The past two months since returning from our winter travels have been quite trying. I'm afraid to say that Matt and I have finally succumbed to cultural fatigue and have begun to feel frustrated by our Chinese life, more specifically our city Leiyang. The fact that there really is nothing to do here except teach or go to KTV bars really is a dull prospect once the novelty of being somewhere different has faded, which it well and truly has. Also, I hate to sound ethnocentric but recently my thoughts have been flooded with comparisons about China and England. China is such a weird and different place to the world I know. I expected that by now, the eccentricities of this country would have become more familiar to me, but every strange custom and sight that I experience just reiterates my growing feelings of surprise and shock that have never truly gone away since I landed in Beijing. For example, every time I witness appalling driving, which is every day, I do not become used to it but rather my irritation grows. The surprise I feel is mostly not an intense kind, but it certainly lodges into my consciousness as 'something that you would never see in England'!

The other day I found myself wondering that if we had been placed in a larger and more 'modern' city, whether we would be having a 'better' time like some of the other teachers we know who are in Changsha or Wuhan. In places like these, the transition into Chinese life certainly would have been easier as they have a bigger Western influence in terms of food, people and cultural behaviour and we also wouldn't feel so isolated. Even the woman selling train tickets gave us a puzzled look when we requested tickets to Leiyang and asked if we meant another nearby city, Hengyang! But then I thought that despite the present difficulties we are experiencing, we are actually getting a rare insight into 'real' China, the China that has not been glossed over for tourists or flooded with foreigners. The city of Leiyang is the reality for tens of millions of people across China and most of the foreign people who do come to work in this country are distracted by all their Western comforts that are, understandably, hard to resist when presented to someone who is away from home for so long. The awfully built roads, the burning of rubbish every day, the coal fumes from the near by power plant, the poverty, and the sad acceptance held by most of the locals that for them, this is all life has to offer due to lack of freedom to ask for leave from their jobs and of course, the inability to afford to go somewhere else even if they could.

My realisation has been that although it's annoying being stared and pointed at all the time, having to tread through phlegm spat out on the floor even inside classrooms every day, and not having much to entertain us, we are much luckier than so many people. The lifestyle we lead in England is so varied and rich compared to here. With three months left of living in China, I will try to soak up everything I see and experience and go home feeling extremely lucky to have had the privilege of living in another country for a year, no matter how bleak it sometimes seems.

Here are some of the things that have stuck me as strange:

· People never take coats off inside

· Work men drinking beer on school site during the day.

· Lack of consideration for others i.e. making loud noise very early or very late (phantom banger, car horns),

· Absolutely no sense of queuing in a fair order, I have great respect for any person who must work behind a desk at a bank, train station or fast food restaurant in China as they are constantly bombarded and barked at by people demanding that they attend to them first. We witnessed a punch-up between two women in a ticket hall recently, which is remarkable because the Chinese are not a violent people, as one insisted on pushing in line in front of what was evidently the wrong person!

· The inability of the Chinese to accept a polite decline of an invitation, completely dismissing any excuse that has been given and demanding your presence "asap": "you must come to my house for dinner, even if its inconvenient for you"

· The implication that it's your fault if you have got sick from eating something because you clearly 'didn't pay attention to the food'

· The shock bordering on outrage when we announce that we will only be staying for a year in Leiyang: "But many foreigners stay for at least two! What about our English club? Do you not like Leiyang?!"

· The students' lack of desire to listen to any other song that is not by Lady Gaga, Justin Beiber or Michael Jackson. Its ignorant and close minded and incredibly frustrating as a teacher because it means we are limited to singing only a few overplayed awful songs in class.

On a lighter note, Spring has finally arrived in Hunan and the weather has warmed up, encouraging new green shoots and blossom to come out. The warmer weather does however mean the return of the insects into our apartment! Last night Matt had to kill a huge spider on the bathroom door and we have seen cockroaches in the kitchen. Needless to say I have now sprayed everywhere with poison and insect repellent in an attempt to rid us of the infestation…. So gross!

Last week, it was Qing ming festival, commonly known as Tomb-sweeping day which means a three day national holiday in China. We used this rare opportunity of some time off to get out of Leiyang and do a bit of travelling. We visited the ancient town of Feng Huang, a 10-hour train journey away in West Hunan. We roamed the old streets next to the river and marvelled at the houses supported by wooden stilts and framed by weeping willow trees. We dressed up in the traditional costume of the Miao minority people and enjoyed many an ice cream. We only stayed a night in Feng Huang as we were eager to explore the much remarked upon peaks and valleys of Zhang Jia Jie national park in the Northwest of the province. The floating mountains that feature in the film Avatar were based on the scenery in ZJJ and so you can only imagine how Matt and I felt when we were amongst the dazzlingly high peaks, clear streams and green forest. It is also home to many wild monkeys, which were a delight to meet and photograph. The weather was on our side for the duration of our trip and we spent five hours climbing up, walking around the top and then all the way back down again. Our legs were extremely sore the next day but the captivating views and the fresh air (a big novelty in China) made it well worth the effort! We felt very proud of ourselves for doing all this walking as I must mention that we could have got a cable car up and down, or if we had been feeling very imperial, we could have hired some local men to carry us up in a sedan chair as quite a number of Chinese people had done. We made sure we shook our heads judgmentally every time we passed a person who had either fallen asleep or was busy on their iphone whilst the two tiny but 'built' sweating locals trembled under their weight as they carried them up and down the steep winding steps. I suppose however that their laziness is what pays for these men and their families to eat!

The beauty of the countryside bathed in sunshine as we sped through it on the train was very pleasant. The valleys carpeted in yellow rape seed and the hills speckled with pink blossom were a delight to the eye despite my having to endure the teenage boy opposite me playing Chinese pop music on his phone very loudly as if for the benefit of the entire carriage.

And so, with less than three months working as an English teacher in Leiyang I will continue trying to learn Chinese as well as endeavouring to understand and appreciate the Chinese way of life, which is not an easy assignment!