Blogs from Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu, China, Asia

How terrible am I? It's been weeks since I updated this! So Ithink I should fill you all in on the bike situation! I went back to the shop and demanded a refund! I spend the next few days waking to work and back- my feet were aching at the weekend! Anyway, On payday I went to walmart (yes walmart!) I bought myself a little pink bike- it has no gears, it's not exactly expensive or flash, but it's great! I ride around the city on my pink bike with a huuge smile on my face! We had our spring festival banquet on the 20th, which was fun- lots of food and performances by the staff- even one from me. New staff have to perform at the banquet as a sort of initiation thing- so naturally ... read more

As promised, here are some pictures of where I have explored so far. The weather isn't good at the moment, so not the best lighting- I apologise!... read more

So my days off have been pretty fun- they've been a chance to get to know Zhangjiagang a little better and get some essentials. On Wednesday, me and two of the girls went to Auchan- It's a huuge supermarket and there's a Macdonald's and market outside. We have lunch at Macdonald's (terrible I know) and then had a wander around the market. It was just full of anything you could ever want. We didn't buy anything from the market because being westerners, they would probably charge us more than the locals, so we saved our shopping for the supermarket. We spent ages in the supermarket and bought everything for cleaning the flat (which the tennant had left in a bit of a state) . I love looking around the supermarket at all the local food and ... read more

So we finished Christmas day much like you would in the uk- we all got terribly drunk on this awesome Korean beer and played Jenga and Uno- The jetlag was beginning to catch up on me and I made everyone laugh with my terrible co-ordination and board game skills! I had too late a night really and was nackered for work this morning! I just observed lessons today- A bunch of 8 year olds who are so cute and cheeky and a class of teenagers who were very shy and quiet- It was quite good to see the contrast and although I’m nervous about starting to teach, I’m really looking forward to it. They have pretty much every material you need here and you just follow a syllabus in a textbook, so there’s not that much ... read more

So as soon as I’d had a shower, I was whisked off to a restaurant called ‘trippys’ nicknamed so because of the wallpaper they used to have there! Two of the girls treated me to dinner- proper Chinese food- I actually dreamt about it after. It’s so so nice there- we had some fish soup, fried pork, fried beans, some kind of potato dish and some rice. My chopstick skills are terrible, but I managed! We had sooo much food and for the whole lot it was the equivalent of £9- bargain!! We went from there to Malone’s – the irish bar where I met the rest of the inebriated team and got bought copious amounts of alcohol for the entire night. They don’t measure shots here- I must have drank about 1 pint of Malibu. ... read more