Well it has been a most interesting week here in Baise- I have had both earthquakes and weddings - talk about going to extremes!!.

Apparently we had a small earthquake on Sunday....announcements were made over the PA system telling students and staff what to do if we were hit by a bigger one......unfortunately I still don't understand enough Chinese so was lucky that someone translated the message for me!! Can't say I felt the earth move but we have so much construction going on at school that loud banging and crashing is par for the course!!

Anyway made for some interesting class discussion this week especially as we were doing a unit on emotions and feelings....funnily enough earthquakes featured heavily under the category of "I feel afraid when....".

I was also privileged enough to be invited to attend one of the teachers nephew's wedding. Having never been to a Chinese wedding I was absolutely delighted by the invitation and accepted immediately. I then did a quick internet search to ensure I was aware of basic Chinese wedding customs and traditions....and of course any do's and dont's. For example you dont wear red, gold (these are for the bride) or black or white. It is suggested you wear bright colours to indicate your happiness for the couple. Then there is the "gift". Chinese tradition is that you put money in a specially designed red envelope. Pregnant women can't attend as it is considered bad luck for the new couple- luckily that was definately NOT an issue for me!!!

Having chosen (bought) an outfit in appropriate colours with a nice new bright pink handbag I then headed into the city to buy the "red envelope" to put the money in. All set to go....and what an adventure just getting to the village!! Still not sure where it is but we went over some barely passable roads/tracks, through sugar cane fields and finally arrived in the village.

Being the only westerner in attendance caused quite a bit of excitement for the guests who spent a lot of time looking at me, smiling a lot and of course wanting the obligatory photo!! There were about 400 guests and we seemed to do a lot of eating and drinking....and that was BEFORE the bride and groom arrived!! I was invited to help prepare the bridal room which was a great honour as well as loads of fun with the giggling girls and ladies. Sure are different from western weddings..here they are all day events with many rituals such as setting a table with full meal for the "spirits", burning incense, burning paper money to ward off evil spirits and then there are the fireworks. No firework restrictions here...it seems the more the better. What a day... one I will never forget.

Bye for now.