Firstly, the photo has nothing to with the title of the blog, but offexploring requires a photo with each blog post.

Today is November 1st. This means one thing - the start of national blog posting month! I'm not sure which country it is national to, but i'm not going to worry about it that much. What is important is that it's a nice excuse to write a short blog every day this month - as that is exactly the aim of national blog posting month.

I actually tried this last year on my other blog (which I can't use in China ): ), and failed completely, so wish me luck this time round!

My plan is to use this month to write about what i stumble into each day in Kuitun, and the small quirks that happen. I really hope you all get a better understanding of what it's like over here in the far far west of China after this month. (I say far far west because apparently Xi'an is in the far west of china. Xi'an is closer to Beijing than here - that's not far west).

So lets start off with today. On fridays, I have three lessons - one in the morning and two in the afternoon. As it happens, my morning lesson is in fact also in the afternoon, because of the fairly late school starting time in comparison to some part of China. My morning lesson, or lesson 4, starts at 1 o clock, so I can spend my mornings doing whatever i like. I usually get up around 9 or so, then either study, go to the supermarket to grab some food, or just relax and do very little. Most mornings it's the first of those options however. Like any language, Chinese takes a lot practice, so I try to study a bit every day.

The afternoon lessons should be lessons periods 5 and 7, but today there was a little bit of confusion. Lesson 5 went on as normal, but as I started lesson 7, a voice came over the class speaker, and the class started chattering away as if something important was about to happen. A moment later, in bursts their form teacher (confusingly called a head teacher by the english speaking staff) to say that they were going to have a lesson on politics instead of my lesson.

After lesson 7, i was also meant to run an english club for younger students interested in English. However, after only 2 weeks of the clubs starting, the school has decided that it's too dark in the evenings now for the students to stay for period 8. I'm really confused as to why the school started the clubs so late, considering the problem of light in the evenings, but that is the school's decision. I now have to wait until after spring festival (February to march) for my club to begin again.

This sort of last minute unexpected shuffle of lessons is pretty common here in Number 2 middle school. Sometimes i even am told last minute when I have to work the weekend. It's lucky really that we have never planned to be out of Kuitun at the same time as being given a last minute weekend of work. I'm sure we will run into the hurdle at some point during the year though.

I realise already that this blog may be a little all over the place, but that really just reflects my average day - a bit mad - so I'm not going to make a big effort to re-order it for the sake of a nicer flow to the blog. So lets carry on!

One thing I have not talked about much is the daily commute to school. Currently i cycle there, joining the legions of cyclists in China. Even if the numbers of bikes in China are dwindling, there are still an impressive number roaming the streets. On the way to school it's mainly downhill, so I get to school rather fast. School is on the other side of town, but the ride only takes 15 minutes. This ride is not a piece of cake though. Because of the Chinese grid system, there are numerous roads to cross and every time you cross a road in China, you have a bit of a challenge on your hands. A green light for pedestrians does not mean in China that you are safe from all vehicles. It just means there won't be any traffic wanting to travel straight ahead. Any car, bike, truck, tuk tuk wanting to turn onto the crossing with the green pedestrian light, is welcome to do so. This means pedestrians and cyclists need to aim to reach the middle, where there is no moving traffic, then cross over the next bit of moving traffic, and only then reach safety. It's a little different to the relatively sedate traffic in the UK. On the bright side, vehicles generally move slower than in the UK, so if you do end up in a tight spot, the vehicles always have enough time to brake. It's never a fun experience though.

Well, I want to have things to talk about every day this month, so i'll leave it at that for now. There will be more tomorrow!