beijing (part 3): (报告NOW）baogaoNOW

Thursday March 22^nd,

Another day of learning, and more to see. Today, we all took the subway and went to Tsinghua university, getting a mini tour of the campus and doing our presentations along with other graduate students from this university overseen by our professor and a professor of Tsinghua. Our teacher told us that this presentation would be a warm-up for Friday’s official presentation. Nonetheless, I think most of the students were nervous, including me. I could hear it in my voice when I was presentation. Argh. Again, I felt like we should have had more time to interact with the students. I mean it was nice that everyone presented on his or her topic of research and what not. It felt like more of a thesis presentation…..which was kind of strange for me, since I don't really have something very specific to focus on at the moment. Also, after each groups’ presentation, there was a discussion. I was actually kind of offended by what the professor from Tsinghua said to me as some of the other students were as well. I think that it would have been more beneficial if we had gotten to talk to the students one on one, more interaction, so that the discussion could have been more flowing, easier and relaxed.  By the time the presentations were over, most of the students were tired. Wes, a fellow classmate of mine turned to me and said in a british accent “ I can’t get off my ass.”

Totally engaged in the presentation

I offered to accompany my friend to the office for international students so she won’t have trouble getting back to the hotel. Tsinghua University is really, really big. Possibly bigger than UC Davis. One of the students who took us to the office said that the uni is really pretty in spring and summer.

our boyfriends, apparently

So I thought I’d have time to fix my presentation that night. After getting back from dinner and whatnot, I found myself to be extremely tired. Although I had fixed most of it already and made it more coherent, I could not keep my eyes opened. So around…9pm, I sleepily told my roommate to wake me up in 2 hours so I could work more on my presentation. She agreed. There was another student in the room, but I was knocked out before he even left. My roommate took a loooong bath J and saw me still sleeping, so decided not to wake me up and let me sleep. I woke up around 2am wondering why I was sleeping with my head at the opposite end of the bed. It took me 5 mins to realize that that was the way I slept at 9. I figured I should probably actually crawl into my bed, which is exactly what I did and promptly fell back asleep.      

Did I also mention that in weather.com....the weather for Beijing today is: Smoke. ahaha.

And now, for the day of doom: Presentation at the Carnegie endowment at Tsinghua. 

Friday March 23^rd, 2012

And now, the day of doom, or so I thought. Friday morning was spent at the Insitute of Contemporary International Relations research. Rumor has it that these people work for the government and will secretly collect info for them. I spent that morning, mostly in a daze because I was just so tired, as was everyone else. After struggling to get through the morning, we “mingled” with the researchers. Everyone keeps telling me they’re impressed with the fact that I’ve kept up with my Chinese despite immigrating to the states at an early age. I thought they should be more impressed with all my American classmates who spoke awesome Chinese.

doing his mini presentation

Steven, paying attention

Oh, did I mention that almost everyone got sick or is getting sick? I was having a really sore throat and a slight headache. For lunch, some of us, including me opted to have porridge and veggies, something light. Afterwards, we went to a café called Tens Years After Cafe. There is a coffee also with that name, and I was wondering, so…they take ground coffee that’s been kept for 10 years and then brew it and serve it to us? Ahaha, it’s actually just the name. Angelica and I shared a tiramisu, and our professor had a black forest cake.

Fooood

                                     

porridge

Also it was super windy that day, and our conference room was on the 12^th floor. Great views, just the wind was really loud. I think most of us were wondering: WHY ARE THERE SO MANY EXPERTS AND PROFESSORS HERE?! That was one of the reasons others and I were nervous for this presentation. But nervous or not, the presentation was going to happen. I did it and managed not to screw up or make myself a complete idiot in the process. Our group only had 2 people, Wes and me. Wes’ presentation was hilarious. During discussion time, I didn’t think many people would be interested in asking me many questions since my topic was very broad: The governmental relationship between Russia and China. I mean, the presentation is 5 minutes long, which isn’t a very long time to discussion something this big. But nonetheless, many people asked me questions, which I was able to answer to the best of my abilities. My professor said that I did a very well J hehe. Thank God the presentations were over. FINALLY. Many people were like, we should go out or something. The funny thing is that even though we were done, we were all too tired and brain dead to do anything but stay in our hotel and rest. My classmate and I opted to go to tea downstairs. Good choice, and very relaxing.

I feel official

I did get to interact with some of the experts in this topic later on and got to speak a bit of Russian with the Russian expert there J He said I have a great pronunciation and that if I really want to go to Russia and keep learning Russian, I should go to Carnegie-Moscow. That would be awesome, if it happens!

All in all, this week was a great learning experience. I learned a lot, seen a lot, heard a lot and had fun.

Here’s to the next adventure, wherever it may be, or whenever it may be.