A new semester
Hi everyone! I hope you all enjoyed my last blog. I will be telling you about starting uni again and about what I’ve been up to in March!
After travelling we only had a few day to get ready to sign up for uni. Luckily we didn’t have to do the proficiency test again as we knew from our final results and teacher recommendations which class we should be going into. Most of the Scots moved up by at least two classes from the previous class they’d been in last semester. I also moved from class one to class three with seven other Scots. When I first went into the class it was very different from my beginner class that I had been in last semester. I didn’t really know what was going on at the beginning as the teacher only spoke in Chinese whereas if we didn’t understand something last semester the teacher would explain it to us in English. However, this semester only one of my teachers speaks English so we just have to try and understand what the teacher is trying to explain to us. We were also reading harder texts and the teacher spoke much quicker. However, the more I went to class the easier it became to understand the teacher and I could recognise more and more characters as well. My teachers this semester are also very helpful which is really good.
Since starting the new semester we’ve also made a lot of new friends. There are a lot of new Japanese and Korean students in our class who we’ve become friends with. We have also made friends with many of the other nationalities including Russians, Italians, Portuguese and of course, Chinese. I really enjoy meeting up with my language partner and practicing my Chinese and also helping her with her English. My language partner, Alison, is also a first year student and she studies English. Her English is really good compared to my Chinese but I still really enjoy meeting up with her and she helps me a lot if I’m struggling with certain things in class. I also enjoy going out for food with my Chinese friends as they know all the best places to eat! They usually make me try weird food like bird lungs! Would you guys ever try bird lungs? What’s the weirdest and most interesting food you guys have ever tried?
We have just found out that next month we are going to be getting the opportunity to meet Nicola Sturgeon! (First Minister of Scotland!). I’m extremely excited to meet her and share my thoughts on China and this scholarship with her. We are currently working on some presentations for her and have worked in small groups to figure out some of the key points to talk about.
After a long winter the weather is also finally starting to improve! After only seeing rain once in China so far its due to be quite a rainy month which I’m looking forward to because it reminded me a little bit of home! In the summer here it can apparently reach up to 40 degrees which is far too hot for me. I don’t know how I’m going to survive!
That’s all from me today. I hope you all enjoyed my March blog and I’ll be writing again very soon to tell you about April. 再见！