Hello Mum

As I have to jump through several hoops just to get my e-mail and Internet working properly and have to utilise a proxy to access banned sites like Blogger.com I decided to share my latest note home instead of penning a separate blog update...


新年快乐 !!

Your timing is excellent. We have just had the Lantern Festival (the last day of the New Year celebrations was on February 28) for this year (of the tiger), although the weather has not been very kind. So, I did not venture out to be photographed (again) or generally stared at and objectified (again), choosing instead to stay at home and watch the fireworks from my apartment window – very impressive they were, too. They were made even more enjoyable by the fact that I was sat near the heater, beer in hand, accompanied by some good friends, without the endless stream of irritating, Chinese, shanty-town dwellers pestering us (all of whom we love, just not all at once and especially not in the freezing cold).

And it is v-v-v-very c-c-c-cold (- 20゜C in Jinan yesterday). So, I am going to postpone my northward Beijing trip, to renew my passport, until the weather improves. I will probably venture up there sometime in June, before the summer courses begin.

But, otherwise, things here are wonderful. It has been very quiet during the New Year “festivities” because the locals in this tiny (only three million) city do not venture out to party, preferring to spend time at home with about five generations of relatives. It’s one of those Chinese things: they are very big on family. So, in a small city like Rizhao, when I meet new people they consider me to be very unusual – I have moved to a foreign country, away from friends and family, and I have never been married at the grand old age of 35. Although most of the time they cannot judge my age as it is difficult to gauge (ooh that rhymes!) and just last week I had a girl guess that I was only 20. I did ask her to marry me but I don’t think that she understood.

Anyway, it is always a pleasure to hear from you and I hope that ol’ Blighty has recovered from its winter spell – a particularly bad one this year – and that I will be able to catch up with you on the phone sometime soon. This e-mail thingamajig is all very well but it’s no substitute for hearing someone’s voice.

Take care and lots of love

Benny (laoshi)

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Ben Lefroy
Rizhao EF English Training Centre
4th Floor, Riguang Building
No. 182, Yantai Road
Rizhao
Shandong
P.R. China 276826

Phone: +86 6338702020
Mobile: +86 13468318441
E-mail: ben@lefroy.co.uk
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