So this week hasn't been majorly eventful as many new experiences we've had previously are starting to become normal to us but we will pinpoint some of the highlights from this week. In our block of flats we have a small hallway and the entrance doesn't have a door so it is open for anyone to walk in or out. We were invited to go for a massage with Angela and Eric; a couple living in Xiangtan who both speak English, so set off at 9pm for our nice relaxing mass...

Sooo we're very settled in China now we've been going out and exploring our city of Xiangtan a bit more. We took the bus and stumbled across a really nice park, though as soon as we got there Nik really needed a wee. Opting to not just squat in the street like some of the locals do, we practised our Chinese on an elderly couple and asked them where the nearest toilet was. After walking for 10 minutes in the opposite direction to the way they were going we were ...

So for anyone who heard about the recent earthquake in China fear not! We are okay, just a few cuts and bruises but we live to tell the tale; who needs a roof anyway? Only joking although we did take this opportunity to plan our earthquake evacuation procedure. This week we encountered our very fist thunderstorm, which happened as we decided to go and shop for essentials for our flats. There we were walking in the pouring rain in our shorts and our shopping b...

Part 2 So being very hungover from our karaoke night Mr Lui woke us up to show us the school and give us our textbooks and keys to the office. Before even having a chance to buy a bottle of water and having the worst dry mouths ever we traced up around the school and then met the rest of the group at 9.30am to begin our TEFL course with Carmine to prepare us for teaching the following week. We went through the teaching techniques and the difference in culture ...

Sooo this week has been a bit of a whirlwind, so much has happened and it will be hard to remember absolutely everything so we'll write the first half of the week now and post the rest tomorrow, but we'll start back at our eventful journey from Hong Kong to Changsha. So we got up at 4:30 to set off on our journey having pre booked no trains and hoping to wing it the whole way. Got to the subway at 5 to realise it didn't open until 6…. we knew this journey wa...