A Day in the Life of an IES Abroad Beijing Summer Student

7:00AM: I normally get up at this time and get ready for classes.
8:00AM: I go for a shouzhuabing at the nearby stand for breakfast and make tea I got on our Saturday trip to the Maliandao tea market to go with it. My classmates are often reviewing and doing last-minute edits to homework.
9:00AM: Classes start with a tingxie (literally, “listen-write”, or a dictation quiz) and the language pledge begins. After we come back from our trip to Xi’an this weekend, the pledge becomes 24/7 as opposed to just from 9am to 4pm.
12:00PM: Lunch time! I might go for peaches from the fruit stand near the Weigongqiao bus station (¥5.80 for four), or make a peanut butter sandwich in my dorm if I’m in a hurry.
3:00PM: Classes end. We have one more hour to speak only Chinese, and I detox from being in the classroom for five hours.
5:00PM: My classmates and I generally go for dinner around this time.
7:00PM: I generally start really studying for the next day at this time.
11:00PM: I generally go to sleep around this time. My roommate Amanda almost always has stayed up later than I have; final exam period is never fun.

We generally do all of our field trips and outings on Wednesdays (which we have off) and weekends. Everyone’s already deciding on where they want to go for our DIY travel weekend. I think I know where I’m going to go; now, I just need to make the plans. I’m really looking forward to Xi’an, which will likely be the subject of my next blog.