I taught the children the words for various cutleries as it was the first set of flashcards I came across in the morning.I changed the my usual game slightly in that once the child had heard me say the word and hit the correct flashcard, I then got them to repeat the word back to me, as I think I need to get them speaking more.I have discovered it is unwise stand too near to a child when they say spoon otherwise I get covered in spit.To my amusement I also found that the word fork with a Chinese accent sounds like something rather rude (sorry kids) and then I moved on to facial features and the word eyes sounds more like a#s.I ran out of stickers, thinking on the spot I gave them a 'high five instead and they seemed just as happy with this.In another class, I tried getting the other children to give applause to the child at the front of the class and this also got very big smiles.

I tried a new activity to teach them facial features where I drew the face on the board, and then I rubbed out parts of the face and picked different children to come and draw the feature back on and say out loud what it was.The first few classes I did this with went very smoothly but I tried it again in another class but the kids went a bit mental.They rushed me at the front of the class when the Chinese assistant wasn't there, started to rub off the face with their hands. I thought I'd been doing ok at keeping order in the class so far but when I asked them to sit down but they didn't respond so I stood there for a moment not quite sure what to do.They started getting so carried away the blackboard began to tip over so I worried they might get hurt and shouted at them to sit down.They didn't stop so I yelled at them 'sit down now! You have ruined the game for the other children! The game will stop now because you have rubbed it off! Sit down!!!!!'The assistant saw my rant but she hadn't seen their behaviour and I didn't know how to explain to her what had happened so hoped she wouldn't think too badly of me.

I left school feeling pretty low, why had I not managed to stop the kids misbehaving, and why had I let them make me shout.But then as I was walking to the bus stop, a child on the back of their parent's electric bicycle went past and the child waved and shouted "Laoshi" which is Chinese for Teacher and that put me in a better mood.

I found a different bus route which doesn't require me to change buses, so I took that bus home and on the way I noticed a rank of shops where there was a sign saying 'Moments Bar' and further down the road 'lily coffee'it was the first signs of English I had seen in a long time.I was a bit distracted and suddenly I realised that about 8 children had got on the bus and crowded around me.They started talking to me so I showed them in my mandarin book that I didn't understand them.Then they started trying to speak English and teach me Chinese at the same time.It was not the type of bus journey I am familiar with, but was quite fun.

Miss Wang came to the apartment to see why the gas wasn't working.It turns out the gas tap was switched to OFF, so at least now I can cook if I want to.I checked the shower but it was still running cold.Miss Wang said the hot water heating is solar powered so it will only be hot on sunny days.What about the winter?!

I met Ruth to show her the university grounds but it started to get dark and I couldn't remember the way to the lake.I told her about the English signs I had seen on the bus home and we went to have a look with high hopes of finding some other foreigners.Firstly we came across the bar but it was closed.We kept walking to lily coffee and the door was closed but the light was on, we stood outside trying to decide what to do next when a Chinese lady opened the door and welcomed us in.We stepped inside and a man appeared from one of the booths.He shook our hands and introduced himself as Mohamed from Egypt, and asked us if we had just arrived in Liaocheng.He was very surprised when we told him it has been two weeks; it seems he is aware of most other foreigners who come to the town.

We sat down in the booth and were like excited kids in a sweetshop.The menu was written in Chinese and English and listed foods such as pasta, pizza, salad.I haven't seen a menu translated into English since I was in Beijing.I ordered vegetarian pasta and fresh watermelon juice for dinner… It was amazing!We noticed at the bottom of the menu it stated there were Special Secret Egyptian Drinks, so we asked Mohamed what they were.He said he had many…He brought us a glass each of this hot milky drink flavoured with almonds, raisins, vanilla 'and many other delicious things'.

We were both a bit giggly about this, not really sure what we were drinking and whether it had any alcohol in it or not.When we finished he said we could have another one each 'his treat'.We started to ask him about Liaocheng and other foreigners.He said some other foreign teachers go there sometimes and he took our numbers to try to help us meet up with them.Unfortunately when I got home I wasn't very well (I'll spare the details) and I'm not sure if I have picked up a stomach bug or eaten too rich food.Just seems like one thing after another in this place.