Asia Yantai

... the slightest touch; the light didn't work; and there was a stench of mold. I assumed there had been a leak from upstairs, but as the receptionist pointed out, this was the top floor. "We've had a lot of rain recently", she remarked nonchantly. I demanded another room, and she announced with ostentatious magnanimity that she would give me a more expensive room for no extra cost. How generous! This replacement room (into which they'd simply squeezed another bed ...

... br>
The journey from Ji'nan took just over six hours and when we arrived we joined the many whom were either just beginning or midway through the Hotel Shuffle. We were all searching for the same thing, a normal priced hotel room yet none of us had any luck what so ever. At first we were told the high prices were due to a CCTV music festival but we soon learned that the music festival was not for ...

... strangely enough is a place I feel comfortable, and it's not too hot because there's a really pleasant ocean breeze. And, for some reason the food is even cheaper and actually better than that of Beijing. Plus, not being a big city and all - believe it or not a million-person city is pretty small by Chinese standards - the people are really friendly and talkative, although they're standard Mandarin isn't so great. I'll ...

Just recently I was visiting my best Chinese mate in the seaside city of Yantai. On this one day, while we were strolling through a mall, I heard this Chinese trance-dance song playing faintly off in the distance. I thought, "Oh man, that was my song! My friends and I used to jam to it at the many Chinese dance clubs we used to frequent". I never knew the name of that song, but I was about to ...

Ok folks, I've finally started writing a blog! Just getting to grips with this site, it seems pretty complicated so I'm not going to get down to any serious writing just yet. It's almost dinner time here, the weather's pretty nice today as it's just about the end of winter now and I'm just lazing around. Have been watching some random TV ...

... they made me fight a girl! I did better than the first time though at the end of the day it was not a very proud moment telling my mother I beat a girl). After that I slowly and surely got more experience, being outclassed by some of the more experienced guys in my class was good for learning, though I taught one of them a thing or two when he decided not to wear nether region protection (muhahah!). Just before I left I had one more inter-class ...

... the drunken master form, gotta love it. Du Shifu was injured at one point during training because a a messed up mat arrangement. He did a spinning back flip off a mat suspended in mid air (not healthy) and landed on his neck. It looked pretty bad but he was ok a few days later. He went away for 5 weeks soon after that though to take care of his master who had been in an accident. During the meantime our training was taken by young Master Du (little Du ...

... counter, per day and make people keep coming back? Apparently so. The next day, my language partner offered to go for me, because that was the day she and her friends were going to buy their tickets to go home to Qingdao. I gladly handed over Shenoa and my student IDs and crossed my fingers. A few hours later, my frustrated, frazzled looking language partner returned, saying that she'd had no luck and had almost been trampled by students shoving eachother aside in hope ...

... brother who loves to twirl his Chinese girlfriend about! Sam, Ben, Mhairi and I took a trip to Qingdao at the weekend - on the first day it rained, but we still had fun. We ate at a beautiful Italian restaurant - complementary bread and dips - soooooooooo good - and the best glass of wine ever! Then we just explored the town, ventured along the pier, played drinking games and had a night out. Seems like a really fun place.. Mhairi and I might go again before we leave China ...

... you as to my role within the school! I teach 16 classes a week, the most I have is 4 in a day, the least 2, but it compares respectfully with the Chinese teachers who have slightly more but work an extra day than me. I however am lucky with my earliest class at 8:50am and latest finishing at 4:10pm, some of the teachers have classes at 7am or until 9:30pm! Nice. Anyway I have to spend the first 20mins or so of my lesson doing ...