您好！？ Nin hao!? Salaam Aleekum! Sorry I haven't written to y'all lately (or in some cases at all) but I've been really busy, etc. I'm writing on this, my first day in Yantai. First and foremost, yes you can smoke anywhere, including my dorm room, and it's the tits. And cigarettes and cheaper and better than the Gambia....

One morning at the academy during training one of the students in my class was joking around with a translator and he managed to convince here that the kitchen had cooked the puppies that used to be at the academy. The translator was not the brightest of people and she had quite a reputation for running to the masters whenever she heard anything...

Things have finally become comfortable here and I'm getting into a nice routine. Classes have gotten progressively more difficult - this past Friday I was so frustrated after 4 hours of not understanding anything and being surrounded by 30 some Koreans all nodding and participating in class that I decided I needed to do something. I have cracked...

Kung Fu School Well for all of you that don't know, i spent 2 months in china learning kung fu. A truly great experience. Especially for someone as undisciplined as me. My daily routine started before 6am and ended after 6pm. Each day I spent 2 hours doing tai chi and chi gong and 4 hours doing kung fu. Doesn't sound that hard - but you should t...

Well I'm in Taiyuan now, having said my fond farewells to Yantai, so thought I better update you briefly on the events on the last few weeks. Sorry about all the drinking parents, too many goodbyes to say! Um, well after returning from my travels we had the joy of a week of saying goodbye to Alex and Emily in various guises. We went for an amazi...