A great many things have happened since my last blog, hence the delay in updating you all.

After writing last, I dashed off to my afternoon lesson, eager to meet my final class. Now, I think I would rather throw myself into a pack of ravenous beasts than teach them again. We began as always with basic introductions; I threw a ball to a random student, asked their name and then they would pass it on. Simple enough. This class however, hurled the ball to one another, too scared/shy to answer the question themselves. One boy unfortunately discovered that, on throwing the ball into the spinning fans above, it would ping across the room. This then lead to a massive rugby scrum at the back of class, as all the boys delved to destroy my poor, innocent volley ball.

By Saturday though, all was bright in the world again. We played the role of hostess as three of our Haikou friends came to stay. We went out to lunch with Selina and showed them around town. We introduced them to the heavenly sweet buns - four for a kuai, took them bracelet shopping, had ice-cream and then trundled off in tuc tucs to our flat. There, they admired our memory line, tested out the planks for sleeping potential and met our neighbours! We went out to tea, had dan chao fan and spent the evening catching up on old news, all congregating on the balcony, the sky developing a pinkish hue as the sunset over Wenchang. Perfection.

On Sunday, we played basketball with some of my more confident students. It's bizarre to think they are the same age as us, it feels as though we are communicating with fourteen year olds. They are all so naive and shut out from the world, but they are so lovely, caring and welcoming, so enthusiastic and so eager to learn. We treated them to yet more dan chao fan - it is a known fact in school that Sarah greatly likes this chinese dish. For those who don't know, it's egg fried rice!

I was sad to say goodbye, even though I was to see our group in Haikou five days later! My week flew by though. Lessons went fantastically, students were becoming much more confident and open to talking to me, many approached me after class to ask questions; one boy, who struggles a great deal with english, called me over and said rather nervously, "I speak for the whole class when I say we want you as friend."

More from our group came to stay and they observed one of my classes. I have never seen the students so well behaved; they were eager to volunteer, had answers for everything I asked and never hid when I approached them. Amazing. On Wednesday, Zoe and myself hosted English Corner again and taught four hundred children the macerena, thriller, YMCA, the conga line, "pat the tall man, polish the short man, wobble the fat man" and the "we will rock you" clapping. Genius.

Last weekend, we visited Haikou. I was delighted to be back, it felt like returning home, especially as school had closed early due to the typhoon threat! The rain pelted down and wind roared but that didn't stop our fancy dress antics. Off we all went, dressed as super heroes in the rain to Allen's bar. Absolutely marvellous! There, we danced the night away, my basket ball (I was a basketball super hero, complete with personalised kit!) was taken hostage by a group of chinese drinkers; they forced me to down two bottles of beer for its return. I remember little beyond that point....

The rest of the weekend was spent saying farewell to a few of the departing for home volunteers, going to the park and eating a lot of street food.

Back to teaching now, I have my own class to attend - a chinese lesson. Must dash, i'm incredibly late!