Ni hao true believers! Welcome back to the exciting adventures of me (very vain, I know) but I'm back in Fukang now yet life is no less exciting. Since my last bog there has been a lot going on, some of which will be mentioned briefly other parts will be covered in greater detail (once again if you ever have any questions don't be afraid to drop me a message or a comment). The biggest mention this time will go to the visit from my lovely father. It was a nig time life crossover. I always feel my life in China is separate to that of back home and I must step from one into the other but to have part of my English life here, and at that the largest part of it coming to China was surreal.

The first thing that happened in mid March was a visit from Stephens parents, Kathy and John. I don't have an awful lot to say about this as, obviously, most of there time was spent with their son. It was very interesting to see there take on China, what they thought of us two and how they had seen a change in Stephen. One thing they immediately picked up on is the localization me and Stephen have gone through. In China the done thing is to start eating your meal as soon as your food arrives, no need to wait for others. I thing this was the first big change they noticed as I wolfed down my meal whilst only one other person has theres, Mike, who also torn into it. Next was the creaming of 'Fuwuyuan!' meaning waiter. Honestly it's normal to just scream and shout until some comes over and gets you whatever you want. As an ex waiter I find the custom traumatic however it's the done thing so I do partake. This also seemed shocking. Lastly, I think, was our Chinese. These days I don't do badly in very basic situations and places like restaurants, shops and bars I tend to be able to hold my own in a conversation. So whenever we started knatterign away in Chinese it must have been bizarre. Anywhom, I did have a lovely time with them about, ate some good food at banquets and even managed to get a few drinks down, which you can never complain about. It was a pleasure to meet them both and I hope our paths will cross again.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for. My fathers visit. On March 26th I woke up nice and early, did my usual exercise routine and headed into school. Once there I was met by our delightful, non-English speaking driver suitably named 'Jeff' to be driven to the airport. Of course I tried to communicate with Jeff as we drove a long but he couldn't understand a word of my Chinese. The thing to look out for in language is can a child understand you. In China they can all understand me. This implies either the adults are rubbish at speaking there own language ot they simply choose to ignore me. I believe it to be a fair mix of the two. One slight detail my parents had neglected to mention was which terminal to go to so after arriving at the wrong terminal and sprinting back double take to drive to the next one it was time for the reunion. As I hung around I suddenly felt rather excited (up to this point it was kind of passive come happy, sorry Dad) and I saw him round the corner, exactly the same as I left him and I did what any son would. Ran up and have him a back hug.

The journey back to Fukang was extremely strange. We spent most of the time catching up though there was some good China moments along the way such as driving head first into traffic consisting of only 18 wheelers whilst going down a dirt path. Once we arrived in Fukang we headed to my apartment where my Dad gave me a variety of goodies (mostly trousers and deodorant, cheers) and had a good chat. After I helped my Dad settle into the hotel and attempted to use my Chinese to sort it all (it went ok, did have to call Mike eventually though). Once that was done it was a 10 yuan dinner, sticking to our traditions of eating there every other meal, and a beer in Josies. It was a really fun night and just so surreal to be catching up with my father. I did notice that I've gotten an inch or two taller though, or he'd gotten an inch or two shorter. Either way I felt like a giant. At the hotel I said goodnight and we had a hug and I must say it was stange. People seem to forget I have had literally zero close contact with anyone in 7 months; no hugs, nothing. Finally having that comfort again felt rather nice really. My first comment about it all was how strange a role reversal had occurred. China is my land. This is my home. And I was in control. I felt very obliged to look after my Dad and make sure he didn't have any problems. I was the one leading the way, I had to decide what to do, what to eat, communicate for him. I'd grown up.

