Am getting into a regular routine of living in Nanjing now....almost starting to feel like a local. Teaching, studying, lesson planning, socialising and of course planning my next holiday!! Tibet now seems like a lifetime dream away......but never fear I'm still getting some photos from my fellow travellers and simply had to add the one of me at the Everest Base Camp altitude sign - just to prove to you all that I REALLY did make it. Still feels a little surreal......As an added bonus we have finally finished negotiating with the tour company over all the stuff ups they made and have managed to secure a 25% refund - gotta be happy with that - more money for my next adventure!!

My nursing students have all got used to me now so teaching them is a lot easier and I have a wonderful group of 2nd year students who are so enthusiastic they make teaching a joy - I love doing their class each week. And I'm told by one of the Chinese nursing instructors that I am famous amongst their group as all the students say they love my classes and often talk about what they have learned - glad to hear its all staying in their heads!! .

I've taken on some additional work for the University and am now also teaching the inaugural SP Program for International students. This is the "Standardized Patient" program for future doctors where we replicate clinical encounters consistently and realistically so that the students can fine-tune their professional skills without endangering "real" patients!! It is the first time for this University and we are one of the first Universities to run this program for International students in China so all in all I'm part of something very special. We had the official launch of the program on 4 November with much hoopla as only the Chinese can do!! The Dean had much to say (including gushing compliments about me which explains the expression on my face in the photos!) and luckily I had a friend present who could translate for me - thanks Fan Fan!!
Started teaching the program on the 7 November and it will run on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Presently I am teaching the first group of people who will act as standardised patients for the students...Doctors, teachers, administrators, Vice Dean etc etc Quite the little VIP group!!

Continue with my Chinese classes.....don't feel I know much but am starting to be able to read some of the characters and put together simple sentences. Think this will keep me busy over the cold winter months :) Mind you I did manage to shock 2 students in the canteen the other day. They were complaining about having to sit with the foreigner as there were no vacant seats...but little did they know the foreigner could understand them!!! I let them carry on for a while (literally while I sorted out the sentence structure in my head) before I said to them "zhe laowai jiaoshou bu shi ben dan" (translated - this foreign professor is no fool). The look on their faces was priceless as they stumbled over profuse apologies!!! Suddenly made learning Chinese worth all the effort and frustration to date!!

But its not all work for me. I still manage to find time to get out and about meeting up with friends for lunch and dinners, shopping (of course) manicures and massages. I went to the Uni gym this week for the first time and boy did that cause a commotion!!! Unbeknown to me the Chinese are not used to females doing weight training. I entered the gym to be stared at by all but then that is nothing new - the hair does tend to stand out amongst a sea of black!! I'm guessing my training gear was a bit of a surprise but I ignored the stares and started my warm up figuring they would soon get bored and carry on with what they had been doing.....but OH NO they continued to stare and when I went over to the weights area the boys rushed over to lift the weights for me!!!!!!! Kind of defeats the purpose somewhat!!!! I tried to explain that I was there to train but could not convince them that I wanted to actually lift weights myself.......the darling boys kept taking the weights from me with big smiles on their faces so in the end I gave up and went home. So much for my fitness regime....will have to find someone to come with me who can explain things in Chinese for me or else find a gym where women actually train!!

Well that all for now folks.....talk again soon.....love hearing from you too.
Bye for now. xxx