Disconnected

Did you know that they've changed [or are planning on changing] the British Royal family succession laws? I didn't. That's because I have no idea what's going on in the world. Although I wasn't amazing at keeping up with what was going on when I was living in England, I still had a sort of sense of what was occurring. It's a bit hard to avoid when you live in London really, especially when people keep asking you if there are rioters on your street, or if the royal wedding procession will be anywhere near Lewisham Highstreet. I had feelers out, you know? Or rather my mum used to bring the Guardian home with her from work. Also, I had the type of friends where if you weren't up to the minute with current affairs you looked a right twat. Also, Made in Chelsea used to be on just after the news.

But anyway, my point is that between the shit that China keeps throwing at me, Chinese homework that takes up the time that Chinese class doesn't and manufacturing a social life, I really don't have time to give a crap about what's going on in the UK. As if it weren't bad enough that I'm out of touch with my own land, I also have no idea what's going on in the country I currently reside in. At least I'm better than my classmates, who didn't even know that Hu JinTao is the President of the PRC, but that's really not saying much. If you were looking for an update on China's political climate, or how the country's politics/international affairs/affairs affected everyday life, you're not gonna find it here.

I've had a couple of people tell me now that I don't talk about China enough in my blog, but I'm sorry guys, I really don't know what to tell ya. There really isn't an excuse - this stuff is directly related not only to my degree but also my day-to-day life. Well, at least I think it is. To be honest, I travel between home and class [a 20 minute walk] everyday, each lunch with my classmates, do work in my room, eat at my local [3 minutes away from my room], talk to my flatmates [in English] and go to the same [English speaking] bars and clubs on the weekends. Besides the shockingly obvious fact that corruption in China is really holding back on any form of efficiency, I can't say that China's news is having an effect on my life at all. Remember - China's a big place!

I am going to make more of an effort to read more about Chinese current affairs though, and then tell you about how I'm so up-to-date with Chinese current affairs and then find away to link Chinese current affairs directly into my life cos, you know, I'm living in China now. I hope you're looking forward to it as much as I am ^-^ . Of course none of this reading will actually take place in Chinese...You try reading a Chinese newspaper - it's all dots and dashes! If I could even read a headline that would be a really good Mandarin day for me! But seriously, I'm going to get out there and see more of Dalian - you know go some places and take some pictures - if only to stop this blog from becoming a gossip column!

Comments & Questions        Xx

Balance

It's just occurred to me that as much as this blog is meant to be about my experiences in China, it's been a long time since I've written about actual Chinese. Inspired by my upcoming midterms and the opportunity to participate in a speech contest, I though I'd take the chance to update my avid readers on my developments. If you're not so avid a reader, feel free to skip this post. This is gonna be a serious ramble.

Every term our University holds a speech competition for international students. Aware that even the bravest of students would really rather not talk in front of however many hundred [or thousand] people, our teacher informed us today that our class would be holding a mini elimination competition in which everyone would have to participate. I don't really want to do it. I'm not exactly lost for ideas, in fact I already know what I'm going to talk about, and I'm certainly not afraid of losing, in fact I'd rather I did! It's that age old fear of getting it wrong that's holding me back. Obviously, it's not so easy to hang on to when you're in a country where you don't speak the language, and I'm slowly beating this ridiculous fear out of myself, but I find that the more I learn the more I'm afraid to practice [seriously, you can't get me to shut up in a language I don't speak] and of course the less I practice the worse I get.

So, essentially, upon hearing the news we were all in horror  - especially the Koreans for some reason. But, in what I expect was a Chinese attempt at a morale boost, my teacher said two interesting things to us. She told us that those students who had participated in previous competitions had developed a completely different attitude towards studying Chinese. It wasn't just that their level had increased, or that they were more confident [although both those things did occur], but more like they had had their outlook changed. I guess it's something like how a magic trick doesn't make sense until the magician reveals how it's done, and that was what intrigued me. I had thought about doing the competition before, but obviously if I had been given the chance I would have turned it down. Like an Agoraphobic, I know that all I have to do is step outside to know whether or not I can do this - it's just taking that first step that's the hardest. Now I'm being pushed out the door, I'm kind of interested to see whether or not I can overcome my fear of saying a fourth tone instead of a first.

