My flight was a long 13 hours but it was actually fairly tolerable. We left tuesday midday and arrived in Beijing wed afternoon, were rushed to dinner as a group then everyone pretty much crashed. Yesterday was my first full day in Beijing. Everyone woke up at like 4am due to jetlag though I managed to stay asleep till 6. We had a morning full of orientation talks and getting a few ID cards. Then we met our so-called 'host students'. Several host students, including mine, were gone from school because Chinese students just started break, so I had a makeshift host student along with a few others named Vannessa. She was very nice but stressed out looking girl who took us around to get travelers checks exchanged, buy cell phones and eat lunch. I don't know what I would have done without her. The language barrier is absolutely overwhelming and I havent even really had a direct encounter in which I needed to speak it yet. Also bureaucracy in China is sooo slow. It took so long to do everything yesterday with Vannessa.
I am very eager to start learning the language. I feel embarrassed that I know nothing, especially since almost every student here has taken at least some Mandarin, and several can almost speak it conversationally. I think attempting to learn the language will be one of the hardest things I ever do but I am excited and motivated since being here.
There are 96 students in the program and around 25 are returning from last semester. Last night I went out with a few kids. Everyone has such incredible things to say about the program. I can already tell it is a much better set up than last semester in Rome. We are part of a real, big university here in Beijing and its in a busy and comfortably westernized area.
On sunday I leave for the Yunnan trip.
CJ.
No comments:
Post a Comment