3rd year in a nutshell

So a year ago I was freaking out big time about leaving for a year, and despite the fact I had possibly the worst start to it all, I still managed to make this year the best of my life. My year abroad is done, thank you Malaga and Shanghai, both of you were incredible.

People keep asking which I preferred, first or second semester, but it's so difficult to pick as the life I had in each was completely different...

Malaga had our beautiful friendship group, we travelled and bonded so much. Friends became best friends instantly and stuck by me. Our apartment and that incredible freedom and lifestyle. Giovanni, his Russian girlfriend and Lukas the dog. Uni was useless but the beach was great, the weather was always great and we ran through fountains fully clothed. Robert boyds and Ektor played a huge part, likewise did Sala Pizza, Malapizza and Tapas. Sala wenge, Sala white and Sala gold. Brian and the pub crawl! Soggy microwaved pizzas from Mercadona Merca-do-naaaaa. I fell in love with Mojitos in Plaza de la Merced, eating seafood and drinking Cava and Fanta Limon. The chino over the road and fresh baguettes for 50c, making salami and cheese sandwiches. El palo and the beach, how we all became a family. The girls made Malaga Malaga, and the lazy Spanish lifestyle fitted me perfectly.

Shanghai was so big and scary. But a great place to live. We lived so differently, we worked hard in the week and partied hard at the weekends (and the evenings). We drank free champagne in the tallest bar in the world, and walked along the bund like it was home. We shopped at the fake market as locals and bought too many things for a dirt cheap price. If only luggage wasn't a restriction I would have brought so much more back! Dorms were boring and the beds were ridiculous, but the food and cost of everything was perfect. Chinese food is ridiculously cheap, from 65p for a meal in the canteen to only £10 for a really nice meal out. Had a huge international friend group and class, and a lovely boyfriend who took me on lovely dates. Didn't even miss home as much as I'd predicted, it definitely felt like I should have stayed soo much longer!

So, I can't choose between the two!

America, Canada, Ireland, Wales, Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Sweden, Holland, Belgium, Poland, China, Australia , Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Russia, Morocco, India. New Zealand. South Africa. A collection of nationalities I met along the way, I feel so lucky to have friends in all corners of the world that I may travel to one day. Will always be a big fan of international love!

       Adios!    再见!    Bye!

The end

I feel once again very neglectful towards my blog, not updating it since Beijing was rather silly on my part as now I'm home in the UK and realised just how much I didn't write about over the last month and a half in Shanghai. How to summarise that? I guess as you would assume, a lot of nights out, cheap food and hangovers in classes. But otherwise it went something like this...

Had a kidney infection, that sucked, couldn't move and had to pay £250 for the pleasure of 7 tablets and a lovely chat with a doctor who was probably the most dedicated doctor. Emails aand phone calls and offers to open the surgery out of hours if I was in pain. Probably worth the £250 but I did miss the NHS at this point. I've now claimed this back though, thank god for insurance! 3rd claim of the year... They must hate me.

A day trip to Suzhou, a great group of people and a lot of scenery. Went with Hutong school people, mostly Lucas friends and then Charlee and I. We bought hats on a boat because we got ripped off. However twathat club didn't last long. We wandered round gardens and then got temporarily stranded when there wasn't enough tickets on the last train home. 

Mum visited! I made her try Chinese food and she actually enjoyed it! Biggest success. We did every sight there was to see in Shanghai except the pearl tower which I'm sad I never did. So much walking and so many pictures. Buut I had to do it once so made sense with mum! She had a great week, so did I. Highlight was seeing shanghai from 100 storeys high, lowlight possibly seeing mum start dancing to moves like jagger, by herself in the champagne bar of the 94th floor, the highest bar in the world I must add. I wanted the floor to just swallow me up. Overall a great week with Mumma in China.

Charlees birthday. Pretty crazy! Massages in the day and then our final Pubcrawl at night. Rather rather messy, everyone was such a happy drunk and it was so nice to see how many people came.

Lucas last week! The best brunch ever, ate so much I was sick but never been soo amazed by such a large choice of such incredible food. Last crazy night with the lianhua boys at Muse, so sad but always such fun. 

Revision revision revision. C ban exams were 10x worse than B ban and had the weekend after Luca left to cram for them. Absolutely crazy, downloaded a flash card system which made me learn a lot, but still much harder than the first set of exams. Sad face.

FREEDOM. Final champagne ladies night straight after exams, followed by too much drinking and eating with friends, and tooooo much shopping at the fake market again. Whoops at how much money I spent.

Packing up, incredibly sad seeing my room go from so homely to so bare. Luckily we could pay to stay a few more days. I was pretty much the last there, so I spent my final evening packing up, watching the Wimbledon final and enjoying my last Pork buns. 

And that's it. Highlights of the last 7 weeks crammed short and sweet for one final summary blog post.

Over and out! For potentially one last time...

BEIJING

The weekend before last we headed up to Beijing for a few days, our main intention was to see David Guetta performing at the Great Wall Music Festival, but we actually did more than just get wasted, and was a pretty incredible weekend...

We started off the weekend with drinks in the SWFC, Shanghai's tallest builder, aka 'The Bottle Opener', it was a Wednesday which meant free flow champagne for ladies for no cost, so couldn't really go wrong. We continued the night by heading to M1NT and luckily both Sarah and Luca got free flow wristbands, and we were on a promotors table, alcohol alcohol alcohol.

Thursday, after a number of chicken mcnuggets for breakfast we got on our 5 hour high speed train journey to Beijing and slept off the hangovers we had from the previous evening. Once we arrived and checked into the really weird hotel, with numerous stickers and a see-through shower wall door (luckily I could trust Charlee to not watch me shower) we went to grab some food with Sarah and Emma's Beijing friends. We also met up with a few girls from our uni who are studying there too, and basically began drinking, and stayed there until were the last out before heading to a club.

On Friday, we succeeded with a relatively early start for a day of being tourists. Luckily, I wasn't the only one who hadn't been to Beijing before, as both Steph and Titch, who are Sarah's friends from home hadn't been either, which meant we did a looong day of seeing sights. We went from the Temple of Heaven to Tiananmen Square, to a viewpoint over Beihei Lake where we could overlook the Forbidden City. It was all pretty pictoresque but very tiring walking around gardens and temples all morning, so we stopped for lunch, which pretty much took us all into a food coma, even though we only managed to eat 1/4 of the dumplings we ordered. That's when we attempted our good deed for the day; mission find a tramp. Unfortunately the only guy we found had no arms, and we thought it highly innapropriate to give him a bowl of dumplings and chopsticks to eat them, so we settled on leaving them next to a bin, in case the usual tramps go looking for leftovers in the trash. We climbed to the top of a viewpoint over Beihei and could see a view overlooking the forbidden city, which was pretty spectacular. However it was slightly ruined for me by the mammoth bees flying around. I'm not a fan of small bees, let alone ones this big, some of my photos even make them look like birds, so its not a surprise I was running round screaming whilst getting funny looks from the Chinese tourists.. On saturday evening we had dinner at a Korean Restaurant, and I headed home after because I felt sleep rather than alcohol would be more benefical to me before festival day!

