Tuesday 11th September 2007

Today we started our first lessons.  The morning was occupied by a 3 hour oral lesson and the afternoon by a 3 hr listening lesson.  This was hard considering for the first time I was learning a tonal language where all 5 tones actually sound the same!

After wards we went for a PR Briefing at the British Council, basically telling us what and what not to say to the Chinese media when approached.  This was followed by a meal at a western restaurant (our first since we got here!) and it was well worth the wait.  On returning home I wrote up the notes I took in class and did a little revision.

Wednesday 12th September 2007

This morning’s lesson was taken by Alex as our teacher was off ill.  We revised pronunciation from the day before and moved onto basic vocab, such as numbers, verbs, as well as, basic grammar.

In the afternoon we headed to the hospital for a medical inspection in order to gain our Resident’s Permit – this consisted of being prodded, weighed, scanned (I’m not pregnant you’ll be glad to hear!), and drained of blood … all in order to prove that we are fit and healthy!