伤风败俗!

I quite like the view from my window as it is underneath the flightpath to Qingdao Airport. The planes are not so low that the noise annoys me but low enough so that I have a good view of them. At this point they are generally turning and a plane wheeling in the sky is quite an impressive sight. I am slightly nerdy over planes :P They are especially cool at night as all you can see are their slightly alienistic lights that suddenly wink out when they go over the mountains.

Today was back to class after Mid-Autumn Festival. I think that we foreign students have been slightly shortchanged over this holiday- I get the impression that the standard is to have 3 days off not our measly one... but of course we don't know any better :P Intriguingly, as they have 3 days off, Saturday and Sunday are now official work days to compensate. After class, which we have on the 4th floor, I went to this little balcony at the end of the corridor. Normally this is where all the smokers come so I avoid it but as we had been let out early I thought I'd have a look. Turns out it has this most wonderful view across the campus and bay. It was smoggier than yesterday so the biggest island you normally see was very faint. However it was still a blue sky so the sea looked so beautiful, all blue and sparkly. The weather was cool and crisp again- although still around 23 degrees so very agreeable! It still seems so bizarre that it was so hot and humid only as long ago as Tuesday! Anyway, I spent a lovely few minutes surveying my new kingdom :P

I am thinking about taking up an offer of a teaching job. Since being here in Qingdao Becka and I have been inundated with teaching job offers (although they get disappointed when they find out we are not American- *English pride is offended*) but I am seriously tempted by this one. It's 6 hours a week teaching Grade 2 at around 120元 an hour- that's around £12 which is significantly higher than my current earning power in the UK! Now technically you're not supposed to work with a student visa but if it's kept part-time and without a contract then you're too far under the radar to be cared about. *Looks shifty* Plus I found out that the riding place charges prices only slightly below those of Western standards so I'm going to need to earn money if I want to ride!

Had a rather amusing moment at lunch. I was buying some 手抓并 (shou zhua bing-pancakey thing-really cheap) when I heard voices. I look behind me to see Becka and Daisy engaged in conversation with appeared to be Herculean gods. There were 3 of them, all over 6 feet tall, carrying backpacks and looking like they ate testosterone for breakfast. It turned out one was American and the other two were German and they were studying International Business at our Uni-just at the other campus (damn). They were going to climb the mountains and do manly things but weren't sure of the way. We enthusiastically and breathlessly directed them and after a touch of persiflage they carried on. Daisy and I started to follow but Becka reminded us we were heading in the opposite direction and, reluctantly, we turned around and went home instead... It brightened up our day anyhow- and, as Daisy and I are certain that two of them are our future husbands, I'm sure our paths will cross again. Love conquors all!

Gem from China Daily (apart from the whole indignant IT'S ALL JAPAN'S FAULT- long story but Japan have got some boat captain of China's and won't give him back- it's all over who owns some islands, or rather, their oil fields. Cue tremendous huff by China.): two Chinese old age pensioners decided to go on a round the world trip and there is a hilarious picture of this couple in Paris grinning madly with thumbs up. They took with them a Lonely Planet Guide, an English phrasebook, and, intriguingly, a rice cooker.

Chinese of the day: 伤风败俗: (shangfeng baisu) "to lower the moral standards of a community". Just the sort of thing I can imagine screaming from the front page of a Chinese Daily Mail :P

Ponder of the Day: If even the posh restaurants serve what is still basically the manky bits of an animal, the trotters, snouts, claws etc, what on earth do they do with the nice bits? Where do they go? What becomes of all the lamb chops? And chicken breasts? And pork chops? That's what I want to know...