Category Archives: Summer 2018

While I was thrilled to have the opportunity to go study Mandarin in China, I was not expecting my stay in China to be so transformative and educational and for me as it actually was. I ignorantly thought to myself … Continue reading →

I’m a bit late to writing this, as I went straight to Korea after finishing ICLP. I am still surprised at how quickly the program flew by. I honestly was a bit conflicted when the program began. I was nervous … Continue reading →

During the last week of ICLP, we had our final presentations. I was really nervous, but a lot of teachers helped me stay calm before I had to go up. After, Hannah and I went to eat at Kaochi and … Continue reading →

It was the last week in Beijing and with HBA. We all couldn’t believe my fast time went by. I knew I’m going to miss the time here, the friends I made, and the teachers who helped me so much … Continue reading →

It was already the eighth week. I was starting to think I should take advantage of the remaining two weeks to explore the city more. This week we wouldn’t be having Friday activities, as well as Saturday trips. So I … Continue reading →

I still remember when I just arrived in Taiwan, when everything felt so strange. I first thought that I would never become used to the intense heat and humidity of Taipei city. After the semester officially started, finding the right … Continue reading →

This week’s blog is a bit delayed–things have been hectic since we are at the end of the term! We have all been busy preparing for our final presentations. Mine is about the difference in Korean and Taiwanese perception of … Continue reading →

During week 8, we were busy preparing for our final presentation. I decided to do my presentation on Taiwanese contemporary art, focusing on the goals of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Tehching Hsieh, and Wu Tienchang. While researching for the … Continue reading →

We’re almost at the end, and that’s incredible for me to wrap my mind around. Today we retook our diagnostic test to compare with the first time we took and see how much we’ve improved. I have to take a … Continue reading →

I had a lunch with Chen laoshi, who was a language partner in my Chinese class last year, and Jenna yesterday. It was really nice to see Chen laoshi again. Chen laoshi was really encouraging, saying my and Jenna’s Chinese … Continue reading →

Well, it’s over. I’m currently writing this on the airplane on the way home, helplessly tired at 30,000 feet high in the sky and stressing about re-arranging my layover flight after a two-hour delay on the runway. But in spite … Continue reading →

Week 8 at HBA, my penultimate week, progressed in much the same manner as many of my other weeks at HBA. Academically, this was my toughest week at HBA thus far. In class, we went over traditional Chinese movie scripts, … Continue reading →

7th week was the speech contest week, so we all were super busy with the preparation. I was definitely amazed and grateful by how much effort HBA teachers put into helping us prepare for this contest. I was assigned a … Continue reading →

I decided to participate in the hike to Mt.Jade since I thought that it would be a now or never opportunity. I’m glad that I made the right decision. The sceneries were so beautiful up on the mountain, especially the … Continue reading →

There were only 3 days of class and not much happened, but I was so tired! I couldn’t concentrate in any of my classes on Friday… And when I got home I fell asleep at 7 p.m. and woke up … Continue reading →

There are only two weeks left of the program already! This week was super short, since we went to the language mission trip and only had three days of classes. Our classes feel a bit more relaxed and focused on … Continue reading →

Hello everyone! For all of the fans that I must have accumulated throughout the summer, I apologize for not keeping up to date with my blog. I managed to always write small notes on my phone whenever I had the … Continue reading →

  Sixth week, we started the new book. This book’s content relates more to world problems instead of only problems usually confined to China, so we got to discuss world wide beauty standards, advertisement and marketing, as well as studying … Continue reading →

This week was language mission week, and Jenna and I went to make our own pineapple cakes at Kuo Yuan Ye. It was really fun! I had planned to bring mine home to my family after the end of ICLP … Continue reading →

Midterm week is finally over! I was waking up at 5 a.m. every morning and getting to Starbucks by 6:30 a.m. to study before my exams. Overall it went pretty well. Since it’s language mission week, we have a longer … Continue reading →

Well, after only 2 weeks we’re halfway through the semester. It’s amazing how quickly this whole experience is flying by. In the first week of the program, each day lasts a week and speaking 12+ hours worth of Chinese leaves … Continue reading →

At HBA, the 6th week is the equivalent of a start of a new semester. We get new textbooks, the structure of the class changes slightly, and, naturally, the workload significantly increases. What I think differentiates 4th year at HBA … Continue reading →

This week has been really busy since I had midterm exams and needed to prepare for the hiking to Yushan mountain. When I took Chinese classes at Williams, besides from midterm and final, I had small quizzes or dialogue performance … Continue reading →

