Hey all. I've not written in a long long time

Hey i just decided that i could try and remember to blog again. I havn't done so in so long and although i was able to use the excuse that i was in China and it didn't work over there, i can no longer use that excuse so i'm gonna try and start blogging again now. hehe

Anyway, i think the other reason is, is that i have not had really late nights studying in a while so i haven't been using my blog as procrastination. Anyway it is now 12.30 at night so you can prob guess that i am procrastinating. Don't tell Kylie. She told me to stop looking at flights and get back to work. hehe. That was about 10mins ago. hehe. Anyway, i'm quite annoyed this week coz i had a 50% test today, which didn't go too badly in my opinion (hopefully i'll get the same opinion from the markers) then i got home and found out that my assignment due tomorrow (or today i suppose it now is) is actually due at 8.30am instead of the usual 5pm. So that stinks. At least i'm almost done, i think. I keep getting stuck. But anyway, then i have a Maori aural test on Weds and another assign due Fri (this one is due at 5 i think, but has to be done by 1 coz thats when i'm leaving for Nelson).

Yay. Its my 21st on Sat. I can't wait. I was given an idea from my aunty today about what i can wear (gotta dress up as myself exaggerated. thats quite hard). So i'm looking forward to that. Just gotta find the costume if i can. That could be the hard bit. hehe. But it should be really fun. I'm really looking forward to it. And i must say that i am impressed with the Chch turnout. 23 people. Not bad really. Thanks Air NZ for having cheap flights and making it easier for me to sort out rides. hehe. Now there are just the right number of people going. Yay.

Anyway, i'm gonna get going coz my shoulder is in agony from sitting at the computer for too long. I think i need to find a better place for it. hehe. Maybe i'll go sit in bed and type. Man i love laptops. hehe

Hey all

Hey peoples. I just thought that i would quickly write a post since i haven't written one since i got here. The main reason for that is because i havn't been able to view my blog so i didn't realise that i could post. However i have now found out that i can still post on my blog for you guys to read, but i cannot view it myself. However I'm hoping that the problem can be fixed otherwise I shall just get someone to forward all the comments on to me so i know what is being said.

Anway i have been in China almost a week now. Tomorrow morning at about 6 or 7am (my time) i will have been here a week. I started teaching on Weds, not really knowing what i was supposed to be doing. But i am slowly figuring it out. I have finally been given a list of words that i am supposed to teach the children (for one kindergarten, hopefully i will get a list for the other two kindergartens). I know just have to come up with ways to teach the words and phrases. I have also been given a few songs to teach, but they are all written down and i have no idea what the songs are. hehe. Hopefully the kindergarten will have the song on tape or cd or something otherwise i will have to make something up. But that shouldn't be to hard i hope.

Last night Lucy (the chinese person who is looking after us) translated my schedule and instructions for me. Now i know that i am also supposed to teach a riddle (i thought the sentence was kinda odd) and i also have to teach a tongue twister. I would never have guessed that was what it was. hehe. And it doesn't really twist your tongue that much. But i'm still not really sure how i am going to teach these sort of things. It's all so different from what i am used to in NZ.

In one kindergarten i have to teach 12 different classes twice a week. That takes up my mon, tues, wed and fri mornings. On Thurday i only have to teach another 5 classes at a different kindergarten. And on all the rest of the afternoons i have to teach in another kindergarten but i haven't got my schedule for this kindergarten yet so i'm not really sure how many classes i am teaching there. For most of the classes i get 20 mins to teach each class then i move onto the next class. On thursdays i have 40mins to teach.

Anyway i have my own apartment on the first floor of one of about 10 buildings in the block. It is a two bedroom apartment but since i am living there by myself, one of the bedrooms is locked so that the principal can store some stuff in there. But my apartment is very warm. It is quite a big apartment for just me, i have a bedroom (obviously) with a queen size bed, i have a laundry (although i'm still waiting for a washing machine), i also have a bathroom which has everthing in it but at least it has a proper toilet and not a squatter toilet like i have to use at kindy. I also have a kitchen which i have yet to use coz i get all my meals provided during the week, a dining room, a lounge with a nice big tv and dvd player (i still need to find out where i can buy dvd's) and a sunroom. So it is quite nice really.

