Student Blog

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

The day was not over yet! Once dinner was finished it wasn't long before closing ceremonies started, and we would finally get to showcase our Canadian performance we had been working so hard on. We went back to our dorms and quickly got into our costumes, returning to the second floor to the auditorium. We sat in theatre seats, in our Bus groups to watch the show.

To start off there was a video about China, beginning with the history and the way culture has grown to the present, now with technological achievements and advanced architecture. It showed that China was modernized and ever advancing, but they still embraced their tradit...

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

I never realized the importance in the art of selfie taking, never conceived that the skill of holding a phone away from ones face to take a picture would come in handy later in my life. When taking a group selfie, it takes a good deal of skill to keep your arm at the right distance, and the phone tilted at a realistic angle. There are many factors involved, to keep everyone’s faces in proportion, in good lighting, and everyone looking at the camera. Today, my selfie taking skills were put to the ultimate test.

After breakfast, everyone seemed to realize that all these people we had met, all the great friends we'd made were all goi...

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

After lunch we spent three hours at the Beijing Capital Museum. The building was massive, seven stories high with flights of escalators for each floor. There was a huge circular wall up one end of the building, containing spiral hallways leading to different circular rooms within. Two sides of the building were all glass windows looking out into the city. There were many different rooms with historical artifacts and information on old China.

Many elementary schoolers were there on school field trips, and we're very interested in taking selfies with us. Despite all the interesting exhibits on every floor, by the end of touring aroun...

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

On the bus ride home I was in need of a distraction to take my mind off horrible visions of myself at 80, showing my grandchildren my antique fidget spinners collection now taking over my house, dust-ridden spinners causing my single cat to sneeze with distaste. As had been on our previous bus rides, Jack offered open mic to anyone willing to entertain us during the long hours. I took my sudden need of a distraction to be brave and share my geeky side with the fellow students.

Smiling mischievously I read from the screen of my iPod, reciting the Periodic Table song (unfortunately I’m not cool enough to have it memorized). I managed...