Thomas Henry

What can I say about Shanghai? When I decided to go to China with Teaching & Projects Abroad, I must admit I did not really know what I was letting myself in for. Would I be stuck in a tiny little Chinese flat, with nothing to do and language I did not understand.

I shouldn't have worried. The Teaching & Projects Abroad staff were full of kindness and this was carried on by all the other Teaching & Projects Abroad volunteers who went out of their way to make me feel at home. In Shanghai there was a real sense of comradeship, when a new volunteer arrived we would make sure one of us was there to met him/her at the flat and then we would make sure we made them feel at ease. That is one of the best things about doing a Teaching & Projects Abroad project, the chance to forge long and lasting friendships.

I did a Law program, and this involved me working for Lehman, Lee & Xu (a Chinese law firm). The work was very interesting, at times challenging and gave me a good insight into the day-to-day running of a law firm. My boss was a fairly young Canadian guy and he was brilliant - trying to get me involved in the more interesting cases and regularly asking me how it was going and if I had any problems.

However, one of the real highlights, and one which I must admit I was not expecting, was the nightlife. We had a regular night out on Thursday nights, where one club had free drinks for ladies all night, so this was the time where us blokes called in all our favours from the girls! Then there was our other regulars: Face, a trendy but fairly expensive (when compared to some other places where they had 8p beers from Sunday to Wednesday!) bar and Play, who had the friendliest staff who we became friends with as well as the best chicken wings in the world!

All in all I had amazing experience in China. After Shanghai I travelled around some of China (it's a big place!) with some of the friends I had made. I had amazing experiences, not all brilliant - food poisoning while on a boat trip down the Yangtze was not fun! - but pretty much all of the others were. The time I had in China really opened my mind to other cultures and other ways of life. But it was not all about this, it was also about making friends and having a completely awesome time!

Thomas Henry