I realise I've been pretty bad at keeping my blog up to date, so, again, I'm going to try and catch it up!

25th October 2008

Beginning where I left off, I went to have my Hepatitis B injection at the doctors on that Saturday evening. It was cold that night and it had rained all weekend. Lisa was going to help me to buy at bike but since it was raining so much, we decided to postpone it. The doctors on campus is funny, there's a turtle in a dish bowl that looks dead, and I thought it was but it had moved to a different position before we left. Whilst we were waiting someone carried two live chickens through!

The remainder of that weekend and week was a bit of a wash out. The weather was cold and horrible and I can't really remember anything that happened!

That Friday was Halloween. We were invited out in the evening by the Yiyang tourist board, we had been told we would go on a tour of the city but because the weather was bad we were going to watch some kind of show instead. We arrived casually late at the hotel and found out it was a very formal dinner with entertainment! (It would be nice if people would inform us of these things properly). Me and Rich were put on different tables, I think he got the worst deal because I knew more people on my table including Lisa, two of my students and Joe the American teacher and his wife. It was an interesting night and we got to watch lots of local dancing and eat lots of local food. We were served red wine (wooo!) and even had knives and forks! Although, I'm not sure I'd know where to start if I had to use a knife and fork to eat Chinese food, so I stuck to the chopsticks.

Afterwards me and Rich decided to go to a bar, we asked our students and Lisa but they all had other things to do. We tried a new bar which was equally as expensive and rubbish as the other one, however it was all decorated for Halloween, people were in fancy dress and we got a free mask! We didn't stay long though because it was expensive, we caught a taxi back to campus and went for some trusty BBQ and Pijou!

1stNovember 2008

The rest of the weekend was fairly quiet although I went shopping on Sunday and dragged Rich along. He had not been to the bridge or river area of the city so he put up with my shopping to have a bit of an explore. I bought two jumpers (it's getting very cold) and some shoelaces, which was the aim of my trip. My bargaining didn't go very well, I bought a 30RMB hoodie and managed to knock a cardigan down from 45RMB to 40RMB, but after talking to my students they told me I should be able to knock all prices down by half! I was please enough though with my cheap clothes and I know for next time, and at least I'm a little warmer!

After going into town on Sunday I decided I would go for a long walk the next time I had a free day and the weather was nice. That turned out to be the following Tuesday! I didn't go for the long walk I had anticipated but I had a good explore around the bridge area of the city. I found the temple although I didn't go in, and I walked around all the back streets and found some very strange markets. There was lots of fruit and veg as well as live animals and fish ready to be chopped up for you. I saw a woman grab a duck by it's neck and a cleaver and decided it was time to move on quickly! Chinese people appear to be able to do anything with a cleaver, scale fish, chop up a chicken, kill ducks, peel potatoes etc, I don't think they ever use anything else!

Whilst I was walking around town I caught a man just about to open my backpack (luckily I am quite aware of my belongings). He just looked at me then turned around and walked away, I was left standing speechless until I realised I couldn't shout anything in Chinese anyway so I just had to shrug it off, I bought a new key ring though to keep my bag closed!

The rest of the week was quiet steady just working and relaxing. On Thursday morning I went to the other campus to do some printing for my writing class. Whilst I was there I met Peter and he gave me a letter from Nanny. I finished at the other campus quite early so I decided to stop on my way back home to reply to the letter. I found some paper and sat down in KFC with a coffee, but it was raining very heavily and it took me a long time to find the post office I'm glad I had my umbrella!

On Friday I finished my lessons in the morning then caught a taxi to Changsha, it was nice to get out of my small city for a while. I stayed with Matt and Jonny at Hunan International Economics University (or the University of Reflected Sounds of Underground Spirits if you're in the know). Their university was very fancy and they had so much on their campus! Shops, lakes etc! They have an entire floor to themselves in their apartment block, so they have 4 large en-suite rooms between them, plus a big balcony on the roof.

That evening was quite quiet, me and Matt went into the city centre and met up with Sam G. We went for a very pleasant western meal, my fruit pizza wasn't as bad as it sounds (there was some confusion and I assumed it meant vegetable…) and then we went for a swift beer before getting an early night.

8th November 2008

On Saturday morning we went into the city centre again and waited in McDonalds for Mat E to arrive (mmm coffee). We then decided to go and get subway for lunch (Changsha is always a western pig-out). Afterwards we had some time to kill before we were meeting up with other people and we decided to try to find a birthday present for Amy. The boys were not impressed by shopping, especially since it was very girly shopping, but I'm not sure what they expected! We found an awesome little shopping centre though that had all kinds of cool, cute and nerdy things, including the most WoW memorabilia I've ever see anywhere! I struggled to stay on topic in these shops and in the end had to just force myself to walk past things.

Later in the afternoon we met Amy and went for a very nice coffee, complete with cute kitten! We gave Amy her present then met up with Sam, Aggy and their Chinese friend Rosemary and went for a Korean meal. I'd never had Korean before but it was very nice. There was a BBQ in the middle of the table so we ordered some snacks for that, then all ordered our own dishes I had spicy cabbage and rice which was like a tomato risotto, it was lovely, especially since I'd been missing tomato sauces a lot! Matt ordered dog, much to most people's disgust. Apparently it's like beef but with lots of fat, and doesn't come too highly recommended.

After the meal, Amy took us to a very cool bar, with cheap beer! The only shame was it was very empty, but there was free pool so we were happy. Me and Matt went to meet Jonny and his Chinese girlfriend Mary a bit later in the evening and it was nice to catch up with him since I was staying in his apartments and hadn't seen him until then! Amy also introduced us to another foreign teacher who had just started in Changsha. He was from Coventry so had a little sound of home and was much older than the rest of us but it's always good to talk to someone new.

