Happy Land School - Tyler's last week in Beijing.

Apologies prospectively for any sentimentality.

So, it has been a while since I last wrote about my adventures in the People’s Republic of China, here it goes.
Most importantly, the news of where I will reside for the next 5 months has been revealed, and it shall be a town in North East China, entitled Shenyang. It’s geography means that I will experience snow for the first time, and consequently a white Christmas- this excites me infinitely! I will be teaching at a kindergarten, which again is quite exciting, I forget the name of the school itself, but the website is truly unforgettable- www.51happyland.com! If it is not the most happiest place in all the land I will be devastated, but just knowing they have a room called ‘the Naughty Palace’ makes it all okay.

I leave for my new home next Saturday, exactly a week from today. We shall be transported there via train. It should be lovely, and quite short at 4 hours or so directly from Beijing. The concept of home is a funny one. My friend Anna believes it is anywhere her room can have fairy lights. Bless. I guess for me it’s a little more liberal in meaning, it’s anywhere I wake up the next morning.
I have been galavanting around Beijing, mainly to locations of either a consumeristic or historic interest. The Summer Palace last Friday was dazzling, and huge! I walked along the largest hallway in the entire world, stretching 728 metres. Pretty impressive. Although the weather possessed a lot of mist, seeing the landscapes and architecture and views and gardens was simply lush. What bewildered me was that all of this was simply for one human being. Bit greedy.


Another cultural activity was my daylight visit to Tianneman Square and then into the Forbidden City. It was a quite a warm day when we went which did mean I almost collapsed from heat exhaustion but I powered on through! It’s absolutely crazy just how many people are everywhere in this county at any one point in time. The Forbidden City was immensely large, cannot really exaggerate how much. At least 5 courtyards the size of Sweden. Temples, beautiful temple everywhere. Ahhh, it’s good to be Tyler.

On Friday evening last week all of us (the cool 75ish TTC people doing the teaching course) went to an Acrobatics show. It was menacing. The outlandish things these people do is ridiculous. I didn’t take any pictorial evidence, which is unfortunate, but just as an example for one stunt- note the word stunt here- at least 20 human beings, all of the female variety gradually jumped on relatively small bike.

On Monday of this week in celebration of all those whom are having birthdays in the month of August a water fight was had. There were 3 teams, and the basis of the game was once water touches you, you freeze! I got hit, after much suaveness and slyness of not being tainted by any liquid force. It was a sad moment, especially upon Anna Brooks discovering my ailment (aka, being stationary), so she decided to throw a water balloon directly at my crutch. Rude really. So I decided it was a war, Monarchist vs. Republican. Anna vs. Tyler. I snuch behind trees, crept over hills and smack bang landed a giant water balloon on Anna’s head. Most satisfying moment of my life, thus far. It was not until the water fight concluded that Anna retaliated by asking to have a sip of my 1.5 litre water, when in actuality she just wanted to pour it on me.

Done a bit of shopping of late. To a district called Xidan, it is lovely there, very bright, tall buildings. Lots of western clothing, which I took full advantage of. There is this place called H&M which is amazing, Australia really needs to get onto that. Also went to some Chinese markets, which were excruciatingly cheap and namely, IKEA. It was amazing to be on Swedish soil. I indulged in meatballs and bought a hand puppet called Max, who is a moose J I’ve also been sick for a week now, which is slightly annoying but it could be much worse and is a constant reminder that I will return to full health and love life a touch more.

This one is a bit lengthy, it’s raining outside so I am just having a relaxing day. VOTED YESTERDAY. It was really nice to do so, the embassy was aesthetically pleasing. It was really welcoming to see some Australians. Voted below the line in the Senate, took a while and a few spoiled ballot papers. Okay, I hope Adelaide is being lovely. I look forward to hearing from you all soon.

Love Tyler.