Week 4 – We’re residents!

Big start to this week as Monday was St Patrick's Day! Initially, I suspected that nothing much would come of it as Northern Ireland seems to be too small to be on China's radar and they don't generally celebrate our holidays. Thankfully, I was very wrong.

Canton goes green

Our friend, Julia (a former exchange student from China who studied at Stranmillis last year), invited us to a St Patrick's Day celebration at the Canton Tower, needless to say, we were curious. We arrived that evening to find that the Canton Tower had been turned green for the entire day and some festivities were being held beneath it. The first of these that we witnessed was a Scottish man playing bagpipes (close enough). Once everything got going, there was a great atmosphere that actually did remind us all of home and fill us with laughs.

The first surprise of the night came in the format of a local news reporter hearing that there were some actual Irish people at the event and swiftly coming over to interview us individually about the event and how it compared to life back home.

The second surprise came in the form of two guitarists performing on stage. This was normal enough in itself, it was when Julia went "Adam, you play guitar, you sing, why don't you get up?", Now I admit, I really do miss my guitar back home but this was a proper event and I was not up for getting up in front of around 100 strangers and singing. Julia decided to ignore me and get the manager who was delighted to hear that there was an Irish guitarist and insisted that I performed. So I did, performing "Wagon Wheel" by Old Crow Medicine Show and "Ooh La La" by The Faces. I figured I might regret it later if I didn't and looking back, it was great fun and a great end to the night. I am very grateful for the opportunity to play music whenever I can.

"Music is the universal language of mankind" - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Lloyd getting into the spirit!

Me, hurting people's ears.

The next day, it was arranged for us to meet a class of about 30, extremely excitable English major students. They were fantastic, they had prepared a big presentation for us, sang to us and played some games – they were so grateful for the chance to talk to us. We have agreed to prepare something for them next week in return – hopefully we can match their performance and atmosphere!

This week finally saw us getting our residents permits after weeks of going between offices and filling out forms. We are now official “Foreign Residents of China”. This opens up a few doors for us as it gives our visa multiple entries – maybe a cheeky trip to Hong Kong in the near future!

Class ended this week with a field trip with our culture lecturer – Henry. He took us to his sister in laws’ tea house “Taetea” and bought us all some very fancy tea – we even had our own personal tea brewer/pourer! This was our last week with Henry and he pointed out that “This is real culture – tea with friends!” – looks like we aren't so different after all! 

This man knows how to do a lecture!

We love tea!

Thanks for reading, guys!
Adam.