The other thing my teacher said was that we needed a better balance when studying Chinese. Obviously this competition would involve us speaking out [with confidence I might add] what we had written, but the key is that we would first have to sit, think about and then write out what we wanted to say. "Being in China you get to practice speaking a lot" she said, "but there's not a lot of essay writing. The grammar, tone and formality you use when making a speech is the same that you use for writing an essay. This competition will certainly be beneficial to all of you." [Sorry, that's a direct translation from Chinese, I'm losing the ability to speak English]. I found that quite ironic actually, as the same teacher had commented on the fact that all Edinburgh students preferred to write down what they wanted to say before saying it, which was absolutely right.

In Edinburgh, as with most educational facilities in the UK, you're really only taught how to do one thing - pass exams. I'm an excellent rote learner - I once took an English exam about Pride and Prejudice and managed to quote entire passages without even opening my book. I never understood science, but in every test I managed to get an A*. In Religious Studies I got the highest mark in my year and it was not because I was the brightest pupil - not by a mile. It's because in school you're not taught about the subject, you're taught the answers to the questions on the test that's going to be about that subject, and I got that very quickly. That's why when I started learning Chinese and found that what they really wanted was for you to memorise a certain grammar point [much like you would learn a maths formula] and learn how to read and write a specific list of characters [the same as memorising a bunch of history facts], I thought it was going to be a cake walk. I never went out of my way to practice my Chinese with the abundance of Taiwanese people at my Uni because I knew what I was doing was enough for where I was. I could write everything that I needed to know and get an A on every test. In two years of studying Chinese, I probably spoke Chinese for about an hour altogether. This is where the balance aspect comes into it, and probably why they hand you over to the East for a year - to make you realise that you can get 100% on a language test and not be able to speak, read or understand a word.

We also did a lot of translating into English which, unless you're going straight from 2 years of study to interpreter, was next to useless in preparing us for  our year abroad.

If you're actually planning on learning to communicate in Chinese, you absolutely must go to China/ Taiwan at some point, and for a good stretch of time. Learning in your home country [especially if it's the UK] just ain't gonna cut it. In Edinburgh, we have the luxury of having several actual Chinese people as our teachers. Having native Mandarin teachers is an excellent resource, one that most people would be so envious of, and yet they never spoke to us in Chinese. One teacher started, but gave up after two lessons when we just didn't get it, neglecting to mention that when we got to China all lessons would be in Chinese. Also, we never spoke a word of Chinese outside of our oral exam, and even then we could prepare in advance what we wanted to say. People here are genuinely shocked at my level when I tell them I've been studying for two years, to the extent that I'm embarrassed and feel like I've wasted two years having 300 characters and 10 grammar points drilled into my skull.

It's not all bad though. I once had a long conversation with Eric about how learning from textbooks gives you absolutely zero communication skill. He swears by Podcasts [which are actually really good if you're interested: Popup Chinese] and meeting real Chinese people and talking to them. I agree, of course, as do most people - I hate going through every page of my textbook, going through every example sentence and new word, only for exact replicas of them to appear on my test. But you can't knock them off completely. My one saving grace when coming to study in Dalian was that although the majority of students in my class had only been studying for, on average, about a year, my grammar and comprehension was quite a lot better than theirs. I found I could understand everything much quicker, despite not necessarily having all the vocabulary, and had studied all the grammar points before, whereas they struggled to get the meaning after several explanations. AND [this happened to me just today] it turns out that sometimes real life situations that don't include talking about the weather come straight from the textbook. If you're familiar with NPCR, you may have studied the lesson about going to the bank: NPCR Book 2 Lesson 15. This situation actually happened to me - part one, about LiNa going to 用英镑换人民币 [yong yingbang huan renminbi, exchange Pounds for Chinese monies] . Using the vocab and grammar points from this lesson [not to mention correct intonation] the clerk not only understood what I wanted but was actually impressed with my fluency. I have no Chinese fluency. NPCR are the greatest textbooks ever[?]. 

I try not to be confined by my textbooks though, even though I'm seriously lazy and tend to just learn everything off by heart [see above example. I take other people's textbooks [people in a higher class obviously], I try and talk to my friends in Chinese, as a way of breaking myself out of my 害羞 【haixiu, shy] shell. Learning a language is as much the teaching as what you do for yourself. You can ignore your teachers telling you to go home and 复习 [fuxi, revise], but they're right. If you want to get it perfect you have to give 100% [I was gonna say 110% but that just sounds American and lame]. I hope my cousin who's just started learning Chinese this year reads these words of wisdom and remembers that, though NPCR is hilarious and useful, you should not rely on learning a language through reading without communication, and you won't get far reading or writing [or even speaking] Chinese if you never learn your grammar points and 生词 [shengci, new words]. I guess that applies to anyone reading this actually, no matter what you're studying; all forms of study need balance.