FESTIVAL DAY! The morning started by grabbing food, buying alcohol and meeting Sarah's friends at their flat. There was literally swarms of people trying to get on the bus, it was crazy, the closer you got to the front the more squashed you became, but I got on first out of our group and managed to get 5 others with me so wasn't soo bad! We took a load of photos in the car park when we eventually arrived, bought chinese hats and finished our drinks which we werent allowed to take in. We got in and went to the toilet and it was the most vile experience of my life, I have NEVER smelt anything so bad than that big, open pit from hundreds of people before me. We all kept getting split up and I kept bumping into random people who had also travelled from Shanghai. We queued forever for hotdogs and pad £5 for them, yet when we got there there was no sausages so we just got buns and ketchup instead, not a happy moment, so instead our dinner was a pot of mini donuts. Oh so healthy. I managed to smash my chinese phone at the festival thanks to it slipping out of my hand whilst on someones shoulders, but YOLO, it was a rubbish phone anyway and I can still use it. Could have been worse, could have been my iPhone. Phewww.

Guettas performace was prettttty damn good, I got split from the others for a while because I was like an excited little child wanting to get near the front. By the end, we were all absolutely exhausted so it emptied and everyone went back on the coaches which were a mission to find and get on, this resulted with me crouching on the floor in seats of the coach with a bag on my back and hat on my head to try smuggle people on the last bus. Worked though, so can't really complain. The night ended very healthily with a McDonalds, except my stomach was not a fan of the overdose of mini donuts, chicken nuggets and alcohol, so when I got back to the hotel let's just say I wasn't feeling too special.

We got up sunday and headed to a cafe to say bye to everyone we'd met at the weekend, we then got taxis to the train station for our train trip home. This also meant more chicken nuggets. I have chicken nugget problems, and its something I learnt during this trip. The train back wasn't so bad, I studied, slept, and the usual things you do to pass time on a long distance journey. By the time we all got back we were shattered. Managed to head to Helen's for one drink with Steph, but then came straight home and slept a goood 10 hours in preparation to begin another week of boring class.

The weekend was insane and I am soo pleased we went earlier for a day of sightseeing to say I'd done it. The only thing I would do differently is to actually climb and touch the great wall, just to say I've done it, but despite this, I have no complaints. This weekend is on par with one of the best ever.

Happy days.

The final countdown

I know it sounds crazy, and 2 months still seems like such a long time, but there is now officially a countdown until home time. When you think about it it is just so surreal that after such an insane year abroad, with both ups and downs, I now have an end date to it all. I've been here for 3 months now, and have 2 to go, so looking at it like that it's not so bad, but it has flown by far too quickly.

I have just booked my final flight of the year abroad, and I shall be home on the 9th July. And to be quite honest, although I miss so much about England, my family and friends, home comforts, food, my car and my job, I just don't want to leave Shanghai just yet. Don't get me wrong, its not the kind of place I want to live forever, but 5 months just isn't quite enough to do everything I want to do here.

Confirming the flight reservation took me 10 times longer than it should have because I just kept deliberating whether I should stay or what my reasons would be for staying, but realistically I'm going to have no money and noone to travel with, so going home is my only option. I double checked with so many people asking when they were leaving to make sure I was leaving at the right time, and asked really stupid questions like is the layover in KL long enough. I mean, I have travelled before with so many connecting flights that I know it is, I was just being ridiculous. And to be honest, the last time I was in KL was a 7 hour layover and that sucked, so 2hr50m works fine this time.

I do also have window seats for both of my flights home, so every cloud has a silver lining I guess.

2 months, 2 days to go.

Gaaahhh.

Hello Summer

I realised I haven't shown my face on here for a few weeks now, and madre is getting sad she can't have updates. So, instead of sitting outside on this lovely day I am here, about to write everything for you. To be honest though, it was quite a pleasure to get back to my room and get my jeans off me, so I am currently sat with my double doors open and the breeze coming in. Probably shouldn't be complaining, because in 6 months time I will do anything to be back here. The heat is great, however one thing I am so excited for is when Mumma heads over here with all the shorts, skirts and summer dresses I stupidly left at home. Silly Lily. Once that day arrives I will probably be complaining even more about the heat, can't really win. Tianqi hen hao. I think I am going to have some weird sort of pollution tan to bring back to England in July though, but still, a tan is a tan. We've been having lunches outside cafes whilst studying and overall it has been a pretty good few weeks.

If you excuse the exams that we had last week, we have still been having a great time. Managed to actually dedicate some of my time to revision too last week, was challenged to 600 characters and battle through it! We got our results back in 3 days, which is pretty crazy if you consider how long it normally takes at home. Good news is that I passed all of my exams. For once I did best in my oral exam, getting 80%, then got 74% in writing and 68% in reading, so although its not great for Chinese people I am pretty chuffed with myself, considering I should have been revising a lot more than I did...

I kind of feel that studying and learning characters here now is coming so much faster, the speed of writing characters, the ability to use sense and guess a characters meaning, and to be able to read a lot more it is ALL improving. We moved up a class level this week as we passed our exams, and it already seems like such a big step, and extra class a week and 5 textbooks instead of one. Joy. Can't wait for this semester!

So, around revision time and bumming in the sun I have been trying to figure out what we have actually been up to? We had 3 days off this week as classes were moved to the weekend because of the public holiday, so as you would assume we drunk a lot of alcohol and went out every night!

Last week, it is worthy of a mention that for the first time we headed up to the top of the JinMao tower, you have to pay for the privelege of drinking on the top floor but the view is pretty cool. It's the second tallest building in Shanghai and planning on going up to the top of the tallest one when the Mother is visiting at the end of the month. We followed the Jinmao tower with a ladies night where all drinks are free for girls, yet still managed to get some international perverts to send a bottle of Champagne to the table, and then drinks from the boys too who didn't like having their toes trodden on. So all in all, it was a pretty drunken evening, and pretty sure that a double date at the top of the Jinmao tower will be hard to beat for a while. Especially for Charlee who got taken for a 7 course meal at the Waldorf Astoria first, despite that though, our vietnamese restaurant was still pretty good as well!

Also been on two more pub crawls, which ended as brutally as ever and went to see Zedd perform live last week for Shannon's boyfriends birthday. Table service with the best seats and soo much champagne is great until the hangover kicks in the next morning. Along with that we went Winetasting at the Roosevelt Sky restaurant rooftop bar with Sara and Vik, also a pretty swanky place and an incredible view.  It's quite funny how the nights go from so classy to so drunk within a matter of days.

