So, back in June 2011 I was celebrating my 25th birthday like any self-respecting 25 year old. My apartment was quite full and made for a ‘cosy’ atmosphere. I’ll confess to not remembering much of it. Whether that’s because it was a long time ago or because of the amount of alcohol consumed; I’ll let you decide.

So, every time the last day of term rolls around I take my camera into class and take some photos of / with the kids. I like to have something to help me remember the good times we have. The Summer term of 2011 at Beitang was no different…

So, June 1st in China is children’s day. A holiday to celebrate…well, Children I guess. It seems pretty tough for the kids actually. They have to sing and dance and perform under pressure. But, they’re in the spotlight and they’ll often get some gifts from their school on the day – so, it’s all good I guess. Here are some pics from 2011’s Children’s day celebrations at Beitang. Many of these kids are my students past of present.

So, back in May of 2011 the International Horticultural Expo opened in Xi’an. Right off the bat, I’ll be honest – I have little to no interest in flowers or plants. But, it was just a stone’s throw away from me, and everybody was talking about it. So, myself, Beryl and Winfred headed there armed with our cameras…

So, every May myself and Beryl celebrate May Day by jumping on a plane and going on a 5 day holiday. In ’09 we went to Luoyang, In ’10 we went to Qingdao and last year we headed to Urumiqi in Xinjiang province. Xinjiang is the most north-westerly province in China. It borders lots of countries including Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. 45% of the population are also Uyghur. A minority of Turkish-speaking Chinese who are mostly Sunni Muslims. The whole area is a totally different side of China. Here are some photos from our holiday…

This is a snap of my god-daughter taken last year in April. She’s so cute! Her English name is Flora. There are some more photos here.

  
So, back in April of last year I convinced Michael to buy a bike and join me on some bike rides. I love riding my bike, but it gets a bit boring on your own when you’re out for 4-5 hours. The hills to the south of Weinan have some challenging roads with steep inclines. That’s part of the reason why I rarely take my big camera with me, and instead choose to use my cell phone camera (which sucks, thanks HTC!)

  
So, those familiar with the blog will know about Beitang Primary School. It’s the primary school that I teach at when I’m not teaching at Aston. Chinese primary schools are very different to their western counter parts. Firstly as the left-most photo shows. There are a lot of students. A lot. Each grade has 7-8 classes. Each class has 60-70 students. And that’s “small” class-sizes. Beitang is one of the best primary schools, it’s “proud” of that class size. Anyway, there are 6 grades in primary school, so conservatively thats 6*7*60 … more than 2,500 students! My primary school (Hayes Meadow Primary School, represent!) The other two pictures also highlight differences, read on for more…

“KTV”? Karaoke TeleVision. Well, it’s just what the Chinese call “Karaoke.” It’s a huge past-time here. Some people take it very seriously too. I, personally, can’t sing for toffee so I usually refrain. Plus the beer is usually over-priced and over-watered. Anyway, occasionally for various festivals or holidays the owner of our school, Max, invites all the employees of the school out for a meal. On this occasion, lots of baijiu was consumed so someone thought it would be a good idea to follow up the meal with a trip to a KTV bar…

In addition to last week’s blog post with photos from Lantern Festival, I dug out this video which helps to convey the atmosphere. Just listen to those fireworks!