As we come close to Christmas, I think it's time to talk about yet another eventful month over here in Kuitun! Everything from visiting the guys in Fukang, to getting involved in one of my student's music groups - it's been packed with new things.

Lets start with our weekend to Fukang to see Alex and stephen. Because of travelling, we only had one full day to stay with them, but I think it was worth it. To be honest, it's quite good fun just travelling to and fro places in China, even with a relatively short journey of 4 hours by train and 2 hours by bus(es).

At this point, Kuitun had been surprisingly mild, hovering around smallest of the minus numbers. It hadn't been colder than -5 on any given day. Fukang would change that. We realised this as soon as we woke to Urumqi in the morning after the sleeper train, to see snow all around the station in huge towering piles. Crossing the city by bus, we saw that this was the case all over the city - Urumqi had clearly had some serious snow.

The bus journey out of Urumqi, to Fukang was also pretty impressive. It was the first time I had seen a frozen desert. If you think a desert looks desolate when it's hot, you should see it when it's cold! Although I can't say the general sights out of the bus window were particularly inspiring, I did find the snow covered - and rather annoyed looking - bactrian camel rather entertaining. Perhaps I sound mean to the poor thing, but it just looked so out of place in the snow. Shows how much I know I guess.

We met the guys at Fukang station a little later than 9, and basically spent the day chilling (both figuratively and literally) around town and generally catching up.

Fukang has the most amazing park just outside of town, with traditional pagodas and an artificially built hill with a bell tower at the top. Naturally building a hill would cause a big hole in the ground elsewhere. This hole had been turned into some sort of (very very communist) memorial/celebration of Chinese culture. The walls had giant stone carvings depicting famous Chinese stories with a communist twist. Lovely.

The town itself was quite interesting. There is definitely a stronger Uighur influence in Fukang than in Kuitun, and - mainly down to having pedestrianised parts of town - there was more of a buzz about it.

Alex and Stephen also introduced us to their friend Mike, and actual fellow waiguoren in Fukang. He is a professor from UCLA, studying a mixture of anthropology and linguistics. This naturally makes him a really interesting person, but what what makes it so interesting is that he is attempting to track down a root for human language. He is also convinced that Xinjiang has some answers hanging around. Apparently he gets a hard time from some of the Chinese academics, as some of his ideas don't completely agree with the whole 'China has always been Chinese' mentality, and a few other really interesting things to do with the movement of different peoples over history. He was a really great guy to meet!

The highlight of our trip to Fukang however was the night at the minority bar. If there is anything similar in Kuitun, we haven't found it yet, and it's a real shame as this place is a step above your usual club. Instead of the usual cheesy club music, they play Uighur and Kazakh dance music, which is of course accompanied by Uighur and Kazakh dancing! Along with all the things you would expect to happen at a minority club...you know, traditional music and dancing, Stephen chatting up EVERY girl in the club; we also managed to have a bout of freestyle rap accompanied by amazing beatboxing, outside in the -10 ice and we managed to crash a birthday party. The blog's photo is us crashing the said birthday party.

All in a day's work in China.

So that was our time in Fukang covered! Now, in only 3 days we will be greeting the guys again, as they will be here in Kuitun for Christmas! Hopefully they won't get too drunk at Jasper's, but hey - it's Jasper's. The girls in Dushanzi have invited us all over for christmas dinner, so we won't even be eating rice and noodles on christmas day. It's going to be perfect =).

Another thing which is new, is that i've been invited by a student to join his music club. It's very similar to my old school's wind-band, just with the addition of percussion instruments too. The really great thing about this , is that I should be able to borrow a clarinet, meaning I will be able to play an instrument I haven't played in four months again. The only problem? These kids are amazingly good - especially the kid who plays Chinese flute. I am completely outclassed by most of them! There is a myth in the west that Kids in China are insanely good at music. It's true. It simply cannot be denied.

On the topic of music, I've been invited to a weeding this weekend. How does that relate to music? Well. I'm kind of expected to perform something for the wedding, which means it'll be the second time i'll be on stage with my trusty Chinese guitar. As for the wedding itself, it is apparently going to be very traditionally Chinese, so I should have plenty to write about on Monday!

Now, I talk about the weather a lot, but aside from the fact that I am from the UK, with two parents from NZ (possibly the ultimate combination for making one talk only about the weather), dramatic weather changes are an important part of Xinjiang life. The snow has finally fallen very thickly, and I have been told to expect -30 this coming tuesday (Christmas eve, for you guys in the west). Already there are icicles freezing on cars and the snow is solidifying into sheets of ice, so -30 should feel pretty chilly. Luckily because of how dry it is here, the cold weather doesn't feel as cold as the same temperature back in the UK. It's quite comfortable not to wear a hat and gloves in -5 for example. -30 however, will most likely be another story.

One thing which the cold weather brings, which I find really interesting, is never-ending cleaning up of the snow. Every shop owner has a duty to keep the are in front of their shop snow-free, and the primary school kids all march to school with a spade or brush over their shoulder, so they can help with the snow-clearing. The community effort is great...even if they probably have to do it by law. At the school, all the kids also rush around brushing up all the snow before it freezes to thickly.

The big news in regards to teaching is that as of today, I have finished until after Spring festival, making me probably the first volunteer to finish. The result is that I have an amazingly long holiday, stretching from now up until the 28th February! A large portion of the holiday is planned, but after Shanghai, we are simply making our way back by whatever trains we find. It is very hard to book long-haul trains during spring festival, so the plan is to take many short trips. Just to emphasise just how busy the trains are, look at the numbers. There are 1.3 billion people in China. During spring festival, around 2 billion train journeys take place in the country. That's just crazy. So far the plan is to meet Stephen and Dan in Zhangye, before heading down to Xi'an, Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai in that order. It's going to be great!

In other teaching news, I no longer teach grade 9. Rosie told me on Tuesday that I will be teaching either grade 8 or 7 after spring festival. I have mixed feelings about this. The 9th grades never pay attention - and I mean never. It's not even an over-statement. But...there are some really nice students in the 9th grade, and I'm sorry to not be teaching them anymore. I am however looking forward to something brand new...I guess even a fresh start on the teaching. Oh and it means I get to help double the number of students over the course of the whole year. Instead of having taught only a mere 600 students in one year, I'll have helped 1200 students. Nice!

I think I have covered mostly everything there, but I'm sure i've missed something. This is after all about a whole month, and things happen every day here in China. Hopefully I will write before I head off for spring festival on the 1st January, but if not, I will probably write from Beijing!

Keep on reading!