Xmas this year.

Its Christmas Eve, and I am writing my blog.

I don't think anyone is feeling particularly Chrismassy this year, don't get me wrong, I still love it and looking forward to it, but the childlike excitement isn't really here any more.

Firstly, the last week of term is always filled with drawing Christmas cards and telling teachers there's no swear words in the film we want to put on in class, then enjoying the glorious expression on teachers' faces during the cringey parts with swearing and crude jokes.

However, lesson's have been full of revising and past exam papers, and reminders of our exams after the holidays, which we need to revise for. Oh, and to enjoy our holidays.

To my English teacher, this is the perfect example of a juxtaposition.


The world ended a few days ago. It was an anti-climax. Still, it felt weird to go to sleep on the night of the 21st, knowing how absolutely normal the day had been, just as we expected, when everyone had been talking and anticipating this normal day.

We do not have a Christmas tree this year. Nope, we have a drum kit. And as my brother has recently taken his exam, he is no longer required to practice... so... we put fairy lights over that instead.


Now for the more jolly things.
Two of my friends have given me marshmallows for Christmas.

I don't know if I have written about it, but Hannah and I have made several lists, during the really boring business lessons, when we have no work to do, about why it's a good idea to have a love affair with marshmallows.

I found a tablet thing which you can do art on the computer with, meaning I can design lots of awesome dresses. It had been my childhood dream to be a fashion designer. In fact, Bryony told me that in primary school when I was selling milk I always drew dresses. Bless, I'm so cute.

Ooh, and Bryony also gave me her memory stick to copy some music. Fair play, she has a fairly good music taste... and I pretty much copied all the albums off, even though she had made 2 playlists for me. But I love the playlists. I sing the songs she gave me, unluckily for my family.

I hope she reads this. She was saying I did not mention her enough in another post of mine.

She was a vegetarian, but not any more. She tried bacon but did not like it.
Reminds me of another vegetarian friend who ate bacon to save the economy. Logic being that eating bacon will keep pig farmers their jobs.

That is probably someone's excuse for taking cocaine.


Corinne's philosophy: If people are laughing, laugh too, so then they are laughing with you. If you don't laugh, then they are laughing at you.

London trip with the clever people P1

As I am one of the twelve 'cleverest' people in my year at school, this means I am part of the Express group (Gifted and Talented). Or as my mother likes to call it, the twelve apostles. Or disciples as she just came in to add.
 Its actually a pretty decent thing to be involved in, we gets lots of opportunity to listen to lectures and go to workshops we usually would not have the chance to. Although we did have to do a stupid numbers qualification which aside from many hours, it also involved going to a little heritage centre for a day to do maths. But I had my first subway there. Overrated. I can imagine a lot of people who would kill me for saying that, but, it's a sandwich. Anyone can make a sandwich. I would rather a burger any day.

So last weekend, as a treat for completing the maths qualification, our headteacher and assistant head took us to London, for a very intensive but also uberly fun two days.

Most of us woke up at 4 am in the morning for this trip, which none of really see, except when people stay up to 4 playing Xbox or something. There were no street-lights  and the only light was the moonlight. Which is rather cheesy. I let myself out the house with my rucksack and went to find Bryony to walk to our meeting point. And because its not everyday you get the chance to, we walked in the middle of the road.

After a 5 hour journey in the minibus, the headteacher dropped us off at a random tube station. I think it was Osterley.

'The next stop is Boston Manor, the train terminates at Cockfosters.'
And at the word 'Cockfosters' Dan burst into giggles. Which of course makes all the rest of us laugh. (They were 11 of us, plus Miss, and Mr.). The thing that made it all even more hysterical were the daily Londoners sitting on the tube, silent and still, silently scrutinising us.  This happened at every single stop, and as soon as the announcement starts, all of us immediately turn to look at Dan, which only makes him twice as vulnerable to the giggles. By the sixth station, after covering his face, and concentrating deeply, he managed not to laugh at the word 'Cockfosters'. He had a little celebration, pumping his fist in the air, which only made us laugh a little more.
Ah..... and we're supposed to be smartest of the bunch.

We arrived at Leicster square for the Gifted and Talented conference, at the Odeon theatre. The series of lectures were good. Unfortunately, in the lecture just before lunch.... I may have fell asleep. Which was a pity really, as it was about celebrity obsession, which was actually the most interesting topic there. The guy did like to make a lot of Jimmy Saville jokes though.

Some of us went for a Burger King at lunch. They have cool drinks machine, with a touch screen.

For the second half of the lectures the boys brought popcorn. Which is fine by me as they shared it with me.

After this we had a little while to go shopping in Convent Garden. I really adore the place, as it was extra special with all the Christmas decorations. The giant red baubles and the lights which filled the place. The street artists who pretended to risk their lives with a potential to drown, but we couldn't really get excited as they were too far away to see.

Our next stop was the alternative art tours around the East End London, where the infamous Jack the Ripper murders happened. Of course, we have to stop for a Costa coffee first.

Being a year 11.

Its been a long time since I've written, and this will be very school orientated. Being a schoolgirl and all.

People often say that these are the best years of our lives, and while I would not leap to agreement, I can see how with hindsight that they would say this.

This will be last year of compulsory education, and I can honestly say that I can't wait for it to finish. Putting it all into perspective, all my life so far has been pretty much learning and working and building up to this year, and I want to get good results which I will work hard for, and then relax in a way I have never been able to. (Obviously I could when I was a baby or a toddler, but I didn't appreciate nor understand much then.)

As for enjoying school, I think I do. There are pile loads of homework and controlled assessment, and by Friday I do feel absolutely drained, but there is also a sense of contentment after completing a piece of homework or getting a good mark in controlled assessments that can't be achieved in any other way.

There are many things I feel are useless and necessary, and is quite bluntly, a waste of my time. As I am being positive today (after a good night's sleep), I will allow myself a little rant at Welsh again.