Next weekend we are heading to Beijing! And I am so excited. Going to the Great Wall music festival with 10,000 other people to go and see David Guetta perform in front of the wall. Pretty cool I must say, I will blog after my trip there!

Anyway, yet another essay of a post. Should probably blog more regularly to keep it short and sweet, but I'm just having tooo much fun to do so, sorry!

x

海南

We've recently returned from what was a great weeks break off uni to Chinas southern island Hainan, and it's beautiful resort Sanya. Originally a fair few of us were going, but unfortunately due to fractured ankles, expired visas and other issues, it ended up as just four of us.

Our week started by deciding to head on Mondays bar crawl. Typical chawker saw the responsibility to show her sister a good night whilst on her Etihad stopover, so we saw it our responsibility to join to fun, and head to the airport at 4am after a night out. However, once I get tired my body shuts down and I was definitely found having a powernap on the sofas in the bathroom. After falling asleep unwillingly about 5 times, I took the role of the responsible drunk, confiscated passports and checked us in. Success. And we headed to Sanya! Feeling very delirious on the plane only made us more confused when we all woke up to the cabin crew exercise routine. A serious routine they know as well as the safety demo, to stretch everyone before landing. Only in china.

Once we arrived, we headed straight to the beach. Bikinis on, hair up and tanning time. In retrospect, we should have invested in suncream first, I have never been so burnt in my life and am now shedding my skin like there's no tomorrow. Sexy. If only the Chinese sold proper cream that didnt have skin whitener in, I could probably moisturise!

The beach was amazing though. And so worth it, got myself some sexy tan lines to show off... Who doesn't want flower shaped sunburn on their chest?!

 

Oooops. Don't tell my Nan...she'll kill me!

 

Sanya was literally FULL of Chinese people, a handful of westerners is all we saw. And they were alll Russian pretty much. Observing how the Chinese act on holiday is a real treat to the eye, and often comical. For example, the ladies that take their umbrellas swimming in the sea so they don't catch the sun? Orrrrr the man who spat (lots of phlegm) in his wife's face to impress his friends in the sea. Orrr the ridiculous number of sleezy men that took photos of us sunbathing, my personal 'favourite' was the man who was in awe of my bum, face planted in my towel I clearly didn't realise he was observing my backside until Twist got my attention. I hope he was just trying to make out the letters of 'SoCal' as opposed to judging me for being a fatty. We had men asking to take our photos, men pretending to subtly take photos and failing and then just men that stood next to us staring. After a day, it got a bit frustrating. I'm not a pretty sleeper, and I really am not happy about my sleeping face and sweaty beach pictures being in several Chinese mens photo albums, eww. Chinese men are basically obsessed, even the taxi drivers who turn around and creepily tell you in Chinese you're really beautiful, what more can I say other than 谢谢 and I quickly changed the conversation. Most awkward taxi ride ever. Creepy!

Food in Sanya was sensational. I never used to like any form of food from the sea, and I now can't get enough. Never eaten so many prawns and oysters in my life, but when the oysters are 20p for each one, and cooked sooo nicely in a garlic flavouring, you can't say no. Almost every day we picked fresh shellfish from the tanks of various fish, so much fun but also pretty sad watching the little guys swim around and then consuming them merely 5 minutes later. Sorry fishies, but my dad would be mega proud. We've been back two days, I already want oysters again.

One thing I love is that the amount of street dancers everyday was so cheery, the same song all the time and could even hear it down at the beach front from the balcony, my favourite part was when the dancers had a break and Charles and Twist began the Macarena. Not the most in sync Macarena I have seen, but it certainly attracted a few looks.

 

Isn't the Music cheery though?

I learnt that 'cockfighting' is a real thing too last week. Genuine chickens fighting to win. Probability is they'll all be slaughtered soon because of bird flu anyway though, the poor chickens. Spend their lives fighting each other to win. It doesn't even make sense, what in life could you achieve by saying 'world champion cock fighter owner', nothing, absolutely nothing!

For once, I didn't go out much whilst we were away, a mix of sunstroke, exhaustion aaand feeling ill meant me and Emma stayed in most nights, however we made it to the beach by a reasonable hour, which can't really be said for the others! We found a secluded part of the beach too, twas lovely. We also managed to avoid the majority of the evening mosquito bites the others obtained. Didn't help us that much though, we still got bitten alive. We probably should have researched the malaria risk of the island a bit more before going!

 

With the bird flu situation here and being faced with malaria ridden mosquitoes in Hainan, we're all crossing our fingers pretty tightly that illness is not going to strike!

And now were back, back to class and back to preparing for our first batch of exams next week. It really sucks how you can go from so happy and chilled to so stressed in a matter of a few hours!

Wish us luck!

Get me some western food!

So, I haven't blogged this week  yet, or last, so thought I would give you a little update of life here. I just woke up from a wonderful nap, in which my sisters were promising to send me sweets and I was telling them to make sure it fits in my letterbox here. But, the nap has actually made me crave a random few things, therefore I thought I'd blog about the things I actually miss about home, not just why I love China, for once!

Funnily enough, during class I daydream a lot, and a lot of the time it is about food. We all know I am a fatty and like my food, so I am not even ashamed of the fact I have been compiling a list in my notebook of the food I literally can't wait for. Here goes....

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- The Baguette Shop at home - The lack of real sandwiches here and the fact they always make such good baguettes. Bread is clearly a key part of my diet, and I always fancy sandwiches of some kind here and just can't get them. Except Family Mart which sell the most processed looking sandwiches I have ever seeen, I'll take a photo eventually, they look vile. We have found a cafe that does pretty massive baguettes though, and I will be going back upon my next baguette craving. First lunch back itll be a BLT at the Baguette Shop, for sure.

- Marmite on Toast - I'm a lover. Always will be. Once again, bread. They do bread here but no toasters, why they don't even sell toasters in the country where nearly everything is manufactured I really don't know.

- Squash - For once I may admit that I've probably been drinking too much coke. Sometimes I crave something to drink otherwise, as a lot of the drinks here are soo sugary they are gross. Most orange drinks are almost fluorescent unless you pay a lottt for actual orange juice.

- Scones, cream and Jam - Who doesn't love afternoon tea? Come to mention it, I miss tea a lot as well. And I'm not even the biggest tea drinker.

- Hot Cross Buns - It's Easter so feel I am certainly missing out. Bet I have NO eggs this year either :)

- Hot breakfast - Bacon, sausages, fried eggs on toast, scrambled egg and ham sandwiches (yes, my year11 breakfast craving is back). Any kind of hot breakfast item. I swear the chinese just have noodles and rice eery hour of the day. Even paying for an English Breakfast in a western place just is not the same.

