The good, the bad and the just plain ugly!

What I like about living in China:

1. The weather - in this part of China it's particulary good. We're nearly half-way through November and most days it is sunny and the temperature is in the late teens or early twenties.

2. No Christmas hype. Correct me if I am wrong, but I reckon the adverts and general nightmare that is the run-up to Christmas must be well under way by now. I like the family spirit of Christmas and also catching up with old friends, but I can do without the rest of it.

3. Being able to act the fool. I often get smiles from random people (particularly men of a certain age - not sure why...), and any Chinese I manage to utter is met with great excitement (particularly from my students). However, it is a delicate balance and it is easy to drift into 'performing monkey' territory. But don't they say that teaching is all about acting?

4. The food. Here I can eat really good food in a restaurant for very little money. So what if I don't always know what I'm eating or whether or not the food that arrives will bear any resemblance to what I think I ordered?

Things I don't like:

1. Shopping. Apart from people regularly peering into my basket to see what the laowai [foreigner] is buying, shop assistants, particularly in clothes shops, have a tendency to follow me round, often without speaking. Unfortunately, this leads me to play a slightly childish game which involves me walking quickly then suddenly stopping to see if they will also stop in time or will crash into me...

2. Crossing the road. After nearly three months of being here, I still feel as though I am taking my life in my hands every time I cross the road. Even if there is a green light for pedestrians, there is still often traffic coming from some direction, hell-bent on ploughing down a pedestrian or two. Of course it is the pedestrians who have to give way. On Thursday I watched a woman and son knocked off their scooter by a car which didn't even stop.

3. The buses. Often crowded, no such thing as a queue and the word 'deodorant' distinctly lack from some people's vocabulary. Joy!

Oh well, so far I am enjoying more than I'm getting annoyed by, which must be a good sign!