olympic events....

today, i found out online which games i will be watching at the olympics....

i mean... i knew what sport im watching, but i didnt know which countries were competing.... because so many of the olympic qualifications finished late.... so it wasnt until recently they announced which teams are playing when...

aaaaaaaaanyways~ i got SUPER LUCKY!!! all the team sports events im watching has Korea or Australia in it~!!!

here are the games i will be watching~~

17 June - Men's Hockey: Pakistan vs Sth Africa... Australia vs Netherlands
18 June - Men's Baseball: Taiwan vs Korea
19 June - Athletics: Morning Session
Men's Hockey: Korea vs Spain... China vs Belgium
21 June - Athletics: Morning Session

sweeeeeeeeeeeet~~ im really looking forward to the baseball... haha

now.... i just need a visa to be in china at that time.... -.-

a lonely, boring vacation....

so here i am... in yantai.... i could be in sydney... but nope.... im in yantai....

im still on vacation... until next monday.... and what am i doing this week??? NOTHING....

its a week off work, and im at home, doing nothing..... sad isnt it??

yesterday and today, i went to the gym.... played ping pong with rory..... and last night, hywel made burgers for us, which was cool....

i guess since those 2 dont have their passports due to the dodgy timing of things from the boss, we cant even go away anywhere....

funnily enough.... both our bosses are in korea.... 1 left last friday, and the other one left that i live with, he left yesterday.... and his wife came to china the day before... which meant, she came for a day, so they can pack and go to korea..... a little suspicious... and worrying that both our bosses have taken off to korea.... maybe they are just deserting this business... haha

the weather is so nice outside.... summer... but not too hot.... i should be out there doing something....

instead, the last two days, i went into work to sort out the mess that the boss has left here with 2 students TOEFL application money gone missing.... fucking hell!!!

maybe i should ask for a pay raise..... since im done with my last contract..... haha.... seriously... whats he gonna do...? fire me???

back from a holiday.... but no sydney....

after 10 days holidaying north-eastern china with my mum, im back in yantai.... i was supposed to go to sydney this sunday... but once again... for the 1398th time, the boss has changed plans... and now we CAN renew our visas in china... so i dont have to goto sydney....

kinda sux coz i was really looking forward to going home....

anyways... the holiday was good... spent a day in shanghai before my mum arrived in china... got ridiculously hammered... haha

i went to beijing with my mum.... and DAMN~~ its dirty!! i've been to beijing many times now... but it's hit the peak of "diiiirty~". with the olympics only 20-something days away... damn~ so i decided to take some photos of 'beijing today' as it is...

first, they are still working on the main stadium... not sure what they are doing... but im sure its not supposed to look like that....

and as for the escalators up to the stadium front... well, im sure they weren't meant to look like this too....

i guess it wouldnt take too long to fix these things up tho... right?

as for making the footpaths around the stadium area... again.... it wont take long, but it leaves a hell of a mess to clean up....

after beijing, we went to "Changbai Mountains", otherwise known to koreans as "Baekdu Mountains".... going to the mountain was probably harder than getting up the mountain...

we had to catch a 8 hour bus from Jilin to the mountains, and had to join up with a tour group to enter the mountains.... but up the top is this AWESOME pond.... i think it should be called a lake.... but anyways, they call it the pond in the sky, or sky pond or something... i'd like to call it Bigpond... haha

in contrast to beijing, this place was really clean.... obviously.... i saw the chinese soccer team up there too.... knew no faces... knew no names.... i just knew that they had most recently beat australia B-team... and didnt make the world cup....

AND THEN~~~

returned to yantai... i still dont have to goto work until the 28th July.... my vacation was until this week.... and next week, our school had already told the parents that we are taking a week off due to visa problems, and the teachers had to all go back to their home countries....

BUT WE DONT!!! they are getting our visas from within china... and so i dont get to go home =(

i am planning on quitting pretty soon though... although... my boss did ask me to give him 2~3 months notice.... so even if i quit now, it wont be until november/december i will leave here... i also dont want to tell him that im quitting now... coz then they might get all EVIL on me and the other teachers going to beijing for the olympic games in august....

after i come back from the olympics, i'll tell them... ah... im gonna leave here soon.....

the irish teacher quit.... he told the boss that he will quit on wednesday.... so.... he's working until the end of august.... nice workplace huh? "I QUIT!!!".... "ok.... so i'll work for another 6 weeks... then leave..."

haha... well... after i say i quit in august... i'll be home in sydney around november or december.... DEFINITELY!!! (i think)

HOLIDAY~~ then SYDNEY!!!

so... the weekend has started, and my 2 week holiday has started... my mum will arrive in china on monday, then we will start a mini tour around northern china.... hope everything goes smoothly and safely....

