Well we’ve been in Zhaoqing for almost 2 weeks now and as some of you already know we (to put this mildly) thought f*#k what have we done again. First impressions of the school were not good. Since then we have achieved a lot. First drilling the school “leaders” they just can’t ignore us. We arrived and were shown our room and left for two days. No how about I tell you a bit about the city, do you want to come for a feed, oh shit your visa is about to expire - NOTHING!!

I blew my stack and then Trev and I went into our typical good cop bad cop routine. My soapbox and I are always the bad cop. You would probably laugh if you could see me, I still get on the soapbox quickly and then realize I’m speaking to someone who can’t understand a schmick of English. This only infuriates me more and then I have to go into Chinglish. The good news is, even my very broken Chinese is often understood or maybe I am just the charade queen.

Anyway we’ve settled in now, have the internet sometimes working and the phone will “maybe” be connected this week. School has also started.

I am now a kindergarten teacher and if you think I feel strange dressed in a ball gown, I feel even more like a fish out of water amongst these little 2-6 year olds. The poor little buggers are here at boarding school kindergarten, howling their guts out and I’m the big white “tall” monster which only makes things worse. No snide remarks about the tall or monster part – alright.

As far as Zhaoqing goes it is a bigger city than Qingtian. I wouldn’t like to guess the numbers but some say in the range of 4 million people. It is “world famous” for 7 Star Crags and nearby Dinghu Mountain. Ever heard of them????

The school is about 5kms from the city centre, an easy ride or bus trip. There are 7 foreign teachers at the school. A far cry from the 2 of us in Qingtian. Not quite sure how I feel about being around expats, I’ll hold my opinions for now and give it some more time before commenting.

Some mod cons in the city we had been without for a year include refrigeration in the meat section at the supermarket, availability of cheese, fresh milk and deodorant. As far as the restaurants go there are fast food places and flash restaurants and still the little hole in the wall places. I guess we feel most comfortable at the hole in the wall places.

So that’s the news from Zhaoqing we are both alive and well.