I had work all day at the Baby Genius Kindergarten but during my lunch break I had agreed to meet Binging.I don't really know what 15 years old girls do (in China or anywhere) so I gave her the choice.She suggested I could go to the bookshop with her. I wasn't sure of where I was supposed to meet her and asked if I could put her on the phone to a taxi but she got a bit confused, so I just handed the phone to the driver anyway and hoped they would figure it out between them.When the taxi stopped it turned out the meeting place was at the college where Ruth works, directly opposite where she lives.

Binging arrived a little late on her bicycle.We said hello and then I asked where the bookshop was, she said it was very far.We started walking into the college grounds and she said "where are we going?" this sort of confused me because I thought I had been following her- not the other way around.But somehow we had confused each other and she asked where my bike was.I said I don't have one and that is why I had to get a taxi to meet her.I suggested she cycle and I walk beside her.She offered me to sit on the back, but of course I said no.She suddenly stopped the bike and said "Oh my god!"I couldn't help but laugh hearing this from a Chinese teenager, she sounded just like a teenager from home.She said the book shop was too far for me to walk and she didn't know what to do.

What do you do when you are virtually in the middle of nowhere with a Chinese teenager?You feel like maybe she should take the lead because she is the local, then you realise it's up to you because in her eyes you are the adult (urgh, I'm no adult).Call Ruth!I asked Ruth if we could come to her apartment and have a chat there.Luckily she said she was home and that was ok.I took Binging into the corner shop and let her pick a soft drink and I bought us both a drink.As we walked across the road, there was a group of four Chinese men walking towards us, staring.By now I am used to being stared at by men, women and children, wherever I go.But poor Binging hadn't seen it before, or at least not on the receiving end.She gasped and whispered to me "they stare at you!!" I just smiled and said it happens all the time.She then said "it is because you are foreign", so I nodded and we kept on walking to Ruth's.

When we got there we had our drinks and chatted about China and what it is like for Binging at her school.Ruth showed her some of her activities she had planned for her class and Binging got most of the answers correct.She told us that her classes begin at 7am and her school is a 50minute bike ride each way.This just does not comprehend with me, how this girl can be so cheerful about getting up so early and cycling for that long every morning.She told us she thinks it is very healthy for her.Despite the initial confusion, it turned out to be an interesting afternoon chatting to Binging and it would be nice to do it again sometime.

After my afternoon lessons I went to wait on the bus stop to go to Ruth's.It was getting late and the buses finish around 18:30 to 19:00 so I was starting to think that I had missed the last bus.I didn't want to walk because I had all my dirty washing with me to get washed at Ruth's and it was heavy.I waited and waited and then finally gave in and walked back to the yard gate to hail a cab.To help me get around Liaocheng I have most of the useful places I need written in Chinese and saved as photographs on my camera which I show to the drivers.I handed the driver my camera, and he put it to his ear and started yelling at it.He thought it was my phone and I had somebody on there to tell him in Chinese.I had to point at my eyes and say "look, look" to get him to take the camera away from his ear and look at the picture.As the taxi turned at the cross roads, I noticed the bus in front of us and we followed it all the way up the road… grrrrr!Me and Ruth went to a restaurant near her apartment and when I showed them my vegetarian card they served me a plate of rice topped with stir fried potatoes.I really love the way potatoes are stir fried here, but I would never normally serve rice and potatoes in the same meal!