It is a dying language, and like all things, humankind, living beings, technology and geography all evolve. If nothing did, and nothing died and nothing new could ever be born or created, there would be no progress. There is a reason that Welsh is a dying language, and we should let it die. (Gosh, I sound mean.) But there is a minute amount of people left that speak the language, and why should we be forced to learn meaningless phrases and sentences in order to 'salvage' the language from the inevitable end, when we should be embracing the way the world is growing, and learn languages such as French, or Mandarin? 

I appreciate Business studies, and in fact I have learnt some basics I had not known, however I do fear our teacher is not the best teacher. Neither is our art teacher. But that's ok, they aren't important subject to me personally. I might have chosen music, if I went back to choose them again, but they are both equally bad in terms of teaching. I really do enjoy music though, but I guess music grades are plenty good enough to put on personal statements etc. Besides, I won't be going into Art, nor music.

Speaking of music...... I was on youtube last night, and my new obsession is 'ThePianoGuys'...... their version of Coldplay's Paradise in Swahili - 'Peponi' is absolutely beautiful and warming.

Peponi by the PianoGuys...

Back to my subjects...

History is awfully difficult, there is so much writing, and types of analysations, and learning about history I should know and care about, but don't really. But I don't regret taking it, I'm doing better than I expected I would. I was very tired preparing my essay on Jack the Ripper. One of my sentences was 'We will never know why Jack the Ripper murdered these prostitutes in such a brutal manner.' However, due to the lack of energy running through my system, I wrote:
We will never know why Jack the Ripper married these prostitutes in such a brutal manner.

French is good. It's very logical. It makes sense. I would have a slight advantage were I to go to France on holiday. Well, if I were to write everything I wanted to say on a slit of paper, then hand it to a French person, and hope they would write a simple reply back on the paper, then I would have an advantage.

We've been studying Of Mice and Men, and Heroes in English, and I genuinely cannot be more convinced that we read waaaaaaaaaay to much into every single word. How can the simple colour co-ordination of a single room in a single house represent the mood of every single person in that room.
For example, my room is beautiful light pea-green colour. However does this not mean the greenness reflect the tranquil heart I have, nor the calm mindset which the green portrays. I like the colour green. Ok?

The maths lesson consists of me sitting doing my own work. This is because I've completed my GCSE in maths. I'm now currently at the awkward stage where I'm not quite ready to take my A level maths, but not quite sure whether an extra qualification is worth it.

And I do like Science.
Hey, I captained the Chem team to a victory in the South Wales Chemical Olympiad. And I had to with-strain my silly smile, and try not to act too happy. I've called the emotion 'geeky contentment'.  

I feel like I should put a conclusion. This is what essay writing has done to me. In history, I spend too many minutes repeating all the points I have made in slightly different constructed sentences, to remind the readers (teacher/moderators) everything I just spent hours writing about. Aren't I being nice to them? They should just read through it again, but I'm nice.

I'm tired. I'm pretty sure I could write more about extra-curricular. Or maybe a conclusion to a passage never written.

Lots of things. Busy. Tired. Annoying teachers sometimes. Good teachers sometimes. Mostly annoying. Singing when I can't sing. Playing carols on flute which makes me so frustrated I want to punch a broccoli. Debating whether to do debating. Listening to storytellers instead of telling stories. Playing the xylophone, sounding impressive to the trees who listen, then failing and stumbling when the humans listen.

Oh, I went to London with the Gifted and Talented group in school... It was amazing. Will tell. Meanwhile: this is a snippet in photos.

Concluded.

No one does irony better than me.

(aka. Deadliness of Irony 4)
 I have been attending a first aid course this weekend.
Which I obviously thought would be good for me.
However, 7 hours of mostly lecture, would not be what I called fun.


So it was the second half of the second and last day. I was getting increasingly restless. The instructor's stutter was really starting to get to me, and I really did not enjoy listening to stories about random people, or biology lessons.
I wanted to do some practical exercises, to wrap up people's arms in funky bandage patterns, to do something that feels impressive.

But anyway, I saved the impressing to later.

So the powerpoint and instructor continued to talk about different form of wounds.
And of course very helpfully, there were pictures as an example of each. They started off fine, just a picture of a graze.... it elevated rather quickly. There was a picture of a foot with a garden fork through it.

I like putting pictures when I can in my blog.
But...

Then the picture on the screen turned into a bit of metal lodged in the eye. As in, pierced through the lens and into the white. The white of the eye was red.

He continued to talk.

I was rather fidgety, and couldn't stay still. The morning had been long, we had been taught the reasons for unconsciousness. Fainting was one.

He continued to talk, and all the pictures he had shown me, especially the one of the eye staring right at me made me feel uncomfortable.

Queasy.

My vision started going blotchy. I felt faint.
I told Martha, who was sitting next to me that I felt faint.

I then collapsed onto the floor..

OH YEAH. AND GUESS WHAT. THEY THOUGHT I WAS ACTING. Oh and not just acting. BAD ACTING.

So Martha, caught me, and was going to have her moment of glory. Unfortunately, she told me, I was conscious and could speak, so she need not put me in a recovery position, which we had learnt.

The instructor rushed over. And put one of his protocols in place. I started off a bit mumbly. PEOPLE STILL THOUGHT I WAS FAKING. YEAH, ITS PRETTY IRONIC ISN'T IT?

I started laughing and giggling to the end.
It was rather ironic.
But with usual charisma and flair, I did say it was rather timely, and it helped demonstrate a real life situation. Honestly, it was awful. They totally all laughed at me.

So, I find it very funny. Who faints in a first aid course for real?

Time to say a handful of goodbye's. Day 8 to Day 13,

After the exhausting day climbing the fortress, it was straight back to teaching. The warm sticky weather of Zunyi... and it was in the second week Darwin told me the Apple retail store was fake, and I started seeing the city in a different light. It made sense, being one of the poorer provinces, I still saw some of the teachers in the programme having designer handbags, and in the underground crossings there were stalls selling glitter heels at rates I could buy a packet of sweet here.

