Scottish visitors

March was a pretty uneventful month. The first few days consisted of unpacking, cleaning all my clothes and getting back into the routine of things. This term I am in a higher class and currently it is quite challenging but hopefully if I work hard enough I’ll be able to do well in it.

Despite meeting up with many of the scholars in Thailand, it was good to be back and see all of them again. I also enjoyed being back in Tianjin as it has a sense of home.

My younger brother, Sonny, came over on the 25^th March for 3 weeks. I was very excited to see him as I hadn’t seen any friends or family since August! I went to pick him up at the airport in Beijing. On the way back to Tianjin, we stopped for some braised beef noodles. When we arrived back at the student accommodation I introduced him to all the scholars. During our time in Tianjin, I took Sonny to the Tianjin Eye, an abandoned shopping centre, up to the top floor of the Vantone Centre, Minyuan Plaza and Ancient Culture Street.

On the 4^th April, Sonny, Joe, Kathleen, TJ (one of Caitlin’s friends) and I went to Beijing for a few days. Sonny had already done all the main tourist attractions so the first day we went to the Pearl Market to buy some clothes. That night we went out for Kathleen’s birthday. The next night we went to Dada and Lantern as Sonny wanted to experience the underground electronic music scene in China. Upon our return to Tianjin, Sonny ended up becoming quite friendly with all the of scholars so he would join us on day trips, for food, etc. He thoroughly enjoyed his time here and I was delighted to have been able to share some of my experiences of China with Sonny. That said, him leaving made me miss home a little more.

On the 8^th April, all the scholars travelled through to Beijing to meet Nicola Sturgeon and Martin McDermott (First Secretary of Scottish Affairs at the British Embassy), amongst others at the British Embassy. I delivered a talk on student mobility. After all the scholars delivered their presentations, the First Minister and Martin McDermott came around all our tables to have a small discussion with us about our experience of studying abroad in China. We were then able to get a few photos with her. After the meeting, Fhiona and Fan took all the scholars for a nice dinner.

The next day, a few of us travelled back through to Beijing for the ‘Scotland is Now’ event. This event was aimed at advertising Scotland’s industries and what it had to offer to the world. It was being held at the Kerry Hotel, very close to the Embassy. The event was very well set up and the food and drink on offer was amazing. There was a Chinese dance performance as well as speeches from the First Minister. I thoroughly enjoyed the event and managed to make some valuable contacts.

Calum managed to get a stream of the Scottish Cup Semi-Final between Celtic and Rangers on the TV in his room, so a few scholars watched it. It was great being able to watch Celtic again as up until then I had been struggling to find a stream or somewhere showing the games. Celtic thrashed Rangers 4-0 to put them out the cup, which was very enjoyable to watch.

Towards the end of April, the university had a food event, in which most of the nationalities at the university get given money to go and cook dishes from their country and then students go around and try all the different cuisines. The event was a success and I thoroughly enjoyed trying all the different foods. Safe to say, all the other foreigners also loved the Scottish cuisine!