Well one week later and here I am writing my first real blog! Here in Brasil we have had a crazy week, packed full of juicy juicy activities that have kept us on our toes and exhausted by the end of the day.

Well one week later and here I am writing my first real blog! Here in Brasil we have had a crazy week, packed full of juicy juicy activities that have kept us on our toes and exhausted by the end of the day.

The time has flown by as there are only a few days in Rio left, yet at the same time it feels as if we have been here for ages and known each other forever!  One thing I must say is how grateful I am to the British Council team here in Rio for planning us such a packed and wonderful programme.

So general opinions of Brasil so far, last saturday it was raining and a little cold and was cloudy so I initially thought in the airport, ‘wow this feels just like london’. Yet it was more humid and once we got into the city it definitely didn’t feel like london.  The natural beauty of Rio is stunning; the hills, trees and greenery is amazing. Also when the sun came out I found it weird that this could be winter here in brazil, which is hotter than our summer back in london! Well the weather improved incredibly so it now feels much more like Rio now and is even more beautiful.  I am still amazed at how the favelas can be so close to these amazingly developed cities and how there is such a wide gap between the social classes.  For instance in Ipanema there are shops that look like they have been taken off Oxford Street with Oxford Street prices literally converted into reals. Yet alongside this there are malls for more down to earth people. Overall Rio feels like a crazy place, full of contrasts yet somehow a underlying sence of harmony that keeps everything and everyone together. And I definitely love the city and could spend much longer than 2 weeks exploring.

One thing I didn’t imagine was how welcoming most Brazilian people have been to us, even in the favelas.  This is very different to London where people usually keep to themselves.  Also the beach is wonderful, as I hoped but I did not anticipate the natural beauty that  is so pure.  Also the variety of food is great here in Rio, there are restaurants to suit all different tastes. The only style I have not found accessible in Ipanema is Indian food.

So that is a general overview of my opinions so far, I am in Cultura Inglesa at the moment and going to see a documentary soon about a film being released next month about the life in the favelas which sounds exciting.  However, will definitely try to blog again with some more specific details of Rio 2010!!

I was just about to entitle this entry as "belated blogging", or something along those lines, but then I thought no - that's boring. And India, is anything but that.

I should have written a blog upon arrival, or not long into the first week - documenting my experiences here is a vital part of the journey for me. My memory will soon tarnish the richness of my adventures and mishaps so far here in India. I could change the date on here, so it looks like I've written it when I "should" have; I could pretend, but what's the point. I do promise though that this shall be the first blog of many; listening to KT Tunstall's soothing sounds, I'm quite enjoying this. I believe I've been avoiding writing a blog for the past few days, not long after I "recovered" from traveller's diahorrea (don't worry, I won't dazzle you with any of the details), because of my innate ability to procrastinate and to dodge even the simplest of tasks continuously.

But. This is isn't simple. Describing India through my eyes, ears and all other senses, is quite difficult. Especially when doing it last week would have been much easier. India is a unique place. Unique to each and every individual and how they percieve it, or not. It's a beautiful place ravaged by dust and pollution, crumbling buildings, poverty and age-old stigmas. Yet it is so strangely and seemingly easily entwined with vast landscapes, astonishing architecture, a vibrant culture encased in immeasurable years of brilliant history and a rapidly evolving scene of modernity which is unfolding throughout this city faster than the hurried, monday-morning limbs off a london tube station.

I should warn you before I embark upon an ocean of rants and raves, I can Ramble On quite a bit. Quite a lot in fact. There's nobody around to save me from my sorry grammatical fate either, so if anyone is reading this - I suggest skim-reading if you're planning on looking at more than one. See, perfect example of my colloquially crafted excuse for typing words.

