April

This month crept up fast, and suddenly I'm already more than a month into my internship phase. I have become adjusted to life here in Shenzhen and am also getting closer to my colleagues and making a few friends outside of work. Moving to a new city can seem scary and foreign at times, but if I can do it, you definitely can!

My week generally goes by fast as I am at the office every weekday from 8am to 6 or 7pm. When I arrive at 8, I usually go to the cafeteria to eat breakfast first, so I actually get to my desk around 9. After I finish work, I'll usually eat dinner and get home around 8pm. Then, I either muster up the energy to run at the track or I'll just relax at home (wash clothes, clean, etc). And that's my work week! It's exciting working at such a great company and learning a lot everyday.

My weekends lately have been filled with a lot of visiting friends. I have hosted friends for the past 3 weekends at my place and have been taking them around Shenzhen. It works out well because we can explore together! So far, I have been to:

OCT (华侨城） A fun art district with a lot of good photography opportunities

深圳湾公园：A fun place by the water to see HK and watch the sunset! You can also cross the street and there is a nice shopping area with a lot of restaurants.

深圳大学校园的湖：Shenzhen Univeristy has a lot of lakes and nature in it's campus. Take a look around!

莲花山 Lianhua Shan：This mountain is extremely beautiful! There is a walking path that takes about an hour to complete, but you can also deviate from the path and see so much more. A literal oasis in the city. My friend and I went and actually stumbled upon a marriage market; a place parents go to match their children off for marriage. This is a very interesting phenomena in China, I recommend researching this a little more.

Wow it really feels like every week is passing by faster and faster. At this point in the program, Chinese is starting to make more sense, and I'm making a lot of friends in Shenzhen. I'm also getting closer to my colleagues and getting used to the work schedule and responsibilities I have. This point of the program also brings along the inevitable anxiety of finding a job after I graduate.

I have thought things out, and I think that the best place for me to be right now is exactly where I am. I want to stay in China after this program (specifically Shenzhen) and start my career. I think that the finance (especially Fintech) industry is developing at such a fast pace, and there is so much innovation taking place in every company, I definitely want to be a part of it.

I know that this plan is very different from what I had in mind when I started the program, but after moving to Shenzhen, I know that I can live here and be happy!

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Chengdu with some coworkers to do a little bit of work, and also to sightsee while we were there. I loved traveling with them (very different from traveling with americans!), and think that my Chinese improved a lot! See below for a few pictures from the trip.