- Dominoes Takeaway - Had the most romantic Valentines Day with big sis and a Dominoes before heading here, and it was the best. I don't even care what the toppings are...

- Cheese - Challenge me to a day without cheese at home and it probably wouldn't happen. Seeing as I spent so many years of my life hating this, I don't know how I didn't like it?! Buffalo Mozzarella, Blue cheese, Fontina cheese, Goats cheese, Parmesan... Ahh. Rossetti's will be first on my list when I can go... Goats Cheese and Parma Ham spring rolls, followed by Rustic Gnocci with Pancetta. Done.

- Fizzy sweets - This is what I was dreaming about during my nap. Cola laces are the only thing I forgot off my 'don't forget to take to China' list. Mistake, as now I am craving big time. I have chewits but they aren't as good. Any kind of fizzy sweet or pic n mix item. Ahhh. Please collect me from the airport with a pic'n'mix cup Mumma ;)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So they're basically the things I miss most at the moment and still have 4 months without them! I am going to be sooo fed up of Chinese food by then. I kind of already am to be fair. Everything is just soo oily and greasy and never makes  you feel healthy, plus the addition of MSG is such an odd concept. And I genuinely think you can taste it. We have been giving in to western cravings so much recently, and hungover days are the very worst. When all you want is bread, carbs and pizza. I thought I would come home from China skinnier, but at this rate, even the healthy food doesn't taste healthy so probably going to be a little more chubbs on return...WONDERFUL.

再见 xxx

One month down...

It has been exactly 4 weeks today since Chawks and I left Inglaterra to adventure over to this side of the world, and it has been the quickest month ever. But, its so crazy to think we are now 1/5 of the way through despite it feeling like yesterday, and, if I'm honest, I want even longer here already.

I've been feeling pretty smug this week, I'm not sure if its because I just feel so settled here and just so lucky that this is the life I have been given this year or if its just because of everything else, we've met some pretty awesome people the last few weeks, our Chinese is actually coming along and we've been discussing dates for travelling and researching costs. At the moment, I'm so tempted to stay as long as I can at the end and maybe go travelling for a bit, we're hoping on going on a girly beach week to reward ourselves for having such a great year, but even if that doesn't happen I am tempted to stay and do it by myself. But basically, I've had a smile on my face all week, and I challenge anyone to wipe it off as I genuinely don't think it is going anywhere for a while. I haven't even been too homesick, even though at home I know its a pretty sad time of year right now. Don't get me wrong, I miss the family so much but I know they will all still be in the same place in 5 months time when I come back. And, as much as I miss my babies, I keep finding cats here to play with to keep me happy for a little bit haha.

This week has been pretty similar to the last few really, we're getting into a bit of a routine. Classes, shopping (cheeeeky), a little more advertising for the language school and a pretty hectic party weekend. Being as its St Paddy's day today, we went on a bar crawl last night, despite horrid hangovers from Friday. However, starting the pub crawl on Jaegermeister shots is certainly something I didn't think my body could deal with but I coped. I also pretended to be Irish, worked a treat, I then wore glasses all night and got called hipster by a few people for actually pulling it off. There was a total of 230 people on the pub crawl last night, we had 5 buses as transportation, and as we like to say it was SUCH FUN. I also found 100RMB on the floor, now that's only £10 in English, but actually that lasts a while here! Shame the taxi was expensive home, but either way, woohoo.

I don't even have much to blog about today, I'm just pretty happy and wanted to share it.

Much love x

Why do I like China?

This is one reason why...

Who doesn't love their own personal Gangnam Style performance in McDonalds at 4am?

England meets China

During the last week, Charlee and I have been getting to know the people who are running the English teaching school where we were offered jobs. We didn't technically take the jobs, purely because we didn't want to commit every weekend, as that is our main time to travel China outside of class, so we are currently 'back ups' for if they have enough students interested in weekday classes. But we are perfectly happy that by turning down the weekend classes, it was the right decision. It is a shame though as they are lovely people!

We've been to their house a few times now, seen the school and helped them advertising for the school by visiting a local primary school. This was quite a fascinating experience actually, bearing in mind we were a good 45 minutes outside the main centre of Shanghai, so in quite a rural district, with obviously less westerners and barely no tourism. We arrived at the school and were split into two smaller groups to flyer by the playground gates. This was not at all like giving out flyers in England, every single person took my leaflets off me, and they were just staring at us the whole time. The Chinese girl who I was walking around with, Sasha, literally kept passing me half of her pile as nobody would take them off her. When the Children came out of school, they would walk past us, stare and smile, and the occasional one would mutter Hello, as they could obviously tell I was English. It was so cool to see the little Chinese children just so dumbfounded at the fact we were there, looking all western. One thing I noticed was this one little girl staring at my arms, it was a hot day so I only had a Tshirt on, but I think they fact they were just so white and obviously hairier than chinese peoples arms (I was blessed with ape arms haha) was quite a shock to them. 

Another thing I noticed whilst we were there, was the general manner of the school. All of the parents weren't allowed in the playground like an English school, but all waited behind high gates. Children were marched out by their teacher and a child from each class lead the pack of students with a big sign saying which class they were in. A very clever way of doing it, but it was all so formal and strict in comparison to when we would finish school when we were younger, run around the playground like animals for 5 minutes looking for our parents! The child at the front gave the sign to the security guard at the gate, who announced the class number over a microphone and then the children were let out of the gates. It very surreal to witness how such small things can be so different.

But, thanks to us, I genuinely feel our presence during the afternoon flyering helped a lot, and for the 15 minutes we did, we got equivalent of £10 each, which really isn't bad. We are going to do some more with them next week hopefully!

On Saturday, we then were picked up again for a day with them, witnessing a demo class, run by another girl from Estonia who studies here. We all kind of chipped in with the teaching of the class, helping these little Chinese children from the age of 3 years old start to learn English. Some of them were absolutely adorable. One little girl came running up to us at first, stroked Charlee's blonde hair and simply said, 'My name is Dora, pleased to meet you'. I loved her. And in fact, I loved all of them. All of their choices of names were so traditional too, choices such as John, Peter and Eric. Except the one little boy who was nine years old, he told us his name was happy. How can you tell the cutest little kid that that isn't a real name? We just smiled at him instead, and got on with teaching the class. During the class hour, there was a little boy sat on the corner of the table, he wasn't making a single noise or facial expression other than fear, he just sat there looking terrified. I know I am quite a 'children person', but I genuinely loved going and sitting with him for the remainder of the class, I made him smile and feel at ease with being there. I even managed to get him to whisper the word puppy, and even if it wasn't very loud it was such a cute moment and I really loved how much he started to enjoy the class by the time it was the end, all from the encouragement I was giving him that he was doing a great job. I didn't even know his name he was that scared to speak at the start, I just wanted to give him a big hug!

