Travel Blog #7: Explorin’

Hey friends!

We’ve made it full circle: I’ve officially been here a week, and woooo, hasn’t it been an experience! Honestly, it feels like it’s been much longer, but I’m kind of glad it hasn’t been so I still have time to see and do things.

Day 7: yesterday was one of those “I’m not getting out of bed today” type of days. I was very tired so I just wanted to sleep the day away. Veronica felt the same way, so we were in bed until at least 2:00 PM. THEN, Damian and Funsho came knocking our door down (almost literally). “Guys come on!” “Get out the bed, we’re in CHINA.” “Let’s go, we’re going to the park.” Knowing they had a point, we got up and went with the two of them, Stephen and Inni to Beihai Park.

We took the subway. The subway was great! It was just an updated, more innovative version of the NYC Subway. The Beijing Subway was cheap, clean, quick, had AC, and a phone signal – can’t beat it! The park was beautiful as well. It reminded me of a botanical garden. We felt slightly uncomfortable though, because people were staring at us and trying to take pictures like we were apart of the attraction! We understand that they may not see people who look like us a lot, but they should still take our feelings into account.

As we’re leaving, we struck up a conversation with a guy who was looking at one of the areas of the park as we were. His name was Dom. He was a student as well, from Australia. He was backpacking around, by himself, so we invited him to have dinner with us.

We had a large family-style dinner at a restaurant and I have to admit, it’s been the best meal I’ve had here. I tried so many new things and everything was delicious. Kung pao chicken, dumplings, Chinese sausage, barbecued pork, you name it. AMAZING. I’m glad I’m surrounded by fun and supportive people here as we’re going through this study abroad journey – and we’re just getting started!

再见 (Bye)!

Kyla