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22 Feb
Four days after the Spring Festival, we gathered at the school gate and left for Shanghai. After a five-hour drive, we arrived in this international large city, the economic capital of China. We settled in a small hotel in a town which is near the airport. And then we prepared ourselves the 13-hour flight the next day.
23 Feb (local time)
It was an early start. After a quick breakfast, we set out for Pudong Airport. Everything was nice except the 40-minute delay of the flight. When I got on board, I searched for my seat and I got it at the very back of the plane as I finally notice ‘Class M’ on the ticket. What sad news! I had to spend 13 hours in this crowded class. It must have been a terrible flight. I perceived that it was time to say goodbye to this continent in that, when I stepped on land the next time, I would be in a completely different region.
After the plane took off, the plane went north straight to Russia and flew over the whole Russia from the east to the west, then flew over the Northern Europe. There was thick cloud almost all the way aside from in Shanxi Province. Inner Mongolia and the very west of Russia, we could see the ground clearly and that was a new view of the world. We chased the sun all the way, but we were a bit slower. When we finally arrived at Heathrow Airport, it was 16:15 (London Time), however, our physical time (Beijing Time) was 00:15 the next day. That is to say, we should have been asleep at that time, but the sun still shone and there was still a long time to go till the night fell. After some time, we left for Edinburgh and arrived there at around 7 P.m. we took a taxi to Fettles college, I had heard of the expensive transportation fare in the UK, but it still surprised me, that was over 18 Pounds (180 Yuan). And if you don’t fasten your safety belt, you will be fined and what cost 50 Pounds (500 Yuan), unbelievable. When I got in the campus, I was amazed by its great beauty. The main building looked solemn and graceful. The campus was quiet due to its location. We first met our exchange partners in the mandarin classroom. My partner is Yann. He is a Scottish boy and can speak some Mandan. We had our first talk and he showed me around hid boarding house with many kinds of entertainment equipment including table tennis, billiards, small gym and xbox. What a splendid introduced his friends to me. Among them, there were two Chinese from Hongkong Liu and Cai, who made me feel very cordial. Shortly after, his father, Mr. Mclatchie drove us home. I received a warm welcome. Yann introduced his family to me. He has a younger brother Alik. After a quick shower, I went to bed at 10 p.m., but my physical time was 6 a.m. the next day due to the 8 hour time difference.
24 Feb
A new start at 7 a.m. after we had had our breakfast, Mr. Mclatchie drove us to school. We went to the boarding house and played table tennis toe a while. Then we had a gathering and went to the chapel to attend an assembly.
In the morning, we had five lessons, Mandarin History, Geography, and Art. In History class, two of our partners introduced us their daily routine and school facilities. We had a 30-min. break after geography class and we got back to the boarding house to have something to eat. Then we went to the Art Room, we Chinese students had lunch 40 minutes earlier than our partners.
After lunch, we had our first tour, the destination was the Edinburgh Castle. We took a bus there. The ticket fare was £15, almost as much as 8 times than that in China. After walking across a bridge, we were right in the Edinburgh Castle building group. We had a podgy guide in kilt. All the buildings were of old style and emitted a feeling of history. I was amazed to learn that I was walking through Edinburgh University wherever I was because the school buildings were spread separately in the ancient Edinburgh city. Soon, we came to the Edinburgh Castle. We went into the Emperor’s building and saw The Honors’ containing a crown, a sword and a mace which were all made of gold and jewellery. They were really brilliant, but it was a pity not to take photographs. In the evening, we danced Ceilid with our partners. It’s an energetic Scottish dance. We had a good time with the graceful music of accordion. What a happy and a bit tiring night.