Speaking of words of wisdom, I'm gonna go off and revise for my midterm exams. Wish me luck!...Wow this was a really serious post - I'm really sorry if you have no interest in Chinese and sat through this whole thing waiting for something interesting to happen...

Comments & Questions    :-)   Xx

The Love Lives of Others

There's nothing new going on in my love life at this particular point in time, but I still feel the need to update my blog. So instead I'm gonna take some time to talk about my....'friend's' respective love lives. No, no, they are actually my friends but, well, you'll see what I mean... or you won't.

So we'll start with Sabrina. Yes, Sabrina. Just roll with it. So Sabrina was going along with Keith [YES Keith], and it was all going fine until they hit a 'where are we' bump in their relationship. So Sabrina wanted to have the standard 'are we boyfriend and girlfriend' talk, when Keith started avoiding her. Feeling that he was avoiding the said 'talk', she finally cornered him and asked him wtf was going on - did he not like her? Was it him? Or was it something else? Turns out, it was something else. Someone else to be more precise. So Keith has known this girl from Beijing for four years. And by known, I mean they started talking to each other online and had never actually seen each other in real life. Yes, you're right, that is weird. What was weirder [is that a word?] is that she had suddenly decided to come up to Dalian for Keith's birthday, and now Keith was in a dilemma because he felt that he liked this random hoe, but didn't want to leave Sabrina in the lurch.

Well, needless to say it just wasn't gonna go down like that. As you haven't really been introduced to Sabrina, let me reassure you that she's really, really fit. In her and Veronica's words [don't worry, we're getting to her] "I'm a f***ing 美女!!" [Essentially, I is buffting].  Turns out she was much fitter than this Beijing chick, who was seriously 马马虎虎 [remember that one? No? Well look it up.] and dry beyond words - she didn't even dance to Keith's music [he's a DJ....DJ Keith.....no?] and it was his bloody birthday! Well, no matter who Keith 'chose' it was clear to us who the real winner was. But anyway, so Keith goes off for a walk with this girl down to the beach, hand in hand. Now, we get Eric to go and spy on them, but nothing is discovered besides the fact that they seem to be sitting awfully close together. Then, Keith comes back and has the nerve to start avoiding Sabrina again! Eventually, we leave. Dick.

Or is he? This was all last weekend [time moves fast here], Friday to be precise. Having not heard from Keith for a few days, Sabrina suddenly gets invited out for coffee - a perfect opportunity to break out her brand new vocab list, including such gems as 花花公子 [huahuagongzi, playboy] and 躲开 [duokai, avoiding, to avoid]. Well, it turns out that she didn't really need all of that, because Keith didn't like this Beijing girl [who in retrospect I feel kinda sorry for] and was just trying to comfort her after breaking the bad news to her. Well, 当然 [dangran, obviously]. But they still hadn't figured out where they were - Keith likes Sabrina, but she had grown bored of his 幼稚 [youzhi, immature] behaviour. Funnily enough, she did actually tell him that went they met up for the coffee talk and he knew immediately that she had looked it up. He's Chinese by the way....if you hadn't got that.

Anyway, talk part 3 still had to occur in Sabrina's mind, so they could finally discuss where they were and see if things could settle back down into comfort blah blah blah. So, yesterday we went to Keith's...place of work, they chatted for a while, and later on [much later, we'll get to that part] Keith came back to... Sabrina's. Now, leaving Keith at work, Sabrina and some others went to a club called Suzy Wong's, and this is where sh*t really went down. So, Ernest [look, are you gonna ridicule the names or are you gonna read the story?] is Sabrina's classmate. They're good friends and well, I thought there was something there before but then obviously the Keith thing went down, so I thought nothing of it. That is until Sabrina informed me that she and Ernest had kissed [he's not some lame, Southern British twat  btw, he's Japanese this is his....English name...] and he's now informing his girlfriend back home of this, in his words, '高高兴兴' [gaogaoxingxing, happy] event. And then she went home with Keith. Needless to say, she's confused herself thoroughly. That's all there is on this one, let's move on to Veronica.

