Padd Solutions

Friday is my hardest day of teaching. Classes of 60 kids, etc (see last weeks rant/post.) Anyway, this week I was prepared for them, so it actually went alright. That was finished up around noon, I grabbed some KFC with Rob at lunch (I've been craving western food lately...) and then headed home for a 30minute power nap. In the afternoon I went up to the university and met my friend who introduced me to another skater gang. Again, a bunch of really nice, selfless people who go out of their way to make you feel welcome.

I need to make a full blog post on the university (Weinan Teacher's College) because that place is just crazy. It's like a mini-city. I think there's something like 10,000 students living on campus. There 15 dorm buildings, each at least 5 stories high and block-of-flats sized. Each dorm room sleeps 6 people in a room the size of my living room. ( Maybe 10x5 meters? ) Then there's all the studying/teaching buildings, the library, the shops, the on-campus police station, post office, the two multi-story food-halls, etc. The whole place is one super-clean, self-sufficient city where 95% of the population are in their early 20s. Yeah... I'll have to take some photos and blog about it.

In the evening, I had my English corner. Again, see last week, but the general idea is an hour of just anything with my students. This week we had a general chit chat, then played "Room 101." Those back home in the UK will know the TV show, but basically the kids pick something they want to disappear forever, and try argue for/against it. People came out with some really funny answers, and in general everyone got into it. Then did a short exercise on synonyms and anonyms, and finished it up by telling them about "Eats, shoots and leaves." It was a bit complicated for some of them, but those who got it thought it was hilarious (being an English story about Chinese pandas seemed to amuse them.) Oh, and fun-fact... a "Black eye" here is actually called a "Panda eye." That made me chuckle.

After I wrapped English corner, I hung out with Rob and Cheer for a little while, then headed back to my place to grab some sleep.

Saturday is my longest day of teaching. Headed in 30minutes early to mark some homework, so started the day at about 7:30 and finished at 17:15. Somewhere in the middle I had lunch, and myself and Rob endulged in McDonalds. Damn a greasy double cheeseburger tastes good when you're taste-buds have been running on Chinese food for the past month. Don't get me wrong, I still love Chinese food... but the contrast just sends your taste buds wild. After two days of not skating, I decided I'd show up tonight. Saturdays are always super busy, and the amount of people stopping to watch is crazy. I have to constantly skate, if I stop to talk to one person, everyone else suddenly gets a sense of crowd anonymity and crowds around to listen to the foreigner. A few of my students came up to me to say hello, as well as some Chinese friends, every time I stopped, crowds gathered. Later in the evening I was practicing rolling around on just the front wheel of each foot, coming to a stop I decided I'd try to spin on the spot. I reached into my bag of talent and found nothing but air, followed by the comfort of cold, hard concrete. With such a crowd, I naturally jumped back up and skated around like it was nothing :-P but then I stopped and realised my two-day old trousers had ripped! So annoyed! I specifically bought them for skating, and they're pretty tough combat material. But... of course... made in China. Well... I guess it means I won't have to wash them. 

^ Grrrr!

After skating I met up with a kid I got talking to in the week who is into Kung Fu. We'd previously had quite a big talk about Bruce Lee and Jeet Kune Do, so we thought we'd talk about that some more. He bought his nunchucks (spelling?!) with him, and nobody was batting an eyelid. He was actually pretty damn good with them. However, more impressive was the surrealty of having a guy go crazy with nunchucks and everyone just walking by as if he wasn't there.

Finally I returned home to rant about my trousers. It's now 23:50 so I better go plan some lessons for tomorrow.