Yesterday - after repairing the mess I made with the tickets to hangzou, which I swear was easier than in England - Betty and I went to the underground eyeglasses market which I had spied when nearby last time.

Yes I bought some new glasses, they are massive and really make me look cool but a bit weird. A big step towards harry potter I'd say. But get this, they cost 130rmb!! and only took 15 minutes to make!! That makes the price of a flight to shanghai worth it just for buying glasses!!!

Betty also bought some uber cool big ones, she looks really korean now especially with her kite!

I'm writing this from bettys computer because i'm all moved out of my own school now. I have no home, well apart from the volunteer flat but all I do there is sleep and don't usually get back until like 1am or something. Sorry about never writing, but no school and no computer makes Ben not update his blog.

1. Parents have gone home and I quite miss money haha. Also the company of course, it felt like they were here for ages really.
2. I've moved out of my school, it's such a shame I feel sad to not be teaching the children any more. They were really really cool people and so nice! Even if not all of them knew my name I still felt very welcome. The new teacher Thomas seems nice though. He's a swiss person about 24 or something so hopefully he'll get on there well! One bad thing though is that the teachers didn't even bother to say goodbye to me. AND the ones I did say goodbye to didn't even seem to know I was leaving. urghh So no present for them!
3. Yesterday I followed Betty and her volunteering crew to their school to help out on this english day festival thingy for the kids which was fun, and I also think it might of helped the fudan people not to think I was really wierd.
4. I got some good dvd's the other day!
5. I'm going to hangzou this weekend. Well for like an evening, but as i'm such an idiot I booked the tickets for the wrong day. Tomorrow I'll fix it all hopefully.
6. Saturday is the Roberto/rine's birthday and my leaving day party at guv's house.
7. roberto punched a police and I was at the police station with betty until 6 am on saturday
8. booked flights to mianyang for the 12th may, will go to hong kong on the 13th june...
9. Some other volunteers are gonna be in hong kong at the same time so no being a loner for meeee.
10. done.

Okk so my family arrived on saturday and by the time I saw them they looked less like humans but more like some sort of zombie/vampire hybrid but that's what jet lag will do to you! I managed to drag them along the bund before they could take no more and retired back into the underground layer that was the NEW ASIA HOTEL.
By the next day they seemed better and they took a taxi over to boxing lu where they got a tour of my school, and the japanese fastfood noodle restaurant...

Wednesday evening began the great train of Beijing trip. The sleeper train was quite amazing, the waiting room had leather sofas, a grand piano as well as a overpriced cafe. All the things needed in a place which makes you feel like you are too poor to be there. It took only 9 hours too. The distance between Shanghai and Beijing is eqivilant to the distance between London and Rome so it's a fantastically fast train. Not to mention the TV's we had built into our bed!

Awake at 7.30, and time to leave the train at about 8. Quite in a horrible reversal from the upper classness we were drowning in beforehand, breakfast required a trip to McDonalds for pancakes and breakfast muffins. Oh what were we thinking!

After that it was a quiet taxi drive and a rainy walk to our 4 star hotel, (which didn't seem posh once our tour guide pointed out the 7 star hotel...), where we were to camp out in for the 3 night Holding family siege of the north captital.
On Friday we arranged to be given a tour by some people recommended by my friends. It was 140RMB per person, but we got to go to the Ming tombs, The great wall, as well as other places hand picked by the tour guide (with VERY large gift shop sections...). I thought one of the intresting parts of the tour was when we got examined by a Chinese doctor! Apparently I have a bad sinus and an irregular heartbeat and if I don't treat it I will die! Only joking, though apparently my bad sinus plays havoc on my memory. Now I know why I never did good at school!





Saturday we went to see dead Chairman Mao in his huge temple/mausoleum. He seems to be considered more like a god than a man...
My mum bribed the guard so we could skip about 45minutes worth of queue which was funny too!

I think with my parents here I have neglected to post on the blog, so i'm sorry to other people who read it. It's been strange having my parents in the same city, It's like having some sort of tie back to reality I suppose but it's quite nice none the less even if they can't use chopsticks. I do however feel as though I am more noticed when walking around with them. We look very touristy as a group - sort of like a Brits on tour kinda thing - but touristy isn't bad. I mean I haven't done all the touristy things in Oxford or London even though I live next to them so It's a good excuse to get out of my office and do some stuff (which is paid for my my family of course...)

Tonight we go to Beijing. It cost some what of a small fortune to get there even on the train. 700ish yuan per person ONE WAY! Ahhh. We are soft sleeper though. Yes it's the life of luxury for us!

Somewhere in this massive city and I've yet to work out where, the rest of the Holding clan now resides. I'm not quite sure how I'm meant to contact them but somewhere they are here!

Right now I'm writing chinese charectors. I think I must have gone crazy but I'm really enjoying it. I think i've got 'ning', 'jiao', and 'shen ma' down to a tea.... ha haa