We finished watching Mr. Holland's opus, in which I was very touched. I didn't cry. 

But I had this weird feeling where I felt like I needed to cry, cos otherwise all the chemicals would just stifle, so my nose went red. But I didn't cry. But everyone thought I did.

We drank a lot of instant coffee over the second week, I guess it was a placebo effect for me hoping that I would feel more energetic in the afternoon. However, it meant I had to go pee all the time, and the toilets aren't nice. At all.

I actually read an article about China a few weeks ago, I think it was about something journalists writing about China, however they were forbidden from writing about the toilets.

They aren't nice. It's a hole in the ground.

I got 'married' to Darwin, an attempt to demonstrate to the Chinese teachers what a Western wedding was like.

Well, I wish I had the chance to tell them, but it does not involve a girl with paper in her hair, wearing pink socks and brown crocs. It does not include paper rings made last minute, nor a tie made out of paper. It does not include an aisle which is narrow, and two people cannot walk down it arm in arm. It does not include a vicar in a bin bag. It does not include the girl losing her ring, while walking back down the aisle. And does not usually include a guy shouting into a microphone looking for the girl then running away.

Apart from that, it was a very accurate re-enactment of a Western wedding I thought.

(I threw the bouquet, but no one caught it.)

I felt a little like a celebrity in that moment, seeing everyone take photos of us.

The very last day of the teaching programme, was on the Saturday, with a modest closing ceremony in the morning. It involved a representative from each class giving a little speech, which was really inspiring as they gushed their thank you's in (very) accented English. One of them even sang a song.

The cultural activities were truly fun. Everyone had their phones and cameras taking pictures, laughing loudly, and enjoying themselves. 

There was a lot of singing of songs from the Sound of Music. One of the classes even did a large group dance of Do Re Mi, inspired by the Antwerp flash mob. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQLCZOG202k )

It was a lot of fun, though I must admit, I think half the people just joined in dancing randomly. I did.

Some of us teachers performed a Fujianese song, I learnt it so well, I can still sing it now, even though I don't understand the words (I don't speak Fujianese). Our dance was amazing.

(Haha!) I like this snapshot, because Steely (the guy in the checkered shirt) looks like he's about to attack me with his fan.

Candy and I were allowed to choreograph our own little sketch in the middle of the song. This is why I look like I have gone crazy. It is actually part of a genius dance creation.

Somewhere in the midst of all these performances, my class managed to take me to one side, and gave me some stunning gifts. 

My favourite was just a little note they wrote to me, it was a very touching note of gratitude, and made me feel immensely happy that they appreciated the little help I could offer. I, myself, was very grateful to them for letting me be a part of the wonderful experience.

Lily Li performed an extremely cultural piece on her unique flute. (Okay, it's an instrument that I have never seen, but if it were to be classed under anything, I would describe it as a pumpkin flute.)

Then there was the catwalk which I helped organise. I remember being asked to demonstrate how to strut during one of our rehearsals. This is the one time I can say I would have done much better had I been 10. I loved pretending to be a model and strutting up and down my bedroom, and I guess I don't have the air of not-caring to be quite as confident anymore.

This is me 'backstage', with all the 'models'. (in white)

Did I mention I am tall for a Chinese?

And so the morning continued, there were performances after the other. There were plays, and songs, and dancing.....

It was the best way to part ways, after a tough 2 week course.


The day wasn't even over.

NOW

... There is a decent autobiography..... update.

Day 7 - Day off - Hailongtun (Sea Dragon Village)

Our first day off in Zunyi,

and the plan was to visit HaiLongTun Fortress. 

Quite honestly, I didn't actually want to go. It was going to climbing lots of stairs, as I had only been told. And I was tired, and I wanted a lie in. Because I am a teenager. But everyone I knew went, and there was no way I could survive by myself, as there were no kitchens and no pot noodles, and no tv with English, and no internet around. 

So I went.

The fortress is situated on top of mountains surrounded by steep cliffs and flanked by streams, with only one narrow path at the back of the mountain leading to it, where it is said a single armed man can stop an army.

There is quite an interesting story behind it, although when the guide told us the story, it was in Mandarin, which I could not understand. So I did a little research on it.
The fortress was built in 1257 on a mountain with a flat peak...

It has the distinction of being the most well preserved military castle in all of Asia. 

'"I can hear weeping and howling at night - the voices of women and children coming from the bottom of the ravine," Liu Yuanguang says, pointing to a cliff from a protruded vista point.

A few steps away is a small stone tablet inscribed with the words: "The Abyss for Execution."

The lamenting voices emanate not only from deep down below but also from across four centuries.

In June of the year 1600, more than 22,000 people, including women and children, were killed and tossed down this precipice.

"There was so much blood that the river turned red, even in downtown Zunyi, 30 km away," Liu continues, as if he were a witness to the tragedy.

The mass execution marked the end of a months-long siege.

Occupying Hailongtun, a mountain with a flat peak built into a fortress, was Yang Yinglong and his army.

The conquerors were Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) soldiers.'

This is all of us setting off, looking fine, and not flustered yet.

Anyway, so thats a little background to where we went. I do kind of wish now I had knew that when I visited the place. I may have felt differently standing in those places. However, I am not one for spiritual 'senses', and if I had not felt it without knowing, the feelings I would have got would only be placebo effects.
We passed a few mules, and I had a little spark of hope that we could ride them, instead of relying on our own legs. I was told there were around 1,000 steps (I am still not sure, as I cannot find a definite number on the internet and neither did I count), plus I did not prepare for hiking, so I did not have decent walking shoes, only heeled crocs. 

I think these are mules...

So anyway, we carried on walking, striding over the steps with ease, and I was thinking this would be easy. 

