Ní hăo! Lucie and I have now completed our third week of teaching at Yihuang No.1 Middle School! I think I might have mentioned some aspects of teaching in previous blogs, but I thought I would put it all together in one place. Schools in China are very, very different from schools in the UK. First off, the basic class - In the UK the average high school class has no more than 35 pupils. My smallest class in Yihuang is 47 pupils, with my largest being 62. I...

Ní hăo! I felt that I had to write a short post about the roads and traffic here in China, as it is just so different from the roads at home. I'll start with the different modes of transport: The most popular vehicle here in China is definitely the e-bike (see pic). They look like mopeds but are run purely on electricity, and can be recharged by plugging them into the nearest available socket. They are reasonably prices at £200+ depending on model, colour, ...

Ní hăo! So Lucie and I have survived our first week here in Yihuang! And we can't believe we have been in China for 3 weeks! Time is already flying by, and it feels like we've been here ages, and no time at all simultaneously. We arrived in Yihuang last Sunday afternoon and were taken straight to the school where we were met by the headteacher, Mr Luo (he speaks nearly no English at all), his four deputies, the secretary, a cameraman and 2 girls who presented...

Ní hăo! With only a few days left in Beijing as a group, we made the most of our time together. Our mornings were taken up with more Mandarin lessons, but in the afternoons we had different activities that Mike and Iris would take us to. On Wednesday afternoon we headed to the British Council building and were given talks by 3 very interesting people (all members of the British Council) who are currently working in China. One of the things we were told about ...

Ní hăo! I can' believe I am in China!! In Beijing to be exact. After spending the night at the hostel, Mike picked us up, and laid out the plans for the day. The majority of the group cycled to our first meeting, but 4 of us used the subway. This was actually a really clean and effiecient method of transport. Our first stop was to visit a previous volunteer called Patrick who volunteered in China in 89/90 ( so 25 years ago!!). He told us loads about China an...