Hello everyone! Another week has passed here in Beijing (also I knoooow this post is late… sorry!!! I don’t really have an excuse other than being busy out of my mind and sick with a cold the last couple days, but I’ll try to keep posting weekly), which is wild. I know I keep saying this, but the weeks really are passing faster and faster as time goes on. Before I know it I’ll be on a plane back to the USA. But until that fateful day, I’m enjoying my time here in China, and working hard to make my time abroad the best it can be.
This week was an unusual week. Coming off the heels of last week’s 7 days of class, it was nice to get a break from the routine and pressures of school. I spent the week alternating between seeing places around Beijing and spending time with host family (and host family friends), which was very very fun! Some highlights from the week were:
- Seeing the Summer Palace! I visited the Summer Palace with my host sister and her friend on Monday (which was amazing and full of different kinds of nature). We rode a boat on beautiful Kunming Lake, wandered around the Summer Palace’s many paths, and (accidentally) went on a hike up a hill. Apple maps (mis)directed us up a mountain as we tried to exit the Summer Palace, which ended in us climbing for 20 minutes, making it to the top of the hill, realizing we were actually fairly close to the exit we were looking for, and making it out before we had too many more crazy adventures.
- National Day Celebrations. So the other name for Golden Week is National Week, because on October 1st, China celebrates their National Day. It’s kind of like the American Fourth of July Holiday, and since it’s the 70th anniversary of the founding of China, National Day was a very big deal this year!!! There was a massive parade in the morning, which I watched on TV at my host grandparents’ house. There was also a big cultural celebration in the evening, which was very festive and entertaining to watch. I ate a lot of delicious Chinese food on National Day (courtesy of my host grandpa), watched a loooooooot of TV, and altogether had a very fun time.
- Going everywhere in Beijing with my host mom. Okay- maybe everywhere is a bit of an overstatement. But over the course of 3 days of exploring Beijing together, we visited:
- 3 Parks
- 1 Big Square (Tiananmen Square, which was full of people and just as giant as I remember)
- 1 Temple (I forgot the name of it)
- 2 Famous Food Streets (Wangfujing and Qianmen, both of which had very tasty food)
- More historical sites than I’d ever be able to count.
All in all, it was a very fun and 满意 (satisfying/full) week in Beijing. I have to admit, I’m a little sad to get back to the grind of tingxies and classes and waking up at 6:30 AM. But hey- I’m not just here to explore, I’m here to learn! And I have amazing NSLI-Y 朋友们 (friends) who make the whole adventure more fun and bearable than I could’ve ever imagined.
In other news, I’m officially a whole NSLI-Y summer program into my time here in Beijing! It’s really remarkable how different I feel at this point now than I did on the summer program. I don’t know if it’s the permanence of being here in China for a year, or the fact that we’re together learning Chinese (practically) 24/7, but I really feel at home in this NSLI-Y cohort. Plus, I’m learning sosososo much by being in class 9-10 hours a day, which is really improving my language level. I can’t wait to see what the next 5 (and a half) summer programs will bring, both for my language level and for my experience here in Beijing in general. It’s a looong adventure, but I’m ready for the ride. 🙂
My China Adventure 