With the end of the semester and a bit of time before I set off on my holiday I've braved the cold and set about to see a bit more of Nanjing. Headed off to visit the Nanjing Museum only to find that it was closed and being renovated!! Oh well...put it back on my list of places to visit for the future. Instead I wandered a bit further and visited the area where the Ming Palace originally stood and ended up having a most interesting afternoon. Firstly a bit of hi...

Not a lot to report this week as I've spent most of the week in bed/apartment trying to fight off this dreadful cold. Didn't even get to go out for my birthday...,was just not feeling up to it and by then I'd lost all sense of taste and could not see the point in spending a lot of money on food I couldn't enjoy. Once I've recovered I intend to head off to the Aussie bar for a good feed of imported Aussie steak and chips!!! Not very exciting you might say but give...

Here's hoping you all had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying the break in preparation for your New Year celebrations. Christmas Day here was a very quiet affair.....it seemed very strange to look out over my balcony to see students in the classrooms taking lessons!! I managed to talk to quite a few people thanks to the wonders of Skype (oh where would I be without you!!) and it was lovely to see and talk to people actually enjoying the day. Thanks to all thos...

Well I am not bombarded with Christmas carols when I go shopping but many places have made the effort to put up decorations so we are getting a bit of a festive feel. Even the ayis in our apartment building have taken the effort to decorate the entrance for us and as it seems I'm the designated "style queen" they were all waiting yesterdy for my show of approval.....in Chinese of course!! Anyway I managed to convey my thoughts is rather halting, basic Chinese and...

Well finally an evening at home and time to write an update. Its getting very hard to go out teaching of an evening now that it is SO cold. Still cant get over the fact we have no heating in the classrooms and to make things worse for some bizarre reason they insist on leaving the windows open!! Needless to say they all get closed in my classes even if it just gives me the illusion of warming the room up! This week we have had a few things happening...... Firstl...