再次你好！谢谢您看我第二个月的月报！我很激动跟你分享最近一个月所有的经历。
在7月底，我必须与几个好朋友说再见。他们只是语言课程7月份的学生。我们收取成绩凭证后（见下图），我们直接开始安排一个小小的庆祝晚会来彼此告别。
Hello again and thank you for reading my second monthly report! I am excited to share with you what has happened over the last month.
At the end of July I had to say goodbye to a few friends who were only staying for the July section of the language course. After we received our certificates (pictured below), we got straight to organising a little celebratory evening to say farewell.
收取我们第一个月的成绩凭证
Collecting our first months’s certificates
应为Aurelie是一半法国一半中国的人，而且在上海长大了，所以她有很多当地朋友，让我们在在一起度过了周五晚上。要是你在想为什么这些人并不看起来像经典中国那样，原因是他们几乎都是一半法国人！他们都在上海法租界区的一个学校读书了。
Because Aurelie is half french, half chinese, and grew up in Shanghai, she has a lot of local friends and we spent Friday night with them. If you are wondering why most of these lovely people do not look typical Chinese, it is because nearly all of them are half french! They all went to french school in the french concession area of Shanghai.
与当地朋友们出去玩儿
Hanging out with local friends
我们现在在语言课程八月份期中，因此我们最近进行完我们期中演讲。我选择的话题就是抽烟遭害健康的事实。真个话题挺难让感性却的，为的是大家当然已经知道抽烟对身体健康有害。 为了让他更有趣起见，我在我的社交型抽烟的习惯集中注意力，然后为什么有些人容易地上瘾，却其他人连跑步一会儿也非抽一支烟不可。 比如说，我参考了一位优秀的中国马拉松跑者。他50岁以上，一辈子都接连不断地抽烟，甚至马拉松中不断抽烟，却还是在3个小时30分钟以内跑完了 — 这比我最近3个小时39分钟跑完的马拉松快了！
Now we are halfway through the August section of the language school and we have just finished giving our mid-term presentations. The topic I selected was smoking and how it harms your health. This is quite a difficult topic to make interesting because we obviously all know that it damages your health. So to make it fun, I focused on my bad habit of being a social smoker and the reasons why some people become easily addicted and yet some people cannot go for a run without having a cigarette mid-way through! For example, I referenced that amazing Chinese marathon runner. He was over 50 years old, chain-smoked his entire life, even chain smoked during the marathon, and still managed to complete it in under 3hours 30 minutes – this is faster than my most recent marathon time of 3 hours 39!
八月分的期中报告
August term’s mid-course presentation
在另一个晚上，我跟我的韩国朋友一起去了酒吧。始终，我们想了为什么比平常跟吸引注目，然后我们才意识到那天是七夕节日，人们有可能以为我们在约会！好像很多在中国很多人不仅对外国人感到很好奇，而且尤其是对跨种族情侣。在网络上，这个是个很火讨论的话题。 不过，一段时间后，你习惯人们的盯着。
On a different evening, I went with my Korean friend to a Korean bar. The whole time we were wondering why we were getting more stares than usual, and then we realised it was Chinese Valentine’s Day and people probably thought we were on a date! It seems many people in China not only are curious about foreigners, but especially interracial couples. On the Chinese internet, this is a hot topic. After a while, however, you do get used to all the people staring at you.
七夕节日在韩国酒吧
Celebrating Chinese Valentine’s Day at a Korean bar
跟几个语言学院和硕士课程的朋友们，我们一起成立了一个跑步组。我们每个周二周四的晚上在江湾体育场见面。这个跑组就是友好的而不是竞争的。有好多不同国籍的成员，再加来自我的硕士的中国同学在逐渐增加! 我估计，当语言课程结束时，我只会在硕士学习，几乎整个跑组都会中国人的！
With a few language school friends and a few friends from my masters degree, I have set up a running club that meets at Jiangwan Stadium on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Its a very friendly and not at all competitive. There is a mixture of nationalities, and the amount of Chinese classmates from my masters is growing! I expect when the language school finishes and I am only studying for my masters, almost all of the participants will be Chinese!
我们跑步组在江湾体育场的门口
Our running group at the gate of Jiangwan statdium
周一周五我都去邯郸南校区的游泳池。是个真正50米游泳池。虽然是户外的，我们在上海，所以空气和池水都非常热。在中国人们都以救生员的责任为非常重要。在欧洲的50米游泳池你一般会看到一两个救生员，在中国总是有六到八个救生员！那个平均就是一个游泳者一个救生员！一开始我觉得这有点过头了，不过我然后发觉这些救生员本身并不看起来像常常游泳的人，所以可能是合适的。在一条泳道平常只有一个人, 不过我进去游泳道一条游泳道有时候会忙起来。不管我旁边的游泳道是不是空的，有些人还是选择在我的游泳道运动，甚至我在换泳道时也跟着我。。。。。。一些这个小区的人对外国人好奇得那样做。
On Mondays and Fridays I go to Handan Southern Campus swimming pool. It is a proper 50m swimming pool. Although it is outside, we are in Shanghai, so the air and water are really warm. People in China take their lifeguarding responsibilities very seriously, whereas in Europe you might expect to see two lifeguards for a 50m pool, here in China there are between 6 and 8 lifeguards at all times! That is 1 lifeguard per 1 swimming on average. At the beginning I thought it was quite over the top, but then I realised the lifeguards themselves don’t really look like they swim very often, so perhaps it is necessary. Usually, there is about 1 person per swimming lane, although when I enter the pool it seems that one lane becomes very busy as even when lanes besides mine are empty, some people will still choose to swim in my lane follow me when I change names… that is how fascinated with foreigners some people in this neighbourhood are.
邯郸南校区50公尺的游泳池
Handan southern campus’s 50m swimming pool
总体上说，这个月过得不错。我对下个月的月报很兴奋，那个时候我会给你分享我对金融硕士的第一些个印象。在那之前，我还有很多行至工作要做。祝你这个月过得顺利！
All in all, it has been a good month. I am excited for next month’s report, when I will tell you about my first impressions of my Finance Masters. Until then, I have a lot of admin to do regarding residency. Have a great month!