Finally Acceptance! After filling all the millions of forms that have come through the door in the past few months, another set arrived! These were the ones I had been waiting for, for a while now and they were the confirmation that I actually had a place. Now I could actually set about booking flights which I had been wanting to do for a while now.

So I decided after a long deliberation about prices, and flexibility and all the dull stuff like that, I decided to go direct with Air New Zealand through Sta Travel cos they had a good reputation reasonable price and it meant I got air miles to get me some free tickets in the future…. i dont seem to be far off that apparently!

So I then sought out insurance etc….. fun stuff

I also had decided to go down to London for the pre-departure day where you got to meet previous interns, and meet those that were going from the UK this summer. It was definitely worth the trip and it was good to see what the other chinese folks impressions were of the quarantine procedure, I think from what it sounds like is that its something to go through if you get to do your placement at the end of it all. We had to do a cultural presentation on the country that we were going to, and we did find out some interesting things by doing this. We also learned a bit of language on the way too. Speaking of language, Im now able to count in Mandarin, as well as introduce myself and ask for drinks. I should be on to ordering train tickets and bus tickets next, but i wanted to get the easier things like the days of the week sussed first.

Apparently there are four tones in mandarin, and if you say a word wrong it means something totally different, so I will have to be careful.

But yeah it was definitely good to see where people were going and their backgrounds, and I think most people were surprised that they got a placement, just like I was! We also heard from previous interns, which was probably the most useful part as they got to tell us what its like and the extreme lows and highs of the trips. It was good to know what it was like before hand.

Then a few of us, (I realised there were about 5 of us from York uni there) including those from other unis went for a few drinks in a pub which sold Samuel Smiths- just like back in York but a bit more expensive. I was surprised but it was good to sit down in a social atmosphere of a great london pub!

Then I had to disappear off because I was meeting my Auntie and Uncle and staying with them for the night, and catching up as I hadnt seen them since christmas. I had to go via a public toilet thanks to a pint, and then realised Id gone into the ladies where the cleaning lady screamed at me to get out and go in the other one which i promptly did!! So for the whole of my 50p I got to go to the toilet in central london, i must be privileged!

After a night with the family I went to go and hand in all my stuff for my visa, which I should hopefully get back by next week, and then the only thing I have to do then is wait for my accommodation details to come through and pack and do exams and worry about the house… and everything else.

Oh and I sent a letter to Lenovo just to ask a few questions and find out more about the job and introduce myself, which I thought was highly useful

I guess I should get back to my revision…..