First thing I made my way to the Thai Consulate to put in my visa application.  I’d been marginally stressing that the form wouldn’t be in English so would have translation nightmares, but thankfully the whole process was really easy.  I just had to wait a couple of days before picking it up.

I then went back to Miyun and the rest of the day was pretty easy.  I had 1 class and only 5 students turned up due to exams. 

The next couple of days were quite fun....I had my first really good teachers activity.  We discussed celebrity culture and Western magazines.  They loved looking through the magazines I had and we had quite a giggle.  Half way through the session, a male teacher turned up with a video camera to film us, which was quite surreal.

I only had one evening class which was good fun – I made it all about Christmas, so we spent pretty much the whole time playing games.  I gave a load of sweets out at the end of the lesson – I’d never seen such a bunch of animals trying to grab at the bag.  It’s like they’d been starved for weeks!!

My Thursday evening class was cancelled so I was looking forward to a chill night at home.  I got comfy in my pjs and sat down to watch a film with Inga, when the doorbell went.  We ignored it, but it rung again.....and again and again.....

I couldn’t ignore it any longer so went to the door to discover, Benedict, the student from Grade 3 with a massive crush on Inga.  He came bearing Christmas gifts and ice-cream so I didn’t feel I could turn him away.  She’d suspected it would be him so had hidden in her room, and I was left in my pjs and slippers to try to get rid of him of quickly as possible.

He clearly didn’t care he’d come unannounced and at an inconvenient time...He simply made himself comfortable on the sofa looking like he expected to spend the rest of the evening there. Inga eventually emerged feeling guilty she’d left me to deal with him – we were both just really annoyed our quiet night with a film had been disturbed.

He must have been marginally upset because he’d come expecting to find Inga on her own as I should have had the evening class.  Clearly the two tubs of ice-cream he’d brought were meant for him and Inga to enjoy together – or so he thought in his warped mind.

After entertaining him for what seemed like long enough, I managed to come up with an excuse to get him to leave.  I told him I was expecting a call and needed to use the living room in private, but even then he didn’t get the message so I actually had to ask him to go – really embarrassing.

Anyhow, the embarrassment didn’t last long and at last Friday arrived... In the afternoon I made my way into Beijing as I needed to pick up my passport...

When I got to the Thai Consulate it was shut despite the advertised hours claiming it should be open.  I desperately needed my passport back as it’s not possible to stay anywhere in China without showing it when you check-in, so I had vision of me spending the whole weekend alone in Miyun!

After banging on the door and phoning, I eventually managed to catch the attention of someone who was still in the office, who happily let me in to retrieve it.

Passport safely in my bag, I made my way over to the Sleepy Inn to begin Christmas celebrations with the Beijing crew.

The students had exams this week so my classes were really at a minimum, which pleased me no end.

The media equipment failed me in the one class I had to give, so instead of taking the lazy option of showing a movie, I had to wing a lesson I’d not prepared.  Much to my amazement it turned out really well.  I picked music as the subject which mainly involved me prancing around at the front of the class like a loon to various different tracks on my itunes.  The students loved it because it involved very little effort on their part, they got to have a laugh AT me whilst listening to some music – the quality of which is debatable given my self-confessed rubbish taste.

Clearly the success of the lesson filled me with enough confidence to seek Mr Guo out to have stern words with him over his readiness to cut mine and Inga’s salaries should he see fit.... Clearly Chinese employment is a very one-way thing.  There are meagre benefits and no extra pay or incentives for additional work.  Therefore, if you fall ill, your money is cut, but equally, if you work an extra 5 hours, it is not taken into consideration should you need an hour off here and there.  I was particularly annoyed that Inga had had her money cut for being ill, despite the fact that I covered her classes for no extra pay, and we’d both given a fair amount of extra time to students, above and beyond our contracts – definitely a very one-way relationship in my eyes with no concept of give and take...

I was quite impressed he didn’t dismiss my case out of hand, but told me he would try to get us some extra cash.  I knew his efforts, if indeed he made any at all, would be futile, but at least I’d said my piece.

I decided to head into Beijing on Thursday to check out a new shopping mall I’d yet to visit.  Couldn’t believe this one had passed me by all these months – there was a Zara and a Mango!  I even managed to pick up a new dress for New Year’s Eve which was exciting.

After dinner at my fav place at Houhai Lake (Unique Space) I spent the night at the Sleepy Inn as I was heading off for my second trip to Hangzhou in the morning.

I woke on the Sunday with a stinking hangover....surprise surprise...but unfortunately for me I had to pull myself together as I needed to get into to Beijing to get passport photos for my Thai visa.  That clearly meant I had to slap on an exceptionally large amount of make-up to look half decent for the camera!

Fortunately, the experience wasn’t too bad once I’d had a good fill of coffee and coca cola...

The week at school wasn’t anything special, although one student asked me if I would teach her some dance moves for a routine she was making up with her friends.  I was a bit surprised by the request because I hadn’t told anyone I’d had dance training.  I guess I’d laid myself open to it when I’d told the students my favourite hobby was dancing at the weekends with friends.  I was obviously referring to the wiggling I do in bars on a Saturday night after a couple of G&Ts, which certainly doesn’t make me Britney Spears. 

