Presentations and Away Days

 

A photo from my presentation

At the beginning of the week it rained and poured, which was great as this got rid of the pollution in the air. I have never been so happy for it to rain! It was absolutely beautiful weather and this has fortunately remained the case for the last week.

This week has been a big week for me at work. Firstly I had an update meeting with my supervisor at work to review my tasks and this was crucial in getting me on track in order to prioritise work so I can finish in time for the end of my internship. The end is scarily close; I don’t know where the time has gone! Then it was presentation time. I was so nervous but it went really well. I forgot to say a few things but overall I was very proud of myself and got the opportunity to teach others about my disability as well as meet some other hearing impaired individuals, sharing how their disability affects them here in China. Everyone provided me with positive feedback and I was happy to share my experiences with them.

LGBT panel answering questions from the audience

After work, the Director of Resources here at the British Council and I attended a roundtable event on LGBT on diversity in the workplace at the Beijing American Centre. After a presentation explaining American perspectives on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender inclusion in the workplace, there was an opportunity for questions to be asked to a panel comprising of different business and organisation representatives. This event was a welcome part of understanding diversity and inclusion within Chinese culture, and it was encouraging to hear that many steps have been taken to promote prevention of discrimination in the workplace.

Wednesday and Thursday were ‘HR away days’ so I had the opportunity to meet staff from the other offices in China and spend time communicating with them in person. After a department meal eating Peking duck, we were then given a presentation the next day about conducting productive meetings which was interesting and easy to take on board. This included information about needing to set an agenda and clear objectives for meetings so as to use time effectively, which is a skill that is easily transferable back home.

When it got to Friday after work, some colleagues and I got a quick dinner, then went straight into the mini bus we had rented which drove us to mountains north of Miyun, called Baihe. We arrived at the hostel and played board games until late, chatting and relaxing after the week of work. There was a rather unwelcome addition in the hostel of a big spider which terrified the life out of me, but I slept surprisingly well and we arose to breakfast in the hostel before venturing out to the mountains.

The day was great, comprising of rock climbing, hiking and bonding with work colleagues. I was not very good at the rock climbing bit but it didn’t matter as everyone was there to try their hardest and only 2 people got to the top of all 4 climbs. There is no way I would have had the arm strength to pull me up to the top of any of them in my life time; it was so difficult!

On Sunday we had a chilled day and went for a wander in Chaoyang park again, but to a different side . As it is so big we found a completely unexplored area near the flower gardens at the North entrance, and with a picnic we had a nice day relaxing and preparing ourselves for the next week of work. Only two weeks of work left, time is going too fast and I still have so much I want to do. This city is packed of things to explore and go to, it is impossible to ever be bored.

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