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 massage. Walking down the flat stairs in the dark, Niki walked around the corner of the hallway first, she then screamed so loud that Emily thought there was a man about to kill us. After running back up the stairs Niki then broke the news that there was a chicken chilling on the window ledge in the hallway. Niki just wants to let everyone know that although this doesn't sound very scary, having to walk past the chicken (which took about 15 minutes) in a confined space was a very traumatic experience and if she has learned anything from her experience in China so far it is that she has a phobia of Chickens. After meeting up with Angela and Eric (a little later than planned because of the situation) we then experienced our first massage in China, a Thai massage which was quite a painful experience. We now know where the expression Chinese burn comes from! Next time we will definitely opt for a nice relaxing oil massage. Whilst Emily's masseuse didn't seem to have any vocal chords Niki's masseuse was kind enough to inform her that she must exercise more and that she sits down too much. Much to Niki's delight the chicken was still there when we got back and had to relive the traumatic experience over again.

The next day we decided to meet up with Alex and Evan, two of the teachers we met on the orientation week who are living in Xiangtan too. We ventured over to the other side of the river to a more developed part of the city. We got excited when we saw a Starbucks and our mouths started to water at all the western snacks and desserts they sold. We then went for a buffet as we struggle to order off a menu that consists of Chinese symbols. It was £6 each and all you can eat and drink. It had a wide variety of dishes such as steak, chips, oysters, crab, rice, sushi, chicken and much more with ice cream and popcorn for dessert. After dinner we went to the arcade, where as you can imagine the Chinese were amazing at games such as the dance machine and the drums on rock band.

We weren't as prepared with our lesson plans this week and for those who don't understand a word that you are saying it's good to have at least a power point prepared. Although we have a guideline for each lesson, every class is different ability and their behaviour differs. Niki sent two children out of her class this week and after speaking with one of the Chinese teachers who suggested with this particular class to just play games with them Niki decided that it would not help their English and doesn't want to just babysit them so she'll battle through. In one of Emily's class they had already done the task that she set them with another teacher so sat and watched the film Silent Hill with them which was cool.

After going to English corner last week we made a few Chinese friends and invited a few of them out with us after this week's English corner. Before going to the club we went to Mcdonalds where the girls couldn't get over how much we ate. These girls were 19 and 20 and were at university and it was funny to hear that it was only the second time that they had been to a club because their first time was a traumatic experience for them. They told us the horror of when one lad tried to dance with them (I don't think they could sense our sarcasm when we acted really shocked at this). She told us that she had not long split up with her boyfriend and that she cried herself to sleep every night for about a day, we tried to maintain a sympathetic face but I don't think she quite realised what she had said to us. After the Mcdonalds we took the girls to YoYo bar. Being one of the only foreigners in Xiangtan has its perks, everyone in the club started clapping us and offering us drinks. The look on the girls faces as we walked into the club however was as if we had just took them to hell, I don't think they were used to loud music and half naked drunken Chinese men, they were literally covering their faces with shock. One of the Chinese girls then paid for a bottle of vodka for the table and insisted that we don't repay her as she was the host (I'm pretty sure that we were the ones that invited her out) but she told us that this was a Chinese tradition that we had to respect.

This weekend we stayed in Xiangtan and were taken out by mr Liu and his friends. We were picked up in this shiny white 4 wheel drive with tinted windows and taken to one of the local clubs to watch some performances and listen to yet more house remixes. Loads of alcohol and snacks were bought over to the table, we were loving the popcorn but not so much the dogs neck. As we want to try everything once we did try the dogs neck, although it was spicy it didn't taste that bad. Niki would like to apologise to her Dog Max and hopes that it wasn't a Westy that she ate. We then went for a 'light dinner' afterwards where we sampled whole frogs (which actually weren't that bad) as well as lobsters which were beautiful. When asking mr Liu what they were he first replied dragons which we found quite amusing. In order to get to the delicious edible lobster we had to put on gloves and dissect them ourselves.. Mr Liu also brought along yet another girlfriend as well as the girlfriend that we had met before. Although Mr Liu has a wife we were witnessing two other girlfriends fighting for Mr Liu's attention.

For men, having multiple partners In China is not rare, although we ourselves find this very degrading towards women we were happy to hear from the younger generation of women that they don't think it is acceptable. They think that China; like England has done, is Changing in that women are becoming more equal. In past decades China has had a one child policy and often aborted their child if they discovered they were having a girl, because of this China have a substantially higher percentage of men than women. This means there aren't enough women to marry all the men and women can choose to be a little bit more picky with who they marry. The girls even said now they know of women who have had multiple partners so ironically men kind of f***ed themselves over.

Life in China is very different from England and although we are starting to get used to it, we think this is the perfect opportunity to try and explain the difference in cultures (although it is definitely something you'd have to experience in order to understand). For instance the Chinese word for "erm" is n****r and if you think how many times we say erm everyday that's how many times we hear n****r and the Chinese say erm about 10 times before they come out with what they want to say lol. We can't help but feel awkward every time they say it so god knows what black people living in China think lol.

Living in China definitely makes you appreciate England a lot more, just little things that we take for granted like drinking water in every house and being able to flush toilet paper down the toilet. Even though we pay ridiculous amounts of taxes it pays for our healthcare where other countries have to pay for health insurance that not everyone can afford. At least in England we make sure even the poorest of people can have free treatments if they're ill. Despite the weather we think we live in a pretty good country that looks after us and we should all stop moaning so much about it as many other countries have it a lot worse.

This weekend we have also been christened with our Chinese names. Emily translates to I May Lee. I being her last name and May Lee her first name (Chinese say their last name first). It is really important in china what the name means so I May Lee means love beautiful which the Chinese think fits Emily very well. Nicole on the other hand doesn't translate to anything so Eric our Chinese friend gave Nik the Chinese name Ning Jing which means silent. Eric went on to further explain it meant outgoing on the outside but inside you are trying to find peace of the heart. Not sure why he choose this particular name for Nik but thats our name's which were getting used to lol.

Next weekend is national holiday for China so we have booked, along with some of the other foreign teachers to go to Shanghai for the week which will be fun.

Zai jian