Great Wall Reflections

Last month, TBC organized a trip to go see the Great Wall at Mutianyu (this is the same location that we went to at the beginning of Fall semester with the toboggan that you can ride down to the bottom). Since it was a "free" trip (paid for by my tuition - Thanks Mom and Dad!), I decided to take the opportunity to go see the Great Wall one more time.

  

And this time, it was completely different.

No longer in my honeymoon period with China, I was not the naive tourist buying overpriced souvenirs from vendors along the walk to the Great Wall. I did not purchase the expensive toboggan ticket and decided to get more exercise by walking back down.  I was not snapping pictures left and right. Instead, I brought my iPod and a book and walked along the Wall and listened to music before finding a quite place to sit in the sun and read for a little.

And then I started reflecting.

I cannot tell you how weird, awesome, and complete it felt to be sitting back in the place that my entire study abroad experience started. When I first went to the Great Wall at Mutianyu, I was still forming new friendships with people I had met just days before. I was super excited to start on our Silk Road trip and get to see more parts of China. I was beginning to get comfortable with the idea of living in this strange and intriguing place for the next 9 months.

Little did I know at that time, I would travel in, out, and throughout China multiple times through my adventures on the Silk Road, Guilin, Nanjing, Suzhou, Shanghai, Yunnan, Vietnam, and Thailand. I am still planning more adventures for this summer with weekend trips to (hopefully!) South Korea, Hangzhou, Harbin, Xinjiang (Kashgar) and back to Guilin possibly when Dad and Oliver come to visit in June.

Little did I know that I would be leaving here with SO much (even TOO much) knowledge about China, its politics, economics, culture, history, etc. That I would get an internship at the United Nations World Food Programme as an undergraduate student and get a UN document published under my name. That I would fall in love with this country so much that I would extend my trip an extra 2 months in order to take full advantage of the opportunity of living, studying, and just being here.

Little did I know I would be forging friendships and relationships with people (Chinese and foreigners) that would last far beyond my return trip back to the United States. And that goodbyes are sometimes the most bittersweet endings.

Most of all, I had NO idea how much I would learn about myself. My limits, my flaws. The things I need to work on, the things I am sure of. What my goals are for the future, what I'm doing in the present. Being true to myself and being flexible to adapt to things that are out of my comfort zone. And I hope that this personal growth process continues this summer when I have the time to think about and process everything that I've gone through these past 2 semesters.

Once I get through finals (ahh!!), I will be smooth sailing until July 21 when I return to America: continuing my internship at the UN, tutoring English to kids and adults to make some money, studying and keeping up on my Chinese on the side, and exploring Beijing without the stress of school/classes. I'm staying with a young Chinese couple in their apartment right outside my school campus and if I help them practice English, I don't have to pay rent!

Dad and O come in the middle of June for 10 days and I get to show them what has been my "home" since last August. Apart from that, I'm still enjoying my time here immensely. Checking off that list of "Things I MUST Do Before Leaving China" and making sure I take advantage of everything I can while I'm still here.

The only thing I'm a little scared about is the return home to the States and the potential "reverse culture shock" that could befall me like it has some of my friends from last semester who returned home. However, I think (and hope) that my excitement about seeing my family, friends, and returning to BC will overpower any doubts or problems I may face.

  

Spring Break '09: THAILAND

As the spring semester is winding down here (1 week left before finals!), I thought I'd let you know about some MORE traveling I did at the end of March/beginning of April.

For Spring Break, TBC organizes an optional trip to Sichuan, where the main focal point of the trip is to see huge Buddha sculptures and hold baby pandas (which you have to pay hundreds of dollars to do). However, seeing as we heard previous Sichuan trips weren't very fun compared to other TBC trips and I'm not much of an animal person (I can see a panda in almost any zoo), my friends and I decided to forgo the planned trip and spend our Spring Break on our own discovering THAILAND.

 

[Turns out this was a VERY good decision as the Sichuan trip was plagued with rainy weather, cold temperatures, and food poisoning contracted by 90% of the group.]

5 of my friends and I flew down to Bangkok where we stepped off the plane into hot and humid weather - something we haven't experienced since arriving in Beijing last August. We spent 1.5 days in Bangkok: staying in cheap hostels, eating cheap and delicious street food (pad thai and spring rolls being sold on the streets), and being asked constantly if we wanted to see a "Ping Pong" show (no thanks, I'll pass).

 

We stayed on "Backpackers Street," which was full of foreigners - including gross, old, white men with young Thai girls EVERYWHERE. We got over that scene really quick (too touristy and fake) and toured around the city in tuk-tuks. We were driven from temple to temple, getting ripped off each time because we were all too busy with midterms to do any research beforehand. But it all worked out and we found a travel agency that set up roundtrip transportation to Kochang Island off the southeast coast of Thailand.

Upon our arrival on Kochang, the owners of the hotel that the agency had booked for us (The Souk) picked us up at the dock and drove us a quick 5 minutes to their establishment: a group of several bungalows situated RIGHT on the beach on the quieter, less touristy, and more local side of the island. Besides one other guest, we were the only ones there, so we pretty much had our own private bungalows on our own private beach.

 

 

The owners were incredible and set up elephant trekking and snorkeling adventures for us, including providing transportation into the city areas so we didn't have to pay for cab fares (cabs were trucks where you sat in the bed and held on for dear life when speeding up the windy hills). We relaxed on the beaches, swam in the blue water, saw coral reefs, rode atop HUGE elephants (and swam with them too!), and enjoyed home-cooked Thai food - my favorite!

 

             

The vacation was a greatly needed break from school and homework. And after our return from Thailand, we were relaxed, rejuvenated, (TAN!), and ready to face the last five weeks of our study abroad experience at TBC.