Last Days at Roots & Shoots

So, this post is about goodbyes. This is my last week at Roots & Shoots, and I’d like to say a few words.

First of all, goodbyes are hard. My first time in Beijing as a foreign exchange student, most of the Chinese people I knew were either my internship boss, my teachers, or my TA from Dickinson. These were the Chinese people I became closest to, because most students at Peking University wanted to befriend me to be their free tutor to pass their TOEFFL exam, which made for a one-sided relationship, and made me feel taken advantage of.

But, Roots & Shoots has been the exact opposite. Today at work was my “last day,” (Wednesday really is my true last day) and everybody is asking for my skype, and email address to keep in touch. At Roots & Shoots, every intern gets a picture of Jane Goodall and a chimpanzee that is signed by everyone, and a picture with a banner of Roots & Shoots, as well as cake or fruit. I really felt touched by each and every person, and intern. I actually looked forward to going to work, which most people can’t say. That’s the sort of job I hope to find after graduating MIIS.

This is only the people at the office today. Mostly, lots of interns, but some people
This is only the people at the office today. Mostly, lots of interns, but some people knew they were not going to be there for my last day, and still wanted to say goodbye to me. 

Earlier, I forgot to mention a day in the life, so this is what our stretching looked like:

Our daily stretching.
Our daily stretching.

Secondly, I have translated quite a bit. I sound like a broken record, but that has been most of my main tasks. I have finished one more project, the Eco-Action Beijing, which shortly afterwards, should have the news page up shortly. This week, I will be working on another wetlands project translation, and hope to finish before I leave on Thursday. But, hard work doesn’t go unappreciated. Today, I was praised as the second intern they’ve had who can translate Chinese to English, since most of the interns are Chinese, and their English translations are sometimes a little awkward, not the way a native English speaker would say.

Speaking of translation, I’d like to mention another proud moment for me when I transferred at a subway station a few weeks ago. I was walking past, when I saw a Wildaid advertisement with Jackie Chan for No Shark Fin.

In this picture, the text says "Each year, around 70 million sharks are killed because of their fins. You can protect the oceans by just saying "No" to shark fin soup. The Wild Aid slogan is the black part, which then says "When the killing stops, the buying does to."
In this picture, the text says “Each year, around 70 million sharks are killed because of their fins. You can protect the oceans by just saying “No” to shark fin soup. The Wild Aid slogan is the black part, which then says “When the killing stops, the buying does to.”

So, I hope I am not the only one who knows about it, but I hope the message really reaches people, for the sharks’ and ocean ecosystem’s sake. This sort of picture is to stop consumer demand for shark fin soup, and hopefully then stop the need to supply shark fin, and hopefully using an economic method towards conservation.

This is just a few words for how I feel about this last week. I have some extremely mixed emotions about going. I know I am excited to be going to Vietnam and home, but sad to be leaving behind my Roots & Shoots family. But, the good news is now I have a family to visit when I come back to Beijing, and trust me, I will be back here again, I promise. And with that, I should sign off. Zaijian!

Last days in China

I have not posted in a few weeks, since I was busy either site seeing, trying to stay cool in Beijing during this incredible heat wave, or super busy at work. This post, I’ll catch you up on some of the places I have visited as of lately. The first is Niujie (Ox Street), an area that is famous in Beijing for the Hui Minority foods, i.e. more Islamic foods.

On Ox Street, some typical architecture.
On Ox Street, some typical architecture.

I also went to the Old Summer Palace a few weeks back for their Lotus Festival. It is near the New Summer Palace, but was mostly destroyed in the mid-1800s by the Anglo-Franco forces as they were warring with old Imperial China, and sacked this magnificent place to become ruinous. It is still beautiful and I think less touristy, but this is why the New Summer Palace had to be built.

Nina in front of a bridge at the Old Summer Palace.
Nina in front of a bridge at the Old Summer Palace.

Lastly, I visited Tianjin, a city I have never visited before. Tianjin is right next to Beijing, with 5 million people, and accessible by a train, only a 30 minute ride. As my friend and I were trying to describe it, it is more chill, like a California city, but also with a Northern Chinese flair. I spent the day maximized with a friend, visiting the famous Italian section, Antique Market, Food Court (Nan Shi Shi Pin Jie), as well as this place, the China Museum (Zi Fang zi). This place is hard to describe, and incredible, really worth the visit.

