Back online

Well things have changed a lot around here. Michelle and Penny are safely back in Australia and I have just finished my first week alone in our little house. I haven't been able to post any blogs because of the Chinese government has blocked all of the blogging sites for the last month or so. Apparently it is supposed to stop people getting the word out about any possible June 4th, 20 years since Tiananmen type gatherings. The government here is so reactionary and paranoid...oh well seems to work for them. I'm not sure that it actually had any effect anyway. The students here have been so indoctrinated into the Chinese government's version of reality that few even know what happened in Beijing in 1989. So the sites are still blocked and I am blogging through a proxy which doesn't seem to let me add any pictures.

Anyway back to the present. It's hot and lonely here. Michelle, Penny and I headed off last Saturday, flying into Hong Qiao in Shanghai and then taxi-ing to Pudong where Michelle and Penny were to board their flight. We arrived early and sat in an Italian restaurant and had dinner. Penny seemed fairly oblivious to it all but Michelle was dreading the flight, and I was dreading the thought of being so far away from my girls. Eventually we bid a teary farewell and Michelle and the little traveller walked through the gates into immigration. I waited outside the gates for a little while (just in case) and then headed downstairs and jumped in a cab. I took a hard sleeper back to Nanchang overnight so that I could make it back in time to teach some catch up classes on Sunday. It was a hell ride actually. As per usual there was a snorer on the second bunk. He may actually have been a world class snorer and I would'nt be surprised if he snored for China at the last Olympics. It was like someone sawing really old dry wood...all night.

Thankfully it has been a busy week so I have managed to pass the time quickly. I have all of Michelle's classes and my own to teach so my days have been full. Next week is the last week of teaching and then it's time to get everything together and get ready to go home...bring it on!