Student Blog

By: Lucy Dabbs, Georges P. Vanier Secondary School, participant of the 2017 Beijing International Education Exchange (BIEE) Summer Camp.

Deoxyribonucleic acid, the carrier of all genetic information, containing the fundamental characteristics that make us unique. Today, I stared at a clumpy white blob floating in a test tube of blue raspberry gatorade that was my DNA. I looked around the classroom at the other students examining their own white clumpy blobs,and smiled at this awesome opportunity within the Beijing Royal school. Today was a learning day.

Having the whole day to try different classrooms really allowed us to have more freedom with our day. We could choose to not go to class, take an always needed nap, have some down time, wander around the track with f...

By: Lucy Dabbs, Georges P. Vanier Secondary School, participant of the 2017 Beijing International Education Exchange (BIEE) Summer Camp.

Sleep deprivation is something most teenagers experience at some point in their years, usually during the school year when procrastination is common and getting homework done early is not. We stay up late on our phones with no regard to how we're going to feel the next day, because we know we have the weekend to sleep in and stock up on sleep.

At the Beijing Royal School, it is like being on school time, the schedule fills every hour of the day. We go to sleep late and get up early, especially on the days we have outings. By the time Day 6 comes, we are all pretty run down, tired of cafeteria food and tired of the heat and tired in...

By: Lucy Dabbs, Georges P. Vanier Secondary School, participant of the 2017 Beijing International Education Exchange (BIEE) Summer Camp.

People surrounding you, pressing in on all sides, hot bodies brushing against one another. A sea of orange shirts soaked with sweat, people speaking different languages all around you. You are standing on a steep incline, on stone steps about a foot high and half a foot wide. Somebody trying to squeeze past on your left knocks you off balance, your heel goes off the edge of the step and you waver backwards. You catch yourself just before you teeter into the person behind you, a glance over your shoulder showing a bad potential for the domino effect if someone were to fall.

Your feet anxiously want to move, you move your head from s...

By: Sean Paul Veltmeyer, Langara College, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship.

Sunday morning I wake up to vibrations and the sound of jackhammers. Several minutes of shaking pass and I lose any hope of reprieve from the cacophony. Down a floor I turn a corner to find that the hallway to the gym, functional just yesterday, has overnight turned into an impassible rubbish heap; full of smashed tiles and debris. It appears I have discovered the source of the jackhammering. It’s sunny outside and there is much to see so I settle for a walk in the city.

Within steps I’m perspiring, but, despite the heat and humidity, there is a pleasant breeze and the air is palatable. A blue sky, green trees, and brown and grey buildings with colourful (often red) signs m...