My second and third weeks in China definitely had its ups and downs. These weeks seemed to go by considerably faster than the first week because I finally got into the swing of things and used to life in China. One minor problem I still have here is definitely getting adjusted to the food. I actually enjoy most of the food but my stomach is unfortunately just not used to the how different it is here than in America. Some of my favorite foods that you don’t see that often in the US are Chinese 饺子和包子, or dumplings and buns. Along with good Chinese food, we have surprisingly found some decent American restaurants in Beijing that I will surely go to again whenever I am missing home.

The recent weeks of classes proved to be more challenging to me than the first. As our vocabulary adds up, we still have to retain the previous material while learning the new lessons, and also our assigned essays have also consequently gotten longer. Although I think the classes are starting to get even more difficult, I have been seeing more success in my speaking and my use of grammar correctly. I can already tell during my daily individual class sessions that my Chinese is becoming more fluent and listening comprehension is becoming better by the day. I have also seen better success using my Chinese with actual Chinese natives whether it be at a restaurant where I ask a worker what they would recommend to me or with someone who I am just asking directions. The biggest part of mandarin I struggle with is the different tones that change the meaning of each word you say. There is 5 tones and if you use a wrong tone for a certain word it changes the meaning completely and this is what frustrates me a lot of the time.

Last Saturday we also made a trip to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. I already knew a little about the square since this was my second time coming here and I did a project on Tiananmen fall semester of my freshman year but it was still definitely worth going to. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and it was interesting to relearn about all the buildings that surround the massive square and everything the forbidden city was used for during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The only downfall of the day was how hot it was and how many people were there. It was sometimes hard to see everything you wanted to because you had to push through packs of people in order to do so. After we go to the end of the Forbidden City, we also climbed this hill where you can overlook the city and see all the buildings which was quite a sight to see.

This coming week we have our midterm on Thursday but luckily we actually have some extra time off since we will be half way done with the program. We will be going to the city of Xi’an which is famous for its terracotta warriors. I am looking forward to this break and seeing a new city and I will update my blog while I am there or shortly after I return.