I'm getting this blog written before I forget! Matt's visit was a lot of fun, but I need to start a little bit before it...

Warning: Is very long!!!!

Tuesday 31st March

I can't remember this week too well because it was a while ago. On Tuesday we had our first Chinese lesson! (finally...) It was really good to have some proper things to learn and our teacher, Adelle, is really nice. After class we went out for dinner with the students who helped Rich when he went to hospital, and also asked Adelle and John to join us.

Rich wanted oysters so we went to John's brother's restaurant and the meal was really good and a lot of fun. After we had finished eating, Adelle asked if we wanted to go skating with her, so some of us went back to campus with her. Rich played pool with a student called Michael and I went roller skating with the girls. An area had been set up next to the west gate with flashing lights and loud music and for 2rmb I could skate around in a circle and feel like I was eight years old again, it was awesome haha!!

I can't remember Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from that week, I think most of it was spent avoiding cleaning and doing work...

Saturday the weather was horrible! Which was OK, because I spent the whole day inside, cleaned my apartment and did some work.

I woke up Sunday morning and caught a taxi to Changsha about 11am. When I arrived in the city centre I met Amy, Sam and Anna and went to Papa John's for pizza mmmmmm! I'd not seen Sam and Anna since we arrived in China so it was really good to catch up with them :) After lunch we walked around a few shops then I had to go and get on a bus to the airport! I made it about 20 mins early and managed to finish some marking before Matt arrived off the plane! :D

It was very exciting to see him, and we had a lot of catching up to do on our long trip back to Yiyang. He'd had a good trip in China before he came to Hunan and had lots of stories.

When we arrived back in Yiyang, we dropped of Matt's luggage and I opened all my parcels (woo!) then Rich came down and we went to get some food. There was a new food place set up outside the North Gate so we ate there and it was really nice. We then decided to go into town since we didn't need to be awake early the next day and went to He & She. I asked Panda and surprisingly he came along with his brother! We had a few beers and did some dancing and it was cool to have Matt there, but I really wasn't in the right mood for He & She, I think I hadn't drank enough! After, Panda had left and the three of us went for some BBQ which was nice and a bit less noisy. Oh dear I'm getting old...

Monday 6th April

We had a lazy morning on Monday then me and Matt took a bus into town and had a walk around Xiufeng park and by the river. At about 5pm we met John in the park and we went to buy some ingredients for dumplings. When we got back to campus we met my students Ava and Darcy and Ava's friend who was very good at cooking so we named her Jamie. They were very good and took charge of the dumpling making, although we had bought the wrong ingredients at the supermarket and John went running around campus for the right stuff. Rich came down,and us English people just generally supervised and drank beer, haha, although I did make some curry flavoured filling and my students were watching me like I was crazy. They all really liked it when they tried it though, mmm I love curry!

Once we had made, cooked and eaten all the delicious dumplings we decided, for some reason, that it would be a good idea to play Kings. My students were only drinking orange juice but I'm not sure it was the best judgement teaching them a drinking game... it was fun though!

The students had to leave at 11pm or they would be locked out of their dormitory so me, Matt, Rich and John were left with nothing to do. We decided to go out and John took us to the centre of town where we could sit and eat a little BBQ, have some beers and be around other people. It was as close to a pub that we could find in China. It was really nice to sit outside and relax, we even saw Panda briefly, and we were there pretty late. We finally left at about 3am when most of the BBQ had emptied.

On Tuesday me and Matt had planned to visit some places in Yiyang with Ava. After getting up late we met her at about midday and took the bus into town. We met up with John, the four of us went for some lunch then walked to the temple. It was surprisingly a very nice temple, and even catered for tourists and had signs in English! We made our way higher through the temple and when we got near the top we met a woman who at first seemed very friendly, Hello! She shook my hand, then, Goodbye! I was a little confused, but after not so long we realised that she was a little crazy, and just helped the monks at the temple. Sometimes she was nice and sometimes she shouted at us, she kept following us until John told her to go away. Whilst we were at the temple, some monks performed some special prayers for someone who had recently died and we were allowed to stay so we watched part of it and it was very interesting.

