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新年快乐!(xin nian kuai le!) - Happy New Year!
Can you believe it's 2015?! 2014 went by so quickly, and so much happened to me in that year. Exams, last day of 6th year, Prom, fundraising constantly, actually leaving for China! And now, well, now I can say that I will be returning to the UK this year. That's a scary thought!
I did create a video of photos of my highlights of 2014, which can be found here: http://youtu.be/xPr-PKNNAoA and I'll also put it in the video section of this blog.
This week has been rather interesting. On Tuesday, Rachael, one of the Jiujiang volunteers, came to visit us in Yihuang, The school was having a banquet that evening to welcome back an ex-pupil who was visiting for a few days. He is now a professor in Houston, Texas, and has been living there for the past 13 years. So the three of us were invited to this banquet. As it was almost new year, there was lots of toasting and eventually the teachers became quite tipsy and were insisting that the three of us would sing for them. Lucie is adamant that she doesn't sing, so Rachael and I were taking turns coming up with songs to sing. Eventually I suggested Auld Lang Syne. The three of us managed to get everyone up on there feet and holding hands in the proper manner for this song. Some of the English teachers even knew the words! We had a great laugh and felt like this was quite an achievement.
On Wednesday, I wasn't feeling very well, so I stayed in bed whilst Lucie gave Rachael a tour of Yihuang. But not just on foot. Mrs Huang let them borrow her electric bike, and out of this, Mrs Huang has said she will take Lucie and I to a second hand shop, where we can buy ourselves an electric bike (basically a moped but it runs on electricity not fuel)!
Unfortunately Rachael had to return to Jiujiang that night as she had made plans for the new year with some of the foreign exchange students in the city. For us, New Year was a very quiet event, we just stayed in the flat and phoned our parents - though I waited until New Year UK time, and then through Skype I watched the countdown and the fireworks on the tv at Edinburgh Caste with my family :P
So... plans for 2015? Hmmmm...
How about:
- Learn more Mandarin
- Involve myself even more in this community
- Work hard and have fun
I think those are do-able. And since I'm in the mood, how about three things I learnt in 2014:
- The right thing is definitely not the easy thing to do
- You can be rewarded for stepping outside of your comfort zone
- Love comes in the most unexpected forms and places
There we go. Bit of a soppy ending to this post, but I will leave it there. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year.
Bring on 2015!
Until next time,
再见 x
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