[part 2] How's Summer School Going?

Lanjut tentang summer school yang kemarin ya.

So, the first day, the schedule only registration. We arrived (me and ditha nak fisipol) at around 6 a.m in PEK (Beijing Capital International Airport). This airport is so large that made us have to ride kind of sky train to pick up our luggage. Outside the airport lobby, there were already some people from Tsinghua University waiting for us while holding a sign board named “summer school experiencing China”. University bus ready to take us at 7 a.m, fortunately we didn’t need long time to wait. On bus, I sat beside a guy from Malaysia who study in Cambridge University. I remember he said that he just wanna spend money in Beijing during summer school, omo, horang kayah haha. Even since the beginning I already surprised who else I will meet. From Indonesia, I met student from UI and ITB, and a cute girl from Thailand. Besides, I met two girls wearing hijab from Brunei Darussalam. They also speak bahasa Melayu tho.

Yeay, entering the north-east gate Tsinghua University, we headed to Zijing Apartment, the place to registration and staying for international student. Lucky me I got building 19 with single room. Others got building 20 – 23, and building 6 which is far enough comparing to the others. In registration desk I received student id card, cafeteria card, key room, Tsinghua guide book, wi-fi password, tote bag, and t-shirt. Impressive! That day was quite tiring. In the evening we ate dinner at halal canteen. We should walk around 1.2 km to canteen, something usual distance for Tsinghua student. It was unique because canteen doesn’t accept cash to pay but cafeteria card. We got 200 yuan deposit each for this card. Bought something only by appointing here and there without knowing what’s the name of those kind of food. Simply I said, this canteen has acceptable taste. No need to compare with Indonesian food (of course be the best). We responsible to clean our table after meal and put the dishes into certain dishwasher.

One more remarkable point along the way back to apartment was the crowd in every sport hall. Soccer field, tennis hall, basketball hall, gym hall, etc were full of people doing sport. Big respect to them. Now I know why China always leading in the world sport competition. That is something that I need to take as a lesson.

Second day was for keynote lecture and opening ceremony. There were 300 participants from 70 countries. Each continent has its representative, except Antartic I guess. Third day still about keynote lecture as well, but finally we introduced ourselves in class. Chinese geography track has 37 members. We came from different background, not only Geography. Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Japan, UEA, Netherland, UK, France, Germany, Russia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, USA, and Indonesia were we came from. Very nice to meet them, amazing people. There was an ambassador in this track, all at once he also our guide. He was helped by some volunteers who always ready assisted us, awesome services. Oya, this summer school also has other 12 tracks, namely online education, Chinese history, environmental, architecture, tomorrow’s youth, women, creative city etc.  Different track has different schedule.

Everyday schedule was always tight enough but I still enjoyed. Yep, assignments were my biggest challenge. There were individual assignment (writing an essay) and group assignment (discussion and presentation). But don’t get it wrong, we didn’t have to crazy thinking about those tasks, let them be, enjoy every moment. Haha. Beside lecture, we also went field trip (I think 50 percent of this program was field trip. Asik). Sometimes, the lecturer accompanied us (in the last week) but mostly we wandered around without any lecturer with us.

So, what I’ve learned by participating summer school in China?

Be respectful. Experiencing several lectures in Tsinghua showed me that none was talking during lecture. They always fully paid attention to everybody who spoke. Not only in lecture, but also in group discussion and group presentation, they listened carefully. Though I’m not a native and has terrible English, they still listened to me and nodded at some points when we discussed in a group.

Kids love museum. Every time visiting museum there were always a lot of parents and their kids. Even, kids already learned in very early stage about something serious, like geology, omo.

Summer is literally hot and succeeded burning my skin. Beijing’s sky mostly foggy due to pollution. Still I witnessed heavy rain in the early week and storm in the 2^nd week.

Indonesia brotherhood is really awesome. We agreed that Indonesia has various ethnic group, but it comes up to be the one only when we gather with Indonesian fellow in China. In fact, I met a handful Indonesian student who studying at Tsinghua. They are Javanese, Chinese, Bugis (not sure), but they only say ‘I’m Indonesian”. Perhaps it’s rather ordinary, but simply look other country. I don’t want to mention because ultimately I just doing comparison.

Raise my awareness on halal meal by identifying halal logo. You know, how happy I was when finally I could eat Chinese ramen? Like indomie, they sold instan noodle, but in bigger package (Lately I realized that Chinese people eat a lot without gain much weight). Halal logo has been written using Chinese character, I kept memorizing that two words. Later on, I could find halal ice cream, halal sausage, and halal milk. Heaven.  

... and many more..