I was pretty sure that my coat was a grey one, but by the end of yesterday it had changed colour. It had gone a few shades paler, as the infamous west-China snow has arrived. -30 degrees incoming any day now.

As you may see, I did indeed fail to post a blog yesterday. This is because yesterday was a rather good day, with plenty of spontaneity. As I got off the bus on my way home, I got a text from Kai to say that instead of going home, I should come to his office so we could all go to Gavin's house for dinner. So as I usually write in the evening, now blog happened.

An eventful evening, however, certainly did happen.

Gavin is a new friend to me and Marcus, only introduced at Kai's home-hotpot last week, but he already feels like a close friend. Like Kai (and most of Kai's friends he introduces us to), Gavin is an English teacher. The difference is that he runs a private language school in Kuitun. The result? Gavin lives in the fanciest flat in Kuitun, and can afford to drink the most expensive baijiu.

Of course, the quality of Baijiu is more a scale of increasingly less horror, the higher quality you drink. The stuff we were drinking at Gavin's (costing 2000 kuai a bottle- 500 more than our monthly salary), was actually almost a pleasant drink.

it still does some serious damage to you, just like all other Baijiu though...

there was plenty of conversation that i won't mention on the blog for various reasons too, but what I will say is that last night really was fascinating, as well as good laugh. For PT work, I can say that some of it could well make its way into my community study when I come to the end of the year. I could say some moments were contraversial by Chinese standards.

I really hope I don't get someone knocking on my door later for my ambiguous statements haha. It's nothing too bad Chinese officials, honest!

Oh, and the really great news is that this time I actually remember going to KTV! 'Twas a fantastic evening of singing drunkenly and dancing madly. And funnily enough practicing Chinese with the staff. I got a text this afternoon from one of the staff after i chatted to him in Chinese for around 15-20 minutes.

I also came to a wonderful realisation yesterday. Sitting at the table in Gavin's house, with our new friends, I suddenly wondered 'How on earth did PT work out that this place would be the right project for me'?

Why did I think that? The truth is, and I think this is seriously important for any prospective volunteers who end up unhappy with their placement when they first find it out, I was disappointed when I found out I was going to xinjiang (sorry PT, I must be honest, but this is for the good of future vols!). I wanted traditional China, with stunning buildings, mountains in the background lavishly covered in the greenest trees man has ever seen, maybe some hills dotted with rice paddies and people wearing those giant flattened cone hats. But nope! I was given a modern city no older than 70 years old, in the middle of a desert in a region that people in the west forget and people in the east regard with an element of fear. Now, I realise PT somehow worked their magic and ended up dropping me off in what is probably quietly the most liberal town in China. And that is just perfect.

So if you are a future volunteer, for any country, and PT gives you a placement you are disappointed in, trust PT - they probably have given you that placement for a reason you don't yet know why.

I hardly even mentioned the snow in today's blog, but I think my last bit is too much of an important point not stop on it. Snow can come tomorrow.