met them at their apartment. We went to the café and had a lovely lunch of waffles. We then had a lesson and ended up ordering food for tea as well.

The next weekend was my last weekend in Shenzhen. Unfortunately my plans had completely changed so instead of visiting my favourite places like I had wanted to I had to redo all my packing and make sure I was ready to leave my appartement early Sunday Evening.

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