Hey Hey and a Big G'Day toya,

Mate I couldn’t fit another thing in!

After a surprise phone call this morning I happily stayed in Zhaoqing city for an extra day to spend more time with Sofia and her friend Stephanie. For lunch they took me to their favourite Traditional Chinese restaurant after which we decided to head back across to the Seven Star Crag Park. Due being locals and having it on their front door step since it opened they both hadn’t been there for many years.

Even after a huge lunch we decided to snack our way around the park.
We also added in a couple of touristy V shots in between snacks.

We left the park as it was closing and bused it back to the city and walked around trying to figure out what to eat for dinner. We all wanted to eat fish so I recommended one of the sea food eateries near the bus station and on the way there we passed by the cities new Thai restaurant and we all became excited at the fact that it was there (as it wasn’t the last time both girls were in town) and that they both had never tasted Thai food before.

Needless to say the seafood eatery was scrapped in an instant and within minutes we were hungrily browsing through the menu and the girls were salivating at the pictures.

We ordered a few too many dishes (all of which were finished) and both girls now have a huge taste for all things Thai. Hopefully in a few days when they arrive in Guangzhou city (if I am still there) I will take them for their first taste of Vietnamese and that is more than worth kicking around Guangzhou for a few extra days.

After leaving the restaurant (more than full) where is the first place you head?

You guess it, the city’s most famous Desert Eatery where you order a few too many of the area’s most famous deserts to sample. The dishes they ordered were mouth wateringly delicious and somehow we ended up scraping the bottom of each bowl before deciding to call it a night. Tomorrow I will head back to Guangzhou and Sofia will spend the next two days saying good bye to many friends that she won’t see again until the 2011 Spring Festival.

Tonight I also received a call from Ping from Buckland’s.

It looks like both Aussie Brad and I will be unpacking our packs, flash cards and other teaching stuff at a school in Hanzhong City which can be found in the south west of Shaanxi Province. The city is supposed to be nice but the school itself has more than a bad reputation with many of its previous foreign teachers. I know this as I have been the first person many of them have emailed to see if what they were experiencing was considered 'normal’ and in no way was a lot of it normal.

Some of it was of course put down to new teachers not understanding the different cultures.
Sadly though many have left with bad memories and experiences.

So I’m thinking that it will be kind of fun to step in as an experienced teacher, dish back much more than they know how to dish out and to do my best at teaching them how foreigners should be treated when they are so far from their family and friends. If the school is as stupid and as closed minded as I believe they are then they can simply slurp my noodle and take a long walk on a short plank as I will be in no way taking any of the crap they have been dealing to their foreign teachers in the past.

If I am to unpack there I’m sure there will be a couple of ‘interesting’ blogs in the future.
Of course though I will go in with an open mind and noodle bowl and let it unfold.
But for now I have some packing to do and a beer to try and squeeze in.

Beers N Noodles toya…..shane
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The soundtrack to this entry was by the Infectious Grooves
The album was The Plague That Makes Your Booty Move’
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