After the children had left, the people who run the school insisted on us staying for lunch. We had a mini class on how to make Chinese dumplings and then they were sent off into the kitchen to be cooked. When they were done, they came out with some other things, including a strange date and mushroom soup and a type of Chinese potato which you dip in sugar. In these instances you really have to throw away the fear of trying things, half out of politeness and half out of the knowledge that opportunities like this are pretty rare. They may not be my type of food, but they certainly weren't unpleasant.

After lunch, we sat around their Chinese tea bench and had numerous cups of Chinese tea which were made freshly in front of us. The tea table was beautiful, made out of a tree trunk, and the tea set was a really nice turquiose green colour. The tea also was great I suppose, I am loving the weird tea here, and think I will certainly be a herbal tea fan when I am back in the UK.

The neighbours of the school had a wedding coincidentally on the same afternoon, and in Chinese culture the wedding party travel from the hotel to the brides house and then to the grooms house and at each stage, when their arrival is nearing they set off firecrackers down the street. So, the groom's house was nextdoor and when the firecrackers started, we all gathered on the front step to witness the wedding party going by. The bride looked like one of those perfectly made up Asian models you see in advertisements, and the groom was wearing a particularly shiny silver suit. But either way, it was really nice to witness something so cultural and coincidentally it happened whilst we were there!

The next door neighbours from the other side also had the cutest kitten in their garden that was recently born, and I was pretty happy that I got to play with it. I felt bad at first, all I did was say how cute it looked from afar and one of the Chinese ladies Vivian insisted on going next door and getting it. I didn't want her to take the kitten away from its mother, but she came back a minute later holding the cute little ginger. I didn't feel as bad when I saw how the family next door treated it though, I know mother cats pick their litter up by their scruff, but humans in general have the ability to be a little more caring, so I think I gave the little man more love in 10 minutes than they do everyday!

Tonight , we have been for dinner with our Chinese buddies that Fudan assigned us. It was a great night and we went to a Chinese restaurant with food from a particular part of China, very spicy and garlicky but great. The boys were lovely as well, and they paid for the majority of our food. It was quite nice just conversing about different ways of life here and in the UK, and what we are all used to. Like for instance the fact they are only allowed to shower between 3pm and 10pm in the public showers which they have to walk to, and I can shower as many times of the day I want and just roll out of bed into my en-suite to do so. Its crazy though, the accommodation here is around £1000 for a semester, already a lot cheaper than home (Mason especially!), but yet to them that's still expensive. They pay 1500 RMB for the year I think they said, so £150. And on top of that, 5000 RMB for their tuition fees for the year, £500. How crazy is that?! I genuinely have no clue how international students financially survive in the UK. But nonetheless, the conversations we had were really interesting, and it was good to see the different perspectives a different culture can give youths. I am already looking forward to the next time, as it was actually really fun - and even got to practice a little chinese over dinner!

Yet again another essay of a post, but overall I feel I have had a wonderfully cultural weekend, may not have been as productive as it could have been on the studying front, but it has been pretty interesting and full of great experiences that for once don't involve drunken stories or clubbing!

That's all for now. Love from the other side of the world xxx

Week 2 begins!

This is going to be a relatively short blog post in comparison to the previous two, so I thought I would basically share the ups and downs of the last few days.

First up, passed my semester one in Spain! Averaged at 68.5% so unless my final module beats that (unlikely) then that's going to be my mark, hooray!

Next up, had the most productive day yesterday. Started well with the sun shining (even through the pollution) and then continued to improve when we were told our schedule had changed from 8am to 12pm starts on Mondays and Tuesdays. We has 4 hours of class, followed by 2 hours of studying on the lawn, two trips to the post office in which I sent forms to Birmingham and a cheeky card to Mumma and then finally a job offer whilst walking down the street. We then went to Hooters, which was ironic for China but good fun. All in a day!

Today was great too, had a lie in and then 4 hours of class. Went to check out the teaching job, which doesn't seem exactly what we wanted but still such a compliment how keen they were to have us on board! Going back to see more tomorrow, and to help them advertising the school at a local primary school.

Also met a really cute dog, which I wasn't even scared to touch because of the fear of rabies. It was a really well cared for house dog, a golden retriever and we had to speak to her in Chinese, always fun. I also love the amount of cats there are here, we don't touch them for obvious reasons but they are quite friendly and very very cute. They are literally everywhere, and I will openly admit I'm such a pet freak.

Other than my horrific hangover on Sunday (made better by finding proper Tomato Soup in TESCO), the only genuine disadvantage from the last few days is that I gashed my finger with a knife in the excitement of having a fresh baguette earlier today and trying to cut it. So now I have a poorly index finger, and it is so inconveniently on my left hand which is stopping me from doing normal things at the moment. I hope it is better by the morning, or writing characters is going to be a mission!

Oh well, cheeky update for the last 3 days. We just do so much here, this blog is going to be so loooong by July!

Lotsa love x

A lesson on Chinese culture

China is weird. Everyday I see more things that are just so different to England. People told me that moving here would be a culture shock, but that is truly an understatement. So, I thought I would share with you all the 15 weirdest things I have seen so far/just the things I have noticed quite regularly  Just so you can see for yourselves what my life is going to be like for the next few months here, and for me to reflect on this list in July and see which of the things I will in the future be doing or be finding completely normal.

1) Pollution = face masks: Some days you can't even see the tops of buildings, you can feel it in your lungs and the air is just not like the country air in Brackley. People say living here for a year is the equivalent to smoking for a year, so considering I don't smoke, my poor body is going to have to put up with it for 5 months. I have a stupid cough because of it, it's frustrating. I'm nearly tempted to buy one of the masks!

2) Bikes: Everyone here has bikes. It is almost a necessity even though the walk into uni is only 20 minutes. I have nearly given in to peer pressure and bought one. Although the one Brad bought for £10 initially broke so many times, he is now on his 2nd bike and has been to get repairs 7 times in 2 days. I will certainly invest in a proper one if I do, but I feel my coordination is not yet good enough to be able to ride a bike on the crazy roads here. They are literally everywhere, everyone has one!

3) Mopeds: Similar to bikes, yet faster and more powerful. But the thing is, people ride them along the pavement. You'll look behind and see one coming up behind you. Quite scary, and a little dangerous!

4) Supermarkets: Chicken feet, dead scrawny chickens, feotus eggs and things that smell so bad that you can't even explain. Walmart is an experience you need to be a bit brave for. I would not wish it upon any vegetarian to go into the fresh section.

5) Beggars: Not as many as Malaga, which is great, but the things they do here is quite upsetting to see. We've seen a few that take their children around, and basically use them to beg. A woman singing into a microphone on a train and making her child shake her money jar, that was the first time I'd witnessed them using their children to beg. This has happened a few times on the subway since. But the worst, was definitely at 4am when we were all drunkenly stuffing our faces with McDonalds, and a little child comes and taps each one of us on the back, to get some money. No child should be dragged out at 4am to get money for their family. So, although we didn't give them money, I gave the child my chips and drink, and someone went and bought her a burger. She was no more than 4 years old, but she just seemed so happy doing it. Really messed up.