However, after possibly 10 minutes (I am not sure, but I know myself, and I do get tired and bored and impatient rather easily), I realised I would have to continue walking and climbing and walking and climbing for much longer.
The weather was unbelievably hot, we all had water, and I had a fan. At a break, I had to clip my fringe up. Make no mistake, I dislike clipping my fringe up very much, it makes me look stupid (some would say just more stupid than usual), but I dislike my fringe sticking to my forehead even more.
I also ended up using facial tissues.
Usually when I use facial tissues, it is because I have a runny nose. But in this case it was to wipe my sweat from my face.


It was so hot. I had worn tight jeans too to avoid mosquitoes (Mosquitoes love me! On my right thigh, I had a mosquito bite from Zunyi, Haerbin, Xiamen.... it was like a personal stampbook, but on human flesh!)

In fact... this was what I was wearing .... needless to say I will not be running a fashion blog anytime this lifetime...

This is beautiful Sophie (one with the cute hat) and me. The view was shockingly breathtaking, and overlooked such masses of greenery that you wouldn't think grew near such cities in China.
Oh, and let me explain my amazing fashion sense - hair had just been clipped up (pretty good since I did not have a mirror), the top was because IT WAS BOILING, the stupid stupid stupid snake patterned jeans which made me feel sticky. Oh and someone also told me there could be snakes, so I panicked that they would attack me. AND THE PINK SOCKS, I went through my holiday pictures a while back, and about 80% of pictures with me had me wearing the pink socks. I had 2 pairs, in case people think I am unhygienic, and I only 4 pairs of socks in total in China (I washed my clothes in sinks). And my lovely brown crocs . They're nice. My school shoes are the exact same but black.

I went a litte off topic...

So we continued to walk, the guide talked, I realise the way I describe must make it sound awfully boring. But it wasn't. The place was beautiful, we enjoyed each other's company (haha), and it was good to get some fresh air, and although the walking was exhausting, it felt calming and exercising at the same time.

Until we reached 'The' steps.
'In 1999, a flight of 36 stone stairs was discovered in thickets of shrubberies. Each step is 50 cm high and 2.6 m wide. One cannot walk up - one has to climb.'

May I take this opportunity to tell you I am tall for a Chinese. I was the tallest female there.
The point is, these stairs came up to well above the knees (nearly to the hips) of some people. The climb was not easy.
I was second to the top! Though that may be a little (only a little), to do with the fact I had longer legs than most people, I was the youngest (theoretically with the most energy).... and the fact I did not stay to help the others.

The more and more people arrived at the top, the more people joined in the celebratory photos. I would have put up the one with just me at the top and people struggling to climb up in the background... but I don't look very nice in that.

View from the top, breathless but ecstatic we all made it.


We continued, stopping every now and then to hear a story untranslatable in my mind. Here is a picture of a castle-ly, fortress-y bit.

The most interesting place, had archaeologist sites around it, but either that was the place I wasn't allowed to take photos... or the place that smelled like poo so I did not want to go too close to it.

Aaaaand , we walked back down. Not the same route, an ovally shape to go back down. I personally would not have mind retracing the route, but no one wanted to climb 'those' steps again. Especially down.

You know the moment when something funny happens, and you really are not supposed to laugh. I get those a lot. I cannot do sit-ups (I did 4 sit-ups in 2 minutes last time, and half of them were me pulling at my thighs), but my tummy muscles are good from all the laughing I do. I doubt anyone will meet someone that can laugh for as long as I do. I have a lot of stupid moments.... for example, in Chemistry quiz...' What element rhymes with 'moron'?' Answer is obviously 'boron'. I answered with 'Uranium'. My tummy still hurt hours after that, laughing at my own stupidity.

So my cute cute friend Candy, was walking in front of me, when she slipped and fell on her bum, and she got mud marks on her trousers.. My first instinct was to laugh. However I was very worried for her a split second later. I was genuinely concerned, but that emotion is not really linked to my uncontrollable laughter.
I didn't actually laugh that much, I think I was tired. See, if it was any other day, I would have laughed so much she would be offended.

I think the point of this little story is to say I was tired.

We had watermelon afterwards.

Days 2-6

Every morning, our alarm clock was set a little later each time. Our breakfast eaten by us decreased each time, as the novelty of waking up in a new hotel with a small buffet breakfast wore off.
We would make our way to the school in small groups.. most of the time normally....

But sometimes, when you're in a city full of people that don't know you... well its a chance to be a little silly.

In the morning, from 8.30 to 11.30, were the core lessons.
All the trainees (the English teachers we were training) were split into groups by the age of students they taught, and secondly their ability.
I was a teaching assistant in Class 2A, which were Junior high teachers, the half of higher ability. First half of the lesson would involve some sort of English game, such as build-a-word, or writing poems by filling out blanks....
Did I mention about the technology..?

You see that whiteboard thing.... and that computer thing I'm controlling . They are annoying. The little cursor thing likes to forget I'm supposed to be controlling it, and starts doing some stupid vibrating dance in random areas of the screen.
Oh, and you know most plugs have three 'teeth', the one behind me, which has all the power going to the computer system, has two teeth. And  it does not work if the plug is completely in the socket, there needs to be a gap of about 2mm.
So, every time I get all the powerpoints, or internet pages loaded up,  I lean on the plug, and *zoom*, the whole power turns off.
It is so frustrating.

There would be 10 minute break in the morning, where this woman in my class would go all the way down the stairs (silly, she would to climb up again), and stand in the middle of a basketball court to make a phone call. Most of the teachers just refilled their water bottles and chatted, and texted and made calls, although a lot of them just did that in class too.

The second half of the morning, our class were split into two. One half would be taken by Jacque, and the other half taken by Susana. I wandered around the two, 'helping', or I would sit the staffroom writing poetry. I am not a pretentious poet, in fact, I have no patience for poetry, unless I am forced to study it in class. I wrote the poems for future use in classes, with the help of an online rhyming dictionary.

