Tianjin Zoo, Exams and Christmas

大家好！

December was a busy month! While most people associate December with school slowing down to an end and preparing for the Christmas holidays, for us Scots in China the pace and workload at uni increased tenfold as we prepared for our finals and as most of us finalised our travel plans for the upcoming Spring Festival holiday in January. An odd combination of stressful and exciting, but I didn't let that get to me and enjoyed my time in December as much as I could, and I managed to get a lot done.

I'll start with the weather. Last month I mentioned how cold it got in Tianjin. In December it went from a freezing I'm used to having grown up in Scotland, to a freezing that made me have to put on three layers just to go to 7-11 which is a five minute walk away. It was an absolutely crazy drop in temperature but it wasn't too unbearable. At least I never felt too warm which was an improvement from the weather back in September.

The first thing of interest I did in December was on December 5th when some Russian students also from 准中级班 invited Robin, Alex and I to go to the zoo with them. We'd all never been to the zoo before and it was great to get a chance to spend time with our classmates out of the classroom. Anastasia, one of the Russians, also happened to be in the same group as the Scots in 准中 for the speaking exam, so this was also a good chance to get out and about while planning and practising.

The plan was to get up really early and take the bus to 水上公园, but upon stepping outside we were all in agreement that we'd rather pay the extra 3块 or so for a taxi there as opposed to waiting in the cold. We arrived promptly soon enough and were amazed at the sheer size of the park. It's the biggest in Tianjin, and the frozen river passing through it reflecting the morning sun was an amazing sight.

We entered the park, and as in most parks in China, heard music. Old people often come to the public park in the mornings and at night to practice tai chi or sing and dance with their friends. Old people in China are generally still very excited to see foreigners expressing an interest in their culture, so we were approached by them, just as we expected, but something we found very interesting was that instead of throwing some old English phrases they'd learned at us, they started speaking some Russian! As our Russian classmates chatted to some of the old people, another man (who spoke very strong 天津话，and took some getting used to, to understand) explained to the Scots that when they were at school and university, China and Russia had close relations, and Chinese people preferred to learn Russian. It was a great chance to practice out conversation skills and also learn something interesting. Even when we entered the zoo, we met some other old people who spoke some Russian. It was such an interesting thing to witness, and our Russian classmates were thrilled.

We walked further towards the music and met a huge crowd of Chinese people dancing away, and we decided to go and join in. Us Scots started to dance some ceilidh dances as the Chinese and Russians tried to follow which was some laugh. Then the Russians started some sort of waltz. It was great fun, and we hadn't even gotten to the zoo yet!

We get student discounts at many attractions in Tianjin, including the zoo, so it only cost us around 30块 each to get in. The place was practically deserted given the freezing weather but for us that just meant less queuing and more time to see the animals. It's not as if Russians and Scots aren't used to the cold.

Tianjin zoo has a wide array of animals, but by far the most interesting were the monkeys. It's mad how much they can interact with you and understand gestures etc. Another interesting area was the reptile building. One thing you'll notice in China wherever there are turtles or tortoises is that the Chinese throw money to them. I swear that turtle at the zoo was rich enough to travel Asia.

We stayed at the zoo all day, and after a nutritious meal of popcorn from the reptile building, it was time to go back. It was evening now and the sun was setting, which left a beautiful reflection on the frozen water of the park.

Upon getting home, the Russians suddenly started apologising to us. They felt bad that they'd spoken Russian most of the day to themselves and we couldn't understand, but of course we weren't angry. They put up with our confusing Scots and rapid talk, so of course we weren't bothered at all that they spoke comfortably for a day. Speaking of Scots, our friends Casey and Anastasia from Russia love the Scots language, and we wrote a dictionary for them with a list of commonly used Scots words and phrases with pronunciation guide written using the Cyrillic alphabet. These words quickly became a part of their vocabulary, and before we knew it, 'awrite' replaced 'hello'.

Although it's not properly celebrated in China, the scholars couldn't forget about Christmas, so we arranged a Secret Santa to give us some presents to look forward to opening. We even included some of our Chinese friends. I drew Brodie, and oddly enough, it turns out he also drew me, which was a funny realisation come Christmas day. My roommate, Calum, convinced himself that I'd drawn him, but I let him believe it so he'd be surprised on the day. It certainly worked. I'll cover more of Christmas day later on in the blog.

