Hey all! As Kyle pointed out to me a few days ago, it's been over a month since my last post, whoops. Lots has happened in the past month so I'll attempt to give a quick update of some of the highlights:

• One of the Chinese ladies I met at the food/wine tasting thing ages ago invited me round to her flat so she could teach me how to cook some simple Chinese dishes. It was a lovely day - her family were visiting from Harbin so that was a laugh, and she was an excellent cook. The evening ended a bit weirdly though - her male flatmate arrived home and after talking to me for about 2 minutes at most, he then went to his room, got a pinecone that he collected on his travels in South China, and gave it to me 'as a sign of his love.' Right…

• Spent Mid-Autumn festival with the lovely Scarlet, her boyfriend and a few of their friends. Had a yummy dinner, before going back to her flat to force-feed ourselves Moon cakes (I've yet to meet anyone that actually likes them!)

• From October 1st - 7th we had a week's holiday to celebrate National Day. This would've been the perfect opportunity for some travelling around China, but as the visa office still had our passports and the University still hadn't produced our student cards, we had no means of buying train tickets. Probably for the best in the end though, as Helena and I both went down with rotten colds and spent most of the week doing absolutely nothing! Still, I did enjoy relaxing in the gorgeous weather, and I went on a trip to Creative 100 with Sam one day as well, which was good.

• In mid-October, Saul and I finallllly got round to visiting our Cambridge classmates in Beijing. We left straight after class on Thursday and came back Sunday night. It was really good to see the class again, and it was nice to have a change of scene. We visited the awesome 798 art district, ate loads of incredible food, went to some nice bars with live music, hired pedaloes on Houhai lake, and generally enjoyed catching up with everyone. For various reasons I won't go in to, I left feeling really happy that I'd chosen Qingdao over Beijing, which I guess is a good thing!

• Two days after we got back, still exhausted and behind on work, our Oral Chinese teacher made Saul, Helena and I go to the Laoshan campus (where all the Chinese students live/study) to give a lecture in Chinese to over 100 undergrads about anything to do with 'Women's Literature'. Despite it being a topic I'm very interested in, this was so not what I felt like doing two days after an tiring weekend trip. Still, I scraped together a shoddy Power Point about Elizabeth from P&P and Jane Eyre and manage to bumble my way through. It was a strange experience, but the weirdest thing was the questions the students asked, which were not at all related to our presentations but instead things like 'What are house prices like in England?' and 'What do you think of the royal family' - wtf? Saul's presentation was on an amazing book called "Their Eyes Were Watching God" about a black woman living in southern Florida in the early 20th century. He was lucky enough to be asked: "What causes racism?" Rather him than me! Still, good language practice I guess…

• Helena recently bought me a voucher for 2 free facials and 2 free massages at a spa place that just opened nearby, which was so lovely of her. Anyway I went along for my first massage, which was a back massage involving oil and therefore required me to get half naked. In the UK, this would usually be the point where the masseuse gives you a towel to help you preserve your modesty, or at least they'd turn and look away. Instead, this rather crazy masseuse just stood their staring. I didn't really care so I whipped off my clothes and her reaction was: "Oh, how beautiful... how plentiful!" ahahahaa. The massage itself was really nice, but my oh my, this lady would just not shut up. She didn't seem to get the idea that massages are a time for peace and relaxation. Instead, she talked at me in her very loud, shouty Chinese for the whole hour. Not only that, but she basically spent the whole hour criticising me - firstly, I hadn't dried my hair properly so I was going to get a cold and die, then I had too much tension in my shoulders and it's obviously because I don't do enough exercise. Then she asked me if I liked seafood. I was so thankful for a change in topic, that I happily launched into my "yes, I love Qingdao's seafood" speech, but then she interrupted me to explain that THAT is why my back is so bad - because I eat too much seafood. By that point I really couldn't be bothered to explain to her that this made no scientific sense whatsoever. Oh dear. The next time I went back was for the facial, and to my horror, the same lady was going to do it. Thankfully this time wasn't as bad, although at one point she called her colleague over to have a look at the weird foreigner with blonde hair getting a facial. Her colleague then proceed to CLIMB ON TOP OF ME and stroke my arm while asking me uber personal questions such as: "Do you have a boyfriend? Does everyone in the UK have big boobs? How much do you earn per hour of tutoring?" haha. Two years ago I would've found this really irritating, but I guess I've gradually adjusted to the fact that in China, personal space and personal questions aren't so much of a thing… Now I just chuckle to myself and answer as best I can!

• Last weekend was a busy one. On Saturday I met up with Saul, Helena and some Chinese students that our Tang Poetry teacher had introduced to us. We had lunch together then climbed Fu Shan, the mountain just behind our campus. It was lovely - the weather was perfect and the views across the city were stunning. Will definitely be going regularly! Sunday was eventful too. My friend Scarlet, who teaches English to young adults about to go and study/work abroad, had arranged a paintballing session with about 20 of her students and invited me to come. It was pretty cool; after getting all kitted up, we played various different games in two teams. They took place a series of abandoned buildings halfway up a mountain, which was awesome, although a tad dangerous given they were full of rubble, broken glass and splintered wood. Anyway, it was fun to do something new and completely different, plus I made friends with a few of her students. I met up with one of them, William, a few days later and we found we had a lot in common, which is big news! Making friends in China is easy - but making good friends, with whom you share interests and values, is quite hard.

So, there's the past few weeks for you! xxxxxxx