I managed to get out of giving her a demonstration as I found some rather amusing animations of Ms Spears’ favourite moves on the internet.  This seemed to keep her happy for the time being, but knowing how persistent the Chinese can be, I was sure she’d hunt me down again to get some more ‘inspiration’!

Simon and I had been discussing organising a trip to the Simatai section of the Great Wall since we’d arrived in Beijing and finally we managed to do it!

Simon and BBC were loaned a driver from their school for the day, which was really convenient, so we met them at the Shihao hotel in Miyun at 9.30 and were at the Wall by 11am. 

Simatai is one of the oldest sections of the Wall and also the one that’s had the least repair work, so it’s the most original section too...

We knew we would need a least a couple of hours at the once on the Wall so we got a bite to eat first before getting the cable car.

The Wall is pretty high up the mountain, which I hadn’t anticipated based on my experience at the Badaling section.  A cable car takes you part way, which means the rest of the climb is on foot – a little exhausting for someone who’s only exercise in the last few months has been arm curls with a bottle of Tsingdao.  I was quite grateful we didn’t do this trip in summer as it would have been excruciating.

Well, the thigh burn was worth it – the view from the Wall was just spectacular and definitely what I had imagined it would be like BUT better.  And what’s more, there was hardly anyone else there – a real first for China!!  At one point, we actually had sections of the Wall to ourselves, which was just incredible.  It truly was amazing and the experience really took my breath away, both physically and metaphorically.

The sensation of standing there made me realise without hesitation why the Great Wall is considered one of the seven great wonders of the world.

We strolled along the top of the Wall for a while, soaking up the vista and taking loads of photos between our numerous gasps in awe.  At one point I managed to get stuck clambering up a rather tricky, run down section, which provided the others with a bit of amusement.  Needless to say, they felt more inclined to watch me struggle on all fours to pull myself up than help.  I clearly didn’t work the damsel in distress thing enough!

We then went in search of the ‘Flying Fox’, which took a little detective work as sign-posting wasn’t the best.  This is a zip wire, which runs from the Wall across a lake as an alternative way to get down the mountain.  Clearly it seemed a much more adventurous way to descend than getting the rickety cable car again....  It was pretty tame but great fun adding to the overall experience, and comes complete with more fabulous views.

Once back down to earth, there was a little boat waiting to take us the last bit of the way back to the entrance...

It was then time for me to buy the traditional Chinese hat I’d been after, which I got for the bargain price of ¥25... I was having quite a laugh with the lady on the stool so I decided to try a few other hats she had on display and managed to walk away with a furry Russian number (think Dr Zhivago) and a winter Chinese military hat for Inga – perfect for our January trip to Harbin.

Once back in Miyun, Inga and I had decided to opt for our first quiet Saturday night in, but ended up drinking all the Christmas booze supplies whilst dancing around to Christmas music sporting our new hats.  It wasn’t the best idea we’d ever had but it was December 1^st after all so we thought about time for the Christmas cheer to kick in.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened this week...

Inga wasn’t well so I covered her classes on the Monday, the timetable changed which annoyed me as it made the day longer as they added a break to the afternoon, and my classes were a mixture of good and bad.  The level of English from class to class varies quite a lot as does their obedience.  Some of the classes are a real handful and I really pity the teachers who actually do have to teach these students.

Friday afternoon I headed into Beijing to buy some booze as Inga and I had wanted to stock up for Christmas.

I started the new timetable this week, which meant a really easy Monday - just one class with Grade 3 students.

The next day I had my first lesson with the Grade 2 students.  It’s clear they’re definitely not as well-behaved as Grade 1, so lessons will be more of a struggle.  At least there are fewer of them to deal with (lessons that is)!

Nothing much to report about the rest of the week, except on Friday Inga and I decided to venture out in Miyun.  We’d heard that there was a bowling alley at the Shihao hotel, so thought it would be fun to check it out.

It wasn’t a crazy evening - the place didn’t have much atmosphere, perhaps because it wasn’t very busy. This wasn’t a huge surprise given our impressions of Miyun. We played a couple of games of bowling, which didn’t last long - it never does when there’s just 2 people playing - and then came back to the apartment.

For some strange reason I had an urge to clean the apartment on Saturday morning.  Seeing as Inga and I had hardly done any since arriving there, I obviously thought it was about time I at least mopped the floor.

I then made my way into Beijing....The walk to the bus was quite funny as McDonald’s had just opened.  I’d never seen anything like it - there were queues of people outside the door!  Obviously, this was a very exciting happening for Miyun!

I was meeting up with a friend of Lexie’s that evening - a guy called Ben she used to date, who was travelling through China.  He was staying at the Sleepy Inn too which made meeting quite easy.  After making our introductions and enjoying the usual couple of beers at the hostel, we went for dinner at my favourite Houhai restaurant with Simon and BBC.

The Beijingers plus Ben then went to Bar Blu in San Li Tun for a few cocktails, and then someone came up with the great idea to go to KTV.  The evening seemed to fly by, for me anyway.  The KTV had a great selection of English songs, so I was very happy, and we all enjoyed a good old sing song until the wee hours of the morning.

After a lazy morning at the hostel on the Sunday, I made my way to the National Theatre, by Tiananmen Square. It was due to open on Christmas Eve and I wanted to see if I could get tickets for Smurf and I to see something in the New Year.  The theatre is an incredible building and I really wouldn’t want to leave Beijing without making a visit.

