Jay K.
[me and my roommates]
Ep.18 My 21st Birthday in China
It’s been a while since I’ve written the last episode. I am sure you guys are also very busy with midterms, so do I. I’m busy with not only midterms but also with many others things. So, the last Friday (exactly a week ago from today) was my 21st birthday. Yes, I am an adult now, but you know that doesn’t mean anything.
I recall my 18th birthday and that was the funniest birthday in my 21 years of life. The 19th birthday was the most painful, yet memorable birthday of my life. The last year, my 20th birthday, was very plain unlike the other ones. On the last birthday, I just hung out with many friends and I was very thankful for that I had that many friends to celebrate my birthday with. This year, my 21st birthday in China, was the busiest birthday of my life!
If you guys read the last article and remember that I was debating whether I should to go to Xian with my friends or attend International Culture Festival as a member of Korean Student Association. In the last episode, I decided to stay in Beijing and work for KSA rather than going down to Xian. However, the plan got changed. The University changed the date of ICF to Sunday (10/26) from Saturday which meant that I could go down to Xian with my friends on Friday night and come back on Sunday morning before ICF started. And that Friday was my 21st birthday.
The plan was simple enough. The plan is following: on my birthday (10/24), I go down with my friends to Xian (14 hours of train ride) and arrive at Xian in the next morning. I have fun with friends on Saturday (10/25) in Xian and I take a train that Saturday night to come back on Sunday morning to Beijing (10/26) so that I can attend ICF. Now you understand why I call my 21st birthday was the busiest birthday in my life.
I will tell you guys every minute of those three days (not literally, but close enough).
10/23. 6:00pm.
We should first go back to Thursday (10/23), the day before my birthday. On Thursday night, I celebrated my birthday with Karen, a new Korean friend I made here. She is really nice and helped me a lot in the polisci class. She bought me a dinner (of course, we had Korean BBQ!) and we talked about for three hours. She really made me to feel like home. I really enjoyed that time.
[My Chinese classmates at the lunch]
10/24. 8:00am.
Now we move to Friday (10/24), the actual day of my birthday. While economists in the United States were worrying about the new Black Thursday and Great Depression on the 79th anniversary of initial stock market crash (10/24/1929), I went to 8am class as usual in China. Nothing special, the class was boring as usual.
I almost forgot that my grandma called me right before the class started. She is one that always remembers my birthday. I was really touched.
12:00pm.
My class ended at noon. I am the class leader of my Chinese class (meaning I organize simple class activities). That Friday, the class was having a lunch together which I planned a week ago. So I had to lead my classmates to this Chinese restaurant, and make sure everyone was having a good time. It was tiring for me. I was busy taking care of foods for others so I couldn’t eat well. However, the lunch was fun and refreshing. In China, there are lots of class activities. For example, in my strategic management class, the professor bought the students late night meal after class.
2:30pm
The lunch ended around 2pm, but however I couldn’t go back to home. I had to pick up a movie camera that would be used for recording International Culture Festival. While I was doing that, I also called friends for my birthday dinner that night. Oh, I also had to pack for the Xian trip that I would go on the same night.
5:30pm
My birthday dinner was at 5:30, a bit early because we had to leave the campus at 7:50 for Xian. The restaurant was 20 minutes away from the campus so we barely had two hours for dinner. 12 people came to the dinner, which were more than what I expected. It was again Korean BBQ. I really had fun. I was happy that over the last three month I made good friends whom I can have fun time with. Before I came to China, I worried a lot about friends because it was the first year in college all over again. Making new friends is always frightening and tiring.
Everything was very tight and the time wasn’t enough but we had a good time. Of course, I couldn’t help thinking about the last year’s birthday and friends back home, but I cannot always think about the past. I should enjoy the present, because it’s a gift!
In Ratatouille, Gusteau tells to Remy, “Ah, but that is no match for wishful thinking! If you focus on what’s you’ve left behind, you’ll never be able to see what lies ahead”.
After having a dinner, we all came back to campus to get on the bus that would take us to the railway station. The train was leaving Beijing at 9:30pm.
[the stupid card game we played in the train]
[my birthday cake]
[my birthday dinner]
9:50pm
The train left Beijing Railway Station to Xi’An which is located the west of Beijing. It’s really fun to take a train with your friends. We ate my birthday cake on the train and played card games until 1am the next day.
My 21st birthday was passing like that. I was twenty anymore. It wasn’t as sad as my 20th birthday when I was no more a teenager. Every birthday, I try to look at the past and plan the future. I thought about the future and the past right before I went to sleep on the train. I felt everything was moving so fast. Maybe I’m doing too many stuffs that I’m not really enjoying that life. But on the second thought, I am not that busy, so I can’t really complain.
10/25 8:00am
Around 8am we arrived at Xian, the city of history and civilization. Xian is considered as one of the four origin of human civilization. The city was the capital of many dynasties in the history of China including the first unified kingdom of China (Qin).
We first headed to the hotel and had a breakfast. It was really different from travelling by myself. It was fun to move with many people and just hang out. I really didn’t care about sights that we went; I just went all the way to Xian to have a good time with friends.
