Weekend 7 - Exploring Guangzhou and Baiyun mountain

So this is our last weekend before pay day! It's been so long so we are all very excited to be getting paid finally. 

On Saturday I went to Guangzhou. It's the 3rd biggest city in China and I have only been hear once to go to a shopping mall so I thought it would be a good weekend to explore and wonder about the area. 

It cost me just 50p to get hear from Foshan, and it is quite far, over an hour on the metro depending what part your wanting to go to. 

I went to Shamian Island. I was surprised at how easy it was to get to. It was only a 5 minute walk from the metro station. In the 1800s the area was divided between the UK and France. So Athens area doesn't feel like china, all the buildings look European and it's a nice place to go walk about as this island is very small. 

Afterwards I went to Beijing road pedestrian street. It was so busy, full of all the international shops and malls. It reminded me of the walking street in Beijing. 

On Sunday the weather was amazing, we went to Baiyun mountain. We walked all the way up to the summit, there was so many steps and even an McDonald's half way up, but you wouldn't expect any less in china! The view from the top isn't as pretty as mountains in England as it just over looks the city and it was a smogy day but it's still worth while seeing.

Speak soon,

HanHan xx

Teaching 'Baby 2'

So I am settling in with my class now. I have been teaching them for nearly 5 weeks now, I have had some bad days where my lessons didn't go to plan and when the kids didn't listen to me but things have decently improved since I have had help from my training teacher, and gotten to know the children better.

Last months teaching content theme has been Easter & spring. So I have been teaching them all about Easter eggs, chocolate bunnys, jelly beans, chicks, lady bugs, and much much more. Last week I done a Easter hunt. They really enjoyed it!

In the morning before clas starts all classes have morning sentence, this is a game that 2 of the foreign teachers run. I played a parachute game when it was my turn. 

Also when children turn up at school, there is morning greeting. 2 foreign teachers do this, and today was my day. We have a board and ask the children to answer our questions then they receive a sticker. There is a picture below! 

This is Mr monster! The kids love it. I take a flash card out his mouth and they say what it is, then when all the flash cards are on the floor, 2 at a time them come up and race to be the 1st to find the flash card that I shout. Then Mr monster eats the card!

Speak soon,

HanHan xxx

Tomb sweeping weekend

For our first long and probably only long weekend in China we traveled to zhao quing. It was 1.5 hours away on the train from Foshan. 

The train journey wasn't as bad as expected, we had standing seats on the way there but had seats on the retun journey, they were a lot nicer than expected! 

We arrived and checked into our hotel then headed for some food. Out first day was pretty chilled, we wondered about the area, found a park. There was so many people flying kites, and not just children but adults too! It was amazing to see as this would never happen back in England.

We walked around the park and got a taxi boat back towards our hotel area. On the night we got a few drinks and chilled in the park, there was a fountain light show, and so many children just rollerblading about!

On the Sunday we got up so early. We had such a busy day. We went to the 7 star crags. It's an amazing area, we climbed up two of the crags, the 1st one was a lot nicer as it was early in the morning so not many people were abou. The 2nd crag had so many people, everyone was just taking photos of us and wanted photos with us, so it slowed us down a bit. 

After the crags we jumped into a taxi to get to the dinghu mountain. By the time we arrived it was about 2pm, we were so tired from all the walking in the morning that we took our time at this place. We didn't manage to see it all, but we walked to some waterfalls and walked the nature trail. This place was so overcrowded and had lots of tourists!

Overall I had a great weekend away! Was so nice to get out of Foshan and explore a new part of China.

Speak soon,

HanHan xx

Weekend 5 - Exploring Foshan - pagoda, lakes and pineapple

So this is my 5th weekend in Foshan. I really can't believe I have already been hear 5 weeks, the time goes by so fast. 

On Friday night after we finishd at school Emma, Inez, Lilly and I walked to the pagoda. It looked really pretty at night when it was all lit up. We couldn't walk all the way to the top as it was closed so we will have to do that another day. Afterwards we went back to inez apartment eating street pineapple on a stick on the walk back , we were going to have a movie night but we were all so exhausted so it just didn't happen.

Saturday we walked to the lake, Emma and I bumped into Chris so we walked about with him. It was nice to see a different part of Foshan. We headed towards Chris's area and found a lovely little spot for a coffee. I had an iced peanut butter coffee, it was lush and I really want to go back there again soon. Chris walked back to our area with us and we went out for some food. The place we found the menu was all on mandarin and had no pictures but luckily a guy from the table behind us spoke some English so he helped us order. The food was so good, noodles were amazing, the meal was only around £3 each! 

On Sunday I woke up at dinner time, I was so tired after all the walking yesterday. Me and Emma met up with lilly and went on another walk. This time we found a river, we walked down the river for a while then headed back. However we had to stop of at school to fill up on water as we have ran out at our apartment! 

Speak soon,

HanHan xx

Pancake day in China

So we celebrated pancake day a little bit late in China! But it was over 2 days so we had lots and lots of pancakes. All the foreign teachers where the pancake cooks and we had an allocated cooking time, and a chefs outfit, including the hat! It was lots of fun, we could make the pancakes into shapes, however all I could manage were circles and Micky mouse! Some people could make cars, hearts and boats! 

The children really enjoyed it, we took our classes to over and they watched us make the pancakes, then the added all the fruit toppings and sauces. Lots of kids came back for more. I can't wait to see what special day the school have planned next, they seem to celebrate something different every week :)

Spar day with school!

We we all got taken out to a 24 hour spar treat for ladies day! We weren't quite sure what it entailed and we were told we didn't need to bring anything, but of course we did, we thought surely we would need lit toothbrush and phone chargers if we're staying over. How wrong we were!

The spar was unreal! We checked in and got taken down to the changing rooms. We showered then got given pyjamas! Everyone walked around in there pjs. It was so cool. It was around 7pm so we wanted food. There was a huge selection of foods, it was a buffet so you could have as much as you wanted. It was a nice change from the canteen food we had been eating all week. Then we had our massage. I chose a Thai massage. We all had our own separate room, with the most comfy bed in. The massageaasted 1:5 hours! We only expected an hour! 

Afterwards we checked out all other bits te spar had, a hot igloo room, oxygen rolms, heated lie down things! Jade pool, cinema rooms. It was so nice. 

The sleeping arrangements where we all had the most comfy chair ever, in a huge big room. It was like a sleepover!! We all had our own tv, it kinda felt like we were on a plane. We went to sleep around 1.30am, but as we were doing the colour run the next day we had to wake up at 5am, but we could have stayed till 5pm the next day had we wanted to!

Speak soon,

HanHan xx

Lantern festival

We celebrated lantern festival on Friday at school, as the weather was so bad on Thursday. 

In the afternoon all the children's parents came into the class and we all made sweet dumplings together. Then we went outside to see the stalls and solve riddles. It was busy, so many parents and children! 

There was a lion dance where the lion ate the vegetables that were ontop of the pole, then it was our turn to dance. We had been learning a dance to preform I front of the whole school this week, bi we hadn't had much time to practice it as the moves kept changing. But I think it went well! 

Afterwards we went back to our classes and ate our dumplings, they were so tasty!

Speak soon,

HanHan 

Xx