*-._.-**-._.-**-._.-**-._.-**-._.-**-._.-**-._.-**-._.-**-._.-**-._.-**-._.-**-._.-**-._.-*

Aaahh Veronica. Where do I begin? No seriously, where? This drama is looonnng, but it's good so lets get started. So Veronica likes Vladimir [LOL, the names are getting ridiculous] and, as we recently discovered, Vladimir likes Veronica. But it's complicated. Very complicated. But before we get to that there is an extremely amusing filler story. So, after Veronica had told Vlad that she liked him [for the first time], he said that he just wanted to be friends. In a semi-rebound fashion, Veronica decided to give our new acquaintance [wait for it] K-dog a chance. Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Sorry. I'm done now. So Big K was at this party that I attended with Veronica and a few others, and basically he and Veronica shared a kiss. Infatuated thusly [I believe his words were 'I thought you were the most beautiful girl in the room the first time I saw you', yeah, ok lover boy] he then proceeded to invite Veronica out for a drink. Now, the next morning, when I inquired as to why Veronica was not attending class, it turns out she was otherwise occupied. With K-d. That's right.

But turns out K-to-the-d-to-the-o-to-the-g did not perform as well as one had hoped. In fact, it was a major fail. I won't regail you with the details, but lets just say he was...attentive in a way that Veronica was neither accustomed to nor interested in. And he's a gazer. Noone likes a gazer. That's just creepy. And then came the texts - which got no reply I should say, poor K-dawg. But bare with me, this is relevant to the overall story - also it's amusing...I think he still likes her bless him.

But her real focus is Vlad. Vlad is in Ver's class, but she didn't decide immediately that she liked him. That is until he started bringing her food...this story's starting to seem a bit similar to one I've told before, so I'm gonna cut to the chase and skip out the long boring details, otherwise we would be here all night. Ver went in for a smooch, but Vlad didn't take the bait. He said he liked her, but for reasons undisclosed to this day, he does not want to do the whole boyfriend-girlfriend thang. Seriously, I think that's the most repeated phrase said by guys since I've been in Dalian. It's like some kind of disease. He offered the 'special friend' status, she rightly refused. But there was still this flirting thing going on - Veronica had half-heartedly agreed to the 'just friends' status, but she was becoming slowly obsessed with him, and to be fair Vlad wasn't really sticking to his word, flirting away like a naughty boy. He even convinced her to skip class with him - as if she wasn't already unfocused.  Then they really did kiss. In Subway. It was all very romantic I'm sure. But he's still holding back on the goods - and now she's unsure whether she even wants to be friends with him.

Well, the moonlight walk they took on the beach would appear to contradict everything written above, but I assure you the situation really is unclear. It doesn't help that Ver has absolutely no idea how to play it cool - she analyses every text received to death and sometimes I have to switch conversations if I'm in danger of hearing the same thing I've heard repeated 6 times about one thing that Vlad said in an off-hand sort of way. But she's a versatile lass. Now she's locked in some sort of texting love-war with Bob [tall and hot, that's all you need to know], so I'm not really sure what's going on there. But who knows - it's only Sunday...

You know what, this is pretty complex, so...

In conclusion, this post is completely ridiculous. I think I'm gonna have to make my next post a bit more serious- this blog makes it seem like I have a lot more spare time than I actually do. Seriously, it took me three days to write this nonsense! I hope you're entertained.

                                                                                

Comments & Questions  <*-*>    Xx

I have a Stalker

Are you allowed to tell someone who has technically done nothing wrong besides want to be your friend, to f**k off and leave you alone? Well, may not in those exact words, but why is it so hard for me to just be like "Look, leave me alone" when I want someone to leave me alone?

So this guy comes into my classroom one day - clearly African [he has that 'fresh' look about him] and looking for something. I just didn't know that something was me. He came over and started conversation, he seemed normal enough, and then he asked for my number....and I gave it to him. NOW I know what you're thinking - why? A good question, but let me explain. China has lured me into a false sense of security when it comes to giving out my digits. In London, or anywhere in the UK, as a stranger you'd have to tie me down and steal my phone [I'd like to see you try] to get my number. But, when you're in a new place with a small community of English speakers and meeting people who go to your university, you don't think twice about these things. I still don't know what came over me though - Holly and Serrena had been handing their numbers out like candy until this point and I had sniffed, sniffed at them. What, in God's name, had convinced me to be nice at this point. I am not a nice person!

