China: the finish line

Some people say that going abroad is a lesson for life and it will teach you how to get through life on your own. You will get to know your weaknesses and strengths and figure out how to be comfortable with yourself.

Coming to China didn’t teach me any of this.

The thing is, the only time I felt alone during this whole semester was the first evening when I got here and didn’t know how to use internet, where to get food, or how to manage to fall asleep in a really hard and uncomfortable bed. When I got up the next day to figure out administrative stuff, I met Soyeon. And then I met Robert. And then Karianne and Jing and all the other amazing people.

And I truly believe I was extremely lucky to meet them all, because they all taught me so much about life and helped me to keep my life balanced in an environment that was so different from everything I was used to.

I met people who are so similar and at the same time so different from me. People who left behind their lives to come to live in one of the most interesting countries in the world. People who are adventurous, spontaneous and are still looking for something exciting, something new.

I spoke to people who even at their young age have traveled more than most people do in their whole lifetime. I met people who were so motivating that they made me work harder and dream bigger. They taught me to be braver, more spontaneous and how to manage to keep my life balanced in a strange new country.

I honestly didn’t expect to get so close to these people in only such a short amount of time, but I did. I really do believe I found friends for life and even though I cannot knock on their doors anymore at any moment, I believe they will always be there for me.

My Chinese experience was amazing and even though I now feel even more that I don’t know enough about China, I have a way better sense of their thinking and their culture. I had conversations about the Chinese culture, politics and it made me see everything from a totally new perspective.

Thank you China, Beijing and Tsinghua University for treating me so well!

And moreover, thank you mom and dad for always being so supportive of me and helping me to reach my dreams! And big a big thanks to my sister and my friends and relatives for always being there for me, even when I’m thousands of kilometers away.

It feels good to be back home!

I will miss you all! 

And to all of my readers, I promise to write more about my latest trips soon and add lots of pictures!

What did I learn this year?

With the year coming to its end it’s pretty usual to start thinking about what did you accomplish this year. What will you most remember about these 365 days? Is it the trips you took, the accomplishments you made, people you met or just these small moments that at the time didn’t seem to matter that much?

What I appreciate the most about this year, is how much I learned about myself and about life. Yes, I am still kind of confused about what is going to happen in the future and what exactly do I want to do with my life, but I feel like I’ve come so much further and am so much closer to achieving the things I have so far only dreamed about.

For one thing, I finally took the leap and came to China.  I’ve been talking about coming here for years and everyone said that one day I will do it, but at one point in my life I wasn’t really sure if it’s one of those dreams that is better off to keep it as what it is – a dream – or should I actually turn it into reality.

It turns out that it wasn’t just a dream. It was something that needed to be done, because honestly I feel like every day in here has been a blessing. Yeah, there are days when I feel like I really want to go home and hug my family and friends, but at the same time I feel like I'm surrounded by everything so exciting. Yes, it was tough making myself overcome the fear of the unknown, but I am sincerely proud of myself for doing it.

But in the last few months I’ve been thinking about the meaning of the concept „home“. Is it the place where you were born, where you spent most of your life, the place where you feel the most like yourself of the place where there are people you love?

And I have realized that when you travel around, the concept gets really hazy. Of course, my home will always be with my family at the place where I grow up, but during these past few years I have added several other places to the „List of places I can call home“: Tartu, Tallinn, Morgantown, Beijing.

I’ve discovered that it's the people that make it feel like home. It is the people that you care about and who care about you. So yeah, my real home will always be with my family, but I feel like I also have „families“ all over the world now.

And I haven’t really decided yet if it’s a good thing or not because no matter where you are you will always miss this other family and this other home that you left behind.

But honestly, the year 2015 has given me so much – I’ve had the chance to spend time with my family and friends, I’ve gotten new work experiences, met new people who I’ve grown so attached to, seen the world, traveled, and most of all, enjoyed every single day of this year!

Emme-issi, ma tulen varsti koju, ärge muretsege! :)

And here is my year in pictures. 

Studying in Tsinghua University - a dream come true?

I’ve lived in Beijing for almost two months now and there’s one thing that I am 100% certain – I live in one of the coolest campuses and study in one of the best universities in the world.

Home, Building number 6

Course registration and my final selection

My first days and weeks in Tsinghua were a mess. I cannot even count the times I wanted to hit my head against the wall because of all the paperwork I had to do or because of the stress that the online course registration caused. By the end of the second school week I was already ready to give up because the course registration was about to end and I still didn’t have enough credits.

The problem was that some of the courses I really wanted to take turned out to  be in Chinese, and by that I mean I was the only Western person in the class (or one of the two only ones). Like imagine yourself going to the class called English News Reporting  and it turns out that oops the professor is actually giving his lectures in Chinese and all of his slides are in Chinese. Or you go to this public speaking class and look around and everyone is Chinese and no one even understands English.

