Dumplings, car crash, police check, stolen phone..your average weekend in China

So this seems to be a 2 week occurrence, when I finally get the time and patience to write this blog! Anyway although I have loved teaching the kids here, who are incredible to me. I have had some of the most memorable and great weekends travelling China on my own and visiting my friends near by!Natalie and Zoe, who teach at the school about 20km away from me are always so welcoming and offer me a bed to stay over! I think they could tell that I was nearly at breaking point when they met up with me in the first week so were quick to invite me over to their apartment to stay for the weekend! Their school is so great. It was nice to delve further into the mountains and go their school.
It's smaller than mine but everyone is so nice and friendly and the school is literally built on the side of a mountain (fun hill climbing anyone?!) We went to the market on the Saturday morning with some students and learnt how to say all the crazy Chinese names for vegetables and meat! We got some pork, onion, salt and pastry so the students could teach us the traditional way to make Chinese dumplings!! They were so easy, just mince meat in the pastry and wrapped in their parcel and then boiled for a few minuets and then BAM, delicious meal on the table! So great! As well as cooking we watched some movies and just had some English conversations which was so refreshing after my panic attack inducing week of NO English!... Although I am starting to slowly grasp Mandarin, which is so so so fun to learn!So after this weekend I got back to my school and planned my following weekend trip away to some more volunteers down in the south of China in a place called Simao or also known as Puer.
It's where the most famous tea in China is made. The journey was crazy long, around 6 hours on a smoke filled coach, and to top it all off, it was night time and I was on my own with my English only speaking mind! To say I was nervous is an understatement! I thought I would sit at the back of the bus for some extra room, but ended up sitting next to some old me who sat the whole journey smoking a bong. They literally took the whole 'cool kids sit at the back' to a new level. I actually think I may have got high just sitting there. It's funny how you can make friends alone, in the Chinese mountains, as long as there are some drug's being pumped into the air! Well 6 hours later, I stumbled off the bus after arriving at, what I hoped!, Simao. I finally managed to get to Puer Yi Zhong, the school where Becca and Odette teach. I dropped my bag off and went straight from their place to a local bar that the lads, Adam and Lawrence, had strangely called 'The Locker' ran by communist China loving locals. Shisha pipes, good booze and snooker... it felt like I was home!!So I spent most of the weekend meeting the guys in Simao for food and drinks. We also climbed 'Chashan' meaning 'Tea Mountain'. Although it was tough, we got the most incredible view of the city from high in the mountains. It was definitely a breath taking moment that really made me realise where I was and how far away from home I am...but at that moment, I couldn't imagine being anywhere else. It was so surreal, it felt like home, and thats exactly what China is to me now...home.
So after an amazing weekend down in the south, it was time to head back up north to my home town. Yuxi. The bus journey was even more exciting on the way back. I can tick off 'being on a bus that crashes' and 'being searched by the police' off my list to do in China, as that's exactly what happened on the way home. That was fun all alone, oh, and to top it all of, someone stole my phone on the bus! So an epic 8 1/2 hours later I finally arrived back at Yuxi and just dropped my bags and went to bed. It was the most draining, dangerous and interesting journey of my life!!So as you can see, I teach in the school, but I do so much more when I actually get to travel the mountains of China and meet everyone. Next week I will head down into the jungles of Xishuangbanna to celebrate the Dai people traditional 'Water Festival'. Basically a big excuse for huge street parties and get drenched in water. So I'll let you know how that goes! Check out my facebook page for some cool pictures of where I am!