Hey Hey and a big G'day to you,

Surprise to me!

Sadly my new found adventure and life in the desert is nearing its end.

Yes I finish at my happy school here in Baiyin at the end of this week. Next Thursday will find me living in a little rural city called Shangzhou which is only one hour from the ancient capital, the beautiful walled city of Xian.

My one year stint here in Baiyin was cut short by the Greedy Big Rich Private English School. They have had the only foreign Teacher license here for many years. With out them knowing my school was granted one for me to come and teach. My school is also a private school owned by a company. So when the Greedy Big Rich Private School found out they were not happy at all.

Over a period of two months several of my students dropped out of their 'after hours' English School. Mr Big Rich Greedy Man became very angry and handed wads of bills under the table to another Mr Big Rich Greedy Man in the government and my school had its license revoked.

Little fish big fish swimming in the sea, he is bigger so he ate me!

Money talks so Shane walks!

How sad!

I was really beginning to get into life here in the freezing cold desert but if I'm to return to the land where green things are alive and cover the planets surface, who am I to argue.

Below are some details my buddy sent me on Shangzhou County. Sounds pretty cool to me mate

BUT as I'm coming to REALLY realise, here in China things change and can change very quickly and usually I'm the last to know. This is why I've once again halved my belongings. Some will be sent home and the rest can be shared amongst the Chinese Teachers. Now I'll be ready to pack and go.

By next week, who knows, things may have changed and I might be heading somewhere else.

Ya got to love life!

The new school wanted me to begin this coming Monday but like I said, I have too much stuff and need to finish sorting and completing half finished projects on the computer here. The main reason I'm staying is for the students. They won't be told I'm leaving until next Monday. This time I want a chance to say a proper good bye to them unlike in Tianyang when I was told the night before term ended and wasn't allowed to tell the students until after lunch.

Some of the grade 6's have found out somehow and tears have already begun to flow. They've been told I'm going back to Australia. I've have settled their fears on that one but I have not given a straight answer on leaving Baiyin. I'll do this tomorrow after lunch. Next week is English Week for my school and the kids have worked so hard practicing their plays and going back over their lessons from the beginning of the year until now.

It'll be great to actually see the end result of some of my hard work.

I'm pretty excited and can't wait to watch and also join in

Beers N Noodles to you all...shane

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There are 519 schools in the area with over 100,000 students, but there are less than 50 English teachers. The result is that some schools have no English tuition at all and others have minimal levels. The gap cannot be filled by English-speaking Xiân College students working in their holidays. Native English-speakers are desperately needed to improve the overall standard of English education in Shangzhou County and to enhance the prospects of its economy and people.

Shangzhou County is located in the south of the Shaanxi province, 120 km from the busy city of Xiân.

You are ideally located to explore Xiân on the weekends. So much to see: The famous sights include The Terracotta Warriors, Chinese Gardens, historic Muslim Quarter, The City Wall, the Bell Tower, the Drum Tower and Pagodas along with some Giant Pandas.
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