A very international schooling experience

My name is Eilidh McConnell and I am a former student at Douglas Academy. I studied Chinese at St.Ninian’s High School during my 6th year in high school.

So I'm a month into my scholarship here in Tianjin. I have settled in well and now find myself calling this my home! When we arrived after a long 14 hour journey, all 22 of us were desperate for a rest in a comfortable bed but had to settle for another 2 hour long bus journey from Beijing to Tianjin.

After getting over the initial jet lag and homesickness, we were able to venture out into our new surroundings and explore the strange world around us.

I'm attending 天津外国语⼤大学(Tianjin Foreign Studies University) in the heart of the city. Tianjin has a population of over 14 million people - quite the contrast to Glasgow’s half a million!

Part of settling in means making friends, living in the international students dorms means you meet tonnes of people from tonnes of different countries. Being from Scotland has proven to be quite intriguing to all the other international students here, mostly because the majority of them haven't heard of it before! I have made a list of all the countries my new friends are from, you can try to match them with the English translation.