Six more to go

The Story of You, Part 2.

Jay K.



[Ready?]

Ep.27 Six more to go

I guess this episode will be the last episode for this semester. I have two more finals to take this week, but I am still writing this. I am leaving this Friday which is right after my last final’s over—I will talk more about it later.

My first semester in China is already over, which means I have only one mores semester to go. Time really goes fast. It passes away like my fully charged electric bike on the road: so fast. At this point, I have a mixed feeling. I feel sometimes that a half of my program is already passed. Some other time, I feel I still have six more months to go. I want to go back to home at the same time, I want to stay longer. I don’t know how I will feel after 6 months, when I really need to leave China.

What did I do over the last 4 months? I think I tried hard in the beginning of the semester, but later I got lazy and I didn’t try enough. Especially, I didn’t try my best to learn Chinese and make Chinese friends. I feel guilty about that. I don’t deny that my Chinese got better over this semester by a lot. It’s just that I believe it could be improved at the even faster rate. My speaking is still very poor, but reading and listening got much better. I just started to read some Chinese fiction for the break and I actually understood everything without a help of the dictionary. I also find myself understanding Chinese people speaking on the streets (of course, I understand only small fraction of what they are saying). I am ready to take the highest level of Chinese class in my school, although it still depends on how I do on the second placement exam.

Besides learning Chinese, I also tried many other things. As I said before, I made Korean friends and actually they are mostly girls. Since I went to boy middle school and boy high school in Korea, I really didn’t have chance to meet Korean girls. In college, I knew only few Korean girls (not counting Korean American). I was a bit scared of Korean girls before, because I thought they are all really cold and shy. However, meeting few Korean girls here, I realized that’s not really true.

I did lots of things for my Korean Student Association, and I expect to do even more during the next semester. It’s really interesting for me to make Korean friends here and watch them. However, I should try harder to make local Chinese friends.



[with my Chinese teacher]

Besides learning Chinese and being a true Korean, another significant thing happened in this semester is my semester-long diet. Do you guys remember that I said I would be on diet after seeing a totally changed high school friend? I tried to lose weights that during the summer, but I was sick too often during the first few weeks. I was adjusting to the new environment, so it wasn’t a good time to start my diet. After my summer program, I was on a trip, so I also couldn’t go on a diet.

After the trip, I moved into my new place in PKU and started to carry out my ambitious diet plan. I joined the school gym and started to eat only half of what I used to eat. It was actually successful, because I lost around 11 pounds after couple weeks. But, after those 11 pounds, it wasn’t really easy to lose more weights. Sometimes, I was sick so I couldn’t keep dieting, some other times I just had too many dinner plans, or still sometimes I had to go to buffets. So, I was not losing any more weight after first 11 pounds, but a week ago I got some motivation to push harder and actually I lost another 11 pounds in a week. So I lost around 22 pounds in total in this semester.

To be honest, I was really encouraged by this although it’s not much. I got confidence that I can do it. My goal for the next semester is losing 44 more pounds: I don’t know it’s actually possible, but I will try. If I even pass losing 44 pounds, you guys will not recognize me when I go back—hopefully that happens. I guess I am too ideal and ambitious sometimes
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Nothing really happened besides these in this semester. I hope the next semester is more exciting and productive. I guess a more important thing is to be productive.

So, this Friday, I am going to Ha’erbin. I will be done with my final this Friday and I am finally free, which means it’s again time for travel! Actually, this time I was going to travel with friends. I was really excited for that, but you know plans do not always work out as you want. It’s China: anything can happen. My friends couldn’t get the tickets, and luckily I got the only ticket. Thus, I am travelling by myself again.



[the train ticket to Ha'erbin!!!]

Ha’erbin is in the farthest east province of China. It’s right next to the Sino-Russian border. The city of Ha’erbin was actually a Russian-ruled territory. It will be freezing there. You Californians won’t understand what it means. It will be below 30 Celsius degree (-22 Fahrenheit). I don’t know how I will survive there, but I am very excited about this trip. I am also visiting the Sino-North Korea border cities (two different locations). I will have a glimpse of the most closed country in the world. I am a bit scared too, but really excited about it. The trip is really short compare to my summer trip. It will be only a week. After the trip, I will fly back to my country, Korea! And I am planning another trip in China right before the school starts, but that’s not for sure yet.

My winter break is from January 9th to February 12th. It’s short but I will have lots of fun. My next episode will definitely be about my winter trip: you guys can expect a lot of pretty pictures.



[It doesn't look like I lost 22 pounds, because I bundled up for Haerbin. I'm ready!]