At 11:30, everyone was dismissed for a lunch break. The trainers would go to a restaurant, which consisted of several rooms in a house-like home. (They did explain to me that the restaurant was located in a home, to save costs).

And if you're immature, you can play with the finished food.

The afternoon session started at 2pm, so at the beginning of the week most of us would go back to the hotel. Some took a nap, and some, well, sat about and read and killed time. By the third day I could not uphold not taking a nap any longer, and fell blissfully asleep while the Olympics was playing in the background.

In the end, instead of going back to the hotel, we just went back to the auditorium. And sang. Very very loudly.

Because we had access to microphones.... I'm pretty sure this is what I dreamed for when I was a little kid, having microphones...

According to the timetable... 2:00 to 2:15 was time for roll call.
Aaaaand, 2:15 to 2:45 was announcements & singing English songs... so basically singing!

The first song we sang was 500 miles. I liked that song. And in the first week we also sang Donna Donna (awfully dreary, rhythm is horrible, complicated, no likey), and Words ( which is a Bee Gees song, the only Bee Gees song I knew was Stayin' Alive, and I also thought they weren't that famous. This shows how much music knowledge I really don't have.)
I sang along, quite happily, though I cannot say the same for those who heard me sang.

On different days we did different activities in the afternoon.
On day 2, we started watching the movie 'Sound of Music'. But it was too bright, (the Sun is always shining in China, unlike Wales, except when there are clouds, or its raining, or it night), so the trainees could not see the projection clearly.
On day 3, there was a plenary led by Dorothy...

This is Dorothy on the left.
Her topic was 'Teachers speak less, students speak more.'
For example, the use of substitution or pattern drills.
You would begin with a sentence, with which the students will repeat, and then a single word or a phrase within that very sentence and be replaced or altered. This sentence can than be repeated as new sentence.

Afterwards there was a conversation session, in which each of the 19 teachers would be allocated a room in a unused building, which was once a school, and around 6-10 trainees.

This is the classroom I had... obviously, when I held the conversation session, there were people there. I moved the chairs and tables into a small circle at the front of the classroom. The first class I had was a group of female teachers, who really wanted to go home.
I wanted to play a simple game, which involved each teacher saying one sentence at a time, to string a short story together. Unfortunately, I don't think they understood the concept (I knew they didn't understand, I should have never told them I did not understand mandarin, they took to conferring with each other in their secret languages)
In the end we ended up with a story about a supermarket, with this guy who didn't know if he was stealing a wallet, or losing a wallet, or neither.
Oh, and I got bitten by lots of mosquitoes in that classroom.
And when I told them they could go home 5 minutes early only if they put away all the chairs and tables, they could not understand, even when I spoke the slowest. Which meant I ended up doing tai chi to demonstrate and mime the actions.

Day 4
Everyone watched the rest of the movie 'Sound of Music'. We had plastered bin bags over some of the windows, so you could actually watch the movie.
After the movie, the trainees were split into their classes again, for further discussion on the movie.
The announcement was made that if the headteacher of the individual classes chose to, the trainees could go home.
For our class, they voted on their favourite song, which would be the song to sing in the next day's morning lesson.

Day 5
The main part of the afternoon was a plenary led by Dr. Diana King.
It was about the phonology in English, which is a branch of linguistics all about the systematic organization of the sounds in a certain language. Which was very interesting to learn about how all the different sounds are made and grouped.

After that, there was another conversation session, which I actually enjoyed very much, as the group I had were the most advanced and could actually speak English well. We managed to have a conversation about things ranging from life in Britain to the Chinese government.

Day 6
On day 6 we started watching the movie 'Mr. Holland's Opus', everyone told me it was going to be a real tearjerker.
Thank heavens they stopped the movie halfway, before I could get too emotional. Though I did have tissues in my pocket just in case.

Aaaaand, at the midway of a beautiful movie, was the end of the first half of the program. With the next day an actual day off, a relief for all trainers and trainees.

Day 1. First day of teaching program.

After managing to wake up at an ungodly hour, we had breakfast at 7 in the morning. Awful time. Too much time to spare when we could be in our cosy beds dreaming of marshmallows.
There was soya bean milk, which didn't have any sugar.
And chinese food.
I am getting lazy, not describing food in detail, it is so unlike me.
Actually, we had a cabbagey dish which was spicy. And buns which you could not tell if they were sweet or savoury. My little pet hate. I want to know if what I eat is going to be sweet or savoury. Imagine biting something that looks like a strawberry and tasting tomato puree instead.
There was also some noodles, which was spicy, and oily.
It shocked me to see that people continued to put chilli oil on the food.

Into the school we all went, I remember the traffic scared me a lot, even though we only had to cross one road, which was a zebra crossing with traffic light. But like I said, no one follows the rules in Zunyi.

We climbed six flights of stairs to the auditorium, where there was a panel of important people (officials from the government and educational board, and the main leaders of the teaching program). They made a few speeches in Mandarin Chinese, and I could not understand a word. I nodded a lot, and amused myself by looking overly interested. My grandad was on the panel, saw me, and gave me knowing wink.

The 'panel' of important people.

All the trainees (120 of them) and the trainers (19 of us) and a few of the officials trampled down the stairs for the beautiful group photo.

(Photo to be inserted later perhaps?)

...
...
...
...

And ridiculously, although this was an English training program, not a fitness one, we had to all seperate into our classrooms... which meant for most of us climbing flights or stairs again.

I have a decision now of making up what happened, saying something believable, or admitting I genuinely don't remember what happened. Not the exact details anyway.

We went for lunch at some point.

And then back to the school.

More speeches and stuff were made.

Ah yes I remember now. There was a pre-movie briefing for 'The Sound of Music', which we were going to watch the next day.

And we went through the rough plot and characters... and then I got my moment!

