As hard as it feels when the alarm goes off, I much prefer early starts here...! My alarm went off at 7.30am but I didn't aaactually get out of bed untill 8.20. Whoops! But I made it to Oral English in plenty of time :) It was OK this morning. I'd prepared discussion questions on 'art', as it was requested by Benson - a very very talkative guy in most of my OE classes - but as luck would have it, he wasn't here today! Felt a bit foolish, but we still managed to have a good chat, and I showed them the madness of Tracy Emin's bed which they though was hilarious. They all knew the Louvre too, even if only from Dan Brown's 'Da Vinci Code'...! But hey, knowledge is knowledge!

I've got 2 Oral English classes tomorrow so I'm currently researching topics I can think of. 'Children' is a possibility, which could open up interesting debates about the one-child policy.. although I am reluctant to talk about anything to do too closely with politics. Wouldn't want them to go home to their parents and tell them what we've discussed, I'd be in trouble!! Silly government here. Honestly.

I'm free for the rest of the day now, so I'm going to plan some lessons and stay on top of things. Staying in the school because the flat bores me to tears! Paul is back at least, so I'll have some company!

He ran into some trouble in Beijing with his friend. He was in a restaurant, and his wallet was stolen. They went back and apparently it was found in the kitchen, having been tampered with (his cards were in the wrong places) and there was a complete kerfuffle. Paul was persistant though, managed to get everything back but had to cancel all of his cards because they can get all the details... it's not good. Herman, a teacher here in the school, said that everyone suffers something similar on their first visit to China... I hope not!! I've been ok so far, but there's stil 3 and a half weeks haha. Oh god I hope nothing happens.

We were told in our staff meeting today that the last week that we're here we'll be taken on a trip! As a thanks for our hard work over the summer school :) That was good to hear, i'm rather excited haha. We don't know where we're going yet, but I'll let you know as soon as I do! It's nice to know that I'll have another chance to visit somewhere other than Jinan before I leave!

Best get on with these plans then... they won't write themselves!!