Today is Sunday. It has been 6 days, nearly a week since we first landed in Beijing. I still remember the first day, when we first walked out of the airport. The deathly cold winds immediately penetrated our thin coats and took away whatever trace of warmth we had, shocking us with its strength and ferocity. Teeth chattering and knees trembling, I lugged my gigantic luggage towards the bus, wondering what lay ahead of me. Never would I have thought I would learn so much and have so much fun.

Time feels like it’s moving at the speed of light for me. Hours pass like seconds, days like minutes. I have been to a museum, done community service for a migrant worker children’s school, visited the Imperial Palace, went shopping at Wu Dao Kou and Xiu Shui Jie, eaten Yang Rou Chuan, and of course, been to Er Fu Zhong Gao to study. Looking back, I found myself to be actually enjoying every second I have been in Beijing. Besides learning about the rich heritage and culture of China, I have also had so much fun taking pictures, bargaining for the best price, imitating the Chinese accent and having myself being mistaken for being Southern Chinese or Korean. Its barely begun, but I don’t ever want it to end.

For me, one of the most meaningful activities was to the migrant workers children school in the outskirts. When we first walked into the school, we were greeted by the previous group taking charge of the primary 1 children’s physical education lesson. Seeing the smiling faces and hearing the hearty laughter really made me feel good inside. Even though they were of vastly different backgrounds from us, being poorer and unable to afford things we could normally have back at home, they are still able to have a lot of fun using simple objects they find around them. However when I tried to teach the preschoolers class, I was in for a nasty surprise. The kids were quiet for the first 10 seconds when their teacher left the classroom, and they started fooling around immediately after that. Trying to teach them was virtually impossible. Instead, our group, who was at a loss at what to do, tried our best to break up their fights while distracting them with paper and colour pencils to the best of our ability. It was difficult, but the kids were cute and our hearts just melted for them. Unexpectedly, time passed really quickly and the class was over before we knew it. I was disappointed at our progress, and thus am determined to do better the next time, and maybe teach the kids something useful.

Here is where I will stop writing, and maybe the next week I will write about bargaining and shopping.