Luckily the third school week turned out to be a game changer. By the beginning of my October holidays I actually had all of my courses figured out and the stress was almost gone. This means that I am now left with 11 credits (16,5 ECTS) and five masters courses. And the best part is that I actually like all of them.

-           The Principles of Area Studies (it’s actually more of a Chinese political economy course)

-           Ancient Chinese Thinking of Foreign Policy

-           News Writing and Multi-media Reporting

-           Overview of International Energy and Environmental Governance

-           Chinese

Two of the courses are taught by American and three by Chinese professors and I can honestly say that they are the best among the best. For example, my ancient Chinese thinking professor Yan Xuetong was named as one of the Top 100 public intellectuals in the world by Foreign Policy in 2008.

Studying in Tsinghua is not easy

Studying under the best professors in a top university also means that you need to work twice as hard to get good grades (or to pass the class). For each class you have to finish a massive amount of readings plus hand in home assignments. Compared to the European system where you just go to lectures and pass the final exam it is definitely more difficult, but it is also a lot more effective.

But life is actually a lot easier for the foreign students. The Chinese undergraduate students take at least twice as many credits as I and study three times harder because even though they have already gotten into Tsinghua University, which only accepts 1% of the students, they also have to stand out among the best.  If you want to get into the graduate programs or want to study abroad you must have a killer GPA.

But if you thought it would get easier when you get into a graduate program you are mistaken. My roommate is on her second year of masters and she leaves home before 9AM and returns after 11PM. Most of her days, weekends and even holidays are spent in the lab. The general requirement for her is to spend 40 hours a week in the lab, but since they also have additional homework and projects, the days are a lot longer.

An example of how Chinese people can really sleep everywhere

Outside school activities and the Tsinghua campus

I've always believed that in order to keep yourself healthy, you need to find a balance between physical and mental exercise. Luckily the students in Tsinghua university think like me and therefore there are about a few hundred different student associations here.

Since I am in China, which already seems a bit weird for a lot of people, I decided to do something different this semester and join organizations that I would probably never think about joining back home. Therefore I auditioned for the traditional Chinese dance team and the musical club and got accepted to the latter. Unfortunately I won't be able to do the whole musical since I'll be back in Estonia by then, but I can perform in a show where we will be doing a few numbers from Chicago, Burlesque and some other musicals. Life is an adventure!

But overall, the campus in here is amazing. We have tens of canteens, restaurants, supermarkets, stadiums, parks, a fruit and vegetable market, a gym, swimming hall, concert hall, movie theater, etc. The campus is seven square kilometers and it accommodates about 40 000 students (yes, the campus is bigger than my hometown). The huge amount of students isn't usually a problem, but it is pretty obvious during the breaks between classes when the roads are packed with people on their bikes. Since no one really cares about the rules here, it all looks pretty chaotic (to be honest I am still afraid of dying every time I ride my bike).

But other than the fact that the traffic is crazy, everything is pretty great. Okay, actually there are so many things that are not normal at all and things I could never get used to, but this is what I like about living here. I love that it is not easy - it is a challenge, but at the same time it is so exciting!

The concert hall

One of our libraries

Final note: USNews recently published an article about the top engineering universities in the world and Tsinghua University was number 1 (followed by MIT and Berkeley).
TopUniversities has ranked Tsinghua as the 25th best university in the world.

Tsinghua University campus at night

Yours truly,

Kai 

The streets of China

Walking around in places I've never been and seeing the locals living their everyday lives - this is my favorite part of travelling. 

Especially in China, where nothing is really 'normal' when you look at it from a Western perspective.  You see old people meeting on the streets for some card games, dance lessons, chess or jenga, you see people sleeping on couches or chairs they have put outside of their houses, people selling food that is so unsanitary you might get a food poisoning by just looking at it, children peeing into trash cans, and people who really seem to need the money they get from selling their farm products, but who at the same time own the newest iPhone6. 

Yes, there are so many things in China that are not  normal, but this is what I like about this country. I feel like every day is an adventure and I'm pretty sure I could never get bored here!

Yours truly,

Kai

China through the eyes of an international student: expectations vs reality

This blog post was written for my news and multimedia reporting course in Tsinghua University. Enjoy!

Studying abroad is an amazing opportunity, but it is also a challenge. Especially when you go to a country that is more than 7000 kilometers away and that has a completely different culture from what you’re used to. 

That’s what Karianne Larsen did – she came from Norway to study in Tsinghua University in Beijing for a year and to be honest, it hasn’t all been easy. There are times when all you want to do is kick your head against the wall or take a glass of wine to calm your nerves, but there are also times when everything is so great that you praise yourself for taking this opportunity.

But living in a different culture also means that you see a lot of things that you would never expect to see. You read things before coming here, but when you finally get here you discover that things are really not the way you thought they’d be. That’s why I asked Karianne about the situations where her expectations and the reality didn’t really match up.

