Craziest week yet!

This past week:

Monday, went to see Kylie Minogue. Sure, not the coolest, and I did go with a bunch of girls, but nonetheless it was a pretty impressive show, in a great arena, and she pulled out a few classics. China doesn't get a lot of big names, so it was well worth going.

Tuesday...one of the year 7s at school, who I tutor, is the son of one of the most famous Chinese film directors. His most famous film in the west is Farewell My Concubine, and he has won a Palm d'Or at Cannes for another film. So...quite impressive. His son had four tickets to the premiere of his new film, and he gave me one! It stars Zhang Ziyi, perhaps the most famous Chinese film star (Crouching Tiger, Memoirs of a Geisha, Hero, House of Flying Daggers - so pretty awesome!), and also Leon Lai, who is a massive Hong Kong popstar. We went out to 'China Hollywood' for it. In fact, we did not see the film; it was a kind of chat show, Q & A session with all the stars of the film, interspersed with music, dancing, and excerpts from the film, which actually comes out this week. Despite the fact that it was all in Mandarin, and I couldn't understand a word (!), it was still pretty amazing to be there. Once people found out we were with the son of the director (plus we were probably the only white people there!), we were moved right to the front, only a few seats down from the director, Zhang Ziyi and Leon Lai.

Wednesday was a friend's birthday, and we went to one of the pretty cool Western places here for pizza and drinks. Once again, wasn't home until the early hours. Thursday I played football 8-10pm, in a temperature that, given wind chill, was calculated to be minus 22! Probably the coldest I have ever been. Took Friday easy, then partied again Saturday till about 3am. Got up early Sunday, played football for the last time before the winter break, scored the crucial goal in a 1-0 win, so that was great; then in the evening managed to find a bar showing Norwich vs Ipswich, and we beat them, so was in a very good mood!

This is all on top of the fact that my minimum average work day at the moment is about 8am-6pm, often later, and I'm up at half 6 every day. I am knackered! Got football xmas party next Saturday, and school xmas party Sunday, and a big carol concert to get the kids ready for. Off to California in 11 days!

Busy Billy x

Half Term & Hong Kong

I've been so busy, hence the long time between posts. Apologies.

A couple of weeks ago, now, we had half term, so I used the time to try and see a bit more of Beijing. I got out to the Great Wall with lots of people from school, which was fantastic. We went to a section on top of a mountain, so took a cable car up. We walked along it for a few hours, taking innumerable shots of effectively the same photo! To get down they have built a toboggan chute, so you sit on a little car and control how fast you go down! Awesome. I also went to a Chinese acrobat show, which incredible - some of the feats of strength, balance, dexterity etc were unbelievable. I discovered the student-y area of Beijing, which has a really cool feel to it, and lots of great bars, restaurants and markets. One favourite bar runs beer pong every thursday night, it's a totally Western crowd. A friend and I went along and played and had a great night.

On Friday of half term, with term due to restart on tuesday, the headmaster's secretary rang me, at about 2pm, and asked if I could go to Hong Kong, to sort out my visa. At 6am, the following morning. So 18 hours later I was flying to Hong Kong! With my flatmate, Louise, who had similar issues. We couldn't go to the visa office until Monday morning, so I met up with one of my housemates from uni, Owen, who is my Asia buddy and is working in Hong Kong, and we had a crazy weekend! Went up to survey Hong Kong from The Peak (highest point in Hong Kong), took a ferry between islands, saw the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas, went out to the beach, went to a bar where they give you fur coats n you stand in a freezer....and so much more! Fantastic weekend. Spent ridiculous amounts (Hong Kong is expensive!). Great times.

Since then have been working pretty long hours; the choir at school had their big concert this week so have been rehearsing like crazy. It went really well, and I was called on stage and presented with wine, which was really nice. There's no rest though - Christmas carol concert in two weeks, so it's going to be busy 'til the end. Last week should be full of parties n stuff which I am looking forward to. Three weeks to California!

