beijing
i think this post has been overdue, but today's a right day for me to post finally. it's exactly a month since i touched down in this foreign land. things have been going quite smoothly, and so for all those who ask how's it here, here's a full account.
the weather here is still on the cold side, it's like winter doesn't want to leave! since i've arrived, the temperature still hasnt ever been above zero on an entire day, but the cold has been surprisingly bearable. there's a fantastic heater in my room which allows me to sleep in fbts (though i heard it's gonna get turned on come march 15 :O) and i survive with 3 thin layers when i cycle/move around school. it's slightly warmer now i suppose, some afternoons i can finally feel the heat from the sun beat down on me and it feels nice and toasty ^^ sun rises and sets really early here though, around 6 it's already completely bright andf around 6 it's completely dark again. kinda confused me up a bit at the beginning cause i couldnt tell how late/early it was from the looks of the sky :| also realised that i might have become more tanned here?? :( you dont realise it because it's so cold haha
my school is very pretty, modern buildings at the teaching areas and then a scenic lake area in the non-teaching areas. the school is huge, about 400hectares i think, so i'm moving around on a bicycle mostly. thankful for eunice who forced me to learn because once you learn how to cycle you don't want to walk anymore, cause walking is just toooooo slow. also, i've picked up many peripheral skills along the way like cycling with one hand, cycling with bowl of curry in yr basked and cycling with someone sitting behind you haha its fun, and even though i used to take like 20 minutes to cycle to school, now it takes me abt 10-15 min depending on how late i am haha. cycling's addictive! even on days when i have no class i need to get my 'cycling fix' by cycling around school randomly or to go pick up gorceries. it's truly part of immersing in the student life here cause everyone cycles, and i'm on my way to picking up road cycling so that i can cycle out to the shopping centres and not have to wait for the bus anymore
dorm-wise, it's a respectably good accomodation! the room is not huge, but with my own toilet and a tv, there's nothing much to complain about actually - except that the mattress is unacceptably thin hahah the dorm is an internatuonal students dorm so there are many foreignors living here. on my floor, there are many europeans, americans, japanese and filipinos. most of the foreign students in tsinghua are here for the chinese language programme, which makes them super amazed at me when they find out i can speak both chinese and english and that my classes here are all in chinese hahaha
in terms of school work, i'm taking 4 classes. priv intl law, intl economic law, ocean law and introduction to civil law. the challenging aspects are mainly the language barrier and the civil law thought, the former i already expected, but surprisingly the civil law thought is much more different from what i imagined! it's not incomprehensible but just different, and it takes a while to catch on. the thing about law here is that the cases are extremely short (2-4pages, like singapore cases up from head notes to facts until the summary of judgment) and the amount of pre-lesson preparation required is much less. also the study of the law seems to be much more superficial than in a common law country but i suppose it could just be that i haven't encountered the in depth areas or the exact system of thought.
in other matters, life here is surprisingly free and easy, no commitments, everything own time own target. i still get to mix with many singaporeans because there's people from NUS law and biz in both tsinghua and beida (which is like 10 min bus ride away) so we still have dinners together frequently and travel together sometimes! went to Tianjin over the weekend which was a good short getaway, just 30 min by high speed rail but quite a world of a difference as compared to Beijing. Hope the upcoming trips work out too! also i've began to cook in my room cause it's less oily than food outside and just because i have an induction cooker and a pot. but apparently no frying is allowed because smoke will trigger off the smoke detector so i can only have soupy stuff or porridge which will make me very healthy at the end of it (hopefully combined with the cycling i shall be more fit when i come back ^^)
it's been a wonderful experience and i'm sure it will continue to surprise me. afraid that time here will pass by before i know it (quite likely) but i'll try my best to treasure my time. till next time!
the weather here is still on the cold side, it's like winter doesn't want to leave! since i've arrived, the temperature still hasnt ever been above zero on an entire day, but the cold has been surprisingly bearable. there's a fantastic heater in my room which allows me to sleep in fbts (though i heard it's gonna get turned on come march 15 :O) and i survive with 3 thin layers when i cycle/move around school. it's slightly warmer now i suppose, some afternoons i can finally feel the heat from the sun beat down on me and it feels nice and toasty ^^ sun rises and sets really early here though, around 6 it's already completely bright andf around 6 it's completely dark again. kinda confused me up a bit at the beginning cause i couldnt tell how late/early it was from the looks of the sky :| also realised that i might have become more tanned here?? :( you dont realise it because it's so cold haha
my school is very pretty, modern buildings at the teaching areas and then a scenic lake area in the non-teaching areas. the school is huge, about 400hectares i think, so i'm moving around on a bicycle mostly. thankful for eunice who forced me to learn because once you learn how to cycle you don't want to walk anymore, cause walking is just toooooo slow. also, i've picked up many peripheral skills along the way like cycling with one hand, cycling with bowl of curry in yr basked and cycling with someone sitting behind you haha its fun, and even though i used to take like 20 minutes to cycle to school, now it takes me abt 10-15 min depending on how late i am haha. cycling's addictive! even on days when i have no class i need to get my 'cycling fix' by cycling around school randomly or to go pick up gorceries. it's truly part of immersing in the student life here cause everyone cycles, and i'm on my way to picking up road cycling so that i can cycle out to the shopping centres and not have to wait for the bus anymore
dorm-wise, it's a respectably good accomodation! the room is not huge, but with my own toilet and a tv, there's nothing much to complain about actually - except that the mattress is unacceptably thin hahah the dorm is an internatuonal students dorm so there are many foreignors living here. on my floor, there are many europeans, americans, japanese and filipinos. most of the foreign students in tsinghua are here for the chinese language programme, which makes them super amazed at me when they find out i can speak both chinese and english and that my classes here are all in chinese hahaha
in terms of school work, i'm taking 4 classes. priv intl law, intl economic law, ocean law and introduction to civil law. the challenging aspects are mainly the language barrier and the civil law thought, the former i already expected, but surprisingly the civil law thought is much more different from what i imagined! it's not incomprehensible but just different, and it takes a while to catch on. the thing about law here is that the cases are extremely short (2-4pages, like singapore cases up from head notes to facts until the summary of judgment) and the amount of pre-lesson preparation required is much less. also the study of the law seems to be much more superficial than in a common law country but i suppose it could just be that i haven't encountered the in depth areas or the exact system of thought.
in other matters, life here is surprisingly free and easy, no commitments, everything own time own target. i still get to mix with many singaporeans because there's people from NUS law and biz in both tsinghua and beida (which is like 10 min bus ride away) so we still have dinners together frequently and travel together sometimes! went to Tianjin over the weekend which was a good short getaway, just 30 min by high speed rail but quite a world of a difference as compared to Beijing. Hope the upcoming trips work out too! also i've began to cook in my room cause it's less oily than food outside and just because i have an induction cooker and a pot. but apparently no frying is allowed because smoke will trigger off the smoke detector so i can only have soupy stuff or porridge which will make me very healthy at the end of it (hopefully combined with the cycling i shall be more fit when i come back ^^)
it's been a wonderful experience and i'm sure it will continue to surprise me. afraid that time here will pass by before i know it (quite likely) but i'll try my best to treasure my time. till next time!