Happy Teachers' Day!In China they celebrate this annually and the children bring gifts for the teachers.I didn't eat or drink anything all morning as my stomach was still bad and I wanted to avoid it getting worse.When I was saying good morning at the front gate I was given flowers by some of the children which improved my mood.

In one of my classes, a girl had been crying before I arrived and the assistant didn't seem to be very nice to her.I wanted her to be quiet so I could do my lesson!I gave her my little toy panda to look after and she stopped crying.It cheered her up so much that she put up her hand to have a go at the game and she got the answer right.I felt quite pleased that I had managed to comfort the little girl without having any language in common.

I was told the school would be closed to the children in the afternoon because of Teacher's Day and I probably wouldn't need to go back either.I went home to bed in the hope that some sleep would help me get over my stomach bug thing.As I was drifting off I received this text from Zhen Yang "Hello! My name is Zhen Yang! starts you from the present to rest, next week will come repeatedly! understands!"I double checked with her that she meant I didn't have to go back to school until Monday and she said that was right so I slept all afternoon.

When I woke up I moved the sofas around in the living room, cleaned the floor and scrubbed the kitchen as it was pretty grim.My stomach was still off so I wasn't sure whether to go out or not.Ruth came over with some medicine which I don't normally like to take - if your body is trying to get rid of something I usually think you should let it.However it was only our second Friday in town and I didn't really want to stay in all night.So I took the tablets, waited for them to kick in and then got a taxi to lily coffee with Ruth and Jen.

This time I had Pizza and apple/carrot juice.Although there are a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables available in China, it is surprisingly difficult in Liaocheng to find fresh fruit juice.The juice at lily coffee is great, it's freshly made and is just how juice should be (i.e. not 'juice drink' from a carton).Mohamed told us that he would like to arrange a party for the weekend and that he would get in some whisky specially as the café doesn't actually sell alcohol.I asked if he knew where we could get any vodka because I don't drink whisky.He said he would get us a bottle of vodka too.Exciting!!

We went to Moments Bar down the road but I decided it would be better not to drink any alcohol and save myself for the vodka tomorrow night.I had an orange juice while we listened to a live guitar player and singer in the bar, but the drunken Chinese men were harassing us somewhat and I was feeling too sober and too drained to deal with them so I got a taxi home.