If you've read my latest post Travelled So Far, you'll know where I've been. Now it's a matter of where I'll go. I don't mean career wise, just travel. The employment post will be coming though so keep your eyes peeled.


So. What travel time do I have left? Well I have 2 long weekends, regular weekends (if I can make it happen) and of course the summer after work. Let's start with the weekends.

My travel experience so far has taught me that for weekend trips, you really shouldn't try and cram in too much stuff or travel too far. Travelling too far takes up a lot of the time and doing too much stuff will just be exhausting. So, I think it's best to choose places which are close and can easily be done in a weekend (unlike Beijing or Shanghai). I have some ideas. I don't know what order they'll come in but hopefully I'll get round to them all.

The first place is Huangshan (Yellow Mountains).

Photo by All Roads Travelled

Huangshan is situated fairly close to Shanghai. I've found a trip on Meet Up which sounds great. It doesn't fall on a long weekend but that doesn't really matter to me. In the itinerary it says that they'll be hiking up the mountain (or you can get a cable car half way and walk the rest), take incredible photos, stay on the mountain tops, wake up early to see the sun rise and then return down. It's not an easy hike (and I'm not exactly fit) but it just looks so fantastic that I'm willing to try. Check out some of the google images, it's beautiful and I really would love to go there (even if it does mean sweating my arse off). Find out more about Huangshan here.

The second place is Jeju island.

Photo by buildingSMART

Jeju is a volcanic island in South Korea. It's about an hour and a half flight from Shanghai, so really close and accessible. The pictures of Jeju look incredible (click here to see) and there's plenty to do. It's definitely an outdoorsy place with plenty of walks and beautiful scenery. It's not called the Hawaii of South Korea for nothing. It's volcano and famous lava tubes are a world heritage site, but Jeju has a lot more to offer than just scenery. It has an interesting fishing history. Fishing was of course a male dominated industry up until the 17th century, where Haenyeo (sea women) were discovered in Jeju. In Jeju, sea diving was a female-dominated industry and women often replaced their husbands as the main breadwinner. The Haenyeo were described as women with 'independent spirit, iron will and determination'. I would love to go to Jeju and learn more about their history and how this flip of women as primary labourers has influenced their culture. I'd like to go on our second long weekend, the dragon boat festival, when the weather will be better.


There's a great looking trip with Meet Up to Suichang.

Photo by China Scenic

Suichang is in Zhejiang province right next to Shanghai. The trip is two nights on the May Day long weekend. On this trip I'll get to: walk through tea fields (and hopefully pick some tea), hike through the green valleys (rice fields), hike up Qianfo mountain, go river rafting and hike through a bamboo forrest. The travel company will also arrange a hotel, our meals, they will guide us around and organise bonfire parties in the evening. Sounds like a great weekend to me! I'm really excited for it and I really hope I can go. If you want to know more about the trip, click here.

There's also Hangzhou.

Photo by China Highlights

Hey everyone! I know that a lot of you who are considering teaching in China are mainly going for the travel opportunities. I know I was. So in this post I'll be telling you all of the travelling I've actually been able to do (where I've been, how long did I spend there, was it enough time etc.). In my next blog post I'll be sharing my future travel plans with you too! This post won't include activities in Shanghai since I will be writing a post about my favourite things to do here as well. Also, as soon as I finish my contract, I'll be posting an article called "Are We Really Paid to Travel" which may be a big interest for those who are considering teaching in Shanghai. It'll be noteworthy, so hang on, it's coming!

Anyway, this will probably be a lengthy post, so I suggest you grab a cuppa and have a sit down...

1. Nanjing- 1 night (12/13th Nov. 2016)

Was it enough time? No where near enough time here. Getting up so early meant that we were all exhausted and didn't have much energy to do anything in the evening. Maybe try to spend at least 4-5 days here if you go. There's so much to do and see!

2. Laos- 15 nights (Chinese New Year: 8/23 Jan.)




3. Guangzhou- 3 nights (Chinese New Year: 24/27 Jan.)





4. Hong Kong - 3 nights (Chinese New Year: 27/30 Jan.)





5. Foshan - 3 nights (Chinese New Year: 30 Jan/2 Feb.)

   



6. Tokyo - 8 nights (Chinese New Year: 3/10 Feb.)





7. Beijing - 2 nights (Tomb Sweeping Weekend: 2/4 Apr.)

I'm so excited to be writing this post. For a while now I've been trying to find my 'signature scent'. I read somewhere a while a go that being associated with a beautiful and familiar scent is really comforting to those you know. The more I thought about it the more I loved the idea of having a signature scent, it sounds so chic! I've hunted high and low for the perfect perfume. I really loved the Stella McCartney perfume but it reminds me too much of going out a lot when I was younger (and being ill the next day), and obviously Chanel No. 5 is a favourite but I felt that everybody wears that.