I have been thinking a lot about what to do next year. The headmaster implied if I wanted to stay they'd like me to, and I could even take a PGCE whilst working here, but I'm not going to (though it was nice to be offered!). Am thinking of coming home n settling in London, either to do a PGCE, or another year's study, conversion course in languages or economics. I change my mind every day!

Off to watch England get battered at rugby later! Playing football tomorrow, it may be the penultimate match before the winter break. Beijing is cold right now. Cycling to school in the morning, it's in the minus temperatures. Brrr.

Peace out. x

Two months...

So it's been a while; in the last two weeks, I've been very busy at work.

Of the four full time music staff, one is in Japan for a fortnight and the other two got ill simultaneously last week, so I ran the department for a few days! It was pretty stressful, but I think I came out with lots of credit, so no complaints. Last Friday we had HaRRoween; an event in school with food and lots of music, stalls and games, which pretty much falls to our dept to organise. It was a big success, and was actually pretty fun; we had lots of different musical acts, some with or run by us, some put on by the students, all fairly decent. We also had our inter-house music competition on the same day; hence why I have been so busy. The competition was really good - there are some fantastic pianists here, and a really, really good drummer, so it was a good day.

After those events lots of the staff went to a karaoke bar, where we drank and sang for a few hours, which was great. The Chinese staff are, without exception, AMAZING at karaoke; even I was put to shame! The best I managed was a few Backstreet Boys numbers...

The weekend just gone the Girls Choir at school spent the weekend at a spa outside Beijing, and I had to go to supervise. It's an annual trip - they do lots of rehearsals during the day (their big concert is coming up), then go to these lovely hot springs and spa in the evening. They're a really nice group, so it wasn't very hard work, so I helped out with rehearsals, then was able to relax in the evening. I had my first ever massage! Back and feet...I didn't really know what to expect, and, to be honest, I really didn't like it! She hurt me! Was a fun weekend overall.

Have been playing every weekend for the Beijing Barbarians, and have started playing midweek 5-a-side as well. Got on the scoresheet last weekend in a 6-2 win, played two 5-a-side games midweek, one win, one loss, three goals in two games, then had a 2-2 draw this weekend. We're up to 4th in the table. We're having a club dinner on Friday, which suits me as it's half-term at the end of this week - all the guys are really nice, so that's going well.

So yep, one more week 'til half-term. Am STILL having visa issues, but there is a still a fair chance I will go to Hong Kong next week. And it's under 7 weeks until California!

x

P.S. Had a nice three-way skype with the family on my Gpa's 90th, and had my first skype with the boys in York last weekend, which was awesome. Although the nudity was probably unnecessary. Anyway, if anyone ues it, let me know!

Expedition Week

I just got back to Beijing; the whole school has been away this week on expeditions. Each year group went away to different places around China. I was assigned to year 10, and we went to Shandong Province, which is south of Beijing. We took the overnight train Monday night, which was surprisingly okay, to Qufu, which is famous for the fact Confucius was born and lived there. We visited the Confucian Temple, Mansion, and Forest, which we cycled around. We also went to visit a local school, which had about six thousand pupils - it was massive, but fairly poor, so it was a good eye-opener for the spoiled rich Harrow kids! The following day we started the main part of our trip, which was a trek up Mount Tai. It is a famous mountain, where many Chinese pilgrimage - one of the Five Sacred Mountains of Taoism. It has 6,666 steps to climb (six being a lucky number in China). It took us the best part of the day, and was very reminiscent of my work in Switzerland, encouraging kids up mountains! We stayed in a hotel at the top, which had pretty great views. We got up at 5.30am the next morning to watch the sunrise, which the kids weren't that happy about - made worse by the fact that it was so cloudy we ended up not seeing anything! The descent only took the morning, and in the afternoon we visited a local village - real poor, rural China, where they showed us local activities like pancake and tofu making, paper cutting, weaving, and so on. It was really interesting, and, again, something some of our kids really needed to experience! Though we then retired to a 5* hotel, and came back on the luxurious express train today!

