Settling (achoo!) In

Quality Time with Grandparents 👴

It's been a pretty busy week after arriving in China. I first flew to Shanghai to spend some time with my maternal grandparents. On the flight, I watched this black-and-white Chinese movie (called The Summer is Gone or something) that really emphasized the importance of family, and I guess spending time with my grandparents made me realize that it's true (at least for me), that if no one else is there for me, my family will help me as much as they can :)

Grandpa + Year of the Dog lighted display at Wangfujing, Beijing

This is the first time that I've spent time with my grandparents where it's just me and them, and it's been fun (though they bicker sometimes). It's been the new Chinese New Year, so it's been festive wherever we've gone. They've told me some funny stories about my mom, showed their personalities while we hunted for all the things I needed to buy for school / living in Beijing, and showed endless care for me. :') But... because they're still here, I haven't been able to partake in many of the beginning dinners / get-togethers with the other exchange students (oh right, if I haven't mentioned, I'm studying at Tsinghua's School of Economics & Management).

Logistical Things / Living in Beijing

I got a new phone (Huawei, basically an Android) which comes with a Chinese phone #! That went well BUT I had to wait till I got to Beijing to get a bank account (still waiting for one, so I can't use AliPay or WeChat Pay yet, the apps that everyone in China LIVES on. You don't need anything but your phone here to live - rent a bike/car, buy insurance, order food, pay for any restaurant or clothing store, pay your friends, buy tickets to anything, subscribe to news, etc.)

Although I haven't become totally Chinese on that part, I have had to wear a face mask because my nose is really sensitive, and Beijing's air quality is obviously not as good as the USA's... when I walk into my dorm, I sneeze often and get congested. Dust... the bane of my existence right now. 😭

My dorm is a single, really homey, with my own bathroom! And someone comes to clean it every 2 days! And it only costs ~$17 a day! (Smh @Penn). Speaking of which, the food is insanely cheap here - a bowl of noodles + a sautéed dish costs ~$2 at the canteens a.k.a. cafeterias!! I'm going to overeat so much... there are so many food options around campus (the canteens are actually really good).

Blending in with the natives ft. grandparents :)

Registration for exchange students took forever - though I arrived early at 8:30 am on Feb 23rd, right when it started, it took over 2 hours (the line was enormous). We had to prepare and submit lots of copies of documents and 8 passport-sized photos of us (lol). Though China has a ton of convenience in other ways, this and course registration were not efficient. I didn't have time to apply for more entries on my student visa. Fun fact, USA only gives you ONE entry into China on the X2 Student Visa (so I'm stuck in China unless I apply for more, which obviously costs more $ and time).

How's Tsinghua?

I got assigned a buddy, named Rena, a current student who's been helping me get used to Tsinghua, especially with course selection. Another unofficial buddy named Helen has helped me with other school things too. 😃 It was really interesting to share how different Wharton/Penn is from the Tsinghua experience, and I got to practice some of my Chinese. They were fully prepared to speak English entirely, and seemed happy that I knew how to speak Chinese somewhat well. My speaking has gotten smoother in the week I've been here, but Chinglish slipped in almost 70% of the time heh.

Course selection was stressful, because we only get one day to register for classes - after this day, you can't add any classes, and you can only drop 2 times - once in April and once in May. And, right when registration began, I discovered my Wi-Fi login didn't work, which definitely prevented me from getting my top choice class 😔 So... yes a lot of time stressing about classes, and honestly I found non-business classes to be more fascinating :o I'm taking this International Economics class that's 50% in Chinese, which will be hard but I'm hoping I stick with it.

The current Tsinghua students have been really friendly and helpful, holding an orientation, scavenger hunt, and tour for us, and answering all our questions. I've also met a few people, whom I can't wait to spend more time with! 2 people from Canada (UBC), someone from Carnegie Mellon (but in the Chinese Foreign Language Program), a fellow Whartonite, and someone from GTech (in industrial engineering). Apparently, a lot of kids on exchange are in the business (SEM) program, but I've barely gotten to know them. I will really try to this week though. It's honestly been really nice to feel that people want to get to know you; I feel like after the first few weeks/months of college, most people just settle in and don't branch out that much... Especially since I don't feel like I have a close-knit group or family at Penn, I'm really hoping to make some lasting relationships while abroad (I'm sure I will!).

The campus is HUGE and quite nice. And honestly amazing - there are many libraries, like 6 basketball courts and 6 tennis courts, huge performance buildings and academic buildings (literally one big one for each type of engineering possible), and lots of dorms.

<-- View outside the ground floor of my dorm.

I can't get to my classes without a bike unless I want to walk 30 minutes haha... I will buy a bike soon, but right now bike-sharing is also a big thing (Ofo, Mobike). I am a little daunted by all the traveling I'll need to do to get to places, but I'm going to get used to it :)

<-- Lake somewhere on Tsinghua's campus

Tsinghua is also not too far from some fun places, a.k.a. the typical Chinese city shopping center + restaurants + entertainment plazas. There are shops for literally anything you need (I'm going to try to curb my desire to buy unnecessary things haha). A short bus ride that cost 2 yuan gets you to Wudaokou, and taking the subway can get you to more central areas of Beijing (Tsinghua is a bit northwest off the main part of Beijing).

The first day of class starts tomorrow - I'm excited to see what classes here are like! So much to get used to, so many people to meet, a lot of unfinished things - I'm a little overwhelmed :o I will update you all mid-week.

Hope you have a great week ^_^ (it's ok if it's not all great, but you know, overall great).