I write this from the computer in the Xi'An volunteer apartment, which I can monopolise as no other volunteers are currently here. After thirteen hours of flights I have finally arrived! I spent the first ten and a half hour flight from Heathrow to Shanghai seated next to a gruff Glaswegian man who withstood the stress of flying with a double gin and tonic clutched constantly in his hand whilst I watched 'The Blind Side' and pretended to learn something from my Teach Yourself Mandarin Chinese kit (I can say hello now which I think is an excellent achievement and a useful word for all situations).

Arrived in Shanghai on Thursday morning with absolutely no sleep (my body clock thought bedtime had only just arrived) to be met by a driver (very snazzy) sent by one of my dad's colleague's in his firm's Shanghai office. I spent the hours I had in Shanghai before my connecting flight to Xi'An with Daryl, the wife of Dad's colleague Brinton, who was so kind and helpful and told me about some of the weird customs in China! After a short nap which cured me of some, if not all, of my zombie-like symptoms, and a nice shower, we went for lunch at the Shangril-La hotel which was much posher than my scruffy outfit and served delicious Chinese food, which made me less fearful about the culinary adventures I will have here ...

I returned to Shanghai Pudong airport for my second flight of the day. Shangai airport does not offer much in the way of entertainment, but I did discover a free internet area (much better than the extortionate prices at home) and after waiting for one of many Chinese men to finish playing some sort of game that looked like a Little Mermaid version of the Sims I was able to grab a computer for the more serious purpose of informing my family that I'm still alive and well! I was the only non-Chinese person on the plane, so perhaps the only person utterly bemused by the meal, which featured an egg I'm pretty sure was fertilised on a bed of smelly, unidentifiable vegetable matter and a shrink-wrapped radish which I think may have been the dessert option.

I was picked up by an i-to-i representative who was the second driver that day I had who had a scary habit of talking to someone on the phone rapidly in Chinese then chucking the handset at me to discover, thankfully, an English speaking person on the other end of the line who could explain quite was going on. I was taken to the volunteer apartment in Xi'An city, where I will stay until Monday when I go down to the panda project accommodation, where I will be teaching in the nearby school. I think we come back to these apartments at the weekends. The apartment is nice, with bunkbed dorms and various amenities. I'm the only volunteer here at the moment but more new people will arrive today and then the people at the panda project will come back this afternoon. Until then, having the place to myself is quite nice!

That's all for now - a pretty long entry considering I've been here just over 24 hours, but I thought I better try to start well with the blogging! Just to let anyone who wants to contact me know, my normal phone isn't working here and will not work until I reach New Zealand on the 4th of May, but my international phone number is working and I shoul be able to check my email regularly so please let me know how you're all doing!