光阴似箭 - How Time Flies

With the first of December tomorrow and the end of the year approaching, I can finally say that living in China feels normal! The past month has been incredibly busy and suddenly the countdown to Christmas is going to start. This month has been a month of working hard, seeing new places and making new friends.

The majority of the start of the month was occupied with thoughts of midterm exams. I had three exams - one for each of my classes which are reading, speaking and listening. We had a lot to cover with many grammar rules and characters to review. We knew that standards were high here but we weren't expecting 90% as an A mark! I was surprised at this standard as it is definitely not as high in Scotland. Luckily all my exams went really well.

The weekend after midterms we celebrated the end of our exams with a trip to 西安 (Xi'an). We went with our Chinese friend called 利柯 (Like). We flew to Xi’an after class on Friday and tried to find our hotel but when we arrived they wouldn't let us stay as they don't allow foreigners in their hotel. Luckily we found an international hostel nearby that was also very cheap. The next day we visited the terracotta warriors and walked along the city walls of Xi’an. On the last day we managed to get a free tour at the Wild Goose Pagoda and had dinner at an amazing restaurant that cooked the food in front of us. We managed to see a lot of the sights in a weekend and it was really nice to spend time with Like and relax after our midterm exams. I had a lovely weekend! 

This month we also visited 北京 (Beijing) so we could go to the St. Andrews Ball. The ball was hosted in the One China Hotel which was a five star hotel, had a live Ceilidh band and the best Scottish food I have ever eaten! We had six courses of delicious food, washed down with amazing wine and whiskey and a full cooked breakfast at 2am. It was the first time since I have been to China that I have had champagne, cheese and toast - all things I have missed a lot! We spoke to a lot of interesting people who were fellow Scots and danced Scottish dances at the ceilidh. It was surreal to see so many Scottish things in China. It was by far the fanciest event I have ever been to and it was an incredible night.

To the ball I wore a dress that I bought from Taobao for 199 yuan. Taobao is an online shop a bit like Amazon. You can buy everything on it and it's very cheap and delivers for free on the street outside our accommodation. It is very popular in China and the man who created it is the richest man in China. The 11th of November is Singles Day in China which is a day that Taobao reduces its prices to celebrate being single. Like a lot of people, we stayed up until midnight the night before to get the best deals as everything goes very quickly. The post was slow after the 11th as all the millions of orders were delivered across China.

This month I went to visit the school of the Chinese teacher I had in Scotland last year. I had a really nice day and spoke to some of her classes and caught up with my old teacher. It was really interesting to see the school that she taught at and speak to her headteacher.

Our university organised a trip to see the Great Wall. During the bus journey there we had to stop for a couple hours because the smog was too bad for the bus to drive. When we got to the wall we walked for a couple hours along the wall. It was a really good day and it was all organised by our university.

This week I received a package from my family with an advent calendar and Christmas decorations inside. I got lost on the way to the post office! I am looking forward to decorating our room for Christmas and even more excited for Christmas to see my family!

Ailsa X