Embracing our university

April was one of the busiest months we’ve experienced in China. At the beginning of the month we had the opportunity to travel to Beijing to meet the first minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon. We met her at the British Embassy and had the chance to present a presentation to her, as well as have one to one chats with her (and selfies, of course). I’m really interested in diplomacy, so I felt lucky to visit the Embassy and get an insight into what it looked like.

During the month of April, the University held an international food festival. We live in an international dormitory so there are thousands of students from all over the world. Each country was granted a budget to buy food and cook some of their national delicacies for everyone. We were all really excited to let the other students taste some Scottish food. We made tattie scones, tablet and stovies, success! Some of us dressed in kilts and we played bagpipe music through a speaker for students to hear. It was an amazing experience because we got to see everyone being patriotic about their country and try lots of different foods from around the world. The Korean food was particularly amazing!

We also participated in the annual university Sports Day. We travelled to the other campus at the other side of Tianjin and took part in the opening parade. We practiced in a team for several weeks before the event to make sure everything went smoothly. Standing in a uniformed group of students from lots of different countries around the world watching the Chinese flag rise on a pole to the national anthem was something I will cherish forever. It made me feel so welcomed into the country and was a beautiful sight to see everyone come together. Thank you, Tianjin Foreign Studies University for letting us take part in such a wonderful event.