Disappearing Interns and School Shows

The sun is shining, the weather is hot and another unpredictable week has passed at Fuyuan Shenzhen school. This week saw the shock departure of one of the other interns. He had been planning to leave for a few weeks but for some unknown reason he didn’t tell any of the other interns or his contact at the school. He literally packed his bags in the middle of the night and left! He text some of us the next day to say goodbye and we were all obviously in a slight state of shock. We had all got on with him quite well during our time here, although he was always rather elusive and on reflection, no-one actually knew anything about the guy! It highlights how bizarre the relationships that you have with people you at placed at schools with can be.

On a happier note, I managed to get to be beach this weekend and it was awesome. I wasn’t expecting too much as many people had said that is was dirty and over-crowded, however, it turned out to be really beautiful and clean. It took three and a half hours to get to, but sod it, it was worth it! This city is so big that you can travel for that long and still be in Shenzhen. I have now accepted it as a fact of living here that getting anywhere takes at least two hours. That’s just the way it is, unfortunately!

Yesterday I turned up to my afternoon lessons only to find an empty school. After scoping out the campus I found all the teachers and students in on e of the huge halls on campus, watching a show starring kids from the kindergarten and the primary school. Sometimes it is completely bizarre that events like this can occur without me noticing them. Because I am unable to read the signs that are put up in the office and because I don’t receive emails, I often have no idea what is going on and this was no exception!

Surprise aside, the show was excellent. The kids were doing all sorts of back flips and kung-fu moves up on the stage. They are so flexible and elegant, there’s no way that kids back at home are able to do the kinds of things that the average kid here can do. It is really impressive just how talented these kids are.

This week I have also had a complete nightmare with the internet at the school. For some reason, the internet in China is really, really slow and half of the time you can’t upload documents or photos at all. Many websites are banned in China, such as Facebook, twitter, and the BBC and this list of banned sites change on a daily basis. This makes staying in touch with people at home very interesting and it also means that applying for jobs for next semester is a complete nightmare! I am hoping to find TEFL work in Spain in September but I can’t apply for much because the internet is so bad. Oh, the stress!!

This weekend we have Dragon Boat festival in China. This should consist of lots of boat races and eating a shed load of rice dumplings. Should be a fun weekend! I shall let you know how it goes!