When we left the bar we had a detour to McDonalds (and some veggie street food for me) then we took a taxi back to the uni and I had a looooong sleep.

The following day was a complete waste of space!!!!!! Me, Mat and Matt walked towards the gate of the uni where I was dropped off. We grabbed some noodles for brunch then put Mat on a bus and waved him goodbye. Matt stayed with me a little longer but then had to go and unlock some things for Jonny so I went to wait where I would be picked up by my taxi.

Stupid me thought that the "front gate" where I was dropped off was the same "front gate" where I would be picked up. After waiting for an extra half an hour I get a call from Lisa asking me where I am, I explain I'm waiting where I was dropped off, which I assumed was the front gate. To cut this long very boring story short, I gave my phone to some random student and his girlfriend so they could help Lisa work out where I was. They then took me by school bus to the front gate, then the taxi changed it's mind and they took me back to where we were in the first place. They were very kind and stayed with me and bought me a drink, but after about another half an hour I had a call from Lisa saying the taxi would be a long time and I should o back to Matt's apartment (it was a 15 minute walk from the gate) to get some rest. I said goodbye to my helpers and headed towards Matt's, he was walking down to meet me. We met about half way just as I heard from Lisa telling me the taxi would be 20 minutes. I went with Matt to wait by the gate and still the taxi never came. After some time Jonny and Mary came walking past, when we were still having no luck and the taxi couldn't find us, I asked Mary to talk to Lisa. This seemed to fix the problem and she managed to explain to the taxi driver where to go. Eventually the taxi turned up, 3 hours later than intended!

When I got home I had a shower and a rest before catching an early night.

Monday was fairly quiet, me an Rich went for some night food to have a bit of a catch up.

On Tuesday I decided to take up one of my student's offer to help me learn Chinese, and I took her out for pizza. Partly because I thought it would be nice for her and a good trade, and partly because I just wanted someone to come with me for pizza! She is really nice, her name is Darcy. She had never had western food before, not even KFC, and it was funny to see someone struggling with a knife and fork instead of laughing at me with chopsticks.

The pizza wasn't that great, we had another fruit one because there wasn't much vegetarian, and we also shared an Italian meat one since I thought it would be a bit rubbish if we went for pizza then I decided we couldn't stay because they didn't have veggie. Also, Chinese pizza doesn't seem to have grasped the idea of tomato sauce on them.

After we had eaten too much pizza, we had a bit of a walk through town. She bought me some local food form the street vendors and I had something that was like taffy, some really sweet boiled sweets that weren't very nice, and some "very traditional" food that was made out of (you've guessed it!) rice. It was like mushy rice wrapped into a cone shape inside a leaf. Quite strange, but very nice.

That evening me and Rich were walking to get some food and I heard this really cheesy romantic music, I turned around and it was coming from an old clapped out looking truck moving slowly down the road. I was laughing at it thinking the country was crazy when it passed us and I realised there was a lion and a bear on the back in cages! By this point I was just dumbfounded!

We followed the truck to a tent just outside out apartments. A circus was setting up shop and we watched them unload the animals before we went to get some food. Rich asked Lisa about the circus whilst we were getting our food and we found out it was only there for one night so we decided we had to see it and invited Lisa along.

The circus was crazy. That has to be the only way to describe it. The tent was old and the seats where lacking in legs. There was a metal fence set up in a circle in the middle where the performances took place but it looked like it would fall down if you pushed it too hard. There were lots of kids about with lowing sticks and really loud cheesy dance music blaring out of crappy speakers.

I'm sure it's unlikely I'll ever get the opportunity to see a circus like that again. The acrobats were amazing! There were three of them, they did stunts with poles, wires and ropes. The juggling with hats still needed some practice though and the magic trick was clever but not very interesting. The bear was awesome and very clever. There was a small man who did some wire bending and some strange poses, but I didn't really get that act maybe there was something lost in translation. There was a really skittish horse which didn't look happy to be doing anything. The lions and "tigers" were funny, sad and scary all at the same time. The "tiger" was a female lion with lines painted on it. Even though it was clearly the same animal as the other one next to it, the circus insisted it was a tiger and even Lisa though it had "tiger like ears". Towards the end of the show they stopped doing what the man told them to do, and started roaring and I became aware of how flimsy the fence was between us and the probably hungry circus lion.

It was an experience, that wasn't entirely pleasant, but it was interesting.

Afterwards, Lisa took us for some "sticky" night food (so called because it's food, on sticks, sitting in a big bowl of chilli water, mmm hygienic!) and we had some milk tea yummmmy!

The rest of the week was comparatively un-eventful, although I did have a small adventure on Wednesday afternoon. I went to try to find the train station on the bus, but went the wrong way and ended up somewhere I didn't recognise and had to catch a taxi instead! At the train station, after some confusion and some help from a lady in the queue I booked a later ticket to Wuchang than I'd hoped, then managed to get on a bus back to campus. It went through parts of the city I had not seen before, clearly the more well off end of town! And I also found the Olympic Park so I will be visiting there when I have time!

I had no classes on Friday because of a sports meeting so I took it easy and did my packing and some marking. I left my apartment about 3pm and set off for my first solo travel venture in China. It went quite smoothly, I left a good amount of time for evertying, and after a loooong 6 hours on a train I arrived in Wuchang at about 11pm. Again there was some confusion with a taxi (I think I'm jinxed) and I really didn't know where I was when he tried to drop me at the side of a main road, so I rang Elisha who had already arrived at the hostel and she let the reception give directions to the taxi driver.

When I finally arrived, I checked in, then had a beer and a chat to Elisha before getting some sleep.