This led me to purchasing my very first Jo Malone fragrance (for myself). I've bought a few bottles as gifts, and they really are a lovely gift if you can fork out on one. I think the favourite scent is Pomegranate Noir which does smell absolutely fantastic, but like the Chanel perfume I didn't just want to follow the crowd. I wanted my absolute favourite fragrance. I never actually thought I'd buy a Jo Malone perfume for myself, it seemed too luxury. But then, one fateful day in Selfridges, London, the encouraging words of "go on, treat yourself" (in my head sounding like Donna and Tom from Parks and Recreation) led me to my favourite perfume to date: Amber and Lavender.

At the counter I was favouring light floral smells or more citrus-y/fresh smells. Don't even talk to me about "woody" smells, I do not want to smell like the bark of an elm tree thanks. I never ever would have normally picked up a 'spicy' scent. In my head this would smell to winter-y in the summer, but this is absolutely beautiful an all-year-round smell, very wearable for everyday, but also a beautifully luxurious fragrance. Jo Malone describes it as: French lavender and petitgrain bring a fresh luminosity to precious amber. Cultivated and cosmopolitan. There is literally no better description than this.

There's no denying that Jo Malone is incredibly expensive, but really all perfume is... isn't it? It was £42 for 30ml- scary I know, but also extremely justified. I think, if you really have found your signature scent like I have it's definitely worth it. I love Jo Malone because of the huge amount of choice and matching products (body cream, bubble bath, candles...) and more than anything the lasting power. It's enough to use 2 sprays in the morning and you'll be set for the day. The smell is so incredibly powerful that you don't need much and it wears absolutely beautifully through the day. So £42 doesn't seem so much any more. I only bought the 30ml because I wanted to make sure that I wear it enough (which I'm sure I will). That way I can either repurchase a larger bottle or try a new fragrance! Either way, I'm definitely on my way to finding my signature scent. I'd love to know what your favourite perfumes are to see if there's anything I need to try. Please let me know in the comments below. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed.

So it's been a while. In fact I haven't posted anything this year, not since November 2014.I have thought about it, but I've never quite got round to it or I haven't felt up to it. There's a few reasons why. First of all, I got fed up of it, not bored or anything but I guess my interest changed. I didn't quite know what I wanted to write about, I haven't found my niche. Also, I stopped reading blogs. I still watched vlogs, but I just stopped reading and so I sort of felt out of the loop and not quite with everything.
I'm just going to come out and say it. For the past couple of months I haven't felt myself and to be honest it's been really hard. I'm not saying it as some big sob story but it's something I wanted to get off my chest. I've always had pretty bad anxiety through life it's just the type of person I am but this year it's really got on top of me and made me not want to do anything. I've really pushed myself to still be myself, but it's just made me so miserable. In more recent weeks I haven't wanted to do anything. Anxiety through the roof, panic attacks and bad moods. It really hasn't been great. But I think more than anything I need to just get myself back into the things I used to enjoy, blogging being one of them.
Anxiety just made the little things a lot harder: going to lectures, assignments, working on weekends, weekly shopping, driving home. So anything extra just seemed to be really difficult, there was no way I could push myself more than I felt comfortable. In my head, my daily life had just seems to grow. Like everything that I had to do was a much bigger deal than before, and I found myself making myself worry because it felt normal. I had a very difficult relationship with the anxiety, but now I feel like I'm getting back on top of it.
To make me feel a bit more inspired I've decided to give this space a bit of re-vamp. I have a new interactive design which has taken me absolutely ages to install and personalise. It's still not quite done, but I'm incredibly proud of it so far (since I had to learn about all the codes and design graphic-y stuff myself) so I was too excited not to share it with you now! Eventually everything will look clearer and run a lot smoother, but for now this will do.
I'm not committing to this completely. I'm only going to post when I get time and when I feel like it. But I think trying to get some posts down might help me to distract myself. So, if there's any suggestions for posts I would love to hear them. What's your favourite thing to read on a blog? I personally love baking posts, organisation posts and short stories or poetry because I can be a bit of a nerd sometimes.
I really hope I can post some more soon, and I hope you will all enjoy reading them again.