I read the lyrics, with my 'cut glass' accent. They loved my British accent. I grinned a lot inwardly, my friends in Britain always made fun of my accent. But I guess they do not need to know that.

I had to restrain the urge to burst into song when reading out the lyrics, I had to remind myself, if I did burst into song, they would not join in like High School Musical, but I would look stupid.

Everybody clapped, probably because my Grandpa and some of the other trainers looked enthusiastic at my reading. And the trainees were pretty much forced into listening to me again.

Supper:

We had our lunch and supper in the same place everyday, with the 19 trainers split into two tables. This is a picture of some of us, with Candy trying to kiss my hand.

First day, done.

And much needed sleep again, in our hotel....

Day 0. Part 2. Hello Guizhou.

After an hour and a half flight. we arrived in the capital city of Guizhou, a province in China. In the airport, I was reunited with my dear friend, Candy, who had I not met for around 4 years.
She ran up to me, and held my hands, then started talking excitedly in Mandarin Chinese.
Unfortunately, instead of gabbling back excitedly and happily to see her,
"I'm so sorry Candy, I still don't speak Mandarin..."
Which is a pity, ruins the novelty of seeing your good friend again after a long time.
There was also Lily, Candy's mother, who always looks ever so elegant.
Steely, who to me looked a little like a typical uncle you would find in a Japanese cartoon. Even though I don't actually watch much Japanese cartoons at all.
And Shawn, the one who I was told by my grandad was the 'tall and handsome' one. I can't say I disagree.
We took a smallish coach to Zunyi, which meant we had to sit with all our baggage. Which made passing peanuts and cakes around the bus a little harder. It was quite a long journey, over two hours. I tried to be touristy and take photos out of the windows. But I have a bad habit of bringing bad weather with me wherever I go, so of course it was pouring with rain.

The School in Zunyi we were teaching in.

We visited the school we were going to be teaching in for the next two weeks, and to my sarcastic pleasure, our main operational base was to be up six flights of stairs. Our main concern at that moment was dear Diana, but kind Candy led  her gently up all the stairs. I was not as kindhearted, nor as patient to help.
My grandad, looked at all the classrooms, and demanded all the technological equipment were to be in place.
Quite honestly, I missed the meeting in Hong Kong, because I had just got from my flight from Wales, so I didn't actually have a clue what to do. I stood about making conversations. (It gets better, honest, I actually become of some use later on.)
After hanging about (I hung about, adults did stuff), we finally went to supper.
We had food.
And Shawn brought buns and stuff from his hometown.

This is when my memory starts to fade away.

You know I'm tired when I cannot remember what food I had.

Zunyi.
The city was dirty, and busy, sides littered with beggars with deformities. Spitting casually, pushing rudely were the pavement walkers. Shops and buildings were lit up in fancy modern lights, broadcasting loud and unwanted music.
The roads and roundabout were invaded by cars with no concept of laws nor the ways of traffic lights.
At night, the city is lit up to illuminate the blackness of the sky.

Day 0. Part 1. Entering Mainland China for the first time and meeting people.

We left the flat in the morning, in Hong Kong, my grandad and I, and we made our way to the train station. This is where I met my first friend from the training team.
His name was Turbo.
I don't kid you, its not a nickname as such, but his genuine English name. Turbo.
Nonetheless, my grandad introduced us to each other. I gave him what I thought was a charming, polite, friendly smile. But I don't think thats what he saw. Hoping he would talk to me, because I'm one of those who feels more comfortable when people are talking (preferably I'm included in these conversations), I smiled at him and tried to talk Cantonese to my grandad to show him I could.
I gave up soon after, most of the time my effort was put into trying not to yawn too obviously and explicitly.
Within half an hour, three or four stops later, our train pulled up at Lok Ma Cheu, where we would cross the river (by an indoor bridge with cool moonwalking flat moving walkboard things) to Shenzhen, in Mainland China.
It was a special moment for me, walking on the bridge, knowing within a few footsteps I would be in China.
Unfortunately this was the time Turbo finally decided to talk to me. Quite honestly I would rather let the feeling of walking into a new country run through me without disturbance, but its too bad the timing was bad.
Immigration went pretty smoothly, the unsmily man told me to sign some forms, which insisted that as someone who only entered China with a visa, I was referred to as an 'alien'.
Next we took a taxi to Shenzhen airport, the taxi was in quite a state. The passenger seat was stuck and broken at an unkindly angle, the childlock looked as if it had been ripped apart, and the remain left was a loop was silver wire.
I took many photos, but they all look like I was taking pictures of the same seat in a common taxi again and again with slightly different views outside the winbdow. When  I saw the views, it was a great sight for me, as it was a new bright city. However, I don't think the camera was able to capture that special feeling as my eyes were.
When we got to the airport, grandad was immediately on his phone again, trying to gather the numerous amount of people together, which is not as easy as one would think.
I met Mr Mak, who seemed very nice, and talked to me about places I have never been to.
Cecilia, lovely lovely, kindhearted, caring and hardworking Cecilia, with the funky little hat with a large shade.
Jacque bounced along, shouting 'Mr Bun, Mr Bun!' (my grandad is called Ben), with her cute little run. She was to be my head teacher, and she was passionate and motivated.
Then came along Darwin and Patrick, the two guys who were nearer my age. They were already friends with each other, and talked a lot, and seemed charismatic, so I wanted to be friends with them.
My clever technique, once again, was to linger and smile.
Patrick introduced himself first, even if only out of courtesy. But soon after things weren't done out of courtesy only.
And about 20 minutes later, so did Darwin.
It was the first step I guess. We talked about things, such as how long the plane journey was from America with Darwin, and Hong Kong with Patrick.
Basically, I really wanted to sit down by then. I hate standing on still grounds for too lengthy a time, and being impatient I just wished the others would show up.
I also met Sophie for the first time there, a little lively spirit with an adorable hat. I don't think she got my 'British accent' at first.
I asked her, 'you're Sophie?', and she got a little confused. But after spending over 3 weeks together later, she got used to my voice, and me.
Susanna/ Auntie Susanna, was there too, but she already knew me since I was pretty much born.
And then Diana. Dr. Diana King.
What a character, the first time I 'met' her, was when everyone was panicking that we 'lost Diana'. And suddenly, there she was wandering towards us in bright 80's pop colours in her own little dreamy state.
The lovely couple Frank and Dorothy arrived soon after, with the 'cool' and silent Terence, who may or not may have been wearing sunglasses.
I went in for a hug, with the large and warm Frank, and to my delight I got two kisses on the cheek, along with his Santa-beard.

