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Published: February 8th 2008
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First off, Beijing is very smoggy. Sometimes I find it hard to breathe but it’s not too terrible. Hopefully it won’t become too big of a problem in the coming months.
People on this program are amazing so far. Last night we had dinner as a group at the dining hall where we were served cheese pizza. Quite the change from our American cuisine we were all so used to. However, it was in fact, a different taste. I also learned how to say Coca-Cola in Chinese (“cuu-leuh”). The language barrier is already prevalent but I believe it will serve an even greater reward in the end. I just hope I don’t get lost anywhere yet without any knowledge of the campus, let alone the language. Although, there are several English speaking students here aside from our program.
We met some Tsinghua students today as well. They were incredibly open and willing to help us feel more comfortable in such a foreign place. They offered to take us around the campus, help us get cell phones, buy a good, inexpensive bike. Colleen and I broke off from the large group of kids going to the bike shop only because
we wanted to explore a little more and venture off without the overwhelming sense of a crowd. We got a little lost on the way to Wal-Mart (we actually never found it) but met some interesting people. We stopped in this little restaurant that seemed to be a knock-off McDonald’s and came to find that it was, in fact, a McDonald’s faux pas. I completely forgot there were no copyright laws here in China.
Chris has been here for seven months teaching a class. He was at Brown University before he came to Tsinghua. Chris was very smart but he drooled while eating his shake-n-bake drumstick from “QQ”. But a very helpful person, indeed. He did point out that we “couldn’t hide” anywhere because of how American we looked which was a little bit of a reality check for us two wide-eyed American girls.
Soon, we were back on track headed toward the East Gate (which later became the South Gate due to a wrong turn). We reached the edge of campus and we both felt a sense of accomplishment for getting around on our own with no tour guide or language advantage. It was a small step
that later will be seen as somewhat ridiculous and miniscule in comparison to places and people we will see but we were proud in that moment.
There was an even greater sense of adventure and curiosity as we left the gates and entered the small city right outside of Tsinghua. Shopping was fun and exploring a new foreign city was even better. We stopped to grab some food then we went into this little marketplace called Lotus Center. I bargained for a camera which was scary at first because it was the first time I had done it here and it was fun! Apparently I have a knack for it because I got a camera from 2,279 RMB down to 1,700 RMB. In USD, that’s about $200 (1700 RMB).
We had a meeting with Caroline today. It was our first one to introduce us into the program. She gave a very touching speech about how we are a family. We need to look out for each other and be there for one another when needed. I felt so much more at home when she said these things because I believe it made us really consider why we’re all here. We all realized that we are here for the same reasons. We want to learn about a completely different culture and we want to envelop ourselves in something out of our element. China is culturally known to be different and while it is studied intricately in our classrooms, I feel it is still so undiscovered by our generation. We listen to our teachers in high school talk about the Terra Cotta soldiers and the Great Wall of China but we only see pictures. This trip will put me directly in that history. It’s something I could never have imagined myself doing and I am so excited to live this now.
I learned that Tsinghua is the top university in China. Peking is number two. Tsinghua is considered to be the MIT of China and rapidly becoming a growing superpower in academic excellence. In fact, the chairman of China was a Tsinghua graduate and four of the nine administrators in the government are Tsinghua grads. Learning these intense facts made me realize two things: (1) I’m walking among some of the brightest minds in the world when I walk through campus, and (2) this will be the hardest semester of my college career. I’m ready to accept this challenge but there is always the fear of failure in situations such as this one. However, I believe with the help of friends and family, I’ll pull it off. I got on the plane to Beijing - that, to me, was the hardest part.
Tonight, we played cards with Alex and Katie (two of the Tsinghua students we met today). We taught them how to play Bullshit but instead of saying “bullshit” whenever someone bluffed, we would say “shwa-lie” which translated to “liar” or “cheater” in Chinese. It was a lot of fun and we learned a little more Chinese as well. We only used Chinese numbers when laying cards down. Amanda was really good at the game. I like her a lot because she’s got this spunk to her. Ashley and Ryan were good too. Alex and I were terrible and Katie couldn’t bluff to save her life. Quite funny.
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