My last night in Little Rock (or so I thought) was calm. I was packed, I was focused, I was enjoying family time. THEN, I looked online to see that one of my flights (I had 3) was cancelled. Flat out cancelled which meant that I had to leave a day later. Though my Fulbright research term is independent, my extension grant allows me to study Chinese with a program for 3.5 extra months. The group met up in Beijing, and I was going to be a day late!
That would have been fine except we were taking an overnight train to our home base (Harbin, China) the same day as my rescheduled flight. Long story short, I would have made the train IF my rescheduled flight hadn’t been delayed 5 hours after a plane default that made us return to the D.C. airport after we were 30+ minutes in flight (praise God they were able to catch it & land safely) and IF it our luggage had not taken over an hour to get to the drop off once I finally landed in Beijing.
So, I missed my train with the group & had to book my own flight to Harbin the next morning. Instead of venturing off to a hotel after 10pm, I decided to just sleep in the Beijing airport. Thus began my journey!
God is still good though: I was safe, I was healthy, and he blessed me with those summer jobs so that I could cover the unexpected plane ticket. Here are a few pictures from my first week in China. Enjoy, and expect weekly posts :)
About the Author:
Kelicia Hollis is Detroit-born, Arkansas-raised writer,
speaker and educator. She completed her B.A. in Creative Writing from Columbia
University, her M.A. in Higher Education from the University of Michigan.
Hollis, a 2014-2015 Fulbright Scholar, is currently President and CEO of
Polyglot International Ventures Inc. in Little Rock, a foreign language
services firm. Learn more at www.polyglotnation.com,
and connect with her at www.keliciahollis.com.
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Interested in graduate study abroad?
Read more about Kelicia's year in China as a Fulbright researcher: http://keliciainchina2.tumblr.com/
For more information about the Fulbright Grant Opportunities and how to apply, visit http://eca.state.gov/fulbright/fulbright-programs
For more opportunities for funded graduate study & research abroad, check out this article from Diversity Abroad: http://www.diversityabroad.com/guides/study-and-research-fellowships/study-and-research-fellowships
