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Saturday, December 31, 2016

Life Update || Travelling Again in Two Weeks


Time to freak out slightly.

- Semester 1 ends in a weeks time.
- I start travelling again in 2 weeks time.
- Still yet to book one more flight.
- Have to start thinking about packing.
- Need to get my life together.

Friday, December 30, 2016

Experiencing my First Chinese Massage


A few weeks ago me and my friend decided to get a massage to get rid of some of those tight muscles and relax for a bit before our work load gets more and more! Tilly had already been to one before so she had a good idea of what it would be like, little did I know, it would be slightly painful. By slightly painful, I mean agony!

Thursday, December 29, 2016

What's in my Travel Carry-on?

Depending on the trip, I will always have my usuals packed in my hand-luggage ready for a comfortable plane/train/bus/car journey. Most of them are priorities and some only depend on what the trip is. I am currently writing this post on the flight to Hong Kong and all these items I list are with me in my hand luggage. 




Friday, December 23, 2016

Returning After 10 Years || Day 1 - Hong Kong


It’s that time again to hop on a plane and travel to a new place. It’s not exactly new when you’ve been plenty of times before. However, it’s the first time in about 10 years I am going back to Hong Kong and actually seeing Hong Kong instead of just the airport. I am also reuniting with my best friend from back home after 4 months which sounds like nothing but it’s one of the longest times we’ve been apart. For them to have me over for Christmas is such a lovely gift, better than being stuck in Shanghai surrounded by university and work. It’s nice to have a sense of home when you’re 1000 miles away from it.

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Christmas in Shanghai

Shanghai Christmas will never compare to Christmas back home. However, a few friends and I have made the most of keeping ourselves in the Christmas spirit by travelling around Shanghai to find Christmas markets, shops, events, parties and more. Even though it isn't England, and we aren't with our families, we are not being grumpy and sad about it, we are trying to keep it as Christmassy and happy as any other Christmas. I think this is actually the first Christmas I have spent away from my parents. When I say that, it actually makes me feel very homesick, which I have been feeling a bit of lately, but I am travelling down to Hong Kong to spend it with my friends family so at least I am taking a break from Shanghai and have a sense of home from them.

Tuesday, December 06, 2016

Why It's Important to Have a Break

My life here in China is a bit hectic; fitting in university, work, my sociable life and relaxing (not that I get much of it). It can sometimes get a bit too much. I have occasionally took short breaks during the last year so I don't end up overworking myself and spend time focusing on my life. And sometimes this is what everyone needs.

Compared to my life in England, life here in China is very full-on. Having university everyday 9/10am to 2pm takes a lot of energy out of you and no one really prepare you for it. I actually question how I did this for 13 years of my life?! I got to the point last week when I couldn't remember when the last time I had more than an hour in my room during the day. I don't spend much time in my room anyway because it's not the nicest of places and I am normally out doing stuff until late evening.

Thursday, November 24, 2016

What Have I Gained from Blogging?


Isn't it quite amazing how much you can learn and get from just writing about what happens in your life or giving tips or reviews, the list goes on. Blogging is something I love to do, sometimes prioritise it over university work which is bad. I have learnt so much since starting up my blog. A few I thought I'd share if you are thinking of starting one.

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

How to Keep your Blog Organised?

It has taken a while to finally get to a comfortable stage with blogging where I feel so much more relaxed with organisation behind my blog posts; writing them, scheduling them, publishing them and promoting them, and keeping on top of all of this constantly.


I have picked up a few pointers which hopefully will help you be that little bit more organised with blogging. They have definitely helped me feel a lot more organised.

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Why I Started a Blog


It's been precisely a year this month when I created my blog. However, I didn't start posting regularly until May this year, when I travelled in America. I thought this was a good starting point to get my blog out into the world as I was posting daily about my travelling adventures; a subject which a very popular nowadays. It also gave me topics to write about so I wouldn't have to be brainstorming a load of ideas beforehand; I would literally write a post and publish it straight after unlike now.

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Getting the Perfect Night's Sleep


If you are like me then I'm sure it gets frustrating when you can't get more than a good 5 hours sleep each night. It is such a pain but I have a few ways to try get that good nights sleeps. Some may sound a bit simple but they can work, they do for me anyway.

