A lot has happened over the last week! We have not only moved school - we have moved to an entirely new province!!! I will try and start from the beginning…

We arrived at Shanghai on Tuesday morning (local time). As we had hoped, two guys from the school were waiting for us at the airport. After 30 minutes of searching for the airport exit we began our 5-hour journey (by car) towards Jianhu. To save my mum sleepless nights, I think I will just describe driving in China as… “an experience”.

Upon arrival in Jianhu we were instantly impressed by the size of the school. Indeed, one of our main concerns had been that we would end up working in a shed-like-building in the middle of the countryside. This couldn”t have been further from the truth - the school seemed great!

We soon met the principle and other senior members of staff who, despite the language barrier, were all very friendly. After this brief meeting we were told that we would be having dinner with some of the English teachers that worked at the school.

I love food, especially when it’’s free, but at that point in time all I wanted to do was sleep. Yuki and I had been on a plane for 12 hours, a car for 5, and had only had about 2 hours sleep between us. Nevertheless, we ate the food, chatted with the teachers and, after what seemed like a million years, we were finally taken to our hotel where we could sleep.

As you can see, our first impression of the school was great! They were both friendly and welcoming. The problems however began when we ventured into town.

The town, while fairly big by English standards, was very small and dusty. It soon became apparent that only a handful of westerners had probably ever passed through this town. The moment we stepped outside we were greeted by prolonged stares, whispering and giggles. I had expected this to an extent, but this was just too alienating.

It also became apparent that China’’s extensive transport networks did not serve this town particularly well. Our dreams of traveling around China would have been impossible to realise if we had stayed. In the end we had no choice but to leave. Indeed, after much soul searching, we contacted another school (one we had previously considered) and asked if they could pick us up.

We felt bad because, despite our dislike of the town, the school and the teachers were some of the nicest people we had ever met. One guy in particular (Wayne), went out of his way to make sure we were happy and safe. When we told the school we wanted to leave they were all very sad. We told them that we truly loved their school but we just couldn”t live in the town .

The next day (Sunday) we left Jianhu. A man from the new school came and picked us up and escorted us to the bus station. Over the next 7 hours we would travel by coach, taxi, bus and train. Again, we arrived at our destination exhausted.

I will post another update shortly. For now I”ll just say that: The new school is even more impressive than the last. They have been very friendly to us. We have moved into our accommodation and they have provided us computers. We are sorting out visa process this afternoon and, on the whole, we are happy. The city we are in now is an hour away from Shanghai with very very good train connections. Again, I will post much more information soon. Hopefully updates should become much more regular now we have computers and internet access.

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