I have now been in China for almost three months and it feels like such a long time!

We are slowly becoming accustomed to the seemingly strange behaviour that we encounter and some of our Chinese friends are even proving to be very endearing. We were invited to ever generous Jelly's, also a new teacher, for dinner where depsite her parents not speaking a word of English, they made us feel so welcome and insisted that if we had any problems we could ask them for help. Yesterday we were taken by four other teachers to visit the 'Bamboo Sea' about 5 miles away in the countryside. It is a huge place of natural beauty with many local villagers living up in the hills with nothing but bamboo surrounding them for miles. It was so nice to breathe in some fresh air as we were very high up and far away from the coal fumes of Leiyang. Unfortunately the weather was so cloudy and foggy that when we reached the viewing platform where you can supposedly gaze down upon miles of bamboo, we could hardly see our own hands, so thick was the air with white cloud! Also we have a suggestion as to why the majority of chinese people choose for their comfortable and relaxed position to squat rather than sit on the floor. We realised that you are most comfortable in the position that you sit on the toilet! In england, if your legs hurt or you're tired you will mostly sit on something or failing that, the floor, right? Well in china they all squat with their arms resting over their knees and their bums barely off the ground... just the way they go to the toilet!

Apart from this little excursion however, our days have been fairly routined. Every day on the walk to the supermarket we pass a caged unhealthy-looking dog outside the family shop-cum-home (which seems to be the usual type of abode in this city). Last week we noticed that the dog had been missing for some days and as we entered the supermarket we saw a large vat full of brown oily water with nothing less than a dead dog's head was bobbing on the surface, teeth beared and fur soaked off. Our horror was re-ignited today when we walked past the missing dog's cage because there was a different dog in there and we strongly suspect that the people sell their dogs to be eaten.... obviously so gross and strange to us but I guess thats China! They love eating their chicken feet (a huge delicacy), snails, pigs ears and trotters. Needless to say, Matt and I always politely refuse.

Last week we also were asked to take part in sports day where we ran in the teachers' relay race (the above photo). It was so fun and all the students cheered and supported us as we tore down the track and of course, our team came first :)

Teaching-wise, things are going well. I am getting to know, and even recall the names of, some of the more outgoing students. We have been hosting an English Corner every Sunday where we chat, play games and discuss important issues with the students who want to improve their spoken english. However, the school has requested that we apply for recognition as a formal club and therefore must test all the students on their ability so that we have a manageable number. For the last fortnight, I have been teaching a lesson called 'The Titanic is Sinking!' where the students must decide which 5 professions out of the 20 written on the board should be the ones who are saved in the only lifeboat available as the ship is sinking. I include pregnant woman, old lady and little child, in an attempt to make the decision morally challenging and to incite a bit of disagreement. However, some of these fifteen year olds have such a strong sense of the expendability of human life that seems to pervade china. When I questioned them on why they did not choose to save the pregnant woman they answer "because she is two lives and china already has too many people". Morally shocking, yet a pragmatic answer nonetheless I suppose!

Jelly very kindly let me go to her house to use her WiFi so I've been able to download a couple of books to my kindle which I'm very happy about, thanks Auntie Janni! They are 'The Secret Mandarin' and 'The Help' which I know Mum and Nancy have read.

All in all, we are both well and enjoying our time here together, although I was very sad to miss Bonfire night! Thats it for now I think, but please feel free to write on my message board! Would love to hear any comments from family and friends. xxx