Teaching in Hangzhou, China

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I wake up feeling groggy at 6am as my alarm goes off. Sometimes, if my hair doesn’t need a wash, I give myself the luxury of staying in bed until 6.30. I leave Mitch in bed asleep and feel envious. I enjoy a hot shower to wake me up and put on some ‘teacher’ clothes. A lot of the Chinese teachers dress casually, in jeans for example, but I can’t bring myself to do that. I check that I have everything in my backpack, eat a banana for some energy before my cycle to work. My school is split between …

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Autumnal Evenings in Hangzhou

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It’s technically autumn here in Hangzhou but it doesn’t feel like it. The temperature can still reach about 25 degrees in the daytime and I get hot walking around in jeans and a t-shirt. There are a few times when it does feel colder. I leave the house about an hour after the sun rises and you definitely need a jacket. The evenings are similar.

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Top 3 Reasons To Visit Vietnam

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I travelled for six weeks around Vietnam in August and September 2014. I am finally going to share some thoughts with you about it. Here are my quick fire reasons for Vietnam being a must place to visit. Cost I’m generally a budget traveller so finding somewhere cheap to stay and go is important for me. Although the flights may be expensive, once you arrive in Vietnam, nothing else will be. Accommodation in a hostel with breakfast can be $5 a night (£3.20), and some even cheaper. Although I never stayed at the cheapest, they were still cheap, clean and …

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Novels and Travelling

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I found an English book shop in Hanoi, Vietnam, and for reasons I can’t recall, I ended up buying ‘Until I find you’ by John Irving. The book accompanied me on my travels, I finally finished it about five weeks later in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

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Hangzhou Holiday Adventures (Part Two)

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We kick-started the holiday with beer, ridiculous amounts of food, McDonalds’ ‘Modern China Burger’, mooncakes, and discovering new parts of the city (Part One can be found here). The second part of the holiday had similar experiences but also a few days to chill out. One day was spent catching up on Doctor Who and finally getting Mitch into Utopia. No matter what country you live in, you still need those chilled days.

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Hangzhou Holiday Adventures (Part One)

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Despite only starting teaching 3 weeks ago, I’ve just had 12 days of holiday.  The holiday was for two reasons. The first is the Mid-Autumn festival. This festival ties in with the full moon and people view the celebration as a time to spend with family. The full moon symbolises peace and wholeness, and so it also involves eating a lot of mooncakes (not as nice as they sound). Still, I got give a box of them from the school which was very kind. The second festival a few days later is National Day: celebrating that the People’s Republic of China was founded on …

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