The Holidays

So let us begin the second blog shall we. So much has happened this month and I bet you just can’t wait to get your teeth into it like a hot pork steamed bun.

On a less humorous note classes have picked up in speed it seems. Revision this month has definitely been more of a priority, however noticing that day by day you can say more and more words is motivation enough. I have three types of classes, listening, speaking and reading. Just the classic for studying a language. You are spoken to only in Chinese which was difficult at first, but has improved my listening skills in languages as a whole greatly. I would definitely recommend this style of teaching.

Exams are just round the corner eeeekkkkkk. Revision usually consists of sitting in a darkened room with my friends eating Poki (like Milkado back home), chugging orange juice and doing anything except writing characters.

We just had a week long holiday this month. Many of us decided to travel to different parts of China. I didn’t mind where we went as long as the hotel room was insect free. A few others and I decided to travel to Jinan to the south of China and in the Shandong province. A few of my favourite places we visited were the Baotu springs and the Thousand Buddha Mountain. Both were spectacular. The Thousand Buddha Mountain was a mountain covered in Buddhas… believe it or not. It was a long climb to the top and we took a slide down the mountain on the way down. We were flying down a mountain side at a high speed for quite a while taking in the views. On the mountain a stand sold the best steamed buns I’ve ever had, I am contemplating the 5 hour standing train journey there just to eat them again.

The Baotu springs is located more centrally in Jinan and is also beautiful. It features many gardens and buildings enclosing springs and water pools. The water temperature year round is always 18 degrees and the springs are fed by aquafer and have a discharge of around 300000-350000 cubic metres per day.

On return to Tianjin it was time to prepare for Halloween. Halloween is not widely celebrated in China like it is back home. This made it more difficult to find a costume. We put our minds together and raided each other’s cupboards to find something suitable. I wore Eilidh’s crop top and Kirsty’s school tie. Who knew years ago as a child I would be walking the cold streets of China dressed as a dead school child and wearing a tie from a high school in Dunfermline.

Here’s to next month peeps. Keep your eyes peeled, more fun stuff to come!