So finally, half the gang were gathered together, let the first flight to Guiyi begin.

China diaries coming out soon

I have just finished my 23 day adventure in China, teaching, exploring, playing, meeting new people. I will be writing all about it on this blog in the few weeks to come, blogger (and Facebook) is blocked in China so I was pretty cut off from the Internet I know. Right now I should sleep as I have to be up early for badminton tomorrow. Will be writing. Bye for now!

The day before.

Its my last day in Hong Kong for a while.Tomorrow morning I'm going to be off to China, which, needless to say, I'm extremely excited about. My gran has managed to squish and stuff all my clothes into a rather small suitcase. On the suitcase in says 'ELLE Homme'. Which, I haven't had the heart to point out, Homme, means Man in French.
I will not be able to wear shorts, or dresses, or skirts, when I'm in China, due to the evil creatures that are mosquitoes. Which is a pity because I've rather fallen in love with this dress of mine. The first day I wore it I was complimented by strangers how tall and pretty I was. I never get called tall, I live in Wales where everyone is pretty much taller than me.

We have two cameras between the family, I'm going to bring the not-so-good one to China in case it goes missing. Unfortunately I won't be able to put them on the computer for the moment as I have not got the cable for that camera.

There's a few photos on the better camera, but not the ones of the food we had this morning, which was taken with the not-so-good one (nsg).

Ah, here's me taking a photo of our brunch, it was meant to be breakfast, but I literally had to be tickled out of bed. Mine was a hot and sour udon noodles with 'fatty' beef, and my brother had 'wonton', which is a little like a chinese version on ravioli.

We saw one of those weird character things you can have a picture with. Obviously I'm a little too old to be posing with them...

After we went to my favourite little chain stall ever. Its basically a little cafe and takeaway of sorts that specialises in desserts and drinks with mango. Erm. I don't know how to write Chinese of computers, so the pinyin would be 'Hui lau Shan'.

 This is me being happy after having bought one:

I don't know why my face looks so awful, it usually isn't like that.

Anyway I have packed most of my things, and I have eaten yam ice cream, sushi and have started learning a fujinese song. This is Summer.

Firstly, I'm hot.

We had to get our passporty stuff done today, I got some card thing to go to China. Lets be honest, firstly, I'm not really sure what I put myself in for, and secondly, even if I did its probably best not to disclose all official documents I have.
The waiting for about an hour is bearable, because we bought noodles which my brother practically clung on to like his life depended on his constant tasting of them, and the air conditioning was nice.
But then they put me in a photo booth and my life is over.
I was wearing white, because its hot here and white reflects every colour in the spectrum, but the background of the photo booth was white too. So, instead of the background changing colour, I had to compromise. They gave me a wide black scarf, which was wrapped round my neck. Because although I'm not a fashion fanatic, its just how you wear a scarf. No. I had to put the scarf over my shoulders casually, like a golfer. Like a granny.
I realise how stuck up I sound, but seriously, I looked awful. I wear glasses, I had to take them off, and automatically my eyes look even smaller and the slight bags under my eyes are visible. And I have a fringe, which I was forced to part and put all other bits of hair behind my ears.
No smiling either. deadpan stare.
In short, the outcome was a photoshopped, airbrushed granny.

Hello Hong Kong.

Summer Holidays has officially begun for me. Missing the last two days of school, one supposedly sports day which never will, I made my way to Hong Kong with my family.
On Wednesday morning, the alarm clock woke me up at 4 am, pack pack, brush teeth, pack pack, eat, go to the toilet, and into the car we went. After 3 and a half hours in our red car, (adjectives are very important in narrations), we pulled up near the airport. The red car zoomed skillfully into the long-term stay car park. And I have already forgotten where we placed the car. Its one of my slight fault, we could park the car in a small car-park with about 100 places, I could walk out and completely forget where we left it.
Heaving our luggage with heroic strength we waited for the bus which would take us to terminal 5 in Heathrow, which apparently is the best airport lounge in the world, or the so the world voted.
We boarded the plane at about 12, and we took off at 12:30ish at noon. We sat in the plane as it flew across the globe for around 12 hours, that was it, it should be midnight and we can sleep.
Nope, times are different all over the world, it was 7 in the morning, start of a new day, we had missed 7 hours or our desired night.
The green taxi took us to our grandparents', and with our 3 large suitcases, the boot hung open, to my amused horror. We lingered at the flat, trying not to fall asleep and unpacking. I changed into nice cool clothes, and immediately felt cooler.
Another green taxi, obviously identical, but different took us to a nearby town centre and we had lunch. I had rice noodles with beef tripe, and fried fish skin, and of course a compulsory lemon ice tea which you cannot go to these restaurants without ever ordering one. My parents took off to do businessy stuff, and our gran took my brother and me back to the house. My brother, as clever as he usually is, wore a long sleeve grey top.Which is stupid, as its over 30 degrees celcius here, and immensely humid with a storm warning.
Though we had to take a necessary detour to buy cake and drinks, and chewing gum. But afterwards we ran across a road, while I was wimpering 'Ohmygod, ohmygod, what am I doing?' to myself, to the bus stop. Bus took us back to the flat.
My brother took a nap, and fell asleep, and I decided to procrastinate and play silly games on the laptop while I waited for the swimming pool to open. Then it came down. I just left Wales for lovely (not really lovely after the first day) sunny Hong Kong, and it rained. After a while, the rain stopped, and I decided to change into my bikini, took my towel and vouchers and made my way to the outdoor swimming pool. There was a sign outside, warning of a storm coming, meaning the pool was closed. So I walked back by myself feeling like a fool with my towel. I really wanted to swim.

