So.There are snakes here apparently...

Yesterday, I went with a group of friends to the 'Xiaoling Tomb of the Ming Dynasty' for a swim in the lake and a 'bit of a hike'. As I was dragging myself up about a million steps, [sweating and complaining] my friend Chris stood on a snake. He was wearing flip-flops and luckily the long thin hissing thing didn't bite him. I don't know who was more relieved, him- or the poor girl who would have had to stick his foot in her mouth and suck out the venom (me.) Thankfully I didn't have to resort to that. After having a small screaming fit we managed to control ourselves long enough to run back down the steps and broadcast our "near death experience" to our friends at the lake.

We are now officially heroes.

It has been a long time since my last post...(apologies.) It seems that the appropriately named "Great Fire Wall" is pretty impenetrable. I am using a rather sneaky bit of technology to write my blog, so hopefully I can access it in the future.

SO, how do I condense my adventures from the last 2 weeks into an appropriate memoir? I guess with great difficulty... But, I shall begin from where I left off.

Firstly, my rucksack was returned to me! My nightmarish underwear scenario was not as horrible as I first thought as the local shop sold some 'nice' vomit coloured ones with pictures of half-naked ladies on them. My first port of call in Nanjing; buying pants. After 5 days of waiting I was re-united with my hats and essentials. After getting the call from the airport to say they had found my rucksack, I was told to wait by the Jingli Hotel for 20 mintues. An hour later, while I was angrily waiting for the lad to arrive I got shouted at by an angry Chinese policeman... It seems an innocent looking white woman, wearing a white dress and knee-high socks, listening to an ipod and drinking sprite is greatly troublesome. It didn't help that I was casually leaning on a government building.

Interestingly, one of the things I have found out about China is that they "frown upon" people sitting on the floor. A few days ago, Jess, Fran and I were eating some veggie pancakes and as I sat down on the curbside a Chinese man shook his head and tutted at me. Being tutted at isn't nice when your tired, hungry and sweating. All the people in China squat...they DO NOT SIT. Me and Jess are still trying to master the art of squatting. It is harder than you might think to balance on your hunkers and eat at the same time...By the time I return to England I'm sure I will be excellent at it and more than willing to demonstrate how to do it.

In other news, I am now living in the student halls accommodation. Flat hunting proved far too strenuous for us and the convenience of actually living in the building where we study is Uh-May-Zing. The building itself is called "Zeng Xian Zi" and its a bit modern with marble effect floors and lots of glass windows...No more picturesque side-street Hostel for us.
I am located on floor 10 of the building, and my lessons are on floor 3. As class starts at 8am, dragging myself out of bed to enter the lift and appearing in class 10 seconds later is a doddle. The 4 hours of intense studying afterward is the tricky part.

My classes here in China are rather different to in England. Here, all classes are taught in Chinese and English is not used at all. Being completely honest...it's HARD WORK. Me, Jess and Fran are all in Band B and after trying a few other classes this seemed best. Our classes are Monday to Friday, 8-12. This may not seems like a lot, however the workload is intense. I can feel myself improving everyday and I love that. I also love that I am starting to learn so much more colloquial conversation words. In the first week here, I struggled with simple things like, asking for the bill or telling the taxi driver not to rip us off (it happens a lot.) Im still building up my confidence and when a taxi driver asked me in Chinese "so, how much do you weigh?".... I was pretty shocked. Me nervously laughing in response seemed to amuse him. Apparently questions about age, weight, height, and god knows what else...are pretty common. In Chinese culture the older you are the better.

I think I am starting to adjust to living in China, little by little. The food is gorgeous...but doesn't really agree with our digestive systems too much. It might be another couple months untill we are all used to it. The lack of Western toilets here was another shocker. 90% of toilets are holes which you squat over. No toilet paper either. Yet another reason why the art of squatting must be perfected...my friend had an incident with too many cocktails and a squat toilet. hmm....NICE.
Apart from Me, Jess, Fran and Jazza, there are 22 other English people from Sheffield University, along with all my other course mates who are from other corners of the world. I absolutely love the diversity of this whole experience. You never know who you could start talking to. I also love the fact that apart from the blatant staring and open curiosity, Chinese people like to talk to us Westerners and want to help. It is kind of refreshing.

At this moment I am still an "Illegal Alien" here in China, as I don't have my extended residence permit yet. It seems some things in China do not run smoothly at all...Queuing for hours upon hours and getting nowhere is a common finale to most of my days here. The approach of: "Its not ready yet come back tomorrow" is starting to piss me off quite a lot, but as of yet I don't know the Chinese for "you bloody moron".

I have so much more that I want to talk about, but its getting late here and I have class in the morning. I hope this Blog reassures you all that I am happy, well and I'm having many fun times here in Nanjing. I will write again soon (promise!) Love to you all in England!

Bex xxx