Hello!

Here i am sitting in a smokey internet cafe down the road from the flat where all of us on our teacher-training are staying. Sooo i know it has been a fair while since my last blog, and lots has happened! However i will try and be as interesting as possible when i relay the last couple of weeks to you... Now, where had i left you?

I think my last entry was maybe in Xi'an? I can't remember... however basically after Xi'an i had to fly to Gulin as there were no train tickets available and time-wise i was going to be cutting it pretty fine... so it was a shame i had to break the cycle of travelling Moscow to Haikou just by land, but hey ho!! And it was nice to leave the freezing climates of snowy Xi'an and arrive in Guilin, however my hostel was damp and smelt skank and i was glad to leave early in the morning! The plane was to get a bus to Yangshuo, (i had ruled out doing the Li River cruise due to cost) however got chatting to a girl in my dorm that night who was setting off with some others she'd met that day, the following day, on a boat to Yangshuo. The 2 hour bus ride was outweighed by, what turned out to be a very long, bus, boat (our boat was missing many windows - and it was freeezing on the river that very cloudy day!!) then tuktuking, followed by another bus to the final destination... I left my fellow travellers and went to stay at a chinese culture house which was lovely for my 3-day stay. It's kinda good that i had a time-limit to keep to, as i think i would have ended up staying there a while. One of the girls staying my room and i got on really well and spent quite a lot of time exploring together, went for bikerides, bamboo raft rides etc etc... The i left Tim (my lovely dutch female friend!) behind - she was off travelling North and i took the South road! Got a 9hour bus to Guangzhou and from there instead of getting the planned overnight train the following night to Haikou, i found myself getting off one bus and half an hour later being on a 12hr bus to Haikou...

So here i am!! It's a week and a half into teacher training and I AM LOVING IT!! We get lessons on Chinese language and culture, and separate classes to prepare us for teaching. Did some class observations on Saturday... was fab and it's kinda cool to be the only blonde volunteer in my group as the kids shyly always ask to be with me! So it was pretty mad, being at school on Saturday, sitting in with classes in the morning and then right through to 10.30 these children have classes! I don't know how the teachers do it let alone the children!! I was speaking to this one girl and during the week she gets 3 hours sleep a night, and then on a sunday as class finishes at luncyh time, she goes to bed for the afternoon. I do not know how they still manage to be all smiles and keep their concentration! - 2 hours into my Chinese class and i am struggling to keep focused - particularly on those lessons in the afternoon!

It was one of the volunteers birthdasy yesterday, so we all went out for a meal.. it was a muslim-chinese restuarant and some of the guys also teaching here (last month's group) who came out for the party ended up getting called up on stage.. it was hilarious, as they were doing all this dancing and getting the westerners to join in - i sunk a little lower in my seat and kept eating (luckily some of our food had came out before others'!!)... but This guy Druv, we swear he ended up getting married to this chinese girl on stage... he had to choose some one from the audience/diners, and they were doing this ritual and wearing funny hats... he was being spoken to in only chinese, of course, (almost NO ONE speaks english here) and was doing pretty well comunicating but started to get a bit muddled so got out his pharsebook... lets just say all the people in the restaurant were roaring with laughter. Hilarious...

The other night some of the teachers (last months group) who have now moved out into their [pretty snazzy] flat the otherside of town, had a house-warming party, there must have been about 30 of us volunteers which was cool... and i didnt end up getting in til 6 in the morning, but we didn't have lessons as it was sunday so all was good! - That flat is so cool though - 6 bedrooms, and is huge - and like the rooms are all motion sensor which is pretty sweet! I know some of the teacher-accomodation isn't so good though and is pot-luck, so am not gonna get my hopes up too much.

Something funny i'll mention though is that i was in the supermarket the other day and this guy was staring so much at me (its bad enough being western, but to be blonde too is quite a feat for them here) and he and his trolley went straight into a display of shoes... i couldn't help but laugh, haha!

Also, i got off very lightly the other day, i was walking over a manhole cover [as you do] and it wasn't fixed down properly, the whole thing flipped up and i jumped onto the pavement, but if i had gone down, i would have probably seriously injured myself and/or got covered in chinese sewage..

So far, have been to one of the big, beautiful parks in the city (where you can hire bikes like tandems but with 3 seats!!) and also went to the beach last week where i am sure we will spend some time if we end up getting placed here in Haikou at the end of training... It is really started to get hot though and even in the last week its got hotter - nights more humid and the mozzies are making their way out. The flat's fab - lots of balconies off the bedrooms, however Laura (my roomie) and me have the biggest room - except our looks over the street 4 floors below - which is fab for me as i am quite a people watcher! But its ok as we all spend time in each others rooms anyway... But we think that the fact our 'communal' balcony that goes out from the main eating area, is not cut off from the outside (hard to explain, but like our flat takes up the whole floor - its more than one flat knocked through, so the lift to our floor is just for us teaching and theres like a gate betweeen the lift door and our apartment + locks on each room...) - thus means the mozzies are happy to fly in at their leisure and there is nothing we can do about it!

So at the end of this week we are taking a few days out to go visit a village on the island... and then next week we'll travel to Sanya (where two of us will be placed for teaching) - Sanya is on the south of the island and in China, is pretty famous for its beaches etc... Smiles all round for us, but it'll be nice to have a break before we all have to work really hard - depending on what age-group we get and at what school means you might have some pretty long hours!

Soo, can't think of too much else to let you know... but hope all's well and keep mailing me its really fab to hear from everyone back home - sorry if i dont reply asap - i am limiting my internetness to save money... But i will get back to you!

Love and stars, take care! xxx