After walking round the ‘Egg’ as it’s otherwise known, and failing to find the entrance, I made my way to Wanfujing before heading back to Miyun.

McDonald’s beckoned... It was really funny because I couldn’t get the girl to understand my order, so I came away with 2 meals instead of 1.  Lucky Inga ended up with a Big Mac and fries she didn’t want!

I had a long lie-in after arriving late back from the UK and spent the rest of the day preparing for lessons.

I had just one week left of the Grade 1 timetable before I was to swap with Inga to teach Grade 2, which I was really pleased about as it meant cutting my number of lessons by almost half.

On the Wednesday I gave my last evening class to Grade 1 students.  I got through the lesson plan faster than anticipated so gave the students an opportunity to ask questions.  One student stood up and made an impromptu speech.  I was completely blown away because she said that her and all the other students would miss me very much, that they had really enjoyed my classes and felt their English was much better as a result of my teaching.  As she continued she started to cry! I really couldn’t believe it and was actually rendered speechless which is a rarity for me!  Another student then got up to say a few words...he then made a count to 3 and all the students cried ‘we love you’ in unison.  Students were then taking pictures and asking me for hugs!! I had no idea I’d made such an impact.

On Thursday, Wendy invited me over for dinner.  Again, another great meal and good chat. Her husband was home this time, so the rice wine came out but there was less gambei action as it was a school night.

Friday was my last day with Grade 1 and was pretty uneventful, except there was a visit from one of the old foreign teachers from the previous year - Elisa, from Kent.  She seemed really nice, plus she’d come armed with Christmas presents for both Inga and I, which was really really kind given she didn’t know us.

Mr Guo had organised a lunch, which gave Inga and I an opportunity to quiz her on what life was like at the school when she was there.  It would seem she had a lot more freedom than we’d been given, plus a much easier timetable and no evening classes!  Definitely felt marginal jealous hearing that.

After lunch, Linda (head English teacher) told us we were needed at 2.30pm to take photos.  We figured they perhaps wanted some group shots as Elisa was visiting.  Anyhow, what actually happened was not a photo session, rather a meeting in which they could pick the foreign teachers’ brains about this bloomin’ oral book they’d been trying to put together.  It did make me laugh...no such thing as a free lunch - they’d made sure they could get some use out of Elisa’s visit.

Fortunately it didn’t last long and I was able to sneak out in time to catch my flight to Hangzhou.

The week started much the same as the last couple...with me in a bad mood and feeling very cold....

Luckily I got some good news though.  I was told the kids would have exams from the 7^th to 9^th November.  This meant I could delay my return back from the UK.  What I had originally thought would be a long weekend back in Blightly has now turned out to be a week – yippee!!!!!!!!

On Tuesday evening, Wendy, Sella and I went to have noodles and then went shopping.  Wendy had offered to help me try to find a gift to take home to my mum.  After trudging round all of Miyun, I came home empty handed.  I couldn’t find anything that I thought Mum would like.  Chinese ornaments can only be described as disgusting.  They seem to love grotesque objects made from jade or really kitsch things.  Where was all the beautiful porcelain they’re so famous for?

After my evening class on the Wednesday, I got a call from Wendy to say she had something she wanted to give me.  I waited for her at the school and she handed over a lovely set of vases she’d bought for my mother as a gift.  I was really touched – she’d been all over Miyun that evening to try and find them because she was determined I wouldn’t go back to the UK empty handed.  Her efforts were really impressive; I really didn’t know what to say.

Finally the day arrived for me to head back to the UK!  I was so excited....

I was feeling pretty low this week.  The monotony of the teaching was starting to get to me, mainly because I had a real lack of any sense of achievement.  The problem was  there were no obvious signs of progress with the students.  Managing a class of 50 teenagers is pretty tough for anyone I guess.  They really just want to be entertained for 45 minutes by their strange foreign teacher, and a lot of them are not interested in learning anything which makes it hard to motivate them.  It’s much easier to work with smaller classes because it allows for more interaction and games, which make the lessons more fun.  Coming up with games for classes of 50 with little room to move and a lack of willing to work in teams can be pretty challenging.

I was also starting to feel quite homesick for the first time.  It probably wasn’t helped by the fact that it was now getting extremely cold and we had no heating in the apartment.  Central heating is government controlled and therefore gets switched on for everyone at the same time on November 15^th, regardless of the temperature outside.  It was making Inga and me really miserable.  I was just really glad I was lucky enough to have a trip back to the UK in less than 2 weeks to look forward to.

Wendy invited me over to her place to have dinner on Tuesday evening, which perked me up a bit.  We left after school together and first picked up Sella before enjoying a delicious hot pot.  She stuffed me to the point of explosion – I actually had to tell her to stop cooking because I was in pain!

We had an interesting conversation though.  It made me quite sad in some respects because she basically said she felt there was a whole world out there that she was not able to see.  She said she was jealous of the freedom I had to experience new things.

She was also very curious about the differences between the west and east.  It seemed evident to me that she felt a lack of knowledge about other cultures beyond China and that she had a sense of living in a bubble.

The Chinese way of life is quite different to ours in some ways.  They work particular hard long hours and have very little free time with their families.  In fact, home life doesn’t seem to be regarded as a priority and it would appear quite common for husbands and wives to live apart during the week if the location of work dictates it, making it all the harder for working mothers. There appears to be less choice in terms of life decisions. It’s very uncommon for people to take career breaks or gap years.  People are expected to get to work as soon as they can, then marry and settle down.  They generally only have 1 day off work a week making it difficult to do anything at the weekend apart from the usual domestic chores.

