The Wanderlust Notebook

I hope you enjoy this (slightly long) blog entry. It's because of China's craziness that I love it so much! 

Caterpillars with Grade 1 So I have survived two weeks of teaching and I'm still smiling! Now I'm more settled, it feels like there's less to say in this blog. Everything is becoming 'normal' for me and now I'm staying in one place, nothing seems as new. But then I remember that this is China and there's always a story or two to tell, I just have to remember that everyone back home isn't here to witness the hilarity that I do on a daily basis! Firstly; the teaching. Fun, exhausting, stressful and scary all at the same time! The lesson planning is actually easy. It's creating resources by hand for fifty students at a time is the most tiring part. And remembering some classrooms have pictures and items I can use, and others literally have nothing! I now take my laptop and speaker to every lesson 'just in case'! Butterflies with Grade 1 Grade 1 is slightly different. I'm one of four foreign language teachers and each of us teac...

So today, Year 6's shall be sitting down to take their Transfer Tests. I just wanted to say that whilst you should do your best, try not to worry about it! I took mine 17 years ago and it now seems a distant memory. I ended up going to St. Michaels and I had the best time there. I also met amazing people who are still my friends to this day. When I left there 10 years ago, I never imagined I'd be living and teaching in China, but here I am! So this is a little message to the Year 6's - especially at St. Teresa's! (I was nice and included the pinyin so you can look it up - although you can probably guess what it says) Miss Kape 😎

Entrance to the school. Today is officially 'Teacher's Day' in China. The school celebrated it on Friday and it was very surreal! But first - my new 'job' here in China; teaching English to children.  Inside the school entrance I work at JuCheng Primary school, but under Bond Educational Group (sounds complicated and I'm confused as well.) It's a private school, with some children boarding during the week. The uniform is very simple. All boys and girls wear orange shorts and white polo shirt with the logo and some have a red neckerchief. Classes have 45-50 children, although for most of them they are split and I'll teach 40 mins one half and 40 mins the other. The roundabout inside the school entrance I've been assigned Grade 1, 2 and 3. Age ranges 6-9 years old so perfect for me ;). I teach for 15 hours each week and the rest of the time I either observe other lessons or I'm planning my own. The children here work very long ...

I have been in my new home for over a week and again, there’s so much to talk about I may have to save some for another time! I’m in Xiaolanzhen, which is a town in the city of Zhongshan (Guangdong province). It is one of the richest towns in Guangdong, but still fairly cheap compared to prices in England! The cost of a bus ride to the mall is roughly 12p – considerably less than back home. The value of money is considerably different. Even their most expensive items are still fairly affordable. I went to the supermarket and bought stationary, food, drinks, some crockery and cleaning products that will last me at least two weeks; the total was around 400 Yuan (a virtual hi-five to anyone who knows what that is in pounds!) Speaking of the supermarket, I saw these there: I’ll leave it to your imagination as to why live fish and crabs are available!     The climate here is nothing like the UK. We’re pretty much on the equator so it’s hot all year round. Curre...