AFTER my 2 week holiday, my mum is going to korea for another fortnight... and i will go to SYDNEY!! (hopefully..) im about 90% certain that i will be going to sydney for a week... or maybe actually less than a week... i need to go home, apply for a work visa in china again, then jet straight back to work....

but still... im not paying for the flight to sydney... so 5 days there is still cool....

i've been thinking about what to do in the 5 days that im there.... i thought... i want to play golf.... i want to spend some "quality time" with my dogs.... and since my mum wont be there... (she will be in korea), i think i'll go wherever i want with her car... haha

now here's what im WORRIED about.... since i've left sydney 2 years ago... i've gained.... 20kgs.... yes.... thats right.. 20... no typo.... 18, 19 then 20!!! i mean... while im here, i never realised how fat i was getting with this high-life.... but 20kgs.... i guess that would show to most people back in sydney huh?? maybe even my dogs will think im fat now.... haha

ah well.... so i got paid my bonus for finishing my year contract... coooooool~~ lots of spending money for my 2 week vacation and 1 week in sydney ^^

maybe i shouldnt get too ahead of myself.... what if i cant go to sydney.... i'd be SHATTERED~ i think.... well... if i dont go home, i'll be going to hong kong.... so.... i dunno... ^^

well.... when im back from my holiday, i'll write on the blog again~ till then~

rain... tickets.... & good news!!

yesterday, it poured here.... for the first time in a looooong time, i woke up to raindrops on the roof.... i mean... dont get me wrong.... it rains a fair bit here... but usually its just thunderstorms at night... and in the morning, its dry.....

well... it was refreshing to wake up to rain for a change.... but it was POURING~~ and although i opened my eyes in the morning with a smile, due to the history of broken bones, as soon as i tried to move from my bed, my entire body was aching....

our maid came at noon with her jeans drenched in rain... she told me that the gate to our place was flooded with "THIS" much rain (pointing to her knees).... i didnt believe her....

but when i walked out to goto work.... there is was... the entrance to our apartment blocks flooded with 40cm of water... there were all these koreans and chinese people standing around complaining that they cant get out..... they were all wearing sneakers..... i was wearing sandals... coz my maid told me to wear sandals... haha

it didnt rain so much that the entire are flooded... it was just bad maintenance around our apartments that our entrance is caved in like a basin.... so most people stood there..... looking at our apartments... then a lake..... then the rest of the city..... some chinese girl that i dont know kept trying to talk to me about how much it had rained.... duh~~~~ and it was STILL raining!


later she asked me to give her a piggy-back over the flooded area... hahahahahahaha~~ i said no.... then i just walked thru the flood wearing my sandals~~ hehe.... some chinese guy tried to ride his bike thru it.... then stacked it into the water.....

just to annoy the people on the "other side" of the flood... i stood there taking these wonderful photos with my phone ^^


onto other news.... my mum is coming to china next monday.... my boss wants me to goto hong kong to renew my visa.... coz he screwed up the entire renewal process for all the teachers.... to tell him that he can shove the hong kong idea up his rear, i bought all the airline tickets for my travel with my mum, and got it sent to work... haha.... he told me.... ah... we can fix up ur visa after ur mum leaves.... (i might have to goto sydney for a week)


and the final GREAT news is... i got an email from UTS today saying that my leave of absence application has been approved.... so i can finish my 2 subjects in 2009.... but i MUST go back in 2009.... hehe~ niiiiiiiiiiiice~~

i now just need a chinese visa so that i can goto the olympics in August~!!!! (fingers crossed~)

canada day...

today was canada day.... july 1.... well... its july 2, 2:30am now..... but anyways....

so i work with a canadian-welsh guy.... and an irish-canadian guy.... so that equates to like... 1.5 canadians....

so to celebrate canada day, we went to hywel's (canadian-welsh) place, and drank "MOJU"....

moju was a cocktail mix of 'maple syrup' and 'soju'..... it was really nice.... it was rather weird going to hywel's place and not having something to watch on the big screen.... we did watch some 2004 olympic weight-lifting... that was on chinese tv...... then we watched a replay of Euro 2008 semis.....

come to think of it.... i dont even know what i did on australia day for the past 3 years....

well... to all the canadians that i have worked with, and im working with now... happy Jia-Na-Da day.....