As I mentioned in my last post, the students have worked exceptionally hard to gain a place at the school, and every year more than 5000 students apply from all over the Gansu province to gain one of the 900 places the school has to offer.

Once at the school, they study solely for exams, and many even take extra classes during the holidays.

For the next couple of weeks we’ll be teaching the International class with Robert, splitting them into small groups to focus on their fluency and accuracy.

We’ll work six days a week, helping to prepare the students for their TOEFL examination which they sit in order to gain a place at an American university. TOEFL is one of the most horrible exams I’ve come across, with the students being expected to know not only fluent English, both written and spoken, but also the ins and outs of campus life, something which many native English speakers would struggle with.

However, the pupils appear remarkably unphased, and enthusiastically chant Robert’s favourite phrase, ‘don’t be shy, just try!’ Far from the authoritarian discipline I had so stereotypically expected Chinese classrooms to be governed with, we’ve instead found the pupils to be incredibly cheeky, and I even caught one student videoing us on his mobile phone, which I was not happy about at all.

Also to my surprise, teachers are more like friends with their pupils and regularly chat on QQ, which is the Chinese version of MSN, something which wouldn’t be dreamed of in the UK.

Today Steve who works in the International Centre at the school took us for lunch at a Uighur (Muslim) restaurant where we sampled sān pào tai for the first time.

Translating as ‘three treasure tea’, the drink is native to Lanzhou and incredibly sweet, containing huge chunks of rock sugar, as well as dried dates and goji berries, which makes it a great counterbalance to the spicy sauces that most dishes here are doused in.

In other news, I bought a bus pass this morning, and was actually allowed to ride the bus home alone this afternoon, although Yi Ru did phone me at various points along the journey to check that I was okay.

I really like the bus journey because I pass a beautiful white and gold mosque which I’m keen to visit, and once I’ve got my headphones in I don’t notice the stares of my fellow passengers.

I found out today that Lanzhou has 3.2 million people in it, and with only around 50-60 foreigners living here, we will probably be the first real life white people many Lanzhou natives have seen, so I guess thinking about it that way, the stares are justified.

My Mandarin is still pretty dire, and this isn’t helped by the fact that most shop keepers cower wide eyed when we enter, but next term we’re hoping to join the Chinese language classes at the school, and in the meantime we’re using the phrasebook as much as possible when we’re out.

Happily, internet access here isn't anywhere near as restricted as I’d expected, and whilst sites like Facebook and Youtube are banned, I was able to read the Guardian online this morning and can listen to radio programmes on the iPlayer.

Hearing the news unfold about the earthquake in Haiti has definitely put all our complaints about not having accommodation into context, and thankfully Ella and Charli, the two Project Trust volunteers based on the border of Haiti in the Dom Rep are okay.

Will update in a couple of days, it’s almost dinnertime now and we’re having fish courtesy of Mr Chen, who has decided to cook his first ever meal as I mentioned that dad shares the cooking duties at home.

From the appetising smells coming from the kitchen though, I’d say he’s doing a pretty good job.