Chinese Acrobats

The Laoshe teahouse last night was pretty exciting. I tried to sit with people that I haven't spent so much time with - there's 100 of us here and I think it's important to try to get to know everyone, even if it's just a little bit.....as everyone at my work will say, networking is key!! :P

I must have drank about 10 cups of green tea - they refilled our cups constantly. It was really nice. They also gave us lots of little snacks, like seeds, dried cherries, spring rolls, jelly, and a few other mystery tidbits. The host of the show was funny - couldn't understand a word he said but he still cracked me up - the way he spoke Chinese was very comical and he had a huge grin on his face...I think you had to be there. There were lots of mini-acts - highlights of the Peking opera (which we're going to see next week), Chinese acrobats, comedy, conjuring, kung fu, and the famous face-changing - which was my favourite. He danced to the music wearing a traditional Chinese outfit of some sort and sporting an ornate mask - which changed about once a minute! I couldn't work out how he did it but someone said later on that when he shook his head, a new mask would slide across. It was awesome.

After the teahouse, I stayed out with about 15 other people and we went for dinner - just had some noodle soup, which was delicious. I decided to try to get an early night but when I got in around 12:30, my roommate was still up and we started chatting and all of a sudden it was 3 am!

Getting up for class this morning at 7 am was painful. We reviewed what we had learnt yesterday - all of the sounds, as well as some basic phrases. Then we learned some new sounds, new words, and practiced our numbers. I learned how to say my birthday in Chinese - liu yue san shi hao (6 month 30 day). I think I'm really starting to get to grips with the sounds - I love this language. I really want to carry on learning it when I get back to England.

At 11:30, I went back to my room to have a sleep and ended up sleeping for the rest of the afternoon - unfortunately missing the 'informal discussion with Chinese students' - which wasn't the end of the world because the others told me all about it. I'd been talking to the Chinese students loads at the Great Wall and I think we're going to go to the Karaoke with them tomorrow night too. I started feeling a bit ill today - the lack of sleep has really caught up with me. We went to the Chinese acrobatics this evening which was one of the most amazing things I've seen so far on this trip. It was the top acrobatic childrens class and they must have been from about 7 - 12 years old. It was incredible...we were all completely mesmerized. I expect most of them were plucked from their parents at a young age to train for it - I was watching a Discovery documentary on the plane which was about the next Olympic gymnast hopeful for China who was chosen at only 2 years old!!

Most of us were feeling exhausted and decided to come back on the bus to the hotel. I went for food with a few of the girls and now I'm just here having a bit of a rest before I go to bed. I've made so many great friends here but sometimes I find myself getting a bit claustrophobic - I haven't really had any time on my own since I left England so it's nice to just sit here and clear my head a bit.

Tomorrow should be another great day - I have class from 8-11:30 as usual and then I have a work placement at a Preschool (random, I know!!) at 12, then a Chinese calligraphy class at 2. Then we're going to the Karaoke with the Chinese students like I mentioned earlier - should be eventful Right - it's getting on for midnight so I'm off to bed - hopefully as good night's sleep will sort me out and I'll be feeling better tomorrow!