Excitement, Adventure and New Experiences

The past two months here in China have been ones of excitement, adventure, and new experiences. We’ve encountered our first real taste of travelling, exams, and now proper budgeting while in the country. As a result of our continued immersion and settling in to life here in Asia, not only has our Chinese language improved exponentially, but our confidence levels too. Once frustrating tasks such as topping up our phone data or buying things from the shops in Chinese have now become a part of day-to-day life and can be completed with almost no effort at all. Many of us have begun to meet language partners or attend clubs in order to enhance our social bubbles and language ability, and because of this many new friends have been made and living here has been made much more enjoyable.

As I mentioned in my first blog update, the international community in our building is an extremely important and beneficial feature about living on the campus. I’ve had the opportunity to practice my French with native speakers, many others have continued to speak Spanish with the help of our Latin American classmates, and we’ve even been able to give interested language learners a taste of the Scots language. Our most recent task has been seeking the help of our ‘’日本和韩国同学‘’ （Japanese and Korean classmates） to teach us some useful phrases in preparation for our trips to Japan and Korea during the Spring Festival holidays which we’ve already started planning.

So much has happened in the past two months that it’s hard to think of where to begin. A notable event occurred in early October when myself, along with six scholars, were given the once in a lifetime opportunity to attend a Chinese government event celebrating the 68th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. We were required to dress very formally for the occasion and so decided it was time to take out our kilts (苏格兰裙), much to the pleasure of lots of the international and Chinese students. Normally when walking around campus or on the streets of Tianjin, we’re greeted  as ‘’英国人‘’，‘’美国人‘’，or even the occasional ‘’俄罗斯人‘’，but on that day there was no question to which country we came from. On that day we were, without a doubt, ‘’苏格兰人‘’.

We weren’t aware quite how large and important this event would be, and it was only upon arriving there and discovering that even the school’s principal was not allowed to enter that we realised just how lucky we were to be attending. We were treated to complimentary wine, orange juice, and snacks, and had to do very little but listen and stand when they played the Chinese national anthem. When we did have to stand and the music began to play, it was at that point in time that Owen’s body decided it would like to have a nose bleed, so we had to quietly scramble to grab him a napkin in order to avoid staining his own outfit or anything belonging to the event.

Following the main ceremony, the Mayor of Tianjin, along with other representatives for the Tianjin Municipality, rounded the tables in a toast to the occasion, and we all had the pleasure of being able to shake their hands.

Upon returning to the accommodation, Li Peng, our principal, informed us that we had just shared a hall with many Olympians and celebrities who had also been invited to the event, and once again the significance of the opportunity we had just experienced was made clear.

Another, and probably the most notable occasion from October was the week long holiday. A long month of studying and early morning classes was to be rewarded with a nice break. My friends and I decided it would be fun to go away and decided a nice Bed and Breakfast in rural Beijing would be the best getaway. We booked our train tickets and were off only a couple of days after booking. Travelling to Beijing Station we experienced no problems at all, and were amazed at the sheer speed of the bullet trains we were about to ride for the first time. Afterwards we had planned to get to our accommodation by taxi, and this is when our plan started to come off the rails. After a long taxi journey we had to stop by a large corn farm to ask for directions which led us to realise we had in fact been scammed and had nowhere to stay. However, our kind taxi drivers, refused to leave us without a place to spend the night, and so drove us into the mountains towards a hotel in which a very hospitable man insisted we eat and spend the night. By the time we arrived it was now dark and beginning to get cold, so the offer could not be turned down.

The meal we had was delicious, and Owen had the luxury of tasting a full chicken head which he said was as tasty as the rest of the food. When finished, we made our way to the rooms which, at first, looked quite luxurious. The discovery of many large insects, including a long millipede and gecko, within the walls, led us to reconsider. Despite this, the night we spent at this hotel was actually very fun and not the disaster it seemed like at first, although the sleep we got wasn’t the best. Having to share beds and being awoken by cockerels and fireworks (yes, fireworks) at six in the morning, doesn’t exactly make you feel the freshest in the morning, but it’s another funny story to tell which is why I look back on it fondly. Because we were awoken so early, some of us decided to scale part of the mountain to try and see the sunrise, and while we weren’t successful, we had a great time exploring the abandoned buildings and seeing the beautiful and peaceful landscape. After the others woke up, we hiked towards the top of the mountain which we didn’t reach due to the lack of time, but the view was brilliant nonetheless. After arriving back down, we ate once more after insistence from the kind hotel owner, and then we were on our way back to Tianjin. This was also the first time I experience a two-hour standing bus journey which was unique but tiring to say the least.

Late October and early November were when our Midterms began. These exams were very difficult but they provided a taste of future exams we would be sitting.

Mid-November passed with us just settling in even more to life here in Tianjin. We made trips to the parks, tried new restaurants, and began to make a regular thing of going to play badminton, table tennis, or occasionally going swimming. We spent many nights in watching movies or TV series while munching at our Pizza Hills (hands down the best pizza I’ve ever had) and we dedicated nights to further exploration of the city, using the shared-bicycle system ‘ofo’ as our primary means of transportation. One of our more memorable excursions involved us finding a crab at night, only for a nice Chinese man to come, pick it up, and give us a nice talk about what it was how it was edible. We declined his offer of giving it to us, so he brought it home for his own evening meal.

Late November came and was an exciting time for all the scholars, as we knew that the annual St Andrew’s Ball in Beijing was fast-approaching. We had read and seen pictures from the event in previous years’ scholars’ blogs, and so were eager to see what it was like. When we arrived there in our formal wear- some in kilts, others suits and dresses - it seemed like this event was almost too fancy for us, or at least I thought so anyway. The waiters walked around at the beginning providing samples of some of the most delicious food I’ve ever tasted, and we were also treated to free champagne.

After entering the main hall, we had one ceilidh dance and were then seated. The following five-course meal, accompanied by free unlimited champagne, wine, and whisky was probably the fanciest thing I’ve ever experienced. Following the meal, the ceilidh dance (with a live band) began, and all those hours of dancing classes from PE in first and second year had paid off greatly. While mingling with strangers around the tables, I was able to meet many new friends, and even a Chinese man who had worked in my home town of Irvine back in Scotland. It really is a small world. On top of that, I also had the chance to meet and talk to a Scottish Government representative and a former high-profile MP.

We properly ended the night by dancing Strip the Willow and then eating some of the very early morning breakfast they had provided for us. It had felt like forever since I’d last tasted sausage rolls and normal toast.

December is now here and the hall is becoming more and more decorated for Christmas as the days go by. We’ve already built massive paper chains that hang festively from the roof. We’re still thinking of plans for Christmas Day itself, but we’ll come up with something, and whether it’ll be traditional or anything like we’re used to, there’s no doubt that it will be a unique and memorable experience, like so much else here is.

All in all, the settling in phase here has pretty much ended, and I look forward to seeing what the future months have to offer in my new home, Tianjin, China.