One of my favourite aspects of the trip was the incredible scenery that we saw. We made frequent visits to the coast, making the most of being situated a short drive from the sea. Much of the cliffs and rock formations were formed from volcanic activity a long time ago, and they have left magnificant formations all around.

Every time I go back to Ireland, I am always struck by the beauty of the land, something which I took for granted when I lived there. The amount of rain makes all the fields a vibrant green, almost too green! The coast line that we walked along was rugged looking and wild. There are many impressive cliffs and jutting out of the sea are magnificant rocks with archways and all sorts! Whenever I am in a place like that I become like a child and get really excited! Climbing everywhere was so fun and looking at the beauty made we wonder about God’s power and wisdom in creating it all. We spent some time just sitting down and watching the waves crashing against the rocks. I love the sea. Have you ever heard of the Giant’s causeway? That is one of the places which we visited. It is famous for its peculiar rock formations. The rocks there are hexagonal forming thousands of stepping stones out to the sea. It’s really magnificant. Take a look for yourself: http://www.northantrim.com/giantscauseway.htm

While we were there we were taught how to surf by a proffessional surfer (it’s harder than it looks!). We also spent some time offroading on bog-land with my friend’s landrovers, something which made normal driving look incredibly boring! One of the landrovers got stuck in the mud and it took 5 hours for Paul’s brothers to get it out again, but they enjoyed it and came back at the end of the day completely caked in mud from head to toe! Paul ’s cousin came up with his shotgun and a box full of ammunition for us to use to shoot clay pidgeons (pottery discs fired into the air). That was so much fun, and by the end I was getting used to it and hitting them pretty regularly.

Here is a video of our time. Sorry it is poor video quality:

Last week I started into the new semester. I have lectures only one day a week, but I have a lot of study to do for the rest of the time, so it is not quite as easy a schedule as it might sound. Unfortunately, my Chinese teacher has had to go back to China and temporarily withdraw from her studies, which means that I am without a teacher at the moment. It is a real pity as she is a superb teacher and I don’t think that I will easily find another teacher like her very easily. I will probably have to try to teach myself from a book, or something like that.

A couple of friends and I made a Chinese meal just under a month ago and I thought that I would post a video of that here. We began the day at 10 o’clock in the morning and travelled to Dundee to look for ingredients in the Chinese supermarket. Having returned to St. Andrews, the early afternoon was taken up with looking for extra ingredients and things for the meal in various stores in town. In the mid-afternoon we started cooking and cooked solidly until just past 7pm. We made dim-sum dumplings, spring rolls, long soup, chow mein, egg-fried rice, boiled rice, Chinese sausages with pak choi and a number of other dishes. The meal was very tasty, but it was the cooking that was the real experience.

I hope that you all have a great Chinese New Year’s celebration!

再见！

It has been a long time since I wrote on here. Last time was before I started my placement I think. ~Anyway, I’m here now.

My placement went extremely well, thanks to God. You know how I was anxious about it beforehand? Well, I had no need to be! By the end of the placement my confidence had been boosted a lot and I was looking forward to becomming an OT. I left with an ‘A’ grade, which will help considerably towards the final degree mark as it was worth 2 modules.

Now I am back home any enjoying the Christmas holidays. Jonney, Peter and I have been out on a few unicycle rides and have become aquainted with the new skate park in Hanley. Here is a video of our time there. It was fun putting classical music to it - a change from the common extreme sports music that most use. Hope you err…enjoy!

These days I have been speding more time on Youtube watching people’s videos. I’ve come across these hilarious chinese guys who lip synch to music. You might have heard of them as they are quite popular in China (apparently). Here’s one that I thought that you might like. All the others are just as good though, so you can watch them here: The Dormitory Boys

I hope that you enjoyed that as much as we did . Would you be able to translate any of what they are saying?

See you later. It’s your turns to post now Oh, and by the way….It’s 2007.

