2015年五月
由于我的回国日期迅速接近，我现在需要每天有安排来保证我体验尽量。我有限的时间鼓励 我参加新的活动，比如跟朋友住在长城旁边的农场。我们从北京开车几个小时，来到非常安静，漂亮长城的破旧部分。主人特别友好，给我们很好吃的家常晚饭。那晚上，我跟朋友一起爬上陡峭的山坡，穿过浓密的枝叶来在长城上看日落。爬过痛苦的灌木丛一个小时后，我们达到长城，看到最美的日落。不过，我们的喜悦很快成为烦恼因为我们发现从长城径直到农场的道路。道路非常有用，让我们很快回家但是我们意愿我们更早已经知道！第二天，我们在长城上走路六个小时，非常好的运动，回家后我感觉象是参加了马拉松，因为我的腿太疼了。但是，好的风景使得这一切很值得。
唱歌最近成为我新的活动。我跟一些中国朋友去卡拉OK酒吧。KTV很好玩，由于文化原因也很有意思 。人民在英国常常太羞怯了来跟朋友或者家人唱歌，但是在中国大家参加。我希望我们可以到英国进口这个习俗因为卡拉OK气氛比较轻松。我唱歌的练习最终是用得上的因为我与同学们一起得参加中文系唱歌比赛。我们决定唱‘茉莉花’，我们与口技混合这首传统歌曲来创造现代版，和美国动画片‘冰雪奇缘’的歌曲‘随它吧’。我们受到“最佳演唱”奖品，出人意料！
我们在英国大使家看英国大选结果。很多中国朋友对英国大选浓厚兴趣。他们特别吃惊因为20岁苏格兰学生被当选，现在有议会席位。讨论改革我们大选系统，采取比例代表机构的好处和缺点一定测试了我的汉语！
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
Summertime in Beijing
We watched the recent UK general election results at the British Ambassador’s Residence. Many of my Chinese friends were very interested in the British elections. They were particularly surprised that a 20 year old Scottish student was elected to Parliament. It has certainly been a test of my Chinese having to discuss the benefits and downsides of reforming our electoral system and introducing proportional representation.
Singing has also been a new activity for me recently. I went with some Chinese friends to a karaoke bar. It was very fun but also interesting for cultural reasons. In Britain, people are often too shy to sing in front of their friends or family but in China everyone gets involved. I hope this is something we can import to Britain as the atmosphere is much more relaxed. My singing practice came in useful as our class had to take part in a Chinese faculty singing competition. We decided to sing ‘Molihua’, a traditional Chinese song which we mixed with some beatboxing, and ‘Let It Go’ from the American animated film ‘Frozen’. We won the award for most entertaining song which was better than we expected!
As my return date quickly approaches, I now have to plan every day to make sure I experience as much as possible. My limited time has encouraged me to take part in new activities, for example staying on a farm with friends by the Great Wall. We drove for a couple hours outside of Beijing and arrived at a very quiet, beautiful and dilapidated section of the wall. Our hosts were extremely friendly and kind, giving us a delicious home cooked meal. That evening, a friend and myself climbed up a steep hill through thick foliage in order to reach the wall to watch the sunset. After an hour of climbing through very painful bushes, we arrived at the wall and saw an amazing sunset. Our joy however quickly became annoyance when we found a path that went straight from the wall to
the farm. It was very useful for returning home but we wish we had known before! The next day we spent 6 hours hiking on the wall which was great exercise, I felt like I had run a marathon afterwards as my legs were so sore. However, the scenery was of course worth the pain.