Even for a middle class family travel is extremely expensive, peaking at holiday times, and so many don’t venture far from their home towns. A lot of families still don’t own cars, although the numbers are increasing considerably, which is having a considerable effect on the environment.

I’m sure a lot of this will change over time as affluence increases, but for the time being, there is still some feeling of repression and frustration – albeit with the one Chinese person I know.

My mood improved over the course of the week mainly due to the fact I was off to Shanghai at the weekend.

This week was pretty rubbish....I came down with a nasty cold and cough, so Wendy, who’d clearly become over-protective of me, wanted to take me to a doctor to get checked out.

It was obvious to me I just had a cold, mainly because the temperature outside had seemingly dropped 10°C overnight, but still Wendy insisted I should see a doctor, so I jumped on the back of her bike and she took me off to Miyun hospital.

Well, what can I say?  It was certainly an experience and I’m just glad I had a native speaker with me – not that I would have ended up at the hospital if it wasn’t for Wendy’s insistence!

I had an initial consultation with the doctor, who said I should get a blood test and an x-ray.  I really couldn’t understand why they would need an x-ray but have since been told this was to check for TB.  Given I had to pay for each test, I told Wendy I didn’t want the x-ray but would have the blood test, so after going to the cashier and paying for it, we went in search of the right area in the hospital.  On route, we managed to somehow walk onto a film set!  It was definitely a very surreal moment – there was a Chinese camera crew filming a hospital drama in a real hospital and we actually walked onto camera in the middle of a take!  Definitely another T.I.C. moment – as if you’d ever experience something like that in a UK hospital.

As expected, the blood test came back clear – I hadn’t contracted TB or bird flu, which was a relief – so I was given a huge prescription and walked away equipped with enough drugs to supply the Red Cross.  Wendy then took me back to school and the rest of the day passed uneventfully.

The following day I was still feeling pretty ill despite the massive number of drugs I was now taking and what’s more, the water supply in the apartment had suddenly stopped.

By Thursday, the drugs had finally kicked in so I was feeling much better but I had to wait until Friday for the water to start working again.

I’d already decided by this point that I would head into Beijing on the Friday evening by myself.  I clearly needed a hot shower and a bit of time alone as the week had not been the best and I had started to feel sorry for myself.

I was up pretty early on the Saturday morning and headed in the direction of my favourite shopping venue, the Silk Market.  I then spent the day, doing what I every girl does to feel better...shopping till dropping!  My bartering skills were on fine form - I managed to get the Christmas presents for my family I’d planned to buy plus a few extras for yours truly.

After stopping off at the Oriental Plaza, I took a trip down memory lane and went to the Peninsula hotel for a bite to eat, which is where Smurf and I had stayed when we first reached Beijing.  I then sat in the comfort of the lobby bar and slurped on a delicious Apple Martini before heading back to the hostel and joining the other Beijingers.

We then went out to Hooters for dinner/drinks.  Not sure what I was expecting, but perhaps a little more atmosphere.  The place was tacky American as I’d been warned, with the waitresses in tight orange hot pants and too much make-up... Its only redeeming feature was the inclusion of Apple Martinis on the cocktail list.

After Hooters (not that I remember leaving), we went to some bar in San Li Tun, which I remember very little about, but managed to get the best ‘Liz crazy dancing’ shot of my trip so far.

The next day I was only just about capable of making it back to Miyun....

Back to work first thing in the morning, which is never fun after a holiday.  However, Inga got back from her week away at lunchtime, so we were able to swap holiday stories, which was quite amusing.

The week passed by as normal.  My lessons went ok – nothing out of the ordinary, although the new lesson plan I started on the Thursday definitely wasn’t as much fun as the last one.

There was another typical T.I.C. moment on Friday....I was sitting in the office as normal waiting for my 11.15am lesson, when suddenly a student burst in and tells me I’m late!  They’d changed the timetable that morning for some reason and not told me.

Anyhow, I got my things together and walked over to the classroom with my student. On route I apologised for being late explaining that I didn’t know.  She replied, ‘it doesn’t matter, it’s just we get very excited for your lesson’.  This was just the best response to have had....I’m guessing it’s the sort of comment every teacher wants to hear from a pupil.

After the class, which was pretty rushed as I’d missed 15 minutes of it, I was walking back to the teachers’ office with Wendy....She told me it was Sella’s birthday and invited me to join her family for dinner that evening.

There was no school that afternoon for some reason, so I met Wendy at 4pm and headed over to her home.  I’d taken Sella the Lion King DVD (which I’d managed to pinch from Inga) for her birthday, so she and I watched the film together whilst Wendy got the dinner prepared.

Wendy’s husband then arrived home, along with Wendy’s sister, brother-in-law and niece.  We then sat down to dinner and had a fantastic evening.  They were all really hospitable and fun, and, as usual with Chinese meals, they had me gambeiing rice wine.  Wendy’s sister seemed like a hoot – she didn’t speak any English, in fact none of them did apart from Wendy, but the translation got their personalities across just fine.  She invited me to have dinner at her house, which was very kind...She said to me in Chinese ‘you, me, we can drink together’, which amazingly I understood (although not difficult with a bit of sign language).  She had shown she liked a drink or two over the course of the meal and obviously recognised a kindred spirit!

