Oh sunny days

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The last 3 days or so have been really nice here, the weather has been perfect! Sunny, clear skies, not too hot, not too humid and just a really nice temperature. However, this has meant that the Mossies have been out in full force and have launched a full scale attack against me. They're not as bad as the ones in Belize, there's not as many of them, but I have been bitten a few times and they leave me paranoid and itchy! Also, not just the mossies have come out, other large and interesting creepy crawlies keep on appearing on pavements...I thought I saw a tiny scorpion earlier on, but I didn't want to hassle it in order to find out if it was a scorpion...Plus I don't know if they actually have scorpions here.



Yesterday me and the other teachers played football! It has been so long since I have played football and it was quite fun, we had a few locals watching us, and some little girls with the biggest dog I have ever seen chasing after the ball. We were so tired afterwards! Very, very, very sweaty aswell! The reason we played football is because we are looking to set up a little 5 a side tournament, with us teachers as one team and some students forming other teams. That will be so cool!



I've been spending the last few nights in a bar called Cheers which I do believe I have mentioned before. I actually love it there! It's by far the nicest bar I have ever been to. The staff there seem like a family, they all get on so well and seem very close and they are soooooooo friendly! I get on really well with them, and have been helping one of them with her English. I keep on playing the funky dice game there aswell, and Lucy the owner looks out for me because she knows I don't like to drink and people that I play the dice game with sometimes try to encourage me to drink and she tells them no. Also one of the reasons I like going to Cheers is because it's a long bike ride away, about 20 minutes, in a more city like area of Zhangjiagang, with lots of big pretty buildings. And the time I normally go there are hardly any cars on the road so it's really pleasant to be cycling along then. Last night when I left cheers I decided to go on a massive bike ride around the city, which resulted in a very good nights sleep for me because I was exhausted afterwards!








I can't remember when I last updated this, but with regards to my work it's got a lot better lately. Tuesday was a bit of an eye opener for me, I planned my morning lesson incredibly badly and as a result the 24 small children became incredibly bored and became very difficult to control. This inspired me to plan my afternoon and evening lessons a lot better, giving them lots of reading and writing activities to do aswell as enough games to allow them to practice their speaking, listening and comprehension skills. I seemed to balance it just right and the kids were really calm throughout most of the lessons. Especially the Dongxiao lot, who are absolutely mental and demon like, I got them to behave like angels! Some kids didn't even want to leave the class when it came to home time, they insisted on staying behind a few extra minutes to finish the exercises despite me motioning for them to get out!



So I think work will be a lot better now, which means I will be having more and more good days here! I'm really enjoying Tai Chi aswell, I get on very well with Jackie my teacher and it's very interesting to be teaching him English because by doing that we just sit down and have a conversation in English about various things. He was telling me all about Chinese medicine, Kung Fu and a few other things which I've been interested in for quite a few years, including the Yin Yang! Also Tai Chi really wakes me up in the mornings and makes me feel really good. It's really good exercise aswell, the entire Tai Chi form lasts about 15 minutes, I timed it last night when I was watching Jackie, and most of that is spent doing very slow graceful movements with your legs bent and quite low down for the vast majority of that time, which means it's bloody hard work and really strengthens your legs. It does wonders for posture and flexibility aswell. And I want to ask him to teach me more of the martial applications and to see how you practice them aswell.








Well I will be off now, I want to go into town and see if I have enough money to buy some new trainers because mine are falling apart. See ya soon!

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