The China Museum, which used to be a French Private House, and then became a collection of broken porcelain, becoming a fusion of Chinese mosaic and French architecture.
The China Museum, which used to be a French Private House, and then became a collection of broken porcelain, becoming a fusion of Chinese mosaic and French architecture.

We also lastly visited the most modern iconic place of Tianjin, the “Eye of Tianjin,” which reminds me sort of what I saw last year of the Olympics in London with a big Ferris Wheel.

The new "Eye of Tianjin."
The new “Eye of Tianjin.”
As I am about to leave Beijing, it makes me sad to realize that my trip to Tianjin just had to be one day long. I wanted to explore more, and had to cram it all into one day, and still did not see or do everything. This means there must be a next time. I also feel I have the desire to travel, and want to explore more areas in China, but each weekend, I kept busy with seeing and hanging out with friends. I hope next time to eventually get to my bucket list of places, such as Xi’an, Huangshan, and more. I always say I will go, but I guess there is a next time.
For now, my travels are to and from work, and will be next to the airport to my adventure to Vietnam and then home. So, for now, I should say Zaijian!

The Yin and Yang of Translating

So, I haven’t written in a while because I’ve been a little sick, probably because of the weather changing from super hot and 90 degrees (Fahrenheit) to rainy and 70 degrees. Beijing is more humid than I remember. The positive side to a day after a rainy day, such as today, is that the rain clears up the pollution, making Beijing truly have blue and clear skies. I have also been on weekends exploring Houhai, Nanluoguxiang Hutong area, Zhongshan (aka Sun Yat-sen) Park with various friends from China and abroad.

But, back to the title of the blog post. Why the Yin and Yang of translation, you might ask? Well, for the past few weeks, I have been working very hard on a No Shark Fin company document (the English one) for Roots & Shoots. They also have another Chinese intern doing the Chinese one, concurrent with the English one with me. I am not designing the brochure, but working on the content. We are hoping to send it out to companies to curb the amount of Chinese companies that purchase shark-fin or other shark products. This will hopefully lessen the amount supplied to the market because there are less consumers willing to purchase it. China accounts for 95% of the consumption, mostly in the form of shark fin soup. This is concurrent to their current campaign to get pledges from university students, the next elite consumers of the luxury dish, to say no to shark fin soup. The hope is to put pressure on both supply and demand, to stop this market and hopefully better protect sharks from an economic approach.

For those of you who just know about Discovery’s Shark week and get excited about it every year but don’t understand the background of it, please visit www.wildaid.org to see their videos of shark finning on their media, or http://www.pewenvironment.org/campaigns/global-shark-conservation/id/8589941059/. Shark finning is a pretty serious matter. It cuts off shark’s fins, and leaves the bloody flailing shark to die in the ocean, just to save space for the prized fin. Shark meat is relatively cheap, so they are just dumped back in the sea. In fact, over 100 million are killed each year, which could lead to marine ecosystems collapsing.

 

An example of the cruel practice of shark finning.

An example of the cruel practice of shark finning.

So, this brings me to the title of this post. I went out to eat at a Cantonese restaurant with a group of people. I was ordering, and I noticed they had shark fin soup on their menu. I knew this from all the English and Chinese documents I had read. I then asked them what soups didn’t have shark fin, and they said all of them did, so I didn’t order any soup that night. I told them I don’t eat it, and I take my pledge seriously. So, even though they still had the item on the menu, if consumers all throughout China all were like me and took a stand to say no, perhaps sharks might have more of a fighting chance, besides problems associated with bycatch.

Another flipside to translation came this last Sunday. We had an event at an International environmental conference at Tsinghua University, where we were exhibited. One table was trying to get pledges for our shark-fin campaign, and the other to describe the basics of Roots & Shoots’ programs. I’ve done so much English and Chinese work the past month and a half, that I was able to talk and give basic introductions to the different programs in both languages. Most students attending the conference were Chinese, and so some felt intimidated speaking with me. However, by being able to speak Chinese, I was able to bridge this language gap, and get the organization potentially more students to either volunteer, intern, become members of their universities’ chapter, or even to start a new Roots & Shoots group at their respective universities.

Lastly, I have been excited, because most of the material I have translated thus far, with some exceptions, has appeared on the Roots & Shoots webpage. You can see this on the Organic Grow’s background tab of their webpage (http://www.genyuya.org.cn/en/?page_id=3316) as well as all of the first page of news on the clear water’s webpage (http://www.genyuya.org.cn/en/?page_id=3989). I don’t design them, but the content is all material I have translated, as intricate as it is (since some is very technical Chinese).

