China is amazing.

Just thought I'd get that bit out of the way first - basically, I'm loving my time here and the people I've meeting/getting to know. China Fellows are wicked! Anyway, it's been AGES since I last blogged so I feel a bit guilty - 13 days! Terrible. I've just been so stupidly, stupidly busy that I haven't had time - I'm currently typing this out at exactly 2.28am in the morning after coming back from the most amazing Karaoke bar I've ever been to. The place looked like a 5 star hotel! Leather sofas, all-you-can-eat buffet and wide-screen TV for about 30RBM (£3ish) each? And that's including taking a taxi there and back... Wow. London, take note.

Today was our first proper day in Beijing and we still spent quite a bit of time sorting stuff out. We flew for so long my internal body clock was messed up, but I think it's fine now... she says at half two in the morning. Heathrow was fine, Dubai was HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT to the point we thought the plane had crashed and we knew what death felt like, and arriving in Beijing was perfect; we all got through without any hassle. Arriving at about 11pm meant we could only manage to meet some very drunk American students who are staying with us at Beijing Normal University (enough of the "where's the abnormal bit then?" jokes, please) who gave us an impromptu tour of the campus, which ended up being sureal and funny in equal measure. It mainly consisted of loads of random swear words peppered between sentences like: "hey, this is the restaurant... but it's shut right now. And here's where you can sort out your Internet... but that's shut now too. Let's go for beer! Oh, they're shut... maybe we should just wake them up? They sleep in the bar dude, they'll hear us if we're loud enough!" Found out later that they're some sort of Gifted and Talented group of language students from Ivy League Universities - Princeton and Dartmouth. Erm. No comment.

This morning, after finally getting our Internet paid for (we get Hong Kong Google! But Facebook and Twitter and banned... although all the lovely British news websites are ok so that's good). Had quite a bit of time to wander about ourselves before we had out Orientation at 2pm. It only took us one and a half hours to purchase some nice lunch of noodles and these pancake thingies that tasted like eggy bready... well done China Fellows. I have to say though, our group decision-making is pretty atrocious. It seems there are no clear leaders of the group, but none of us are followers either, so we wander aimlessly until someone sucks it up and starts walking somewhere.

After talking to our new teachers and some students studying English at the Uni, we went on an epic tour of the campus, which looked incredible. HUGE, yet beautiful architecture. Have to say though, I’m not so impressed with the amount of stares I’m getting because I’m black – am not too annoyed about it because I can understand that some people genuinely don’t see black people in their day-to-day lives and so I’m obviously a novelty, I just feel so self-conscious. I don’t think I’ve ever  felt like a minority back at home, aka South-East London… funny that. Think I’ve just gotta suck it up, I’m just shocked people are so blatant with their staring – at one point a guy stopped in the middle of the road to look at me. And apparently the English people are rude all the time!

Dinner was really nice; with the help of a lovely student called Bob (well, his English name) about 12 of us managed to get some lovely food at a resturant across the road from the hotel. Due to us all ordering stuff we genuinely had no idea was in, we ended up pushing the boat and splashing out on 30RBM each for out enormous meal. Also managed to have my first odd dish - shredded chicken stomach! In some sort of vegetable thing... it was genuinely nice, but the texture was a bit like rubber bands so I don't think I'll be tasting that anytime soon. Karaoke, as I mentioned before, was fantastic – the Chinese just don’t do anything by halves, do they? Had a lot of fun belting out everything from Bon Jovi’s Livin’ On A Prayer to Pass Out by Tinie Tempah and Barbie Girl by Aqua… yeah, I know. Pretty sure I’ve lost my voice now, obviously the best thing I could have done before the first Mandarin lessons tomorrow… Bridget Fail. Although, who knew N-Dubz were big in China? You learn something new every day.

I just want to say (type) it again: I am in China. Wow. Actually can't believe I'm saying that out loud... well, typing that, but you know what I mean. To be honest it really didn't sink in until long after the initial flight from Heathrow, the stop over in Dubai, the arrival in Beijing until this morning - when I woke up in a strange bed and remembered where I was. The itinerary of stuff we’re doing over the next fortnight is pretty cool – the Great Wall walk, Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square all to come in the nest couple of days. Wicked.

Am going to stop this now, this seems really long and I am so knackered after jumping around all night and singing at the top of my voice. I need to up by 8am! Am also  debating having another shower because of how disgusting I feel… but it would be third of the day and that’s just crazy excessive. For some strange reason having 20 people in a small room + being in Beijing during July + jumping up and down like the happy idiots we are for 3 hours + the air con not working = a very, very hot, sweaty and generally grimy bunch of global fellows. Who woulda thunk it?