Its now 7pm ish here, and I've already fell into a deep nap, in which I was reluctantly forced to come out of to eat dinner. All my friends are still in school, halfway across the world, and they're having their lunch break, and I hope they miss me.

I will be going to China in 3 days, and I will be able to teach English teachers English and how to teach English in general. A powerpoint has been prepared to show them my life in Wales, but I have to speak ever so slowly. If you know me in person, you probably would still think I speak normally, but they won't be used to my 'British accent' and I have to pronounce words slowly. Thats going to be hard for me, and if I do manage it, the bet is I will end up sounding ever so patronizing.

Hello Hong Kong, bye bye Wales, see you soon China.

Circles and Breakfast

I have always loved food.
I even wanted to be a food critic, I enjoy writing at best of times, but mainly I was delighted at the idea of being able to visit different restaurants and eating a range of food.

I read Sunday magazines every Monday, and there is always a piece on a 'fine' restaurant in there.

It usually starts off talking about something what the writer did, or their adventures, such as going to a football match, and then about the restaurant and the food.
This enables puns and descriptions of atmosphere and food 'connecting' with their adventures, without really talking about the food.

Perhaps I'll be a food photographer, you just need a camera, *snaps, work done. Oh and eat the food of course.

Maybe I'll combine the two.

'I woke up in the morning and learnt about circle theorems, and then revised some Science. Then suddenly I ended up in 'My house' for breakfast.

I looked at the aesthetically pleasing tin, and thought 'Wow, that's funny, I just learnt about circles and could totally work out the volume of this tin.'

The light seeped in through the windows, and made the room clean and bare, which made the food look much more interesting with the stark contrast.

'Oh look, we could actually see the cooking of the food. That is a nice unique aspect.' I said.

And we could see the dim blue light of the gas cooker. Haha, that's funny, I've been learning Physics, and all I could think about was the Specific Heat Capacity of the pasta. Perhaps there was a deeper meaning, or fate to the reason I ended up there to eat.

Oh, finally the food was served, and the waitress talked. The waitress left, as if she had lots of food to serve.

The pasta were in such interesting shapes, and didn't half bad. I put them in my mouth and the flavours exploded like volcanoes in Iceland, not a huge spontaneous firework, but a oozing one, effective nonetheless.

In the end I gave the restaurant a total of 6 points, because it was great value. But the food did not excite me like Glee does.'

Haha.

So Corinne, you haven't written much have you recently?
No Corinne, you haven't, so what are you going to do about it?
What have you been up to recently that's been exciting you can talk about?
Why don't you talk about school?

Ah.
So we've had some of our lessons assessed (investigated?) by some senior members of staff. And our English teacher was quite nervous about it, although she did come up with a pretty funky plan to hopefully get more equipment for her classroom.
We have a projector in our classroom, which projects the computer screen onto the whiteboard (not an interactive one, just ones you write on), and she really wanted to an interactive one.
We also have half-destroyed blinds in the classroom, and she wanted new ones.
And.... there are terrible speakers connected to the computer...

So, before the deputy head came in, she would make a big fuss about running back and for from the whiteboard to her computer, such as she would annotate the notes on the board then suddenly have to run back to the computer to change something.
Then, she would put a video clip on, which she told a girl at the back to complain loudly that she could not hear it.
Also a boy at the front was instructed to say that he could not see the projection clearly-
- in which he went over the top and wanted to say 'Maybe I should close the blinds, (turns around dramatically), oh wait, we don't have proper blinds.'

The deputy head came in, and we continued to do our work, much quieter than usual. Then our teacher started out little 'play' as such. She literally ran from the whiteboard to the computer to put the video clip on, and I collapsed into a fit of giggles, and had to bury my head in my arms while the boy sitting opposite gave me warning looks.

Unfortunately, before the rest of our plan could unfold, the deputy head decided he had seen enough and left the classroom.
And the whole class was ready to burst out laughing, and our teacher just put her finger to her lips and gestured for us to wait until he was outside hearing range.
Then we all laughed. 

The sun's come out. A scrapbook of photos.

As part of the Duke of Edinburgh program, we had to walk around 16km over two days and camp over one night, carrying heavy bags.

And I've said all this just so I can say that I wore a red bandana.

Corinne the tortoise ^

I was a bit red from the sun when I got back.

I watched the Voice with my brother and my mum when I got back that Sunday, I couldn't even finish watching that and went to sleep at 8.  Because that ^.... is the face of tiredness.

I have fallen in love with the camera.

This is what happens when your ipod decides to be naughty, and there's a camera next to you, and a box of matches is singing seductively at you.

Oh and the view at night last night was beautiful. No clouds, just a beautiful shade of black and navy and blue.

On the left is my little lucky cat, which was a present from my grandparents, I think its adorable. In the middle, is a Russian (?) doll, that was given to me by my grandpa as well. And on the left, is a 'gargoyle' I made out of clay in year 9.

I went to my friend's to revise, and while we were having dinner outside, I made a flip-flop tree.

Ok.... so I hung some flip flops on a tree... and this was taken with my phone. So, I promise if it was taken with that awesome camera of mine (my parents') it would look really magical.

Pah!

Oh... and my friends sitting under the magical flip-flop tree....

......Light seeping through the leaves during our morning walk....

They look like they could be grapes in the smaller photo.

I have decided mess can be beautiful. When the colours are bright and clashful, and so aesthetically pleasing.

And the book is good too.

Byee