Shanghai city life, a trip to Wuxi, lots of presentations & Chinese study!
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| Wuxi |
So I'm currently on my flight to TAKAMATSU, JAPAN BBY! It's Qingming Festival on Tuesday. This is the festival of remembering past ancestors whereby many mainland Chinese people eat green dumplings and burn joss paper for deceased. Meanwhile, for us expat foreigners we fortunately get days off to travel or do whatever! Most of us get Sunday, Monday, Tuesday off for this Chinese festival but luckily for me I don't work on Fridays and my school have let me have Saturday off.
So I'm very lucky to be having a full 5 day trip in Japan; I'll be visiting Takamatsu for three days and Tokyo for two days. I'm so excited. I went to Japan this time last year too, it was incredible especially due to the beautiful cherry blossoms. In fact I'll be staying, in Tokyo, with a friend I made via the airbnb I stayed in in Tokyo last year. Small world!
Anyway, let me tell you about the last week or so in Shanghai. Last week I had a productive and busy week of studying Chinese and preparing for my history society presentation that took place on Tuesday! On the Thursday evening I also presented a presentation on British Culture to a group of adult Chinese teachers. At first I was nervous but then I just began to enjoy the cultural exchange. It was really fun and boosted my confidence, public speaking and presentation skills. Not only this but I learnt a lot about Chinese culture whilst discussing various topics with the audience. I really enjoyed it!
On the weekend I had a bit of a break and on Friday night went to see Beauty and the Beast in cinema with my friend. It was so amazing to chill out and watch a movie that reminds me so much of my childhood!
Early the next morning, my friend Andru and I had booked ourselves onto a day trip to Wuxi. Wuxi is about a two hour drive from Shanghai and apparently has a beautiful Sakura with cherry blossoms. Unfortunately the cherry blossoms hadn't all quite blossomed and there was traffic, and so a lack of time; so the day trip wasn't as perfect as imagined. Nevertheless, it was still a beautiful trip in which we explored another city and saw some beautiful sights. The highlight for me was probably the views of the Taihu Lake and it's old style boats from the Sakura Island. It was so picturesque. Beats an ordinary day in the city that's for sure! The best thing about living in Shanghai is that there are so many potential day trip opportunities available!
So I'm very lucky to be having a full 5 day trip in Japan; I'll be visiting Takamatsu for three days and Tokyo for two days. I'm so excited. I went to Japan this time last year too, it was incredible especially due to the beautiful cherry blossoms. In fact I'll be staying, in Tokyo, with a friend I made via the airbnb I stayed in in Tokyo last year. Small world!
Anyway, let me tell you about the last week or so in Shanghai. Last week I had a productive and busy week of studying Chinese and preparing for my history society presentation that took place on Tuesday! On the Thursday evening I also presented a presentation on British Culture to a group of adult Chinese teachers. At first I was nervous but then I just began to enjoy the cultural exchange. It was really fun and boosted my confidence, public speaking and presentation skills. Not only this but I learnt a lot about Chinese culture whilst discussing various topics with the audience. I really enjoyed it!
On the weekend I had a bit of a break and on Friday night went to see Beauty and the Beast in cinema with my friend. It was so amazing to chill out and watch a movie that reminds me so much of my childhood!
Early the next morning, my friend Andru and I had booked ourselves onto a day trip to Wuxi. Wuxi is about a two hour drive from Shanghai and apparently has a beautiful Sakura with cherry blossoms. Unfortunately the cherry blossoms hadn't all quite blossomed and there was traffic, and so a lack of time; so the day trip wasn't as perfect as imagined. Nevertheless, it was still a beautiful trip in which we explored another city and saw some beautiful sights. The highlight for me was probably the views of the Taihu Lake and it's old style boats from the Sakura Island. It was so picturesque. Beats an ordinary day in the city that's for sure! The best thing about living in Shanghai is that there are so many potential day trip opportunities available!
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| Wuxi |
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| Wuxi |
So, we got back pretty late due traffic as it's peak season. Nevertheless it was Saturday night and my fellow teach English in China friends, Tessa, birthday! So after a quick shower and food (admittedly I grabbed a McDonald's) I headed to Tessa's place to celebrate! It was a lovely and fun evening!
The next day was Sunday. Stress keeled over after a fun weekend and I made sure I had a super productive Sunday. I had Chinese to study, lessons to plan and the history society presentation to prepare for. I'm studying the HSK 3 book now which is real Chinese characters!! It's so exciting and amazing to be learning to read and write characters now. I feel like the Chinese language is really coming together for me now into one big consensus. I love it!
So, I had a very productive day, vegan restaurant for dinner with a friend and lots of preparation for my presentation on Indians in Shanghai under British Rule. So, this week flew by really. On Monday I had a full day of work and then tutoring in the evening. I love my tutoring because as soon as it ends I'm fed so much amazing home cooked food and usually tempted into a few shots of baiju! I've become amazing friends with my tutoring family and I'll genuinely miss them when I leave.
The next day was Sunday. Stress keeled over after a fun weekend and I made sure I had a super productive Sunday. I had Chinese to study, lessons to plan and the history society presentation to prepare for. I'm studying the HSK 3 book now which is real Chinese characters!! It's so exciting and amazing to be learning to read and write characters now. I feel like the Chinese language is really coming together for me now into one big consensus. I love it!
So, I had a very productive day, vegan restaurant for dinner with a friend and lots of preparation for my presentation on Indians in Shanghai under British Rule. So, this week flew by really. On Monday I had a full day of work and then tutoring in the evening. I love my tutoring because as soon as it ends I'm fed so much amazing home cooked food and usually tempted into a few shots of baiju! I've become amazing friends with my tutoring family and I'll genuinely miss them when I leave.
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| Eventful evenings with Chinese friends |
The next day was another busy and full day at work, and then in the evening was my presentation at Bali Bisto close to Jing'an Temple. Before the presentation I went any treated myself to a new camera. I currently just use my phone and GoPro for pictures so really needed a good camera to use! After purchasing this I headed to the venue for the presentation to have some food before it began.
I was feeling quite nervous as it was an amazing opportunity to be doing a history talk in front of such an amazing and audience of intellectuals, writers, publishers, lecturers, book writers, lawyers and other professionals. So, ultimately as nervous as I was these nerves quickly left (especially after a glass of wine) and I was in my element whilst presenting!
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| RAS Sikhs in Shanghai history presentation |
So as you can see it's been an eventful past two weeks. I then had a Chinese lesson on Thursday evening and have now arrived into Japan this morning!! I'll be in touch again not this Sunday but the Sunday after, where I'll fill you all in on Japan and Korea (Busan)!!
Sabrina Xxx
Sabrina Xxx
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