1.  Screaming and angry Chinese people

„    "I remember my first bus ride. I was sitting in the bus and there was this Chinese woman sitting behind me and screaming something in Chinese. I turned at her and tried to figure out what’s the matter, but she just kept yelling. It’s pretty frustrating that you really try to understand what they’re saying but can never actually get it and they often sound really angry.“

      2. Cheap Clothes, maybe not?

„    "Everyone has this idea in their heads that everything in China is super cheap and well it is the case with food, but when you go to clothing shops you will definitely be surprised at the prices.“

So if anyone wants to come to China to get cheap clothes, you might want to reconsider your destination.

3. The amount of bureaucracy

      Studying abroad means filling out countless applications and papers and during the first weeks most of your time will be spent on going from one building to another one and filling out papers. „But then when you get used to doing all the paperwork and going from one place to another you suddenly have to do one thing online,“ says Karianne implying to the course registration which all the students in Tsinghua have to do online and which can often cause a lot of stress.

      4. Take-away food in plastic bags

„    "I had seen pictures online before about Chinese take-away food before, but it was still weird to have my first take-away meal from a random plastic bag.“

      5. People really don’t speak English

„    Some people are really good and really try  a lot, but when you get into a taxi where there is again this angry-sounding driver who speaks in a language you don’t understand, this might become an issue. Also when you get lost in the campus on your first day and no-one can understand your cry of help in English.“  

      But that's the thing about coming to live in a different culture - you never know what to expect and that's what makes it exciting. And even though there are times when you sit at the side of the road thinking about how difficult everything is there are also times when you jump out of happiness and do splits at the Great Wall. 

        Yours Truly,

        Kai

Overcoming the fear of the unknown

„Thinking will not overcome fear but action will.“

W. Clement Stone

Fear – we often feel it at times when we don’t really expect it and for reasons that we don’t even want to admit to ourselves. Because how can I be scared of something that I have been wanting for years?

This is exactly what I felt before leaving the one and only place that I can actually call home. To be honest, I have never been so scared in my life and I have no idea why I felt like this. But when I saw my sweet little Estonia from the plane and when I set my foot in China for the first time in six years, it all hit me. For the next 5 months I will be living in a city with more than 20 million people and among the 20 million I don’t really know anyone. My family and friends will be thousands of kilometers away and from now on it’s just me.

But you would be surprised to know how quickly this feeling went away. Okay, the first day was honestly pretty bad because after waiting in the passport check line for 2 hours, sitting in traffic jams for almost 3 hours and getting lost in the campus, I finally made it to my dormitory, where there was no internet and no roommate waiting for me.

My first reaction was to just throw myself on my bed, which actually looked pretty comfortable at first, but lets just say I could not have been more wrong. I literally could not breathe because well my bed is actually a wooden plate which is covered with a 3cm mattress and therefore the fall was pretty painful.

Luckily my survival instincts started working after staying in my dorm room for about 10 minutes (the last meal I had was on the plane about 8 hours ago) and therefore I just knocked on my neighbors doors to find someone who could help me to find food and access internet. My mission was successful and from that point on everything started going upwards. Even though there are times when I feel like I want to scream because of all this bureaucracy I have had to handle, there are so many people here who are dealing with the same kinds of issues and there is nothing that a glass of wine with nice people couldn’t solve.

But overall it seems that I have managed to fill out most of the paperwork and solve all of the issues related to registration, visas, bank accounts, internet etc. Therefore I am now the proud owner of a Chinese SIM-card, bank account, meal card, Student ID and other cool things.

My first meal in one of the cafeterias. Price: less than 1 euro

One of the cafeterias in the campus. Note: you will actually never see none of the cafeterias this empty. The place was actually closed (all the places are closed between 13.30-16.30), but we pretended not to understand the angry Chinese women who were screaming at us (actually most of the time we didn't have to pretend since we actually did not understand most of it). 

This is my new home: Building no. 6, Asian Youth Center. As far as I know, it is the newest and best-looking dormitory in the whole campus. Not to mention the fact that we have the coolest people living here. 

I should also point out that I also managed to purchase my first bicycle ever (30 euros for a new bike didn’t seem like a bad deal). Everyone who knows my experiences with bikes understands how badly this sounds because lets just say that if there is a tree or a lamp post somewhere on the street, you can be sure that I will probably crash into it. So far I have actually been quite successful, but riding a bike in Beijing still seems like this big scary roller coaster to me (describing the traffic rules in Beijing would probably need a separate post).By the end of this semester I should be able to ride with a bike on the streets (where there are no rules and traffic lights don't really matter) while holding an umbrella in one and a mobile in other hand.

Although I actually have so many stories to tell it doesn't feel right to fit all this information into one blog post. Therefore I promise that next time I will tell you more about China, Tsinghua University and my adventures in this amazing city. I can just tell you that I am pretty sure that coming here was one of the best choices I have ever done and I could not be happier! Everything in here is so different and so interesting and every day I learn something new.

The Beijing Olympic Park and The Water Cube at night. 

The Bird's Nest

But until then, be safe, travel and enjoy life (because I know I will).

Yours truly,

Kai