8Am the next time I wandered down to my Dad's hotel, conveniently right next to the school and 5 minutes from my apartment, to go up to the Tian Shan mountains. We walked up to the bus station and were shuttled along to the entrance, hoped on the next bus, which was, surprisingly, full of tourists, and made our way up to the lake. It was stunning. The ice was still partially frozen, there was snow everywhere but it was blazingly hot and sun cream was applied. Some Ughyur gentlemen started chatting to me in Chinese and tried to get me to go eat food with them but we politely declined. We started walking around the lake and I decided we should go to see the waterfall. My Dad struggled a bit on all the icy steps going down there and it was a huge disappointment it was frozen, which would ordinarily look great, only it was also covered in snow so you couldn't see it at all. Disappointed we continued to wander round the lake across a very questionably rickety path made of planks suspended above the lake on iron poles. It creaked and groaned a lot as we made our way round and made me rather nervous (this week a section of it collapsed, who would've guessed?). We sat and talked for a while, made our way back round and ate some nun bread. Bliss.

When we headed back down we went for a coffee with Mike and those two got on like a house on Fire. My Dad seemed to really like Mike and enjot his time with him. After this we headed to Josies for a beer followed by Chao Mein 炒面at my favorite restaurant and finished the night with a few games of pool, which got rather competitive. We returned to Josies where my Dad met Rashida, Sam and Miesko, which was very nice, and finally he headed back to the hotel.

The next day was another bright and early start for a trip out with Mike. We met him at the Ughyur restaurant opposite the bus station and ate a Chinese breakfast of 包子 (baozi)，鸡蛋(Egg) and 奶茶 (Milk tea). It was all very good and I think my dad fell in love with it as we returned a few times more. Izes, a young ughyur driver, had agreed to drive us all out to the ancient city of Beiting. We had visited Beiting the week before and I thought it would be good for my Dad to see some of the history within 新疆 (XinJiang). This city is well into 2000 years old and some of the sites remains largely intact. The government invested a lot of money in creating a huge building to house it (much like the warriors in Xi'an) however no one really visits there. Mike is very excited by the place as it is very much a part of the area of anthropology he studies and interests him greatly. Once there and inside Mike gave us a great talk about the history of the place, what some of the remaining artifacts might be about and why it was there. He really is a fascinating man. They would not allow us to wander the ruins outside of the building saying "Why would you, it's boring" which is a typical Chinese sentiment to anything old so we headed back towards Fukang. On the way we did stop with the driver and eat food in the Tian Shan town, which I'd, never been to and was very good, and we had a rest on arrival back.

That evening was very interesting; we headed back to Josies once more but after that it was time to got to 红歌回 （Hong ge Hui, last character is the wrong hui）aka the Ughyur bar. Once there we met up with Mike, Miesko, BK (our wonderful Kazhak friend), Sam and Rashida and had a good dance. I think my Dad was quite taken a back by my dancing but he seemed to enjoy it. He also had a go but he needs practice I think.

The next day we headed into Urumqi and checked into my favorite hotel; 红山房点 (red mountain hotel) the headed to the Bazar district to show my Dad. I think it's a real eye opener to the Ughyurs and their situation as you rarely ever see a Han Chinese person in the bazaar unless they are tourists. There's not a lot I can put on the internet regarding this but the police presence there was noticeable. That evening we headed out to have Korean BBQ and it was, as ever, so much fun. We had an adorable waitress serve our table; she was rather young, dolled up and about five foot tall. Cute. However the problem, again, arose that despite having no problems all weekend no one in there could understand my Chinese. It seems to sway from place to place but I get extremely irriatted with them and satarted asking questions like '你说汉语吗？' Which means 'Do you speak Chinese?'. After a lot of good food and some good beer we headed along to the Fubar where my Dad was kind enough to buy my a rather exspenive baileys , my first western alcohol in months. It was extremely good and I savored every mouth full. Thank you 爸爸。

The next day we got up as the beer wore off and headed to the 红山 (Red mountain). It's in all the guide books and on the internet but I must say it was rather disappointing. When we got there we marched up the hill to the Pagoda on the top which was absolutely tiny and looked over the city. Although rather pretty I was excepting more considering it was in eveyguide book and on every website. My Dad also got to witness the Chinese habit of wandering around flailing your arms in an attempt at something similar to exercise. One old man burst into singing and stated spitting as we walked by. I swear they do it just for us. We walked to the Century plaza (a very expensive shopping mall) afterwards and walked in. It was empty and I thought 'That's strange'. That was until we came out front, behind a police line, to find we had entered the place before it's grand opening. Oops. Oh well, it was rather nice in there, 10 out of 10, would invade again.

