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WEBSITE & UP-DATES
Right - keep checking this site instead of my website, because due to a combination of difficulty and laziness, I won't be able to up date my website for at least the next two weeks. :)

ADDRESS
ANYWAY! I now have an postal address and telephone numbers, which I'll be sending out via email. If you'd like it (OF COURSE YOU WOULD!) but don't receive it by Thursday, email me and I'll send it out to you personally - you might even get an interesting word or two out of me in reply. (I'll take this opportunity to remind everyone that my TWENTY FIFTH birthday is at the end of Juuuuuuuuuuune............ ;)

Right, I can't remember what I wrote in my last update... general first impressions I think. (I'm having trouble seeing my weblog, so bear with me if I get disjointed or repetitive!!) I've now been here a week, and still thrilled to pieces that I'm here. The weather has taken a leap into the luxurious, and it is beautifully warm and sunny every day. It's also fruit and night market season, so I've been indulging in the local ways of relaxation and munching.

NOW, A LONG AWAITED WORD ON FOOD
Xinjiang has fabulous ice cream - hurrah. It's the Uighur influence that is responsible for this. It will be my downfall.

I've been eating LOTS :) trying out all the food, it's amazing here. Other foods I've tried include open-air hot pots. These are boiling pots in the middle of your table with spicy and non-spicy sections. In these pots you cook ALL sorts of yummy things on sticks - they there are EVERYWHERE, but primarily in the open air night markets.

Secondly, I've developed a relationship with the munchy-yummy freshly made noodle dish called "ban mein". These are a lot like the Japanese Udon noodles; it's a "Hui"** ethnic minority dish and a current favourite of mine. Ban Mein is the generic dish, but it comes in MANY variations (which I have yet to learn how to pronounce). And finally I've also tried some Uighur food called "Polo" with kebabs. You all know kebabs, but as for Polo is simply a Central Asian fried rice made with really nice short grain rice (softer, and nicer in my mind than "normal rice"), carrots, raisins, and tiny strips of lamb, if you want meat.

** So far I've learnt about three local ethnicities. There's the Chinese, the slight majority here; then there's the "Uighur" (who I look like), they're Eurasian looking and Muslim; and there's the "Hui" who look Chinese but are Muslim.

HOW WILL I SURVIVE????
This is a short note that will only make sense to those of you who have lived or worked in close proximity to me:
Urumqi HAS NO DIET PEPSI OR DIET COKE. There is no alternative. I am mildly traumatised and think about diet Pepsi pretty much every hour. I think I'm starting to fantasise about it now. It's scary. Anyway, I will either learn to adapt to drinking water or die of depravation, I'll keep you up-to-date on this aspect of my personal development ;)


LANGUAGES...
Ok folks, speaking of personal development - CHECK THIS OUT. I've started taking BOTH Chinese and Uighur lessons. Chinese because I will starve / get lost and die if I don't learn it, and Uighur because as soon as I can speak it, my disguise as an ethnic minority will be flawless and complete.

For all those who are curious, Uighur is a language based on the Arabic alphabet (I think! At least it is according to some websites). Go to this link to see more:
http://www.uighurlanguage.com/
I've convinced a local university student to teach Uighur to me - but it's a pretty casual and unfocused set-up, so we'll see how it goes!

Time to go now, I'm getting "get off the computer you slacker" vibes from one of the people who's actually wanting to do work ;) hahahahaaaaaaaa

Miss you! xxx