Posts Tagged Beijing
On Friday we all finished our classes for the term. Next week is final exam week where the students will take their last exam of this term’s modules. If they pass the course they move up to the next level next term, if they fail they stay on the same level and repeat.
Most of my students will easily pass although some might not, and there are a couple who have done so badly that even with 100% in the final exam they can’t pass.
I’m teaching the same level next term so most of my current students wont be taught by me again. They seemed genuinely upset when I told them this which was quite flattering.
Friday night we went to Beijing to stay with friends and then last night most of the teachers came into Beijing and for an end of class celebration. We started out at The Den pub, and once we’d made the most of happy hour we moved on to the Swing Bar in SanLiTun bar street where we danced away to the live cover band until 4am. Quynh was a little drunk, so there was some propping up required at the end of the night, but we all got home ok at about 4:30am.
Tonight we’re just going to take it easy and watch some movies. Just need to get through the exams and do all my marking quickly, so we can head off on holiday on Thursday. Can’t wait.
Well we made it back to China.
Brief worries at Bangkok airport when the check-in staff ummed and arred over our work visas and made us sign a waiver to say if we’re refused entry to China the airline (Sri Lankan) won’t take us back to Thailand for free.
We were picked up at the airport by staff from the school (NCIST: North China Institute of Science and Technology) who took us back to the campus and our flat for the next 4 months.
Technically the school is not in Beijing but just inside the neighbouring province of Hebei but apparently just a 39 minute bus ride from Beijing center. We’ll find out more about that journey when we go into Beijing this weekend.
As we approached the flat it looked like a pretty run down 1960′s block but once we got inside we were relieved to see that whilst little had been improved on the outside the flat itself was fairly modern.
We spent the last few days shopping for essentials and cleaning the flat. Now we’ve unpacked it’s starting to feel a bit more like home.
Teaching starts next week, for now we’re just relaxing and settling in.
We got back to Beijing to stay with Helen and Adrian for a few more days. First stop was the Westin hotel for a very boozey champagne brunch.
We also finally got to see the Temple of Heaven as it was being repaired when we were in Beijing 2 years previously and we were far to lazy to see it when we were here in January.
Quynh bought a Nintendo DS to keep her amused on long journeys, it came with about 5 CDs worth of games and a little cartridge to load them onto the DS. I helped pick which ones she should load on the cartridge so I can play with it too 
We made plans to see Helen and Adrian again in Thailand and then said goodbye and headed for the airport to catch our flight to Guilin. Yes breaking the no-fly rule for the third time but this was a no-brainer. The flight was cheaper and 18 hours quicker than the train. Sorry Earth but we’re on a budget 
We spent much longer in Beijing than planned. It seems Harbin was a bit more popular than we expected and train tickets during the Ice Festival were as rare as rocking horse poo. Instead we opted to sit and relax in Beijing.
Having been here before, there was no pressing need to go exploring so we really did very little apart from eat out and relax in Helen and Adrian’s sweet 33rd Floor apartment. We made it to the Great Wall, this time we went to an unrepaired part and had a day trek around it, very cool and have some photos.
We took a day trip to Tianjin an hour from Beijing by Train, possibly the most polluted place I’ve been to but cold enough that the river froze over so we went for a walk on it whilst the locals fished.
In Beijing staying with friends. Arrived a few days back and have been completely slacking off. It’s nice to just sit back and not have to rush around.
Mongolia was fun but bloody cold. Not really that much to Ulan Baatar but it’s quite weird seeing a city that’s a mix of modern buildings and nomad’s tents.
We went up to Terelj National Park and stayed in a Ger tent for a night. Was quite a bit of fun, had a nice walk in the hills and a horse ride.
On the last night we managed to find a pub that was selling booze so we went there with a french guy called Julian and got nicely plastered.
Probably get our arses into gear tomorrow and go do some Beijing sites then we’ve got to try and get to Haerbin for the Ice festival which is proving tricky as all the trains are booked up so we might be in Beijing a little longer than expected.
Oh and the plans changed already. South Korea out, too expensive, Hong Kong and Macau in.
