I dont know about you, but I'm feeling 22...

I've been in China just over a week now and it has honestly been one of the best weeks of my life. There have been hilarious times, bizarre times and dramatic times, and I wouldn't have had it any other way. I have met a load of amazing people and have already made a group of lovely friends that I hope I will be in touch with forever. China is an amazing country and, LoveTEFL and TTC have got me pumped up and excited for what is to come. 

Me and Jenny have now moved from Beijing to our placement school in Suzhou, Jiangsu. Nope, I hadn't heard of it either. For now I'll say that Suzhou (roughly pronounced SOO-JOE) is an up and coming city about 20 minutes outside of Shanghai and leave it at that until full opinions can be formed.

But for now I'll do a brief summary of this first week in China. It would be impossible to put in everything that happened that I would like to tell people without writing a small novel so we'll stick to the first day, and my 22nd birthday, for now.
First let's begin at the beginning! We arrived in China at 6:10am on 5th February, my birthday, after a long two part flight with Jenny from Heathrow, via Warsaw, to Beijing. At the airport we were met by Ian and Gordon, LoveTEFL's two lovely owners, and introduced to Ben and Will, two other interns who had also just arrived. Thankfully,  first impressions were positive, they weren't annoying!, and we all chatted away on the coach ride to the University of Economics and Business Studies, where we would be staying for Training Week. The first day was free for us to settle in and adjust so Jenny and I met up with Will, Ben and some of the other recently arrived interns and ventured to Beijing's food market.

The pure number of stalls packed into the little ally was amazing enough, but when you got a closer look and saw what was being sold was when the shock really set in. There wasn't a sweet and sour chicken in sight,  instead stalls were crammed with a mix of creatures I would have never even considered eating before. The main fascination was with the deep fried bugs and other small animals; scorpions, larvae, starfish, seahorses, stretched out bats; all on sticks and sprinkled with chilli and salt. Dave, a particularly adventurous American intern and now one of my favourite people in the world, even tried a scary looking bird on a stick with head and all! (If anyone's interested it tasted like a cross between rabbit and pigeon.) That time me and Will decided just to split a bamboo stem stuffed with sticky rice, which was unlike anything I've ever tried but strangely tasty. But the next time we all went to the food and night market (a truly dramatic night, which was punctuated with a trip in a Chinese ambulance to the hospital. Don't worry not for me!) we tried a scorpion which was actually pretty delicious! The only scary thing was that when we ordered it, the scorpion was still alive until it was dropped in boiling oil and eaten, stinger and all. Yum, yum! Other people tried all sorts over the week, including cat, dog, bat and tarantula and the general consensus is that if it's deep fried and seasoned, it all tasts pretty much the same. And NOT all like chicken!
Boldened by our adventures in the food market we then went looking for a 'traditional' tea house to warm up in. (That's another thing, Beijing in February can be achingly cold) Managing to avoid any of the infamous 'tea house scams' and failing miserably to find a tea house without the help of the English speaking staff at the Beijing Hilton hotel, we settled in for our first encounter with a simple tea ceremony and a good old fashioned bonding chat.

 Turns out that these people were going to become some of my favourite people over the next week. It feels lucky to go somewhere where everything feels so different but to still be able to find a group of people who it was as hard to say goodbye to at the end of the week as it was to people at home. That first evening these friendships were cemented in our local watering hole, Lakers Bar. I had probably one of the best birthdays I can remember, celebrated in true Chinese/Western fusion style with refreshing 3 litre tubes of beer for the equivalent of £5 (so cheap!) and many toasts of "gambei!" or in English "down in one".

David found a new friend in Mylo, the dirtiest toy dog I've ever seen, and the  'neck nominations: China edition' started full force. Sitting in Beijing with one of my best friends and surrounded by amazing and interesting people, it was hard to imagine how my 22nd birthday could have been improved.

Awww, so sentimental in my old age! But a seriously good first day in China. Also thank you so much to everyone for the birthday messages. And as a side note, my English number is now gone forever so I can't and will never get any texts WhatsApp messages or anything else sent to that number. My Chinese number is on Facebook for those who want to WhatsApp or WeChat (it's the new WhatsApp that all the cool kids have guys).

So that's all for now folks, one day in a mini essay series of one week in China, but right now I need to go explore my new home for the next 5 months! Until next time.