Ni hao China!

It’s fitting that a Chinese philosopher said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” In my Chinese journey, I feel like the past few days have been the tiniest baby step into what is ahead for me. The anticipation and nerves that I felt so greatly before leaving has grown into this feeling of excitement for whatever will come my way.

I left from Chicago on Wednesday, January 16 at 12:30pm and arrived in Beijing on Thursday January 17 at 4pm. I was really happy that Michelle and Sarah (the other DePaul girls) were on my flight because I knew if anything went wrong, I was not alone. When we arrived the director of our program was waiting for us at the airport. A few more students started arriving and the whole concept of studying abroad started to click in. Everyone was really friendly and excited to meet each other and get to the university and settle in.

Tsinghua University is huge. There are over 20,000 students including 12,000 undergrads. All students and many of the staff live on campus so you can imagine, the university is like a small town. This is exciting to me since DePaul’s campus is so small and this is how I’ve always thought a college campus is supposed to be like. The people who go here are among the brightest in the country. The current president of China is a Tsinghua graduate. Caroline, our program director, was telling us that for a town to send a young adult to Tsinghua is a very honorable achievement. Caroline stressed how hard the Chinese students work and how we are expected to take that work ethic as our own as well. She said this would probably be the most difficult semester of our student life. When the semester begins, we will be taking four hours of Mandarin a day alongside two or three other classes taught in English. Yikes!

When I chose China it was kind of on a whim. I’ve always been interested in the country when it came up in class discussions. When people talk about human rights in factories, I immediately vow to never shop at Wal-Mart again. Books or articles on globalization never fail to mention the influence of China’s rise in power in the global market. And this all fascinates me. But I never really took the time to understand it. And I’ve always wanted to understand it more. I’ve been lucky enough to travel a lot. My passport is my pride and joy. I’ve met lots of people with different perspectives and opinions. I’ve seen great monuments and historical sites that have opened my eyes to different cultures and ways of life. Everywhere I’ve gone has always made me more curious to how we are all connected on this massive level.

But, I’ve never gone somewhere so foreign. As far as I know, I’ve never been a minority. So when the decision had to be made over where I wanted to spend five months of my life studying abroad, I knew I wanted to do something different. I hesitated a lot in the process, and thanks to several supportive friends and family telling me I could do it, here I am!

My first impression of Beijing is that it’s really dirty. Polluted is an understatement. At least at my university, the streets are clean and there are always people taking care of the roads and sidewalks, but the air is just thick and constantly smoggy. It’s supposed to get nicer as the seasons change, but it’s winter now and it’s very apparent. Today when we were biking, we looked up to the sky and saw the sun. Hard to imagine this same sun is tanning people in the Bahamas because it was so covered by fog that it was barely noticeable. I thought more people would speak English. Even asking for directions in the university is really difficult because nobody seems to speak a word of English. It’s a frustrating feeling to know that there is so much more I need to learn before I will feel like I fit in here. My friend Emily and I were walking around campus and into town a little yesterday and we couldn’t believe how hard it was to get our bearings. We’re both well-traveled people and know what it takes to get acquainted with a new place, but this is unlike anything we’ve ever done. Just as we got down on ourselves for feeling under-prepared we realized that we have five months here for a reason. It’s supposed to be foreign and incomprehensible from the start. There are supposed to be days that we feel dumb and helpless, but there will be even more days that we will feel proud of ourselves for learning something new. After walking around for an hour or so, we finally found the mall and bought hair dryers. To us, that was a really great accomplishment. In a few weeks, that will seem like nothing; but that’s the joy of the journey.

All that said, I’m so happy to be here. The 19 students in our group have an energy like nothing I’ve ever been a part of. As Caroline was saying, it takes an adventurous spirit to choose Beijing, and with that comes some pretty outgoing people. We have all grouped together to help each other out. With the help of some Chinese students at Tsinghua, we all have cell phones and bikes and a pretty good idea of where we are around campus. Everything we experience is something we’re all doing for the first time. There are some people who speak Chinese or have lived or traveled in China before, but this is still new to them too. You know how every year there are those crazy people who run into Lake Michigan or other freezing bodies of water for charity. At the surface, it’s not a pleasant idea. I feel like the 19 of us are those people. We’re just getting ready to run into the water. We’ve been told the temperature and we know it’s going to be cold. But the adrenaline is kicking and we all know our reasons for doing it. And most importantly, we’re running in together and we’re having a blast as we go.

Until next time, zai jian!

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