My First Month in Beijing

I wrote this blog post after the first month, and forgot to post it. So, here it is. Have things changed? A little, perhaps. But this is a very accurate picture of how I felt after the first month.

I could never have predicted what life in Beijing is like. It's incredible to know that I am going to live in this chaotic and wonderful city for an entire year. My host family's house is finally beginning to seem like home. But in all honesty, I still can't believe that I now bike to school every morning, wearing a blue and white tracksuit, to start my day off with two hours of Chinese class. I'm mindblown by the fact that breakfast can cost me less than a dollar, I'm allowed to explore this city on my own, and I return home to be greeted in a language that often feels to foreign to even begin to understand. Yet despite the adjustments to my lifestyle, I am absolutely having the experience of a lifetime.

The Chinese teachers I have here are the best Chinese teachers I've ever had; we use the words we learn in class in such that we learn to use them in real life. History, math, and English are similar to what I'm used to at my home school. But Chinese homework occupies most of my studying time. SYA China is the first time I have really, truly loved studying a language. Being able to use what I learn in the real world is an absolutely invaluable experience. 

The people I most often use my Chinese with are my host parents. I have an older sister who is fluent in English, but she lives at the school she teaches at. So at my house, Chinese is the only language we speak. My parents have had twelve host students in the past, so they most likely understand a substantial amount of English; they occasionally drop hints that they understand more than they let on. Yet for learning purposes or just for convenience's sake, they only speak in Chinese. I'm in Chinese 3 out of a potential 5 levels after studying the language for three years (in reality, I studied it for five, but I had a bad teacher for the first two years). I can talk about most basic things, but interesting conversation topics often elude me. Therefore, there's a significant amount of discussion about the weather, food, and school. I love conversing with my parents; they're honestly some of the nicest people I've ever met. I feel incredibly lucky to have been placed with them.

One of the most amazing things about this experience is the city itself. I've been here in Beijing a month, and I still haven't run out of things to do or places to see. So far, some of my favorite places in the city are 798 Art District, Sanlitun, Houhai, Ghost Street, Jingshan Park, and a coffee shop near my house. Honestly, I'm not sure you could be bored by this city. There's always something to do.

I can't imagine what my life would be like if I hadn't come to China; so far, I feel that coming here is one of the best decisions I've ever made. Actually, that's not true. I could imagine exactly how my life would be if I hadn't chosen to do SYA - I've been attending the same school for eleven years, and as much as I love my school, I was ready for something new. I've undoubtedly found what I was looking for in Beijing - a new experience - and I can't wait to see what else the city has in store for me.

Halloween

This blog post was written on October 31st, but somehow not published. Apologies for the extremely late post.
Today is Halloween. This morning, my alarm broke. Thus, my dad woke me up at 7am asking me if I was going to school today. I did, in fact, plan on going to school today, although at a much earlier hour. So, I woke up at the time I usually leave the house and speedwalked to the bus stop. I arrived at the road across from my bus stop just in time to watch the road become dangerously congested with cars and to see my bus pull up to my stop, and then pull away. I made eye contact with the driver of the 104 as I reached the other side of the road and watched my ride to school rumble away. So I waited another 15 minutes for the next bus and desperately attempted to memorize my Chinese presentation. My memorization efforts were unsuccessful; the presentation, once I arrived at school, would most likely go under the label of "disaster". And so began my Halloween.

The rest of the day proceeded as per usual. Thursdays always fall a bit short of a good day, because school is 45 minutes longer than usual due to Society & Culture class. And tomorrow, we have a Tie Laoshi test. My excitement truly knows no bounds. We seem to have tests every two weeks in Chinese class, a quiz every week in history, some sort of English assessment every week, daily tingxies, and a math quiz every three weeks and a math test the following week. So, my Halloween is ending with a lengthy reflection on assessments.

At home in America, I would probably do something tonight - with friends, or family, or family friends. Note: my family has never handed out candy on Halloween due to our location on a tall hill that intimidates trick-or-treaters to a degree of nonexistence. But tonight, in China, I will be studying hard for my Chinese test; my plans for tonight stand in stark contrast to what most likely would have been a fun night in America. When I think about it, though, the amount of Chinese holidays is probably essentially equal to the amount of holidays we will miss in the United States. Halloween and Thanksgiving can be replaced with the Mid-Autumn Festival and New Years. I will probably never have a better chance to experience a Chinese holiday such as the New Years festival in China itself. And this is the reason I came to China; to experience it as much as possible. Despite my whining about "missing" Halloween, I ultimately am completely fine with missing the holiday. And so, as my Halloween comes to a close, I will sit down with a Chinese textbook in a Chinese cafe and attempt to improve my mastery of the Chinese language. And honestly, I'm glad I can do that; it's completely worth foregoing the commercialized, sugar-filled event that is Halloween.