Both Ella and Nicole have their birthday in November so we thought that whilst me and Cat had three days off for exams we could travel up to Jiujiang and see the girls, celebrate and stay for 5 days, wednesday - sunday. The boys Rob, Dan, Ned and Matt managed to get the days off too so it was all Jiangxi volunteers reuniting for 5 days.. I COULD NOT WAIT! It's difficult for us all to meet up as Ella and Nicole as it is further away unlike us other 3 projects who are an 1 - 2 hours drive from each other, so a weekend visit is easy. To reach Jiujiang we take a 4hour train (a slow train at that) to Nanchang and then a 2 hour train to Jiujiang. Jiujiang is the 2nd biggest city in Jiujiang, just behind the capital Nanchang, so we were excited to visit and get to go to a McDonalds and Wal-Mart! :D

We all decided to meet in Nanchang on the wendesday so me and Cat, rise and shine, got up at 6am to grab the 7am train to Nanchang. The weather has been getting much colder, resulting in me ordering a coat from taobao (chinese ebay) which came in useful for our journey. In the train station it was freezing, breath was visable in the air and i was huddled into my coat. We are still much warmer than England, for the end of November we are just above 10 every day, not too bad. We clambered onto the train, expecting to fight people for seats but for a change it was fairly empty. We grabbed a four person booth and spread across it (well they are small so just sat really) and huddled up to keep warm. We chatted, played games, read and warmed up on our 4 hour trip. When i saw a lady take over a 6 person booth to lay down and sleep i seized the oppurtunity and copied her, managing to get a good 1hour sleep :) We were first to arrive in Nanchang so dumped our bags and shortly after met Ned and Matt for a McDonalds. OOh forgot to add, we got new backpacks so look proper backpackery gap year students now, although if someone flicks me i can topple backwards quite easily from the weight.... Anyway once again i was reunited with my double cheeseburger and we sat in silence as we all cherrised this beauty. Ours and the boys projects are in much more rural areas so enjoy the luxuries of McDonalds and Wal-Mart when we can, something Ella and Nicole do not appreciate haha! Rob and Dan soon joined us and i managed to squeeze a mcflurry out of Rob before we headed off to Wal-Mart to grab some English Food. I bagged some coco-pops (SOOO GOOOD) and sweets for the train journey. The 2 hours journey wasn't too bad but mostly consisted of me giving my ipad up to Rob so he can play the new angry birds which i brought for him.. great!

Arriving in Jiujiang .. it was like disneyland! A very plush train station, high ceilings and beautifully tiled floor.. nothing on the train station in Chongren by any means! We noticed McDonalds which made us all shreek with delight but agreed to grab the first taxi and head to the girls. We arrived at their house whilst they were teaching and welcomed by iron gates. They lived in a huge house, not a little apartment like the rest of us! Their house is HUGE. A lovely big living room, 3 floors and 4 big bedrooms. We explored, grabbed what rooms we wanted and then headed out to explore before they got back. We grabbed some KFC for dinner, to complete our fast food day and met the girls there. It was great to all be together again and loved having each others company. The boys grabbed some drinks in and we all settled in for the night, playing games and drinking until past our bedtimes. We planned to go to Jiujiang mainly to go up a mountain, but the cold and wet weather made a change of plans

Most days we went shopping, hiding under umbrellas from the horrific weather and exploring the town. We hoped to find christmas presents for our family but the huge city was very tourist based so didn't hold little chinese gems. We did find some back allies which sold some cute things i picked up for christmas presents but nothing amazing. There was so many shops in their city so it was easy to get lost, which im positive me Cat and Dan did one day when looking for McDonalds. Luckily Dan led us to McDonalds so he was my new best friend and the warmth of another cheeseburger inside me cheered me up. I'm allowed to moan at the three boys, Rob, Ned and Matt who spent the whole week inside playing on angrybirds on my ipad, taking stupid screenshots of it too which are now taking over my photo albums -.- One day we did go out for some chinese food to a muslim restaurant, but still very chinese. It was great food, even if it was just fried rice.

