Travelling (Zach)

During the semester break, whilst most of the others explored China, I decided to use my time to return to the comforts of family, friends, and the best tap water in the world - Scotland. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at home, although I hardly had a day to myself! After the rather pleasant flight into Manchester, I had to spend a fortune on a train ticket to Carlisle where my dad picked me up in the drizzly rain (a fondly missed feeling… for all of 5 minutes) and took me to see everyone at the lodge where they were on holiday. I was surprised there by my girlfriend who didn’t tell me she was also going, which I was thrilled about!

Home life took a little while to get used to again - a loud house, even louder dogs, and a lot more chores again. Most of my days were spent either playing pool with my friends (not much different to my free time in China) or visiting my relatives. I heard the phrase “So how was China?” more times than I could count but retelling my experiences made me realise how much fun living in China has been, and how even just 4 months had felt like such a large part of my life.

I took a couple trips while I was back too, down to Moffat to see the Gray Mare’s Tail waterfall, and also to Edinburgh Zoo for my girlfriend, Mya’s birthday.

I got to enjoy the food I had missed so much during my time in China like steak, pizza, macaroni cheese, a roll and sausage, cheese toastie, just cheese in general actually.

Returning to China was bittersweet. Of course I was excited to return to China and resume my studies and continue exploring the country I have had the privilege to call home with great friends, but there was also the goodbyes of leaving home again just after I felt I had settled in and was really making the most of my time like never before. I remembered though that it’s never really goodbye, only “see you later” and I only have a few short months left of my time in China and I fully intend to make the most of them.