So it was a good week. Three weeks of regular school now, and then half term. I have a football match on Sunday (we lost 6-4 last week in a disastrous match, so need to make amends!). A birthday party to go to tomorrow. And lots to catch up on with all my friends who went on the other expeditions - some have been trekking and abseiling on the Great Wall, one went sailing, others went to the Tsunami reconstruction zone etc. I am home alone for the week ahead as Louise has gone back to England for graduation. Have finally sorted Mandarin lessons with a really nice teacher who works at the primary, and is going to teach me for free!

Hope anyone reading this is well. x

Holidayyy!

I am on my first school holiday - none of us are sure what we're celebrating - it might be communism or something, but it's five days off so who cares?!

I went crazy and splashed out about 30quid on a bicycle so I am now super healthy and environmentally friendly and cycle everywhere. It is very Chinese - no gears or lights or anything silly like that, but it works, and it is definitely the best way to get around and see the city. Unfortunately I seem to have no concept of distance, direction or time, so the last two days I have ended up lost on the other side of the city, after dark, frantically trying to find my way home!

I also found a climbing wall in one of the parks here - we had one on the camp I worked on in Switzerland and I got quite into it - it is really good fun and good exercise. The one here is massive, at least three or four times as big as the one on camp, with massive overhangs and tricky routes, and it is really cheap for a day pass, and fairly cheap for membership, so I might join. There is still a small chance I might run a half-marathon in a couple of weeks, so I need to at least do some training (I'm not that fussed about just running!).

Other goings on...Louise (flatmate) and I got really lazy, gave in, and accepted the school's offer of a maid, so she comes once a fortnight to clean the apartment and do our washing up and ironing! This is going to stand me in terrible stead for when I come back to England. My new boys choir sang in assembly at school in front of everyone, headmaster, kids n all, and went down a treat. They sang a piece I had arranged, so my Head of Music has now got me attempting to arrange Christmas carols for barbershop which is ridiculous! Ooh n I went to a party n it turns out in China you can buy 70cl of vodka for 17quai. Which is about £1.50. Which is interesting to know.

Other random observations on China:
-You can use your mobile on the tube.
-Men take 'man-bags' to a whole new level. They are fashion items, status symbols. A man carrying what I would classify as a purse is actually doing it to show how he has risen in the world. No fancy suit, no new ipod/phone/whatever...a purse. Weird.

I also read the other day they are going to maintain some of the anti-pollution measures they implemented for the Olympics - during the Olympics they alternated odd and even-numbered license plates being allowed to drive. Now they are doing numbers ending in 1 & 6 can't drive on a Monday, 2 & 7 on a Tuesday etc. Which I guess is a start - the change has been SO noticeable. In fact, it has moved from Summer to Autumn so ridiculously quickly (the average temperature must have dropped about 10 degrees in a week) I swear the government messing about with the climate must have something to do with it. So it's good they're not just letting it completely slip again; and I think it's great people who live here are willing to sacrifice being able to drive and have pressurized the government into these new laws.

Anyway...on a less environmentally friendly note, got my flights booked to California at Christmas :) thank you parents, and my mission for this week is to blag this free trip to Hong Kong at half term... I WILL buy a camera soon...

x

p.s. I bought the Entourage box set for dead cheap and am LOVING it so thank you Tom for the recommendation all those months ago!

p.p.s. A little part of me is jealous about all these people going back to Freshers Week. Grrr. Have fun (begrudgingly)....

Finally...Kanye West is doing his first ever gig in China, in Beijing, on Nov 1st; lots of my friends are going, but it's the ONE weekend I have to work and go away on a school trip. Supervising 60 teenage girls on a singing weekend. Gutted.

One month gone.

