Winter Snow (Dong Xue) took me out this afternoon, in her bright red KIA, straight after out tutorial finished. A 4WD adventure through and unmarked detour  across a walk bridge and alley designed for push bikes and pedestrians rather than 2- way traffic and a few quick checks of the phone map and we hit food street- freezing cold and she treated me to local specialties. Traffic had mounted by then and it took over an hour to the restaurant. Noodles were ordered, made fresh, cooked served a...

I discovered today a beverage which is milk tea - just add hot water. It tasted like a warmish caramel chuppa chup really - sickly creamy sweet. It was pretty good between mouth fulls of hot water to wash it down. So class - I had some students hand in homework and that sort of help put me more at ease. Today was better in ways I felt as there seemed to be a stronger connection with the students - this is what I see as a sign of being effective. Although there were less students present today...

Yesterday I missed do to an unusual encounter - a man who thought he was a gift to those he lowered himself enough to talk to. He joined dave and I at happy hour drinks, which did turn into happy 4 hours plus of drinks. after telling us that this hotel was no good (he stayed here because it was cheap - so really what did he expect -plus he was happy to sit there and drink the free beer ) this was quickly followed with proclamations of how good and honorable he was and how hecaught crabs from dir...

Dave and I went to dinner tonight, which meant I was home later and drunker than intended. He told me he was gay, which was no real surprise and helped bring ease to the friendship. It was a great comfort too after having my arse grabbed by a random bike riding 40 plus Chinese man. He didn' just come up and do, he semi stalked me with conversation first, for a block. I answered his questions as politely as I could, happy for the practice, and lying all the way, making up a husband and child to b...

I met Dave at breakfast. He was suffering from cabin fever and I tried to help order a fired egg for him. We agreed to meet up later and head to Ancient Street. In I went to St Joseph's cathedral. To kill the hour and a half before mass time I checked out some of the many, many, department stores there about. The cathedral was very grand. Hearing Gloria in Excelsius in Chinese then English was a great Christmas treat. Dave was in the bar and we headed out straight up. Ancient Street was fa...

American Football is on TV. The stop and start style of the game means it is easier to understand the Chinese commentary - though the guy is quite excitable,  and highly educational. I never new 'off side'  and 'open field tackle' were Chinese words. Day one has been great in a really lovely, understated way. I am here for work and those that picked me up took me to early dinner, where I couldn't eat much but didn't want to offend, so they spent time guessing what a foreigne...