Language Barrier

Today, I took off from work and went on a tour of Peking University with Neo and Sherry.  Peking University is the top university in China and it had been Sherry’s dream school.  (Fudan is ranked #3)

We went on a long stroll throughout the campus and what stood out to me was that it seemed like more of a park than a campus.  I don’t know how much relaxing the students there are able to do but it really was a wonderful place to sit outside and unwind.

After the tour we were in desperate need of some air conditioning so we found a small little restaurant and enjoyed some typical Beijing noodles.  Then we walked over to the Ho Hai Lake area and met up with some of Neo’s classmates from high school.

I really enjoyed Neo and Sherrry’s visit because it gave me the chance to interact with Chinese people outside of my office.  Once on the bus a man was trying to talk to Dan but only knew about three words in English.  Afterwards Sherry told us that he was on the phone telling his wife how he was sitting next to a foreigner on the bus.  It pretty much made his day.

Also on the subway one day, a woman approached us and asked if I would talk to her little brother in English because he was learning but was too shy to approach me.  I told him a couple of sentences about myself and only got a small reply of “nice to meet you” but it  felt good to interact with the people I have been living beside all summer.

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