100 Days!

Yes, thank you, I know ....I've got it....let it go will you!  I haven't updated this blog for too long and I'm sorry, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!  I could say I've been busy, which I have but I know it's no excuse!  I could say very little has happened but that is a storming lie - so anyhoo ...here we go.

Life remains a delight on the whole, the students I work with are a joy and the more we learn about each other the more I think we enjoy working together - they are always interested in finding out about the West and of course I remained enthralled, and puzzled and incredulous about China.  Chinese people are introduced with their family name first - e.g. Wu then their given name which might be Yunzhang which means hard working and an article which may mean a good writer - this may be an aspiration of the parents but the students tell me it could also just be words the parents like and they don't really care!  They've killed the romantic notion I had about their names.

I have started ballroom dancing lessons every week in Chengdu with a world champion modern dancer.  He is about the tallest Chinese man who isn't a basket ball player and has legs that are about as tall as me.  He moves with the softness and elegance of a ninja warrior and is so graceful I could spend the whole lesson just watching him.  Sadly he feels this would not be good value for money so I move round the floor like a baby elephant with all the elegance of a fridge!  Still, it is such fun and generally we laugh a great deal and make tiny progress - my next summer I am confident we will have mastered one dance - I truly hope he doesn't judge all westerners by my incompetence - I dread to think what i'd be like if I hadn't studied dance at university (thank God we didn't pay fees then - I'd be demanding a refund!)

Things are becoming a little more western of late - tonight we are going to a wine tasting in Chengdu - French wines, gravlax and rack of lamb followed by chocolate mousse - we could be in Pimlico!

Weather is turning, hot and sticky is turning to cold and damp - good excuse to supplement wardrobe with coats, fleeces, long johns and my favourite item ever - giraffe fleece pyjamas

I'm outta here!  Love and peace comrades!

Will really try harder to write more regularly - just in case anyone cares!