ABROAD IN
*this is a few days late because i didn't have wifi*
6/22/17: Finally done with PDO!!! It wasn't too bad but I was so exhausted, and it was really hard to stay awake. We pretty much sat in a room from 8 until 5:30 and went through power points and ate food. It's ok though because NSLI-Y staff made it bearable with activities and it made me a little more excited for the trip. In the middle of the power points during our break, we all played some games and did some taiqi on PDO day 2. PDO Day 1 (June 21st - getting off the plane from Seattle): I arrived in D.C. an hour earlier than expected and met some NSLI-Y alum/staff (Isaac and Orion) and ran into some other students at the baggage claim. There, I met another Seattle student that's doing NSLI-Y and it turns out she was on my flight! She's going to Suzhou, and she knows one of my good friends so it was funny that we ran into eachother. We waited for a few minutes for other students to arrive, then we took a shuttle to the hotel where PDO was held. There, we did some icebreakers and I got to meet all of the other Nanjingers in person and the other 40ish students that are going to Suzhou and Xi'an. Everyone seemed to connect rather quickly and easily because everyone is super friendly and funny and really excited about the trip. We ate some good dinner and then pretty much had free time the rest of the night. So, I played some ultimate frisbee outside with some of the Xi'an and SuZhou students, then I met all of the other Nanjingers in the pool where we went swimming. Also, I wasn't expecting D.C. to be really hot/humid, but it was surprisingly in the high 80s and the humidity was pretty bad. I'm not quite sure how I am going to survive in 100+ degree Nanjing weather?? ALSO I met another XC runner who is from Minnesota!! I'm super excited because Alexandra and I both want to summer train and are serious about getting in shape for season, so after going to the pool we went running at the gym with Camilla. We had some time before curfew so we met at our friend's hotel room with around 10 other Nanjingers where we watched Sherlock and crashed on the bed to play some games. Just before 10 we went back to our hotel rooms - I'm currently rooming with a girl named Rachel from Japan! She's going to Xi'an but she's super nice and relatable so it was fun to room with her, and it was a good start to the program. PDO day 2: I woke up at 7 am with Alexandra and Rachel to go on a morning run. I only ran a mile partially because I had no food in me and also because I was super tired and not motivated. After, everyone met back in the conference room for breakfast and the start of PDO at 8. It was pretty much 8-9 hours of powerpoints and eating. I didn't do a lot tonight, just hung out with some Nanjingers in the hotel room after downloading some free VPNs haha Tomorrow morning I have to wake up at 3 am to catch our flight. Suzhou and Nanjing students are flying 2 hours to Chicago, then flying 14 hours to Shanghai where we will then split up and the Nanjing students will take a bus to Nanjing where we will meet our host families. It's still so weird that I'm going to be in China tomorrow. I'm a little nervous to meet my host family because I know there are going to be points where I don't understand what they are saying. Oh well. I should get used to it. But, I'm mostly excited to experience everything in the next 6 weeks and to finally practice my Chinese outside of America.
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Andrea 施安雅17-year-old XC runner and boba tea lover living in Seattle but studying abroad in China. Also, I have a cat! Archives
August 2017
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