After a brilliant but exhausting month in Thailand, I was glad to have a week to chill at home before Mum came out to visit. Thankfully, having a cold gave me the excuse to lie in bed all week, watching Breaking Bad and the whole season 4 of Downton Abbey haha. But on Friday 17th January it was finallllly time to move, so I dragged myself out the flat and got on the train to Beijing - Mum was coming, wheeey! I arrived in BJ, checked into the Crowne Plaza, had a...

When our cheeky application for an extended winter holiday was approved by Ocean University, I began to think about what I wanted to do with this ridiculously long holiday (Dec 13th - March 1st!). I knew I'd want to escape Qingdao's bitterly cold winter and get some sun, so I used emotional blackmail ("I can't possibly be without family at Christmas!" *whimpers*) to persuade my parents to send Cora over to travel with me in Thailand. So that's just what we did...

Right - quick recount of past month and a half… · Dad came to visit! It may have been a short visit, but it was a lovely few days. Started off by making him take me out for Western food - such a treat seeing as I'd pretty much only been eating Chinese food for the past few months. The next day I took him to the rather brutal massage place I go to regularly - the masseuses and I had fun laughing at all the cries and groans of pain Dad was emitting...

As I mentioned ages ago, I joined a gym. In classic China style, the gym has not only become a place for exercise, but also a consistent source of entertainment and surprises. Here are a few highlights: 1) The first time I went to the gym was to a class called "Body Pump". The description on the timetable made it sound kind of like Zumba. I had visions of a high-intensity aerobic dance workout along to a playlist of recent hits. I couldn't have been more...

Hey all! As Kyle pointed out to me a few days ago, it's been over a month since my last post, whoops. Lots has happened in the past month so I'll attempt to give a quick update of some of the highlights: • One of the Chinese ladies I met at the food/wine tasting thing ages ago invited me round to her flat so she could teach me how to cook some simple Chinese dishes. It was a lovely day - her family were visiting from Harbin so that was a laugh, and she was an ...