so my first week is now done, thank god. 10 grade 2 lessons, 4 grade 4 classes, 1 grade 6 and 1, and 2 kindergarten lessons. so tired now lol.

Classes at the other 2 schools were very different from the boarding school. At the east campus the children come from farming backgrounds whilst the kids who go to the Shazitang campus have been learning english for many years - so more advanced.

Thursday was "teachers day" in china, where they celebrate the hard work that we do. The head of foriegn teachers won an award for the best teacher in the district and everyone recieved presents from the students :)

Thursday afternoon - Kung Fu!!! Had the most amount of fun. Thought it would be rather similar to Tai Chi (which I was hopeless at) but it wasn't. Kung Fu teacher said that I was a natural :) Also meet a previous employee of the school, who was at TTC the semister before, he still lives in Changsha but now works at a universtiy in the area.

Friday was a loooong day, three classes in the morning, grade 4. My nap 2day wasn't to my usual standard :( during lunch and nap time we went to wallmart so matt could get a hair cut. A quick nap on the couch at the school, and then of to the dreaded kindergarten.

So my half hour lesson with 2 year olds? heading into the classroom and still didn't have the faintest idea of what I was suppose to do with them. Had prepared absolutely NOTHING!!! After much jumping, spinning around, touching my head, and touching my toes - some of the children actually copied me. Some of the kids could even say hello by the time I left the class, some cried the entire lesson, others sat there and didn't pay the slightest bit of attention but oh well I somehow survived. My older kindergarten class was a bit more productive, they learnt, hello, hi and nice to meet you, and a quick game of huggy bear.

Went to a buffet style restaurant for dinner, sushi and hotpot - everyone else went out to a bar after dinner. With my aching bones I headed straight back to the apartment for cold shower and CSI (got seasons 1-8 for 40yuan)

Booked my holiday to Hong Kong for October with Cat and Suzy, should be fun. I'l be thinking of that when I'm struggling to get through more long weeks of teaching.

P.S. sorry can't get onto facebook, U95 is broken,can read messages via hotmail, but can't respond - my email address is [email protected] - feel free to drop me a message there and i can reply.