The last few weeks have just flown by! A new couple have arrived at the school, Caroline and Hayden, who are just a few years older than us and really cool. Took them out on Friday with Sarah and Kim too. Plenty of scandal going on the last while, with teachers running away, getting fired and new arrivals, can’t really go into great detail on here! Went to St Peters Cathedral on Saturday, I’m not very religious and have never been to a catholic mass before but it was an interesting experience. Aileen was sitting next to me and kept me right with what was going on.

The taxi drivers are great here! After one particularly crazy Friday, Fi and I got in a taxi, the taxi driver gave us nutrition bars! Must have looked a bit rough. Still waiting for winter to come, most of the time its pretty mild. Bought a rice cooker for 2 pounds. They are so handy, you just stick the rice and water in (don’t worry Mum, we wash the rice) flick the switch, twenty mins later perfect cooked rice!

We are hopefully going to see Phantom of the Opera around Christmas time, as a Christmas treat, which should be fun.

Teaching is up and down. I’ll have a good week where the lessons go down well, the kids behave and I have chairs in my classrooms. Then the next week they’ll tell us the first two classes are cancelled, only to phone us at 7.00 am the next morning to tell us its a mistake and that we’re late for class, have no lessons plans and the kids are really naughty. And someone has stolen my chairs. But, apparently, that’s just what teaching is like!

Getting sooo excited about travelling! When this term finishes in mid January, I’m off to Hong Kong with Sarah and Kim. From there we’re heading west to Yunnan province, getting a Laos Visa there and then crossing the boarder into Laos. After Laos, Thailand. Then back to Shanghai. That’s the plan anyway!