6) The westerner glance: Always enjoyable, you just make friends and smile at people because you share the fact you are both westerners. Even from across the street, you just smile at people, and people just smile at you as they can tell you are from relatively near where they are. Very random!

7) Markets: The fake market. A place where you should only go, when you are in a fit state of mind. People just yell at you, 'you want ties, you want the high  heel shoe, you want new bag gucci prada, you want new phone'. Every stall you walk past yells to get your attention. Then once they finally have your attention, you have the next challenge of bartering with them to get a crappy phone case from 100kuai to 20. They all speak English, and we try Chinese to get a few bonus points/kuai taken off. Ends up in a little chinglish argument until one person gives in!

8) Karaoke: Your average Saturday night out. There is just no shame, you just have to embrace it. I did however, get asked where I learnt to sing (haha), best compliment all year. I just conveniently knew all the words to Hound Dog and did a cheeky Elvis impression at the same time.

9) Chinese drivers: Driving in Shanghai is the scariest thing. They don't stick to red and green lights, they lane hop and they beep about 10 times a minute. So many near death taxi experiences already. Drivers here are so illegal. There was a taxi last week, we opened the door and it was a van with a bench inside, which wasn't even attached to the floor. That, combined with the way they drive on the roads is a very unsafe combination!

10) Smoking inside: If the pollution isn't bad enough here, people smoke everywhere, dinner, nightclubs, streets, lifts. Even children smoke. Going to deal with enough second hand smoke to last me a lifetime!

11) Upper class clubs: From the second you walk in,  you just get so much respect. Ladies in the toilets waiting with towels to dry your hands, endless alcohol on the tables for being sexy westerners, even fruit and french fries to nibble at. Just soo different to Fab. Everyone puts on this pretentious act, yet we are probably all as poor as each other.

12) Spitting: Just like Jack teaches Rose in Titanic. Hock it right back, and just spit it. Whether it be in a restaurant or just on the floor in front of you, or even your taxi driver. I know having phlegm isn't good for you, but pleeeaaase, a little bit of politeness or cover your mouth, anything! It is honestly DISGUSTING. I must look like such a snob when I frown at them doing it. But really, it is vile.

13) Eating: They eat as disgustingly as they spit. Not chopsticks to mouth, but mouth to bowl, slurp slurp slurp. My first lunch in the canteen I was sat opposite a Chinese boy. My family know how much I cannot stand loud eaters, but this pushed me to the max. Couldn't quite enjoy my lunch until he had gone. Maybe this is the only way to master chopsticks though, instead of carrying the food all the way to your mouth, you just gotta get your face all in your tray. Ewww.

14) Prostitution: First night out, we went to a place with a mini prostitution ring at work. The pimp was sat in the corner, was interesting to see him overlooking what all his girls were doing. I don't think we will be going back to Judy's anytime soon. International perverts and dirty local girls, not our kinda scene!

15) Medical physical exam: I was lucky enough to avoid the blood test and majority of the physical as Dr Babe Harrison had sorted me out at home. But Charlee was injected 5 times before they even found her vein to get some blood (proffesional?). They also had weird gobstopper size suckers put all over them, boobs out and everything. We also had the pleasure of undressing in a room with girls we didn't know for our chest x-rays. Just had to get your boobs out, no questions asked. The best quote however; 'Hi, I'm Charlee and these are my boobs, what's your name, it's nice to meet you!'. Weirdest experience ever, thank goodness I didn't have it all done!

So, they are my 15 key weirdly different things about China so far, and I haven't even been here 10 days yet!

Wonder what is in store for us next?!

你好上海！

Greetings from Shanghai, what is my new home for the second semester of this crazy 3rd year abroad. I have been here for exactly a week now, and it already feels like forever ago that I was last at home, no idea how that will feel by the time July arrives! In the first few days, although I haven't done that much, I have seen a little of the city, and so far I think I like it. Don't get me wrong, I still am a little homesick and overwhelmed at the completely different type of life here, it's not like Spain or England, so I think it'll be good to enjoy something completely different for these upcoming months. But, we've met some pretty cool people so far, and have also been lucky to have the other Brum students who were here 1st semester to show us around!

The first thing that me and Charlee noticed when we got here (after hours and hours of travelling and trying to manipulate our body clocks) was the little English that people knew here. Even in the international dorms, there was only one girl and her level of English was similar to that of mine in Spanish. So we were completely tired, bewildered and just overwhelmed when the taxi dropped us, and somehow only managed to get there by showing the address in Chinese which I luckily had saved on my phone. However, he dropped us by a gate and was rambling in Chinese so we had nooo idea where to go. We got out, it was rainy, windy and absolutely horrible, we had all of our suitcases and just didn't know which way to even walk. So, I then used a slight bit of intelligence and looked for the tallest building there was, I knew our rooms were floor 18, so I figured not many buildings would be taller than that, and success, first time lucky, we found it.

Walking into the dorms was a crazy moment, they resemble the Mason layout slightly just with much older furniture, and no installation so absolutely freezing. The bed, a wooden box with a mattress no thicker than an inch, had no bedding so looked pretty bare and uncomfortable...similar to a prison bed. I know I can sleep anywhere, but this is seriously going to take some getting used to. My heater also didn't work, really annoying considering I couldn't get it fixed for 2 days after. However, we have our own bathrooms and balconies, and I have double doors to mine as my room is slightly bigger, so by the summer hopefully it'll be lovely!

The first day we went to Walmart, another strange experience, didn't look at all like walmart though so wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be. Charlee didn't get much sleep on the plane so was falling asleep every few minutes, so we were all trying pretty hard to keep her awake. We were pretty chilled the first night, bed by 10pm and despite having a mini breakdown when I got to my room alone and was ready for bed, bulad was there with hugs so I soon got over the tears and the tiredness made me crash out pretty quick.

Orientation was first thing Tuesday morning, it was so early and it was so strange to even be up at 7am! We had a reading exam too, absolutely hilarious how little we all knew. We then headed to this street called daxuelu for the first time, its a nice little strip of western restaurants and cafes, a bit more upper class, yet still only max £4 for a nice meal. In the evening we went downtown, yet didn't really know where we were going so ended up somewhere completely random called Judy's, the music was good, but the crowd was weird. And the amount of prostitutes was insane, the pimp was literally sat in the corner agreeing to whether sleazy men could take the girls back. I didn't actually realise what was going on until the end, and at that point it suddenly made so much sense why the crowd was the combination of people it was.