Inga and I had discussed going to Huairou that evening to meet up with Martin and Piotr at the Pattaya Club...I hadn’t expected the evening with Wendy to be as long or as fun as it had been, so I got back to our apartment a little later than anticipated. Inga was ready and waiting, and despite being almost 10pm, was still up for heading out, so I grabbed my things and we went off to get a taxi.

We managed to find a cab driver pretty easily and had a laugh negotiating with him – he clearly had a sense of humour.  Anyhow, it turned out to be the best taxi ride ever....As we were cruzing along towards Huairou, he suddenly flipped down the passenger sun shield to reveal a TV screen.  The next thing we know he’d put on a cheesy western love song karaoke DVD!  I couldn’t believe my luck... We’d managed to hail a karaoke cabbie in Miyun of all places and were now happily singing along to ‘I will always love you’ and ‘Everything I do, I do it for you’.  Only in China!...or maybe Japan.

I’d remembered the way in to Huairou from my previous trip so was able to direct our fabulous cab driver to the right spot.  And after a rather sad goodbye to him, we joined Piotr, Martin and Ferg at the club.

We had a fun night dancing away and enjoying the cheap club beer, although Inga and I had one scary moment on the dance floor when we were mobbed by a group of Chinese men, who seemed to think because we were western, they could grab us inappropriately.  Once we’d managed to escape, we rejoined the boys, who thought the whole episode was hilarious – I didn’t share their humour and just hoped I’d never be in their company should I ever be in any real danger.  Inga and I agreed this was precisely the sort of situation when we needed someone like Simon around, the more sensible member of the Beijing crowd.

The cabaret performance that night wasn’t as good as the one I’d experienced the week before, but we managed to get to do KTV again until 4am, which was great!  They even kept the club open an extra couple of hours specially.

The following day we were up pretty late and went to Big Pizza to get some hangover grub.  Inga and I then made our way into Beijing.

We met up with Simon and BBC and went for dinner at a great Chinese restaurant by Houhai called Union Square (a very un-Chinese name).  After that we went to the No Name Bar and had great fun sampling the cocktail list.

Sunday was spent shopping... I managed to get a couple of seasons of Grey’s Anatomy, which should keep Inga and I entertained for a while.

Monday was a struggle given the lack of down-time at the weekend, but I was delighted when one of my students presented me with a moon cake at the end of the evening class to celebrate the mid-autumn festival.

The mid-autumn festival is not a public holiday despite it being quite a big celebration in China.  Most people try to spend it with their families...The evening centres around eating a big dinner and a variety of different moon cakes, which can be both sweet and savory, and watching the festival celebrations on CCTV.

The highlight of my mid-autumn festival was being told the students had exams Wednesday to Friday so therefore there were no classes!  Although Mr Guo seemed to think we would still have evening classes so I turned up on Wednesday evening to an empty classroom.  I waited for about 20 minutes before finding one of the teachers who told me the class was cancelled like all the others.  This is a typical T.I.C. moment....no clear communication ever it would seem.

Anyhow, the rest of my week was therefore pretty easy so I decided I would use the free time as an opportunity to take a trip to visit Martin and Piotr in Huairou, which is only 20km from Miyun.

I asked Mr Guo to give me directions in Chinese for the taxi driver.  He made me laugh because he told me I should negotiate with the driver.  I do realise this is normal Chinese behaviour, but wasn’t too sure how I would manage it with my non-existant language skills!

The evening turned out to be a mini adventure.....

My negotiation with the cab driver was pretty much non-existant, and as I expected, he had no idea where he was going, despite the directions I thought I had from Mr Guo.  Fortunately Martin was able to get one of his students on the phone to direct him into the town, which simplified things.

After having a little look at Martin and Piotr’s school and dorms, we headed out to dinner before going to the infamous Pattaya Club.  Martin and Piotr had been telling the Beijingers about this place, but it’s definitely somewhere that needs to be experienced to be believed....

We got whisked straight in (no charge) and given a table close to the dance floor.  The beer only cost ¥10 a bottle and there was a bouncing dance floor and poll dancers.  What’s more, at 11pm, the live performance began.  Aparantly the show varies night to night but that Thursday brought a fantastic spot from China’s answer to Frank Sinatra, with whom I totally fell in love!  He was followed by two guys dressed in army camaflage trousers and fishnet vest, who began by singing and dancing in unison.  After a few minor acrobatics, their performance ended with one smashing breaks on the other’s head with a ring of fire appearing around the dance floor.  I’d never seen anything quite so bizarrely fantastic in my life!  The icing on the cake was when a couple of the Chinese guys invited Martin and I to KTV, which happened to also be in the club.  This place was definitely designed for me - it quite possible is my ultimate nightclub!!!

I somehow managed to wow one of the Chinese guys with a rendition of Amazing Grace - he kept shouting ‘I love you, I love you, I love you’, which was quite amusing particularly as I think these 3 words were perhaps the only ones he knew in English!!

We finally left at 2am and I now had the problem of finding a cab to get me back to Miyun....

We managed to find one loitering at the town’s McDonalds.  Martin took control of the bartering, but stupidly forgot to tell me the agreed price.  I eventually made it home around 3am after the cab driver got lost a few times.

