Reflections

On Saturday, Donna's graduate student Yu Yue was really nice and took us to a tea shop at Wangfujing 王府井. The area was really busy with shopping centers, though the only store we went into after the tea shop (there was such a large selection of tea we spent a long time there) was the flagship Olympic store that was by far the largest of the stores. If we had found out about it earlier, we definitely would have gone there more often. Afterwards, we had planned on going back to Kro's Nest for dinner together as a group, but were very disappointed to find that it had closed 2 of its 3 locations during the Olympics. The closing seems to be a general trend here, as we noticed that night vendors who usually occupy the sidewalks of Wudaoko in the evenings were also gone and merchants in a clothing market near Wudaoko were being forced to shut down during the Olympics. I'm unsure of the motivation for closing these popular areas during the Olympics and wonder what the impact on those merchants will be - whether they are compensated for their losses.

On Sunday, I went with Spencer, Zach, and one of Zach's lab mates to 798, a modern art district in Dashanzi. The area was filled with galleries of artists displaying their works. One of the pieces that stuck out was a large plastic bust of a baby, painted red, a symbolically Chinese color. The author described the piece as a political statement representing China's one child policy and its possible implications for the society and the future. Politics seems to be a topic rarely discussed, so it was somewhat surprising yet refreshing to see it openly on display. On Monday, I walked around Yuan Ming Yuan Garden 圆明园 near the north side of campus where a Lotus Festival was being held, then also through Tsinghua University, which was larger and had a lot more plants and trees than Peking University's campus. Surprisingly, we were able to enter Tsinghua University's campus without any security check.

This Monday, we also had our last group lunch at the Japanese restaurant and went back to the Joint Institute for a group picture. It's really sad knowing that we are leaving this city that we've come to know, but at the same time we're sad and nostalgic for home. Looking back, I realize that I've learned a lot from the trip, much about organic chemistry from my work in the lab, but also about living in a foreign country. I'm more independent, open to new experiences, and better at communication, especially the non-verbal type. The first time I took a public bus and people started speaking to me in Chinese, I ran away (Marko found it really funny). Now, I definitely understand more basic Mandarin and can clearly give a taxi driver directions to Wanliu. I am really happy that I also picked up some important Chinese characters, enough so that I can figure out which bus line will take me to where I need to go, but sadly still not enough to read a menu. I know that when I first meet people, they expect me to speak perfect Mandarin, and when I do not, they look at me oddly. I am proud, however, to have gotten past this self-consciousness, but happier when I manage to say and get what I want without others realizing anything unusual.

Actually working in the lab was also really worthwhile because it allowed us to interact with locals, many of whom were similar to us in age, and learn about the issues and activities that interested them. Many of those activities were similar to our own, so hanging out with my lab mates during lab dinners or at the movies was a lot of fun. Coming into the program, I had anticipated the language barrier to be a larger problem, but my lab members Yan Qifan and Xiu Yuan actually knew a lot of English that language wasn't really a problem. I do wish, however, that I had practiced Chinese more often with my lab members to learn more from them. Nonetheless, this program has been a rewarding learning experience in ways I hadn't expected.