Tuesday night I got to meet my postgraduate students for the first time. Most of the students have usual English names but one has the delightful name of "timely rain"!! My role with these students is to have them speaking English fluently and be able to read and understand English nursing literature. The number of students will vary from week to week depending on their work commitments. All of the students are working, studying for their Masters and some are also teaching - what a workload. They seem to be an interesting group so I'm looking forward to some lively discussions about contemporary nursing issues.

The postgrads have quite a eclectic mix of research areas including neonates, diabetes, digestive system, women's health, osteoporosis as well as medical and surgical and are all very interested in Western nursing practices, Mind you I think I've stepped through a time zone and gone back 20 years.......they still wear white uniforms AND caps here!!!

I still haven't got very far with exploring the city but this week I've learnt how to use the Metro (subway) and one of the local buses. The difficulty is that all the bus signs are in Chinese so you have to learn which bus goes where!! Could take me quite a while I think. The Metro lines seem easier so long as I work out which stop to get of at to see the different sights. Will be much cheaper than using taxis which seems to be the way of many foreigners here.

I'm finding it quite ironic that I've traveled all the way to China to experience the 'big' western stores such as Walmart, Carrefour and Ikea to name a few. They will be handy for getting things like cheese and butter which aren't sold in the Chinese supermarkets and as I've told many people it was cheese that I really missed at my last job.

I finally got my campus card on Friday so I can prove I'm a member of the faculty when/if I need to . We do have a separate dining room which apparently serves slightly better food than the students cafeteria. All in all the meals on campus are pretty good but not as cheap as my previous school. Actually most things here seem to be more expensive so I may not be able to save much with this job.

Not many photo opportunities this week. A few photos on the bus ride to the other campus of suburban Nanjing as well as some street sculptures and I've found one of "the" shopping streets - Taiping Road - 2 kms of shops apparently with everything from jewelry stores to rattan garbage bins!!

The weather is starting to warm up during the days now so I'll be able to get out and about to see the sights without freezing to death.

Bye for now. xx