The first week was pretty jam-packed, although my belly wasn't as it decided to pay homage to the fact that it is not the most reliable part of my anatomy. Tuesday off, immodium tablets out. Wednesday off and the doctor diagnosed me with traveller's diahorrea. 4 pills to be taken, anti-biotics. Here was me being "confident" in the cheap fact that immodium really does cure diahorrea, and not just lessen the toilet trips, and that the doctor can't tell me anything I don't already know for rps 1,500 (that's around 21 quid). Worth it though, and definitely the smart thing to do, the money is nothing for healthcare in India if you're an ignorant "tourist" in need of a quick recovery like me. Besides immodium is aparrantely a thumbs down, it can cause temporary bowl paralysis if you keep taking it - it sounds more serious than it is. I may have had this from doing so, I was just bloated for a little while at one point. So, lesson number one on arrival in India: don't be a stubborn know-it-all, get a doctor; get better. I did, and with great anticipation I set off for the Agra express with the 30 other fellows, including my sick-buddies (a few of us had sickness and diahorrea at this point), somewhere around 5am. It's great waking up when you've got a damn good reason for it - I'm always thoroughly excited about the ritual of tooth-cleansing every morning. Haha, no - the Taj Mahal was the motivation behind this early wake-up for us all. I wasn't bothered about getting up that early, in fact I would have preferred to have gone earlier (or maybe later) for the golden hours of photography - 1 hour after sunrise and 1 hour before sunset. It's not just this "perfect" setting for a photograph, and in my case many, many photographs, but I'd love to watch the sun progressively rise over the delicate palace, the landscape evolving with the subtle but striking changes in light, tone and colour. And it would just be nice of course.

The experience was netherless wonderful, not so much packed with tourists (that would have been disappointing) as Indian opportunists grabbing the moment you appear like you want to have a photograph with their freind, your friend, their wife.... It was very flattering recieving all these requests, at first. But honestly, I was trying to get some damn good pictures! It's not great when you think you have the focus and the awkward uncomfortable squatting position that comes with it, when some guy bounds on over to you asking for a picture. Generally, from what I "know" about the culture, and from my experiences, it is because I'm white - and I look paler than I usually do in a hot country, 2 days in bed doesn't help, neither does lots of factor 50+ suncream. But hey-ho, it didn't bug me too much, creeped me out a litte - if only because I know what I look like in the mornings, never mind with a sweat-plastered forehead and an inconspicious wet patch on my garments down my front from the incessant sweating. I was also stood next to, on a few occassions, quite beautiful Indian women - draped in exquisite saris, jewellery and giant grins. My own goofy grin was no match. But here I have a habit of concentrating on conveying a story too visually to portray a reality that may be generally seen, a lot of the time men would ask for photos - not exactly your favourite aunt in a colourful sari. But that wasn't important, interesting, slightly amusing and somewhat irritating - but not important in terms of the whole day, even less so of the whole week.

I'm getting tired now, it's past two am - sorry KT Tunstall although you have a lovely background for my minds concentration plane - my bed is calling to me.

Much happened on Thursday, many pictures and a couple of sneaky videos have been captured for consumption or for the unknown whereabouts of my expensive and needed storage device. Friday was spent in bed by my again, and Saturday and Sunday were characterised by reflections sessions and an evening departure for Mumbai fellows in the former; a long lay-in, a city stroll and a 'catch-up' on tasks on the latter day.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will be discussed in tommorow's blog - I'll even upload some pictures!

Well, it's a long over-due lights out over here - and I have no idea what's happening with you guys in the UK and elsewhere - but I bid you a good nights sleep. My fingers are itching for some strings, trying to find a guitar is difficult. As can be a lot of things at first. But that's all part of the fun. India is like a string, or many strings - immeasurable, undefinable, changeable.

Carpe diem.

The last few days have been hectic and this is a concise breakdown of what I’ve been up to.

·         Friday

·         Lessons on Mandarin

·         Lessons on Chinese Economy

·         Visit to the British Ambassador

·         Saturday

·         Climbed the Great Wall

·         Visit to the Beijing Olympic Stadium Nao Chao (Birds Nest)

·         National Aquatic centre

·         Sunday

·         Visit To Tiananmen square

·         Visit to The Forbidden City

·         Monday and Tuesday

·         More Lessons

·         Paper Cutting  Arts

·         Calligraphy

Okay so it’s been 3 – 4 days since my last blog (For the nonexistent few NOT IN MY FAMILY who read this)...I’m sorry! I wrote my greatest blog thus far (apart from the other one :) ) and courtesy of a slow internet connection lost it all... I’ve been grieving ever since! Here it goes. Ask the most successful people in the world “what has made you different from the others?” More often than not the answer will be attitude or mentality. This (besides being intent on using a pun) was the reason I decided to make this blog’s title A Question of Thought. Many have potential but few reach the top. To me, mentality and attitude are interlinked like Barcelona and Fabregas have been all summer. I’m an Arsenal fan by the way, so forgive me if I drop in the odd joke that’s of no relevance to you “soccer” haters. The past few days experience has reiterated the importance of the way I think. An example would be climbing The Great Wall. When I first started weaving In and out of the traffic in search of progression, I had no idea why I was in such a hurry. Did someone say headless chicken? After all, I could have stopped at the second tower, and used the last 45 minutes to take pictures, and navigate my way through the souvenir stores with some ice cream. Having said that, it seems that was the preferable option to drenching my pink (now purple) linen shirt in sweat.