There wasn’t anything very different about week five. Everyday I went to class, studied, ate convenience store food… The core class got boring/confusing because the text had to with economics (and it was not thorough enough for me to understand..), … Continue reading →

This week we went on a social study trip to Huizhou. I signed up for this trip hoping to catch sights of the country lives of Chinese people, but really was much different than expected. In the past 40 years, … Continue reading →

It’s the week before midterms! It has been a pretty normal, quiet week. I didn’t do much besides go to classes and the gym. Jenna, Hannah, and I had Tianjin onion pancake and Smoothie House this weekend. They were both … Continue reading →

One thing that I like the most about the ICLP program is that there is a one hour long 1:1 class every day. Since I’m usually really quiet and tend not to talk that much in class unless teachers specifically … Continue reading →

我虽然会把周一到周五的时间安排得比较固定，但是周末还有很多空闲时间做其他的事儿，最有效地趁我在北京的机会！ 我在之前的博客里提到过我北语的朋友。因为我在北京的第二个周五就是她的生日，所以她要约我跟一些其他的朋友去五道口吃晚餐。一下地铁看到五道口购物中心，好多去年的回忆依然就很清晰。我还记得，我去年在北京的时候几乎天天都会去那边吃东西，喝奶茶。因此，我对那边的美食和最好吃的饭店比较熟悉，所以就给我北语朋友推荐了一家香港的饭店。      吃完晚餐后，我们参加了中国年轻人最喜欢的活动之一：卡拉OK！我虽然也会享受这样的活动，但是每次都会重新发现自己根本不会唱歌…第一点的歌我唱了一句就知道简直太难了，马上就要切。看来，为了准备未来唱歌的活动，我要提前想好几首比较容易唱的歌！ 一周之后，也就是上个周末，我也有机会跟朋友们好好过日子，包括一些威廉的朋友！周五下午我见了我们中文四年级的教学助手，跟她一起去了一家书店听五位女权主义艺术家讨论他们在制作女权主义作品的过程中，尤其是在中国，面对的挑战。其中有中国的艺术家，但也有外国的。听他们分享共同的经验并比较差异这样的“跨文化交流”也引起了我对很多问题的思考。 顺便提一下，我每次在北京去之前没去过的地方都利用一个APP叫高德地图。比谷歌地图还好用，这个软件的功能让导航太方便了… 专家推荐：用高德地图！ 周六早上我在外面吃午餐的时候，居然有一个陌生人来我那边用英语问我，“你上威廉大学吗？” 我低下了头，发现自己穿着威廉的T恤，回答说，“哦对，你知道吗？” “对，我也在美国读大学！” 我们这样聊了一会儿，加了微信，然后他还问我那天晚上要不要出去玩儿！他这么和蔼地跟我谈，我平时肯定会同意去，但那天其实已经有其他的安排了。 下午三点左右，我跟朋友去了七九八艺术区，就是朝阳区的一个艺术园区，而且离我家挺近。在那边逛逛有一种神奇的感觉。一方面，那边的风景就像正常的北京市一样，另一方面，到处都是各种各样的，偶尔也很奇怪的艺术作品…      走遍了七九八之后，我们晚上去了电影院看一部最近特别火的影片叫《我不是药神》。这部电影之所以给我留下了很深的印象是因为它虽然是一部喜剧片，但还是提到了一些在中国社会上比较严肃的话题。如果读者对疾病、医疗相关的问题感兴趣，或者只想了解一下中国社会面临着的一些问题，我会非常推荐这部！ 看完了电影之后，我回到了公寓准备去睡，然后居然收到了一个老朋友的短信。我们是从小认识的，都在香港上了小学，他跟爸爸赶巧也在北京，想见个面！所以第二天早上我们就去了一家饭店叫大跃啤酒。这家是外国顾客比较多，做西餐和中餐混合而成菜式的那种饭店。我点的美式早餐三明治超级好吃，真会满足我美国的口味！ 过了几个小时，我坐了地铁去五道口又见一个威廉的朋友。她这个暑假在哈北班上中文三年级，也刚才从徽州的社会调查回到了北京。从哈北班的生活，到威廉的特点，再到中国和美国的文化差异，我们聊到了很多话题，而且聊得很开心！俗话说得好，有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎。好期待看一看下周会带来什么新的事儿…

