The Story
Big in Beijing
你好!
I am currently spending a semester in Beijing, China where I am learning about a whole new culture through complete immersion. I currently live on the campus of Peking University. I quickly discovered how much I love this city.
At the same time I realized the value of the following:
• Soft beds,
• Fluffy pillows,
• Milk,
• Cheese,
• Clean tap water,
• Clean air,
• Washing machines,
• Drying machines,
• Clothes softener,
• Even ground,
• Calcium in general,
• The sun.
One cool thing I have done in Beijing is play badminton at the Olympic stadium, which is conveniently located on campus!
The hall itself was pretty sweet. "Beijing 2008" was everywhere, reminding me of the greatness that occurred a few months ago. My friends and I felt pretty inferior when the Chinese badminton players played next to us. While we fumbled and tripped, they threw the little birdie back and forth in such a graceful fashion.
I have classes three times a week where I take 9 hours of Chinese. I also take a business class and a Sino-American class, and I work at an internship twice a week.
I work at Horizon China, a well known research and consulting group that has an office here in Beijing and in Shanghai. I am currently working on a project that studies how Chinese students would respond to studying abroad in the U.S. with Parson’s School of Design.
I also conduct two hours of English tutoring for the office. It’s a pretty neat internship; however, my co-workers are more than eager to feed me their most unique dishes during lunch time, like raw cow stomach.
Despite the fake government-controlled snow storms and the dusty winds that overtake Beijing in the spring, life here is a pleasing adventure.
Every night I go to sleep with a sense of accomplishment because I learn a new skill almost everyday. These skills could be as simple as learning the subway route or as complex as mastering bargaining skills.
Beijing is definitely shaping a new person out of me.
Until the next update... 再见!
Image: MK Media Productions and jimg944 via Flickr, under a Creative Commons license.