seekingmygreaterperhaps

Good morning from Beijing, China!! I arrived yesterday and cannot seem to get back to sleep, so I thought I would hack China, use my shiny new VPN and write a post.

Michaella, why are you in China? What a great question. I am spending two weeks on a study abroad program to earn credit for my master’s in counseling. While in Beijing, the program I’m with is teaching general helping skills to teachers at Beijing Royal School, as well as motivational interviewing techniques. China does not have traditional “school counselors” so we are helping the teachers step into that role. Next week my program will move over to Beijing Normal University, where we will consult on cases, teach psychology students about Cognitive Behavioral Theory and cross-cultural issues. It’s going to be a pretty amazing program.

Then, after that I will jet set off to see one of my best friends, Jenna and explore the mountains of Zhangjiajie. Unlike when I traveled to Europe, I have yet to plan anything. So the two weeks after my program are as wide open and as blank as the smoggy Beijing sky.

Let’s start at the beginning, eh? Flying to China takes a long time. I had the smoothest transtions at the airport that I have ever experienced, which was a blessing. On the plane, I was bestowed a seat that had a nice metal box right where my feet would go, sucking up half of my leg room. The nice Asian man in front of me tried to put his shoes there once he took them off, and I had to be like, uh no. I have 3 inches of space, they are completely mine. Also United doesn’t hav seat back movie players, so that was a bummer. I watched Joy on the big screen in front, then took a sleeping pill and passed out for the rest of the ride. I woke up to the smell of breakfast, and we were basically in China. That was marvelous. Thank you pharmaceuticals for helping me sleep. I should have taken one last night, because jet lag is real.

I get off the plane and meet up with 4 other people from my program who were on the same flight. We go through customs (I had to take off my glasses… apparently I don’t look like my passport photo) and grab our bags to meet up with the rest of the program. There are 8 of us in total. We then hop into our little shuttle and head towards a restaurant where the professor has arranged for us to have our first traditional Chinese meal! (it was amazing, I’ll get to that.)

It took us 2 1/2 hours in traffic to get there. Drivers in China are crazy. They don’t follow lanes, and if they can fit, they just go. They honk whenever they “aren’t happy” which appears to be all the time. It felt like we were in a parking lot for a lot of the time. Also, we drove down this street and there were people literally everywhere. They don’t have any fear of getting hit by a car, and they just walk wherever. The stares have also begun. The windows were clear and I made lots of eye-contact with people who would’t look away.

My professor said, this is the “real” China.

When we finally got the restaurant, it was beautiful. It was inside a shopping mall, and the decor was fabulous. My professor ordered all the food, and we were all sitting family style around a huge table. I don’t really know what I ate, I just know it was delicious. They bring out the food and place it on a large lazy susan type thing in the middle. You spin it around and get all the food you like. 🙂 I had lots of tofu, some incredible Peking duck, some really spicy noodles, and other things I couldn’t name. I was sitting right by my professor, and he kept refilling my beer everytime it was half empty. Such a nice guy. The meal was really fun, and by the end, the jet lag had caught up to us once our bellies were full. It was a great first evening.

The apartments we are staying in are really nice and really spacey. Beijing Royal School is putting us up in international staff housing, and it is a really nice place. I have my own room! Imagine that.

This is the view from my room. This was taken around 6:30 am… look at the air quality already. I’m glad I brought my masks.

That’s all for now folks. Stayed tuned. I’ve got a lot of excitement ahead.

Fun fact: China’s government has a law that during the summer, all indoor buildings must be at 25 degrees celcius…. which is rather warm. It’s for the environment, but it’s also really hot.