The past 36 hours or so have been HECTIC - so much update you with!

Saturday morning got off to an unusual start…after checking out of my hostel at 7.30am (urgh) I went straight to Saul's apartment, picked him up and took him to the local hospital, which thankfully is only a few blocks away. He's been really ill for the past week or so, and we decided it was finally time we did something about it.

I have to say, I was impressed. Going to hospital is never fun, but as far as hospital experiences go, this was a good one! There's a special international clinic there, which meant we were seen to almost immediately, by an English-speaking doctor. You have to pay for it, obviously, but given that he had a consultation, blood test, two IVs and got given tonnes of medicine, it really wasn't that much. I felt oddly relieved to know there's such a quick and reliable source of medical attention just around the corner, although hopefully I won't have to use it…

We were there for around 3 and a half hours. Thankfully we were in a room by ourselves, with beds, chairs, an air conditioner and magazines, so it wasn't too bad at all. Well, for me anyway - I doubt Saul was having a great time!

We got back to his flat in the early afternoon. I had a nap then spent a good while FaceTiming my family. It was so good to catch up with them - I know I only left home on Monday evening, but it feels like ageees ago, I guess because so much has happened between now and then.

Late afternoon, I went to get bedding with my estate agent. He took me to a cute shop where you can choose a cloth and the size/type of duvet/pillows etc you want, then a little old lady sews it all up in 30 mins. Great, right? Well yeah, it was in the end- but only because I managed to chose the ONLY cloth in the shop that wasn't covered in either "Hello Kitty" or some other ghastly cartoon/pattern. Oh China, why you so tacky sometimes?!

After a lot of running around, I popped back to Saul's to get my luggage before moving into my flat, which I haven't really told you about yet! I'm moving in with a Chinese lady, the flat is bang in the centre of Qingdao, it has two floors and I occupy the whole top floor, woop! I have a nice big bedroom and huge double bed, a massive lobby area, a bathroom with a shower and bathtub (unusual in China!) and downstairs is kitchen (with table), living room (sofas and TVs), another bathroom, the landlady's bedroom and a spare room. It's pretty awesome and guess how much it's costing me? The rough equivalent of £150 per month. HAH.

After signing the contract and handing over a ridiculous amount of cash, we celebrated by going out for dinner - the estate agent and landlady's sister joined us. They speak no English, so it was great to finally have a group conversation entirely in Chinese. I hadn't had much chance to do that during the past few days, what with being so busy/tired, so this came as a bit of a shock, but I managed to understand the majority of what was going on. Anyway my landlady seemed really cool, so I'm fairly confident we'll get on well during the year! Got back around 11pm and went straight to sleep, despite my room being like a sauna (no air con, yet) and my mattress as hard as rock!

Today (Sunday) was also a bit mad. Tried to register at the police station, but they were half shut and refused to do it. Ah well. Then ordered some furniture for my room on Taobao (Chinese ebay), so that should come soon - can't wait to finally be able to unpack properly. Then did two runs to Carrefour and various other shops to buy stuff for my room/general necessities. Had to get a bus back as the damn Beer Festival means there are no taxis around - lugging a fan and several bags of shopping on a busy communter bush in rush hour was NOT fun!

Hah so one thing I was desperate to buy was deodorant. I hadn't managed to find any since coming here, and I didn't bring any with me because of my luggage limit of only 20kg. I asked my Chinese friend how to say 'deodorant' in Chinese, and he asked me: "What is that?!". I said, "er you put it under your armpits to stop you from sweating and smelling" and he replied: "Oh this. This is not popular in China". Haha. Thankfully after LOTS of searching, I finally found some today - so no more Smellie Ellie!

The pace of life should start slowing down over the next week, which I'm really looking forward to. I'll be able to start enjoying Qingdao properly - making Chinese friends, swimming in the sea, starting classes… it's going to be awesome!

Bye for now! xxxx