So I’ve been teaching for a few days now… it really is quite an experience. It’s more exhausting than I’d anticipated, but so much fun. I’ve taught grades 1,2, 5 and 6 so far, but I’ve still got grades 3 and 4 and kindergarten coming up. Grade 1 know barely any English so my first lesson involved jumping around, shouting “Hello”, “Hi” and “Nice to meet you” quite a bit and getting the kids moving and speaking as much as possible. It’s amazing how much they get out of the simplest activities – like getting them to run on the spot or jump up and down while saying “Hello” or whatever. They even appear to love the crappy songs I’ve been making up, but perhaps they’re just humouring me :D The older grades are equally fun to teach, although you really do have to be thoroughly prepared – they can smell inexperience I think. Within each grade the kids’ standard of English differs greatly and generally their English is worse than I expected, particularly in the more suburban East campus school where a lot of the kids are from farming families.

In general too, things are going well. Changsha is growing on me everyday – particularly the people here. And the food! We’ve eaten out in a few great places and every Friday our Chinese collegues - Coco, Shelly, Tracy and Fiona – take us out to a different restaurant in the centre. Last Friday we went to a famous dumplings restaurant which had a strong Chairman Mao theme, complete with Mao specials and ‘The choice of Mao’ (see right). Near our apartment in the suburbs there are also places to eat out and various outdoor markets, although perhaps the less said about the meat market the better. Every night in a nearby square the locals set up street food stalls with tables and chairs and residents all gather to eat and chat - there's a great atmosphere and some amazing smells. With this diverse street food and so little English it can be hard to know what you’re eating at times – judging from the meat market I may well have eaten turtle, snake or pigeon at some point… or dog.

Whenever we eat out, or go pretty much anywhere, the locals are so intrigued by us and often want to chat or take photos. People will come up and get you to hold their babies and pose for photos. And the other night in a local seafood restaurant the manager and serving staff all wanted their picture taken with us before we left. With so few Westerners in Changsha we really are minor celebrities here. It’s bizarre.

'Walking street' in the centre - the place to be in the evening.