As a volunteer over in Beijing for eleven weeks you can’t just survive on eating junk food or eating the local cuisine all the time. I know for the London volunteers this won’t apply as much but here is a little check list of what I did.

Originally on the campus where I live there is a university canteen and a coffee shop which serves some western food mainly pasta dishes. So for a while making use of these services was very handy indeed and it meant no effort on my part. Then when I left the campus there are noodle shops just outside the main gate and a western restaurant next to the subway station. It isn’t the greatest place for a meal but it was adequate for my needs.

Also close by and everywhere in Beijing there are 24 hour McDonalds and KFC so again if I felt lazy this would be one of my hang outs for food. But there are plenty of Chinese restaurants on every street but after a while the meals became much of the same other than the dumpling house which is cheap, incredibly tasty and very close to the campus.

Although I am one of these people that finds cooking therapeutic so I found a local supermarket which unfortunately sells some products past it sell by date. So be careful, I know I was! So now with pots and pans, the meat, pasta, rice and other good student ingredients like Heinz baked beans I am cooking most evenings and when your not working like me at the moment, it helps pass the time.

I have really enjoyed living in a different country for just over two months and the independence it has given me is insurmountable. However as I mentioned in my last blog whilst living in China for so long, your hair does grow and I needed a haircut. Now let’s not forget the obvious language barrier that I was facing and my total inadequacy to learn the language. This was one Beijing experience that I thought could go rather wrong and if it hadn’t been for a friend of mine it probably would have. This week I decided to venture out and attempt to come back to the world of man and stop wearing baseball caps to cover the dead cat on my head. So I rang a Chinese friend and colleague Kevin Wang to help me on my mission.

We arrived at a salon and went in the building close to my accommodation. If looks could kill I wouldn’t be writing this blog right now as I could instantly tell my presence was not much liked in an all Chinese barbers. Kevin decided to do the talking for me – thank god and I also let him pick my style because apparently the styles in the book all involved some type of perm and I didn’t fancy looking like Kevin Keegan from his playing days.

A price was decided and then my hair was washed, clipped, chopped, blow dried washed clipped again and finally shaved.

All this was happening while Kevin took photos of me at my best looking sullen vulnerable and scared at what the end product would be. Fortunately the trip was a success but I apparently had had the same style as most Chinese students so now I look like one of the natives. That does have its positives and some negatives but the price was very reasonable 50RMB which is around 3-4 pounds so a lot cheaper than back home. I might even have another one before I go home.

So now I’m suited, booted, got a new haircut, cooking in the apartment and just about to start work for the Paralympics. Life in Beijing is good but I can’t wait to come home soon for some good British grub and the start of my university semester because when I get back home it is two days off and straight back to uni to start my final year.