Greetings from China! Hello everyone!
I have begun to miss home and the familiarity of 苏格兰 but its normal and to be expected and I won't let it get in my way. It's time to really step up to the plate! I'll be updating my blog near the end of every month to let you enjoy everything I've experienced! Until next time, 再见我朋友们！来自中国的问候！大家好！
It has been almost a full month since I left the tartan lands of Scotland 苏格兰 to live here in the 3rd largest country on Earth; China 中国！As soon as the 飞机 landed in 北京 everything began to change. The first thing I noticed was the heat! 太热了！The temperature in 中国 can reach as high as 38℃ - 40℃ in the Summer. Very different to what we're used to back in 苏格兰。
Once we arrived in 天津 it was time to settle in and become a 大学生 at Tianjin Foreign Studies University 天津外国语大学！ We were assigned our rooms (2 scholars in 1 room) and for those of us who were part of the immersion course in July 2016, we retraced our steps around the campus to re-familiarise ourselves but also discovered new places.
天津外国语大学欢迎我们！
Since we had several days before we began our courses in 天津外国语大学 we had the opportunity to explore the city off campus! 天津 is full of wonderful architecture and the air is filled with the smells of street food and sounds of city life, similar yet so different to Dundee or Glasgow. The 中国人 live a very busy lifestyle whether they are working, shopping, traveling or exercising. This might explain why the traffic in 中国 is a game of patience and timing! I must admit that the 中国人 are very brave drivers!
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Faster than we realised, the time to continue life in 天津外国语大学 as a full 大学生 arrived. 上课的第一天，灾难！ I soon realised that University is a very large jump from high school, especially when it's conducted solely in 汉语。However, I refused to give up and instead seized this as a chance to work harder and try my best, as you should in any stage of education. My course (初级2班) consists of 3 classes; intensive reading, Chinese conversation and listening. 祝我好运！
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