Day 30 [Beijing part 1]

This weekend I went to Beijing, and it was incredible. Going to a place that size only twice in two years offers a lot of perspective on long-term change that might not be perceptible to someone who takes it all in on a daily basis. This entry is going to be done in two parts. In this part, I will detail the day that I spent with APSA, the organization that introduced me to China for the first time in 2009.

Since my program ended two years ago, APSA has undergone a lot of structural and organizational change. The JUMP Foundation, a nonprofit group that stands for leadership, personal development, and teambuilding, has taken a larger role than ever in the organization of the program. As such, there is a great deal more interactivity than when I participated in 2009. The leadership of the program has added components to influence the students' experience even more thoroughly than before.

APSA has expanded to receive 32 new students from across the country, up from the 28 (only 20 new) that were my classmates. Students from all over the country have come to Beijing, organized into teams, and accepted challenges organized by the JUMP facilitators designed to teach Chinese and build relationships.

On the day that I joined the APSA scholars (it was a Saturday), the activity was a race around Houhai. I went to Houhai in my day but I don't think I blogged about it. Anyway, the race involved six teams of 5-6 students moving around the lake, collecting photos, experience, and culturally significant items (such as snacks and goods) in a competition for the most points (which was in turn calculated by the amount of objectives collected & the promptness of the groups' arrivals at the checkpoints). For me, participating with the groups offered insight into how competition and the group dynamic could serve to bring people together and identify strengths and weaknesses. I also realized that the students this year seemed markedly more enthusiastic about the challenges/activities/things they were doing than my classmates and I had been. I think that several of the differences in attitude and relationships were due to different orientation and preparation in Washington, D.C.

Aside from the challenges and activities of the day, and because APSA was excellent enough to put me up for Friday night, I had some opportunity to meet the students. This sounds stupid, but the personalities and attitudes of some members of the group I saw as reflective of some of my classmates from 2009. In every group there are the same types of people; the difference in this year was how Beijing was presented to them.