I was grateful for an easy Friday but I had to teach on Saturday as Golden Week was approaching, which is a big national holiday.  3 days of the first week of October are paid national holiday, but all companies give their workers the full week off, with staff expected to make up the 2 other days of the working week some other time. Schools operate by the same system as there are no half terms as such. Therefore, I was to work one of those 2 days before the holiday and one at the end of the holiday...

Inga and I headed into Beijing at the end of the school day so didn’t make it to the hostel until 9pm.  As usual, we had a couple of beers when we arrived, whilst we waited for Shangin and PM, and I got chatting to one of the other guests, a guy called Paul Orchard from St Albans.  We headed to the Lotus Bar round the corner from the hostel for a couple of drinks and invited Paul and some random German guy to join us.  It was a fun but fairly sedate evening but also it was the last time I would see Shangin as she had decided to quit the programme.  She’d not been happy since getting to China and really didn’t enjoy the teaching so enough was enough. So, at the end of the evening we said our farewells, which seemed a little odd, given I’d spent a month so close to her at UIBE (sleeping side by side!!)...

I ended up chatting with Paul back at the hostel until around 2am.  It was really interesting talking to him, because he’d done a lot of travelling.  I was particularly jealous of his current trip which would take him through China to Tibet and onto Nepal.  It just made me more excited about the rest of my year away.

After a much-needed lie-in, Inga and I headed to the Silk Market with Paul in tow.  After scouring for bargains and coming away with a fake pair of Gucci sunglasses, Inga and I headed to Wanfujing and I pointed Paul in the direction of the Stone Boat cafe at Ritan Park.

I managed to get my all-time fav at the Oriental Plaza - a caramel latte from Starbucks - which perked me up no end, then I thought it would be good to take Inga to the Stone Boat cafe.  Like many times before, we managed to get lost.  When we got out of the subway, the map I had seemed to bare no resemblance to the road names.  I asked for directions and got sent in the wrong direction as usual, so Inga and I ended up getting a motorbike taxi.  Despite being somewhat over-powered by the bike’s engine fumes, it was quite a funny experience.  I was also happy I managed to barter with the driver successfully!

Quite a few hours had passed since we’d parted with Paul at the Silk Market, but we found him sitting at the Stone Boat, so joined him for a drink...

We sat chatting for a couple of hours, which was really pleasant as, unlike in the summer, the park was quite empty so very peaceful.  The Stone Boat cafe is definitely the perfect place to come and while away an afternoon with either a good book or a group of friends and a bottle of wine.

As the sun was setting, Paul and I headed back to the hostel and Inga commenced the epic journey back to Miyun.

We had to be at the school at 7am - an absolute killer!!  I was so tired and really not looking forward to having to smile sweetly all day at the teachers...Fortunately the day was a pleasant surprise....

On the trip were Claire and Wendy (with daughter, Sella) from grade 1 and a small group of teachers from grade 3, plus Mr Guo and the headmaster.

We were taken to a national park in Miyun County and went on a long (8km) walk through the area known as Peach Blossom Valley.  It was really spectacular....There were magnificent views of the Great Wall and beautiful natural water pools, rock formations and waterfalls.

We arrived there so early that the place was deserted.  Having the place to ourselves was a real treat because it’s usually not possible in China given the sheer volume of the population.  At the end of our leisurely walk Mr Guo hired a couple of pedalos so we could go ‘boating’ on one of the water pools.  It was quite a surreal experience as I ended up on a pedalo with Mr Guo and the headmaster.  I was instructed that I should make conversation with the headmaster to show my respect and should ask him questions. The formal nature of the relationship I was clearly meant to have with him completely contradicted the situation we were in as he huffed and puffed whilst pedalling me around!

After the pedalo experience, we were taken to a restaurant in the middle of nowhere for lunch.  We had a massive meal, which was great, although the chicken dish came complete with head and feet, which made Inga nearly throw up at the table.  That sort of thing doesn’t really bother me, not a surprise coming from the girl who tucked into scorpion, but Inga really can’t get used to it and never attempts to hide her feelings, which always makes me chuckle.

The usual requests to ‘gambei’ rice wine kept on coming which managed to get both Inga and I tipsy....We were then asked to sing.  Given we’d turned down the request at the Teacher’s Day ceremony, we felt we had to obliged this time and promptly burst into our rather rubbish version of Can You Feel The Love Tonight from the Lion King.  Luckily the alcohol had taken the edge of the embarrassment, but I was still compus mentus enough to know that actually this wasn’t really normal behaviour for me at this stage of sobriety.

Our performance seemed to get everyone in the singing mood because the suggestion was then made to head to KTV.  I was now officially in heaven and the other teachers had a hard job getting me off the mic once I’d worked out how to find the English songs on the karaoke system.

The headmaster and Mr Guo did a couple of ear piercing Beijing opera performances, Inga managed to get molested in the bathroom by some dirty drunken Chinese guy, the teachers performed as a group for us, and Lydia (teacher from Grade 3) invited us both to have dinner with her that evening.  So, all in all, it was a pretty eventful session at KTV.

We can’t have been at the KTV that long as we got dropped off at our apartment at around 4.30pm, but I just remember finding it amusing when we left the venue to find it still light outside.  I’d lost all sense of time in the dark smoky karaoke room and felt sure it must be dinner time already.

