My journey. Teaching in China and exploring the world. |
My journey. Teaching in China and exploring the world. |
We enjoyed a Friday late afternoon into the evening with the TAs and teaching staff of PE altogether at the Pereira's over at Lakefront, where we used to live! It was strange doing the walk home and past the apartment again, especially as it is still empty. A great evening with Portugese chorizo, port and pizza!! And then we joined in with the kids doing just dance on the tv - excellent! Good way to end the term :-)
Getting into the ballot for the half in the City that we moved to meant so much to me! Especially as before I moved here I had not run further than 10km!! So it was fab to do this with Michelle (well she did the full...) who is one of my good friends here. The expo was great fun and we were treated like celebrities, whether it was due to the matching work uniforms or as we were westerners, I am not sure but one thing I am sure of is that a lot of people out there have photos of us!!
The course itself was packed with people supporting, including fan dances and music pieces as well as lots of students helping get us through it. The temperature had dropped to 10 degrees so it was about 13 degrees cooler than I am used to running in. But it did mean I was a lot quicker and able to keep my pace higher too. I really wanted to run a sub 2 hour time and wasn't sure if i could do it with not as much training as I had hoped. BUT I did it in 1hour 53mins, I am SOOOO happy!! And was great to have Matt and our friends, Emma and Tom waiting at the finish line too :-) Absolutely beyond excitement when these lovely travellers arrived at GZ East from Hong Kong on Friday night!! Taking them straight out to the Chinese hot pot to throw them straight into the Chinese culture from the start. Amazing catching up over some food before showing them the sights of Guangzhou! Saturday 8th: Canton CycleSeeing the city through Cycle Canton is the best way to see the history of this city which was once Canton, to how it is developed over the course of the years into a vibrant metropolis. We had a lot of fun along the way, Em not so much in the wet market with the animals (eww), and the boys tried to beat the locals in the Peoples Park in a game of Jianzi (think Chinese hack sack) which was very entertaining. Finished off with some lovely drinks at one of our favourite places, Social and Co. where Em found they served the drink she has been missing in her life since September!! Sunday 9th: Cheerleaders at my halfAmazing to finish this race and have these lovelies to celebrate with!! We enjoyed a big western breakfast at the local art mall, K11 which they loved! I have to say, Chinese malls are pretty outstanding in comparison to Bluewater and Westfields!! And then even more special in the evening, after a movie afternoon, we got to speak to the newly engaged Rob and Tav!! And celebrate with them over FaceTime which was soooooo great!! And then enjoy a Christmas film with the twinkling lights... Monday 10th: Tonghe, Canton Park and goodbyes...A post work trip to the nail bar with Em, whilst Matt took Tom to experience a Chinese hair cut!! Properly ensuring they had a very Chinese expat living experience!! After a drink and snacks in the back streets of the older part of town in Tonghe by school, which kept having power cuts - amazing - we headed down to see the lights of the city by night in my favourite place; Canton Park.
We had an incredible time with these wonderful two, and it was so lovely to see some more familiar faces out with us! It really does reaffirm that we have made the right decision to come home in June :-) Safe travels to HK, Vietnam and Singapore you beautiful pair <3 its been an absolute perfect end to this term xxx
I have even tried to make the flat more Christmassy too!
As Lauren and John are nearly a little family, we took Lauren away for the night at the Langham for a staycation. We ate ALL the food and tried to drink (well some of us...) all the drink but not quite! We enjoyed dressing up for dinner and then chilled out with robe time watching Love Actually, after all it was Dec 1st the next day. A lovely way to spend time together and relax before the end of a busy term and before Lauren heads back to the UK for exciting times to come!
The annual International day threatened rain but it held off and hundreds of people had a lot of fun coming down to our big festival. I was with my Y11's on our stall based on our trip to Malaysia with a few games and prizes but I did get to have a walk around and see what was going on as well... before enjoying when the public go home and us teachers have a dance and a drink!
A great last international day celebration with our friends here at BSG, it is a great event and I know it will only get bigger and better in the years to come!! Off to HK for the second weekend in a row.. this time to celebrate the lovely Ellen's 30th birthday! What better way to start than a Friday night train after work and eating at The Optimist... don't judge for going to the same place two weeks in a row!! Saturday 10th November - BIRTHDAY FUN at CLOCKENFLAP.After a lovely brunch, Kat and Clare went back to decorate Ellen's room so that we could surprise her with birthday treats! After this we went down to HK's music festival, Clockenflap which is on the harbour front of HK - a great venue for a festival.
It was quite quiet when we arrived after lunch, but it soon picked up and we were able to enjoy new artists whilst drinking Cider! It was clever as it was cashless, you just topped up your wrist band, which I had never seen before. We stayed for one of the headliners, Jarvis Cocker (with some interesting lyrics in a song Running the World, relating to Trump!) but after that the dance tents were definitely where it was more of a rave! A great day doing something different and just in awe of where we are in the world and being able to go to this festival in HK as a normal weekend activity!! Madness. The pictures say it all... what an incredible weekend. Back to my favourite place in Asia (thats do-able in a day!!) Have not been back here in months and was lovely to see that skyline again and of course visit Pret and M&S for home comforts!! We dined at The Pawn, a recommendation from a friend which did a lovely set menu lunch, set in an older style building in the streets of Wan Chai. After this, Kat joined us on a spontaneous trip to HK and we met Stu'd friends who were on a stopover from Australia to the UK. We showed them our favourite restaurant The Optimist before heading up to Wooloomooloo's rooftop cocktail bar. After this we took the 'ding ding' (or tram...) into the party area, Lan Kwai Fung, to Iron Fairies, another favourite! Here we danced the night away to live music until the early hours... I think we certainly showed them a great night out in HK!!
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