As is often the case, my plans to sleep were interrupted.The door knocked at 8am.Ruth was still sleeping on the sofa.I opened the door looking an absolute state, panda-eyed and wearing my hideous Chinese pyjamas.There was a Chinese teacher stood there with her arms full of bedding and a big smile. Teacher Wang had said earlier in the week that a new teacher may be coming to stay in my apartment for 10 days, but was unable to tell me when she would be arriving.So this must be her!

Ruth went home and I tried to talk to my new flatmate but discovered she doesn't speak any English.She didn't bring very much stuff with her, just her bedding, some clothes, shoes and a massive Chinese-English dictionary.I guess this means she is at least trying to learn English.

I decided to get out of the apartment and get some fresh air.I went to the main shopping area in town and got my trousers taken up for the equivalent of 30 pence.I've lost weight being in China and so my trousers sit so low on my hips now the bottoms drag under my trainers.At home I probably would have just bought a new pair of trousers.But as I mentioned before, I've tried to stop being so wasteful.The tailor lady in the shopping centre is really cool; it is worth the 30 pence just to watch her in action.She has three sewing machines and an iron.Everything is really old fashioned.The main sewing machine she uses is powered by a foot pedal.I had to queue when I first got there because she was lining a winter coat for someone.Then when it was my turn she used a tape measure to measure my leg length and then drew a chalk line on the trousers.The scariest moment is when she unpicked the existing hem and cut off the bottom of the trouser leg.But then she stitched it all up, gave it a quick iron, and done!

I was starting to get hungry, so when I left the shopping centre I saw one of the street food stalls selling sweet potato.I've been meaning to try one of these for ages so I approached the stall.The lady showed me with her hands that they cost 2 Yuan.So I just nodded yes.Then she grabbed the biggest potato on the hotplate, weighed it and charged me 4 Yuan.I hadn't realised the 2 Yuan must have been per 'amount' of weight not per potato.The sweet potato was put into a plastic sandwich bag.It was so hot to hold, I had to go and sit down on a park bench for a while before I could eat it.The sweet potato had a strange texture, somewhere between a boiled potato and a baked potato.But it was a cold day and I enjoyed sitting outside eating a hot potato and keeping my hands warm at the same time.

In the evening I met Ruth and we got a taxi to go out with some of the students we had met at last week's pizza party.When we got to the university, we were met by two Chinese guys.They told us one more friend was coming.We didn't have to wait long for her to turn up, and she said her name was April.They took us to the shop nearby to get some soft drinks, then around the corner to the street food stalls to get a quick supper.I tried some pancake-type thing from Beijing.It was really nice.The guy would make the pancake, and as it puffed up then his wife would make a small hole in it and pour in some beaten egg which would set in the middle.When it was ready, it was spread with some spicy sauce and mine was filled with lettuce.Ruth also got sausage in hers.We ate them on the way to get a taxi.

Our student friends talked to the taxi driver and managed to persuade him to take all five of us because of me and Ruth being foreign.So one guy got in the front and the four of us remaining had to squeeze into the back.It reminded me of my own uni days when we used to fill someone's car with as many people as we could, particularly one journey where my friend Sam ended up in the boot-space and we had to yell at her to brace herself before every speed bump.We got to the karaoke place and one of the guys paid for all of us to get in.

The students were very keen for us to sing first, as it was their treat.They clearly don't understand that in England karaoke is usually a drunken pastime!I told April that I needed her to show me how it's done, so she sang first.I drank a few gulps of Coca-Cola in the meantime, trying to convince myself that it was really a vodka and coke.I got up to sing a song, and actually found it was quite fun.I'd never have been able to sing sober at a karaoke a few months ago!

When the guys were singing, I got April to teach me how to eat sunflower seeds.This may sound odd.Let me explain.In China, people eat handfuls and handfuls of the things but I've never eaten them in England or anywhere.I'd only been offered them once so far in China, put the entire thing in my mouth, tried to chew it, felt like I was destroying my teeth and got rid of it.Knowing there must be something more to eating these seeds, I asked April for a demonstration.You have to bite down on the inedible outside husk to crack the shell and once you peel it away there is a tiny seed inside which is edible.I felt so pleased with myself at mastering the knack of eating sunflower seeds!I don't intend eating them often though; the effort to get the husk off is not really worth it for the tiny seed inside.