The couple of weeks before returning from university were very busy. The first week I had an important essay to work on and two presentations to prepare and give. The second week was busy with studies, but was more filled with cooking! I helped prepare two full Christmas meals, the first one for twelve people, the second for nine. I really love cooking and entertaining friends. There are few things better than eating well with good friends. Every Sunday we have a traditional roast meal (roast chicken or beef, for example, with roast potatoes, gravy, carrots, parsnips, served with fine wine), usually preceded by a special soup and followed by a dessert. It takes a lot of time to prepare, but it is one of my favourite times of the week. Over the last week of term, I had to make a lot of extra desserts, cakes and pies. I think that I probably made five separate batches of mince pies over the week and a lot of triple chocolate brownies. When I return to university I am hoping to learn some Chinese cooking. If any of you have some nice traditional Chinese recipes, please send them on to me!

I travelled back from university by bus on Saturday the 16th. I didn’t sleep at all the night before, but I wasn’t too tired. Just before I returned home, my Chinese teacher showed me how to set up my computer so that I can type in Chinese characters. Lots of fun! I just need to learn a few thousand more of them now.

I don’t know what it is like in Chinese, but in English about 20 words account for upwards of 30% of our speech (perhaps we really are just boring conversationalists!). I hope that this is true of Chinese as well as that is a reassuring statistic, if ever I saw one! I might utterly fail to understand approximately 70% of what you are saying, but it would be nice to know that, simply by learning 20 words really well, I would be able to nod in understanding to 30%+ of what you say!

Learning Chinese has been a lot of fun so far. My Chinese teacher is simply superb; she puts so much time and effort into preparing and giving our lessons. She is also incredibly generous and even cooked us an absolutely delicious Chinese meal a few weeks ago. On top of all of this, she is long-suffering enough to cope with my interruption of her disciplined revision schedule with questions on MSN and via e-mail about how to say certain things in Chinese!

Despite my being a little apprehensive, the bus journey really wasn’t that bad. It took several hours from Dundee to Manchester. Last year when I returned for Christmas it took me almost eleven hours by train, but that was largely due to problems on the line. In Manchester I met up with my brother Jonathan (Jonathan is doing a linguistics degree in Manchester University and so he often goes up there during the week) and we took the train from Manchester to Stoke-on-Trent together. Jonathan is also studying Chinese at the moment. We are at about the same level and were able to practice together. Mark seems to be interested in the idea of learning some Chinese, but I think that he needs a little more persuasion before he actually does so. (Go on, Mark, you know that you want to!)

Returning home is always strange after an extended period of absence. While all of my family and most of my books are here, I don’t quite feel at home here anymore, although it is certainly great to see people again. The day after I returned home, we had a number of people over for a Sunday lunch, including Laura and Emma, who really are almost like little sisters to us sometimes!

Mark arrived back on Monday the 18th (if I remember correctly). Over the week running up to Christmas we had a number of activities taking up our evenings (films, special meals, etc.) and I tried to do a little revision (without much success) during the days. I had a bad cold throughout that week, so I didn’t manage to get anywhere near as much work done as I had hoped to. Fortunately, the cold didn’t detract from most of the enjoyment of the week. Perhaps one of the highlights was going out for a special meal in Chinatown in Manchester with Peter, Jonathan, Jonathan’s wife Monika and her sister Jessika. 好吃！

On Christmas Eve we had a number of relatives over to visit, which was very special. We ate a big salmon between us and were able to spend time together again for the first time in over a year. We have some wonderful cousins, and it is always a lot of fun to meet up with them again! Unfortunately, our cousin John had not yet returned from France, where he is working at the moment.

Over the Christmas period many of the rooms of the house have special decorations. Our front room has a Christmas tree, covered with twinkling lights, tinsel, baubles, stars and chocolate. All of the presents, wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper, are stored beneath the tree. There are lights around some of the walls and special Christmas candles. In our front room we have some special Christmas plants as well. In other parts of the house we have streamers.

