First Month in China

            My first month in China has been so incredible. It’s been a huge adjustment, but I have already been able to learn so much. I’ll start from the beginning:

            So I flew to China all by myself. I stayed the night in Beijing, which was a little bit scary. I was nervous to get out because I had forgotten most of my language and I was all by myself. The second day I flew to Nanjing, which was an adventure. Somewhere in between my hotel and the airport I lost my debit card, which was scary. It all turned out okay though, and now I have a new debit card. The flight was short, but once I got to Nanjing I ha to find a cab to get to my hotel. The cab driver took me to the wrong place, so I had to walk about ½ mile to find the right place. luckily there was a nice woman who spoke English and she helped me out a lot. The bummer was that I had all of my stuff, and my big suitcase was broken! But I made it safely, and my at least it wasn’t my passport that I lost.

            After we all arrived in Nanjing our first order of business was finding an apartment. We found a good one for all 8 girls that would have been a pretty good deal, but it fell through. So we ended up getting a pretty small apartment on the sixth floor, and there are 8 of us living in it. It’s a major bummer. That’s been really hard to adjust to. But we have an apartment, and it’s close to campus, so that’s really nice.

All the girls at the top of the mountain. From left: Tiffany, Makena, Miranda, me, Laurie, Jasmine, Laura, and Ashleigh

Me on the river cruise we took in Guilin

             The first full week we were there we all traveled to Guilin as a group. That was so much fun! Guilin was a fun city, and we took a boat trip that was absolutely beautiful. We spent the night in a tiny town called Yangshuo. A big group of us all rented bikes and rode through the country side. We took a swim in the river, and then we hiked up to a hole in one of the mountains. It was so cool! That was definitely the highlight of the trip.

            After Guilin we started classes. There were 3 different classes that we were split up into, A, B, and C. The A class was mostly returned missionaries from Taiwan. B and C were supposed to be the same level, just emphasizing different things. B was writing, and C was speaking. So I signed up for the C class. It was a mistake, because the class was pretty easy for me. So I ended up switching in to the A class. That has been much better, the class moves at a much quicker pace, and it’s a lot like my 301 class was last winter at BYU. So I think that will be the right choice for me.

            Now I am on a train headed to Chengdu, in Sichuan province! This next week is the National Holiday, so we don’t have any classes. I really wanted to go to Chengdu, so I am going with my friends Ashleigh, Tiffany, and Laura. I am so excited! It will definitely be a big adventure though. I am excited because we are going to go see the Panda research base, and eat delicious spicy food. It should be a good week!