As a side note, I'm really loving th Global Fellows I'm with. It seems like we're really jelling... plus, loads of them are minor insomniacs like me so have managed to just been distraced for half hour while finishing this blog by Vivek and Jess who I heard mooching in the corridor... at 2.45am. Funtimes. The next 6 weeks are going to be awesome.

Conversations About China With Fellows: "wow, we made it to the karaoke bar alive!" "I'm actually impressed, the driving was crazy... and we nearly ran over some dog in the road on the way-" "was it grey?" "yes..." WE NEARLY KILLED THE SAME BLOODY DOG TOO!" "maybe we can finally get it on the way back? third time lucky in the Global Fellowship attempt to kill the stupidest dog in China?"

Conversations About China With (American) Friends: "so, you're from England, you're in China for 6 weeks, and you speak no Mandarin?" "erm, yes..." "...cool. Do you know Russell Brand?"

right now I should be:

learning Mandarin.
or ordering my new Mac so it comes before I go to China.
or packing clothes for China.
or simply shopping for China.
or sorting out how I'll receive my A Level results in China.
or writing a spoken word piece on 'Money & Power' for a gig I'm doing on Tuesday.
or exercising because, God knows, I need to.
or ordering the books for Uni that I need to read whilst I'm away.
or, more sensibly, planning gap year schemes because I really screwed over my exams.
or practising how to use chopsticks.
or tidying my REALLY FILTHY BEDROOM.
or helping my Mum fix our oven because it's broken and that's probably my fault.
or planning what to say to my Dad when he realises the oven is broken and it's probably my fault.
or watching the news so I know what's going on in the world.
or reading books/watching films about China so I know what to expect.
or getting my hair done because it looks ridiculous.
or activating my cash passport from the British Council.
or getting dressed up as I'm going out in 2 hours.
or emailing people to say I'm going to be away for 6 weeks...

Instead, I am reading a Terry Pratchett novel that I've read twice before and even watched the play of (it's called 'Nation' and is wicked), despite knowing full well the ending will make my cry. AGAIN.

Epic Bridget Fail.

Things I learnt at the pre-departure long weekend at the British Council:

1 - 100 young people is a lot of young people. I don't think I've ever had to introduce myself quite so many times. I have to say, we all kept awkward silences, followed by "so, erm, what are you doing at Uni?" to a minimum. Things have finally begun to feel real now - I'm going to China! For over 6 weeks! The British Council was amazing by the way, making sure we had loads of opportunities to meet as many of the fellows as possible. Going through the GF facebook page and looking at the folder containing pictures of all 100 of us (lovingly named 'Mugshots'), there are about 25 people I don't think I spoke to and less than 10 I didn't recognise at all. We were mixed up loads of times during the weekend as we did workshops, learnt languages and went to our corporate placements. There was even one GF staffer who knew EVERYONE'S names, and, wait for it, which country we were going to... for all 100 people! Crazy. British Council, a job well done.

2 - China Fellows are the best, obvs. Right, time for some truths to be told. If we got to choose where we went on the Fellowship a few months back, I'm 100% sure I wouldn't have chosen China. Don't attack me - I'm so, so happy I'm going there now, honest! Let me explain: ever since I was really small, like still holding my mum's hand in public small, I've wanted to go to Brazil. More specifically, do a tour of South America, starting with the Inca Trail and ending up trekking the entire length of the Amzaon - as you do. As I've grown older, I've wanted to visit India because I know people from there and I can't think of a culture more removed from my own heritage. So when I first got my congratulatory email, for the teeniest, tiniest, most minute milisecond I was a little bit disappointed that I wasn't going to the other countries. But about a second later it kind of sunk in, I WAS GOING TO CHINA AND IT WOULD DEFINATELY BE AMAZING. Now I know exactly why I'm going there: us China Fellows are the best. I think I've met everyone coming, and I can't wait to spend 6 weeks of my life getting to know everyone. British Council, a job well done part 2.

