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