SATURDAY

So the flight over was fairly mundane, no news there apart from food coming round whilst I was watching 'This is 40' and pausing the film whilst the lead actress has her boob hanging out. Everybody involved had a chuckle. Nevertheless, I land in Shanghai, greeted by the school's marketing manager, of all people, and the driver taking us 3 hours West to Jiangdu, Yangzhou - neither speak English all too well. First thing I notice is the amount of people, or men, who smoke. Everybody smokes. Note exhibit 1 for being different (I don't smoke).

We set off and I fall asleep, woken up to eat lunch halfway. In a service station I am given a tray and told to choose 3 meats and 3 vegetables to accompany the rice. Fish, chicken (?) and some form of dumpling seem to be popular. Each of these, half-eaten with beansprouts, were all I could muster. Onwards to the school and my hotel for the night.

I manage to stay awake for the rest of the journey for two reasons - the first being a TV in the dashboard of the car with Karaoke on the screen - Karaoke being a fond past-time of mine. The second - the health and safety precautions completely ignored by women on what appear to be motorbikes/scooters with up to 3 children on the same bike. Nutters.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I met the other two foreign English teachers (both British) over an introductory dinner and saw the first night in with a few beers in a quiet little bar. I must add now that one Englishman walking around Jiangdu is a rarity - but the combination of 3 Englishmen appeared to knock the socks off the locals! I felt like Mick Jagger walking into that bar. Well, maybe Keith Lemon but less pervy and more awkward. We were treated to a number of free beers and shisha pipes and there were 4 girls to each of the 5 guys in there.

Welcome to China.