My name is Matthew Sweetman. I was born and raised in Racine, Wisconsin, a moderately sized city in between Chicago and Milwaukee. I have been studying Chinese for some time and now and in high school I had the opportunity to travel to Beijing with my 老师 laoshi. However, the trip was out of my price range so I could not go.
TBC Student’s had the chance to travel around Asia and or a few countries outside of Asia during their spring break. Here’s a quick synopsis of their week-long trips on their opportunity to venture out and explore the neighboring countries of China and other countries that they touched base at!
During spring break a group of 6 friends and I spent our time in the Land of Smiles-Thailand. A week full of dream-like scenery and adventures straight out of a book. To say the least, it was the perfect escape from the Beijing cold and bad air. Our first stop, Chiang Mai, was a tranquil place during the day but lively and vibrant at night. Known for its night markets, food stands, and friendly locals, Chiang Mai showed us a good time.
Here’s a handful of places that I suggest you must try if you are here in Beijing! I hope you enjoy them just as much as I do.
Beijing is going to be intimidating, AT FIRST. Larger than any city in the United States, there’s a lot to be learned. Don’t fear, this blog post is here. Get ready for the time of your life.
I went down to the Yunnan Province for two weeks with my peers that are in the same academic program. We went to many places in just a short amount of time and it was a fun and exciting experience. It all started off with Kunming, Yi village, Jianshui, Hani village, Jinghong, Dai village, Lijiang, and ended with Dali. Each city gave me a different taste of what China is like. At first, I was skeptical on going on this trip from day to day, it felt like I was backpacking around southern China, but I’m glad that I experienced this trip. These were some of my favorite highlights:
China has always been on my places to visit list, but I know I couldn’t experience the full Chinese culture that I wanted to if I went on a short vacation. The opportunity for me to come to Beijing and study abroad was a bold one because I was born and raised in San Francisco. I have never left the city or stayed away from home for more than 3 weeks. Knowing that I was going to be a semester abroad, half way across the world, was very scary.
When I left Chicago a lot was going through my mind. I was going to a country that I had never been to before, and one that not very many American students wanted to study abroad in, at least compared to places in Western Europe. After the fourteen hour long flight was finally over the plane landed at about 4 PM Beijing time.
I am Lenny, TBC’s marketing intern since this past June, and today is the last day of my internship with TBC. I want to take this opportunity to talk about something a little personal today, something that I’ve had a complicated history with and still struggle with from time to time. Today I want to talk about goodbyes.
I found myself at this moment on the other side of the world, writing to you about my adventure here in China. If you ever have the opportunity to travel, do not hesitate, because I promise when you cross the ocean, a magical world full of wonders to discover will be waiting for you, and it will be something you have never seen before. Where I can start? Maybe first I’ll tell you a little bit about where I come from; I’m Catalina Gonzalez, and I was born in Bogotá D. C, in the heart of Colombia.