Well, I'm half way through summer school and it's about time for an update. I shan't be doing it again next year because it's too much like hard work. In three weeks I have gone through more than a whole year's worth of regular school material. I am teaching six lessons a day, five days a week and I have absolutely no idea what I will use as lesson material for the next three weeks. And it is costing more to live here than I am earning.
Add that to the constant extremely hot weather (sweat is streaming down my back as I sit here in the Mimosa Cafe typing this) and I'm exhausted most of the time.
Apart from the heat Yangshuo is a nice enough place to spend time. I've settled into a routine of getting up late and having a coffee, walking fifty metres to my classroom, teaching from 9 to 11:30, walking up to the Mimosa for a late breakfast, walking back, taking a nap, walking to the classroom, teaching from 3 to 5:30, spending a couple of hours in my room (until the regularly scheduled six- thirty rainstorm has stopped) and walking up to West Street where I choose a restaurant at random for dinner and then go to the London Tavern to spend far too much time and money on English beer.
I could eat for nothing in the school canteen but a third of the dishes contain mushrooms (which I can't eat), a third contain tofu (which I don't like) and the other third are rice and boiled cabbage. You can see why I'd rather pay for food that I find palatable.
It is a pleasantly untroubled existence. I don't have to think about anything, worry about anything or even do much of anything. Apart from taking three or four showers a day.
I wish I had something interesting to tell you but I don't. Little happens that is of any great interest to me so the chances of it being interesting to anyone reading this block are pretty much nil.
With that in mind I shall now stop bothering you and say goodbye.
There will be another update soon.
Or not.
