A Beginner’s Guide to Global Discovery: Beijing Addition

We woke with the sun and much earlier than we needed to. Breakfast wasn’t until 8:30, but jetlag had some of us up and about as early as 4:30 AM… for two days in a row. After breakfast came a subway ride, the students’ very first Chinese language and sustainable development classes, getting sim cards, discussing the history of humans (Connor is a fountain of historical information!), more subway rides, waiting in lines, using their new Chinese skills to ask technology stores about sustainable development, waiting in lines, using new language skills to buy their own dinner (Ana’s memory for Mandarin is fantastic!), more subway rides, eating Peking Duck, debating whether the food was any good, (Tova has rated today’s lunch and dinner at 3 of 5 and 0 of 5, compared to the Connor/Ana/Leilani group average of 4.5 of 5 and 3 of 5 respectively. New group goal: get Tova’s gold star of approval for food!), walking through Snack Street in Wangfujin, more subway rides, and solving so many technology problems (with at least one more to deal with). Suffice it to say, it’s been a crazy hectic first two days of program. A bottle of Sprite was stolen (and later consumed by Leilani), Sound of Music references were made, and bags were checked by the incredibly robust Beijing security institution on multiple occasions. It’s been enough to exhaust even the most experienced of travelers.

Luckily for us, Tova, Leilani, Connor, and Ana are exceptional people. They seemed impervious to jetlag (unlike this very tired program leader) and brought enthusiasm and critical thinking to each challenge that was presented to them! Slow internet is limiting the number of pictures I can upload, sadly, but check out the gallery and descriptions above (and forgive me! I’m still working on my photography skills) to get an idea of what they’ve been up to!

P. S. I’ve been asked to provide this public service announcement. To all the moms out there: Leilani lives!