On the first day me and Cat decided to treat everyone to a homecooked meal. We headed out to wal-mart to grab some supplies. Me and Cat were shocked. Meat was in packets, like not on slabs of wood, not with flies round it, actually in packets and in freezers. We questioned a lady about ten times when she pointed to something that was diced chicken. We refused to believe that a shop in China actually sells edible chicken, but accepted it after 10minutes and were amazed with our purchase. In addition they had aisles dedicated to imported good.. WHAT IS THIS MAGICAL SHOP.. it was amazing and Nicole couldn't quite understand why we were so happy, she said it was like English shops.. SHE HAD NOT EXPERIENCE LIVING IN A PLACE WHERE ENGLISH GOODS DONT EXIST AND BUYING MEAT IS RISKY BUISNESS. We stocked up the trolly and lugged the heavy bags back to their apartment. That night me and Cat got started, making a heap load of homemade noodles and preparing all our dishes. We had lots of moans from hungry people to feed them but when the cooking got under the way it was manic in the kitchen. Many thanks to Dan for helping us out and putting up with me shouting at him to get me things. I took on the position of head chef and Cat my helper, who took much shouting at too! The food turned out great and everyone loved me, we were both dead pleased to cook a decent Chinese meal that everyone loved. Most dished were empty by the time we came to eat but we were just happy everyone enjoyed it. Dan paid me back by making pancaked and bacon sandwitches the next morning for breakfast, more food that me and the boys were amazed to taste.. real bacon in actual bread with cheese.. it was unreal! On the last day we also rented some little boats which we took out on the lake outside their house which is BEAUTIFUL. it was really good time spending time with girls on the boat and showing my true driving abilities!

We suprised the girls one day too by decorating their house with happy birthday signs, paper chains and candles and singing happy birthday. We each got them a gift, bracelettes, slippers and socks .. :) better than it sounds trust me haha! We drunk nearly every day and invented silly games like taping beer bottles to our hands and hide and seek. Stupid enough i was quite drunk at this point so thought it a good idea to hide on their roof, which was an easy access from their balcony. Dan hid with me but managed to rest his food on a bit of brick at the end of the roof, for me though i had nothing to secure me. To say the least one slip and i would have fallen a very long way. Luckily i wasn't that drunk and realised after a few minutes how stupid i was so got down. Rob and Cat were not happy with me when they saw where i had hid and said for me not to do it again ... maybe i do need babysitting. Dan on the other hand was a bit too drunk and after passing the drink around on the balcony to everyone was sick down the side of the house .. haha! The night was great fun, especially with a house of very drunk teenagers. The night ended with 6/8 of us being sick (NOT ME THOUGH!!!!!) and a very disgusting looking toilet.. oh and Rob throwing biscuits all over Nicole.. poor girl! It was fun being the room next to the bathroom and playing the game 'guess who's being sick now'. The morning rose to some hungover people and me bouncing about, making them all feel much better. We all grabbed a taxi back to the station at midday, bidding our goodbyes to the girls and having our goodbye McDonalds at the train station before our journey. We did manage to grab the fast train, costing a few quid more (ooo so much) but it was luxury. Had actual leg room and reminded me more of a plane than a train.. was great, and got us there in just over an hour.

It was sad to say goodbye to everyone again after such a great week but we are seeing Rob and Dan this weekend and meeting everyone in Nanchang for christmas shopping in mid December. We got a bus back to Chongren, watching chinese iron man to keep us entertained on the journey and drifiting of to sleep. A guy attempted to get us to pay double for our taxi to the school but being from Chongren he didn't fool us and gave in to us demanding we get normal prices.. he was shocked when he realised we lived here and probably a bit stupid. It was good to be back home though and finally grab a good sleep!

Luckily for us we had the next day of to organise our visas in Fuzhou (nearby city) with Ned and Matt. Doesnt sound as fun as it sounds, it just involved sitting around and waiting but was good to see the boys and organise actually staying in the country haha! We did get treated to lunch but it was soon straight back home to sleep more and wrap up from the cold day, ready to face another week of teaching!