Over the Christmas period we eat a number of very special foods (not good if you want to lose weight!). We eat mince pies, Christmas puddings and Christmas cakes. Over the last couple of years Jonathan has decorated our Christmas cake. He is very gifted at it and the marzipan on the cake this year is absolutely amazing, showing a number of different scenes from the Christmas story!

Christmas Day is perhaps the most special day of the year. Our Christmas Day usually begins earlier than other days. When we were younger we weren’t able to sleep for most of the night before, because we were so excited! Christmas morning starts with opening stockings. Each person has a stocking (like a very big sock!) stuffed with little presents, things to eat and other surprises. Opening one’s stocking is always a lot of fun!

At about 9 o’clock we eat a special breakfast together. It has become a family tradition for my mother to make a Swedish tearing — absolutely delicious! After breakfast we usually each open one present. This year Mark, Peter and I put together a big hamper full of presents for Jonathan and Monika. It had a number of special foods and chocolates, some ‘smellies’ (special shower gel), something nice for them to drink and a few books that we knew that they would enjoy.

After breakfast is over we go to a meeting of our church, which is always very special. Christmas is one of the most joyful times of the year for Christians and our church is like an extended family for us. It is always wonderful to be able to share joy with others.

In the afternoon we eat the Christmas meal. Traditionally, the Christmas meal consists of turkey, served with roast potatoes, carrots, Brussels sprouts, stuffing, gravy and other things like that. There are few things as satisfying as a well prepared Christmas meal! Following the main course, we move on to desserts. The traditional dessert for a Christmas meal is Christmas pudding, served with white sauce, but we usually have a number of other desserts along with it.

This year we had about fifteen people in the house over Christmas Day, from a number of different parts of the world. Correy, the friend who first invited us to go over to China, was with us for the day as well. After the Christmas meal is over and all the washing up is completed, we start to open the presents. Each year we have a ‘postman’ (usually Peter) who gives a present to each person in turn. By the end of the present-opening the floor is generally covered with wrapping paper! Each year friends and family are incredibly good to us and give us some very generous gifts. It is very special to know that people really care about you. Christmas reminds us of how much we are loved, both by God and by others. This year Mark and I received a very special present each: knitted scarves from Gillian! We have worn them a number of times since and they are very warm and cosy.

After Christmas, life slowly returns to its usual pace. The turkey is soon finished and the many cakes and desserts are gradually eaten. Those of us who have exams coming up start to work on our revision. The next few weeks are going to be very busy for me. I return to university in St. Andrews on January 4th and have important exams on the 10th and the 13th. There is a lot of work to get done between now and then.

After Christmas we still have some special celebrations. Last night we went around to Jonathan and Monika’s and ate a special Korean meal — ramyon, kimchi and bulgogi! Tomorrow many of the family will be traveling down south to visit relatives (I am revising). I will end this post with a rather silly video that Mark and I made two days ago. It shows some of the Christmas decorations in our house and some of the strange things that we get up to when we are bored in the early hours of the morning!

新年快乐！

I thought that I would post very briefly to say that I started Chinese lessons yesterday. I will be having three hour-long Chinese lessons a week and I don’t have to pay a penny, which is superb. Last night we started straight into things. The lessons move very quickly through the material. We started to learn how to pronounce the four types of tones and the different initials, which was quite fun. I also learnt some basic greetings. I have another lesson this evening.

Life is good here, although a number of my friends are feeling ill at the moment. So far I have not caught ‘fresher’s flu’ (the flu that goes around after you return to university), but I am not sure that I will finally escape it.

Tomorrow morning a group of us are going to help out some friends in moving out of their house, so I’d better go to bed as we have an early start. In the afternoon I will be helping Jim with another circus skills workshop as part of a fun day in a local park. We will be teaching people how to unicycle, juggle, use the diabolo and other things. Actually I really enjoy it and find such satisfaction in teaching other people how to do those things, possibly even more than doing them myself.

Anyway, see you later!