That’s it for now. Until next time, Zaijian!

Beijing: the scary and the rare

This week’s blog title refers to the infamous air quality in Beijing. This past week, the air quality was atrocious. What I mean is the PM 2.5 index, which ranges from 0 to 500, and hopefully is under 50 or 100 was in the 200-300 or 400 range, which is quite dangerous for human health. So, the following pictures are not just fog, but smoggy, polluted, and the common situation for Beijing.

In the business district in Beijing, China. This is not smog, but a bad air quality, polluted day.

In the business district in Beijing, China. This is not smog, but a bad air quality, polluted day.

A lovely smoggy day in Beijing.

A lovely smoggy day in Beijing. 

Reasons for the pollution:

  • Beijing is surrounded by Hebei Province, which has lots of factories, so the pollution blows in.
  • Illegal factories in Hebei, and pollution blowing in
  • Mountains surrounding Beijing help to trap the air inversion
  • Lots of cars

So after all these factors,this is why you have the soup called a “smoggy” (aka a normal day) in Beijing. So, yes, I bought a face mask at a local convenience store. But, it makes you warmer, more uncomfortable, and I’m not sure how much it protects you from what you saw above.

But, since Tuesday, July 2, the last 5 days are super rare. I woke up to the reflection in my mirror reflecting perfectly blue skies. Blue skies are quite a rarity, happening less than half the year, so 5 days is quite a treat.

This is what an abnormal day in Beijing looks like.

This is what an abnormal day in Beijing looks like, in the business district, near my office.

However, these blue skies have come with pretty intense heat. Although it has been hot, it is summer, and I am just happy to finally see the blue sky. It is so simple, but amazing that something so simple can uplift people’s attitudes and moods.

I also wanted to mention public transportation a little bit in this post. People use public transport here, but there is sort of a stigma against buses. Although buses can be the cheapest (in Beijing, with a transportation card, it costs 0.40 RMB, so like $0.07USD, or buying a ticket, 1RMB or $0.16 USD), oftentimes they are super crowded, and can be uncomfortable experiences if you don’t want to feel like a sardine during rush hour.

Note how people are at the door, barely on the bus.

Note how people are at the door, barely on the bus.

 

So, most people are excited about the subway, which in Beijing, each ticket is just 2RMB ($0.33 USD). Public transportation is heavily subsidized in Beijing, so it is the cheapest subway in China, because usually other cities’ subways depends on distance, whereas Beijing is a flat-rate fee. The Beijing subway has developed quite rapidly since my last time here. Here is a link to the Beijing subway:

http://www.hereisbeijing.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/2013bjsubwaymap.jpg

The subway has signs in English and Chinese, and buses typically don’t at the bus stations, so you sort of have to know how to read Chinese characters to take buses. However, the subway doesn’t have stops everywhere, so sometimes the most direct form may be a bus. The problem is that during rush hour, buses can take forever. Also, taxis are abundant, but the fare just increased a few weeks ago to a starting rate of 13 RMB ($2.11 USD), and increases 2.30 RMB after 3 km. A cab ride can still be cheap by US standards, but I only have taken cabs four while here, only because it was late at night, and buses and the subway don’t run that late.

But, the stigma is similar here as in the US about public transportation. Most Chinese people hope to make enough money to buy their own car. However, license plates in Beijing cost almost $30,000 USD, and that is on top of the price of the car. But, the dream of owning a car, and stigma against public transportation is quite big. However, the good thing is that there are plenty of people who take public transit here, which is why I feel safe riding by myself here and not back home.

But besides ranting about public transit, and air pollution, this week has been a good week. I finished my half-annual report for the Clear Water project. I also finished translating an awards document, and I finished my translation and edits for the Organic Agriculture program. I also started translating a new section of the website. Next week, I will be working on more Clear Water stuff, as well as translating like crazy to get a draft of the shark-fin brochure by Friday. I also will be attending a teacher training on Sunday, so next week will be quite busy. I’m just sad that today will be the last blue sky day for a while, since it will be rainy starting tomorrow. And on that note, I sign off to enjoy the rest of this sunny day. Zaijian!

