March 9

. One thing I cannot stand is the spitting, everyone spits. Walking down the street is like walking a mine field. Now I've got that off my chest. The main source of transportation is taxi or bicycles. Most bikes are old not because they're not affordable but because of theft. They do have nice full suspension bikes available. There's even bikes that are shaft driven without a chain. The one thing I haven't seen here is a skateboard.
. My roommates are great, two brothers from Toronto, Darren and James. They're really good with kids and fun to go out with. And it's nice to have someone to talk to instead of kids or adults who speak broken English.
. Last week there was a celebration, 5 am in the morning the firecrackers started going off and lasted all throughout the night and into the next day. Not just the small firecrackers but some that look like a small stick of TNT.
. Walking down the street is something else. Everybody stares and people walking past will say hello. The common expression among foreigners is "being a rock star".

March 11

. I met a girl a couple of weeks ago her English name is May. She's teaching me Chinese and I'm teaching her to speak better English. May also taught me to write my name in Chinese. I'm teaching her to eat with a knife and fork, She has never used cutlery.
. Teachers in China give there Chinese students there English names, I have given many children their names. I also gave a Chinese English teacher his English name. Many kids get crazy names like "Elmo" or "Homer", "Star" and "Cher" are also very popular. I think all the kids will remember the teacher who gave them their names.
. I'm the only male at the school. I'm known as the panda (because pandas are very rare). The girls like to get together and chat in front of me. I cannot understand what they're talking about, but Jesse my Chinese assistant who speaks fluent English tells me that some of the girls like me. She wont tell me who though.
. I'm learning some of the language. It's very hard because the Chinese have five different tones in there language, and five very different meanings. Get one tone wrong and they don't have a clue what I'm saying. I do know how to count 1 to 6 and say "it's a beautiful day", "how much", "It's all good" and "no problem". I have about a thirty word vocabulary.
. I haven't had any culture shock. There's nothing here I haven't seen before somewhere in the world, but I was more stressed than I thought. With moving to a new country where very few people speak English, different food and a job far from my comfort zone, it's been a new challenge every day. The first day here I caught a cold and I got a bad rash around my left nostril. My immune system must of been run right down.
. Hugh showed me around and made sure I was settled into my surroundings before he left for the province of Guangdong. I now have to fend for myself. The first couple of days were a little tough but things are getting a little easier now, everyday is a literally a new challenge.

March 18