From the middle to the edge of nowhere.

I have been out of Zhengzhou for the past three days, travelling to two other cities in the Province with Horizon Education (my new employers). The trip was with a group of teachers and assistants from the school, of whom the best English speaker was Mr Nyu (he is pretty poor). So I had plenty of time to practice my even more appalling Chinese. The first destination was Zhengpin, a suburb of Nanyang, which is about 340 km from Zhengzhou. We arrived at about ten at night after a long journey in the school's Ford Transit come Minibus. I was told triumphantly, by the head of the school there that we would be eating in a famous noodle restaurant that night. However it was closed. Never fear we will go to a famous dumpling restaurant instead, also closed. Nobody made any efforts to claim that the street restaurant at which we ate was in any way prestigious. However, sitting there, eating wholesome food and drinking rather awful Chinese spirits I had somewhat of an epiphany. This was what coming to China was all about. Sitting outside in the cold eating food from communal plates with people speaking a language that meant little or nothing to me. It was a wonderful night.

The next day we got up early to travel to the half-finished auditorium round the corner where Horizon were booked to be speaking to entice new students. I should point out here that this kind of school is extremely popular for primary and junior school students, who having to spend less time in school than older children, have plenty of time for extra lessons. It is not easy growing up in the People's Republic. Anyway, the talk lasted about two and a half hours but was worth it as I got to meet some children before and after. Obviously I am even more of a 'Panda' (a term coined rather cleverly, I think, by Wei Lai, a student who I had been helping prepare for an exam) out of the city and the staring intensity duly increases. I ate lunch, again with no English speakers, in a rather skanky restaurant in the town. Fortunately it was women's day which meant for once I did not have to bear the brunt of the toasts and therefore did not have to drink too much of the foul, flat, luke-warm, beer like drink we were given.

The afternoon was spent taking a few lessons with some students at the branch schools. I basically just played some games with them and taught them 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes'. I hope that in the future I will be teaching the younger children as the lessons only require simple games and they are far better behaved than the 11-12-13 year olds who mucked about a lot for the 45 minutes for which I was abandoned to their mercy. What was most surprising was their absolute refusal to go anywhere near the opposite sex, making tasks, such as standing in a circle, difficult.

After all the teaching it was time to leave Zhenpin and three of the group, including myself, took a short but terrifying minibus ride to meet up with the others. The route taken by the driver seemed to be based on three simple philosophies; 1) A speed limit is a suggestion not an order 2) Staying on the correct side of the road is both boring and slow 3) No matter the size or weight of the vehicle coming directly towards me in the same lane, I will not deviate my course. A little flustered we got off, to be picked up almost immediately by the school's van. What followed was an another incredibly dull journey back to Zhengzhou and then to Herbi, another city.

We spent the night in a rather shabby hotel that appeared to be populated more or less entirely by the employees and clients of the vice trade. We awoke early the next morning, breakfasted with the ladies of the night and a number of dodgy looking policemen, and left to another branch school. This school was new and we were there for it's opening ceremony. In fact we were the only people there as it was eight o'clock on a Sunday morning. Not wanting to leave anyone out of the celebrations, the teachers set off about 500 firecrackers and some other incendiary devices containing ticker tape. Next port of call was a hotel where I had to sit through the speech that I heard the day before all over again. Prior to this however, I was ordered to play games with the children. This was in fact the only instruction I received and so I the attempted to entertain about 100 Chinese children unaided (more 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes) for half an hour. After another large meal, we were sent to the school where we had to wait for about five hours for Mr Nyu to sort out some business.

We eventually returned to Zhengzhou at about nine thirty, and the relief I felt makes me think that already this place is beginning to feel like some sort of home. Three weeks ago, I would not have thought it possible.