Ni hao!

A lot has been going on since my last blog entry - can't believe how close it is to Christmas now! Last weekend Ben, Christina, Brian & myself went to Changsha to celebrate Christina's birthday and to also meet up with some of the other teachers we met in Beijing. Needless to say, it was a fab weekend :) and really cool to see everyone again

On friday night, me, Christina and Ben arrived and went to our hotel, and then met the others for dinner in a little restaurant near the hotel which was very convenient. Great meal with lovely food, and then went onto a snooker hall for a few games and drinks. Nice. One of the first things that hit me about Changsha was how much bigger it is compared to Pingxiang (bearing in mind it's only about an hour away by train) and how much more Christmassy it was - reminded me that it actually is that time of year! There were Christmas decorations in the shops, in the hotel, signs saying 'Merry Christmas' etc. Having said that, we went out for dinner last night (in Pingxiang) and the staff were all wearing Christmas 'hats' - Santa hats, reindeer antlers etc so it's maybe a bit more Christmassy in Pingxiang than I originally thought..although still not as overt as it was in Changsha, so Pingxiang does feel like it's in a bit of a non-christmas bubble!

Saturday morning saw me, Christina, Jo and Ben (ha! poor Ben) going shopping :D we were all very excited, as Changsha have Starbucks! oh yes..and Zara and H&M too so had a lovely Starbucks breakfast and then the morning looking round the shops. It did make a really nice change to hear Christmas songs in the department store, see all the decorations and a giant christmas tree! In the evening, about 11 of us went for dinner at a German-themed restaurant named Goldenhans; the waiters & waitresses dressed like extras from the Sound of Music, complete with Santa hats, so that was very jolly. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet, with massive tankards of German beer, lots of meat, sausage etc and then afterwards we went outside to watch the weekly weekend firework displays they have. After that, it was onto Wal-Mart where we tanked ourselves up and went back to Jamie's apartment (one of the teachers from Beijing, who is based in Changsha) to have drinks before painting the town red! Woo!

Brian and I left sunday morning, me feeling a little worse for wear :S but after having had a great weekend away. Changsha is worth a visit if you're in the area - plenty to see and do, and on the way to the station on sunday we drove past an Armani and Gucci store (real, not fake) so that shows how up and coming a city it is. However, with it being a larger city it's also busier, noisier with more beggars which can be quite hard to witness, especially as there are nowhere near as many in Pingxiang, so it is a cool city and would be an amazing place to live and work but there are cons to its pros.

Dinner last night was at another new restaurant for us in town - Sansiro - which serves Chinese and Western food which was nice, always good to try a new place! We are all preparing for the exams now at college and getting ready for Spring festival, making plans etc. I am visiting Hong Kong with my family (yay!) and hopefully afterwards Hangzhou, and after that (fingers crossed) Hainan island for some winter sun :)

xxx