Life in China continues

• People are allowed to spit here, wherever they like.  I find it really unpleasant, especially the hacking gross sounds they make just before you know they're about to spit.  EEEWW!
• Traffic!!  Who would know if someone was drink driving or not!  People drive insanely here.  You either honk or flash your headlights if you want to change lanes and it's legal to turn against a red light.  People turn right when the traffic to their left has a green light so it's insane!!  (they drive on the opposite side of the road here, compared to Australia) To drive here you'd really have to keep your eyes open.  Not to mention the amount of e-bikes, scooters, bikes etc on the streets.  I can't believe that we haven't seen more car accidents, but we have seen a few!  Pedestrian walkways mean nothing either.  Cars don't stop for pedestrians.  It's more a who gets there first, and if you're a pedestrian ... you hope like hell that they stop!
• Construction is everywhere! Apartments and new buildings are going up at an insane rate!  Shops too!  Maybe they live by the motto, if you build it, they will come.
• I have a craving for the style of (chinese) food that we eat at home but can't find much here.  Alot of the restaurants are korean, japanese and sichuanese (chilli's!!).  We have eaten well and eaten good food, but I'd just love a great fried rice, or some pork buns, or a beef & black bean ... and they are hard to find here!!!  I think I need to find a good cantonese restaurant as I think that's more the style of food that we are familiar with.
• The weather here is really strange.  Apparently it got really cold in mid november, and it's still cold!!!  We have had a couple of warmer days but I am still wearing thermals and multiple jumpers.  I am so over wearing the same clothes constantly.  I really wish we could have 20 degree plus days!!  I also have a cold and am kind of losing my voice!!  Not good when I have to talk alot with my job.
• The kids here are pretty cute and they look extra cute in winter when they are so padded up with clothes to keep them warm.
• The bus system here is pretty good, but we are still working out which buses to take where.  The only sucky thing about the buses is that they finish at about 9 / 9:30pm at night!!!!  Seriously!!!  They are building a subway here but it's not due to open until next year! 
• There is no major city business centre here at we would know it, just lots of shops and a shopping mall.  Suzhou is very industrial and I think that's why the smog is worse here than we saw in Shanghai.
• Apartments here are dirty!  People don't clean before they move out, you clean when you move in .... eergh!  Gross!
• People love shopping!
• The supermarket's here are more hypermarkets and stock so much stuff it's insane!!  We went to this great store the other night and it took us nearly 2 hours to get what we wanted!!!!  The store is that big and it was so packed with people ...

We are still constantly discovering things and it's still fun.  My only gripe is the weather!!!!!!!  I hate the cold.  It seems to warm up for a day or so and then get cold again .. ie. they are predicting snow again next week.  (yeah right!)  AARRGH!!

Our work isn't hard and doesn't take an awful lot of planning, it just requires some thought and at least once we have planned a lesson, we can use that lesson in multiple classes.  We have been told that we can be more strict with the kids as teachers here are really strict.  I have seen kids being yelled at and scolded for .......... (I really don't know why!).   Most of the kids seem to like us as we are foreigners and it's nice getting to know them too.  Most of the children at the primary schools have chinese names though and I'm not sure that I will ever be able to learn or remember them!

I should get back to work!  Lessons to plan etc.

xoxo