11:00am
We went to our first tourist site in Xian—the provincial museum. My good friend from Berkeley who now works in Shanghai called me for my birthday. I was really happy to talk to him.
1:00pm
We had a nice lunch together. The trip reminded me of the summer trips that we went together such as the Great Wall trip and Inner Mongolia trip. I missed people who went back to the States after the summer program was over.
[at the Big Goose pagoda]
2:30pm
We visited the Big Goose pagoda, a Tang dynasty Buddhist structure. The pagoda was very nice. There wasn’t any spectacular or magnificent building, but the park around the tower was very nice to walk around. I just had fun taking pictures with friends and walking around the tower. However I kept thinking about the ride back to Beijing. I had to leave Xian in 4 hours.
6:00pm
Because of the traffic jam, we arrived at the restaurant late. My train was at 8:30pm, so I had to leave the restaurant at 6:20 at the latest. That gave me only 20 minutes to eat the supper. I was really sad leaving friends and going back by myself. However, that was what I planned and wanted. I really had a good time in Xian and no regret that I went there although it was super tiring.
[the museum]
9:00pm
I got on my train heading back to Beijing. Actually if you calculate, the time I spent on the train is longer than the time I spent in Xian, but again no regret that I went to Xian. I was really tired so I just went to sleep early around 10pm.
[Xi'An railway station at night]
10/26 7:00am
I woke up early on Sunday. The train was delayed. The International Culture Festival was starting at 9am. I was supposed to get to Beijing at 8am. And around 7:30 am, I got one text message from the editor of KSA telling me that we were meeting at 8:30am. I had to say “Shit” in my mind.
So I arrived at 8:00am at the railroad station. I grabbed a cab and ran back to the campus. I don’t want to bother explaining how tried I was at that time. I came back to my dorm and rested for 10 minutes and after people started calling me. I had to leave my room and start my day again!
9:00am to 5:00pm. The International Culture Festival is the annual event organized by the University. This year was the 5th ICF. It is the event for many foreign students who study in PKU to show their country and culture to other people. You can say there is two parts of ICF; one is the main stage performances, and the other is each country’s booth display. Every country had its own booth where they can exhibit their culture, food, and etc. Korea also has its booth which is the one of the biggest booth due to the large number of Korean students in PKU.
[a group playing Korean traditional instrucments]
[volunteers for the game KSA prepared]
My job was recording the whole event with my camera. I stayed in Korean booth and took pictures for events that our KSA prepared. I also went to other countries’ booths and took pictures. I also went to the main stage where different teams were performing dance, singing, and more. I was very busy for a whole day, but had lots of fun. Especially because I just got back from Xian, I didn’t have much energy to enjoy the festival.
I had lots of fun experiencing different cultures. The foreign students’ community in PKU is very large and diverse. There are Koreans (South and North), Japanese, Americans, French, Germans, Thai, Indians, Bangladesh, Italians, and Chinese (including students from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan).
[Korean B-boy team]
[yay]
[Hola]
[I WANT MY THAI ICED TEA]
[Bangladash girl painting on my friend's hand]
[she was HOT]
[Taegwondo performance]
The festival ended around 4:30pm but after cleaning up it was almost 5:30. However, my day didn’t end at there. The PKU Idol (yes, it is like American Idol) was going on that night and I had to go there to take pictures for KSA.
8:00pm
The PKU Idol is a signing competition for foreign students. You have to sing number of songs and also show your other “talents”. The night was finale of the PKU Idol; 10 people competed for the last one. For the last round, there were three teams left: Korean duet, a French girl, and a Vietnamese girl. The two Koreans guys were really amazing (I’m not saying this because I’m a Korean). Other girls were really good too but the winner was the Korean duet. They won the PKU Idol.
The show ended around 10:30pm. I was really tired after the show. It seemed my day was ending and now I could finally rest. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. The next day was Monday, and I had a midterm on that day. Alas! Because I was busy with all these things, obviously I didn’t study enough for the test.
However, it was impossible for me to stay up and study. It was actually impossible.
[Korean traditional wedding that KSA performed. They are actually going out. so cute]
10/27 5:00am
So the next day I got up early. Early I mean 5:00am. The test was at 10am. I had five hours to study, and I studied hard. I really did.
The test was the hardest Chinese test I ever had in my life. The result wasn’t that good. However, the test was over and I eventually could rest for a while. It was the official end of my 21st birthday which started 3 days before.
I took a long nap that day and continued my week after.
[The vietnamese girl who competed in the last round of PKU idol]
[the Korean duet who won the PKU idol, yay Koreans!]
[American team]
[The festival's over!]
This is the story of my 21st birthday. It was long and busy. But I really enjoyed the whole time and made the most of it. I don’t regret that I went to Xian and I don’t regret that I came early for ICF. I don’t regret that I didn’t study for the midterm enough. My birthdays will come again every year, but my 21st birthday will never come again. That is why I have no regret.
more pictures of Xi'An trip and International Culture Festival at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/iamadreamer as usual
Thank you for reading my blog :)
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