And so she feels another blog is beckoning, so here it is.

Have begun our Mandarin and teaching lessons, which are all going well. I have finally managed to learn a few useful phrases rather than my previous knowledge of 'hello, bus?' Our teachers are all highly enthusiatic, so classes normally consist of singing, dancing, games and general lapses in maturity that make our days that much more exciting. It's all good and is making me yearn to be in a classroom of my own, teaching whoever I'm assigned to teach.

The food so far consists of rice and veg, but occassionally some noodles are thrown into the mix. Yummy. Green tea is the drink of the day, although we spent wednesday night sampling some stronger beverages;

Ou night out with the other volunteers was highly amusing, we danced in the absurd bars of China, embracing the stares that greeted us, but that also managed to gain us many a free, extra strong drink. We went up on the stage at Allen's bar and danced to Maroon 5, complete with chinese karaokee singer. Sadly we were thrown off for being too raunchy! Moving on to the 66 bar, i decided to join the boys' chinese style drinking game, leading to much merriment, a confusing journey to the hostel, which has since been forgotten, my jumper falling into the hole-for-a-toilet, my head down a western toilet expelling the beer from the evening's activities and finally passing out on my bed at 3am. We had Mandarin at 9am the next morning. You can imagine my delight.

That is all to report really. Oh, discovered that the government censours the internet out here, so will be reading all messages and blogs that I write. Plus, they have banned Facebook and my phone doesn't work, so my only means of contact with you all is the message board attached to this blog and my gmail account. Would be nice to hear how you're all coping without me, so message away!

All my love