Chinese Opera

So, here are the promised photos (click here for the full album).
Here's James in his new tailored suit at the theatre.



The beginning of the show. The royal concubine is visited in her dreams by moon fairies.


The envoys bearing lychees for the emperor's concubine run into a couple of surprisingly agile old peasants.


The emperor and his concubine.


An Lushan, the arrogant and treacherous warlord. He got a big round of applause at the end.


The finale, including four actors dressed in full body dog suits (you can see them at the back).


Taking down kids drawings in the last week.


Nice teacher.


Mean teacher.


Last day of school.


Some of the kids. They're pretty good posers even at a young age over here.



Some shops at the fabric market.


The two girls who befriended James at the uni. Watch out!


Girls from the local massage parlour doing their morning excercise to music.

Today we went to 'Hello Pizza' for lunch, it was pretty good although we did chicken out of the fruit pizza with jam.
Tomorrow we go to the fabric market again, to pick up a nice winter coat in preparation for the cold Melbourne weather.
Back soon(ish)!
See ya!

New Goings On

I've finished teaching! That's probably the biggest news of our whole trip, from my point of veiw! Yes, I am quite relieved and happy that it's all done. Now, I get to cruise around the city while James slogs away for a few more weeks at uni. Ive been doing a bit of shopping and cooking and sleeping in, and not a lot else!
We've been going to the fabric market every Saturday to pick up or order more clothes to be made for us. We haven't even got that many, we just keep thinking up one or two new things to order most weeks. Luckily our favourite restaurant is on the way home, so we don't have to cook after a tiring day of shopping. It can get tiring haggling over prices all day!
A few weeks ago we went to see some Chinese opera at one of the big theatres in town. It was out there! The costumes were huge and silky and colourful, with glittering headresses for the concubine and the moonfairies and feathers and painted faces for some of the men. The speaking and some of the movements were very stylised and sometimes even seemed comically over the top, and there was some great physical theatre from the envoys bearing lychees from the provinces for the emperor's favourite concubine. It was a pretty amazing spectacle! Photos are on their way...
Other than that we are savouring our last tastes of the yummy food here, trying to hold back from going to all the yummy restaurants too much. James has some new Chinese friends, a couple of girls who approached him at the uni. They said they wanted to do a language exchange, they would teach him a bit of Chinese, and he could teach them some English, but I think they have suspicious motives. James only met them about a week and a half ago, and already they have messaged him a few times and last time he met up with them they gave him two cards each, one in Chinese and one in English, plus photos of themselves with little notes on the back saying how much they will miss their dear new friend! The cards were similarly gushy about how they just had to keep in contact now that they had met, and there still hasn't been any actual language exchange. All a bit suss, I reckon. I'm keeping my eye on those two. Actually, I think James is a bit of a hit with some of the Chinese women, he has admitted himself that one of his teachers has a crush on him, and the other day a girl in the street said 'tasty!' as they checked him out. Go James!