 

Translations, Wetlands, and Beer, oh my! Weeks 2-4 at Roots & Shoots

Now, I will update you as to my work at the NGO. In the past 3 weeks, I have done a lot. Let me break this posting into three sections: translations and office work, the wetlands field trip, and another beer festival.

Translation and Office work:

Concerning office work, where do I start? Since I have bilingual capabilities, I have been delegated lots of responsibility. My finished my first main translating task of the Clear Water Project’s English news briefing articles (from Chinese to English, not the other way). I have also finished (as of recently) translating a document on the flora and fauna of wetlands. Both of these will be posted on the project’s new webpage, that will be more interactive, since this project is new and in its test pilot year. I have also not quite finished translating the Organic Grow’s webpage’s background section, because it is quite detailed on farming techniques, and has been made a back burner project. I also translate small tidbits here and there that some of the staff have asked, or advice how to say things in English. This is sort of what the board can look like while I translate:

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This is what the white board looks like when I am translating a document. This is just maybe two paragraphs on the agriculture website. Lots of the words and documents have such specialized words, that I like to know most of the words, and then my translation can be liked putting pieces of a puzzle together.

Other than that, I have started researching and work on the shark fin brochure with another Chinese intern. We sort of have been working off a previous document, editing some parts to be more mainland centric. This pamphlet will be bilingual with simplified, so I have been writing some parts, while she writes the other in Chinese. Next week, we will assemble both into one long document, and then after comments, we hope to get the entire thing translated to be two separate documents, hopefully before July 12th. But, I think we can do it. The goal is before August, before the school season starts. We already are strong with our no shark-fin soup pledge campaign at schools, but the hope is to take that next step by getting companies on board as well as consumers. Some companies do have shark-free policies, but it is hard when there are many people in China, and it is a traditional wedding food at Chinese weddings. Hopefully, this helps to continue the dialogue Yao Ming and others have done with an organization called Wildaid. For those unfamiliar, you can learn more at: www.wildaid.org

Wetlands Field Trip

On Saturday June 15, I woke up early, with a Clear Water t-shirt, and lots of water, to go with different Roots & Shoots groups from throughout Beijing to a nearby wetlands park, the Wild Duck Lake National Park in Yanqing County, Beijing. While it was buggy and warm, it was nice to be outside of the city proper, and interact more with nature. We saw lots of ducks, reeds, cattails, geese, willows, poplars, and some plants I wish I knew what they were. After a long day of students somewhat listening, but not really because of the heat and many mosquitos, we drove the 2 hours back to Beijing. I was a little disappointed, because the promotional video I had watched about the lake was more beautiful than the place I visited.

However, I understand more about wetlands probably more from preparing translations for this program, and how they are the Earth’s kidneys, because of filtration, so we need them more than we realize. The rate we are destroying places like this is crazy, because of just pollution, or land conversion. We need to realize that without places like the Wild Duck Lake, cities like Beijing and its citizens would not really be around.

At Wild Duck Lake National Park on a field trip for the Clear Water Education Project.

At Wild Duck Lake National Park on a field trip for the Clear Water Education Project.

Wild Duck Lake National Park, at Yanqing County, Beijing. Although it is hard to see in the background, there are wind turbines here in China, just scattered in certain areas.

Wild Duck Lake National Park, at Yanqing County, Beijing. Although it is hard to see in the background, there are wind turbines here in China, just scattered in certain areas.

Beer, take 2

Yup, I did say beer again. But, before I get to the beer festival, I want to describe a small happening first. A few of us at the office went to a nearby bar after Friday for a couple of drinks and to hang out. Earlier in May, this bar had participated in a block-party’s chili cookoff, and had raised money they were going to donate to us at Roots & Shoots. So, we got together to hang out and to receive the donation check.

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Aura (Roots & Shoots staff) , Nina, Eve (another intern), Lei (Roots & Shoots Executive Director), and the two men who run Plan B, the Canadian Bar who donated this check for around $1400 USD.

But, yes, now to the beer part of this posting (not that I drink or like to drink beer). Beijing had its Second Annual Craft Beer Festival, and gave us a booth so we could sell some of our merchandise, as well as get pledges for our “No-shark fin Campaign.” On Friday, we managed to get over 83 pledges. But, because Saturday morning was raining and gross,  we only got maybe 40 pledges (also, because we shared the tent with a popsicle and juice vendor), and we raised a total of about 700 RMB. Once again, everybody liked the hats, and wanted to take pictures, and they helped us gain attention.

craftbeer

Heather (Roots & Shoots volunteer), Nina, and Zach (Roots & Shoots volunteer) at the Craft Beer Festival in Chaoyangmen, Beijing.

