I sit writing this in one of the many offices in the first teaching building waiting to teach my next class. We have been in Jiujiang for almost 3 weeks now, though it feels like 3 months. It's been a rollercoaster of a time however the train journey here felt more like one of those disappointing fair ground rides that make you wonder if you'll die on it.

To get from Beijing to our projects, all of the volunteers had to take the train. Our train was shorter than a lot of the other volunteers at only 17 hours but the big difference was that the rest of the group had beds while the four of us heading to Jiujiang did not. I will spare many of grisly details of the train but I feel I need to set the scene to fully capture the experience. On the hard seats of the train, there are 5 seats in a row which all face another five seats, so leg room is non-existent. There are around 120 seats per carriage but there are also standing tickets which I assume must never run out given how our train seemed to have the population of a small country on it. This means that standing room is something you can only dream of so it is quite a common sight to see middle aged men standing on their chairs eating noodles while shouting at their children. After about 4 hours Rachael and I decided to brave the toilet (of which we had heard horror stories about but assumed it was all hyperbole). We pushed our way through the crowd in our carriage until we got to the small toilet door that had 3 generations of a family all sitting outside it, as they had no seats. Rachael looked in the toilet and just started laughing hysterically, it was a haunting laugh. I asked her what she was laughing at and she could only reply with

'Look! Just look!'

I did look and I wish I had not. I will not describe what I saw in that room but I may need several years of counselling to get over it. I too then started laughing maniacally while the family looked on in confusion, we admitted defeat and went back. Though about an hour or so later we had decided that we had not been traumatised enough and went to look for the two volunteers with beds and the food cart we had been promised. We were seated in carriage 2 while the other volunteers were in carriage 10, now in the U.K that walk may take between 5 and 10 minutes and would involve pushing past a few people and muttering sorry a lot, China is a whole different story.

As I previously mentioned there were many people standing and they were everywhere, in the aisles, the hallways, outside the toilet, in the smoking area (which is a thing) and many sitting on stools they had brought with them. It took us over 40 minutes to push through to carriage 10 and as we were the only forigeners on the train everyone stared and took pictures of our sweaty, unkempt trek through the train. I almost flanted 3 toddlers (possibly more) and touched more people than I thought was possible on one train ride. We eventually made it to the other volunteers who looked at us in what I could only describe as a mix of horror and pity. We relaxed in their beds for around an hour until we were chucked out by the ticket staff and had to make the journey down the train, laughing the same hysterical laugh as before so that we didn't cry. At 5am we finally made it to Jiujiang, It was a long and emotional trip but I now feel like I can handle any journey, every cloud you know.

We were picked up by our waiban (hosts) Winston and Vicky and shown to our new home for the year. When we got up to door, the key wouldn't work after what seemed like an eternity of trying to open the door, Winston ran round the side of the house shouting

"HEY!"

Rachael and I, who had been deprived of sleep, food, water and the bathroom could only exchange confused and pained looks. Winston then came running back asking

"What is the city called Lusemborg?" I looked at him and replied

"Do you you mean Luxembourg?"

He nodded and ran round the house again. I initially felt proud that I had understood his rather obsure question when it suddenly dawned on me that that was not a normal question one asks when trying to open a door. Just as I thought this I heard a scream from round the house

"LUXEMBOURG TEACHER OPEN THE DOOR. LUXEMBOURG TEACHER!"

Rachael and I looked at each other in sheer confusion when we heard the door start to open from the other side and a startled girl opened the door. As it turns out we are sharing our house with another teacher from Luxembourg (if you couldn't already tell). She teaches at another school in the area and is very tolerant of all the cooking disasters that Rachael and I find ourselves in.

Our house is very big and was a nightmare to clean because every surface was filthy. We spent our first week here mostly just cleaning so we didn't turn our feet black from just walking from the bedroom to the bathroom. The house is lovely though, we have lots of space to relax in and my bedroom here is bigger than any room I've had before! Our house is only two minute walk from our school and is next door to a primary school which means we have had to get used to never having silence again. Every morning the primary school will blare Chinese versions of western songs such as "Jingle Bells" and "My Heart Will Go On". Through the day we can hear the announcements and bells as well as the screams of playing children, at 5pm a very depressing smooth jazz track plays to signal the end of school. At 10pm we wait to hear the honking of many car horns as the parents come to pick their children up from studying, it's also common to hear metal banging and people shouting throughout the night... China is a very loud place.

We've now had time to explore our new home of Jiujiang. It's a city where the idea of first impressions doesn't count, everyday we discover something new that we didn't know previously. Depending on which way you walk could also change your view, we live by two of the big lakes in the city which are very beautiful to walk down. In the night time, the streets light up with lots of different colours and the areas around the lake are filled with old people dancing, Children roller skating and even some Peking Opera. The walk to the supermarket however, isn't so beautiful with it's cramped streets filled with construction, electrical wires hanging and mystery liquid drops falling on you, it can be quite stressful at first. Walking through these streets gave me my first experience of cultural shock but after being here for a few weeks, it doesn't bother me much at all. Jiujiang is defeniflty starting to feel like home!

Until next time~