more on bikes, teaching

Well I've now done a few trips by bike, and covered a few differentring roads and many miles. I have learnt:

-that you have to pay to park your bike! In busy areas, thereare 'bike parks' (not very obvious, just more bikes than usual) anda government employee watches over them (for theft) and you pay them(not much). I finally clicked when 1 lady chased me a bit down theroad when i didnt pay her (I didnt know why she wanted money, andhad never seen anyone else paying before!)

-that the ring roads are fantastically designed, and its generallyvery safe and efficient to cycle in the bike lanes alongisde them

-that I will cycle everywhere at anytime, in any state ;) (wellmaybe not in ANY state). Its like being back in Manchester again!

I've also done my first teaching job and learnt:

-preparing lesson plans helps if you know more about the targetclass!

-the internet has lots of useful resources

-teaching kids in a living room is not so easy

-teaching kids who have their parents with them is not so easy

-teaching chinese 3 year olds who speak no english is also not toeasy (for 2 hours!)

-this job required huge amounts of effort and energy since most kidswere cycling round the room, ignoring me or too shy to do much; andwhat the parents wanted was just fun and games (why pay for anenglish person to do that?).

-kids are good at reciting words, if you give them fancy stickers asrewards and chocolate!

anyway, probably wont teach such young kids again (too far away & ona saturday), but will teach some older kids (teach, not just play!!)

It does seem to genuinely be getting a bit warmer (no coat today,but i was warm cycling); and my chinese has progressed ever soslightly. But as I have a test tomorrow, I will post more later!!

adam