I'm staying up late and listening to 80's radio and for some reason it's just struck me that I should write something more loving about Anyuan. I think Lady in Red has had a nostalgia-inducing effect on me, maybe because the last time I heard it was in Irkutsk crooned by a Russian cabaret singer with bizarre body language.

With about a week left until I get paid and jump on a mysterious semi-existant bus out of here to Guangzhou, I have been wondering what lasting memories I will retain of my 5 months living here. All I needed to do was to slide myself into the life provided for me by the school, so there have been no tough challenges to endure that will stick in my memory, like the policemen with guns incident in Avignon or the nose-pinching pervert who I hitched a ride with in Italy. I did get pickpocketed on a trip to Ganzhou, but I ran after the thief and got my purse back. It wasn't a life-changing moment, but I like to tell the story, it makes me sound braver than I am.

The three words that I associate most with Anyuan and its people are friendliness, hospitality and hellooooo. It was strange being a minority at first, but I quickly realised that I was a special kind of minority. They love westerners, especially tall westerners with pasty white skin. I have been consistently treated like a VIP and celebrity- children clamour and practically poke each others eyes out with pens to get my autograph and grown adults surreptitiously take my photo with camera phones. It's enough to give a girl an inflated ego and bring out her wannabe popstar side.

Which, horrifically, has happened. The popstar bit anyway...karaoke is the predominant form of entertainment here and everyone wants to hear the foreigner sing. I feel that it is my duty to oblige, in the hope that they will never ask again. However, China is the only place in the universe in which my singing voice would be praised (they are amazing liars, I've never seen anything like it) so I figure it's in the best interests of the rest of the world if I get all my karaoke out of my system whilst I'm in a country that is stupid enough to ask for more. I am the karaoke queen.

Daily life here is, needless to say, different. Not only different to the western world (what I know of it), but different to urban China too. Everyone here is poor to some extent which makes for a pretty balanced society compared to the stark contrast between mega-rich and beggar-poor in Beijing and Shanghai. Whilst noise and crazy traffic (even with limited cars) appear to be a staple of Chinese society wherever you are, there is little of the hyper hustle bustle of the cities, and a laid-back feeling prevails. Anyuan, like the rest of China, is developing rapidly, new buildings are popping up overnight, but the way of life does not seem to be altering at the same pace- the old ladies selling their products and the men playing mahjong and spitting on the floor show few signs of taking their everyday lives off the streets and into the air-conditioned appartments, and whilst the young have dreams, I get the feeling many of them are content with the knowledge that dreams are by definition unattainable, and will happily remain in the town for their entire lives without ever leaving the boundaries of the province.

If I had to make a list of My Top Ten Things About Anyuan, it would look something like this:

1) Viv (a woman half my height whose waist has the dimensions of my thigh, we make an odd pair but nevertheless get on great- Viv also appears on My Top Ten Nice People In The World and Top Two English Speakers in Anyuan lists)

2) Purple things (very tasty)

3) Long Quan Lake (I can't reveal the secrets of this lake as I live in fear of being disappeared by the Party, but suffice to say that it is deemed appropriate by all to describe it as beautiful while it really isn't...nevertheless it has a special place in my heart)

4) The Wu Wei Tower (a tower whose name I can't spell, it's tall and looks very Chinese, with some great graffiti at the top)

5) Class A2 (never fail to make me feel appreciated)

6) Hoby (my favourite student, he once told me he would 'stand by me forever')

7) The Food

8) The Kids at No.3 (Junior) Middle School (again, make me feel appreciated but also slightly overwhelmed and unable to breathe)

9) KO (another favourite student who isn't actually one of my students but has some amazing slang, mainly from watching too much TV)

10) The simplistic, non-materialistic lifestyle (and the cheapness of everything)

I wonder if I'm the first person to blog about Anyuan?