Hey Hey and a Big G'Day toya,
 
Despite the cold we are having so much fun in class at the moment.
 
About a month and a half ago the Chinese English Teachers were told that we have an English Week this week (November 17 to 21) and to begin practicing plays, chants and songs etc. Of course time went by, no one started anything and I only found out about it last week when they tried to tell me I had to have performances done for all levels and all classes by Monday just passed.
 
Ha Ha!
No No No!
 
Thankfully being here for nearing four years and teaching in many schools has taught me that it is not for me to organise these things at all. It is for the Chinese English Teachers to organise as it is like an English Test for them by their superiors. I am to help with all classes and correct their English etc. I decided to let it pass and be nice so I simply had the teachers at least begin something and from there I jumped in to help. Most of what was begun I had to bin as it was much too hard as I think they printed it a month ago.
 
If things were stared then, then it wouldn't have been too hard.
They wanted Grade 4's etc to lean and memorize Snow White in one week.
I read several lines to some of the students and they all looked back at me with blank stares
 
I then went home, jazzed up a few of my songs and chants and wallah, things have been running much smoother ever since. They got even smoother yesterday when we found out the performances have been put off until next Thursday. No explanation as usual but this time none needed nor wanted. More time is good time. So at the moment I'm jumping from here to there in both the classroom and in the school yard teaching and helping out with stuff like changing Wei's to V's, adding S's and T's and making sure I never say the F n C's!
 
What!
No F & C's even after a few JB's!
 
Yep, the Youth Hostel I eat at in Xian now stocks Jim Beam and Cola stubbies
For those how don't know what a'stubbie' is, it is simply a small bottle of something.
So at any Aussie BBQ you will here a constant, 'EeeeeeeeeyGisanuthastubbiewouldyamate!'
 
I had my first Jim Beam in four years and Luo Wei had the first one in her life.
She gave it the thumbs up too.
What a beauty she is.
 
As Lou Wei's mother had been staying with her they had been off on weekends doing mother and daughter things so we haven't had a chance to see each other until last weekend. I grabbed a bus on Friday afternoon and was surprised to find that the new freeway had been opened. The journey from Shangzhou to the beginnings of Xian along the new freeway was so beautiful, in fact just as beautiful as the journey through the mountains but it was over in half the time.
 
Once we arrived in Xian it took about an hour and a half to reach the station due to traffic.
 
Instead of the four hours from Shangzhou to the Xian train station on a good run though the mountains it took three hours. But this rarely happens, the usual run through the mountains is around five hours due to trucks, hills, accidents and having to turn around and go back down the mountain and find another way etc. Though in real time the new freeway only saved me only one hour, I honestly felt so much safer due to the separate roads for each way.
 
When you come across this in China you know you will most probably make it your destination alive.
 
The freeway took so long to build as it passes right through half of the damn mountains in China. Not really but there must be more than twenty kilometers of tunnels. There are so many tunnels that they have actually put them into groups and given each group a separate name. It really is amazing. I thought there were a lot of tunnels in Fujian Province but this one journey easily surpassed any freeway adventure I went on in Fujian.
 
The 'Green' photos to this entry were taken on one of my long journeys through the mountains before the freeway opened. If you want to know where my city is located, it is inside those distant mountains you see in each photo. I must have taken about one hundred photos each way but like most bus window photos most of them didn't work. Mostly due to the fact that the bus hadn't been washed for about three years along with me not allowing for the constant swerving and passing trucks on blind corners.
 
Both of the above are serious!
The Chinese are masters of passing twenty trucks on a blind corner with mud stained windows!

The other 'Fun' photos...the Littens are my Grade 1's and the Biggens are my Grade 6's.
 
Lately I've been thinking about what to do and where to go for my Winter Break. My first thoughts were of heading back down to the Xishuangbanna Region at the bottom of Yunnan Province to catch some of the suns rays and catchup with some friends. I then thought to maybe head down in to Laos and visit some English Schools but then I remembered that my passport would expire a month after so it is doubtful I would be able to enter another country on an almost expired passport.
 
So my next thoughts were of heading to a city where I can get my new passport done in person
.
The choices are Beijing or Guangzhou City in Guangdong Province. I'm kind of liking the idea of Guangdong Province. I've never been there even though it was my neighbor for a year and a half when I was living in Guangxi Province and for those needing a little more convincing, how does the legendary Cantonese Cuisine sound?
 
Maybe from there I'll head down to Hainan Island for a wee bit of a Tropical Island Adventure.
 
What does blow me away is that is has nearly been ten years since I first left Australia..
Five of those years have been spent traveling, living and loving it up overseas.
Another was spent riding around the Gold Coast in Queensland.
 
The way of the noodle!
It's a damn fine way!
 
Beers N Noodles toya.....shane
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The soundtrack to this entry was by the Hoodoo Gurus
The album was the awesome 'Electric Soup'
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