So this is part 2 of 3 on the Big Update blogs!

Life in Fukang is great! The way of living here is very laid back but also very quick if that makes any sense? Even if I have loads of lesson planning to do and I don't have a seconds to stop I still feel weirdly relaxed. I'm not even sure why, but that's just life in Fukang.

After a busy few week I've began to settle properly in to the community here, I no longer get lost at every turn and can successfully buy strawberry Oreos (my newest obsession) without a round of sherades with the shop keeper! If anyone happens to come to China and happens to want the amazing product that is strawberry Oreos, you simply say "Oreos Cãoméi". Definitely the most useful term…digressing slightly so let's get back on track….

Brian and I have become sort of domestic goddesses! We've been cooking, cleaning, and washing successfully and not one of us have died yet, mission accomplished in my book! Wait! There was the one time with the washing machine (Which is a joke) when I tried it for the first time. I flooded the bathroom twice, broke a door, and fell over numerous times and I only successfully washed like seven pairs of socks! I know the saying "A bad workman blames his tools", but it was actually the washing machines fault! It's a so-called 'desktop washing machine', which is an excuse to create the smallest and worst washing machine ever! You have to stand and hold it on the counter otherwise it shakes it's self off, falls on the floor, floods the room, and pulls the plug out thus creating a health and safety officers nightmare!

At first I found the teaching hard as it was daunting being faced with 50 - 60 Chinese students that despite the stereotype can be very loud and very disruptive. Since then I have come a long way, I am now thoroughly enjoying teaching and I look forward to most classes. I have a couple of classes that I don't enjoy as much, but it's all part of the job! Best way to silence a class is to just stand there and give the entire class the 'death stare', works a treat!

As well as our scheduled lessons Brian and I also have a club each once a week. I take the English club and Brian takes the reading club. The best part about having the English club is that there is no specific task to do other than just get the students to speak English! I have so far spent most of them playing hangman and similar games as well as my favourite game, 'The Watermelon Ball Game'. It's not as exciting as it sounds but basically consists of me throwing a ball at my student and getting them to do word association (Red-Tomato-Vegetables-Food etc.). This normally goes quite well except for the couple of times that I've almost broken some lights and almost hit a visiting teacher in the face, but hey-ho, watermelon ball game fun!

Even though Brian and I both enjoy the teaching, we got really excited for October holiday, which surprise surprise was at the start of October. We had 10 day's to go wherever we wanted but with the huge distances in China, decided to travel within Xinjiang (Which if you look at a map, is huge as it is!). After speaking to the other 10 volunteers in Xinjiang we decided to travel to Kashgar, a city on the very edge of china near the border to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. I for some reason nominated myself to organise the trip, and it was so stressful! Getting the bus tickets for 10 people to Kashgar on a national holiday was a nightmare, as I will explain in a minute!

As some other volunteers in Xinjiang had less time to travel than we did, Brian and I decided to head to Shawan for a couple of days before meeting up with everyone in Urumqi on the 1st. The reason we travelled to Shawan was because the two Laura's are based there! (Other vols. Check out the album 'Selfie Challenge') So our plan was to go from Fukang to Urumqi, buy the bus tickets, head to Shawan for a couple of days, then return to Urumqi to catch the bus to Kashgar. Sounds easy right?

I know that most of you are probably expecting me to say that something went wrong in our travel plan, but it didn't, worked like clockwork! Well, sort of…

So step one was to go to Urumqi and buy the bus tickets, as I explained before this is not as easy as it sounds…we're in China remember! Upon arrival in the Kashgar bus station we realised that all the warnings about it being busy were bang on. There were literally thousands and thousands of people all trying to get in to the bus station to buy tickets for the same day as it was the start of national holiday! The queues were massive, there was a queue, to get in to the queue, to queue for tickets! Luckily we had met up with a friend of a friend who we know as 'American Mike' and guess what? He's American! Never would of guessed that one would you! As a fluent Chinese speaker he helped up skip the whole queuing process by telling the security that we were lost and lonely volunteers without our mothers in the middle of China! To my surprise they escorted us straight to the front and we successfully bought 10 bus tickets to Kashgar, Score! (Still very stressful) They gave us no choice on time, or type of seat, but we got them! The down side was that we had booked seat, yes seats, for 28 hours!

After the stressful bus station experience we taxied straight to another bus station where we jumped on a bus to Shawan, where the girls are, keeping up?

A surprisingly comfy journey it turned out to be. As the bus was almost empty I managed to conquer the back row and lay down and sleep all the way, and boy I'm glad I did as little did we know we were not gonna get a lot of sleep!

When we arrived in Shawan it was just about hitting midnight, we got off the bus and waited for the Laura's to arrive, Brian attempted to speak Chinese to some taxi drivers and I stood and kept myself entertained. About 20 minutes later a motorbike skidded to a halt in front of us, and much to our surprise Laura stepped off the back dying with laughter! If you know Laura you know that she spends most her time dying with laughter! Expecting to be taken to our hostel, Laura told us we wouldn't be going to our hostel yet, but instead to KTV. For those of you who don't know what KTV is, it is 'Karaoke Television' and it is huge in China! Everywhere you turn there is a KTV club! You go in and get your own private room where you sing with your friends. Very weird but also very fun!

So one minute we were stood in the cold having just got off a bus, and the next we were sat in a KTV room with the two Laura's and a few local police men that the Laura's had met that night. I would explain how it happened, but if I'm honest I'm not too sure myself! Brian and me got stuck in to KTV, blasting out the tunes such as Bon Jovi and Lady Gaga, they had such a weird mix of music!

Minutes turned to hours and we decided as the Laura's had school and the police had work the next day, 3am was a sensible time to call it a night. We hitched a lift with them and arrived at the hostel, here's where things didn't quite go to plan! Despite the Laura's school booking the hostel for us as they didn't want us staying with the Laura's on school property, the hostel would not let us in. They said that they would get in trouble with the police (Even though we were with two police officers) for letting people stay without Chinese ID card. After about 20 minutes of attempting to check in, the police told us to give in. They instead decided that we could stay with them. What else could we do at 3am? We jumped on to the back of their mopeds, waved goodbye to the Laura's and headed to their flat, all in all a rather normal experience wouldn't you say?

A translator has never come in more useful than when we were in their flat! Unable to speak Chinese and them unable to speak English we communicated through phone translator, a rather good way I think! Just as we got settled in we got a call from the Laura's and I remember exactly what they said. Through outbreaks of laughter I got the words "We're locked out the school". As the Laura's live on school property they rely on the 24/7 security guard to let them in and out. This is a good thing for security, but not when he falls asleep and doesn't hear them knocking! Cut a long story short, 20 minutes later and the Laura's were also in the policemen's flat for the night. Just another day in China eh?

The Laura's had to be back for 7am and as we didn't get to sleep until 5am ish it was more of a power nap! The Laura's ran off to school and the lovely policemen took us for breakfast, I'm not normally a breakfast person as it is, so to be faced with chilli dumplings at 7:30am was a bit of a stomach turner.

The rest of our time in Shawan was just as crazy as the first night, we were taken to see monkeys by one of the teachers husbands and were given shots by a business man, who in exchange we taught how to do the Macarena! Shawan was so much fun but before we knew it we were back on the bus, with the two Laura's, returning to Urumqi where we would get the bus to Kashgar!

For today that is all I have, but check back for the last of the 3 Big updates tomorrow. I have tales from a Russian bar in Urumqi and of course the amazing city that is Kashgar! For now…

Good night!