Tired and still a little tipsy, Inga and I head to Lydia’s for dinner at 6pm.... We had a lovely evening eating Chinese hot pot, which is basically a boiling broth in the centre of the table that you chuck mutton and various vegetables in to cook.  You then tuck into the pot with your chopsticks and dip what you can grab in a number of different tasty sauces.  It’s a staple Chinese dish commonly eaten in Northern China in winter.

After dinner we watched Lydia’s wedding video, which was pretty interesting.  Chinese weddings are nothing like Western ones.  There is definitely no pomp to the ceremony and the guests don’t appear to make the same attire efforts that we do.  In Lydia’s video, her mother was wearing an everyday red sweater and her coat!  The other big difference is the lack of partying at a Chinese wedding.  Once the meal is over, everyone gets up very promptly and leaves, so if you ever get an invite to a Chinese wedding, don’t count on it going on all day.  You’ll be in and out within a couple of hours.

The evening ended quite bizarrely with Lydia requesting we do some karaoke for her husband.  He didn’t seem that impressed, which prompted her to tell us that we’d clearly strained our voices that afternoon and therefore should perhaps call it a night. Inga and I found her directness very amusing particular given it was her suggestion we perform.  However, we were actually just relieved at this point that we could get home to bed after such a long day.

Lydia kindly walked us home via a pharmacy to get some ‘Golden Throat’ lozenges to ease the damaged vocal chords.

The week at school went ok.  I seem to be settling into a routine so no real highlights to speak of...

I’m getting to know the students a bit better, and I definitely have some classes I like more than others, which was to be expected.  The students are generally pretty lazy, not a huge surprise at their age, so it takes quite a lot of effort and energy to get them motivated.  I spent the week trying to think of fun games to play in the next lesson plan.

Inga and I have to do activities with the teachers each week, which involves selecting a subject to discuss with them.  The idea of the exercise is to help them practise their oral English.  You would think this would be straightforward, but no - T.I.C.!  These women have no life as they have to work all the time, so it would appear they have very little to say about anything.  Half the problem is that their spoken English is appalling and they are embarrassed to speak.  They learnt their English from Chinese teachers, and those teachers from Chinese teachers before that.  It’s actually a mad concept for us to consider learning a second language and never visiting the country or have the opportunity to learn from a native speaker, but that’s just the way it is for them.

We gave them a list of subjects we could discuss and asked them to let us know which ones they were interested in.  Despite this, they still had little to say.  To make matters worse, the teachers from the different grades are interested in different things, so if a teacher activity works well with one group, it can fall flat on its arse with another.  Oh well, only 32 more teachers activities to go until the end of term!!

Friday brought the usual trip into Beijing.  Nobody else was around on the Friday evening, so Inga and I headed out to find a bar at Houhai known as the No-Name-Bar.  I’d read about it in a great little guidebook and it sounded pretty cool, but as it really had no name, I envisaged it being a little hard to find!  However, despite my usual bad luck at finding places in Beijing, we managed to get to the No-Name-Bar with relative ease.  It was everything we’d hope for.... a great view of the lake, a cosy and relaxed atmosphere AND reasonably priced G&Ts!

Paranoid Mike called to say he was around, so came to join us later in the evening.  After sinking a few more drinks we headed to a noodle bar for food.  Mike insisted on ordering a sparrow kebab because he had promised himself he would try all sorts of new and weird things whilst in China.  I clearly couldn’t resist the opportunity to have a taste.  Strangely, like most weird things, it tasted a lot like chicken.

The following day Inga and I decided to head back to the Summer Palace, after having such a disappointing visit whilst still at UIBE.  We had a really great afternoon walking around as it’s such a beautiful place and a real must-see when in Beijing. 

I bought a rather fetching Chinese princess headdress for ¥10.  An absolute bargain for the fun I was to get out of it.... From that point on I wore it around the Summer Palace and for the first time since getting to China, I turned into the celebrity as opposed to Inga!  People asked to have their picture taken with me and there were crys of ‘so beautiful, so beautiful’ from passers-by.  Had I known that all it would take was a 10 kuai princess headdress to be consider beautiful, I would have bought one earlier and worn it to the teachers’ welcome dinner!!

After finally deciding celebrity life was not for me, I removed the headdress to restore anonymity before getting a taxi to our bus station....

Typically we managed to get lost as the taxi driver took us a different route, which confused me massively.  Despite being in Beijing for 2 months, I just can’t seem to orientate myself, which is quite surprising for someone who usually has a very good sense of direction.  I have a feeling that Inga’s total lack of direction is somehow rubbing off on me. 

Inga and I headed in to the school at 9am.  I spent the morning reviewing my lesson plan before going to take my first class at 2.30pm.

I would be accompanied to each class by one of the Chinese English teachers because apparently discipline has been known to be a problem at the school, which was just what I needed to hear.  Anyway, the first class went ok despite being pretty nervous.

The lesson was just an introduction...to give me an opportunity to get to know the students and assess their level of English, and for the students to know a little bit about me and understand how my lessons would work.

There are 50 students in a class, so I knew from the start there would be no way I was gonna learn all their names, given I have 700 students to teach each week!

