Where I’ve Lived and Why…

Hello World, It’s Em and this is a 2 part (possibly more in the future) of Where I’ve Lived and why… So without further ado Welcome to the China edition.

Introduction

So, this fun new diary-style entry is dedicated to one of the hardest things I’ve done so far in my life. Moving abroad. I have loved almost every second of living abroad so far, and I am almost certain I will be living abroad sporadically throughout my life because I love it. I have lived in China and Costa Rica this year as part of my International Placement Year, which goes hand in hand with my Modern Languages degree. I have loved my time abroad, and to be honest, I don’t want it to end quite yet (it’s not that it ends in 6 weeks, but STILL). So, to write a bit about this chaotic year, and to be honest, put it onto paper to look back at, here are my highlights and lowlights of my year abroad. To make this a bit easier, I’m going to separate it into the two most obvious sections… China and Costa Rica. (Note I’ve ended up having so much to say about China that I will leave Costa Rica for another post once I’m back in the UK).

Travelling around China:

Living in China has been one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. it is a beautiful country, despite how I feel the media often portrays it. I have had the opportunity to live in one of the biggest cities in the world- Beijing, with its astounding population of around 22 MILLION PEOPLE…. let that sink in! I have also had a significant opportunity to travel whilst attending university in Beijing, doing an intensive language course. I have now been to Chengdu (home of the giant pandas), Xi’An (where the terracotta army is located), Zhangjiajie (the basis of the mountains in avatar), Tianjin, Gubei, Changsha (associated with Mao Zedong) and Ha’Erbin (home of the most INCREDIBLE ice festival)- I don’t even know if I remembered everywhere! The travel opportunities in China are incredible and extremely affordable. However, despite being affordable, I would never claim as a tourist that travelling in China is accessible. For me, arriving with my HSK 3 level Chinese (for those who don’t know, that’s not exactly fluent), trying to navigate life was hard. Luckily, university and a previous visit to China had prepared me for the struggle, especially with the little things like the social media and Google ban and the lack of card machines! I would say, as my family did visit me out there, if you don’t want to feel overwhelmed and stressed when travelling, learn some Chinese. Although even knowing Chinese, navigating people around Beijing still caused small, overwhelming situations. I think it is hard in any capacity to comprehend 22 million people, but honestly, you do notice it. Living in Beijing was an eye-opener from my 300,000 people home city and my 100,000 people uni city. It is safe to say I was out of my depth a bit because I don’t even like London much. The difference in vibes was a gamechanger, though I have to say, now no southerners take offence here….. the people in Beijing (overall) were friendlier. Now, there’s a couple of reasons that this could be if I’m being analytical (cue the ground-breaking analysis): I am white, blonde, green eyes and very very very obviously not from China, so there is the knowledge that without a doubt people knew I was a 外国人 (foreigner) and foreigner is a phrase me and my friends heard A LOT! So, maybe that is the reason- to welcome people who are clearly foreigners to China- or maybe people are just nicer. If you have any experience, feel free to let me know!

Food in China:

My second biggest highlight of China (after travel) had to be the food, but it would only be fair if I also put it as the biggest lowlight. If I’m being honest, food was hit or miss, and that’s not necessarily China’s fault. There was overwhelming amounts of choice wherever you ended up but that doesn’t mean every order is going to be a good one, for example when me and my friends ordered a whole chicken which had only been plucked (and killed obviously) that was doused in some of the hottest chilli oil I’ve ever had (and I can handle spice well ish) or when my friend accidentally ordered tripe. It happens! In the UK, we really don’t eat much of the animals we eat, which, thinking about it, is quite wasteful. So, the meat-eating in China was a big culture shock, and I’m going to be honest with the sometimes vague descriptions and my small amount of Chinese， it was never going to be perfect. It hasn’t taken away from my experiences, though.

My Language Journey:

Another insanely good part of living in China is that I finally feel a pull to the Chinese language. As a speaker of now 4 languages, it can be hard to explain to other people, but I have felt a pull to Spanish and French since I started each of them, respectively. With Chinese, it was a whole other ball game. People often ask me why I took Chinese as an extra language that I didn’t NEED to take. My answer is always that I may as well learn it in a degree I’m paying for, either way, as language learning can be expensive, and why not Mandarin, it’s the most spoken language in the world after all. I may as well do a famously difficult language. But if I’m being honest, part of it was because languages are my Pokémon, I want to learn as many as I can because I enjoy the process of learning, I wanted a challenge, and I saw several of my A level teacher’s and career advisor’s faces when I said I might study it. One thing about me is that if someone insinuates I can’t do something…. I will be doing it. Luckily, living abroad made me find a passion for Chinese, not that I wasn’t doing well at it without as much passion…. but it sure makes it a hell of a lot easier to sit for 3 hours writing characters when you love the language.

Bathrooms (subheadings have to be polite):

Now for another lowlight… squat toilets. If anyone reading this is going to China (although a lot of other places also have squat toilets) be warned, never leave the house without some tissues, some hand sanitiser, and if you don’t know what the toilet situation will be like, DON’T WEAR FLARES THEY ARE A NIGHTMARE TO MANOUVER. Anyway, without giving away TMI, just be warned if you’re at all bothered by club toilets… just wait. （I would like to preface that a lot of the squat toilets are lovely and well-kept, but not all of them.)

Personal Growth (and a big fat shout out to my friends):

It’s time for the final highlight of my experiences living in China for 5 months (because this is going to be a longgggg post, so sorry to my friends who I’m going to force to read this). I am sorry for the sappiness of this, but… I have grown so much this year, I have met some of the most amazing people and I now have friends all over the world who I have a closeness too that I can’t explain because we were all in the crazy unknown together (shout out to social media though because writing letters to you lot would be a pain). I also have had the incredible opportunity to learn in an immersive environment, and you can’t get much better than that as a language learner. China is honestly up there at the top of my list with places I have travelled to, despite it sometimes being super overwhelming. It is an amazing country with amazing people, history, and culture, and all of these factors have definitely inspired me to continue my journey with the Chinese language.

If anyone reading this has any further questions or comments, or ideas about things I could write a post about there is contact info on the Home page please get in touch!

Panda in Chengdu

Emily in Phoenix ancient town

Emily at the Great Wall Of China (Mutianyu section)

Tianmen Mountain cable cars- Zhangjiajie

Tianjin Eye

A man handmaking fans in Qianmen Houtong, Beijing