So, as I mentioned in my last blog, the other 6 volunteers in Jiangxi province came up to visit us last week, arriving on Wednesday evening: Beth and Cat from Chongren, Rob and Dan from Yihuang and Matt and Ned from Zixi. They arrived late Wednesday afternoon, whilst Nicole and I were still in Jingdezhen (I know, I know, bad hosts), so had a couple of hours to settle in and explore before we got back and met them at KFC. This was our first of 4-5 days together, s...

Jingdezhen is famous in China as the country's porcelain capital, where all the best and most beautiful porcelain is produced. Apparently there is more porcelain in Jingdezhen than in the rest of the country put together, although this could well be a rumour started to attract tourists. So far, sounding pretty good, but as our beloved Lonely Planet had described it as basically an ugly, industrial whole best avoided by most people, we didn't really know what to e...

I've briefly mentioned mine and Nicole's ongoing passport/visa problems before, but basically we've been a month without our passports now, being fobbed off with vague excuses about forms and every time we ask about them. This is obviously a bit of a pain and, because you need your passport to book train tickets or stay in any hotel in China, has effectively scuppered all of our plans to explore other parts of Jiangxi in our weekends. Even more frustratingly, w...

Okay, I'm intending this as just a short entry to let you all know how I spent my 19th birthday! I didn't think I'd told anyone in Jiujiang my birthday was coming, so the extent of my birthday plans was eating out and treating myself to a McFlurry or something, but completely by chance my birthday happened to coincide with a big meal planned by the Education Bureau (who, alongside Project Trust and the CEAIE, are responsible for bringing Nicole and I to Jiujiang)...

I write this sitting in the Year 10 teachers' office at school, having spent the last 10 minutes listening to all the other teachers laughing about mine and Nicole's Chinese names and discussing whether we could understand them. Things have quietened down now and we are being serenaded by one guy who keeps wandering in and out singing really, REALLY loudly to himself. For some reason there are about 12 students in here too, not working or anything, just... sittin...