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.