Latest in China

As you can see we have put our photos on the Kodak site but we have got lots more to come soon. Had a good first month training and have learnt a little Mandarin. We can now count to 100 and get by with simple words/phrases e.g. how much is it? too expensive and cheaper. Craig is walking around with a Chinese umbrella that cost him 90p. Everyone uses them here for sun and rain. Rachel has bought too dresses as Chinese women walk round all day in dresses and high heels.

Unfortunately we were unable to teach in a school as the company we came with sent us at the wrong time of year! It only allows 4 weeks of teaching until the end of term which is more of revision time. The schools would find it too difficult to program us in for that short period and regrettably after having a fun 4 weeks learning Mandarin and Craig learning how to plan lessons, chuckle we are disappointed but are making the most of our time left here. We are travelling the island at the moment and are in Wuzishan visiting other teacher friends.

We are about to go out for lunch where dog is on the menu and is hanging in the window of the restaurant! Yuck! We met lots of Chinese people in English corner last night (a place where people gather to talk English in the open air) and Rachel had some tricky questions on what type of hair styles English people have. Someone said that Craig looked like a short version of Nicholas Cage and was told not to speak slowly as they are not in Kindergarten. Craig explained that he always speaks this slowly! Poor Craig was asked his opinions on sex before marriage and casual relationships in the West! The Chinese people are very open with questions and are not afraid to get to the point.

We visited the rain forest after getting 5 buses and a tuk tuk van into the mountains. The return journey was even more interesting as there was no transport on the roads so we had to ask the local shop keeper to take us down on his open back tuk tuk motorbike-not a comfortable ride for 1.5 hours! , but he was pleased to earn the money. The rain forest was fantastic and we stayed in a chalet under our mosquito nets. They were also used to stop the bugs, lizards and spiders in the room from getting into our beds. We have never seen so many butterflies and large bugs. There were praying mantis, massive millipedes that curled up, fire flys and the punk versions of caterpillars that looked really funny and extremely hairy.

It was the dragon boat festival at the weekend but we managed to be sent the wrong way by a Chinese friend so never made it. It is another lesson in never believing the directions from a Chinese person as the don't have a clue! They are so nice they never feel they can say they don't know, so instead they make something up!

More to follow later as have to rush off for dinner now.