        However, the higher I got the more I imagined the feeling of success, and the desire to make these thoughts a reality, were what propelled me into climbing more stairs. The thoughts of achieving something special and being different! That WAS an intended dig at my Fellows that did not make the top of the wall! Only joking, Its all Love baby! On arriving at the top, after the encouragement of my fellow Fellow Owen, he made a statement I think is profound. “You notice that when you are at the lower level it’s very congested, and restricting.  Then the higher you get the rarer it is to see anyone“. Why is this?(I ask) Because no one can be bothered(you reply).Although probably true, they’re maybe more to it than this short answer, that one might say is ‘As sweet as a nut’ whatever that means. Call me crazy, but this example may represent a reason behind why some ‘make it in life’ and others do not. You can easily argue that society is set out to have a hierarchal system that only permits a few at its peak. Get it? Because I made it to the top and they didn’t J(written whilst using a laugh only suitable for a cartoon villain). I did say call me crazy.

         You also could argue however, that the ever widening gap in society, has been inflamed by complacency, and complacency starts in the mind. I do not mean to use this one instance and my analysis as a Sigmund Freud ‘one size fits all’ type explanation. I only wish to provide an alternate view, which is mine and therefore correct. Getting back to the topic ; why is it that the majority at The Great wall were all conveniently stopping at the same level? I mean Jackie Chan wasn’t there juggling chop sticks and doing a rendition of “Baby Got Back”. Was He???(I would have been there in a giffy!) Or was it the idea of performing a physically demanding task under circumstances in which they had not conditioned their minds to focus on a reward.  WOEEE! DUDE! DEEP! Seriously though, I have learnt the thought processes behind my actions are pivotal in whether I will be a success or not. Through what I learnt in the Economics lecture I can also support this argument. China is the world second largest economy in the world, yet in terms of average spending power per person (GDP per capita) according to the IMF in 2009 it is ranked 99^th . In fairness to the People’s Republic of China, She has made great progression in two decades, however its reliance on exports, leaves it with an Economy that most say is logistically inefficient. Its failure as of yet, to fully endorse other means of generating capital leave the Economy dependant on its two biggest rivals (Europe and America). To standout as unique and successful you have to think long term and in ways your competitors dare not. Anyway as I always say, Mo’ Dollars Means Less Squalor. Do you really think I Say that? You must be crazy fam, too cool out ere’ blud.

Xie Xie (Thank You) for reading, (ESPECIALLY MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS LOL)

Day 6 over and out

Day 5

So many have been asking for shorter blogs well here we go! After  around 3 hours of sleep, most fellows were exhausted, at 3am we could not resist western cuisine and once again resorted to McDonalds, the highlight however was not the food, who would expect the majority of a rather large McDonalds to be occupied by sleeping students. The story behind this again portraying a hard working Chinese student, we were told by a local that many work through the night and take a 1-2 hour sleep as a break and then continue! In comparison most of us are sedentary! (I have a picture! =) After barely any sleep we were off to Tianamen Square! Yes the largest open square in the world! Boasting crowds of a 100,000 a day, this really was special. The square is also known as the gate of heavenly peace, as expected it was extremely crowded, but the history behind the square excited everyone to be there, it was a privileged! Personally I am in the opinion that due to lack of sleep, I wasn’t able to appreciate it as much as I should have, but it was a peaceful start to the morning, this pathway led us straight to the next destination.. Forbidden City!

Forbidden City followed immediately after this, the culture was flourishing through every traditional building, and we were very surprised at the sheer size of Forbidden City. It was probably the size of a small city, having 5 huge gates, each leading to a different territory, the emperor’s palace was surrounded by a lot of barren land for protection. You may be wondering why it’s called the Forbidden City, well simply because no one was allowed to enter or leave without the permission of the emperor. Haggling was taking place majority of the time, the humidity was probably at its highest and we purchased some traditional fans for 20 RMB, £2. A funny story that I must share with you is my purchase of chopsticks, after a battle I managed to gain them for 5 RMB (around 50p), after handing over the money, I did not receive my chopsticks and the seller claimed to have already given me them! I called our assistant Ariel to shout at this seller, but she did not lay down and did not give me my chopsticks haha! It wasn’t worth a further argument so I just let her be.

