Summertime and the weather is hot… Any more songs I can throw in for good measure? As you can tell, the weather has finally turned from the freak wet weather we had in April, and although this is now the ‘official’ rainy season, it strangely seems to have brought mostly sunshine and heat along with it. Temperatures are on average about 35 degrees and this means we will hopefully no longer look like typical pasty white Scots again. Actually, we fit in quite well here as most of the people want to be as white as us lol. However, the humidity is another thing altogether and on some days you feel like you could cut the air in half it’s so heavy and cloying. The rain (when it does come) seems to last for a few ... read more

Our hotel room is lovely (and really quiet- not a circular saw within earshot, hurrah!) but the only negative is that it is extremely hot so I get quite a restless sleep and wake up rather dehydrated. It’s 11.30am so we drag ourselves out of bed whilst we can still claim it is morning (you’d think it gets easier to get up early as you get older, but for me it seems harder- probably because I need more beauty sleep than most). I can imagine many people gasping at how late we are waking up based on how much we have to see and do here, but we know we’ll be up much later than most people, so it will surely balance itself out. Anyway, it’s clear, blue skies outside and the sun is shining, so ... read more

Our train to Beijing doesn’t leave until 6pm, so for once we can get up at a leisurely time and not have to rush around whilst still half asleep (resulting in the possibility of forgetting vital documents, or ending up travelling in the wrong direction- not like that's something that has ever happened to us before....). I’m really excited for the trip, but also really nervous about the 21 hour train journey, sharing a carriage with 2 strangers who might be complete nutters. And that’s after we even manage to get on the right train. But unlike our trip to Guilin, this time we have proper allocated seat numbers, and trains tend to run much more efficiently than buses without the need to stop at disgusting service stations. And at the risk of sounding judgemental, the ... read more

February Apart from September (when we didn’t have a clue where we were and what we were doing), February has been one of the bleakest months in our Chinese travels so far. Why? I hear you ask. Well, let me explain. Firstly, we have the holiday blues after having a great time in Bali with great weather and great company (most of the time anyway lol). We only had 2 actual weeks holiday off compared to everyone else here who had a full month off, but that’s still long enough for us to get lazy and out of the habit of teaching. Secondly, our kids came back after the holidays as enthusiastic as we are, and it seems every classroom rule and word of English we have taught them has completely vanished into thin air. So ... read more

Woo-ooh we’re going to Ba-li. Whoo-ooh, back to the island When 4pm on sunday comes around I actually do a little dance around the classroom as we are finally finished work for two whole weeks! My students look at me like i'm even more weirder than usual as I skip out of the classroom singing 'holiday-ay'. We feel we've earned it and can't believe we've made it through our first term alive. We head home and do a quick turnaround before heading to catch our bus to Hong Kong where we're staying for the evening. Our original plan was to have a few beers on the bus journey there but we are so knackered that a coffee sounds much more appealing at the moment. Conveniently, they've just opened a new Starbucks right next to the hotel ... read more