After doing 4 lessons back to back (45 minutes each), I was shattered, so I headed straight back to the apartment and had a celebratory beer.  With the first day down, I had 6 more to go until the weekend! For some completely bizarre reason, in the Beijing region, the school year has to start on September 1^st, whether it falls on a weekend or not.  As it fell on a Saturday this year, it meant the first week of term would last 7 days until the following Friday, and there would be 2 days off in lieu at some other time.  Does that make sense? Not to me it doesn’t...but hey T.I.C. - very little it would appear seems logical.

The following day I only had one lesson and then Inga and I left after lunch to head into Beijing on the bus.

Bus 980 took 2 hours to get into the city, so not the shortest of rides, but this is THE only option for getting into Beijing from Miyun, we’d have to get used to it.  Despite the long journey, we still managed to fit in a couple of hours shopping at Wanfujing before making our way back to the bus station to get the last bus back to Miyun.

Once on the bus, we then had a little trouble trying to communicate with the ticket lady.  She wanted to know exactly what stop we wanted in Miyun.  At first we thought it was to allow her to charge us the right money, but showing her the ticket from the previous journey didn’t seem to satisfy.  There was a lot of discussion with other passengers and eventually a young guy tried to translate but wasn’t too successful.  Anyhow, he continued to talk to us - I’m pretty sure he wanted to make the most of a free opportunity to practice his English.  He seemed quite sweet though and out of concern for our safety, wanted to make sure we got off the bus at the right stop.

One thing he said, which was kinda sad, was that he was envious of us being free to travel.  He said he’d always wanted to travel but in China you go to school, then you get a job, marry and have a baby - that’s it.  Clearly life isn’t like that for a lucky minority, but they really are the minority.

We did manage to miss our stop (we blame it on it being dark), but luckily the next one wasn’t too far away so we hoped off and walked back home.

Inga and I felt quite proud of ourselves that we’d managed to successfully make the trip into and back from Beijing - a journey we would become very familiar with.

Monday morning brought the delight of my first activity with the teachers.  I’d prepared a few discussion points about Western festivals and holidays and tried to get them to talk about the differences between our celebrations and Chinese celebrations.  It was like pulling teeth - they really weren’t forthcoming with conversation, which made it very hard.

I had 3 classes in the afternoon which went well, but I was already getting bored of my introduction lesson plan.  I was only half way through so would have to do the same lesson 7 more times.

Despite only being in Miyun for a few days, I was starting to get quite bored there.  It was a real shock to the system to be in such a sleepy town with one other person after spending a month living it up with 100 others in Beijing.  I spoke to a couple of the other Beijingers to discuss potentially getting together at the weekend.  It would appear I wasn’t the only one missing the fun of UIBE...

The following day was quite bizarre....The day started as normal...Inga was taken to the bank by Mr Guo to help her get some money changed, and I got to work on lesson plans in our office....Then around 11am I was called to Mr Guo’s office.  He proceeded to start asking me a number of questions about life in England - how many people in my family, was I married, did I have a boyfriend - which seemed a little odd, but I thought he was just interested in getting a bit of background info.  He then started to look a little uncomfortable, shifting around in his seat as he began to proposition me.  His exact words were ‘would I have an intimate relationship with’ him.  He said he also wanted to practice his English so it would be good if I could come to his office every now and then to help him.  There’s a bed in his office so it was quite clear to me what kind of English practice he was referring too! As his monologue continued and I tried to stop my jaw from hitting the floor, I heard my phone beep and knew full well it was a message from Inga....

There are a few things that are shocking about this incident....Firstly, he’s a pretty fast mover - I'd only been in Miyun for 5 days - I’d hardly had the time to unpack, let alone consider giving some overweight, undersexed Chinaman private English tuition! Secondly, never once had I given him the slightest impression that I was interested!!  And lastly, I knew full well that he was infatuated with Inga, and had already tried and failed with her before coming to me as a last resort.  I’m not sure what offended me more....Mr Guo thinking he stood a chance, or me being second choice!!!!!

I can laugh about it now, but at the time it really unnerved me because not only was it completely unexpected and inappropriate, it made me feel really uncomfortable.  He was the one person we were supposed to be able to go to if we had any problems at the school.  Anyhow, Inga and I decided we would see how the land lay after a few days....If there were any further problems then we would have to get the company responsible for the EFL programme to move us to a different school.  Fortunately everything was fine - Mr Guo accepted the knock-back graciously which saved everyone a lot of hassle.

The highlight of the following day was my purchase of a pillow and a tacky Chinese dress to lounge in at the apartment.  Inga and I then had a fun evening chatting over a couple of beers.

The following day was pretty busy...I had 5 classes and a lot of preparation to do...

I started a new lesson plan in the afternoon which went well.  The students appear to like me - I spend most classes acting the monkey at the front, which amuses them.  It’s pretty exhausting though....It’s a bit like performing a rubbish show day after day with varying degrees of applause depending on how tired the audience is.

Inga and I were called to Mr Guo’s office.  It was the first time we had to face him since the propositioning!  He informed us we were required to attend a prize giving ceremony on the Sunday in honour of Teacher’s Day.  He told us that we would receive a certificate and if we liked, we could sing a song.  Singing to crowds of people is not something I do these days unless enebriated, but Inga and I agreed we would think about it.

That evening, over a couple of beers, we discussed song choices - mainly of the Disney variety.  Not sure we reached an agreement but had a laugh about it....

Finally it was Friday!  After finishing my final lesson of the week, Inga and I headed off to catch the bus into Beijing.