(tl;dr) some kind of reflection on year abroad

My year abroad in Beijing left me little time and motivation to think about blogging and my online life in general but I can’t say I didn’t try. Although it was refreshing of letting everything go for a while, I started missing blogging and felt guilty to have left all my websites in a corner of my mind ever since I came back to Paris, more than a month ago.

After being lazy for enough time, I decided to finally revamp some of my websites, like this blog that has a new layout after God knows how long! As I was still too lazy to code anything by myself, it was a hassle to find a new WP theme but I managed to, in the end lol

China was really something, the culture shock was bigger than what I thought it would be and there are things I still can’t get over but broadening one’s horizons is always good. The many different landscapes you can find in only one country was also an amazing aspect.

This past year kinda felt like I paused my life since my environment changed.

I gained weight but I think that it happens to anyone who step in this country. I used to think that Chinese cuisine had less fat than French but I was very wrong. My lifestyle wasn’t really healthy to begin with, anyway. It was easy to go out with your friends, eat whatever you wanted and embrace true freedom because you don’t have parents to nag at you (I missed them a lot though), it was cheap too. Going to KTV and eating Korean fried chicken were two of the things I enjoyed doing the most!

I lost 3 pounds since I came back home and intend to continue dieting more or less, but I’ll leave the subject for another article. On a better note, also physically, my skin got better there than what it ever was in France, despite the pollution etc. even before I started the Acne.org regimen during 2nd semester.

Immersion only did me good things, I got what I came there for (Chinese language improvement) and more than that. Of course, I think I could go on and on about all the wonderful people I met in Beijing. I’m glad I could exchange with people from so many different countries and I’m really grateful for the times we were together, even if I wish I could have known a bunch of people sooner than when I met them. They were what mostly made Beijing my second home and I hope to see them again very soon but I’m sad we can’t all meet together at the same time and place anymore. At least, I know what became one of my top priorities for the years to come: travel ✈️.

A fair number of internationnal students in my university there (Beijing Language and Culture University) were actually of Chinese descent (like me) and it was surprising to realize that they come from countries I’d never expect them to come from, sometimes. For example, I’ve made this Costa Rican friend, and it was the first time I heard there was a Chinese community there but him too, was also pretty surprised to hear that I was French. Although we were all foreigners, we still had a similar background. I had a feeling that it brought us closer in some way.

Despite being quite reluctant before leaving, I can say that studying abroad is one of the best choices I made so far in my life and I would do it all over again if I could.

My last month in China was pretty cool but by the time I left the country (end of July), I had almost no friend over there anymore so I was happy to go back home. During August, I reunited with my family/most of my dearest friends in France and chilled out a lot at home (something I didn’t really do in China, especially playing video games). It felt nice to be home again.

Strangely, today, after completing my registration in my university in France and everthing just feels like a huge slap in the face, telling me to wake up. It hurts, a lot.

(I’ll try to put more images in my blog posts from now on too, haha.)