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Exploring All of Shanghai

Thought I would create a post mainly showing photos that I have taken from my adventures around Shanghai so far. I will keep updating it as the year goes on.
There are some famous and well known places and some unknowns which aren't usually shown across the media.


Saturday, November 12, 2016

Zhujiajiao - The Venice of Shanghai

This post will mainly be photographs as I wanted to show off a bit of my photography. I have been taking my camera out a lot more lately and I am loving some of the moments I capture. 

Zhujiajiao is known as one of the few famous water towns on the suburbs of Shanghai. I have been wanting to go here for a good month now and thought it was a good time to get out of the dorms and city after our mid-terms. 
With 2 people down, the 3 of us had an early start so we could try and find the bus station in time. Little did we know, it took a few wrong turns to eventually find it. It doesn't help that People's Square station has about 16 exits, makes it so confusing. A good hour later and 3 numb bums (the seats on the bus were not comfortable), we arrived to the beautiful town of Zhujiajiao. 


The plan was to get a ticket to all the hot spots in the town and a boat ride across the canal. The tickets were about £8 each for all of this, still can't get over how cheap places like these are. 
Immediately after buying the tickets, we started to browse all the cute little town shops and make our way towards the entrance. The architecture in this town was something else. You could definitely tell it was an old town, with the bridges being built during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. 


 Stairs leading up to the famous Fangsheng Bridge

Before making our way up to the bridge, we walked to the side of the bridge to get some photos and got approached by these woman who were selling fish which you would then release into the river. I thought this was a lovely gesture but also felt sorry for the little fish stuck in those plastic bags for that length of time before someone would buy them.













The beautiful olden boats which would take you from one side of the town to the other. These men would do this all day until 4pm.






A very picturesque garden situated in the centre of the town. I couldn't help but take many photos of this garden, and then get some idiotic ones of us of course.






After a long walk around the garden, we hopped on for our boat ride. We had the whole boat for just us 3 as they do not have more than 1 group on.
It was a peaceful journey with stunning perspectives of the town.




We arrived at this shop which sold jewellery but also he made shapes out of toffee which you would then eat. You could either pick one which was already made and displayed or choose your own animal, character or whatever you wanted which he was able to make. I wanted the character 西 Xi (pronounced as She) as that is my last name. I am glad I only got a small one because it was very sickly. Aneta got a dragon, and Tilly got the chinese characters of Zhujiajiao 朱家角.




We ended up back to where we started the day with a gorgeous, colourful sunset setting in the distance behind the town. After quite a few restaurant look-ins, we sat down to have a small dinner before getting the bus back. We had dinner in one of the restaurants right on the water front but sadly were not sat outside as it was very busy during that time.




 The journey back was nothing but uncomfortable. We did not get a seat and, as it was an hours journey back, ended up sitting on the floor. It was very disgusting but there was no way I was going to be standing for that whole journey. It was worth it though to have been able to see that beautiful town.


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Tuesday, November 08, 2016

My First Visit to Disneyland!

Being my first time to Disneyland, my excitement levels were very high. After an hours journey to get there, I was jumping up and down with happiness to just see the word Disneyland. 


Tuesday, November 01, 2016

Chinese Marriage Markets


It surprised me, when I asked around, the amount of people who had heard of the famous Chinese Marriage Markets. To be honest, though, I only heard about them from my sister last year and then did some research into them to find out what they were about. And I was truly amazed at how different the people go around getting partners for themselves. However, it isn't necessarily the people themselves who find them a partner...

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Why I'm not Flying Back Home in the Holidays


Through the months of January and February, we have our CNY (Chinese New Year) break which consists of a glorious 6-week holiday. This is our only big holiday so we deserve it after a hard, long and quite painful first semester. This is the time where us international students either choose to go travelling or take a trip back to our home countries. It is also when the first semester has ended so some people will be leaving and replaced by new arrivals.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

What I Miss Most About England

So I've been here for two months now?! I can't quite believe how fast it has gone already. I am still loving every second of it and meeting new faces everyday. However, of course, I am missing the obvious luxuries which China does not have.


Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Central Perk - Shanghai Style


A few days ago before this day I was doing some digging into finding some of the 'hidden treasures' in and around Shanghai. Because Shanghai is so big and has a bit of culture everywhere, we were bound to make a day of it.
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