We returned in the evening and ate a local restaurant, due to lack of sleep most fellows were exhausted and decided to rest, as did I, lot of learning to do the following day!

Day 6

Monday begins and we have 7am starts everyday!  Luckily all fellows have been enrolled in Taiji ( Tai Chi) classes at 7am every morning in a open garden in front of the main building, the purpose to stress relieve and mentally prepare you for the day ahead. The movements were very elegant, I seemed to pick it up quite quickly and everyone seemed to generally enjoy it. The number of people taking part all around the park was also surprising. With around 40 minutes to eat breakfast and get changed, we went straight onto 4 hours of language! The lessons seem to be very long in China but enjoyable for fellows nevertheless, I think knowing that there is no exams for us and not a lot at stake, reduced the intensity, but the fact that were on the program ensures that all our minds are still set into giving 110% and benefiting as much as possible. Two teachers take the lesson, splitting the 4 hours between them, today we recapped basics. The first teacher Wu Ji Feng – English name Steven, focuses on foundation and after this, Laoxue (teacher) Li Jun Tao reinforces our learning by creating exercised to put foundations into practice. It was generally a very enjoyable session.

An hour lunch break allowed us grab some local street food as we had noticed that it had no effect on our digestive system, this specific stall that is. We then went onto Chinese paper cutting which was really shocking. Positively shocking that is, we were lectured by a Professional paper cutter and it was astonishing what she was able to do, using simply her hands or scissors, we were given the opportunity, fellow Thai & Suraya seemed to have a natural touch, most of us were pretty average and fellow Sean regarded himself as a professional haha! All in good heart of course.

After around 7 hours of Learning and cultural immersion, immediate plans were made to go to the silk market where some fellows had been the previous day, I heard many stories but did not believe them! Around 10 of us decided to go underground and take the tube, costing us only 2 RMB (20p). We arrived and the complex was huge, full of hundreds of stalls on the 5 storey building. The experience however was one that I never imagined, the sellers were hilarious haha! Using expletives after you would not buy, approaching you every second of your time there and we even got hit with calculators after refusing their price hahaha! It was amazing and I was sure that I would return. The board in front of the market was actually labelled, Number one bargaining market for foreigners and it sure was! I managed to purchase a few items, the biggest achievement being, bringing down a designer T shirt from 400 RMB to 40 RMB, authentic.. I’m guessing not but it’s probably the most genuine item I’ve ever seen!

We returned late evening again on the tube and ended a intense day by ordering pizza! Delivery to your room! That’s as brief as I can sum up those two days but next time may not be as short! Missing everyone back home!

Zai Jian x :D

Before I start todays blog, I want to point out that it’s pretty much exactly 7 days since I started my journey to China, and I haven’t felt homesick once! Testament to how much of a good time I’m having!!

This morning started in much the same way as yesterday, early morning Tai Chi, but also with some Kung Fu thrown in, and then our language lesson, today focusing on food and eating out, which will hopefully make the rest of the trip much easier and safer- no more kidney rather then beef, or tofu instead of chicken! I want to take this chance to give a little dedication to McDonalds, because for all its faults and problems there are two brilliant things about it in Beijing. First, it serves Twinnings English tea with milk, which after pretty much 7 days without a cup is like a little serving of heaven! It’s £1.20, which when you consider a bottle of Coke is 25p, it’s very expensive, but definitely worth it! Secondly, they deliver, yes, there is man with a back pack and a scooter. If I was able to speak Chinese I would definitely be calling them and getting them to bring the food to my room!

I got my first taste of street food for lunch, and as yet (touch wood) there is no sign of sickness, so all seems good! I had these cold noodle things served with bits of cucumber, parsley and some kind of sauce. Sounds a little weird but it was really tasty. In the afternoon we had a session in Chinese calligraphy, which, for me, was more successful than the paper cutting. It was a little hard to follow at first because the translator was so quiet, but from what I could gather there was a lot more to it than just writing stuff. At first he was teaching us to draw lotus flowers, but then we were quickly doing our own thing, writing our Chinese names, doodling, which naturally led into painting on each other! It was like the art lesson you’d always wanted at school but had never been allowed! There was also a (at the time) hysterically funny incident with Lilly spilling over a bowl of water and then Tolus coming to the rescue with a single tissue, only to then realise it was going to be no where near enough to cope with a disaster of such magnitude! 

