Last day at home

This blog will follow my summer in Beijing while I study at Beijing Language and Culture University with Harvard Beijing Academy (HBA). The Light Fellowship was kind enough to fund my summer abroad so in return I will be documenting my experiences here. I hope you all enjoy!

I'm currently at home in Boston. I've been here for about a month, just working and spending time with friends and family. It's been a great break but I'm definitely looking forward to getting to China... Despite the 30 hour trip that takes me from DC to Detroit to Tokyo and finally to Beijing! I leave tomorrow afternoon and get to Beijing Friday night. I will return to the US on August 17th.

I've been to China once before in 1996 with my family. We spent two weeks traveling China's major cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, and Guangzhou - and a month in Hong Kong. Although I remember my general impressions of each city and the major tourist attractions, China has obviously changed so much since '96, including Hong Kong's return to the PRC. In addition, traveling as a tourist and living in Beijing as a student provide entirely different experiences. While I am somewhat anxious about the workload of my program, (I've heard horror stories...), I'm more so just excited to really get to know Beijing - it's layout, people, scenery, politics, food, history... I can't tell if I'm dreading or completely pumped for that moment when I get into a taxi or walk into a restaurant and actually have to talk to the driver or waiter in Chinese... Stupid, I know, but it seems so weird to me while I sit here in Boston. Anyways, I will be in Beijing for eight of the nine weeks of my stay, so hopefully I will be able to draw some insight on the city and its culture and blog about them here. The fifth week of the program consists of an "independent study" during which I can travel outside of Beijing and write a paper on a topic of my choice. I would love to travel to Hong Kong or Shanghai, but I'm not sure if that's possible yet.

OK, that's it for now. See you in Beijing!