My Dad treated us both to the largest pizza I've seen in a long time at the Pizza hut in the plaza, as well as a divine potato salad, before heading to Fukang. We had a quick coffee with Mike then kicked back at the apartment and watched 'Metal; a headbangers journey, which is amazing. Typically my father fell asleep. Some things never change. After this was a huge banquet at my neighbor's restaurant with everybody. We ate a lot fo food and had a lot to drink, which is always great, before finishing up and heading to Josies where there was some slight trouble. I knew the next day my Dad was heading home so I felt rather sad but regardless it was a nice evening.

Somewhere along that week (not sure when) we did also eat a meal at Rashidas brothers restaurant with all the traditional Ugyur foods with the La Rouxs, Linda, Sara, Rashida and more. It was rather delicious and I think my Dad got his first taste of the dreaded 白酒 (BaiJiu) at that banquet.

The next couple of days (Monday/ Tuesday) I had to teach so life was fairly normal although I think my Dad really enjoyed seeing me teach the kids. People some to not appreciate the difficulty of standing in front of a class of 60-75 children and trying to teach them a foreign language in a foreign language. At the start of each lesson my Dad gave a quick introduction and said '你好我是她的爸爸' Which means 'Hello, I am his father'. They kids seem to enjoy him being there and for once they were all rather calm and listened to me (people should visit more often). Those two days we also ate Ughyur food at Rashida's house which is very traditional style, which was very good. And of course we also went to Josies a few more times.

Wednesday came and it was time for me to say goodbye. In the morning I met my Dad an ate some 包子 (baozi) which were very good and sat talking to him in the park for a while, reflecting on his time here. Once that was done we hopped in a car with Jeff the driver and what I can only assume was his daughter and headed to the airport. Once there my Dad treated me to a KFC (it's not often I get to eat that sort of thing) and we chatted a while longer. When it actually came to saying goodbye at the gate it all got rather emotional. I felt very sad to say goodbye but knew that I'd be seeing him again very soon. The story does end on a low however as Jeff b*****d off and left me stranded at the airport trying to find a way home, which I did after 3 hours.

All in all my dads visit was an enlightening experience. For one I finally have some one back home who understands both the good things and the difficulties I face everyday in China. Some one who has seen first hand how much fun yet how tiring life as a teacher can be. Someone who will understand and not just go 'Here comes Alex talking about China'. Honestly think of every conversation you've had in the past week and tell me 90% of them were not about the last year of your life. It will be difficult coming back as China has been my home for a year and I've fallen for it. It really is nice to have some one back there who understands. Cheers Dad.

The final thing to mention in this blog quickly was the visit from Beijing Mike (our Project Trust in country rep). There's not a lot to talk about really as most of our time was spent just chatting to him about life, our time in China and other volunteers but it has to be said it is greatly appreciated that he came out here to visit. Mike is such a lovely guy and offers really good advice. He also stated the process of sorting some of our problems with the school, which was much appreciated. We basically spent the three days here eating, talking and walking. Thanks Mike, will hopefully see you again.

And that's it for this blog! Keep your eyes peeled over the next week as coming up I have two further blogs to write; first is the nine month milestone, the biggest one in my eye. The second blog is our trip to Kuitin and this time there really is danger and excitement involved. At some point I may also write a blog 'A day in the life of' so readers back home can better gage and appreciate how life is day to day in little old Fukang.

But until then readers thanks for sticking by me,

Excelsior!