23 hours on a train being harrassed by a small boy

Sorry, I couldn't think of a catchy title.

I have made my triumphal return to Zhengzhou, which is as dusty and crap as when I left (something that I find strangely comforting). I have returned for a brief trip to help Wojciech, my friend and saviour, with a few of his crackpot teaching schemes. These mainly involve chatting with Chinese students and attempting to steer them away from the ever occurring questions such as; 'How can I get into Harvard?', 'How can I get into Cambridge?' and 'How can I get into MIT?' to which one can only really answer 'Be really good at stuff'.

Not much has changed since I have been away apart from the weather and the progress of construction around the city. Two days ago, fortunately before I arrived, it hit 37 degrees centigrade, which as far as I'm concerned is close to the temperature of the surface of the sun. The pace of construction is clear once you take a short break. Like a teenager's growth during puberty, seeing the buildings after one month shows incredible work. It seems that the solution for lazy inefficient builders is simply to hire hordes of them to work their lazy, inefficient shifts 24/7.