Another very tiring week! Typhoon Maria came and Taipei was the only northern Taiwan city that did not cancel school… Over the weekend, Kristina and I went to a Sichuan style restaurant that’s popular amongst Koreans. We happened to sit … Continue reading →

我在上次的博客里写到了我在北京的第一个周末。从那个时候到现在已经过了两个星期，而且这两个星期也发生了很多新的事情。因为内容比较多，我会把这两周的总结分别出两个贴子：第一个是关于我从周一到周五的日常生活，也就是这个贴子，然后第二个会提到我周末的一些经历。 首先，我需要向大家宣布一个好消息：我搬家了！之前的房子附近有另一个公寓。跟房东确认没有身份证的外国人也可以租房之后，我马上就决定搬到那边了。我跟前台的人商量合同的事的时候，突然有一个保安进来了，大笑着对我说，“来了一个美国朋友，要好好欢迎他！” 看他真诚的笑容，我就知道这是素质好的一个人。但是当时没想到的是，他会成为我在北京最亲密的朋友之一。（未来的贴子会再谈到这个保安，不用担心！） 房东虽然愿意给我租房，但合同还存在问题。因为我当时只有国外的银行卡，所以无法付房租。让我失望的是，没有中国银行卡的话，就不能用微信支付，支付宝，或其他的移动支付服务。我也不能刷卡付款，不能做银行转账，并且在这个不用现金的社会，他们也不接受现金。那我怎么办呢？幸亏的是，我有好朋友。他们有中国银行卡，所以就能帮我刷一下，然后我去ATM取钱还给他们现金。从上面的图片来看，你就会知道这个做法不是最理想的，但确实也是我们唯一想出来的解决办法。 专家建议：开一个中国银行的账户！ 第二个很重要的好消息想跟大家分享一下：我开始上班了！其实，我已经工作两个星期了，但我还是想从我上班的第一天开始写。早上九点半，到了朝阳区的平安国际金融中心之后，我乘了电梯上十九层，走到了前台，然后有一点紧张地开口说：“你好，我是新来的实习生，名字叫白伯伟”。前台的两个人很愉快地回答说，“啊，对了，你好！你这边走啊，我带你去你的桌子”。她帮我刷卡进去办公室，带我到一个很大的桌子，那边坐着六个人。每个人都有自己的工作领域，但也不是那种各有各的小屋子。这个办公室有很多开放的空间，环境特别美，看来也很会促进合作。下面可以看一下我的工作环境，还有我跟一些实习生的自拍照！      给同事们做自我介绍的时候，我的老板出现了。她带我参观了全办公室，把我介绍给其他的同事。除了一两个暂时在中国工作的美国人以外，我确实是唯一的外国人。跟大家见面的时候，我几乎每次都说了同样的一句：“很高兴认识你”，而且他们也几乎每次都会用同样的话回答：“哇，中文说得这么好！” 我虽然知道他们这样说只是为了鼓励我这个新来的实习生而已，但是他们这么和蔼地对待我还是给我留下了特别好的第一印象，就像自己进入了一个大家庭的那种感觉一样。 回到了我的桌子之后，我属于的组的另外两个实习生给我介绍一下他们最近完成的项目，也让我好好读他们做的PPT和文件。看这些东西的时候，老板在我们组的微信圈叫了一声，让我们尽快地把一个PPT翻译成英文。虽然我到头来需要加班加到七点，但是下班之后就发现了这样的翻译工作其实非常有利于我的中文，因为我在一天内已经学会了好多在中文课上学不到的专门的词。再加上，每天都跟同事们和其他实习生只用中文交流，我还有很多练习口语的机会！ 过了几天，我逐渐地习惯了我新的日常生活。从周一到周五，我几乎每天都会这样过日子：八点半，起床；九点一刻，坐公交车去上班；九点三刻，上班、吃早餐、准备开始工作；十点半，真正地开始工作；十二点，跟其他实习生一起吃午餐；一点，继续工作；六点，下班；六点一刻，健身；七点半，吃晚餐；八点，坐公交车回家；八点半，回家跟保安聊天；九点，去房间休息；十二点，上床睡。 我不知道大家会不会觉得这样安排日子有一点太过分了，但是我自己对这个时间表很满意。我最近还发现了，我是一个自然地就会养成很多生活小习惯的人。从周一到周五，我都喜欢提前知道每一个小时要做的事。周末的安排当然是更有自由的，但还是会很丰富！在下一个贴子里，我到时候会跟大家分享一下我这两个周末的时候都做了什么!