Jorisdevocht

海南。Hainan The trip started by us waking up at 5 in the morning because it would take 2 hours to get to the airport. But still there was time for McDonalds breakfast. At the airport everything was made super simple by the tour guides who took care of everything. When we arrived in Hainan it was raining but still plenty hot. There we met our tour leader, he later became known as “the touch man”, such a touchy man, whenever he talked to us he always had to be touching someone, turned into quite a fun game. On the bus we had the first of many many games of Uno and at our first stop I was finally able to buy a swim suit which had been such a mission for the last week. Unfortunately swimsuits ... read more

我们去了丽江。We went to Lijiang. Getting to the train station was pretty exciting in itself, they were already preparing for the huge crowds of when millions of people leave the city for spring festival (lantern festival) over only a couple of days. Hopefully I wont be travelling then. Getting into the train I think is most I will ever feel like Harry Potter, it was great going into our little compartment where we would spend the next 25 hours. The beds we chose were soft sleepers, but really it’s the same as any Chinese bed so very hard, but still we had the privacy and nobody joined us in our compartment, which was great. Almost as soon as I got on I fell asleep because it was so comfortable and easy on the train, plus I ... read more

Christmas in office It’s getting quite festive here but still not the same as home, decorations are going up including a Christmas tree. The party is tomorrow, and we still have a whole lot of planning to do. So far today I have spent the whole time downloading Christmas songs (I’m in charge of music), which so far has made me miss home the most, a New Zealand Christmas would be quite nice. Apparently other than doing music and games I will also be filling the role of Santa Claus, which will be quite odd as I am still quite far off a big white beard and the big belly, however I do think I have gained some weight since being here, all the eating out and the amount of eating we do. Anyway since the ... read more

Today it rains in China! First time ive seen anything close to rain here so quite a novelty. last night we went shopping but found nothing . . . well I found nothing, paris bought all sorts of odd things. we did go to a really nice restaurant, in a little back alley which was fun. also we explored a big maze of alleys with all sorts of shops in it. look really cool, I should have taken more photos Tomorrow we have the day off and wednesday also so the plan is to take the coach bus down to Zhuhai and stay a night there, not really sure what it will be like but we shall see.... read more

No sign of the police last night, the people in the office don’t think it’s an issue at all so were not worried. Yesterday one of the lady bosses gave me a really cool static lamp as an early birthday present, which was really cool. I think birthdays must be quite a big deal here. The office girls are all having a lot of fun with the Christmas decorations and we are still planning the Christmas party, or parties now as we have decided to have one for the younger students and one for the adult students. The internet net is being setup at our house today, so that will make life abit easier, but still there isn’t a whole lot we can do on the internet because of the censorship. This morning I got a ... read more