A couple of weeks ago my classmates and I spent a saturday exploring Beijing hutongs. Hutongs are the remnants of the traditional housing of China. They are alleyways with stone courtyard houses and communal bathrooms. The city of Beijing used to be a city made up of hutongs, but for the sake of urban planning, […]
Category Archives: Study Abroad
My Chinese Language Boyfriend
In our second week we were all assigned language partners- graduate students that act as your tutors and guides to China. Yuan Yuan told us that there were only two male language partners so I basically assumed that mine would be a girl. false. My language partner’s name is Zhang De Biao and he is […]
Interning in China
Coming to China I knew I wanted an internship but I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted a real “internship”, not just a glorified volunteer position. I wanted to work in an office and learn valuable skills that I need for the “real world” all while learning about […]
Walmart in China
That next day after a long morning of orientation, we learned drumroll please who was in what Chinese class!!! The first class (100) contained the very beginners and those who had studied for a semester or two: Tiffany, Seijen, Katora, Will and Hannah. The next class contained people who had studied for roughly three semesters […]
Eating Fried Scorpions
On the third day of orientation we had our language placement test. My language placement test was one of the things I was most worried about coming to China. I had barely even looked at Chinese for the last month and a half! What if I was placed into a lower class, then I would […]
Adjusting and Orientation
The next morning we were up bright and early (more like everyone else was up at 4am and I was the only one who was remotely adjusted) for orientation. There was breakfast downstairs starting an hour before our meeting but I decided to go down a little later and have a shower. The shower was […]
Arriving in China
The day I left for China I had to leave my hostel at 7:15 to get to the airport on time. I needed to be at the airport 2 hours before my flight, the bus to the airport takes an hour and a half and I knew it would take me a good 20 minutes […]
Sleepless in Seattle: 3 days till lift off
I’ve been in Seattle for over a month now and time is going slower than GW bannerweb on the day you have to register for classes- aka painfully slow. From New Years day on, it seemed like I would never leave. I was so used to having school and work and sorority stuff and friends […]
Why Study Abroad in China?
Why study abroad in China? That’s a question I’ve gotten a lot in the past few months. Many people decide to further their Chinese language by studying abroad in China. So why take Chinese in the first place? That’s a better place to start. As Maarten Troost says in his hilarious book Lost on Planet China […]