3 - Inter-Fellowship Rivalry has already begun. Initial reactions: The 30 Brazil Fellows are the ones most up for a party, the ones best at picking up the language and doing the tasks, and possibly the most dramatic - when they get sick in Rio they'll say they're dying, and when they have a good time they'll go all out. Psychic Bridget also predicts they'll also have the most romances. They also have the tallest fellows out of everyone, which is probably because they'd scare the diminutive Chinese people if they came East. Thinking about it actually, height probably wasn't even considered; there are two China Fellows who stand at a MASSIVE 6'4" and 6'6"... although, they'll be usefull to help guide the rest of us if we ever get lost. Note to self - become well acquainted with the back of people's heads so I can follow them easily in a crowd. The India Fellows are definately the most sensible. They're also the ones who are mostly doing economics/politics/maths and all those other head-hurting subjects, but who are taking the most gap years. I also think they're the most attractive overall (I'm only being honest!), and they were the ones who dessed the best when we had to go to our corporate placements. I actually think that's why they're being split up into groups of 10 two weeks in; too much perfectness in one place is a little bit sickening... just a thought. China fellows? All 40 of us (the biggest group!) are AWESOME of course, but also the loudest and the most likely to speak without thinking. Am guessing we'll be the ones who'll mess up the most, get lost the most and speak without thinking more than the others... oh dear. But we're still awesome! I think the other fellows hate us just a bit - probably because anytime someone mentioned the word China, we all became football hooligans and gave a weird yell/cheer of appreciation. The Brazil fellows tried to cheer but failed, the India fellows didn't even attempt to rep their endz... China for the win.

4 - I'm probably going to die in China. If I don't accidently insult someone's mother in my horrible Mandarin, I'll probably say something politically insensitive like (whisper it) "Taiwan and Hong Kong are part of China, aren't they?" and get thrown in jail. Or possibly starve to death - my chopstick use is as shit as my language skills, ie, pretty rubbish. If all that fails, at the very least my social life will keel over and die a quick but painful death - no Facebook in China? What? And no Twitter either! Mentioned that to someone at the de-brief and they were like "you use Twitter?" - well, YES I DO. An extra special shout-out by the way to Lilly and Adam, who with me make up the THREE people out of 100 who tweet. All three of us are China Fellows, obviously... I told you the China folk were talkative. We're also the ones who have blogged the most, write the longest blogs (is that a good thing though? probably not) and spoke to each other the most before we met... see point no. 2, China fellows are the best. Overall, I actually had a lot of fun throughout the de-brief, and the whole thing has made me stupidly excited to leave muggy Londontown and head for the smog and sunshine of Beijing and Shanghai. 12 days to go! I have so much to do though, and my To-Do List is becoming more epic by the minute...

Conversations About China With (New) Friends: "where are you going to?" "Brazil" "that's amazing! I'm off to China" "Oh. You're the guys who Facebook a lot, aren't you? And have talked to each other already?" "AND WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT?"

It is 3.21am. I have to be at the British Council in about 7 hours, causing me to feel that emotion you get when there is literally no hope of getting the recommended 8hrs of sleep; a strange mixture of exhaustion, and self-deprication. I am currently packing my overnight (well, three night) bag, whilst simultaneously watching Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, practising how to introduce myself in Mandarin and paiting my toenails as it's going to be hot tomorrow and I want to wear sandals. This, sadly, is what I am like. Procrastinator extrordinaire, the only thing I've done recently at the right time was get excited about going to China, and I didn't even manage to do that right, jumping the gun and getting hyped too early. Did I calmly keep my glee in check until after my A-Levels were done? Or did I instead tweet/facebook about how amazing the trip is going to be when I should have been revising? Have a feeling you can guess the answer.

Anyway, I just though it would be good to do a blog before I went for the (newly renamed) Global Fellowship pre-departure de-brief. Aka when I meet the other 99 fellows, including the 39 others who are coming with me (actually, I'll probably go with them, directions aren't my forte) to Beijing via Dubai, then Shanghai. We'll be off in 19 days for almost seven weeks... 19 days!  Here's hoping I'll enough time to improve on my alarmingly terrible Mandarin. I shouldn't be shocked, my D in GCSE Spanish is mocking me from the depths of the file my Mum keeps as a record of my school 'achievements'.

Am very excited about meeting the fellow fellows mainly because I've got 80% of them on facebook and it's weird we haven't met face-to-face. Am beginning to feel a bit like one of those 'young people' on the news who retell stories of meeting dodgy old men online because I have no solid proof they are who they say they are. Am also looking forward to finishing packing and going to bed. Am even more exicted about the fact I'm going to the Perople's Republic of China in a very whort while, but I am not excited that tomorrow I will embarrass myself when I attempt to speak some Mandarin. Will blog again properly when I'm not sleep-deprived and chatting nonsense... although maybe not - I chat nonsense a fair bit and if it's not 3.30am I won't have a decent excuse. Will end this with a couple of quotes from my friends, who still are baffled that I'm going to the East for so long:

Conversations About China With Friends: "I need to watch some Chinese films for my Fellowship thing, preferably anything quite cultural? "Memoirs of a Geisha, I really loved that movie!" "that would be wicked, but it's actually Japanese..." "oh, maybe try the book then?"