Biology students have arrived in Beijing!
Dr. Lai reports that all of the students have arrived and are getting started on their course.
On Sunday, July
11, nine Biology 497I students arrived in Beijing safely. One student missed
his flight and came one day later. Over the next three weeks, we will all stay
in the Peking University Global Village, which is an apartment community for
international students and experts. PKU's College of Life Science is within a
walking distance. This is convenient as all our classes will be in the Life
Science Building.
In our first class, each student had a
self-introduction. We were all impressed by local students' excellent English
skills as some of them are still freshman. There are 12 PKU students enrolled
in this class and another 10 just would like to sit in. Another thing we did
was to organize study groups with two Penn State students mixed with 2-3 local
students for each group. This turned out to be a good approach as
students get to know each other quickly. They go out eat lunch/dinner and shop
together. While all Penn State students are excited about this educational and
cultural experience in China, local students are equally enthusiastic to be
involved as much as possible.
Moreover, weather over the past few days here in Beijing has been unusually nice as the temperature was around 95 F a week ago. I thought this is a great start.
