Good-bye Beijing

These past four weeks have gone by so fast and this summer program has already come to an end.  I woke up early this morning to run some last-minute errands at PKU and say good-bye to friends who were leaving today. Although this program was very short compared to my previous semester exchanges in Hong Kong and South Korea, I still find myself feeling sad to see everyone go.

This IARU Global Summer Program has been different from my other two semesters abroad with UCEAP. The IARU program arranged many events for us to attend together.  Most of them were activities related to Chinese history or culture.  It reminded me of my semester in Korea at Yonsei University because UCEAP Korea also arranged a few activities for us.  In terms of academics, the course in Population Aging and Health that I took has a research focus to it while courses I took at HKU and Yonsei University were just typical university courses.

Overall, I have enjoyed my time here in Beijing.  Even with Beijing's bad air pollution and the hot and humid summer, saying farewell to my short stay here is bittersweet.  I've made many new friendships, experienced life in Beijing, toured the city through my own eyes, and made many new memories.

Having the opportunity to study abroad in 3 different cities in Asia this year has been the most amazing and memorable chapter of my life.  I would never have given it up for anything.  I have learned so much, met so many different people from all around the world, and experience the life in Asia that I always wanted since I was young.  I will always cherish this amazing year of my life. <3

So Much To Do...

It's already my last week in Beijing.  School has kept us pretty busy these last few days.  For the Population Aging and Health course, we had to do a group presentation worth 20% of our grade.  Only one of the group members have to present, so the group leader in my group presented this morning.  He did really well. There is also a 3,000 word term paper worth 40% of the final grade due August 20th, which is 2 weeks after the program ends.  The other 40% consists of class participation and discussion.

For the Chinese course, we had a final exam yesterday.  There are a total of 6 levels and I have friends in different ones.  All of my friends had an oral test, but for my class, we had a written test instead.  It consisted of 4 parts: listening, dictation, completing the sentence using the given word, and a short composition.  It was easier than I expected... much easier than Berkeley's Chinese courses that I've taken.

Today was my last day of classes at Peking University.  It's nice to be finish with school.  The workload has been light for the courses I took here.  Therefore, I had a lot of time to relax, hang out with friends, and enjoy Beijing life.  Now I shall get started on my term paper.  Hopefully, I will finish writing it before I leave Beijing because I probably won't have time to write it while traveling around Asia.

More Fun Weekends

This past weekend, I went to the last scheduled event for the summer school program.  We went to watch a acrobatics show at Chaoyang Theater on Saturday night.  The performances were very good and flawless. There was a partner stunt, chair-stacking performance, straw hat performance, umbrella performance, bicycle performance, and motorcycle performance.  I enjoyed watching the entire show, but my favorite was probably the bicycle one.  It was a skilled and pretty performance, especially when all 12 girls rode on one bicycle.

Bicycle Performance

Yesterday, I went to the Summer Palace with a few friends.  It was a hot but very fun day.  After doing some sightseeing, we rented a petal boat and rode on it for an hour in the lake.  Then we went back to our dorms to rest for an hour and went to dinner.  Our language exchange partner took us to a restaurant called 外婆傢 in 王府井 (Wangfujing).  She said it was a popular restaurant, and when we got there I noticed that too.  We got a number and waited for a table.  We were #76...there were 76 people waiting for a medium sized table in addition to the other three types of tables!  During the few hours of waiting, we walked around the department store and grabbed some bubble tea.  When we finally got a table, we ordered so much food and dessert.  My stomach was very satisfied. :D

Summer Palace

Wangfujing at night

The End is Near

Today we had our last event for the IARU program.  We went to a hot pot restaurant called 海底捞火锅 and had a nice dinner together.  This dinner was supposed to be held next Tuesday, but it was pushed up because one of our program coordinators is leaving tomorrow to go back to Shanghai so we wanted to say goodbye to him.

We occupied 3 tables and each table had a pot divided into two halves, one side was mushroom-flavored soup and the other side was spicy soup.  It was quite good and we all ate a lot.  After dinner, some of them went to karaoke, but I was feeling a bit tired so I went back to the dorms with the others who also didn't want to go.

Although there's only a little more than a week left of the program, my remaining time here will probably be the busiest throughout these 4 weeks.  I still need to prepare for next week's group presentation and also work on my term paper.  The paper is actually not due until August 15th, two weeks after the program ends, but I will be traveling in Asia after leaving Beijing so I need to finish it by the end of next week.

Hot pot

Better Than Expected

Last Saturday evening, we went to see the Beijing Opera at Laoshe Teahouse.  At first I was wondering whether I should attend or not because I have seen Chinese operas before and I did not like them because I find them difficult to understand.  However, this opera was different from what I expected.  I thought it would be the kind where they would act out scenes while singing in Chinese, but it was actually a series of different shows and I really enjoyed it.

In the beginning, there was a shadow show where a man used his hands to create a story along with the music.  There were also mask changing, kung fu, plate spinning, two-man comedy, and a few other acts. I was amazed at how good and perfect their performances were.  My favorites were the shadow show and the mask changing show.  When it ended, I was glad I decided to go watch it.  It was far more enjoyable than I first expected.

Laoshe Teahouse

Plate spinning

Family Bonding Time

Yesterday, we had our "Big Family" banquet held at the Lakeview Hotel.  This was an event for all students in the PKU International Summer School Program.  It was a very fun night filled with student performances, games, food, laughter, and friends.

There were a few dancing and singing performaces throughout the night.  The first performance was a group dance performed by UNC students.  The UC students performed Taeyang's Wedding Dress.  There was also a student who belly danced and another one who sang 甜蜜蜜.  There were a few other performances, but the highlight of the night was the very last performance by a few of our IARU students.  Some Japanese students from our program did a Momokuro dance cover.  It was very entertaining because 4 boys and 1 girl danced to this J-pop girl group dance while wearing dresses. Their performance was very energetic, cute, and funny.  We also played a few games in between some of the performances.

Food :)

Family Dinner <3

After the banquet, many of us went out to 三里屯 to enjoy Beijing's nightlife.  It was my first time there and the area was very lively with many foreigners.  I met a lot of students outside of the IARU program yesterday night, and we enjoyed some family bonding time together.

My First Week

It has already been a week since I arrived in Beijing.  The IARU program planned activities for us every single day for the entire first week up until yesterday.  We met with PKU's Chinese Music Institute on Thursday where they talked about a few Chinese musical instruments and played for us.  Then on Friday afternoon, we went to visit the Microsoft Asia-Pacific Research and Development Group.  They gave a presentation and we explored on our own for a bit.

PKU's Chinese Music Institute

Microsoft Research Asia

This past weekend they took us to visit the historical places of Beijing.  On Saturday, we went to the Great Wall.  This was my 3rd time visiting, so some of my friends and I took the cable cars up to the top instead of climbing it.  On Sunday, we visited the Temple of Heaven and the Palace Museum (the Forbidden City).  Since it was the weekend, those two tourist places were very crowded.  They also provided an English-speaking tour guide for us.  By the end of the day, we were all very tired from all the walking we did and from the summer heat.

The Great Wall

Temple of Heaven

Forbidden City