I arrived in the very gray city of Beijing last Tuesday afternoon and have been slowly acclimating to the time, weather, and life in China (although today I woke up to a gorgeous blue sky - the first since I got here).
I'm participating in The Beijing Center (TBC) that is run through the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE). We spent the first 3 days doing orientation activities: meeting our Chinese host students, going on a tour of campus, and learning more about the program. We also had the opportunity to climb a section of the Great Wall that was supposedly more authentic than some of the touristy locations closer to Beijing. But the best part was getting to ride down in a toboggan at the end.
All of the international students are housed in the same building. The dorm rooms are decent with private, Western-style bathrooms; however the showers have no enclosure, so when you take a shower, the entire bathroom ends up getting soaked. There are 125 students in the program from other Jesuit universities across the US, so there are a lot of people to meet and get to know. I'm the only one from Boston College, but I know several BC students attending a different program at Peking University and plan on meeting up with them later.
This afternoon, I leave on a 2-week trip along the Silk Road. We will travel from East to West and highlights of the trip include: an overnight stay in the Mongolian grasslands, a visit to Shaolin Temple, seeing the terracotta warriors in Xi'an, and riding camels to see the sunrise in the Gobi Desert. It is a trip packed with sight-seeing and traveling that will keep us very busy. We get back on September 12th and then start class the following Monday.
That's just a little update of my study abroad adventure thus far. I'm meeting lots of people who are very excited about China and want to learn more about this amazing country. And even though my knowledge of the Chinese language is very minimal, I've been able to use it several times.
Keep checking here for more updates on my experiences and I look forward to keeping in touch with everyone!
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