One month; in many ways it feels like a lot longer - I am so settled, have made lots of friends, have an established working routine already - but also I have barely seen any of Beijing, or started to learn Mandarin properly, or done lots of other stuff.

This week is a Chinese holiday, so I only have to work Monday and Tuesday, then have five days off. Lots of people are flying off to a UNESCO World Heritage site, but I wasn't too bothered (nor could I afford it!), so I am going to try and use the time to do some Beijing culture - probably the Summer Palace/Forbidden City/Tiananmen Square. Plus another teacher is having a 'housewarming' (party) on Tuesday, so Wednesday might be a write-off...

My original 30 day visa ran out, so I again had lots of hassle trying to sort out a renewal - in the end I had to set up a new bank account and borrow RMB 25,000 off the school to convince the authorities I am contributing lots to Chinese society! Crrrrazy. I think in half term I might have to leave the country to sort out a 6-month visa, so I am going to try and make the school pay for flights to Hong Kong, which is where lots of teachers go to sort out visa issues, then turn it into a holiday to visit Owen (one of my uni housemates, who is working there).

I had my first Chinese karaoke experience on Saturday night, which was hilarious - completely unplanned, a small, very local bar, completely un-touristy...they had a limited range of English songs, but we got some pretty good cheers for a couple of Backstreet Boys numbers, and a Hey Jude...lots of fun.

School is still pretty good - I am getting there with kids names, and gradually taking more and more classes on my own, which is both exciting and scary (especially drama, which I never studied!). I have a break from my football team over the holiday, but so far we've won 2, lost 1, and it's been really good fun - all the guys are really nice - so that's a nice distraction from work. I just got my first monthly paycheque so have visited a tailor to get some shirts made, which was really funny - they didn't speak any English, but they measured me up, and I'm going back to pick them up tomorrow, so hopefully they will be FIT! Will also hopefully buy a camera soon... DVDs are another good thing to buy out here - lots of knock-off shops, and we got some inside info on a reliable one, so have been doing some shopping there. Also found out a teacher who lives two minutes from me has Pro Evo...

So life's still good. Free accommodation offer still stands! x

Paralympics - my experiences...

I went twice, once to the Bird's Nest, where I got to watch a succession of 100m finals, as there are numerous categories of disability. The stadium is spectacular; unfortunately, it was a school trip - 300 kids to supervise (and navigate the incredibly busy tube with!), so it was a bit stressful, but still amazing to be inside the stadium. Some of the athletes achievements are incredible; I think seeing them in the flesh really made me appreciate it.

The second time I went was to the finals of the wheelchair rugby, where I saw the end of GBR narrowly losing the Bronze medal match to Canada; then the final, where the USA beat Australia in a great, really tight game. It is a remarkable sport - 4-a-side, almost more like basketball than rugby, but obviously with contact, and a goal instead of a hoop. However, there's no rules about passing backwards, and obviously no scrums or lineouts or anything. A great spectator sport!

Tickets to that cost me 30 yuan, which equals about £2.50! I went to the Bird's Nest for free (in fact, technically, I was being paid!). And beers at all Olympic events, 5 yuan, about 35p! Love it.

Finally, I didn't manage to get a ticket to the closing ceremony, but the choir which sang the British National Anthem in the handover section were from Harrow International School - where I am working! And I had taken many of their rehearsals, and trained them etc.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/disability_sport/7620429.stm

So I was dead proud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAh7ZBGJZ7c

The girls in the pink/orange, and the boys in grey/yellow - my students!

Plus I could watch the fireworks off my balcony...

Bring on 2012!

Life in Beijing so far...

I have been in Beijing for two weeks now.

I live in a pretty big (bigger than my student house!) apartment on the 22nd floor, about two minutes from the Olympic park, just north of the city centre. I share with the other graduate intern - Louise - who is from Hong Kong, did maths at Imperial, is very nice. We have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, massive living area with TV and dining table, and a (very under-used!) kitchen. Quite a few staff live in the same building or very nearby, so we often share rides and go for dinner n stuff, which is nice.

