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

Another New Beginning

After spending a semester studying abroad in South Korea, I packed my bags and flew to Beijing for the IARU Global Summer Program at Peking University.  I arrived in Beijing a few days ago on Saturday July 6, 2013.  PKU arranged a shuttle bus to pick us up at the airport and student assistants helped us check into our dorms at PKU's Zhongguanyuan Global Village.  I have my own room in a suite-style dorm with our own private bathroom.

Dorm room

We had our orientation and course registration session the very next day on July 7th.  The student assistants also gave us a quick tour of the PKU campus.  They took us to charge our meal cards and also get SIM cards for our phones.  I got a SIM card at the booth outside the Wu Mei convenience store on campus that costed 88 RMB for 300 MB of data and 200 minutes.

Classes began the next day.  I am taking 2 courses: Population Ageing and Health and Chinese Language.  We have lessons in the mornings and afternoons.  The IARU program has planned events for us in the evenings.  Yesterday, we had a free dinner at Mei Zhou Olympic Theme Restaurant with the program coordinators.  We had so much food and also Peking duck!  Today, we had a meeting with our language partners from PKU.  Everyone gave a self-introduction and we could choose our partners if we wanted one.

Peking Duck

So far, it has been a good beginning and I am very excited for the upcoming weeks here in Beijing.