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HK’s Elise Leung and Dr. Darlene Sedlock experience “Maymester” at Beijing Sport University
Below is an excerpt from the HHS Student Ambassador blog. To read more entries from the blog, please visit http://hhspurdue.wordpress.com/welcome/
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 – 6:17 AM
Woo! Finally made it! I have arrived to Beijing Sport University for my study abroad Maymester with Dr. Darlene Sedlock from the Health & Kinesiology department. There are a total of 13 students here on the trip. It’s super early in the morning here right now, but my body can’t handle any more sleep. I feel like I’ve just slept through the past two days. The plane ride to Beijing was pretty awesome considering I was upgraded to business class for free! I was pumped about it! It made the flight much more bearable. I slept nearly the entire 14 hours flight. I feel as if I’ll never be able to fly anything but business class again. Of course, my mom would only laugh at me. The amount of leg room that we got was incredible. I’ve been to China at least 5 times (that I know of), and I can honestly say that I have never been more comfortable. Anyways, enough about the plane. It was interesting to see the moon as we left Chicago, but once we arrived in Beijing, we 
stepped outside and there the moon was again! It was as if it were following us. It sure was a pretty one! We got into our rooms last night around 2 AM. Ryan and I weren’t sure if we were going to be able to fall asleep or not, but we were able to fall asleep around 3:30. We surely thought it was at least 8 AM when we woke up to daylight, but it was only 5:37, so we tried to go back to sleep. He’s luckily still fast asleep, but I’m ready to get the day started. Today, we have breakfast, a campus tour, lunch, a class, dinner, and then we call it a day. Hopefully it’ll be an awesome day. Here's a picture of my dorm room!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 – 10:36 PM
So our first day in Beijing was pretty freaking awesome. We started off the day with breakfast. I think that was the first time I’ve ever had cucumbers for breakfast. The food has definitely been delicious all day long. We had a campus tour of BSU. I loved being able to learn about the facilities they have to perform their research and what is used with the athletes. It was awesome to see how they had such a large facility with their kinematic cameras and force plates. Inside their laboratory, it was very interesting that they had an “anatomy room”. The tour guide was telling us how they would have anatomy lecture, and then they would go to that room to study/observe things in a more visual way. Everything in the room was real! I really wanted to take pictures of the full body skeletons, muscles, and pretty much every single thing in that room, but unfortunately, no pictures were allowed. The campus is super relaxing. Here's a picture of just one of the few beautiful sights on campus.
Another highlight of the tour was visiting the national training center for the Olympic athletes! We had the privilege of seeing the 2012 London Summer Olympic athletes during their training. We saw the Chinese national teams of track and field, boxing, tae kwon do, rhythmic gymnastics, and trampoline. They are all so incredibly gifted. I could probably sit and watch the rhythmic gymnasts all day long. The tour of BSU was absolutely amazing. I think our whole group pretty much wants to transfer schools now because of all the fun gadgets and equipment they get to utilize. Not only was the daytime incredible, so was the afternoon! We had another wonderful meal at lunch, and then we 
had the opportunity to learn Chinese! It one of the things my mom wanted me to do during this trip, so I can’t wait to show her what I have learned. Tonight, we had an amazing dinner with some leaders of BSU’s International program. It was tons of fun, and of course, we enjoyed ourselves with all the new food. Some was new to me, but for the most part, I could figure what everything was out. It was nice to see that the other students were open to trying new things. I think we’ve got a great group, and I can’t wait for more adventures together, especially tomorrow when we’re off to the Summer Palace! Till then, it’s time for some shut eye. Here's a pictures of the group of students from our feast tonight saying, "bottoms up!"
--- Elise Leung
View Elise's full blog on the HHS Ambassador's Blog