Again, it's been a while since my last post... apologies! Time seems to be whizzing by here, it's quite scary. I guess it's good really - it means I'm busy, enjoying myself and not missing home all that much… but sometimes I do worry that this year will flash by before I have time to get properly good at Chinese, which would be a bit unfortunate haha! Anyway back to the point. Last week I celebrated my 21st Birthday. My birthday itself was a bit odd. I had ...

Today I went on a day trip out of Qingdao with my flatmate, Chengyuan. She took to me to a city about 90mins drive away from Qingdao called Pingdu, where they grow the best grapes in Shandong province, and some may say the best in China! We got up early to get to the long distance bus station. After a disgusting and overpriced McDonald's breakfast, we hopped on the bus and 90mins of napping later, we had arrived. Her boyfriend picked us up from the station in ...

I realise it's been a week since my last post, so after some nagging from various family/friends I decided it's time to update y'all on what I've been up to. Here are some highlights: 1) Staying up late chatting with my roommate, Chengyuan. She's so nice and interesting, I really struck gold with this one! Plus I now have a second roommate - she's called Yuchao and she's also in her late twenties and works in finance. She's loads of fun, got a great sense...

Monday and Tuesday were a mixture of really frustrating moments mixed in with the odd really fun one. Here's why… Monday was mainly spent trying to help Helena, who was having problems with withdrawing enough cash to pay her landlady. She's been asked to pay a whole year's rent up front before moving in, which isn't unusual in China, but is a pain in the ass when you're from abroad, due to daily withdrawal limits/banks cancelling your cards etc. This was far...

The past 36 hours or so have been HECTIC - so much update you with! Saturday morning got off to an unusual start…after checking out of my hostel at 7.30am (urgh) I went straight to Saul's apartment, picked him up and took him to the local hospital, which thankfully is only a few blocks away. He's been really ill for the past week or so, and we decided it was finally time we did something about it. I have to say, I was impressed. Going to hospital is never f...