I'm currently writing this hundreds of feet up in the air above Hull (or close enough), but will be posting in Heathrow. So, this is actually happening? I'm going to to use this blog for aims and expectations; then review when I'm doing the same flight (in reverse) in a years time! First and foremost, what are my aims for this year? 1. Get to a reasonable level of Mandarin. Probably the most asked question before I left was some version of "Do you speak Mandar...

It's a very English tradition to talk about the weather. So, naturally, one of my first inquiries into the region I would be staying in for a year was to check what the weather was like. And, well, it's quite different...Despite being further south than where I live now the winters are much harsher; falling to an average of -12.6C across January. Yet Fukang is only a couple of hundred kilometers from Turpan, where the temperature hit 49.7C in 2008. As you can im...

It was hard to believe that the dark cloud that was my exam results last year would have any silver lining. And yet here I am, 16 days away from boarding a plane from Newcastle - London - Hong Kong - Bejing, a trip which I wouldn't even have considered had my results been any different. The plan that me and my referee made this time last year (although it seems like eons ago) is that I would apply for university on deferred entry, allowing me time to improve my g...

Several people have asked me whether it has sunk in that I'm leaving for China in 3 weeks, I think it finally has. It wasn't being selected for China that did it, or finally raising all the money I needed to go. Even getting a cocktail of injections, meeting my partner, and finding out flight details didn't make me fully comprehend what I have got myself in for. Yet the other day, in a small back street in Newcastle, it finally hit me. As I bought a backpack I re...