When we had finished in the temple we walked a bit further down the road to another park with a "mountain". We walked to the top in about five minutes then had a rest with a view of the city, it was really good to be able to sit outside and relax, surrounded by trees.

After a while we walked back down the "mountain" and decided to go and visit the big lake near to the university. We caught the bus there and had a walk around then went to play on the outside gym/play ground. There was some monkey bars, I've not been on them since I was a kid in Petaluma! It was very cool, although I couldn't really do it any more.

When it got a bit later we were all very tired so we went back to campus and John went home. Me and Matt went to the west gate for a BBQ tea and Rich came to join us. We were all really tired and didn't stay there for very long. When we went back to my apartment we just had a quiet evening looking at photos, then had an early night.

On Wednesday I had my first class with Matt at 10am. It went well, it was a freshman class and I was teaching them how to sing "I want to hold your hand" by The Beatles and "Thank you" by Dido. Matt was very keen and joined in which was nice and all my students seemed to enjoy having him in class. When we finished, some students asked us to go to lunch with them and we went to a new place near the west gate, it was really nice and they are famous for their aubergine and beans, which was great because it's one of my favourite Chinese dishes!

After lunch we had a rest then went to meet Lisa about 3pm. We had to go to the Police station first to register Matt being in Yiyang, and then we had to go to the bank because I'd lost my bank card (again...). When we arrived at the Police station, Lisa wasn't there and we had to try and explain things ourselves. We didn't get very far at all, but it was funny trying to talk to them when I spoke about 3 words of Chinese and they spoke about 3 words of English. When I didn't really understand the question, I usually answered "maybe..?". It turns out one of the questions was "Is Matt your boyfriend?" Lisa told me afterwards haha, so it started some false rumours. Eventually after a lot of hand waving, Lisa arrived and saved the day.

We then went to the bank, her boyfriend gave us a lift, they are no longer pretending just to be good friends, awwww! True love does happen in China! :D It didn't take long in the bank, we've done it that many times before, and we got back about 5pm. We then had a run around trying to get ready to go out for Matt's birthday bash.

Matt had decided to be grumpy and come to China and refuse to try KTV, so we had a quick change of plan. Me, Rich and Matt went into town and met John and Kevin for a meal near to John's brothers. It was a nice meal, but Kev was busy and left afterwards. Lisa had decided not to come, I guess because we kept changing our mind about what to do, so the four of us had a bit of a walk around the town and then decided to go to bar 77. On the way, me and John stopped to buy a birthday cake for Matt :D It wasn't very boy looking, had some kind of teddy and some flowers on it, but it was the best we were going to get!

The night in the bar was pretty funny, we made some Chinese friends, danced to the Macarena, Matt did some pole dancing and John was that drunk he did just about anything haha. After we finished in the bar we went back to the BBQ place from Monday night and sat around chatting until it got pretty late and we decided we should go home to bed!

Thursday was comparatively quiet... We got up late and I had two freshman classes in the afternoon. Matt came along but I think he was getting sick of The Beatles and Dido by the time we were finished. After class, we went to the West gate for some food with Rich and John and played a little bit of pool on the most wonky table I've ever seen. After a few games, everyone was struggling to still stand up so we went home and had a rest.

Me and Matt had a quiet night in and had some cream cheese and crackers and played some magic with the decks he'd brought with him, ahhh it was almost like being home!

Friday was an early morning start, but Matt was a good sport and came to my final classes that week, my students seemed to find it pretty exciting he was there! In the first class we played a card game that involved truth or dare, it was a change from singing and Matt joined in to supervise one of the two groups. John came to class but I think he was still hung over from Wednesday and spent most of the lesson asleep until he was woken up by a dare. We had another freshman singing class after that, then we were done for the weekend!

