well we have arrived in yantai, and tomorrow we start teaching. yantai is a bit weird, completely different to home. the food sort of sucks, they like fish (i dont) and whenever you order meat its just bone and a tiny bit of meat! so far we have had chicken head, chicken feet, sea slugs, dumplings, and other unusual dishes. Sorry for not writing much blog, ill give you a quick run through of our trip so far...

Moscow: very very cold, -20 degrees C at one point. everything covered in snow, so st basils and the kremlin quite pretty. The food wasnt great, but we survived! the people never seemed to smile though, i know the weather was bad but they really did look so miserable!

Train: showerless and therefore smelly! we met three really nice australians who taught us card games and gave us food!  i ended up being sick one night, due to some food bought off the platform i reckon (Not nice). The carriage was pretty crammed, tiny beds, ross's feet stuck out the bottom! lots of snow and trees out the window!

Beijing: amazing architecture, very impressive. lots to do and see, lots of walking done! the city was very very clean and huge wide streets. Biggest annoyance is the staring, the chinese just dont see real westerners very often and just point, touch and shout "hellooo" at us. some have even asked for our picture! great wall was fantastic , we hiked for 10km up and down 70 degree steps, exhausting!! amazing views though, well worth a visit.

Yantai: we didnt get off to a good start when we had to wait for 2 hours from 5.45am to get picked up- we had been completely forgotten about. the city is odd, very different to beijing. we like in a little apartment in the school, it basic but ok, close to the city centre. its sort of a chinese dundee (although i have to say i prefer dundee!). lots of little shops selling the same thing at dirt cheap prices- dont understand how they make any money. they dont have cereal in china (try explaining cereal to a chinese person... impossible) but we have found some tasty bread roll things with a sweet filling for about 10p. Food is really cheap. electronics are slightly less than back home but not much. DVDs and CDs are cheaper, but i havent bought any cause theyre all in chinese! might do some clothes shopping but the fashion sense is sort of all over the place! We start teaching tomorrow - the school we are at is called Yantai No 5 Middle School. We are being looked after by madam Wang, who is off her trolley, seems to think everyone in britain goes around in regal attire. Mad but nice, she tries her best! At least she speaks english! i"ll let you know what the teaching is like later on, im a little worried - 50 plus kids in a class 11-12 year olds, who dont really speak any english. we have been told just to speak slowly and be foreign! easy enough!

Hope all is well

Eilidh