After class, there was time for a quick break before I headed out with a few of the guys to a marker/shopping area. It was also my first experience of the Beijing subway, which wasn’t as bad as I was expecting- the carriages weren’t overly packed and although the doors don’t stop closing once they start, they stay open a long time and there’s plenty of warning before they start. The area we went to (which I know can’t remember the name of) was really weird because at first we walked through a really traditional looking area full of souvenir stands and also food stalls. We passed on the food though, as it was a little too “traditional” - starfish, sea horses, and bugs of some sort that were on the stick and still moving!! I’m up for trying most Chinese food, but I draw the line at anything that is still moving! After the traditional area, we came to a big arcade, and for a moment it felt like we were in Tokyo, before we then moved into an area which may as well been America. It was full of designer shops and department stores- Armarni, Gucci, All Saints, Hugo Boss etc. We went into Beijing’s first department store, and it was really surreal because being inside it did not feel like China at all, the items were all exactly the same and the prices were not much different, the only difference was that it was much quieter than such a large store would be anywhere else. 

After this, my plans for an early night were again ruined when I heard that a few people were going to look round Peking University (China’s answer to Oxbridge) with Aerial, and after debating in my mind, I figured there’s time to sleep in England! We entered through an old looking traditional door where visiting leaders and foreign diplomats always enter when they visit Beijing. The campus was stunning, and felt so Chinese, it was filled with lots of old buildings, also a lot of new, but on the whole they had been designed so as to look traditional as well. We saw a building where President Nixon had made a speech, and the gym which was the venue for the Ping Pong games at the Olympics. Having Aerial there was really handy as she acted as a free tour guide for us. It was interesting to hear that the University was only founded in 1898, but it was still one of the oldest in China. Even more incredible is that University costs about £650 a year, and that includes accommodation- suddenly I felt like I wanted to go to uni in China! She did say though, that the costs vary depending on the institution and the subject, also a Bachelor’s degree lasts 4 years, and Master’s is three years on top of that. Suddenly a Chinese university was so appealing! It was really interesting talking to her, because she is aware that the government can’t be trusted with the facts and figures it gives, and that it hides information from the people, and yet she seems perfectly happy. This is the feeling everyone seems to give off, and perhaps is part of the reason why China seems relatively stable. The government, although unelected and not very open, is doing a good job and improving China for the better, which the people must also think and so are happy with this set up. I think we’ve all been surprised by how liberal things seem to be in the surface, the Police presence is much less than I expected (although there are lots of security guards, they seem to be in almost every building!) and there seems to be no feeling of fear or insecurity, even when we ask our student leaders about political things. It’s really different to what I expected, and I’ m looking forward to seeing if things still seem like this when I’ve been here longer.

Anyway, bed time now, I can salvage a semi early night!!

Over the last few days I have developed quite a nasty cough, due to a combination of pollution and the air-conditioning in our rooms. As a result, last night I got very little sleep and hence, struggled even more to get up this morning! Despite this, I made it down to the square for 07:00 ready to take part in our first Kung-Fu lesson. Unfortunately however, most of the lesson was spent going over we learnt yesterday, plus a few new steps to the Tai Chi routine. Following this, we managed to squeeze in two basic, but very effective Kun-Fu self defence moves (see below!)

Our Mandarin class was a lot better today; I learnt a lot of new and useful vocabulary for ordering food and communicating with the waiters in a restaurant.  The more and more I learn, the more and more determined I am to continue learning this beautiful language. I am focussing very little attention on learning the characters as such; I feel it is more important to be able to speak it first and then when I get back to England I will start building on my knowledge by trying to learn one or two characters a week, if possible. During the second half of the session, we went over the song we started learning yesterday. The song itself is very beautiful, however not with 10 tone-deaf students singing along to it. Having mastered the first two lines as best as we could, we were then given an even harder pair of lines to learn; a task that led us all to brick walls that we were unable to break! The song is so high that most sopranos would struggle with it and so we managed to convince our teacher to teach us a new song about a boy singing across the road to a beautiful woman that he is trying to attract the attention of. It is much more upbeat and has instruments that are more recognisable in the background. It turned out to be quite a funny lesson today with plenty of embarrassing quotes from members of the class!