We went to the canteen for lunch with Rich then went back to my apartment to get packed for the weekend. We were going to go skating but I was really tired and ended up having a nap (sorry Matt!).

For Matt's last evening in Yiyang we decided to go to Jono's for a nice western style meal. Rich, Kev and John joined us and it was nice to go to a proper restaurant. After we finished eating, Kev went home and the rest of us spent the night in various places around the city. We went to the travelling Xinjiang BBQ market which was awesome because I bought some bread! We then went to Xiufeng park, had a walk around in the dark and pretty lights, watched the dancers and even had some sparklers. When we had finished walking around we went to sit at the BBQ next to the park. A girl was dared by her friends to give Rich a rose, she was very friendly and we ended up going to sit next to them. They had to leave about midnight so when it got a little lonely we decided to take a taxi to the centre of town and went to another outside restaurant. Rich ordered some oysters, I had some tofu and we had a few more beers and enjoyed the rest of the night.

We went home about 3am when we realised we had to wake up quite early the following morning. I think it was the best night I've had in Yiyang so far :)

On Saturday, me and Matt woke up too early and went to wait for our taxi to Changsha. It was chucking it down. When we arrived in Changsha we waited in the hotel for everyone else to turn up and when Keri, Steve, Mat and Amelia arrived we checked in then went to the city centre. We couldn't really decide what to do and couldn't get in touch with anyone, so we went for lunch in Subway (!!) and then decided to go to the arcade. The boys went straight there and me, Keri and Amelia went to meet Jonny and do a bit of shopping. I bought some jeans super quick then we went to find Jonny and met back up with everyone else.

When we were bored of the arcade, we decided to go for a beer until Sam and Aggy arrived. We ended up staying in a bar for quite a while and when they finally arrived it was quiet late so we went for dinner. We decided to go to a Brazilian BBQ restaurant and for 55rmb each we could eat as much food as we wanted and drink as much beer or wine as we wanted! We ended up being there a long time and were politely asked to leave when they were closing.

After the restaurant we decided to go for some more cheap beer at 4698. It is a decent bar and we ended up staying and chatting pretty late, although Keri, Steve, Mat and Amelia left early. Matt had a short nap at one point when apparently we were doing too much teacher talk, how rude! Haha. Eventually we decided to go and find some street BBQ, but for some unknown reason we couldn't find any at all! I'm not sure what had happened to Changsha's usually heaving BBQ trade! Eventually we found one hidden down a side street and had a bit of a snack before going back to the hotel for a nice sleep.

On Sunday we managed to crawl out of bed about 10am and everyone checked out of the hotel except for Matt who was staying another night. This conveniently meant I didn't have to carry my bags around! We split up and decided to meet in an hour for lunch, so me, Matt, Mat and Amelia first went to try to cash Matt's travellers cheques. After two banks, a taxi, nearly dying trying to cross a main road and a never ending queue we gave up and just went to the city centre. Mat got some phone credit then we went to wait in McDonalds with a coffee until the others arrived.

Sam also came back into town and the seven of us went for lunch at a Chinese cafe on the walking street. It was a cheap and easy place too eat and a good place to say goodbye before everyone went home. After lunch there was only me, Mat and Sam left. We went for a walk around the shops then the boys played pool whilst I went shopping for a belt and also bough a few t shirts.

At about 3pm it was time for me to head back to Yiyang so me and Matt went back to the hotel and I called Lisa to help me get a taxi. We had a bit of a chat then said goodbye when the taxi arrived, it had been ace having Matt in China! I left him at the hotel because the next morning he was catching a flight to Shenzhen.

I slept in the taxi on the way home and ended up getting back quite late. I met Rich for a milk tea with some students when I got back and we had a quick catch up and then I had an early night, I was very tired after the previous week and couldn't face any marking!

