NEWS & EVENTS

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.

“Where are you from?” is a question I constantly dread. It is one of the most basic sentences we employ when meeting other people, and it can usually be answered with a simple: *insert country of origin here*. However, if I were to respond to my interrogators with a simple “Venezuela”, this would not come close to describing who I am; it would not paint the full picture of my identity.

Since coming back from both the Silk Road and from whatever adventures we planned for ourselves during the Chinese National Holiday, all of us have been quite busy with schoolwork. We’ve come to the middle of the semester now. I’d be lying if I said that the semester hasn’t been flying by since the National Holiday. Midterms are this coming week, and many of us are spending this weekend preparing for them. As for me, I am a chronic procrastinator, so here I am writing this blog while my to-do list for this weekend stares mockingly at me.

Dear Mom, I’m still alive, and I’m back in Beijing. Last week, during China’s National Holiday, I and five other TBC students flew to Seoul, Korea. I’ve wanted to visit Korea ever since high school when I befriended Korean foreign exchange students who studied at Bishop Miege. Not only did I finally get the opportunity to go, but I also reunited with one of them, Monica, for the first time in four years!

Dear Mom, I’m still alive, and although I’ve only been back in Beijing for a couple weeks, I’ve already gone exploring. One of the cool parts about living in one of the world’s oldest, largest cities is that there are always more things to do. This past Saturday, I got to visit two more major cultural sites in Beijing. These two famous icons represent both China’s long history and its contemporary prominence. They are the Temple of Heaven and the 2008 Beijing Olympic complex.

During my time in Beijing, there was one destination I knew I needed to go to: Chengdu. Why you might ask? Well, there are several attractions within the city of Chengdu that suit all kinds of people. The most famous attractions are the panda parks. Chengdu is known across China for hosting the most renowned breeding grounds for sustaining China’s prized animal. Additionally, Chengdu is an up-and-coming city with thriving streets and night-life. The main streets are home to fashionable stores and lavish restaurants; however, alleys leading you off the main roads guide you quaint mom-and-pop shops where you can find authentic trinkets and dishes.