As I mentioned before, a main feature of December was preparation for our finals. There's not much to say about that with regard to 听力、精读 and 阅读，but the exams in 口语 are certainly worth mentioning. The first portion was a group performance. For this, we had to write a 15 minute play (about 3 minutes total talking each) and perform it in front of the class. We were given a practice performance, and a graded performance, each of which had to cover a different story. For our practice, Kirsty, Robin, Alex, Anastasia and I re-enacted the story of when I got lost in the mountains in Beijing (see October's blog). The class got a real shock when they learned it was a true story, and the teacher gave us feedback so we could do well in our graded performance. For our graded performance we wrote an odd story about some foreign students finishing their exam, arguing about pies, getting the bus to a restaurant, getting lost and ending in an allergic reaction and the use of an Epipen. We even improvised a bit incorporating another group's plot into our story. The teacher and class loved it. It was one of the funniest exams I've ever sat and we all received great marks on it. It was a good feeling getting good marks on it considering how hard we all worked to write and learn it. What was also fun was seeing what our classmates came up with.

The second portion was a solo talk on a topic of our choice. I chose to speak about Black Mirror, and again it went really well. Speaking is my favourite class here, and the more you like something the more you're inclined to do well in it.

The final portion was the most nerve-wracking: 朗读 (reading aloud). We would go into the classroom one at a time and read a text given to us aloud - no pinyin, no English. This was the section I was most nervous for in speaking, but I practiced a lot and managed to do well in that section too. I was really happy with my final results. On the topic of exams, China doesn't give Christmas holidays, so some international students had the horror of a final on Christmas Day. I managed to escape this by one day, having an extra credit speech to do on Boxing day, so I chose the appropriate topic of Secret Santa.

Before I get on to what happened on Christmas day, let me introduce something I discovered in the month of December - English corners. These are student-organised events which Chinese and other foreign students attend to practice their English. The corners are absolutely crazy, as the Chinese are so excited to practice with natives, but the one rule is that you can only speak English... Easy enough for me as a native speaker, but the Chinese can come up with some pretty interesting things when they have no Chinese to fall back on (my favourite being ''you can diss me, but you cannot diss my dishes''). We play games together and I even learned how to play Mahjong on a really fancy electric table. I can't get enough of English corners, as they're so fun and also give me a chance to make Chinese friends with whom I can practice my Chinese with later on. I even went to two in one day, directly after each other - great fun.

One great night in December I remember happened by accident. Robin, after a miscommunication, ended up accidentally telling an Ecuadorian and a Peruvian, both from 准中级班, that he was starving, and they subsequently came to our floor with food for him. We were so grateful that out classmates cared so much so we invited them to watch The Polar Express with us. It was a great chance to practice Spanish too.

The night of Christmas Eve a lot of the scholars got together to watch some Christmas films. We brought two extra mattresses through to one of the smallest rooms and got comfortable to watch Love Actually and the Grinch, and by 4am we all had fallen asleep and woke up at a comfortable time of about 10/11am to do Secret Santa. I got a bottle of Soju (a Korean drink) and a new phone charger from my Secret Santa, as well as some Chinese beer from my language partner. I got my Secret Santa a speaker and got my language partner some Scottish shortbread. Everyone enjoyed the morning and even some of our Chinese friends came to take part. It was an enjoyable day for everyone and a nice day of relaxation before the impending finals coming up. That night a few of us went with our Chinese friends to a hotpot restaurant for Christmas dinner, and afterwards went to Helen's bar for a few celebrations.

However, I had to return from Helen's early because due to the lack of Christmas holidays, I had a speech to give in reading class. The teacher was very interested to hear a presentation on Secret Santa.

Something I forgot to mention earlier in the blog is how us scholars got together for at least 5 hours to make paper chains which we decorated the corridor of the 7th floor with. The rest of the floor were very interested in our Christmas spirit, coming from countries that don't really celebrate it, like Korea.

The finals were just as you'd expect, really. They were difficult, but as the Chinese say, 好好学习，天天向上。I studied hard and managed to do very well in all of my classes, even the ones I found the hardest.

Finally, New Year. Unfortunately, it was very uneventful for me. I went to the local bar with some Chinese and international friends, counted down in Chinese, and then went back home to bed. I'd left it too late to plan anything big like some other scholars did but honestly I wasn't too fussed.

That's basically it for December. A very busy month, even in a country without Christmas. Despite that, it's definitely the most memorable holiday season I've ever had.