My least favourite thing about China is the way people touch my hair without permission, all the time, especially on public transport. My most favourite thing about China is Susan, who I met out and about in Xi'An on Friday night and who said I am very, very beautiful and wonderful and can she see me again? (I've still refrained from giving my number out to any random Chinese people though, especially as I think she might have been the wingman for her fat, non-English speaking, male friend.)

I've now been away from home two weeks! In a way it's flown by - it seems like no time since I was stashing up my chocolate supplies in WH Smith at Heathrow Terminal 5 - but it also seems like I've been here forever, so embedded am I in a routine now! It's strange that it will be April tomorrow though, and Easter at the weekend which I will celebrate on my own with a bag of Mini Eggs bought on the aforementioned chocolate shop and a letter from Leah.

I returned to the city on Friday evening and had a delicious Western dinner at a hostel which claims, believably, to be the 9th best in the world. The food was so good that we went back the next day for more! The hostel also had a bar which we went to for drinks to celebrate Lena's departure. Lena's a German girl who had been working with the pandas for three weeks, and I will miss practising my poor German on her! It was in this Terracotta Warrior themed bar that I met the delightful Susan and plenty of other English-speaking people which was a really welcome change! We then went to a Chinese club which was really very similar to a club at home, except you don't have to pay for the cloakroom. The dancefloor wasn't so crammed either, but there were still the obligatory Lady Gaga tracks and the pushy staff trying to get you to buy scarily overpriced alcohol and telling people to stop dancing on the podiums. Just like home! (Apart from I, like anyone non-Chinese, get a lot more attention in this country than at home!)

On Saturday I saw a bit more of the city, including fascinating historical sights like the post office and Walmart, but we spent a substantial length of time sipping milkshakes and watching the massive cheesefest that is American film "I Hate Valentine's Day" in the hostel. Having not seen any TV for ages, this seemed like a cultural phenomenon, a piece of art to be cherished. I got a teensy bit lost trying to get the bus back to the apartment on my own because everything looked the same in Xi'An, until I got to a point that I knew I definitely didn't recognise and a nice Chinese man helped me get a taxi back home at the affordable price of about 50p!

We were in the city for less than 24 hours, having to get the bus back to Louguantai on Saturday night ready to teach on Sunday morning. The bus journey lasts about two and a half hours and is reasonably comfortable if you get a seat (by no means guaranteed), but absolutely PETRIFYING. Chinese driving is probably the most alarming thing I've ever seen. They use their horn like a toy and as a way of saying "by the way I'm coming through you should probably get out of the way" which apparently excuses any sort of reckless move. There are very few road markings, and the bus tends to swing out to overtake even when there's a massive lorry coming in the other direction, and at this point I shut my eyes. Also everyone smokes on the buses and we had to shut our window even though we were wanting the fresh air because the driver was spitting out of his and we were scared it would fly in through ours!

Since I've been back in the village, I've been teaching every morning, which essentially consists of chanting the same five sentences over and over again. I'm worried that the kids are getting really bored and will resent me, but the teacher I'm working with won't let me do anything else! The afternoons/evenings have been spent mainly reading with the result that I'm on my sixth book now (Daniel Deronda, 707 pages, might take me a bit longer) and my e-reader is proving invaluable! We were going to climb a mountain this afternoon but it's chucking it down with rain so I guess I'll have to put that off until next week!

Hope everyone has a wonderful two weeks at home without me, and also that you are all missing me masses! See you in 20.5 weeks' time!