25 Feb
We left school without going to the chapel and departed for a day trip to Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. The coach drove west along and through Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland. Finally, we reached Loch Lomond which is near the west coast. It’s a national park which is very different from tourist spot in China that there is much less business atmosphere since it’s non-profit-making. The views were great. The environment was natural and peaceful .There were even ducks in the parking lot which is rarely seen in China. We had a walk along the loch bank. The water was clean and transparent enough to see everything in it. There were ducks and waterfowls? Over the loch and a pontoon extending to the inner loch .On the other side of the loch is Mount Lomond. It seemed to be separated into a few blocks due to the different colours which covered it. One hour later, we left for Sterling Castle. It’s a castle which is like Edinburgh Castle but a little different. After a visit, we got back to Fettles. I went home with my partner soon after our arrival. We had supper home, and I was lucky that the Mclatchies’ cooked haggis, a traditional Scottish dish, which all of my schoolmates weren’t able to taste it, for me. Before eating, the family recited the poem Address to a Haggis. Although they couldn’t recite it fluently and I couldn’t understand the poem, I was glad to try it. The national dish of Scotland which is not so popular wish foreigners because it was made of the visceral of a sheep, didn’t taste as bad as I had thought. But actually, I have to say that it was not so attractive, either. After dinner we played poker with counter. It was my first time to play it. Yann’s brother, Alik, taught me how to play and gave me his entire counter. Sadly, Mr. Mclatchie won.
26 Feb
In the morning, we had 5 lessons with our partners. We went to Botanic Gardu and Stockbridge Botanic Gardens was like a plant park. Stock Bridge wasn’t a bridge but the name of a district. After supper we gathered together to give some introduction to our daily routine and Yangzhou to our partners. When the cuisine part started, they seemed much more excited.
27. Feb
We left for National Gallery at 8:30. The paintings in the National Gallery were quite creative and delicate. When I had my first glance at a painting, it looked like a famous painting by a well-known artist. But when looked closely, it was different in many details. That’s interesting. Then we walked to Calton Hill. It was sunny and we could have a bird-eye view of the western part of the city. In the afternoon, we went to Mary Kings Close-Edinburgh Ghost Tour. It sounds scary. However, I have known about it from my partner in advance. It’s not scary at all because it’s only underground city which had been buried when the city was built on the hills and went up, so the bottom part had been abandoned. After supper, we went to see the school musical which my partner said that it could a good chance for sleep. I knew he was kidding. Musical shared some similarity with opera in China. It showed Jesus Christ. I appreciated it a lot.
28 Feb
It is Saturday, like what we do, they have school on Saturday. I had lessons with Yann in the morning. Afternoon was for sports, which I had been looking forward to for a long time. Yann had a hockey match with/ against another school. It had been half a month since my last basketball playing, and I couldn’t want to do that. I knew that basketball is not so popular in the UK. However, to my surprise, they have a school basketball team. Not surprisingly, the best players are all from China. And I have to say that our school team is much better. Anyway we had a great time for a 5- on -5 match. In the evening, we had a Chinese New Celebration dinner event, British ‘Chinese food’ tasted a bit strange, but it was OK. The performance was nice and we all enjoyed ourselves.
29 Feb
Today is our last day here. According to the schedule, I can spend the whole day with my partner. I got up at 10, while Yann was even 30minutes later. All of us exchange students appointed arrange to meet at half past one. So there was still a long time to go. After breakfast, the Yann’s and I set out for the market to get some traditional food. When we four boys reached the restaurant which was our meeting place, the girls hadn’t arrived. We waited for a while and were told that they hadn’t even come yet. Afterwards, the girls went shopping without meeting us. So we went to get them. After over half an hour’s walking and running. We finally met them in a shoe shop at 2:40. The girls seemed unwilling to stop to have lunch. Therefore we left them and had lunch ourselves in a fast-food restaurant. Then we went home. Before supper, Yann, Alik and I play a kind of ball game which I had never seen before. After supper, we played poker again. This time all of us made our counter all in the final round and fortunately, I won with a fully house which contained three tens and a pair of kings. Shortly after, I had to pack my suit case and went to bed.
2 Mar
An early start, I took a photo with the Maclatchies’ in front of their house as farewell. It’s time to leave.
2015-3-16
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