Hi, my name’s Katherine and I'm a third year medical student from Cambridge University in England. I'm specialising in neuroscience next year, and I've spent my summer here working in Professor Yang’s lab in the MedX building on Xuhui campus. I love to travel and have always been interested in China, but didn't speak any Mandarin before coming here so was pretty worried about how I'd manage to get around! I needn't have worried -  from fellow passengers on the tube to the amazing girls in my lab, there's always someone around ready to lend a hand when you're stuck. I’ve had the opportunity to  participate in an unbelievably diverse range of projects, learning techniques from optogenetic modification to synchrotron imaging to microsurgery. As well as learning a huge amount in the lab, I ate my way with watering eyes through Schezuan hotpots, blood tofu and cow intestines; braved my fear of heights to climb the pearl tower (see above); and most importantly, finally learnt how to avoid covering myself with hot soup from Shanghai’s famous xiaolongbao. Whilst I still use chopsticks ‘like a three year old Chinese kid’ according to my buddy, I can only see that as a reason to return to Shanghai for more practice - it's been an amazing summer and I wish I could do it all over again.