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I ain't writin for ye money

I'm writin for ye soul! Why? A fair question me finks. Ok? No! Good let's begin. I went for a walk the other day (this is actually true) nothing much came of it but I enjoyed it. You see my friend what an interesting life we lead. Actually I do have a complaint to make about a railway bridge. Yeah it's rubbish. Shall we try and write something a bit more meaningful or would that me a drop in the ocean. I am enjoying life at the University of Essex it's a solid institution but there is one problem it's full of students who go to Tesco and buy all the sparklers so when you want some there are none. Shocking. The wheels keep turning and so hopefully I keep learning. I've also attempted taking up rowing. I've been out on the lake twice so far and neither time did the boat sink so I'm guessing that I'm quite good.
For those who don't know Colchester is the oldest recorded town in Britain and the former Roman capital. It says this on every sign as you enter the place. Many consider it a place hardly worth spending a weekend but I feel that is unfair on the good people of Colchester. It has a castle, a roman wall, a dutch district and natural history museum that looks like a church ( I think the only in the world).
I frequently see the bus drivers of Colchester rather harshly getting pissed off with mainly the chinese students at Essex due to their lack of understandable English. I feel for these people after my non lingual efforts to buy tickets in dear old Zhongguo. Are you ready for a statistic? Yes, good let's move on. 40% of students at Essex come from over seas. There we are.
Thank you Thank you.

Back in Blighty

So it has ended. A week short of 14 months away and now I find myself sitting again in a room I once called home. Everything looks the same but my perception has changed. I feel quite bad as I look around and can't hide the fact that I currently don't think too much of Britain. I currently feel like I want to pack up again and be on my way but give it a few days and I'm sure I'll settle down just as long as I can have some solid bier in Muenchen every now and again. As I said little has changed in dear old Comberton which I guess has been the case for the last thirty years. I had a good walk around Cambridge to day and I guess little has changed there for around 300 years.
I think I'm all set to start university. I've got a far amount of pots and pans, shortly a solid cook book and I'm ready to change the world (well the Quays at Essex uni anyway) with my Dodgy grace. I have to agree with the rest of the world and say milk in tea is a terrible idea. I thought it important that I got this point across. Everything here feels so English, tea, people speaking funny sounding English, pubs with mash and sausages, grey sky and buses which are complete rubbish. Right Britian here I am. might as well go for it and drink some tea and do whatever people do here. For those who haven't visited Britain I can tell you local customs include poking little sisters with big stick and standing on your head for 37 minutes a day. Excuse me whilte I do this.

Mein Zimmer in Bamberg

ACHTUNG: Uncorrected Version

Ich wohne in Grüne markt, Bamberg in einen Studentenhaus. Mein Zimmer ist nicht mein Zimmer. Es gehört Verena. Wer ist Verena? Ich weiß nicht aber sie ist einen Studenten, sie studieret Psychologie. Ihr Zimmer liegt sehr günstig. Die Dekororation gefällt mir sehr gut. Es gibt viele photos und Bilde. Die Bilde und Photos zeigt Verena und ihr Freunde in Australien. Wo ist Verena? Ich weiß nicht aber in die Ecke ist ein Einrad. Auf der wand sind zwei regal mit CDs und Buche und ein spiegel mit einem fremden Mann darin. Das Zimmer hat zwei Fenster aber ohne vorhänge, nicht gut (good old Harbin)! Unter dem Fenster ist ein Klavier. Leider kann ich das Klavier nicht spielen. Auf dem Boden ist einen farbenfreudig Teppish. Er gefällt mir also werde ich es stehlen (shhhhhhhhhhh.).

Ciao for now.

Ich bin ein Bamberger

Right writing a blog. No faffing around with it I'm just going to go for it and never check what I write so for the few people who read this, tut mir leid. It is Dienstag and I'm in Bamberg. It's a solid place, if you imagine an old Bavarin city than Bamberg would fit the bill. I spend most of my time trying to learn Deutsch and I can begin to fill it working. German is slowly slipping into my brain and I hope to get some return for it in the near future. I'm staying in a student house with 4 students. I've had little contact with them so far due to my dodgy Deutsch aber I'm going for a drink with them this Abend.
I had stunning weekend in Dresden where I met Claudia's family. Again conversations were not at their best due to my dodgy Deutsch but things can only get better. I had a superb tour of Radebeul mit Claudia who you should contact if you ever are lost in the area.
I'm into my second of 4 weeks here in Bamberg and having spaß aber I would like to shift Bamberg towards Dresden. I can inform you that I have a need for something to drink so will depart now. Feel free to tell your friends about this blog, it can only get worse. Here's to a plesent evening.

Where the hell is Wuguishan!?

I started writing this along time ago and it's far from complete but here we are.

I haven't written a blog entry for over two months which is shocking. So I'm now left with the task of writing an account of my stunning time in Wuguishan. Highlights it is.
After spending a night in Hong Kong sorting out visas and walking up and down Nathan road we headed back to the mainland and to our respective schools. Tom and I were dropped off out side a travel agents in Zhongshan city with a giant teletubbie poster ontop of it (it took two months to find it again). We were 'greeted' by the Head of English, Vincent and the deputy head master from 五桂山学校 (Wuguishan xue xiao (meaning five tree mountain school (gui is actually a type of tree but I don't know what it is))). Hardly a word was past between us as we attempted to find a taxi. In the taxi Vincent remaind silent. All we knew about the school had been told to us two days before hand in Beijing. Originally we were suppose to be heading for the Boli english training centre in Zhongshan but the accomadation was deamed to be unsuitable so at the last minute we were switched to Wuguishan.

Yeah Changping!

