This teaching lark

It's not easy this teaching lark, it must be said.
We're coming up to mid-term exams, so everyone, teachers and students are a little nervous.

In the past 3 years I've come to the slightly surprising realisation that, in contrary to my school career, I'm actually pretty damn conciencious.
If I'm doing something I want to do it well, in fact, I often want to do it best, but that's just my perfectionist / competitive streak which I find reasonably easy to ignore.

So I'm trying to overcome the cultural divide between staff and students and do the best job I can to prepare these young Chinese people for their life in the UK next year. I know that for all of them it will be a big experience, for a lucky few it will be like my year abroad - life changing and may influence their career and life choices for years to come. Had I not been to Brussels, I would not have known about the exams which Caroline and I passed and which ultimately brought us here to the adventure in Beijing.

Anyway, that's enough of a contemplative window into my soul for now, I'll report back on general results of the exams soon and we'll see how good my pedagogic skills are.

This weekend we are off to Dandong near the North Korean / Chinese border, expect reports and pictures sometime next week.

Would enjoy a weekend beer/glass of wine/cup of tea with you all.
Will just have to raise my tsingtao to you on the train.