Studying, Warriors and a Ball

你好 Culross!

Finishing two months and settling into the 3rd has been quite a journey. November has hit all of the students here at 天津外国语大学 with a bunch of exams and extremely cold weather. So as the hats, gloves and big jackets come out so does all the studying or should I say procrastinating.

So in 准中极班 (class 4) we have four classes therefore 4 exams. Preparation is a combination of character learning, grammar and listening. However for our conversation class, myself, 3 other Scottish students and a Russian student made up a 15 minute play about being lost in Beijing (seems logical) and performed it in front of the class.

After exams, myself, my roommate, our Scottish friend and our Chinese friend booked flights and headed off to Xi'an for a weekend trip. I can say it was the best weekend of my life!

In Xi'an we found an amazing and vibrant little hostel to stay for both nights. This was after our first two attempts failed miserably.

This were pictures on the wall drawn by people who had previously stayed there.

We went to the Terracotta Army, which truly deserves its title as one of the '8 wonders of the world'.

Other places we visited included was a Buddhist museum, the biggest shopping centre I've ever been too and other areas in the city.

We also visited the Great city wall, which took us two hour to walk only one side of the wall!

A week and a half later, all 22 Scottish scholars headed off to Beijing to attend the St Andrews Ball! After an amazing experience on the bullet train we arrived in Beijing 3 hours before the ball. We not so cleverly designated one girl to be our make up artist which made time very valuable, however we eventually made it to the ball all glammed up ready to have a wonderful night.

We had an astonishing 5 course meal, accompanied by an amazing ceilidh band and obviously got up to dance in many Scottish dances. It was even better than we expected.

Travelling to nearby cities and seeing all these vibrant and memorable places has really sparked up a flame within me and made me treasure this experience immensely. I hope for this feeling to continue to flourish and inspire me to study hard and really have the best time!

再见， 柯丹!