Greetings from China!
So much has happened in the past several days that I’m not even sure
where to
begin. Well, I arrived in Beijing a
few days ago after some minor difficulties.
I was originally scheduled to fly from Dallas to Chicago and then to Beijing, but my flight was canceled
due to problems with the plane and I had to be re-routed the other way around the world. I went from Dallas to London and then on to
Beijing. After my nine hour flight I had just enough time to squeeze in lunch at Heathrow airport before hoping my connection to Beijing. With wait time included, the entire trip from Dallas took about 24 hours. Unfortunately my bag did not arrive with
me...the airline left it in Dallas. Luckily, I only had to wait roughly 24 hours
before the airline delivered it to my apartment. I can't tell you how relieved I was when it showed up safe and sound.
After safely receiving my bag and getting settled in, I had
a few days to get to know some of my fellow
interns and explore the city before the work week
began. On Saturday we visited the
Forbidden City
and spent about 3 hours exploring before a huge storm swept
through the city out of nowhere and sent
us running for a taxi.
I definitely plan to return before I leave China. It is a vast and amazing area to
explore. On Sunday we
visited a Chinese market and I enjoyed watching my new friends haggle prices
on their goods as is customary. The vendors really get into it, and it can be
quite entertaining to watch.
I didn’t buy anything myself as I plan to save most of my
souvenir shopping for the end of my trip.
It was
a lot of fun though.
Today was my first day of work so I was finally able to meet
everyone I’ll be working with. The
Beijing
office of ACCA is located in the center of Beijing’s central
business district on the 31st floor of the World
Trade Center Tower 1.
The office has an amazing view of Beijing and the surrounding area. You can
see the mountains off in the distance, and directly out the
window in front of my desk is tower 3 of the
World Trade Center which is the tallest skyscraper in
Beijing. It was great to finally meet
the team I’ll
be working with and learn a little more about the
company. Many of the staff members speak
at least
some English which is great since I don’t speak Chinese and
definitely want to be able to communicate
with as much of the staff as possible. Tomorrow night I will be taking my first
formal Chinese lesson
which should be extremely helpful.