I am up at six every weekday to get into work by 8. I get around by taxis or the tube, both of which are pretty efficient and very cheap! I am primarily a music teacher, on top of which I am individually teaching piano and singing; I run the boys' choir and jazz group, teach some drama, and coach softball! Most of the staff are English, or English-speaking, and a lot are fairly young. My head of dept, in fact - who looks after me and keeps taking me out for meals and drinks! - coincidentally also did music at York, about ten years before me. In fact, she played the lead in Sweet Charity when she was there, which York ppl will know I was involved in last year. AND the music teacher at the primary also did music at York, graduated '04, I started '05. Crazy.

The school is for 11-18 year olds, who are a wide range of nationalities. Although they are supposed to speak English, a lot don't, or do very poorly, so a large part of the challenge of teaching at an international school seems to be the language barrier. Many of the kids are very intelligent, but struggle, as, obviously, every is taught in English. A lot of the time, when I am assisting in lessons, I am charged with taking these kids off and trying to explain stuff really slowly in words they understand. We often give vocab tests where they can memorise answer very easily, but when asked to explain in their own words, they can't. So it's very interesting, and I am busting out some rusty French and German skills when required!

Outside of school I was invited to join the International Festival Choir, which entails one concert per term, and means I get to sing in the Forbidden City Concert Hall, which is very prestigious, especially for a non-Chinese national. I have also joined the Beijing Barbarians football team, which competes in a massive expat league, so I train once a week and have a match every weekend - so far a 6-1 win (2 goals on debut!), and yesterday a 7-1 loss :(. It's nice to socialise with people outside of school; after every game we go for beers n stuff, and we just got a new sponsorship deal from the biggest sports bar in Beijing, so are getting new kits and get cheap drinks after every game!

On Fridays the staff tend to go out, after a long week, so I've been experiencing some of the nightlife, which is pretty good. In terms of culture I have been to see Tiananmen  Square, though only from a distance, as it was locked off during the Paralympics. I got to go and watch Paralympics last Tuesday, as we went on a school trip; the Birds Nest stadium is very cool, and whole area, with the Water Cube and all the other Olympic sites, is very impressive.

The weather is hot everyday - close to 30 degrees - I've never been more grateful for air-con - but it is rarely actually sunny. It is funny - when I tell people I have been here two weeks, and I really like it - all I hear is how things like traffic and pollution are going to get worse once Olympic fever ends. Apparently the city has never been in such good shape - mainly because the government were pretty brutal in Olympic preparations, and if that meant stopping people from driving, forcing homeless people out of the city etc...then they did it. As I had read, the skyline is full of cranes all over the place - people who have lived here just one year say the amount of change and building work has been incredible. One of the current measures is alternating days when people can drive - odd-number plates one day, even the next etc. And the roads are still pretty busy, so once they remove that...it's going to be crazy. So it will be interesting to see how the city remains once the Paralympics end.

Food is great here - Western supermarkets are pretty hard to find, so I have only cooked once in two weeks - it is so cheap to go out for dinner that we do it all the time! The Chinese have a great culture whereby if you are out for dinner with six people, you might order ten dishes, and just share them all, so you get to try loads of different things. There are plenty of Western restaurants as well, especially pizza, if we ever feel like a break from chopsticks! (which I am now crazily skillful with!)

I haven't sorted out a Mandarin tutor yet, but am going to, as there are a couple of other beginners who want to learn as well, so we are going to share. I can direct a taxi pretty well though - the few times I have been of on my own is when I have learnt the most.

I think that's it for now. If anyone wants to visit Beijing I can offer free accommodation, and we can go eating and drinking, I kinda know my way around now! I just got skype - billygoldring, and the government haven't banned facebook yet so it's all good!

Hope anyone reading this is well. Keep me updated with what you're all up to.

Billy xxx