Hello my lovely people... Welcome back to the land of the Xing Xing Explorer!

A couple of weeks have flown by since the last entry and here I am now well into my last 3 weeks in Wenchang, and on this island...

School life is very hectic as there is a large English competition being held over 3 days coming up just before we leave (taking place in the evenings, of course school will continue during the day times...) which involves all of the juniors, and the whole of my grade; so between 14 and 19 year olds... This is also doubling up as a farewell to Sarah and I; plus we are hosting it in front of the whole school! - And have to prepare unique performances to entertain the students over the 3 nights! - Should be fun! Of course, this does mean school time is not the only thing we're busy doing, but also catching up with as many poeple as possible as many times as poss before departing on 20th June! Oh my, how this time has whizzed past! And how scary to try and comprehend the concept of not seeing some of these amazing people again.

On Saturday I headed back to Haikou for one final time; strange to say goodbye to a city that we know so well after doing so much and meeting so many people; making new friends there all those months ago! But when we went back, it was to say goodbye to the very last of our group, as most everyone in the city have taught for shorter length of time and now have travelled on or flewn home etc... So we said goodbye to Martin; our co-ordinator... and it's hard to believe i will, probably never see him again; :( But we found out that he had passed a really important English exam that he'd took back in April, so that makes me really happy :)

After lots of shopping for gifts and such [that we just can;t get back in Wenchng] for friends and students for when we leave, we said goodbye to the last of the volunteers at our old abode and made it back to our home...

Sunday saw another early rise and we met a bunch of friends; teachers and students from our school and also friends from the school across the road... and headed to Dongjiao Yelin Bay - which we took trucks and a ferry to get to - it was the first time some of our friends had ever been on a boat! The weather was typically beautiful in the morning and stayed hot and sunny, and we spent the time lounging in hammocks (oh, how i'd missed them so much since the jungle!) and playing a Chinese game on the sand involving a ball made out of palm leaves that my friends showed me how to make :) - Pretty awesome, i asked her who taught her and she said her grandmother, and now i will take this little art with me wherever i go - and it'll travel back to England with me! I have a leaving book that people have been writing in over the past few departures, and Sunday saw the first entried from our Chinese friends here in Wenchang - they have said some beautiful things, one of which "Your second home is my home, remember my family, remember me, your Chinese friend forever, our family will always be open to you" ... it's going to be wrenching those heartstrings when we leave - particularly as now, we have a growing number of friends wanting to wave us off (this is lovely, but for the emotions of Sarah and I we think it's be better to say our goodbyes the night before and then sneak away with no fuss: i very much doubt that is going to happen!)

Back in Wenchang, we then went out for lunch and Sarah and I totally over-indulged on the great aubergine dish - the certain way they cook it here, the sauce; MM! - is a Wenchang dish - regional, so when we leave, this dish we love so well will probably never be tasted again! But then after the other teachers departed... the heavens opened and our friends walked home in the rain with us... which turned into the craziest storm we'ver been out in yet; we were all drenched, but laughing and joking; they found it hilarious, all of our umbrellas were pretty pointless; mine now has a rather crooked appearence due to being either melting in the heat or strong winds; and then the winds came and so mine blew inside out; it was more for comedy affect rather than keeping me dry... and we were all in hysterics in the thundering and lightening... - particularly when my top went see-through and our friedns were saying in their accented-English "if i were boy, my eyes very big big!!" followed by such laughter!.. And so the roads turned to rivers and the tracks to murkey brown ponds... and then I arrived back home and both Sarah and i stood dripping on our tiled floor still laughing. It was a great day!

Also, worthy of a mention was last night, sitting our on the balcony - sparks started coming from a street light... it caught fire just across the road from us and everone was shouting and people were emerging through the smoke, and all the lights were flickering - our whole street turned into a stobe-effect disco... and in the middle of the exploding of this lampost, a semi-naked Chinese builder appeared our of his workmans tent directly next to the fire...!! It was absolutely crazy... the random road works that appear all over the Wenchang, leaving giant whole in the road and pavements... mean various things get into our waterpipes - but also water gets into the electricity. Ahem, safe! - The building work going on around school admittedly is fast - it's amazing how much the school's changed since we've been here, but Sarah very almost got hit the other day by an assortment of bricks being thrown from a third storey! And then there's the random emptying of cement buckets from above.. a few times i've been showered with a spray of wet cement... lovely. But this is Wenchang life, and with it's wierd and wonderfulness it is these things that i will miss...

Best dash as got competition prep to do with 2 classes now!

Take care til next time :) xxx