Sorry you haven't heard from me for a while. I haven't felt good since my plunge in the river on Saturday. I've been feverish, I have a sore throat and I've been plagued by headaches as well.

Yesterday I moved in with Nancy. No, not Nancy-from-Seattle whom I shared a tiny apartment with in Japan 9 years ago. This is Chinese Nancy, an English student and a Chinese teacher from New Start. I'd to move out of my hotel room, because the price of the room was going up. I'd really like to rent an apartment, but so far, I haven't been very lucky in finding a decent and affordable place (or do you think I'm picky? ). I'll check out a few more apartments later today. A Chinese friend will help me then. If you go with someone Chinese, the chance that you're being ripped off is close to 0%. Unfair, but true here in China. So, I'm sharing a bedroom and a bathroom with Nancy now. Nancy is a tiny Chinese lady. She looks like a living doll, but - she's extremely messy! She's very friendly, hardly every at home and she spends most of the weekends in Guilin with her family, so it shouldn't be too hard to live with her, but her messiness... Ugh! Last night, I had to sweep the floor before I could sleep and this morning, I started cleaning the bathroom. I'm not even halfway. It's disgusting! It isn't entirely her fault: the building we live in isn't finished yet, so there's still a lot of dust from constructing it. There are also a lot of creatures crawling around (eeeks!), the bathroom door can't close, there's only one shower with warm water (not ours) and there's no airconditioning. Moreover, I don't have any covers on my bed either. Needless to say that I didn't sleep very well last night... On the upside: I don't have to pay for staying in this room, because I've agreed to attend English Corner two nights a week (from 7 - 8.30 pm) AND I can eat in the school on weekdays. Not a bad deal at all! I just have to sacrifice a little bit of my freedom, walk a little bit further (the apartment isn't in the centre of Yangshuo) and climb a lot of stairs every day to the 6th floor. Luckily, Adam was so kind as to help me carry my suitcase - in return for a drink, haha!

I'm probably not going to teach here. I seriously think that being a teacher in China is not my cup of tea. I just can't do it. I'm not a clown. Besides: I've left Holland, because I wanted more freedom, not less. Most schools here are run like a police station. Brrr!

I'm really looking forward to my first Chinese lesson tomorrow.

Have a great day!