So, I think this is my list of assignments for the next week:

1. Finish outline of Half-year report for Clear Water Project. I already got started, but will get some kinks worked out on Monday with this program’s interns and head staff (as she comes back from a business trip).

2. Finish research and try to compile the rough running draft of the “No-shark fin project company” brochure.

3. If these don’t take all my free time and I have free time at work, get back to translating the Organic Grow’s Background section (I have one more big tab on seeding, which might go quicker, just maybe).

And this is just my list in case nothing comes up. But, at an NGO, something always comes up. This week, it was everybody’s last day, so lots of pictures together.

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This was a fellow intern’s last day. This is in the Jane Goodall Institute China’s office, right next to my office, called the meeting room.

But hopefully, I can accomplish the above three things in the next two weeks so I can feel like I got something done this summer. And then maybe, teacher training in the next couple of weeks? Like I said, I stay flexible, so when I get assigned new projects, my priorities jumble so I stay on top of things. That’s it for now. Zaijian!

 

Chinese Dragon Boat Festival and Exploring Beijing

Howdy all. I know I haven’t written in a while, but just settling down after the holiday. But, a quick story before I get to my holiday time. While coming home from the Jaws movie event, I was figuring out my way home from the subway, since it was my first time riding the subway home, and had to figure out my way home from the subway. I befriended another guy who also was lost and figuring out how to get to the same area. As soon as I started talking, he seemed surprised, and said “Oh,” and we conversed in Chinese. I asked him, and he said that he didn’t think I was a foreigner, but a Chinese boy. So, I see this somewhat as an accomplishment. This is the first time someone hasn’t seen me as a foreigner, but somewhat Chinese, which makes me happy. Most of the people assume foreigner, which they have every right to assume when taking one look at me. However, it was nice not having someone assume right away and just speak English based on that assumption.

So, now I will tell you a little about the Dragon Boat Festival. It is a festival that occurs on different days, usually in June, because holidays are observed on the lunar calendar. The Dragon Boat Festival may have dragon boat races like they have in the US, and people eat zongzi, sort of like a Chinese tamale, but instead of corn husks, they are bamboo leaves and the filling is rice and usually meat or red beans.

But let me describe how Chinese holidays are really like. For Chinese holidays, everybody gets the same days off, but they have to make up the holiday time off. For example, the Dragon Boat Festival this year was June 10-12, but people had to go to work on the weekend, June 8 and 9. So, its sort of like having time off, but not really. Most people traveled, but I spent the time catching up with friends I have in Beijing from when I studied abroad here.

June 8 and 9 Beijing had bad thunderstorms and was sort of cold, wet, and miserable, so I just relaxed a bit, and caught up with a Russian classmate. On Monday June 10, I went to a touristy hutong (back alley ways in the center of Beijing, within the second ring, and sort of traditional of Beijing). On June 11, I met up with a family friend to go to the new Garden Expo. For those of you who don’t know what Chinese expos are, they are big exhibitions that take hours to go and see almost the whole thing. This one was an international expo, and this time, it was held in Beijing. They were basically mini-models of famous gardens from every single province throughout China, and some regions in the world. My friend and I almost saw it all, but walked through it in about 8 hours and still didn’t see it all.

Jiangxi province mini-garden, with stones leading to the bridge as its famous Jingdezhen blue-and white porcelain.

Jiangxi province mini-garden, with stones leading to the bridge as its famous Jingdezhen blue-and white porcelain.

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Qingdao’s garden.

So, that summarizes my Dragon Boat Festival. But, I have done some other exploring of Beijing. I took a fellow intern across town to a local tea market, that sells wholesale tea, Maliandao tea market. I had been there my first months in Beijing, and not back since, but I needed to buy tea. So, I went, and I found a stand, and asked if they happened to know my professor, and my college, Dickinson. She knew her, and said she remembered me, and we sampled her teas, especially their jasmine tea, which is amazing. For those of you who want to ask the question “How much does the tea in China cost?” I can answer that. I paid $15USD for 500g of the best jasmine tea I’ve ever had (and I’ve had lots). I also know they sell tea, and some people will pay over $1000USD for some green teas in summer. Also, tea buying means sampling teas in little tea stands until you find the right one, and buy it. Which can either mean lots of bathroom trips or a heavily caffeinated person, or both.