Monday 13th April

Monday's classes went surprisingly well. My morning class in particular was very good and I had my students acting out plays that they had written. During the break of my class, a teacher called Panda came and introduced me to his friend called Robert. Robert ran a training school in the city and wanted to meet me and Richard. We ended up going for lunch with Robert and his assistant and it was actually pretty nice. He had studied in Boston and his English was really good and he was interesting to talk to. We ran into Peter that lunchtime, he was quite annoyed with Richard for not returning any of his 25 a day phone calls, "not even one!". Rich is hoping that things will calm down from now on....

In the afternoon my writing class wasn't so good and they wouldn't shut up so I made them all write a report on plagiarism since I'd had so many copied bits of homework. It was an easy class for me though and I was able to have a chat with John :)

My crazy Chinese class were as naughty and funny as ever. Our Chinese teacher Adelle came to the class and I got everyone performing fairytales. It was very entertaining haha especially the male Cinderella. I found out that Rich taught in the classroom next door and in break I went to say hi. Everyone was asleep in his classroom during the break, including John, and it was a nice rest from the screaming from my students next door!

My busy Monday didn't end after class. When we had finished teaching, me Rich and John went to the West gate to get some rice food, then we went to sit out by the BBQ and drink a few beers. When John clearly couldn't stay awake any longer he went home and me and Rich had another drink before going back to my apartment. When we got there we had a chat, listened to music and ate cheese and crackers!

Somehow, even after my busy Monday, I got up early on Tuesday and powered through! My class went well and it was so sunny! After class I did some cleaning, started writing this blog entry (it's taking a few days.... haha) and sorted some things out.

In the afternoon, me and Rich had our second Chinese lesson. It went well and we had a lot of practice pronouncing things which was really useful. It was a long class and afterwards we went with Adelle to the canteen for tea and then I had a lazy night.

On Wednesday I got up early and had a good lesson. It was still really sunny and me and Rich went for lunch near the North gate and he filled me in on some office gossip.

After lunch I decided to go into town because it was so nice. I went through a lot of hassle trying to buy some shoes, people generally laugh at my shoe size, but eventually found some nice ones that fit me! I also bought a jacket which was in a sale and then went to have my hair cut. I walked past a hairdressers and decided it was time to be brave so went in. After a lot of gesturing and with some help from my phrasebook, we managed to establish I wanted a hair cut, no massage and no colouring, and I wanted to look at some pictures. I found a picture that I though was near enough to what I wanted but the hairdressers all looked very confused and kept pointing to it. I never found out what was going on, but they cut my hair anyway so it didn't matter! Also people kept taking photos of me when I was having my hair done and I couldn't see what was going on because I had to take my glasses off! It turned out OK though and I feel much better with shorter hair.

When I got back to campus, I got changed and then met Rich for some food. We went to a new restaurant near the West gate where I had been with some students, then we met Lisa and her boyfriend at the North gate and went to Xiufeng park. We had a nice walk around the park in the dark, it was sooooo warm! Then we met up with the girl who we'd met last time we were at the BBQ there and sat with her, her boyfriend and her friend. They were really nice, but I think Lisa and her boyfriend weren't too keen on hanging out with students so they left. Me and Rich stayed until about 10pm then the students left and we went back to campus. We had a bit of BBQ by the North gate then called it a night.

Today was a nice lazy start, which made up for it being much colder and wetter! I caught up on some internet things, wrote some blog and then went to class at 2pm. I was surprised to see John there because he told me he had a very bad headache. The class went well, they are one of my most lively group of students, cards, truth and dare are popular! My second class also went well, although as usual they were much quieter.

After class I went for some food on my own because Richard was ill and had gone to the doctors. I have spent the rest of the night reading up on Chinese history on wiki which was really interesting because I was lacking in a lot of key knowledge (so if my internet dies I might not be able to write any more entries... haha) and typing up my blog.

Phew, all done!