Julie's Excellent Adventure

Ok so I have been asked to start a blog so that you people can follow my adventures in China. I hope I succeed in being somewhat interesting. Oh and it's in English because it's the international language. I didn't want to start it before and didn't reply to people asking me how China is because I didn't have an opinion at the beginning. I wanted to have experienced it more before saying anything.

For those who didn't know. I am doing a CEED (Cultural Envoy for Exchange Development) with AIESEC (see links at the right if you don't know what AIESEC is). I am helping AIESEC Mainland of China with trainee reception and integration. I arrived in Beijing on Wednesday May 16th after 24 hours of traveling (I left Quebec City at 4 PM on May 14th but with the jetlag it's even later). It was pretty long since I had to fly through London (cheaper).

After being picked up at the airport by Carol (other CEEDer from Edmonton) and Kitty (incoming VP Finance), I arrived at the MC apartment at around 7 AM. There I met Asia (Polish intern). Everybody else was sleeping. 5 bedrooms, 1 mattress on the floor and a couch. Mike and Steph (CEEDers from Michigan) were sleeping on the couch. There are too many people in this aparment! Usually it's just a part of the MC, but now we are the MC, 7 CEEDers and 1 intern. We are four in the room where I sleep. The table often has 10 laptops on it. The MC has an office near the apartment but it's so small. It's smaller than the AIESEC Laval office, so I'd rather work from the apartment.



I was quite confused at first because it seemed the MC didn't really know what I was supposed to do. Plus we were 4 CEEDers who arrived in 3 days. But then Natalie (MCVP PD, she's from Australia) came back from her LC visits and it got clearer. I will be working on trainee reception and integration, because it's lacking a lot in China. They have seen a tremendous exchange growth (2nd country in terms of exchanges, after India) and now they're worried they're gonna become like India in terms of quality. So for the first week and a half I am in Beijing, and then I am going to Shanghai for the rest of my CEED. In Shanghai, I will be working with Daniel (from the UK, current MCVPICX and incoming Shanghai director) and some Brazilian CEEDer named Caio. I haven't met them yet.

So what have I done since I'm here? Well the first day I took a nap (jetlag!) and then went to this presentation at Peking University on the India program. China has a partnership with India and they're trying to send hundreds of Chinese AIESECers to China so they have to promote it. My understanding of Chinese it pretty bad! I pick up on some words. Hopefully it gets better. Chinese people aren't very used to teaching their language to others so they don't know to speak slowly and repeat and use other words and gesture. After that we went to an expats bar called Propaganda. When we got out, Vincent (MCP-elect) asked me "do you have a strong stomach?" and made me try this street food. It was good. The only thing I haven't digested well so far is food from an expats bar I went to watch the soccer game on Saturday night. I am not really following my doctor's recommendations of not brushing my teeth with tapwater and only eating from very clean restaurants. I wanna live the Chinese life!

Friday night we went to an event held by the Australian Chamber of Commerce. From what I understand, AIESEC China has a partnership with it. They pay for the salary of a MC member who works for both AIESEC and the chamber of commerce in increasing relations between Australia and China. So the event was: free food and free beer! I got to meet a couple of the trainees in Beijing. Antoine was there (he's from Laval too). I haven't seen Christian yet (other guy from Laval). Then we went to more expats bars (Kai and Shooters, ok I know this doesn't ring any bell to you, dunno why I'm mentionning it). I'm not really fond of clubs, especially expats/tourists clubs because I think people act differently since they know they won't be here again. So yeah I didn't enjoy the club part so much.

Saturday we (Carol, Asia, Beth (3rd Michigan CEEDer) and I) went to Summer Palace. It's very pretty. We spent hours walking around and also laid on the grass sleeping for quite a while. Ah lazy summer days!



Interesting fact about China: they have soybean popsicles!
Thing I learned: toddlers wear pants with a kind of tear in it so they don't have to take them off when nature calls. So we see their butt all the time.

Then we went to get a massage. It was in the 3rd basement. Quite shady. I got a body massage from this dude who only spoke Chinese so we had an extensive conversation of "how old are you?" and "I'm Canadian", etc. The massage wasn't quite what I expected and I must say my back hurts since it lol. But it was a nice cultural experience. There was also this old erotic poster of a white man and woman in their underwear on the wall...

One thing I really like is the exchange rate. Taking the bus costs like 15 cents. But I can't really take it as freely as I'd want since I have no idea where buses go since it's all in Chinese. Saturday night I had to take a cab alone and all I could rely on was that piece of paper with the address on it. I hoped the driver would understand. I don't have a cell phone to call friends when I'm lost (I'll get a number in Shanghai). But it's nice to get out of my comfort zone. I need to do it more if I want to get better in Chinese, rather than relying on my translators.

The cultural shock is smaller than what I expected. I thought the streets would be full of people and that I would be claustrophobic everywhere, but the traffic isn't nearly as bad as what I expected. And the pollution isn't so bad either. The only thing very different from other places I've been is that everything's in Chinese. I guess the cultural shock will kick in once I realize the differences in mentality, which I cannot really do without interacting more with Chinese people.

Well that's all for today! I'll try to keep you updated at least once every 2 weeks.