'When Will the Sun Shine Again?' by the charming Dan Howells and I believe, Liz Fyfe, now plays around this smokey IT room, men beside me, as always, playing online poker, Zoe nearby, potentially typing up her blog too! We have been utterly soaked for several afternoons now, the weather becoming truly tropical; intense humidity in the mornings, making us disgustingly sweaty throughout class, chalk dust latching onto moist fragments of skin, drips trickling down our backs; heavy downpours in the afternoons, sky somehow managing to hold off its explosion until we set foot outside our flat, umbrellas and raincoats making no difference against the winds that force these arrows of water to completely soak us and the muddy track on which we have to walk. So, we spend our teaching days drenched, with the addition of mud splatterings and see-through clothes in the afternoons. My dad's 50th birthday provided some great entertainment here; I walked into my lesson to cheers, cries and shouts, a blackboard with "Happy Birthday Sarah's dad" written artistically across it, sweets in consumption with some spread across the front podium, along with a card made from wrapping paper and the five Olympic mascots in moneybox form, which I believed to be decoration. The class then sang "Happy Birthday" enthusiastically, which I filmed, and we continued with the class. On leaving, I was shocked and truly overwhelmed to learn that these mascots were, in actual fact, their gift to my dad! So, they put them into their birthday-wrapped boxes, posed for some photos and left me with a big smile on my face and five additions to my already overflowing backpack! That weekend, we had a balcony party, complete with many-a-naughty treat, all of which were, in true Chinese style, very bizarre. I managed to drop my melon off the balcony, creating a large, messy splatter mark all across the pavement below. On the Saturday, Zoe and myself, along with our lovely co-coordinator, Selina and Chinese teacher, Diane -dear friends to us both- went out to tea at the bakery, us treating them to some decorative cream cakes and them presenting us with some gifts. It was a lovely day, although I was utterly caked out by the end! So, last week I began aiding Zoe in her teaching of senior one, leaving my senior two group to study hard for their looming exams. We are also frantically preparing for the English competition in two weeks, having to help all twelve senior one classes with a performance. We now have a VonTrapp family, Cinderella, her bashful prince and his trusty, ever-so-camp soldier, the crazy moose song, a group of students prepared to "fly, fly, fly, up in the sky, sky, sky' and a number of poorly translated poems to contend with. I am, naturally, in my element; The Sound of Music?! Oh yes! Finally, I have my very own VonTrapp family - another dream fulfilled! Zoe and myself are even planning our own performance from this classic musical, "So Long, Farewell". Highly appropriate I feel. At the weekend, we were devastated not to experience the usual jovialities that truly are Chinese aerobics, as a thunderstorm saturated the land. Instead, we sat in the seclusion of our flat, waiting for the rain to desist before venturing to a nearby shop for our greatly enjoyed 'chunk' tea. Dressed in PJs, trousers tucked into our socks - mine with spongebob squarepants - flip flops- a challenge when in socks -hoodie and umbrella in hand, we received some bemused looks, unfortunately drawing a crowd of Chinese men to follow us to the shop. Saturday: we visited Haikou for the last time, our group having depleted greatly in number. Zoe and I dashed to the supermarket to buy goodies for our students, before saying our final farewells to the great friends we have made. On Sunday, we had a lovely day at the beach. In true Chinese style we arrived five minutes late, the meeting point being just down our road. Everyone else however, was on time. All nine of us, Zoe, Selina, Miss Lu, Miss Han and daughter, Amby, Caca, Nora, Estelle and myself took a boat, their first, to a nearby beach. The sky was miserably cloudy on our arrival, but after playing an exciting, yet exhausting, ball game with...well...the majority of the beach, the sun poked through and graced us all with its beaming rays. We sat and lay in hammocks or on the golden sand, the girls all signing our leaving books. Caca's words were the most moving; she expressed that, while I may be returning to my home in England, I too have a home in China with her family and that they would all leave their doors open to me if I were to ever return. After a filling lunch, we all decided to walk home. The looming black sky however, put the teachers off and they dashed to a passing tuk tuk. If only we'd done the same. Instead that foreboding sky was soon upon us and its heavy load quickly saturated us. Zoe's umbrella battled with the wind, turning inside out a couple of times, mine was useless in protecting me, it actually leaking water. Our clothes were soon soaked through, Zoe's top becoming see-through. This resulted in much amusement for the girls; "Zoe, if I were a boy right now, my eyes would be VERY big!" and repeated giggles of, "VERY sexy!" Once home, we stood beneath warm showers - an occurrence never before experienced in Wenchang - before receiving excited messages of thanks from the girls. This week is flying by, less than three weeks left to go now. I dread saying goodbye, knowing that it most likely will be forever. I will miss the frog sex that keeps me awake in the night, the constant shouts from our neighbours as they argue with one another, the balcony chats, the bun shop, xi gua, naan bread man and the naan bread, tofu on a stick, "HELLO!", aerobics, insanely cool Chinese tunes, pea flavoured lollies, bean curd, coffee and condensed milk, squeaky shoes on toddlers, wooden board beds, men in tiny, tiny pants, the rave shack, tuk tuks and bikes - the driving, cycling down the track, chopsticks...mostly though, I'll miss the people; the school, my students, Mr Zhang, Selina and Diane - all people I now consider to be good friends. I'm sensing the final days will be oh-so-utterly emo...