When one door closes, another one opens with free food and better wages.

So many things have changed since my last post. The most obvious and, in terms of the series of events, chronologically correct is that I am not going to be working at Number 1 Middle School. I was told to meet with the Dean and Ms. Shi in the school office one morning and was told that was no way that they could get me a foreign expert's certificate and therefore no way that I could legally work at the school. 'Bugger' was my initial thought and I was taken rather reluctantly with Voytk to a school he said would offer me a job. The school is a private school (like all of the language schools in Cambridge and London and offers extra English lessons for Chinese children from the ages of 6 to 16). I met the director/headteacher, Mr Nyu (which means cow), and we discussed the job. I would be teaching in evenings and on weekends, about 15 hours a week and would be paid about twice as much as I would be if I had been working at No. 1. The other advantage is that the school is covered by far less rigorous employment regulations as it is not state run and is effectively a business.

The next dilemma was where to live, as I was told that there was no way I could stay at No.1. Voytk, Polish legend that he is, offered me the spare room in his flat. And so I have moved in with him. In return for the bed he wants me to help him with his research into getting Chinese students into US and British uni's, look for suitable websites to advertise his project for getting international students to spend a year at school in Zhengzhou and also to look after his dog (Shao fu) who feels spends too much time cooped up in his apartment.

I can now give you a more detailed description of my new flatmate. He has been in China for six years and therefore speaks excellent Mandarin (Putonghwa). His greatest attribute is his ridiculously large group of friends and acquaintances. This includes not only the headteachers of a number of schools, but senior policemen, wealthy businessmen and the lady in charge of distributing train tickets for the entirety of the province (which is the largest in terms of population in China). He has also offered me free Chinese lessons at a new school that he is involved in. He is 27, about 6'3", and will most likely be heard saying 'don't worry about it' or 'he's craaazy'.

To be quite honest I am chuffed to bits with the current situation, I think things are really looking good and I can't wait for the next few months. That's all for now, we are about to go out and get dinner paid for us (again)!