We arrived back in Chengdu on Monday afternoon, and spent the rest of the day relaxing in the hostel and chatting to the other travellers there. We debated whether or not a young guy at the other side of the room was the same guy we'd met at the top of the mountain that morning, and decided that it couldn't be, because "the other guy was chubbier, and he had a beard". Not only were we wrong, but Travis (the guy) overheard the whole conversation. Dan also managed ...

Nicole, Dan and I arrived in Chengdu at 5am on Sunday morning and collapsed, asleep, on the sofas of the Lazybones hostel bar. We were woken two hours later by Beth and Cat, who'd stayed there the night before; another two hours later, we were all on a stuffy bus on our way to Leshan county. From here, we would take another bus to Emei Shan, a famous Taoist mountain we were hoping to climb. We were planning to follow the example of several other PT volunteers who...

In terms of escaping Jiujiang (escaping might be a slightly dramatic word for it, but we get very bored in Jiujiang), April was quite a busy month for Nicole and I. After our weekend in Wuyuan at the beginning of the month, we responded to an SOS we're-dying-of-boredom text from Beth and Cat and went to Chongren for the weekend, and we spent the days off we had for mid-term exams visiting Ned and Matt in Zixi. Having now visited 3 out of the 4 PT projects in Jian...

The beginning of April was Qing Ming Jie (or, Tomb-sweeping Festival), a big national holiday for honouring your ancestors or, as we prefer to think of it, an excuse for some days off. Nicole and I used said days off to visit Wuyuan county, said to be home to some of China's most beautiful countryside, with our friends Mark and Sam, who are also English teachers in Jiujiang. For simplicity's sake, we organised the trip through a local travel agency: 570Y for two ...

I've gotten a little behind with my blogs lately and, although I'm nearly up to date now, there are still a few significant bits and pieces I haven't written about. Some of these are very recent, some date back to when we first got back from travelling, but hopefully I'll be able to get them all out of the way in this one blog!New timetables and Chinese lessons: The Chinese school year is split into two terms, with Spring Festival marking the half-way point. Larg...