Outside there is a playground which i at first thought was for the children. But then i noticed that there were some adults using some of the equipment and i realised that some of the stuff looked like gym equipment (like walking machine thingys). So i might have to try those at some stage although by the time i normally get home from kindy it is too cold to be outside

Anyway i'm hoping to buy a camera sometime soon (when i find a camera shop). So when i do, i will get some photos on my blog for you guys to see.

But i shall catch you all later

Singapore!!!

Hey all. I was told that my first mission was to write a post when i got to Singapore. So here i am, in Singapore using free internet. It's great. Anyway it is now about 8.40pm on Friday nite. Or my body is telling me that it is actually 1.40am Saturday morning and i should be in bed. I'm so stuffed...

Anyway the flight was really good. Although it was a 10hour flight it didn't really feel that long. I managed to watch The Legend of Zorro. Highly recommend it. And also i saw The Cinderella Man. That's quite good as well. I also played a few games on our screens, drunk about 8 cups of juice or coke etc. I was a little gutted at dinner time (which was at 10pm...) because they had run out of lamb. Although the chicken was really good, as were the potatoes.

Anyway it is really hot in Singapore and that's in an airconditioned room. I'd hate to be outside. I think we were told that it was about 29C when we arrived at 7 their time.

Anyway my mind is no longer thinking. I'm going to sleep soon. Gotta catch our flight at 1.20am their time so thats about 6.20am your time. So i'll catch ya all laters

Finally i have news!!!

Well my flights have finally been confirmed. I am leaving Chch this Friday at 2pm. I will be meeting at the airport at about 11.30. From Chch there are just two of us flying out. We will then fly to Singapore and meet up with another girl who apparently will arrive about 40mins after us. We will then prob sit around the airport and snooze etc until we leave for Beijing at 1.30am. We will arrive there sometime Saturday morning i think. Can't remember exact time. We then have the weekend to get ourselves sorted out then apparently start work on Monday. (Still not sure if i have a kindy to teach in hehe)

The latest news!!!

Hey i just thought that i would let you guys know the latest news that i have although nothing is set in concrete yet. We have been told that we will probably leave Chch on the 26th of Feb and arrive in Beijing on the 27th (still not certain though). However because i am no longer in Chifeng, i don't have a placement yet either. So there is a kindergarten that is wanting students but would like to have a phone interview with them first. So the teacher at tcol is going to get a list of questions that might be asked so that we will be confident in our interview. I certainly hope this goes well coz the kindy looks quite good and i would like to know that i have somewhere to go. hehe

Camps always have injuries

Well we couldn't have had a traditional Navs camp without someone getting hurt. So now i have 5 stitches in my knee. Oh goody. And so close to leaving for China too...
Anyway i don't think that i will go bushwakking (however that is spelt) up that hill again and trying to climb a rocky cliffy bit without secure handholds (or footholds for that matter). Not until my knee is healed anyway. hehe.

And next time i will try not to crash into the back of someones car on the way back from Camp. It has been a really great weekend....

Although i did really enjoy camp. I was gutted having to keep my leg straight all the time though. And i don't like stairs to much at the moment (although there were quite a few at camp).

The latest news!!!

Well the latest news that i have just read is that i am now not going to Inner Mongolia because they cannot accomodate a student for the first semester. grrrrr. I am now going to Beijing with the rest of the girls going over. man this is frustrating. After i did all that research on Chifeng as well. grrrr. But we still don't have flight details so i'm still waiting

Chifeng!!!

Well i now have some news. I have now found out that i am going to Chifeng. I also have found out that i am now prob going about the 25 or 26. It just keeps getting later and later. grrr. But i will not be starting work until about 1 March so hopefully we will be going then so i will have some time to settle in. however i don't really know much more than that at the moment. Hopefully we will find out more soon. However the email that we got said that the person in China couldn't get hold of anyone til next week coz of Chinese new year. So we might hear then.
But i will let you know when i know more. hehe
Catch ya laters

Update!