Whilst I am discussing music, I would like to point out that for the first time on my travels abroad, I have noticed a complete lack of western music. Other than, in the Karaoke bar and the club on Saturday night, I am yet to hear any English music, whilst walking through Beijing. In every city I have been to in recent years, I have not been able to escape the English music; perhaps Delhi being the only exception. It seems that despite the westernisation of the restaurants, there seems to be no demand for English music over here. Maybe as the Chinese begin to lose some of their culture in terms of traditions, they are doing their best to protect other aspects of culture such as music, from westernisation.

For lunch I at some street food once again- the same style as yesterday, but from a different stall. It wasn’t as nice as yesterday, however it still filled me up for the tiny cost of 4RMB (40p). After lunch, we had another workshop, but this time in Chinese water painting. Once again, the session began by watching an old man be translated, as he shows us different styles and examples of Chinese water painting. By using black ink and water it was impressive to see how he could create a detailed image, with different shades of black.  When it came to us to have ago we were told to do an orchid- basically three long lines. Even this proved difficult, as either I had too much water, or my brush was too thick etc. In the end, I spent the majority of the session practicing my Chinese name so I could write it nicely using the brush. I haven’t quite got it to a tee, however on the files below you can see my best attempt. On it you will see the characters 马乔丹-Mǎ Qiáodān. I already explained that Qiáodān was my first name, Jordan, however in China the surname always goes at the front and Mǎ is simply taken from the pronunciation of the start of my surname. The of direct translation of Mǎ is Horse, however surnames are not intended to mean anything so don’t read too much into it! The lesson ended up being very fun and as soon as we ran out of the parchment, we were painting on each other!  

You may be wondering what the title of the blog is about today, but i’m sure if you look on most buses, billboards of cinema listings back home you will soon understand! Unfortunately, few if any of us were able to watch Toy Story 3 before we came out to China and seeing as the original was one of the biggest films of our generation, we were all desperate to watch it. Luckily, one of the fellows had acquired a copy and lent it to a few of us to watch on our laptops in our rooms. It was a very relaxed afternoon and it was nice to be able to chill out and watch a movie because everyone is feeling tired and a few of us are suffering from sore throats and coughs. The film was excellent and I hope it will still be on when I get home so I can watch it again in 3D!

Dinner was lazy tonight- no one wanted Chinese food so we all went along and found a Pizza Hut. This was my first western meal of the trip, which is not bad considering many people have been making the most of our own private McDonalds downstairs. It was naturally more expensive and when I came back to the hotel I put on a dark wash, and attempted to iron the rest of my washing with a travel iron the  phone!

My throat is very sore and I am going to need to get some medicine tomorrow unless it gets better over night and I am being forced to leave the air con off, as it is aggravating my cough. Other than that my experience of China is forever improving, always thought provoking and never disappointing. Tomorrow we have the same structure of Tai Chi at 07:00, Mandarin at 08:20 and a lecture on the development of Chinese society at 13:00. Until then, Zai Jian.

Highlight of the day- It’s a toughie, however the Chinese painting session was quite fun and I enjoyed practicing painting my name

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Day 6 in this wonderful country and the excitement is only growing! At the same time the programme is getting a lot more intense with tai chi and kung fu classes starting at 7am, mandarin lessons at 8:20am and cultural classes at 1pm. The formal day finishes at around 3pm and most people, me included, are usually shattered. On the weekend we climbed the Great Wall followed by a trip to the Bird’s Nest Stadium where as expected Asher got most of the attention from passers-by. Most people mistook Asher for being an NBA basketball player and were trying to get their photographs taken with him. Not being ones to rain on their parade we claimed that he played for the Lakers!

That aside, visiting Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City was a great experience after looking at lots pictures of it on the TV. The Forbidden City itself has 8000 palaces apparently so getting lost over there is quite daunting. We are also frequently heading off to restaurants so that we can practise our mandarin and with my trusty phrase-book the task is much easier though getting the tones right on the words is a tad difficult.  

Saturday night all of us went clubbing to Sanli Ti first going to Skyline Bar with some familiar English songs being played as well as the World Cup song ‘Wave Your Flag’ which we all joined in on (in English while it was being played in Mandarin) a well known song in China; Beijing Huan Ying Ni (Beijing Welcome’s you) followed which got everyone trying to mime the lyrics with poor results! The past three days people have been going to the famous Silk Market which stocks lots of fake clothing which obviously was popular amongst the fellows. I have yet to go because I have been a little under the weather but from the looks of the clothes and souvenirs I will certainly enjoy it.

Well that’s all for now. I’m off to for some well-deserved sleep and I hope to blog again in a few days so until next time; Zai Jian!