Today I used a squat toilet for the first time since I got here, possibly for the first time in my life. I'm not sure if that, or teaching 180 eleven and twelve year olds, was the most challenging part of my day.

I've been in China three weeks now and only have one week of my project left. I left the village last week having squeezed in the important final activities of climbing the mountain (I know, right! Not very Sophie) and feeding a panda (didn't quite overcome my fear of their teeth though). Eight more volunteers arrived last Wednesday, four of whom have now gone to Louguantai to work with the pandas.

At the weekend we cycled around the city walls (another unusual activity for me, but it was ok because I made us get tandems which meant I could get someone else to do the balancing and hard work for me) and had another meal at the hostel. On Monday I saw more of the city by myself, exploring the Muslim Quarter again, where I purchased a kimono after some expert haggling (I got her down from 375 to 48 yuan), visiting the iconic Bell and Drum Towers from which I had a nice view of the city, then sitting outside Starbucks with a frappucino which was a nice way to return to some Western culture! However, even Starbucks had a Chinese twist, with a lot of tea and some red bean paste danishes.

This week has also seen Taha, Matt and I start teaching at the city primary school. Monday was a national holiday (not for Easter unfortunately, else I might have been able to get myself a chocolate egg) and on Tuesday they didn't seem to know we were coming, but on Wednesday we started in earnest. I taught four classes of grade three (8 and 9 year olds), concentrating on the numbers from 1 to 20 as advised, although I think they knew it all already! It was much better than teaching at the other school because I was given free reign to plan my own lessons and they encouraged games so it was a lot of fun. However, the school is really rich it seems, with projectors we used for powerpoint presentations and lots of computers and nice facilities, and most importantly, English teachers who can actually speak English. Consequently, I don't feel that needed, but it's nice that at least we're getting the chance to teach - today I even got left entirely alone for one lesson and it wasn't an unmitigated disaster! Teaching the older kids is much more difficult though; they have got to the age where they are more than willing to talk to each other whilst I'm trying to teach them, but not at all willing to talk to me when I ask questions (outside the classroom they're very friendly though). The teacher also makes no effort to shut them up! I still enjoyed it though, the project's finally given me something really challenging to do which is great!

Now I'm off to a Peking Duck restaurant which is an aspect of Chinese cuisine I haven't had the chance to test yet so I'm really looking forward to lots of hoisin duck pancakes, as long as they bear a resemblance to the ones I eat at home! Hope everyone is well at home, love you and miss you all!