Second: getting comfortable

The days are long but the weeks feel short.

My weekdays start at 5 in the morning, with the sun poking through the sliver of a gap between the bedroom window curtains. I drag myself up and start heading down, slinging on my backpack and walking towards the elevators. I finish up my homework and studying in the empty first floor lobby area until 7:30am, when I make my way to class with the newly memorized characters still fresh in my head.

Three classes later, it’s 11:20am, and I either start my one-on-one with a teacher or head out to the campus cafeteria for a quick lunch. From 1pm onwards I’ll take a nap, wake up, workout, eat dinner, start homework, meet with my language partner, then sleep.

I’m getting comfortable with the current pace of classes, and I’m enjoying my productive daily routine. But I just can’t help but feel like this summer would be a wasted opportunity should I simply stay cooped up within the campus limits.

Last Monday I took a quick trip to Innoway to meet with my supervisor, and to get a head start on my analyst internship. I’m currently working remotely on a market research assignment, and am definitely looking forwards to interning full-time after classes conclude.

But more importantly, it was great to get the chance to see an entirely different area of Beijing, a chance to explore outside of the Duke Study in China bubble. Zhongguancun, also known as China’s Silicon Valley, is packed with young tech professionals, a bustling area with steel and glass buildings brandishing the logos of tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Intel, IBM and more. There is no doubt about it: China’s human talent and economic might has made it a necessity for US companies to be physically present.

Of course, as a program we’ve been to some touristy and/or cultural sites as well, like the Great Wall and two temples around the Beijing area.

Especially at the temples, you could certainly see the weight of China’s culture and history, with families making the trip to the centuries-old temples for worship and prayer. The children, like the child above, are taught the values of the past, to carry them into the future.