Hey all. I had my meeting for China last night. I think it gave us a chance to ask lots of questions but the problem was is that only small questions were answered. Questions like should we take gifts etc. The big questions like when do we leave, where in Inner Mongolia am i going, etc were not answered. And considering that those are the questions that i wanted answered the most it is kinda annoying. However we were told that the 3 girls (not me) working together in the same kindy would prob leave on the 12 or 13 of Feb whereas the rest of us will prob not leave until the 20-21st. Sigh. Hopefully we will hear soon. However i think it is quite good that i am the only one going to mongolia and the rest are all in Beijing coz they are all year 2 so will prob study together and now i am year 3 so i will be doing all the study myself anyway. But other than that we didn't really get all that much information. Apparently it is quite hard coz the Chinese people are organising everything and the Chinese new year is apparently on so everyone is on holiday. Sigh.

Anyway. We have a cat or kitten actually. It turned up outside our flat last night. We are trying to find the owner although at the same time we would like to keep it. hehe. But if anyone has lost a little tabby kitten let me know. hehe. it's so cute

Anyway that's about all the news that i have at the moment, although i'm kinda freaked coz i'm suppose to be going to get my shots tonight. eek. Hopefully i won't need to many. hehe
Catch ya all laters

Still waiting!!!

Well i am still waiting for my flight details for China. I kinda needed to know when i was leaving so i can plan what i was gonna do til then. So this morning i rung the lady at tcol to find out if she knew anything and she said that there is still no set details yet but i would probably be leaving on the 16-17th of Feb. So that's exciting. At least i know that much now.

I am probably coming back down to Chch on either Tues or Weds next week to start packing up my room and moving flats. So that'll be exciting too. Hopefully i'll be able to catch up with you all then ay. yay.

I was also talking to my sister this morning. All the way from England (so much for my sleep in. sigh. hehe) But she seems to be doing fine which is good. She's going to go and visit another mate of hers in Oxford tomorrow, then next weekend my aunt and uncle are going to come and pick her up and take her back to their place for the weekend. Then i think she said that a lot of the people at the school shes at are going somewhere the next weekend. So she'll be busy. But she seems to be enjoying herself so that's all good.

Anyway we had our staff party last night. Just for the students. There were 10 of us who worked there with a couple of extras (boyfriends and guests etc). But it was a great night. Quite hilarious being the only sober one there. We tried to get one guy to cry coz he had told us that when he was drunk and he hears the song Iris, he starts to cry. So one of the guys decided that when the sun was setting he would play the song for him. But no tears. I was quite gutted. However as the night wore on it got less entertaining coz being the only sober one there, i was trying to stop some of the guys from picking fights with the campers. hehe. Luckily no-one got hurt. However it was still a great night. Not sure how everyone is feeling today. It's quite funny since i was the only one not drinking and yet i don't have to start work today til 2. Yet i am probably the only one who could possibly feel like starting earlier than that. But oh well. They knew they had to work this morning. hehe.

Anyway, i'll catch ya all laters.

Still no sign!!!

Man. I'm still waiting on my flight details to China. I was supposed to get them Monday. I hate it when they tell you something and then you don't hear on time. I would much rather have just received them without knowing that they were going to be so many days away. Now every time the emails say that there is "1 unread email" i get all excited. Then it is just an email about national pens or something else boring like that. But at least i do know that i am going to China. And i suppose that since i am not paying for any of my flight, i can allow them to sort out the details and let me know sometime. (Hopefully soon. hehe)

Anyway, this is my last week of work. Yay! We are having our student staff party tomorrow. Hopefully it will be good weather, coz i'm not too keen to be inside. Much rather be outside. Less chance of slipping on any spilt drinks. hehe. But at least that is something to look forward to. Even though i don't drink, i still enjoy spending time with all these guys so that is good. Expecially if we go have a game of minigolf or play some volleyball. Hehe. I've played minigolf with them before after we had a small party after work, and their co-ordination was hilarious. I was cracking up. hehe. One of the guys was so stoked to beat me coz i beat him in the last game. (and his dad apparently teaches golf hehe). But unfortunately he has figured out that when he challenges me and tells me i can't do something i play better. But if he tells me how well i'm playing and calls out the score, i do real bad. I was kinda hoping he didn't click onto that detail. But oh well , too late now. hehe.

Anyway i can't wait til the end of this week. Then next week i'll be heading back down to Chch to move all my stuff and catch up with everyone. So i'll see you all soon.