Jerry and I arrived in Pingyao 24 hours after leaving Guangshui! The overnight sleeper was fine and we spent 11 hours on the first train. We travelled hard sleeper. There are 10 compartments within one train carriage. Each compartment has 6 bunks and a small table with a thermos flask. Boiling water is available from a big urn at the end of each carriage. The compartments have no doors so there is no privacy and each bed has a thin sheet covered mattress, a doona and a pillow. The linen is not changed after each person uses it so you get a clean towel to spread over the pillow. We took our own pillow cases! We shared our compartment - we had a lower and middle bunk - with three young men and a mother ... read more

We've had a very busy week and are both fighting off head colds as well. Last week we attended a school 'ball'. We were 'told' to be at the basketball stadium at 7pm but of course when we arrived there was nobody else there. People starting drifting in and at 7.30 the school bus arrived full of nurses from the local hospital. The ball was to celebrate Nurse's Day and to allow the young male teachers to meet young unattached ladies! We were herded into the stadium which was decorated with candles in plastic buckets and a disco ball in the centre of the dance floor. The electrical cord from the disco ball was strung across the floor and all night people kept tripping it! Safety regulations in China are nonexistent.... The nurses sat along one ... read more

Jerry and I have six days off this weekend due to the students sitting for mid term exams and then the Labour Day holiday break. The students have been very stressed this week and some have come to me in tears asking for help - they are very worried about failing their exams but unfortunately there is not much I can do to help them except give them an encouraging word or two. I have found teaching difficult the last ten days, particularly at the old school. I actually walked out of one class after a group of students were very rude to me and wouldn't settle down - I went back 10 minutes later and they were perfectly behaved after that - no doubt they got into trouble from the rest of the class! A ... read more

Another week has gone by! Time seems to be going by very quickly. Both of us are starting to feel tired - even though we aren't working particularly hard I guess just living here is starting to catch up with us. Day to day living is certainly much harder than in Australia. This week has bought the usual weekly dramas - clogged toilet, computer problems and no water for hours a day! This weeks lesson was totally on the computer and despite trying to take my computer into the classroom prior to classes to check all was ok the teachers told me that 'you just take your computer to the classroom, plug it in and it will work - don't worry!' - mine of course didn't! We have a different brand of computer to the other ... read more

We spent last weekend in Wuhan which is two hours by train south of Guangshui. We had been planning a weekend away after we got paid. Last week was our first payday and the school paid us without any problem with a large wad of 100 yuan notes. We shall have to open a bank account eventually! I have been very stressed as the school took our passports nearly a month ago to get our Foreign Experts Certificate (which allows us to convert up to 70% of our wage into foreign currency when we leave China) and our Residency Permits which allow us to live legally in China. Anybody who was in Toowoomba before we left will know what a process it was for us to get our visas to allow us to come to China ... read more