I am BACK! The last six months have been amazing in every sense of the word. For those unawares, I left Vancouver in February to study abroad in Beijing for a semester, then traveled to Korea, Taiwan, then Hong Kong.
Study what? Like exchange?
Something similar to that! Although I've graduated, one of the things I regret the most was not applying for an exchange while in university. So one day I decided it was time to go out and see the world beyond my comfortable city.
While I've traveled abroad many times, studying abroad was a first for me, and wow. I agree with what some people say: the experience you get while living in a city is completely different from vacationing there.
I enrolled into an intensive Chinese language program at Tsinghua University in Beijing. This was really exciting for me since it was a chance to live in a different city and intensively learn/improve a skill I've been sorely lacking.
Being born in Canada, English is my native language. I learned French in elementary and high school as part of the French Immersion program, and Cantonese from my family speaking it at home.
However I never learned to speak Mandarin, or how to read/write Chinese characters. Personally I think it's a valuable skill to have.
Especially when you're dropped in China with no clue how to communicate, the only phrases you know being "I don't understand", "Sorry I don't know", and the only choices are learn or perish.
...needless to say, my Mandarin skills spiked from zero to really, really high in an amazing amount of time.
Anyway I have tons of photos and other stuff to write about, so look forward to that! Still need to edit a bunch of photos and videos though, so that will have to come later.
For now here's a teaser~ :)
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| Yes I'm wearing a face mask. |
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| Seriously not advisable to go without these. |
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| Tsinghua University's famous 'old' gate |
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| My trusty bike |
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| ...my trusty second bike after the first was *cough* commandeered. |
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| eek. |
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| the only way to get around |
