Arrival day. Woke up at 6. We had fallen asleep in our clothes and so hopped out of bed and waited, watching the scenery pass to see the high rises and suburbs of Nanchang. The boys pulled the bags down off the high racks (they were bloody heavy) and we waited. Dan took my bag, followed by Rob as we made our way through passport checks and then out into the main station. I was expecting a sign, but nothing, until a friendly looking middle aged man approached us. "Jones" he said looking at me expectantly, "yes!", he turned to Beth, "Garlinge", "yes!". He introduced himself as Mr Zhu, our waiban (a person, or people responsible for us at the school that we work at). It turns out that all the schools new one another and their representatives were waiting together, so we all made our way to different cars and drove out of the station after a little bit of confusion. Mr Zhu told us that we had to head over to a government department that deals with foreigners entering the Province and by law we had to have a medical this morning, then we would get breakfast and head off to the school which was about a 2 and a half hour drive from Nanchang, the provincial capital. We drove around the morning rush hour traffic getting lost. Eventually we arrived at an air conditioned building, we were instructed to do the following:

1. Fill out an application

2. Have our photo taken

3. Have a blood test (Ned held my hand and told me a story because of my fear of needles)

4. HarHave a urine test

5. Have an ECG x-ray

6. Have an ultrasound to check our lungs and liver

7. Have weird electrical clips put on our wrists and ankles and small monitors stuck to our chest

8. Be weighed and measured

9. Have an eye test and a colour test

Phew, once we were done we headed out for breakfast. Because of the rush hour traffic we headed to a small garage street café where we were fed soup and noodles, eating them with Mr Zhu and his driver and then we headed off. Rob and Dan, some other Jiangxi volunteers, and our good friends were headed to Yi Huan, which we were told was about a 40 min drive away, so we were heading along the same motor way and we had a quick goodbye roadside style before we headed our separate ways. Beth and I had a good girly chat throughout the journey and then we hit the boarder.

We drove through the town, it was far bigger than I was expecting. There are a couple of wide, main shopping streets which are filled with bikes and motorbikes and garage style shops. Across a bridge and down a smaller alleyway off the main roads until we drove down a street just off the river bank. We were met at some gates by firecrackers greeting our arrival and taken through to the dining hall to meet some of the senior staff and our other waibans, Mr Zhu's daughter Judy and Mrs Mung the head of the English department. We were ushered into to a room with a huge round table in the middle, adorned with a lazy Suzan and seated next to the headmaster. Toasts ensued and we drank shots of cheap Chinese beer to commemorate the occasion. After we were finished we were taken to our accommodation.

We live on the ground floor of what is the female students' dormitory (boarding is an option) where there are other younger female teachers, therefore, our ground floor flat is in the centre of the school and students constantly walk by. We into a living room kitted out with a new flat screen and double sofa, then on through a kitchen, again kitted out with modern appliances (a hob, fridge, microwave, new surfaces and a set of new wooden tables and chairs), a study with a desk set and chairs, a bed room with a new double bed with new mattress and sheets and finally a bathroom with a new washing machine and finally, finally, finally a wet room with a shower and WESTERN TOILET which is a total novelty. At this point Beth and I were amazed at the trouble that the school had gone to, having the flat renovated and then buying new furniture, however, we were a little uneasy as it meant that we would have to share a bed and bedroom (with two messy girls this is not a good idea) when our waibans told us that they would now show us the other end of the flat. "Other end!", we exclaimed with excitement, off the living room there was another door which led to a study of the exact same proportions and containing the same furniture, an identical bedroom and bath room, we were jubilant. We had not expected accommodation anywhere near as nice or modern, we had been told not to expect it. We assume that because this is the first time that our school has hosted volunteers that they had gone all out to impress us and make us comfortable. They asked us if there was anything we needed and we asked about wifi, needless to say they installed it within We were amazed.

Mrs Meng then asked us if we would give a short lecture to new fresh man students who were having their orientation day (school hasn't started yet) we agreed wholeheartedly. However, when we arrived at the auditorium, we were essentially ambushed by a TV crew and professional photographer, led up to a podium and then introduced alone to the students. We made a small, improvised speech and then got asked to go out into the audience and ask the students questions with microphones (many of them were too shy to talk to us) but to be honest we were terrified as well. Finally, an hour later we returned home to some peace and quiet. Not for long! Mr Zhu took us out to a nice restaurant along the river with his wife and daughter. Not bad for a first day!