The story so far (part one)

So, since the first post, it has become clear that some people didn't even know we were in China, never mind how we got here or what we've been up to since we arrived so here's a few highlights of the last few months to bring you up-to-date....

April 2012 - the big move! Before we flew to China, I couldn't think past the 12 hours on an aeroplane with our kids. All I hoped for was a decent house in a decent area and, as it happens, Alasdair didn't let us down on this front... (Oh, and the flight was surprisingly uneventful, thank goodness!)

Our house in Evian Valley, about 7 miles from the city centre but handily close to Olivia's school!

What followed was a crash course in both life in China and life as an expat. I'll spare the detail of this for now, as daily posts in the future will hopefully give an insight into the differences between life here and life at home.

May 2012 - Labour Day. After a couple of weeks settling in, we had a long weekend for 1st May and took advantage of it to visit one of Nanjing's most popular attractions, Purple Mountain. Half the population of Nanjing seemed to have the same idea:

As well as visiting the Mausoleum of Dr Sun Yat-sen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yat-sen_Mausoleum), we climbed a pagoda and did other touristy things. We also learnt that our children are a tourist attraction in themselves...  We had already received a lot of attention on our trips to the supermarket and on the Metro but that was nothing compared to what we experienced that day. At one point, I made the mistake of standing still with Olivia and we were surrounded by camera-wielding Chinese people within seconds! It gave me a brief insight into what it must be like to be the Beckhams, albeit a much less glamorous version!

Throughout May, we continued our exploration of Nanjing and we also had our first weekend away to Guilin and Yangshou in southern China, a beautiful area well worth a visit. We went as part of a company trip from Alasdair's work with around 60 of his Chinese colleagues, the first time since we had arrived in China that we had been really immersed in Chinese life and it was fascinating! We stayed in Chinese hotels which weren't accustomed to western guests. In itself this wasn't a problem until it came to breakfast time when there wasn't a cereal or slice of toast in sight. I'm ashamed to say that my children were happy to eat the rice, noodles and various unidentifiable items whilst I made Alasdair rush to the fruit stall across the road to stock up on bananas to keep me going. It only got worse at dinner time when our travelling companions looked in pity at the poor English vegetarian (me!) who ate a bowl of rice as they feasted on all kinds of meats, fish and snails... I'm even more ashamed to admit that we went to the German bar that night so I could have some pizza and chips!

With our travelling companions on the Li River boat trip. Lunch consisted on whatever they could catch from the river, including crabs, snails, shrimps and various fish. Needless to say, I had a bowl of rice!

That's all for now, more tomorrow after I get my beauty sleep!