Previously I was telling you about the school and Womens' Day. Last year the school gave all the women laundry washing powder as a gift. They were thrilled by the gesture, another cultural difference.

This year the women have been promised a trip to Shanghai - the big smoke! A sure improvement of laundry powder.

They were all excited about it and were due to be leave on Friday March 5 for a weekend of shopping etc. In typical Chinese fashion no one booked the bus or the motel so now the school has more than half it's teaching staff as unhappy campers. Don't fear it has been rescheduled.

As far as the aerobics practise that was going on around the school, we now have an answer. How it relates to anything we still don't know. My closest likeness to anything back at home is a corporate sports day. All the women from different local companies or schools will be competing in an aerobic competition. The Qing Zhong (our school) team has been practising very hard, they have also been a little picky with who they let in the team and who they don't - your too tall, too fat. Almost like an American High School Cheer Leading team.

As it turned out there hard work has been rewarded they won the competition and the prestige that goes with it.