After leaving Beijing

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Bye Beijing

On the last day of Beijing, we went to a local museum to make some artwork in the morning. The staff gave us an artwork called โ€œTuโ€™er Yeโ€๏ผˆๅ…”ๅ„ฟ็ˆท๏ผ‰.  It is a Rabbit God, and it is a local traditional handicraft in Beijing. Our job is to paint and follow the instruction from the museum. We started painting the background with tempera color. The step was easy, but it took us almost three hours to finish. The good thing was that we can take our artwork to New York. After we finished painting, we took a group photo before we went to eat our lunch.

Painting the "Rabbit God"
Painting the “Rabbit God”

Hello Nanjing

Our next stop was Nanjing, where we came here to improve our Chinese skill. We went to the Beijing South Railway Station. I thought it was regular train transportation, but it was one of the most significant High-speed train transportation systems in Beijing. The train that we took called โ€œFuxinghaoโ€ and we departed at 2:30 pm. This bullet train is one of the fastest high-speed trains in the world. Also, the train was smooth and clean. I saw the train reached a speed of 335km per hour. However, the snacks were costly. Overall, it was a good experience traveling on the bullet train, and I recommend everyone to take it because there is no bullet train in service in New York. The train stopped for four stations before we arrived, and It took us four and a half hour to arrive Nanjing.

Fuxing Hao Series Bullet Trains on Nanjing Station.

When we arrived at Nanjing, our professor took us to a Hotel close to our host university (Nanjing University). We supposed to live in the Universityโ€™s dormitory, but the school said that the dormitory for international students was under renewing. This is why we stay in the hotel. It was so strict the policy in the hotel. They wanted us to take a picture from everyone to make sure that we are the one who reserved the room. Later, we took a look around our hotel, and we went to the shopping malls. There were many restaurants around, but they closed. We ended up eating McDonald’s because that was the only restaurant on service.

Nanjing University

 

Nanjing University
The entry of Nanjing University.

On the first day of school, we had an orientation and a language placement test. Professor wanted to see our Chinese level skill because we had a different level in the Chinese class. Shirley is our Chinese professor. I checked my schedule, and I saw that I have a language class every morning and cultural in the afternoon. I also saw that we have Taiji, Gong Fu and Chinese calligraphy on the schedule. Professor told us that we would have two trips per week. The good news was that we are free on the weekend, and this would allow me more time to explore this city.

This is just the beginning of my summer session; I will work hard toward to get a good grade for improving my GPA. Also, trying Nanjing foods is one of my objective, and gaining weight because I am so skinny. I really like the campus, and I would like to talk and meet with local students. I hope everything is going well during this summer.

John Ho

<i>Hello in your host country language</i>: ไฝ ๅฅฝ๏ผ <i> University</i>: Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa <i>Expected graduation year</i>: 2020 <i>Destination</i>: Shanghai, China <i>Program Provider</i>: Study Abroad <i>Major / Minor</i>: Business <i>Language of Study</i>: Mandarin Chinese <i>Demographic background</i>: First-generation, Asian <i>Future career aspirations</i>: Business <i>Top 3 goals for study abroad</i>: To explore new culture or regions; To improve my Mandarin Chinese; To learn more about a possible career path.