Now I have already spent a little more than one week in this "small" town of Huai Hua, which is still pretty big, with its about 5 Mio. inhabitants, compared to Salisbury (24 000), Kiel (240 000) or even Berlin (3 500 000). But in China it is a small city in Hunan province, which many Chinese people don't even know, much less, any foreigners. There is also not a lot to do in this city (or so I have been told by everyone so far) and it is definitely not one of the main tourist destinations in China and it is not easy to find any foreigners OR any English-speaking Chinese people, a fact which has made my first week here rather difficult... My first week here in Huai Hua has been full of ups and downs. It's not easy to get used to such a city, because EVERYTHING is different. On top of a huge culture shock, I felt like I couldn't communicate with anyone (because even the English teachers at my kindergarten don't really speak English), my internet wasn't working well and it was just way too much at once.

I started working right away (which has left me so little time that all my stuff is still spread out on the floor of my room). Part of the work I have to do is to say hello to the parents and kids, then I have to give classes, of course and I also spend time with the kids, playing with them, giving them food, help to put them to bed. It is usual here that all kids (in kindergartens and schools) take a nap after lunch. The kids come here at 7.30 in the morning and leave at 5 pm. The classes are very difficult... The groups are very big, much bigger than in German kindergartens for example. i have to teach two classes, each on with around 30 kids of screaming, jumping, crying 3- 5 year-olds... I still have to get used to that. My favorite part is to play with the smaller kids, because the groups are smaller and I get the chance to talk to a kid face to face, play with them, or a read a book.

At first I felt very lonely here because I couldn't communicate, but I have found that most people here in the kindergarten are very nice and I get along well with them even if it's difficult to communicate. It creates a lot of funny situations every day and I have gotten very good at sign language! Also, I have met someone (a Chinese guy) who speaks very good English and a few foreigners, who I met up with once. We had a lot of fun together.

There is not much to see in this city... But I still like it. Even though there is more poverty here than in Kunming or Changsha. I see people begging in the streets and I have seen the first child, begging for money here. But it is very lively. There is a big market in the center of the city where you can buy ANYTHING: freshly prepared food, fruits, candy, clothes, electronics, and much more! I especially like all the smells because so many people cook in the streets. There is also a lot of construction here (like in many Chinese cities I guess). The kindergarten is very new and a lot of houses are being built here in this region. Also there is a national park very close to the city. It's called Zhong Po and I went once with Young, my Chinese English-speaking friend. On Sunday we'll go again, but this time we will climb a mountain close to it. The mountains around the city are very pretty but I've been told that most of them are not accessible for civilians.

What I've also noticed is that people look at me a lot more here. Hardly anyone I've met so far has met any other foreigners here. So in the streets the people look at me like I'm an alien and even here in the kindergarten they treat me like a queen. Which is funny at first, but also a little uncomfortable.

The biggest problem for me here is that there is no language school in Huai Hua, which makes sense since there are basically no foreigners here. So the only way is to learn Chinese privately, which is not easy, I found out. I've been practicing vocabulary with the help of a couple of friends from the kindergarten because the pronunciation is still hard for me. Don't even talk about the writing!

The food here in Huai Hua is good, I even like the food from the kindergarten-cafeteria. I've been trying to stay "as vegan as possible" but the people here eat such strange that I can't always recognize what exactly I'm eating. So it's been hard. I've really come to like the Chinese food though: In the morning we eat noodles or dumplings in a sauce, for lunch we have rice with vegetables and/or meat and for dinner we eat rice again. In between we eat fruits or some kind of cookies... The watermelon here is SO good!!
-just now as I'm writing this, for example some girls came in with some kind of vegetable I can't define...but it tastes good! -
At first I missed bread or cereal, because the people here eat literally no bread! But by now I have gotten used to eating rice and I really like it! BUT, the food here is very spicy and I haven't quite gotten used to that yet. They've told me that here, in Hunan province the people eat the spiciest food in all of China!! And I can use chopsticks now!

All in all, the most difficult part of my trip so far is over and I feel a lot better about this again! I wouldn't stay here forever but for a time I will be able to enjoy this city.

Yesterday it was the birthday of two of the girls here and I told them I was going to make a cake. They were VERY happy about that idea, because usually no one makes cakes here. None of the girls had ever made a cake. It was very hard to buy the ingredients because I couldn't explain well what exactly I needed but finally we got the most basic cake-ingredients and about some things I'm still not sure what exactly I used! The next problem was that I had to prepare it in the canteen, which was hard because they didn't have anything to mix the ingredients with (I had to use chopsticks) nor a cake pan, in the end I made the cake in a huge pan, they usually cook rice in. The oven was one of the huge canteen ovens and when we turned out it started to smell really bad, and with the time the smell got worse. So the whole time I was worried that the cake was about to burn. But it turned out pretty good and the girls were very very happy about their birthday cake!

Moving around is also still very difficult because I can't tell the taxi driver where to go, so I have to have an address written down or I have to call someone to explain to the taxi driver where I want to go (taxis are cheap here and buses even cheaper: 1 yuan for each ride, which would be about 0.12 € and 0.16 €).

That's my life in Huai Hua for now! Everything is still very new and different and I can tell you that this is the most authentic way to experience China I could get!

Your Cho Cho (which has become my most common name here)