tests in EVERYTHING, including P.E! they have to get so many balls over
the net in ping pong, so many baskets in a minute in basket ball, even a
minute to do so many dance moves in dance class! crazy!
In their middle school they had to get a certain score in P.E to make it
into this school, no matter what their scholarly prowess, no wonder the
kids are so busy!
On Tuesday there was a choir competition in the school but we had to
tutor the young children and so could only get there for the end, but it
was still quite interesting. The students that spoke to us were
desperate for us to come back on the wednesday for an individual singing
competition.
The wednesday we went back and some of our students came over and spent
the whole time with us, explaining the songs and what was happening.
There were around 20 acts, singers male and female, some dancing acts,
and some classical chinese instruments too, overall they were really
good, I took some pictures but without a telephoto lens and with the
problems from before with noise the photos were not great. I found the
best results from using the largest aperture and fixing an average
shutter speed, since the people were brightly lit they came out ok, just
with a lot of noise, but at least I am learning!
Friday we were again called to Wenzhou to collect our passports, the car
was not available so we had to get the bus this time. Eamon went with us
to help and we got there ok, we took our receipts to the counter and
were promptly told we were STILL MISSING A FORM!!!! ARGH!
Eamon made some rushed phone calls and ran off to find a fax machine and
came back with the correct form and the £40 to pay for the permit and
after another short wait we finally had our passports back with our
residency permit. We are now finally official residents of China and
with this permit our visa is cancelled, and we can now officially live
and work here, and enter and leave the country as we wish! Cool! The
only problem being it expires in July but maybe we can get it
renewed....
On the way back from wenzhou it was the first day of the holiday and
after a crazy long wait for the bus we managed to get onto one, chris
and Eamon behind me and me on my own, a girl sat down next to me and we
got chatting, turns out she knows the other foreign teachers in lingxi
and seems cool, told me a lot of cool places to visit in China which was
great, unfortunately she has a great Canon camera and showing me the
pictures the 550d took much nicer pictures than my poor olympus, now I'm
wondering if buying new lenses for my camera is better than buying a new
camera! Damn her for letting me see a more expensive camera up close and
play with it! haha. Chris made friends with a girl next to him that
spoke awful english but was just back from the Chinese version of
britains got talent and got her number, haha, she did seem interested in
the tall mysterious foreigner dressed her to toe in white.
Arriving back at the flat we found the entrance to our building piled
high with purple chairs, Eamon showed us a room on the first floor which
is being kitted out with comfy chairs, a projector, a computer, a sofa,
and a small gym room with a running machine and an exercise bike just a
few floors below us for use by the teachers anytime apparently! that is
crazy but so awesome, they said we can use it for a party possibly....
though who we would invite I have no idea.
Later on we had a quick beer and as we were leaving our house Chris
needed to use the toilet so he ducked into the our recently found
relaxation room on the 1st floor.
Unfortunately for Chris we were on the second floor and since all the
halls are the same before I could say he anything he had walked straight
into the open door of the principal of the school! Stiffling my laughter
as Chris started trying to blag a flying visit to an important man that
speaks no English I tried to keep a straight face as he stammered
through a few pleasantries and we shook his hand and left, I managed to
keep in the laughter till we reached a safe distance!
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