My mother had warned me to stay away and be generally wary of African men, ever since I told her we'd met up with some Angolan guys. I thought she was just being racist, as all Africans are, but she was right. I should have listened to her. She's a wise woman. A wise woman.

So now this guy's texting me 3 times a day, just wanting to ask what I'm up to, even though his English is appalling and probably wouldn't understand anyway. And get this - he's notorious! And not in the B.I.G. way. He's stalked a number of people, some of whom I am acquainted with, including one girl from my uni. In fact, after he had finished talking to me for the first time my friend Anitra told me, and I quote, "THAT'S THE CONGOLESE STALKER". So. When you saw me talking to him, why did you not inform me of this. Call me over. Do anything. Scream?! There is no excuse for letting me walk into a well laid trap!

And today he actually called me.
"Are you free this weekend?"
"No. I have plans."
"What plans?"
Not that I actually need to inform you but..."Some parties, work."
"I se. So could we meet up, maybe in the afternoon?"
"No, because I'm busy."
"Oh. I wanted to meet you for lunch."
"Well, I can't, because I'm busy." Man I'm polite.
"So I can't see you this weekend?"
"I,"
"Yes?"
"AM BUSY"
"Ok, keep in touch"      GRAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHH

You'd think after my abrupt but polite dismissal and not returning any of his texts, he would get the hint. But no. He text me again. Wanting to see me. Even though I went out of my way to lie and say I have a boyfriend. You know when you don't want to blanket an entire race of people for the sake of being PC, just let your instincts run free. Learn from my lesson. So then I sent him a text, essentially saying "I'm busy. I don't want to be your friend. Please stop contacting me" And he sent back something incomprehensible. So if he texts me again, I'm just gonna come out and  say "Leave me alone." Yeah I'm a b*tch, but what would you do?

And before you go all on his side remember - he has a record. He came into that classroom fishing for his next victim. So wipe that pitying look off your face [unless it's for me].
It really doesn't help that we have lessons in the same building. If he pops his head round that door one more time I'm going to cut it off.

Comments & Questions   [And by that I mean what do I do?!]   -__-          Xx

This Week...

...has been hands down my best week in China so far.

Remember how I kept b*tching about how nothing was going my way and I was sick and tired of it and blah blah blah? Well, things have suddenly taken a turn for the absolute better - let me explain.

So you remember how the University took our passports for all of three weeks without giving anyone sight or sound of them. Well, I went to the student office, asked for it back and they gave it to me. Right there, and then. Just handed it over. With a student card as well! I was more surprised they hadn't lost it than overjoyed at having it back, but still, just having it allowed me to do all the things I had wanted to since I got to China.

I opened a bank account [a relatively painless process considering I don't speak Chinese and the clerk didn't really speak English], got out the rest of my money and, wait for it, bought a laptop! I actually bought it today. Do you want to know the best thing about this laptop? The fact that I'm writing this post on it as...well as I write. That's right - it has the internet. OMG - Anime, Doctor Who, CSI, Merlin, Law and Order here I come! Holly jokingly said to me 'So I suppose we're not gonna see you for a week then?' I laughed but it's true - I'd forgotten what it was like to have the internet at your fingertips, to be able to waste hours flicking through funny demotivational posters or having a casual stalk of someone on Facebook. It's pure euphoria. I'm never going back. I may cry.

It's a very cute laptop as well, so cute that I'm going to include a photo so you can see it. It's extrodinarily light and is about half the size of my regular laptop, which means I can carry it around with me in the nifty free laptop bag they gave me! I do love the 电子城 [That's 'electric city' for those of you who have't been paying attention]. I can't really use it for typing, as the keyboard is ridonkulously small and all the keys are in the wrong place because it's an American keyboard. It also has no CD drive, so the other laptop will have to be used for playing the sims. But besides that it's exactly what I need. Rest assured I've already downloaded Utorrent and Google Chrome.

With my new student card i can now actually visit the student gym. I've already made plans to go swimming tomorrow, dragging Serrena along with me to do some physical ...anything really. Holly will not be attending as she will be waking up at the crack of dawn to climb a mountain. Good luck to her I say. Good luck.

