You shall go to the ball
大家好！
My midterm exams kickstarted this month off with surprisingly high scores. We had four 四 different exams 考试 for each class, listening, speaking, comprehensive and HSK, all the studying payed off as I managed to get some positive results. Our class was also split in half after our midterms depending on our overall grades to try and teach at different levels with Class A (A班) getting taught at a faster pace and Class B (B班) taught a little slower. I was put into A班 so I’m looking forward to hopefully some difficult work to try and challenge myself more. Since our midterms are now finished I feel like I can relax for a few days over the weekend before the studying has to begin once again.
The big event everyone was looking forward to this month was the St Andrews Ball that was held at the China World Hotel in Beijing 北京 on Saturday the 24th of November 11月24日星期六。
Before I could go to the ball the dilemma of what to wear had arisen and since I didn’t bring a dress with me to wear I opted to order one off China’s version of eBay called Taobao淘宝网. Unfortunately, the dress I ordered wasn’t what I was hoping for and thankfully my mum 妈妈 back in Scotland 苏格兰 came to the rescue when she found a dress while out shopping and mailed it over to China 中国 with plenty of time to spare until the ball. Even when she’s in a different country, my mum always manages to fix problems. 谢谢妈妈！
The ball was organised by the Beijing Scottish Society and was a night dedicated to celebrating Scottish culture, there was also an amazing amount of money raised for charity, which made the night even better. The night was filled with ceilidh dancing and a 5 course meal along with a charity raffle and getting to talk to many people from all over Scotland and many other countries. The venue was amazing! With Scotland flags hanging everywhere and a massive Christmas tree in the corner, it was a great setting for taking some pictures in our fancy outfits. After we were checked off the guest list and handed a glass of champagne, everyone started to mingle with whoever was near. The first person I spoke to happened to be selling the raffle tickets for that night, the conversation ended with Suzie, Jodie and I each buying a raffle ticket. We were then brought into a different room to take part in some ceilidh dancing before we were served our 5 course meal, it was amazing, and not a single grain of rice in sight. The night continued on with even more dancing and the winners of the raffle were announced and sure enough we didn’t win anything. All in all it was an amazing night with some great memories made.
Here are just a few of the photos taken at the ball, some are by the photographer that was going around throughout the night!
Although not much happened in November compared to the travels of last month, it was another amazing month spent in Tianjin天津. Christmas is quickly approaching! I can’t believe how quickly this has gone and although it’ll be my first Christmas away from home I’m still excited to see how we can celebrate it here in 中国.
Alyssa.