Hey People, Sorry for the silence - a lot has happened in the last few months. We have relocated to Bangkok for a while. I have started another blog more suited to our new situation, if you are interested, email/message me and let me know, I'll send you the link. I won't put it up here, as it's going to be more personal. I will still be putting up new travelblogs on here though, catching up on ones I still haven't written. Oh, so much to do, and so little inclination to actually do it. Hope you all are well. Erin [View Full Entry]

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Another attempt to earn some desperately needed summer cash. When we returned from Hunan province, missing horribly the ambrosial succour that is William's company, David said that he had another opportunity for us. A week later, after Cecelia spending much time on the phone, and us being completely uninvolved in any of the plans, found us waiting to be picked up outside the school gate, for some demo classes around Shaanxi province. "They'll be there between 12 and 2," sez Cec. 2.45, a big, black, shiny Nissan pulled up. The two bossmen, who we later dubbed Elvis and Costello, bounced out, [View Full Entry]

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Woke at 5.30 am, heart filled with joy, dancing around the hotel room, bluebirds serenading me as I packed. Why the life filled with love and laughter? I hear you all ask. Well, today I am leaving YueYang's Sinopec compound, and will be freed. William was so embarassed about the job not working out, that he decided to treat us to a mini-tour of his university town, only abaout two hours away. I would have preferred to leap on the first bus outta here, but am also very stingy, and wanted to take advantage of a free holiday. William and [View Full Entry]

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William, one of our students, has an image of himself as a master businessman. About two months ago, he decided to set up a school, in the town his girlfriend's father lives. He offered us places as teachers, 10,000 kuai each a month, for two months. Apartment, flights paid for, the works. Wow, says us. This sounds like a fantastic plan. Making loads of bucks, seeing a different part of China, good hiking down there, and we'd have enough money to afford stuff when back in England for a week or so, rather than having to beg poverty and drink other [View Full Entry]

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Just back from another marathon KTV session with the med students. For all their concern about face, and the losing therefore (ie, being embarassed in front of others), and the insistence that they are shy, quiet people, they can't half belt out a tune. In class, I never get volunteers for anything to do with speaking, they refuse to stand up, preferring to speak from their seats. Understandable. But when it comes to karaoke, everything goes out the window. Someone chose a dance tune, proper electro-sino-pop, with about six words in it, then got up and danced along with the video, [View Full Entry]

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Have been feeling a bit rundown for a while, so when Cecelia (the Chinese wife of David, the Scottish fella) said that she was going to her TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) doctor for another bout of acupuncture, I thought it would be a wonderful idea to accompany her and see what the story is. My total experience so far with TCM was a brief lecture by CCS, and one needle in the base of my thumb as an experiment. None of us felt any better, the only one affected in any way was Alex, who promptly went green and clammy, [View Full Entry]

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So, exam time at Chang An. My course is continuous assessment, with marks being given for those who turn up week after week, and those who volunteer, as opposed to letting me stand in front of the class in silence, watching them squirm as they try and hide behind their books. A lot of students only turn up on the first and last day of classes though. I had one student run past me on the stairs, only for him to catch up with me a couple of hundred metres down the road home... "You! You are my teacher?" "I [View Full Entry]

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...hocking and spitting onto the street seems the best way to get rid of the dust in your throat, and it doesn't seem gross anymore. ...you start referring to the pollution as 'the dust bubble'. It comes from the Gobi, you know. Honestly. That's what everyone says. ...you only drink beer from one litre bottles at 15 pence a go. ...you shout at waitresses if they try and charge you 20 pence for the aforementioned litre bottles of beer. ...shouting "fuyuanr" at waitresses is no longer rude, but the only way to get any sort of attention in a restaurant. ...you [View Full Entry]

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May 1st-7th is a National Holiday, so no school for a week. Amazingly intricate plans to go to the south were semi-formulated, then tossed aside as I remembered what a horror travelling was last May holiday. Everyone goes everywhere, either home to their families, or just to wander about. The trains are somewhat similar to cans of sardines, and of course we would get that extra special 'happy holiday' special friend price for everything from a hostel to a bowl of noodles. So, we went camping. We tried to persuade David and Cecelia to come with us, as they had [View Full Entry]

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A group of students invited some of us very important teachers away for the weekend. They had heard we liked hiking, and so had planned a 'happy tour' around Tang Yu, a village about an hour south of here, in the mountains. Yummy, says me, and packed my backpack full of all-weather clothes, extra socks, sleeping bag, tent, cotton wool to start a camp fire in case there was no dry twigs around, water purifying tablets, and a bag of food for Artemis, as she isn't very good at foraging. How exciting, my first proper camping trip in China. The [View Full Entry]

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