Sitting on the bus on my way to the airport other than thinking can't this idiot snoring next to me shut up, I was beginning to feel for the first time a real sense of what I had undertaken. In front of me lay six months of teaching in China though the immediate problem was finding my round beijing airport. After an hour and half tour I managed t0 find a dashing set of people waiting for a stunning adventure. It was here that I had the pleasure of meeting the Dutch wonder known as Rob and Tim the sexual Swede. Everyone had been waiting around all day so were looking a bit fed up. Dragging suit cases in toe we stumbled into a bus and headed for somewhere. Somewhere turned out to be a town about an hour and a bit from the city centre called Changping. We were to stay and be trained at a really expensive private school called Huijia. I can feel this time slipping from my memory and feel I really should of written more at the time.


Room 111 in Huijia

First few days were 'free' for us to get over jet lag (Non for me) and settle in. The Germans didn't arrive until Saturday as they had been strandard in Hong Kong due to typhoons. From there on it was back to school almost. Getting up each morning for lessons breaking for lunch and then having more lessons. The feeling was made worse by Laura our instructor who really made you feel you back at school. I had a fantastic time though as although I didn't really know anyone there, there were great people there aswell as there being some not so great people.
We played football and basketball with the school guades, had salsa dancing, tequila parties hosted by Mayra and Lilly from Mexico. Lesson wise the first two weeks were just being told how to teach, the third limited teaching practise and forth more being told how to teach.
Weekends were free kind of. Trips were organised the first being to the forbidden city and Tianmen square. This was the only one I went on as I was suffering from a feeling of being contained. After having absolute freedom with Pete I had been spoilt and was willing to be told where I can go and at what time. So I was really antisocial (something which I regret, though I would do it again).
In the first week I was stupid a bought a yellow fold up bike (the beginning of my bike exploits). I was really pleased with it (it had pictures of hello kitty on it and everything, shiney too). So me being really stupid locked this brand new, shiney fold up bike by the wheel only in front of a shady looking guy. Will I was in an internet cafe he with a grin I'm sure he happily ran off into the sunset with my bike. A rather disgruntled me walked back to Huijia. This would not be the last of stupid bike purchases by me in Beijing. I brought a second folding bike not long after having the first stolen. I enjoyed having it but when I found out we were flying I had to sell it for a stupid price.
When not at the school we spent a large amount of time in a pool hall and singing karaoke at a budget KTV.
I really enjoyed my weekends where I would catch a bus to line 13 of the Beijing metro system. You would then stand for an hour on an interesting train journey. Dispite doing the same trip a number of times on arrival in Beijing I consistantly made the same mistake of just getting on the first bus that came along and ending up in some random district. Though on one occassion I actually made it to Tiananmen. I had a wonder round the Museum of Chinese History/Chinese revolution (the big one off Tiananmen square) and tried to get into the Great Hall of the People but for some reason it seemed to be closed so I just brought an ice cream, dodgy t-shirt (8 yuen!) and headed down a random street instead. I ended walking around Hutongs and building sites for over two hours. Another week I spent most of the day trying to find the main tour group as I had missed them due to over sleeping but in the end gave up and just went to the temple of heaven by myself.
On the last weekend I went with Cathrin to the Lama and Confucius temples. After admiring the fine building work we rented a postcard seller's bike and he went and got he's to rent us a second. They were stunning bikes just lacking breaks. Which made cycling around the chaotic Beijing traffic that much more exciting. We cycled round hutongs and down the river for two hours stoppping for beer along the way.

Other things that I remember and wish to write though can no longer remember the order that they happened in are playing football matches against the school guards in which Roy showed his class. Also climbing up the 'hill' next to the school at sunset with Sahra from Denmark. Having conversations with Johnny was always good fun especially if mildly drunk. Playing and discussing pool skills with Claudia. On the first day I remember speaking with Przemystaw (pronounced Shemek) about European intigration from which I could not have guessed what a large character he was. He made a number of speeches on bus trips and would even sing the odd song. One thing which I found a bit odd was when you were in the school it didn't feel you were in China but as soon as you stepped outide the gates it was immdiately apparent that you were. I know that sounds rather stupid but while you were at the school you were surrounded by mostly Europeans who were all speaking English so you could feel the culture gap when you stepped outside. Other pursuits included trying to find a foot massage in Changping with Bela, Johnny and Timm and I think ending up in a brothel. I think we can mainly blame it on Timm who went up to a Chinese lad and said 'massage, not sexual, not sexual!' but I think all he heard was massage, sex sex! After showing an expression of shock he ran off. We then wondered into a place with bright flashy lights, always a mistake. I also had an incident with a taxi driver who took me to the school only for me to be stupid and find that all I could give him was a onehundred yuen note. He got pissed off but we got around it by going to a petrol station. One thing that I really enjoyed was when the cash machine ate Nathan's card and he didn't have his passport to get it back. I know that sounds terrible but what happened was the bank had just closed but we got a lady at the door who said if you get your passport back here by 6'o'clock we can give you your card. So I would cycle back and get Nathan's passport for him. It was absolutely mental and I enjoyed every moment of it. Unfortuntely when I got back all the bank staff had left but Nathan went back the next day and got his card no problem. I think a few days after this I sat watching dancing on the main square in Changping. It was there most nights and I enjoyed just sitting, watching and listening to what I think was Boney M.
Following an extended graduation ceremony which seemed to go on for longer than the course we had one last night of the pool hall and KTV before a manic morning of packing the next day. We then had one last night out together in Beijing. I think I got rather drunk though as much as I can rememeber think I only fell over twice. Those heading to the south didn't really bother sleeping as we had to leave for the airport at five in the morning. We said brief good byes and then caught our flight to Shenzen.