Wednesday we had oral exams first thing, slightly challenging on a hangover but also the easiest oral of my life basically going through the options I had of groups to be put in. In and out, easy group to start, see where it leads...done! We headed to IKEA with a big bunch of Swedish people, grabbed lunch and spent a few hours buying too many things that I really didn't need! We went out with Sarah and Emma, who'd come from Beijing, and to be honest it was a pretty fun night. Just us four girls, which meant there was quite a few free drinks, and even maids in the bathrooms waiting on us with a towel, to dry our hands. Classy.

Every night we've eaten out, and every day too, normally brunch as we aren't up early enough or are up too early and head straight to class. The food is just so cheap that it works out better to eat out than in, which is kind of nice, and very social. We found this cute little chinese place where they have all their special dishes for the equivalent of £1 or £1.50, and they come with endless tea, which is something else I also know I'm going to grow to love. We had a bowl of soup here for 80p, which was enough for at least 3 people to be full. Sharing dishes here makes it so nice and cheap for a great variation of classic chinese dishes. We've also been to a few other quirky places, a little shop where they show you a fridge of skewers, you pick what you want and they barbecue it on the street, simple, cheap and very tasty. However, I do have to admit that pizza hasn't fully removed itself from my diet yet, and I am not sure it will either. We've also given in to  KFC and McDonalds already. Oooops.

The days from last week are pretty blurry, so obviously I can remember the evenings more. Thursday night when we went out for the first time as a big group was prettty good. We went to Doug and Gid's for drinks and met up with all of their friends they've made over their time here. We headed to a place called M2 and thanks to Henry, and the fact we're western, had tables of free alcohol and food for us. Apparently being western and going to places attracts rich and older people to go and spend their money. The pure grey goose vodka and tequila shots, was only made better by the fact it was free and there were french fries and a  selection of on the table too! The music was pretty good, and it was cool getting to know the guys that have been here the last few months, even the ones that have been in our class for 2 years who we haven't really known. It is quite fun actually how the year abroad brings so many different people together, and is probably going to make some pretty awesome friendships. We ended the night in McDonalds, which I have heard is a tradition for the guys when they go to M2, and it is a tradition I am completely fine with!

Over the weekend, and thanks to our tour guide bulad (Brad), we went to downtown to see what it was like, and to actually see the Bund, although it was an awful day to do it as the pollution was horrible. We walked the length of Nanjing road, a shopping street with literally everything on. We had a little look in the fake market and bought a few little bits. And, we basically all decided that when we leave China it will be with one extra suitcase than before we started here. Everything is so cheap in comparison to home, it is very, very dangerous! Some of the fakes are genuinely quite convincing, so when I come back all kitted out, probably don't fall for it.

Saturday night was Karaoke night at KTV. Now, I've never really done it before other than once in Thailand so it was hilarious, but we were all drunk and had our own room so it was great! As a result of 6 hours singing karaoke, on Sunday we chilled in bed all morning before  heading to Walmart for more bits and then on to Nadia's for sushi and pizza. Sooo much food, and so much fun.

Class started today though was nice, I moved up after 15 minutes as it was far too easy so now we are all together, with a new Australian girl too. Despite the fact that 6 hours of class was draining, I feel like I learnt a lot, and that it is all coming back to me even though we've had 11 months without studying any Chinese language! Just got to study hard this semester and I think it will pay off. I bought some pretty notebooks and lots of new stationary, so that should keep me motivated for a while.

So, that's basically the first week here in China. Daunting but fun, and I do like it and think I will love it by the end. Let's just hope that doesn't change! I have already started compiling a list of the weird and crazy things I have seen, along with a lot of phone photos which have caught these random moments, give me a few more days when the list is a little longer and I will happily share them all will you, so you can all imagine how weirdly wonderful my life is going to be for the next 5 months!

I'm off to sleep now, got class at 8am - so trying to get used to some early nights once in a while. Despite the fact how crazy it is that when I wake up, my English friends are still awake and messaging on Whats'app, and when I get in from class the crazy Spanish ratchets are still up too, Lucy Jayne Jones, cough cough. Constantly having to figure out what time everyone else is on is a strange thing to get used to! Slowly getting there, and besides, it is probably a good thing nobody is awake to text me before 3pm, I will have no distractions in class!

Anyways, I will keep updating you when I can. Missing England and the family lots already (even though I am still randomly dreaming about my cat). Lots of love to you all...

丁莉莉 - Ding Li Li

xxx

I LIVE IN CHINA NOW

And this is my address:


Elizabeth Callaghan-Smith
Foreign Students Dorm (North district) ,Fudan University
WuDong Rd, No. 57, Building No.0 Room No.1809
Shanghai 200433, China

OR, if you are brave enough...


中国    上海    武东路57号  

复旦大学留学生公寓0号楼1809房间      

ELIZABETH CALLAGHAN-SMITH  同学收

I shall blog soon, when I actually get a break in this crazy, tiring little chinese life of mine!

Lots of love x

Gracias a mis Malagueños

It's suddenly dawned on me that tomorrow is my last full day here in Malaga. I have a lot of packing to do and a lot to still tick off my to do list before leaving. But I'm so sad, it's actually coming to an end and it's time to take the next big step.

This post is going to be somewhat soppy, and you may laugh or judge me however you want, pero no me importa. It is hard to thank everyone individually and tell them how much I've appreciated their presence here in Malaga so this is why I'm doing it this way!

Guys, every single on of you, from my absolute closest friends, to friends we drink with, people who we spent the first few weeks at el palo with, or to people that I just say hello to whilst walking through the city, this message is genuinely from the heart (and I havent even been drinking!)...

I'd like to thank you for all the help and support you've given me over the last few months. Without realising it, you all made coming back to Malaga, after the worst few weeks of my life, something that was challenging but so much better with you guys around. You all have helped me feel so much like this place is home and I can't express how great that's been at times when all I wanted to do was give up and go home completely.

I know it sounds ridiculous, and you all think I've been incredibly strong but I couldn't have done it without you guys, just the company, boring classes, and even the boozy nights out, you all have made me constantly smile and laugh since. You kept me on a positive track, enjoying the year abroad just how Dad would have wanted me too.

I'm so unbelievably sad this half in Malaga is coming to an end. I've made so many friends here and I love you all so much. I genuinely hope that for those out of the UK, it really won't be long until we see each other again. It's such a strange thought that people who have shared the craziest 6 months of my life with me, may not be in my life in the near future, or even ever again.

I don't care how cheesy it sounds but I do want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart. You've been the best and your support and happiness has made me the inspiration you all say I am.

For those of you staying, enjoy the rest and party hard ratchet style, and for those of you leaving too, good luck in your next adventures. I am going to miss you all so much, and have made some unbelievable memories with you guys.

Muchos besos guapos xxxxx

Ratchet

There isn't really another acceptable title for this blogpost. The last week has had ratchet written all over it. For those of you who don't know the meaning, it's a bit of a crazy, YOLO, pretty ladies party lifestyle. With a group of such crazy girls, it's fun. We badly influence each other.

