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Published: December 25th 2012
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Merry Christmas! I cannot fathom that this time last year I was trying to decide where to study abroad, and now I've been on two different study abroad trips on two different continents. It's been a great experience thus far, and I cannot wait to embark on the final leg of my journey to Australia in a month.
It's hard to believe that I spent four months in China. Looking back on it, I sometimes feel like I was only there for a couple of seconds, but at the same time it feels like I was there forever. Mostly though, I feel like my time spent in China went by way too fast.
I honestly cannot remember why I chose to study abroad in China. Looking back, I guess some part of me always knew I would study abroad in China, but whether it was because I wanted to learn the language to be more competitive in the business world or because I'm half Chinese I can no longer remember.
It seems like so long ago that I was getting off of the plane alone in a country where the only word I knew of the local language
was hello. I was terrified my first night in China when I went out to dinner. I was late because of my flight, and by the time I got to dinner the last table with empty seats had the assistant director, Zhang Lao Shi (we called her Tinkerbell), two Chinese roommates, and one other study abroad student who was very strong in Chinese. They were all talking in Chinese, and I was so worried I was going to be in horrible shape because I hadn't studied Chinese in four years.
Orientation passed by quickly and I made a lot of friends. I also met my roommate, Mikaela. Mikaela's English was not as fantastic as some of the other Chinese roommates, but she was great although we were clearly accustomed to different cultures. She saved my butt the first two weeks with all of her help with my homework.
Surprisingly, I made it all the way through China without getting severe food poisoning. The worst I had was one of the first nights when Sam and I ate the pig liver and cow brains by accident, thinking we had ordered chicken and beef. We were halfway through the meal
Baby in Basket
This picture was taken by one of my good friends, Thea, while we were in Chengdu. when someone who knew a couple of words of English told us what we were eating--we very quickly lost our appetites!! Another adventure was seeing dog on the menu everywhere. Some people were more than willing to accept this cultural difference and tried it, but I would never be able to get over the fact that I was eating a Biscuit (my cute golden retriever puppy). That being said, I'm pretty sure some of the more questionable meat I ate in China probably came from a stray dog on the backstreet that was walking around.
I had so many fun and new adventures in China that it would be impossible to list them all. From buying ukuleles to traveling on the "di tie" (metro) during rush hour to decorating our room with post-it notes so I could learn Chinese, every day held a new adventure. Our travels to Huang Shan, Chengdu, Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macau, and Zhuhai were fun and there was never a dull moment...Zhuhai being the exception to the rule. I still can't believe that I got to walk along the Great Wall for hours, kiss a panda bear, and eat dim sum in Hong Kong!
Huang Lao Shi and I
"Teacher Huang", or Pat (her English name) as we often called her, was the best Chinese teacher I've had. While all of the above was fantastic, what I will miss the most about China is Chinese class. Class was really rough for me for about a month. It took me at least three hours just to do the homework sheet each night and to prepare for the next day's lesson. I'm not really sure what happened, but one day everything just kind of clicked and I started enjoying Chinese class. That being said, I can't wait for Australia next semester when there are more than just three students and two teachers in the class! Nothing got by the teachers.
The last night in China was a surreal. The teachers put on a "closing ceremony", in which I was honored with the title of "Chinese Star". Afterwards, we all went out to dinner with our teachers to say our goodbyes, which was harder than we expected. I think it hit me then that I was most likely never seeing these people again, after I'd seen them every day for four months.
China was such a positive experience and I cannot wait to go back. I don't really know what I want to be when I grow up,
Kissing a Panda Bear
Definitely the highlight of my trip! but I do know that I'd like to live as an expat for at least 5 or 10 years after I graduate college in a year and a half, starting with China. If I can't find a job that sends me there after college, I'd like to spend the first year after I graduate teaching English somewhere in China so I can become fluent in Mandarin. I found a couple of places that have 12-month contracts where you can teach English and continue studying Mandarin.
I'm not sure if it's because the San Francisco Bay Area has many similarities (from the elderly doing Tai Chi in the parks every morning to all of the great Chinese food in Chinatown) or if it's because I just have an easy time acclimating to new environments, but I never went through culture shock in China. Therefore, it immensely surprised me when I experienced (and still am to some degree) a severe reverse culture shock. When my plane landed in LA, I learned my flight up to the Bay Area had been cancelled. I cannot tell you how weird it was to be able to go up to an employee and have a
Huang Shan
"Yellow Mountain" was my favorite hike in China conversation about how I was going to find a way home in English, ensuring that we both fully understood the conversation. The ironic part was that she was definitely Chinese. After I finally managed to find a way home, my family went out for Mexican food. I kept wanting to call the waiter "fuwuyuan" (waiter, in Mandarin) and there were a couple times when he refilled my water glass or brought me my food where "xie xie" (thanks) was halfway out of my mouth before I had to suck the words back in and say it in English. Even now, a week later, I'll have a thought in Chinese and want to share it with whoever I'm with, but I'll either translate it back to English or just forget about it. I've also started to notice that a majority of banks in the area all have "yin hang" (bank) underneath their English name, and since that was the first word I learned on Day 1 of Chinese class, I get a little sentimental when passing by almost every single bank in the area.
However, I think the weirdest thing for me is the lack of Chinglish in my everyday vocabulary back in the states. I think the thing I will miss most about China is speaking Mandarin all the time. It's like I'm a little kid who is learning a secret language, only a billion people know it so it's not that secret. I can't wait to go back.
Thank you for reading my blog for the past 7 months through England and China! I'm going to take a brief break while I'm home, but they'll start up again once I get to Australia in February!
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
We have enjoyed following you in China...
now that you have been honored as Blogger of the Week, we look forward to reading your blgos about Australia.