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 classes from around 10-4pm, it was an overcast, rainy day (only the second since being here - not bad but still a bit miserable) and I hadn't really made any birthday plans. To be honest, as I woke up and got ready for class in any empty flat I couldn't help but feel my first real pang of homesickness. Thankfully the day got a lot better - I had a yummy lunch with Saul and in the evening Saul and I went round to Helena's new flat to hang out. It's a gorgeous flat, and we had a lovely evening of tea drinking, cake eating (all a bit weird- China hasn't figured out how to do cakes) and chatting. Helena, lovely as she is, had also got me a few gifts - a CD of piano music and some gorgeous nail varnish, so that made me feel like birthday-girl for the first time that day.

Friday was much better. It started off with a Skype call from Owen - it was so good to talk to him, despite the connection being terrible (China to Ecuadorian internet café, not surprising I guess). That evening I went out for a lovely meal with Chengyuan and her boyfriend, and then after that I had a little party. I feared it was going to be the most awkward little gathering ever, as the guests were all random friends I'd made over the past 3 weeks, most of whom didn't know each other. But it actually turned out to be a fun evening! The guest list was: my two flatmates and Chengyuan's boyfriend, Chengyuan's boyfriend's 'elder brother' (they're not actually related- they're just super close and are 'sworn brothers'!), my estate agent and 3 of his Chinese friends, my friends Scarlet and Aurora, Helena, Saul and Sam - an English guy also studying Chinese at Haida. So all together 14 people, 10 Chinese and 4 English. It was cute - Chengyuan said she'd buy me a cake but I was not expecting a two-tier personalised cake… it was incredible! It tasted kind of weird as all Chinese cakes do, but it's the thought that counts right!? A few other of my Chinese friends bought me presents as well: Aurora got me a book of short stories in Chinese, my flatmate Yuchao got me a neck cushion because she knows I love to travel, naww, and Scarlet got me a gorgeous scarf. Chengyuan's boyfriend's 'brother' had brought along a crate of expensive Australian red wine, which went down well. My estate agent's 'present' was slightly less well received… he got a handful of creamy icing and smeared it all over my face… apparently a Chinese 'tradition'! Haha. Anyway we talked, joked, drank, sung 'Happy Birthday' and ate cake, what more could you want? I went to bed feeling merry and really touched at the effort my Chinese friends (some of whom I've only known for a few weeks!) had gone to especially for me :)

Had a chilled day on Saturday but Sunday was quite busy. Tutored Coco in the morning (another lovely lesson - she's so bright and enthusiastic, a pleasure to teach!) and in the evening Aurora invited me to an 'evening of tasting fine food and wine'. I didn't really know what she meant by this, but she said it would be free and Chinese people would be there, so naturally I was keen. Turns out it was a huge event in a fancy hotel - we were in this extravagant banquet hall with about 15 tables in it, each table seating around 10 people. As far as I could tell, a wine import company was hosting the event, as there were tables of their expensive wine on show, and a lot of them they opened and brought over for us to taste. Meanwhile, we were served all sorts of fancy delicacies - oysters, duck's neck and loads of other random yummy dishes I didn't know the names of! I was sat on table with some lovely ladies in their mid/late twenties which was great for language practice/making friends (we all exchanged numbers and will hopefully meet up soon) but dangerous in terms of drinking… they barely drunk a drop, but were constantly filling up my glass! It was great though, the event lasted from around 6-9pm, so although I left pretty drunk I was in bed by 10pm. Splendid.

Tuesday I went for a swim in the sea with Helena and the normally very clean part of beach we went to was covered in tar. Ew. We didn't realise until it was too late and got it all over our legs… it took ages to scrub off in the shower. Dread to think about how it might have affected the sea life in that area…

As for today, I returned home from class to find that my birthday package from the UK had come while I was out. I was so thrilled - it was already two weeks late and I was scared it had been lost in the post, so I immediately looked up the post office address and went to collect it. It was full of lovely goodies (including Marmite, massive win!) and birthday cards - thank you to all of those who contributed! It also contained a lovely present from Owen and a letter he wrote just before I headed out to China, which left me feeling pretty emotional. Still, some nice food and s***ty Chinese TV watching with Yuchao cheered me up.

So yeah, it's all going pretty well. Got a lovely 4-day weekend this week due to Mid Autumn Festival, so will be spending it hanging out with some Chinese friends, doing a bit of homework, tutoring and chilling. Will update y'all on how it goes!

Much love xxxxxxx