We were all fed up of days revising so have spent our evenings going ' loca. Worked hard in the library all of last week, and even with hangovers, worked hard this week. Lectures are finished YAY, so at least I can work from here now.

I know we party a lot (7 nights in a row so far to be exact), but our little group have had such a nice time recently. It started I guess with Stacey's cheeky party on friday night, 12 girls, too much sangria and just a lot of fun. Ended the night in Sala White, such fun I don't even remember the music.

Over the weekend we continued, saturday was sunny so we had a cute lunch. The night... crazy, and Lucy JJ spewed cleverly into a cup. Good girl. Then even on Sunday which was pretty dead! Played beer pong instead, makes me miss the Birmingham bunch and frisbee a lot.



Maybe the best day was Sunday? We met for McDonald's with the intent of going to the castle but instead just planned our next night out. We got smoothies, ice cream and then loads of crisps and had a movie eve. Best day ever. Strange doing stuff like that without Katie though, and just strange that I won't be doing it soon.

Monday was ratchet too. Last minute 11pm decision to go out. We had pink bubbly at RB to celebrate our 5th night in a row, this is how great life is we celebrate the stupidest things! Met a lot of Brits on the bar crawl which always makes nights rowdy and coincidentally a girl whose best friends with a girl I used to go to school with. Small world! And me and Charlee were given power of the bar at Boyds, hello Agwabombs!! Love Ektor. Loved Monday. Love life?

Studied hard Tuesday. Gave in Tuesday night. Partied hard again, bearing the exam in mind, not drinking too much and having an early one. The 9am exam went well though, just so frustrating its negative marking as its bound to have a big influence on the grade!

Today we've been on the beach all day. It's January and we swam in the sea. Amaaaazing.

I fully intend to make the best of my last week here in Malaga which will carry on tonight with another night out. Please feel free to not judge me, and be jealous because actually, I've been pretty lucky being given a year where I can literally enjoy everyday and every night with such amazing people that I have to leave so soon . Why wouldn't I make the most of it?! I'd be crazy not to.

Work hard, play harder. That's all! X

Los examenes españoles

Exam period is underway, and I just wanted to share with everyone the ridiculousness of Spanish exams. I'm not joking, my year 6 SATs were more strict...

- No need for ID - makes me think I should have paid someone to sit my exams
- Laptops in exams - yes, using the Internet to help with a translation, hello google translate.
- All previous work/paper allowed in the exam, with no need for see through pencil cases and someone to flick through your dictionary for notes
- No invigilators, just one teacher to watch over 50 students
- No exam rules read out, don't get told to turn our phones.
- Standard class rooms, not even elevated, and everyone sits next to each other.
- Have to write our names - obviously favouritism doesn't exist here, probably should have worked harder on being teachers pet.
- Write Erasmus in big so they feel sorry for you

But. Then one of my teachers spent half an hour yesterday explaining her exam, lecturing us to not cheat. She said we just will all have different papers so not to waste time cheating as it wont be right. Which is so stupid, why not just have an exam room where we all sit the same paper and spread out, much more fair and much easier for her. Gah.

I just hope that they are as chilled and lenient with passing people as they are chilled about the way we sit the exams.

3 to go and only 2 weeks left in Malaga. No more lectures either now which is great!

I should revise now, procrastination will only lead to napping.

Love you all x

Little fact.

This time in 4 weeks, I'll be on a plane from Abu Dhabi to Shanghai. Isn't that ridiculous?

I'll probably arrive, freak out, party hard on some weird Chinese alcohol, come back and probably drunk cry on Skype to everyone 7 hours behind. Then, I'll wake up in a weird Chinese international student dorm and have to start a new and crazy 6 months of my life.

Now, maybe I'm overexxagerating but is that not a bit of an insane little thought?!

Yes, I thought so too. And yes, for anyone that knows me, I am pooing my pants about it. 4 weeks today.

And, in 2 weeks and 4 days I leave Málaga, straight after an exam, for good. I will really be sad about leaving the absolute beauties that I've met here, and leaving Calle Postigo de Arance, the little Chino opposite and Malapizza all behind.

So I'm living a pretty crazy life in a bit of a whirlwind at the moment.

On that note, I'm off to bed. Sleep tight, don't let the Mosquitos bite x

My start to 2013...

Wow, I realised earlier how long it's been since I blogged... Before Christmas when I was super excited to get home. And there's not much I can say about Christmas other than how wonderfully cosy it was, from the second I was greeted at the airport by Zac it was just the best to be home. To drive, to be fed proper meals, cosy in my bed cuddling my cat and finally feel Christmassy!

Had limited time at home to see people but managed to fit in a few things which were all lovely. Then was off to Florida before I knew it. It really is home from home, just so cosy from the second we stepped in.

Florida was incredible, yet again. I want to live in America. My mum gave me her room while I was ill, so i had more space...massive bed, double en suite, lights all around the mirrors, I just want that when I'm older! But anyway, Florida was great, food was great, pool was great. Disney was incredible even at 21 and for about the 20th time doing it. We turned into Disney dons, and I turned into the best navigator ever. My Florida sense of direction is amazing, even when drunkenly getting us home in a taxi. But most importantly all the family time was just the best this holiday. Already can't wait for the day we go back again.

As you can imagine, I didn't want to leave the 25 degrees behind. Let alone come straight back here to Malaga without even popping home. It was the longest day of my life, and I was miss emotional 2013. I literally cried buckets. Was just so overwhelming to so suddenly be back, but say bye to my family so quick after landing and get on a bus to Gatwick straight away by myself to head back here.

I was dreading coming back because of exams. It's just not a nice thought! Exams are hard enough as it is, let alone when you have to be able to have high enough stadards of Spanish to answer them all well. So I've been very homesick, worried about exams, stressed in general, ill aaaand lost my appetite completely. And then to top it off, my laptop broke. Completely kaput. So now I have the challenging of completing exams without a laptop.

Thanks to Sammie, who's an actual babe, I have a laptop on loan for a few days. I have also completed one exam already. Revised hard for another. Got sent three months work by my group (Think they just feel sorry for me for being so bad at Spanish they didn't want my help to compile the portfolio - completely ok with this). Booked my flight home and to china. And an embassy appointment booked. All of a sudden things got a bit clearer.

However there is a big depression in Malaga that appears to be affecting nearly everyone here. We're all on such downers, hating life and feeling homesick whilst being worried sick about somehow pulling exams out of the bag. So wish us luck and hope we cheer our grumpy guts up soon... I personally am hoping the alcohol on Friday will help us with this...

Also, just over 4 weeks and I'll be moving to China. Woooooaahhh.

On that note I'm off to sleep! Buenas noches xx