We arrived in Lanzhou and staggered of the train in a horde of people flooding towards the gate. We strode out into an area very different to Beijing. A certain haze filled the area of a city flanked by huge dry mountains. People crowded around holing up pieces of paper with Chinese scrawled across them. Johnno and Patrick quickly found a piece with their name on it and without anytime for a goodbye hurried off. Lori and Ellie quickly followed a similar path leaving me and Alex to fend for ourselves, after 5 minutes of wondering whether our school had forgotten we saw that gleaming beacon of hope 'High school attached to the north west normal university' it said (thank god Alex was with me, I didn't recognise the name of the school) . That's quite a mouthful for a school name. The Man looked at us before his face filled with the biggest grin I have ever seen. Suppressed and slightly creep'd out we followed his winding path through the armada of cars parked and trying to leave in the worse organisation of a car park I have ever been a part of. His car was black, very official (the sort that wouldn't stop if it ran you over) with a plastic covered interior to stop the dirty foreigners from messing it up. Upon stepping into the car his accomplice arrived; seemingly from nowhere, a woman about 14 from a western point of view anywhere between 20 and 35 from an Asian point of view.

The drive was mainly uneventful, we attempted to exchange a cheery 'Ni Hao' but where soon met with her expressing that our Chinese could not be understood.

We dropped off at our apartment, Building 1 entrance 4 doors 1. Next we had to get a key cut, I was suitably impressed with a man doing it by hand (Jordan Matthews eat your heart out) no fancy machines in china. The area was full of small colourful buildings and shops dwarfed by sky scrapers in the background. Unlike Beijing westerners are a valuable commodity in the area so allot of stares where passed our way. It's strange to the think that all the posters in shops advertising clothes and the pictures of models are all of western men and woman so to the people of Lanzhou I guess we pass as people who only exist in photos and films. It's a good feeling to say the least.