Nina with the tea stand lady.

Nina with the tea stand lady.

On another day off, I needed to make a bookstore run, and knew of a good selection at the biggest bookstore complex close to Peking University, where I studied before. So, I commuted over an hour and a half to the bookstore. Because it is a close walk, and a nice day, I decided to also take a stroll at the nearby No Name Lake (Wei Ming Hu) on campus. My old school ID works, which is awesome, because it got me in twice at Peking University (once for a ballet, then this time) as well as foreign-exchange student discount tickets at places. I had to take a picture of the water tower, because as you can see, this doesn’t seem like a place on a university campus, and it was blue sky. I mean, up until recently, the air quality was good, and either cloudy, rainy, and blah, or blue, and I mean true blue, which is rare in Beijing.

No Name Lake at Peking University. Note how blue the sky was that day.

No Name Lake at Peking University. Note how blue the sky was that day.

Lastly, I took another classmate to explore Beijing, including a night visit to Tiananmen square.

Nina at Tiananmen Square at night in the central most point in Beijing.

Nina at Tiananmen Square at night in the central most point in Beijing.

This post was just describing my down time in Beijing, what I have been up to besides working hard at my internship. My next post will describe what I’ve been up to at Roots & Shoots. For now, Zaijian!

First week at Roots and Shoots: Sharks, translations, and beer, oh my!

So, I survived my first week! Yay! Here is what I learned in my first week:

1. Roots and Shoots is a cool organization that has very few staff, but most staff usually have a single project, and that is their primary focus. For example, some of the staff are concerned about organic agriculture, educating migrant children about environmental issues, no shark finning, and more.

2. Each day at work is different. My first day, we made origami sharks to write messages and questions for student groups about shark finning and pledging not to eat it. I am proud to have signed this petition.

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3. The Roots and Shoots website doesn’t really show the awesome work this organization does. What I mean by this is that they have a Chinese and English webpage, but the Chinese one is more up to date and user friendly and slightly more interactive than their English webpage. But, this program has groups not only at Chinese local schools, but also at International Schools, and usually the leaders at these schools are foreigners, most of whom can’t read the Chinese webpage to understand the awesome environmental education and activist work Roots and Shoots does.

The following is a link for the English for the Clear Water Project page: (Click on the left most tab)

http://www.genyuya.org.cn/en/?page_id=3989

But the Chinese for the same tabs has more information: (Click on the left most tab)

http://www.genyuya.org.cn/cn/?page_id=3900

This leads me to Point 4. My purpose for the summer is overall, to help translate materials for all the programs, so as to hopefully help more international schools to become involved in Roots and Shoots. I started with the Agricultural project, and am taking a detour to help on the Clear Water project. My side projects include, but are not limited to the following:

  • Participate in a middle school  field trip to see a nearby wetlands park 2 hours from the city and see waterfowl and wetland plants
  • Trying to update the English pamphlet for the No Shark Fin Project in order to give out to schools and organizations in the autumn semester
  • Attend teacher training three day session outside Beijing
  • Attend short two day summer camp for children
  • And lastly, any fundraising activities. This past week, for example, we held a fundraiser with a bar in a hutong (alleyway in the more central part of Beijing) where 15RMB of each beer sold went to our organization’s No shark fin project. This bar shows a movie each week, and this week was Jaws, so we worked together on this fundraiser. We made over 1200 RMB with the beers and donations, as well as selling some merchandise, like the shark hat  I am modeling.

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    Nina modeling the shark hat on the Beijing subway

Because of the Chinese Dragon Boat  festival this upcoming week, I currently have a 5 day weekend to relax, and see some friends in Beijing. However, I know some weeks, I will be working 6 day work weeks, in which case, I can take off a weekday. That is all for now.

Beijing Welcomes Nina!

Welcome to my first blog! The name of my blog comes from a relatively new Chinese pop song for the Beijing 2008 Olympic games, titled “Beijing welcomes you!” The link is below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbiVoSYeKc4

Instead, this summer, Beijing is welcoming me a second time for a summer internship with an organization called Roots and Shoots, part of the Jane Goodall Institute, China office. I’m super excited to return to a city that is like a second home to me. This blog will be so that this summer, you can keep up to date on environmental issues in Beijing, as well as how my summer is progressing. 

Zaijian!

~Nina