My demo class on Friday wasn't good enough, because 'you are tired, you are not energetic enough'. Right. Thank you for your honesty, but it doesn't make sense to me at all...

On Saturday, I finally met Roland, my Dutch contact person. Roland has been in Yangshuo for 3 years. He runs the Mandacentre (www.mandacentre.com), he works as a tour guide for a Dutch organisation and he used to own the cafe where we had agreed to meet. Busy man! Barry, an Australian guy with years of teaching experience in various countries, also joined Roland and me. Barry must be in his seventies, I think. Jennifer, Roland's Chinese wife, also joined us. When I told Roland and Barry about my demo class at New Start, they both said 'What a load of crap!'. According to Barry, Joe, the recruiter at New Start, has never taught in her life, so she doesn't know what she's talking about. Barry thinks Joe rejected me because I'm pretty. What?!? I thought my teaching skills mattered, not my looks... I get stared at over here and people photograph me as well. In that sense, China is quite similar to Japan.

Anyway, Barry couldn't get over the fact how stupid Joe is and Roland quietly left, only to return 5 minutes later, shouting 'You've got a job at a different school!' What??? I went to Zhuo Yue College about 30 minutes ago (yes, on a Sunday) and apparently, I'll be teaching Monday morning and Tuesday morning. Missy, my contact person at Zhuo Yue, has already printed out the exercises and she's given me a book to work from. I'll be covering for the regular teacher, who'll return on Wednesday. Great! This will be a good chance for me to find out whether I like teaching or not. No idea if I'll get any money for it. Right now, the experience is more important.

It looks like I've already made some friends in Yangshuo. On Thursday night, I went to a bar with a few foreigners and one annoying Chinese guy. I didn't stay very long, though. Don't like Chinese beer... On Friday, Adam (from the U.K.) greeted me when he cycled past me and yesterday, Sinan (from Belgium), came up to me to ask me how my demo class had been. Yesterday afternoon, a 45-year old Scot took me to the park and last night, I had dinner with Barry, Roland and Jennifer. I'll be having dinner with Barry again tonight. He's fun to be with and he can tell interesting stories about all the countries he's visited.

All in all, I'm having quite a good time, but (there was bound to be a 'but'!) it's way too hot & humid, I need to find a cheaper place to stay (and a better bed - haven't slept well apart from the first night) and I don't like the games the Chinese play (like Joe - apparently, backstabbing and lying is normal here).

I'd better start preparing tomorrow's class. I'll be teaching seven level 2 adult students. Level 2 means that their understanding of English is quite low, so I think my patience will be tested..

Thank you for your emails and please keep sending them!