Greetings from China!

Hey @IL!

Greetings from China. Things have certainly been interesting since I got here. I start actual teaching on tomorrow and I am supppper excited. All the EPs here seem really cool and the living conditions are nice. The company also seems pretty cool, for the most part and I like the work.

But the LC here is terrible. Seriously, I came into this expecting things to not necessarily go smoothly because they never do, completely anyway. It's part of the AIESEC experience. But really, they are way more unorganized than they should be, considering they're coordinating 20 EPs here. No one really knew what was going on beforehand at all, some people were quarantined, some weren't, they told us the wrong dates etc etc etc. So that has been really frustrating. I wasn't expecting perfect treatment, you know? I understand they're really busy and have lives, so not reaching out to us…that's fine. But providing simple, clear and concise information is kind of a necessity they have failed to provide.

Fortunately, the EPs are awesome and we're having a great time in spite of it all! We're not actually in Beijing, like the told us…which was upsetting initially. But we're right on the sea, so the beach is fun, and its much cooler and breezing here than the stiflingly hot Beijing. We start teaching tomorrow, and I'm so nervous but excited! Tonight is 'Opening Ceremony' and they wanted us to perform so we're doing the 'Evolution of Dance' youtube video with everyone doing different bits. It's going to be dreadful because none of us are really good dances, but it should at least be funny. Nothing is funnier than public humiliation so that should be good. We also might do some AIESEC dances, although most of the EPs here are just EPs, not AIESECers so we have a lot to teach them.

I miss you all and hope you are well! I'll update after actual teaching starts and let you know how everything is going!

Lauren