2014年九月：马球
八月的时候，我告别英国，伦敦。我一在北京降落，我就在深水区因为没有一个说英文的出租车司机。这是到几个星期以后跟有些中国朋友政治辩论的第一步。
在酒吧和饭馆交有些中国朋友，我被我被邀请去唐人马球马术俱乐部看马球比赛。马球本来是唐代中国运动但是现代马球肯定是英国的。尽管我为数不多的英国人之一，我是个从来没看过马球的人！不过，马球不是最有意思的事。我在马球俱乐部看我以前从来没看中国的地方。很多在俱乐部的中国人是马球粉丝但他们对西方政治有兴趣是最有意思的地方，特别苏格兰独立公投。很多我认识的中国人不想讨论亚洲的政治。对他们来说，欧洲政治是比较激动。显然，不同的人有不同的兴趣。不是每个中国人比较喜欢西方政治新闻。
我觉得最有意思的情况是对越来越大的中国中产阶级更大的互联网接入和西方媒体在中国的影响。除了对西方文化有兴趣，很多中国人现在对我们的政治真有兴趣。我相信这个表明中国继续发展的时候许多中国人欲望跟国际社会变得一体化。我希望未来有更多类似的讨论（但是我的中文需要提高！）这是我为什么学习汉语一个例子，用汉语让我发现，了解中国新的东西！在我看来，这是非常好我一年在中国学习的开端。
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
September 2014: Polo
In August, I said goodbye to London, Britain. As soon I landed in Beijing, I was thrown in the deep end as none of the taxi drivers spoke any English. This was the first step towards the political conversations I was having a couple weeks later with some Chinese friends.
After making many Chinese friends in bars and restaurants, I was invited to a polo game at the Tang polo club. Polo was originally a Tang Dynasty Chinese sport but modern polo is certainly a British sport. Despite being one of the few British people there, I was one of the only people who had never seen polo before! However, polo was not the most interesting thing. At the polo ground, I saw a side of China that I had never seen before. Many of the Chinese were polo fans but the most interesting aspect was that they had a big interest in Western politics, in particular Scottish independence. A lot of the Chinese I met were not wanting to discuss Asian politics. In their opinion, European politics are more interesting than Asian politics. Obviously different people have different interests. Not all Chinese people prefer Western political news.
What I thought was interesting was the effect of greater internet access and Western media in China on the growing middle class in China. Besides having an interest in Western culture, many Chinese now have a strong interest in our politics. I believe this reflects the wish of many Chinese to become more integrated with the global community as the country continues to develop. I hope to have more similar discussions in future, when my Chinese improves. This is an example of why I study Mandarin: using Mandarin enables me to discover and understand new things about China! In my opinion, this was a good start to my year in China.
Polo game