A different Christmas

Christmas this year was very different to previous Christmases. There wasn’t the build up there always is. There wasn’t a holiday. There was no family around and the only gifts I got were from Secret Santa. However, I wasn’t fussed. I had accepted the fact that for a year I was going to be experiencing and celebrating different holidays.

On Christmas day, many students from the university went for lunch at the Minyuan Plaza. The food was great and we all had a great time. I later went back to Facetime my family. It was weird seeing them in the living room getting up to the usual Christmas day stuff as I was doing something completely different from them on the other side of the world.

After the call, we all ended up at Helen’s. Christmas this year was, no doubt, more of a party than what I’m used to but, nonetheless, I enjoyed every minute of it. It was also, in a way, a good send off for many of our fellow international student friends who were returning to their countries very shortly.

For Hogmanay, some of us went through to Beijing for the Great Wall Snow Festival. This festival basically consisted of skiing next to the Great wall with electronic music being played throughout the day and into the New Year. Everyone loved it. Since it finished at 2am, we had to sleep outside Beijing South railway station for a couple of hours in -10 degree weather. Despite that, it was one of the best experiences I’ve had in China so far.