Ni hao true believers and welcome back! Dear me, has it been a long while since a blog update but our hero returns with many a great tale that would put the Gods in Valhalla to shame! I warn of the length of this blog in advance but first this does contain graphic content due to the wonderful Eid-al Adah festival so be warned, there will be violence, blood will be shed and sleep shall be deprived....

On return from Xi'an we had a few normal days teaching before being informed the next week was Edil-al Adah, a muslim festival regarding Abrhams sacrificing of his son but instead killied a sheep so on this day they, you guessed it, kill a sheep. So we worked for the few days we were in school until the Wednesday when it was Edil-al Adah. *If you have a love for animals and hate details, dear reader, I implore you to skip this paragraph to the next one* To sum it up when I walked into my apartment there were two lambs bleeting away, having the time of there lives tied up to the tree next to my apartment. When I walked out there was a new fur coat, a pot of stew and tommorows dinner all layed out ready. Exageration but they were dead. Everywhere we went that day there was blood staining the street. In the childrens playground hung a sheeps bleeding carcass. Xinjiang isn't like the rest of China and I am very much appreciative for it. I'd always wonderd what mass slaughter in the streets might look like and that day I found out.

To celebrate Edil-al Adah Vivian invited us to eat at her brothers restaurant (being a muslim) so we had a lovley meal with her, the La Rouxs and Mike. The next day we decided to head up north to the region of Atlay to visit a mongolian village with Mike. It was a disaterous idea as Mike left his phone in the taxi and had the driver purposley try and steal it so we had to leave the following day on the friday when the nightmare began. We headed to the bus station in Urmuqi where we would be getting the overnight bus. Now, everyone tells you horror stories of the overnight trains, an experince I quite enjoyed, so i was not worried about the bus. You never hear horror stories from travellers about them. I can tell you now it's because any sane traveller chooses not to take them so has no stories to tell. We got on the bus and it was just a normal bus with two layers of bunkbeds in three rows. No space for anything. No privacy. Lucky us, we bought top bunks to save money, Stephen and I, whilst Mike had bottom, which has more space. I had a half foot of space between my chest and the ceiling. The bed was 5 foot long (I'm 6 foot 2 for those inquiring) and your feet went into a small box acting as the person infronts bed spread. Bring on the next 14 hours....

We stopped once and Mike bought what food they had as we stupidly bought no snacks. We ended up with rockhard, bubblegum tasting mooncake (a cake with a filling), moldy, off muffins and a bag of 'meat' flavoured crisps... out of date. I couldn't turn and doing anything entertainment wise was beyond the realm of possability so I tried to sleep. I tried. And tried. To no avail. I took my shirt off for comfort (never seen so many stares and looks of shock) so Mike came over with a cocktail of over the counter Chinese sleeping drugs. Usually I would say no to over the counter medicine but I was desperate and after that slept like a baby. We arrived in Burqin at 6 Am. It was freezing, pitch black and everyone was being incrediabley unhelpful. We tried four hotels which, in a tiny desterted town, told us they had no room until we went to a very posh exspensive hotel and settled in. It was Bliss and I slept for a few hours before re-awaking.

Intresting facts on the town; 1. It is mainly of russian population 2. They speak the most wonderfully standardised and understandable Chinese i've heard 3. There is very little to do. We tried to get up to a famous mountain and scenic area but we're told it would cost 1000 yuan by drivers (100 pounds) which simply was insane. We asked the hotel and they said we couldn't get up there anyway due to snow so basically they would drive us up go 'oh no! We can't make it!' then take our money. Whenever I see a Chinese driver now I swear loudly at them and look agressive. I truley hate them with a passion as they are vultures for whites. After this we tried many plans until eventually the receptionist told us a driver would take us out to a small mongolian village very cheapley so we waited around for him a long while but boy was it worth it.

