The floodgates are open! On seeing Pat’s entry, what could Christine do but submit her own perspective on life in rural China?

So here she is folks, the hero of the hour, Mushuk’s Salvation, Miss Christine!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey there, I’m Christine!! You may remember me from such blogs as ‘Girls build a snowman in Dushanzi’, ‘Home-cooking in Dushanzi’ or my personal favourite, ‘Mushuk nearly dies but Christine saves the day in Dushanzi!’ Yep, I couldn’t leave Dushanzi without having formally introduced myself, so a big ‘G’day’ to all of Charlottes blessed blog devotees out there.

I’ve nearly hit the 3 month mark here, being the furtherest and longest away ever from home, good old muddy grey Melbourne and i’m loving it! The people are Ace, the food is fantastic and the weather superb. Teaching can be pretty challenging, but mostly a laugh. Teaching the older kids at the college is great in terms of socializing, going out for dinner and finding out about the ins and outs on life in China in a pretty straight up and informal way. I’m constantly being surprised by this place.

The Uygher people are especially friendly. I made the mistake of telling the horde of boys who sit in front of our corner store the two words I know in Uygher, ‘Stop!’ thanks to the taxi driver who took us to the devil’s playground and ‘cat’ thanks to our resident kamikaze. So everyday I walk past now they yell, “Toc tar, Mushuk!!” I guess I’ll forever be known to them as the crazy foreigner with an aversion to cats.

While I am actually quite fond of our little Mushuk, one thing I do have an aversion to here is the politics at the local pool! Not only aren’t there any lane ropes, but people swim width ways, diagonally, upside down and practically back to front at that place! It’s chaos there on hot days. I’ve suffered many a kick in the ribs, elbow to the face but nothing beats avoiding standing next to the women in the showers who don’t mind relieving themselves at your feet. Uh huh, it really happens.

Subsequent to these times when the pool is especially chaotic, I’ve taken to splashing out instead on a massage from the talented masseurs in Dushanzi. Bona Fide Chinese massage, nothing beats it, in fact nothing beats quite like it. I’ve only ended up in bruises once after an especially harrowing experience that involved ‘equipment’. While it might have been good for my inner health as they kept insisting, I’ve since however decided to steer clear of the girls with the masochist massage tools.

While I’m missing Aussie TV here, Charlotte’s DVD collection has been exceptional. When I first arrived Charlotte insisted I give myself to Joss Whedon or forever be damned, so I hesitantly opened my DVD player to his Firefly and what can I say? I guess I was satisfied as I’m now on to series 2 of Angel. I am even a little disappointed as Charlotte no doubt is that we are missing out on the arrival of James Marsters in Melbourne in a few weeks. I’ve never been one to say no to a bit of celebrity head hunting. There’s certainly been no sign of any celebrities around these parts that I’ve seen. Going to the Devils Playground where they made Crouching Tiger has been as close as we’ve come to a whiff of Hollywood in these parts. It’s definitely been one of my favorite places to see. Charlotte and I had fun reenacting the ‘GIVE ME BACK MY COMB!!’ scene and being all touristy and taking heaps of pictures.

Yes, its been wonderful having Aussies here. Our little foreign community may be small but there’s never a dull or at least interesting moment. If Charlotte and Pat aren’t arguing Xinjiang politics with each other while I’m seemingly arguing semantics with myself [or pulling the argument so far off course that your resident blogger gives up and goes to bed, leaving the other two to argue semantics - Ed.], we’re always being entertained at least. We’re off to dinner tonight with Cameron, the winner of the speech contest a few weeks back and a great laugh to be with!! He speaks crazy English in more ways than one.

Anyway, I hope we’re going to the night market. The night market Rocks!!

That’s all from me. Laters