A new year and a new trip

Exactly one month has past since my last blog entry. An entire month! So much can happen in a month, what was I thinking? Admittedly, I got a little lazy. But also, this past month has really been a transition month. My last program ended and I flew to New Zealand with my family for a two week vacation before heading home for a grand total of 8 days before returning to Beijing where I find myself now. In that time I wrote my college applications and submitted them to Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Duke, and Pomona. Might sound like bit of a stretch list, but it is worthwhile to note that already having been through the college process, I am currently enrolled at Harvey Mudd College - one of the Claremont colleges in Southern California. (I know, ewwww, Southern California. But at least it has better weather than Beijing, or the East Coast for that matter. And for those of you with strange preconcieved notions about Southern California, no, I will not be moving in next to a celebrity and no, it is nothing like the OC.) These new applications were somewhat of a whim. I always planned to reapply to Princeton, not because it necessarily outranks Harvey Mudd in my books (I have Harvey Mudd days and I have Princeton days), but because I'd like the choice. It would have been utterly silly of me to assume that last May I could have made a decision for myself that would hold true through my gap year. Actually, even before May. I made the decision when forming my list of colleges to apply to, which at this point is over a year ago and by the time I actually enroll in college, will be almost two years ago. My applying to Princeton was really my way of admitting that people change and I'd like to have put in the effort necessary to give me a choice. Conveniently enough, Princeton is not only on the common app, but has the most difficult supplement application of all colleges on the common app, making it really easy for me to apply to the additional schools on my list.

Enough about colleges.

I find myself in a hotel in Beijing and I know no one in the city. Hopefully that will change soon as I start taking classes in Chinese tomorrow morning. I move into an apartment today, something I am thrilled about. Living alone in a foreign country. Very exciting. I am only staying here for a month. After that, who knows what. I might backpack for a bit assuming I can convince my parents to let me, which probably entails my finding someone trustworthy to backpack with. I might move into an apartment in Kunming and begin an internship there. I might stay in Beijing and start an internship here, depending on whether or not I can find one and like the city enough to spend more time here. I think that is one of the things I like most about having a gap year. I have a decent amount of time to do whatever I want and I don't have to have all my time planned out. Things come up, opportunities are found, and I can go where the wind takes me. I remember the days when trying to plan out a summer vacation - what job to get, which camp to go to, which sports to do - was enough to drive me to tears. It can be hard moving from a structured to a non structured environment. While planning my gap year, it was all I could do to stay sane. But I think it is an important skill to be able to get past that and enjoy the planning process and to enjoy knowing that whatever I wind up doing, I will have an amazing time doing things unlike anything I've ever done before and at the very least, I'll learn a lot. It's somewhat uplifting, isn't it?

One of things I am looking forward to most is getting to know Beijing food. I hear it is much much much less spicy than food in the South. For those of you who have ever accidently stumbled across sichuan pepper, you'll appreciate this. That actually reminds me of a store from last trip, around the time I stopped posting blogs. While Trevor, Katie, and I were travelling, we spent a night in a town called Wu Zhi Shan (Five Finger Mountain) in the highlands of Hainan Island. We were eating dinner outside and I picked up a pepper and put it in my mouth assuming it was a bell pepper. It wasn't. Chaos. I was on the brink of tears my mouth burned so much and Katie reached into her walet and shoved money at me, telling me to go find yogert. I take off running down the street looking for the outside fridges that line the streets of China selling everything from cold drinks to frozen ice cream (not very good ice cream, mind you). While running, I pass by a group of men standing in a circle talking and smoking. One man reaches out behind him to tap the ash off the end of the cigarrette right as I am passing him and the ash lands on my chest, burning me. It then falls down my shirt, burning a hole. I didn't really care at the time, I was desperate for yogert, but slightly dismayed to find not only my mouth, but also my chest on fire. Needless to say, I found yogert and there was no permanent damage.

Where was I? Oh yes, looking forward to getting to know the food. Look foward to a new Ode to Street Food!