Well, here I am in China, in Gansu Province at Longdong University. I'm very surprised at how well I've adapted to such a different situation than in Australia. The road trip from Xian airport was really long, and basically hanging on for dear life with NO seatbeat, and Chinese drivers are just plain scary, I tell you, but they seem to know what they're doing!!

I'm very happy with my apartment- I have brand new furniture with a beautiful wardrobe and television stand and have a computer totally in Chinese, but at least I can use Word now and the internet. I've been out shopping for food and essentials that were overlooked in the apartment- major stares from all the Chinese but they are just so sweet. I cannot communicate with them, but with some miming actions I was even able to get the correct bucket for mopping that I wanted. I've met a couple of the other ESL teachers here and they are wonderful, so helpful and they took me to lunch yesterday (all up 10.5 yuan) and we bought some yams for dinner from a streetside man, which was delicious.

The main amusing aspect is my bathroom which is in the toilet, so showering is a major contortion act! I haven't yet tackled washing my hair yet so heaven knows how this will go! The wonderful thing is how safe it is, especially as a lone female here. The Chinese appear to love having me here and respect me and want to go out of their way to help. Getting back to safety- I left one of the other teachers apartments at 11pm last night and walked back to mine on my own- I would never in my life do this back home!

There's so much more I could say, but this will do for now- the next challenge will be teaching!

Songbird