Well, a lot can happen in a month..

Since my last post about Kashgar so many things have happened, but I won't bore you with the nitty gritty details..

Coming back to Shawan was a great feeling, like returning home after a long holiday! So it was great to be back and in my own bed in our little apartment! And of course, we had little time to rest before we were back into the daily routine.

Teaching is becoming funner the more confident I get, and the more I get to know my pupils. Going into every class to be greeted by "lǎoshī hǎo" is amazing. Pupils are now even more excited and tend to run up to me for a hug, followed by spurting out just about all the English they know.. There's this one boy in grade 3 who runs up to me every day shouting "hello! How are you? My name is Bellamy! What's your name?Nice to meet you!" Before running away again, leaving me no chance to reply or process what has happened! Crazy children!

Working from 10-7.45 means that the only proper free time we get is at the weekend, and we tend to spend these sleeping! Especially when we were informed by the school that we could not leave the school grounds due to a lack of living permit.. More sleep for us then! However, the teachers did decide to come to our house and show us how to cool some noodles, before taking us to be taught some pingpong, which I am very, very bad at!

One of the best moments of this month had to have been our house getting done up, purely for the hilarity of it! Basically, our school had an inspection, so they decided to do up our house to make it look nicer.. This meant that we were given a massive television (with English movies!!) that now overtakes our small living room. The best moment was when Laura and I were sat in our bedroom and people started to come into our house as they pleased, to drop off potted plants and rearrange out furniture..Okay.. But to top it off, Later that day Laura and I were going back to the house and joking around about what we may find in the house this time.. As we opened the door we were greeted by a massive Grecian pole... Why? Well, why not..?! It is china after all.. So after a lot of laughter and attempts to move this, we now have a Grecian pole, with a potted plant on top of it, to decorate our living room.. Lovely!

Moving swiftly on.. About two weeks ago I was suddenly struck down by a grumbling appendix.. Now considering that in china they send you to a hospital if you have something as simple as the common cold, my teachers went crazy and rushed me to hospital.. After being diagnosed with chronic appendicitis (had to be me..) I found out that my insurance only covered Urumqi hospital. So Saturday morning saw Laura and I heading to Urumqi for yet another day in hospital.. After numerous blood samples and other strange tests, I got the same result and was put on a drip for three days.. Now for those of you who have experienced a grumbling appendix you'll know that the pain tends to last 24/48 hours and then goes away.. So by Monday, Laura and I were in Urumqi hospital with me feeling nothing but a dull ache.

Monday night one of my doctors invited us out for dinner with his family, and on arrival we went into the fanciest restaurant I have ever seen.. I was definitely underdressed.. To top things off that night, it even snowed!! It may have only been a tiny bit, but we all turn into big kids when we see snow.. Tuesday night was our last night in Urumqi, and again, another doctor invited us out for dinner to meet his friends. This started off nice and quietly, until we ended up at KTV until 4 in the morning.. Typical weekend to hospital..

Anyway, we managed to return to shawan for two whole days before we were off to kuitun for Halloween with all 10 xinjiang volunteers. Now, considering the kuitun vols have a tiny apartment and Laura and I are the only girls with 8 guys, it was sure to end up eventful. The weekend was filled with Jaspers, card games, bad jokes (thanks Alistair!) and KFC. All in all, weekend well spent I think!

Coming back from kuitun, we expected to be staying in shawan for more than a night, but no.. On Monday we were whisked off to Tacheng to sort out our visas.. So after a 6 hour car ride, hotel complications and the eventful attempts to find a restaurant open at 2am, we managed to get the visas and get back to shawan in decent time..

So now is it time for a full week in Shawan??

Getting back to work this week full time has been great! Almost forgot how tiring these primary school students could be.. We've even had the desk officer visit from Tom (from project trust!) and been making more friends in shawan, and have even been taken to the only club in shawan.. Finally found it!

All in all, everything is going great in shawan and china, loving every moment of it, even if it is the most tiring thing I've ever done...

Until next time! See ya!