Getting Out of the Bubble

Sometimes, life just gets a little bit more dramatic than normal and, since Friday, life in Suzhou has gone from serene to vaguely stressful drama. Friday evening was spent saying farewell to Alex, one of our new (and short lived) Suzhou friends. Jenny, Jonas, Alex, the Germans and I had a relaxed dinner followed by less relaxed drinks, which left us all crying with laughter over the ever childish but ever amusing "in my pants" Ring of Fire rule. We did some of the worst karaoke to Aerosmiths "Don't want to miss a thing" and Alex went out in a blaze of glory when he beat the Chinese guy who dominates the bar, at pool. Overall it was a really fun night and we were all sad to see Alex go, but I guess this is the nature of living in a non-permanent community. Saturday was spent relaxing after Friday night and then on Sunday we ventured out to find Suzhou's number 1 tourist site, Tiger Hill. Of corse it was easier said than done to get there and our flaw

After weeks of being wrapped up in thick coats and scarves it seems that Suzhou's weather has had a change of heart and gone straight from winter to summer. In general, the weather in Suzhou is definitely strange; it's unpredictable and flippant and there is a lot of rain. In fact, I think it's safe to say that the defining feature of Suzhou's weather is the rain. According to that omniscient source, Google, Suzhou has on average 128 rainy days a year; this roughly means you can expect rain at least 3 times a week. Fun. June is the apparently the wettest month, hot and rainy, described as "moist"...you just know it's going to be disgusting. But for now its mid-March and the weather is beautiful. For the time being its hot and dry, and a very welcome change. With the inevitable and impending return of rain, we've been trying to make the most of the lovely weather. I've taken a stroll by Jin Ji lake near the Culture and Expo Centre with Jona

When we first arrived in Suzhou, we were all full of optimism about our new lives in China. We were going to find the expats, immediately become remarkably popular and have our teaching punctuated with a bursting social calendar. As often is the case with over optimism, our expectations were gradually lowered to a more achievable level, our aim after the first week was to make a friend. Just one single friend. It's not that people weren't friendly...it's just that there weren't any people. At least not ones that could speak English. Now, don't get me wrong,  I don't want to move from my London bubble to a Western bubble in Suzhou; but sometimes it's nice to have a conversation with someone different who actually has a clue what you're saying. So with that in mind we got our sociable faces on and ventured to Downtown and Shi Quan Lu where we'd heard all the bars were. What we hadn't heard was that a considerable chunk of Shi Quan Lu is essentia

The New District Experimental Primary School I think we all sometimes have a "why am I here" moment, and no I'm not getting all deep and philosophical on you all, á la blog Henry. I mean the moment where you wonder what possessed you to put yourself in the position you find yourself and wonder whether it has all been a massive mistake. For me, my first day of teaching had many of these moments as well as a few "oh my god, I might actually be able to do this" moments too. Turns out teaching is not just scary, it is terrifying.  Standing in front of a class of 45 kids who don't care what you are saying and don't even want to try to find out is disheartening to say the least. Thankfully it's not a 'this is so bad I'm going to cry' bad it's more of a 'I'm so out of control all I can do is laugh' kind of bad. When I came to China I imagined nice, disciplined, cute little asians. But no, they are just as badly behaved as