First Week Exhaustion

First FULL week of classes....CHECK. Just got out of my last class of the week and man, I am beyond happy to be done. It's crazy to think that I'm this tired by Friday and I didn't even go into my internship this week. We are in big trouble.

SPEAKING OF MY INTERNSHIP...it's official! I am an intern at Octagon's Beijing office. I am over the moon with this opportunity. Keeping this to myself...and well, my parents, for the last week has been incredibly tough. Me containing my excitement? Yeah, right. Last week I met with the managing director of Octagon's Beijing office for coffee and I honestly didn't expect an offer at all! I guess persistence really does make the difference. Thank you Alpha Kappa Psi for training me well. The managing director, Ryan, is insanely chill and cracks me up. I have a feeling he and the staff will be spoiling me in the next few months. My first day is Tuesday and I potentially may be working at a concert my first day of work?? Seriously, I may not ever return to the States (unless the Octagon office in NoVA accepts me into their Summer Experience Program!).

Oh wait, I still go to school at Peking University don't I. How are my classes?

1. Chinese: Alright, this class is WAY more intense than it needs to be. I have never struggled with Chinese before so this past week and a half has been a rude awakening for me. I wish I stayed in independent study. In the morning I wake up thinking about Chinese characters and then I go to bed thinking about Chinese characters too. It's never ending. While other students are having NORMAL Chinese classes, my class is talking about the economy, internet, globalization, and all things business related. EW. We are learning the same thing as the immersion kids who have 27 hours a week to learn the material while we only have 9 hours a week. Does that make sense to anyone? Oh, and when I say "we" I mean me and 2 other people.

2. International Finance: Loving this class so far. Our first night of class was on a holiday so the professor lectured for an hour and let us go. SUPER chill guy (I mean, he wears Ed Hardy jeans). It seems like very little math involved and is mostly conceptual. Thank God! I struggled enough last semester at AU in Business Finance.

3. China in the Global Economy: Just got out of this class. One word...TORTUROUS. 3 hours of monotonous lecturing. Super sweet professor but he moves at a snail's pace. I'm just thankful that I have some fun friends in this class to keep me slightly entertained.

To summarize everything: Chinese is ruling my life here but my internship is keeping me sane. I guess you can call me a work-aholic.

Forbidden City tomorrow and then Wangfujing with some friends. Pictures to come! (FINALLY.)