We hoped in a car with the driver, his wife, son, myself, Mike and Stephen. It was cramped but wonderful. We drove across grassland plans and saw wild cows and horses, then enterd the dessert and saw camels and beautiful sand dune filled landscapes before driving onto a mountains, windy path up through the rocks. It was one of the most beautifully scenic expeinces i've had in China and one I shall never forget. After an hour we arrived at the village, driving over a mountain and down into it so we got a view of the whole place. Once there the driver invited us to eat with his friends to celebrate the end of Edil-al Adah which was nice. It turned out to be amazing. We got there and sat with a kazhak,a mongolian and a few han eating a lamb they brought out and cut up ( a great honor for the cutter) and talked (through Mike) to them. We also enterained there kids who loved seeing us. After this they asked 'Do you drink Baijou?' I gulped but said 'Duo' and it began. Ten shots down of the 65% stuff and I was suffientley hammered. Luckily the driver did not partake but did drive us all back very happy after and wonderful evening and absoutley mashed.

The next day we ate a lot of lovley food, sat around, talked and walked out across the bridge next to the town (see the photo for this blog) before getting another overnight bus. This one was even worse with 4 1/2 feet space, angry Chinese people and more of them. Hell on earth. I would sooner ride a coffin on ice down the slopes towards Fukang then get on that bus again. But i'm sure I will as it's very cheap and we lack money. As they say, beggars can't be choosers and I am very much becoming a beggar.

We kept it calm after that lovley excursion and started getting into a routine. Not too much exciting has happend since. With the kids we did a halloween lesson plan where I had them howling like werewolves and acting generally silly which they really enjoyed and did a 'Are you a werewolf quiz', monster descriptions and what they find scary activties. It was all very, very fun. On Halloween itself I gave out sweets to the kids which, no suprises, they liked a lot. After that not Me, Mike and Stephen hit Fukang to celebrate which was very fun but left me felling rough the next day. This week we've been doing the weather with them which, again, was a lot of fun. The thing I like about teaching is I genuinley have fun as well as the kids but also have the responsability of teaching them so it is fun and educational (never though it was possible). All in all, teaching has been one of my best experinces in China, thanks Project. And I did the impossible with reading club; we preformed, studied and understood two scences from the wonderful Macbeth. Yes, we actually did Shakespeare were by I translated old english to new then they translated it to Chinese (a long process but worth it). Half loved it, half hated it but I'll take that statistic as a win as that pretty much is the same as in the UK when it comes to Shakespeare.

We also took a short (six hour) excresion to Changi to sort visas. Though the visa sorting was kind of nightmare-ish the actual town seemed very nice and isn't that far away from us so we will probabley be re-visiting properley one weekend for a bit of fun. I'm in a routine now, or rather as much of one as you can be in whilst in Chian as stuff keeps popping up, but it's nice. Lesson plans are made quickley, cooking is now not really a problem (I love cooking and believe i'm becoming almost good at it) and Chinese speech is coming along well. I find myslef talking to people in restaurants and often understand the gist of what people want of me or are asking me which is wonderful. However i'm struglling with characters to no end whilst Stephen is zooming ahead with them but less so with the speech. We reckon by the end of the year we will be able to do Chinese, Me speaking and Him reading, but would be useless seperate. I really must work on Characters else I be laughed at as iliterate. At least I'll understand why there laughing at me I guess.

The 'most Chinese thing' of the past two weeks is dedicated to a very special and extremley bizzare moment. I opend my curtains to find a man running down the street shouting in Chinese. Odd, I thought, they usually don't do this for another few hours *sarcasm* but then I saw why. Running behind him were a pack of nine dogs. Dogs the size of yorkshire terriers being led by a dog the size of a large yorkshire terrier. I shut the curtains and climbed back into bed, having had enough of China for one morning. The dog pack continued to terrorize the town all day, nipping at ankles, eating out of bins and lying in traffic. I will miss these sights in England.

Well, thats the blog for the past few weeks, i'll try and update the next one by the end of this coming week with details such as my trip to Urmuqi yesterday and whatever else arrises in the week. Until then readers thanks for being supportive of me and keep commenting, if there are any aspects of China you wish for me to talk about let me know. The blogs from now on maybe an irregular mix of my daily life and me covering an aspect of China and what it's like starting with 'dispelling the sterotypes'. But until then reader keep on rockin',

Excelsior!