Finally, at the risk of further inflating his ego by mentioning him in a post, I've been spending more time with Eric recently, which has been nice. We've a couple of hmmm...sleepovers already which have also been...nice. Wow, I am really not very good at this. Anywho, that's all i'm saying so you'll just have to infer what you will. Actually, don't infer anything - this blog is rated PG.

Just a note, you haven't yet been introduced to all the characters in the photos I've included. Jaro and Shinya are Holly's classmates. I've mentioned Yumi before [ in the Getting to know dalian part 2 post], but I think this is the first picture I've put up of her. She's also classmates with Charlie, the Korean guy in the red hat - he's hilarious. Anya is Serrena's classmate and also my friend, I really like her. Jenny is her roomate. I'm not sure what class Elliot's in, but he's been here for a while and knows everyone. Anna is an Edinburgh student and in my class in Dalian. And.. finally there's Gigi! She's one of our actual Chinese friends -she's a really cool girl and so blunt that it's just too funny.

So, In summary, China's not looking all that bad all of a sudden.

Questions & Comments      ^_^   Xx

I Miss Western Food

Due to unprecedented demand [one of my friends asked me to hurry up with the updates] I've come up with the only subject of interest that has occurred over the past few weeks. Well, that I care to write about on here anyway :P. That is that I miss western food. Seriously. I miss it so much it hurts, literally. Literally as in ...well, lets just say my stomach hasn't quite settled into China - neither has my anything else to be honest. Although, I appear to have developed an unhealthy addiction to the Sweet and Sour from our dingy local, not that anything here is healthy. I don't think I've had any fruit in a month and any vegetables come with a side of beef. Also, the Chinese attempt a lot of western foods but just get it so wrong e.g. chocolate, occasionally milk [they like putting fruit in it] and cheese. One time we went to Pizza Hut just to eat cheese - it was so wrong but so good. My cravings for Western food get so bad that I get KFC/MacDonalds more times in a week here than I do in a year in Britain. Needless to say I'm putting on weight. Really must start attending the gym.

Which brings me on to the next thing that I miss - good ol' British efficiency. I want to join the gym [really, I do, you can't run in this country, for reference see my 'Taxi!!' post ] but the University 留学生办公室 [Foreign students office] has my passport. Yes, still. It's been how long exactly? Oh yeah, forever. Give me back my passport bitches!!!! Notice how I didn't * that out. I'm that pissed. It's also preventing me from opening a bank account, which is also preventing me from buying a new laptop, which is finally preventing me from using the internet at my leisure. I did go to buy a laptop at the city's 电子城 [Lit. Electronic City, a magical place where all wonder of electronic items can be bought at Chinese prices - things really are cheaper here], but alas, they did not accept my foreign Nationwide card. Bastards. I had my eye on this really cute, tiny £250 laptop as well, which I had haggled down from £275 before I was shot down. :(


We also had a holiday last week, which I suppose is something of note. Well, it would have been if I had done anything of interest whatsoever. The only interest I did have had jetted of to Shanghai for the week, which left me plan-less [no passport, so no travelling. seriously, you can't do anything without a passport in this country] and stuck at home. We went out a few times and I got very, very drunk on one occasion, but the week passed aimlessly, though i did get quite a bit of Chinese done. It was nice not having to wake up at 6 a.m everyday, but those times are now over until January!


I still want to change classes [mine only appears to be getting easier], but haven't yet worked up the courage to ask my teacher, having failed the 'exchange class' test. I'm undoubtedly one of the best students in my class - this is not even bragging, it's just the simple truth because I've already studied all of this stuff before. Not that I'm the best by a mile, or even the best at all. there's this one Russian guy who's so desperate to change classes that he talks at the speed of light when the teacher asks him a question, calls out [at often inappropriate times, but usually with the right answer] and rushes ahead when the class has to read from the textbook as a whole. I don't care if he changes class, I just want the prize that you get at the end of each term for being the top student. Knowing China it's probably money.
Besides, my teachers all really like me in this class. Well, at least I think they do. When people are lost the teachers will often turn to me for the answer, but I think they've started picking on me when I start falling asleep, just to keep me on my toes. In any case, people have remarked that I get picked on the most - usually for the harder/ just-learnt-twenty-seconds-ago-now-give-an-example-off-the-top-of-your-head stuff.


That's about all I can update you on for now....here...have some pictures...


      Oh yeah, we went bowling as well! That was fun.



Happy now Leela?                          <:o)                 xx