Crawling Crabs

Hi All,

Yesterdays early morning lesson was actually the only one I got to do yesterday - I have no idea how the timetable works at this school - I doubt I'm going to end up working it out before I leave so will just do lessons when I'm grabbed by the teachers.

I did a bit of OU work yesterday, finished reading a book then we went out in the evening to a hotpot restaurant. They are really popular over here and quite cheap (6 of us had a meal tonight along with drinks for less than 10 quid - that's for all of us!).

I do have to draw the line at some of the seafood dishes though - especially when it comes to your table alive and you're expected to put it in the pot! Last night Franny had crab which she thought was dead - she unwrapped the string tying it together and it started crawling across the table - enough to put anyone off food! Some of the other stuff was still wriggling around too and it makes me a tad queasy.

I've done 2 lessons today - both with classes of 10yr olds in the primary school. It's the same lesson as I did yesterday but I didn't seem to get as far through it as I did yesterday. The class yesterday picked things up pretty quickly and could answer questions - today they were repeating the phrases really well in groups, yet when you picked on individuals they really struggled pronouncing the words. I spent a bit more time on the basics, pronunciation and meaning of words as I had a feeling explaining the difference between past and present tenses may have got a little bit lost if I'd attempted it. I didn't get as far through the lesson but hopefully they will have a pretty good grounding for next time.

I have three lessons planned in for tomorrow - it's a shame really as a couple are in the morning and I wanted to go back to the Kindergarten - the kids are far more enthusiastic at that age and really are fun to teach.

I've been into town tonight and done a bit of shopping. I'm just getting prepared now for Saturday when I'm catching the bus down to Shanghai to spend a week there - can't wait! :-)