I saw a tweet asking LaurierGlobal how to handle a language barrier. Now I want to clarify I am not expert in language, or psychology, but I have experienced a language barrier first hand.

So first, living in Canada I never really encountered too much of a language barrier. I was fortunate and my mother enrolled me in immersion, so my whole life I learnt both French and English. Not only was my schooling a bonus, but I lived in a community where I could practice both languages, and thus develop my skills further. This was important because my first experience studying abroad was in Quebec. Now for most people staying within your country isn’t studying abroad, but if you’re Canadian you understand. Quebec has a different culture, not enough to create a culture shock, but if you don’t speak enough French it can be difficult. I saw that with my room mates who did not speak a high degree...

As Cait would remind me it is redundant to put the Mountain in front of Huashan since the ‘Shan’ part is Mandarin for Mountain. However, it will forever be Mt. Huashan to me!

So for those of you who don’t know Cait, Winters, Lars, Josefine and myself spent two days hiking the steepest mountain in China. There were a lot of steps involved in this hike. Now this meant we spent the night on top of a mountain, which was amazing.

The mountain is just outside of Xi'an, about 40 mins on the fast train and apparently just over two if you are driving. It is beautiful, the scenery once you’re on top is breath-taking. I must say it was nice to escape the city and just go for a hike, even if that hike was not easy. The air was so clean and fresh compared to what I have grown accustomed to.

Some things we did on this hike was walk up a lot of stairs, which were steep and very narrow. We...

So I spent a weekend, or 2 whole days in Xi'an city. For those of you who don’t know Xi'an is most famous for the Terracotta Warriors. Which was the first thing we did upon our arrival. We found a bus to take us there, which was an adventure. The line to get on the bus was so long, lucky for us they have so many going and so often.
Once we were there we grabbed an audio guide and set out to see the clay men. Well let me tell you, it was cool to see them, and learn some history, however, they are not as impressive as I was expecting.

We did the tour back wards as suggested in the Lonely Planet guide, starting with the smallest pit and working our way to the largest. And well, once you’ve seen one pit you’ve kinda seen them all. After we left the pit area we tried to find our way back to the city centre so we could do some more touring of the city itself. We got a bit lost on the way...

So prior to Cait visiting Chongqing I had not seen much of the city. I had no real reason for leaving the Yubei district. I live in Yubei and go to school in Yubei. The only times I had left the district were the few times my family had taken me some where, (like GreenFest or the Opera) or when I went to a bar. So with Cait’s arrival I started to explore part of the city with her.

For those of you who don’t know here are some fun facts about Chongqing:

• It is called a mountainous city (it sits in the foot hills of the Himalayas).: This means it is super hilly and green.

• It rains a lot

• They are famous for their spicy food, especially their hot pot

• They speak a local dialect (Chongqing Hua)

• They report directly to the central government (They are a city that is not part of a province)

• The population of this city is roughly equivalent to that of the whole of Canada

• The municipality of...

Well the big thing to blog about right now is food. Well I was in Canada I often remember hearing people tell me how Canadian Chinese food is nothing like real Chinese food. First indication is the need for us to put Canadian in front of the word Chinese, obviously its an adaptation of their food.

I will say this, prior to moving here I was terrified to try the food. I am a picky eater, and I am to now thankful to say, I was a picky eater. I was also warned that Chongqing loves their spicy food, and well I use to hate spicy food, however, now I feel like I conquered that hate. Let me tell you something really quick, I still dislike some of the food, however, I don’t order it, or I simply don’t eat it. For example, my Chinese family occasionally will make dishes with something called Bittermelon in it, and I HATE BITTERMELON. I don’t even know what this green melon, or pepper thing is...

So I had my first vacation while living in China. I guess I didn’t miss out on the Fall Reading Week Laurier just introduced. However, I will miss out on a Thanksgiving dinner and pumpkin pie, and pumpkin flavoured anything. Even Starbucks doesn’t carry that stuff.

So I had seven days off, and I went to Shanghai. Shanghai is considered to be China’s financial capital. It is probably one of the most modernized and westernized cities in the country. Upon my arrival Cait met me at the airport and we went and met some of her friends, and we played a few dice games. We spent the next day as busy little bees walking across the city. We saw the Bund at night, hello to a beautiful sky line. However, it was National Day, which meant almost every Chinese person had the day off and were all travelling. Some how, a good majority of them decided to go to Shanghai and wander the Bund. So the crowd...

So, I arrived in Chongqing on Friday and spent some time with my Chinese Family and some Chinese students learning the area around. The real adventure however started on Monday. I learnt that their first year students wear a uniform for their weeks of training. They are trained for about 3 weeks by the military. Its such a weird thing, but it unites them and strengthens their loyalty to the state.

So Monday, first day of classes! However, all my classes were cancelled, but my last one. I had Chinese Martial Arts. Which was fun, and difficult and well so not made for me. We were divided into guys and girls and the girls learnt to dance with swords. Which was cool. However, if you know me, you know I can’t keep a beat, and so that was difficult. I seriously felt like I had two left feet. I never knew which one to put where or when to turn my body. I spent a bit of time at the library.
...

Well today I flew into Chongqing. I did limited research on the city itself, it was mostly word of mouth I relied on. I had heard they spoke their own language, well had a local dialect, that it was wet, hot and they loved spicy food. So far all of this is true.

Upon landing I noticed that the run ways were wet. Sign number one that it had rained. After collecting my bags, I noticed they had gotten a bit wet as well. Which was fine, and exiting and meeting the Chinese student who would be picking me up she told me it had just rained. However, no one seemed phased. No one had umbrellas or rain coats. It was so humid, all I could think about was how back home that type of humidity would be a big storm. Apparently, that is normal. It just rains, and rains. There will be short breaks but its always humid and wet. Well this student told me I missed the heat, and that it will only be getting...

So I’m on my third day in Beijing! I have two more to go! Well technically only one, since I fly out mid day on the second one. So far I have explored the streets that are around my hostel. I saw a Chinese street Market which was cool. I’ve experienced part of the culture that way for sure.

The room next to mine happens to be two American boys back-packing part of Asia. We signed up for a tour of the Great Wall together. We explored the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall.

Upon our exploration of the Great Wall and we meet some great people from New Zealand and Australia. I was lucky and the guys from NZ had no problem with me quoting Mulan, and they even sung songs with me!

*View of the city near the Great Wall

*lookie lookie its me on the Great Wall

I had the chance to explore the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. While going from the Forbidden City to Tiananmen Square...