End of Chinese New Year

Friday, 

After a great nights sleep, we ventured to school to join the year 1s and 6s on a school trip to the River Safari. This is a new attraction in Singapore, and to Miss Davids' delight, they have got two Pandas on lone from China. 

He's on the same diet as us at the moment as he eats over 20kg of bamboo everyday! We're starting to be the same shape as him too. Miss Davids loved being re-united with Panda. 

Next, we bravely entered the squirrel monkey encloser - Mr Jones was rather concerned for our safety as he kept shouting "run, it's going to jump on me!" In a high pitched tone.

Having escaped unscratched we headed for the River Safari boat trip. 

For the second time that day Mr Jones' voice became rather high pitched as we sailed slowly past this sign and he feared for our life. We saw lots of Amazonian animals: Jaguars, Flamingos, Parrots, Boars, Anteaters, Red Pandas, Manatees, Anacondas (which sparked the third and final high pitched shriek from Mr 'brave' Jones), A POLAR BEAR and a sloth. The Flamingos reminded us of Mr Carrigan with their extra long legs. 

The fun and games, however, were now out the way, as we were taken for TWO DINNERS in just 1 hour before visiting the ELIS (English Language Institute of Singapore). We learned about their staff development strategies and new research into teaching pedagogies. At the break, we were offered our third dinner of the day. Luckily, we then went on a grand tour of the Institute to work the dinners off. 

After sharing our teaching styles and resources with the leaders, it was time for the final part of our day. One of the teachers, Annabelle, invited us to her home to celebrate the very end of Chinese New Year with her family. Annabelle has done this for each exchange pair for the past three years. Mrs Williamson, Mrs Hayes-Smith, Mr Card and Miss Brown, look how much Janelle's grown... And that's not only in size, she is now a very confident, talkative and intelligent little girl who kept us all entertained.

As we are now Lo Hei Professionals, we led the tossing of the food in our third and final New Year celebration of the week. We also carried out the tradition of giving mandarins and wishing our elders a happy new year. 

Our fourth dinner of the day was a Steamboat which Annabelle's parents cooked for us. Miss Davids is still struggling to use trainer chopsticks, whilst Mr Jones is catching flies. The steamboat, which was not what we were expecting, was a mix of steamed veg in a stock -we could add to the stock as the meal went on to cook more.

As you can probably tell, we are looking forward to a lie in tomorrow, before experiencing China Town, Little India and Arab Street. We can't wait for a foot massage, finding some gifts and trying out a traditional Henna Tattoo. 

We have seen the weather back home on the news and hope you are all safe - we had our first storm today which lasted around 10 minutes, hope that's the last one as the pool has become our daily relaxing luxury. 

PS, Happy Valentines Day everyone, what an unforgettable one we've had and happy end of term. Keep reading to see if we decide to come home or if you'll have new teachers next term!