My Experience Traveling to China
By Melida Maldonado
Grade 10

It’s been almost a week since I returned from my trip to China. The trip took place from the 22nd of April until the 4th of May. Two more girls from my school also got this opportunity. I’m very fortunate and grateful to have been a part of such a great experience. I experienced first hand the Chinese culture and way of life. I like the way I saw things through my own eyes, instead of just listening to what others told me about China. Everything seemed so different from New York, yet I still associated some of the things I saw to New York. Shanghai at night was like Times Square at every corner. There were lights everywhere. I observed and analyzed almost everything and place I went to, and took a great amount of pictures while I was there.

While I was in China, I visited and stayed in many cities and places. The cities I went to were Shanghai, Nanjing, Beijing and Suzhou. We mostly did sight seeing and touring. I loved Nanjing because that is where I stayed for about five days in a home stay, and in a boarding school. Although I only spent one night in a home stay, being able to be a part of a Chinese family for a night was interesting. My host mom was always offering me food, and during dinner, the father kept adding more and more food to my plate. It was kind of funny at first but I got used to it. Because the parents didn’t speak much English, my host sister was our translator. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to talk with my host family since I only spent one night with them. The next morning was mostly hurrying to get to school in time.

The boarding school was also a great experience because I got to be part of the student body in a completely different school and school system. I had never been to a boarding school, and now I can say I have been to one in a foreign country. I was automatically accepted by the other students. All their warm and approving smiles welcomed me and my two U.S. classmates. We shared a room with three Chinese school girls. They were the sweetest girls I’ve ever met. They paid attention to our every move, and I can tell they learned a lot from us because all they did was ask us questions. Questions they asked were mostly on music we listen to, our hobbies and things we liked to do. With any word they didn’t understand or couldn’t say, they right away used their translators to help them converse with us. I can tell their English really improved with us.

This boarding school I went to is called the Nanjing Foreign Language School Xianlin Branch. School life there is very different from the type of school I’m used to. For example, students were kept in class until 9:45 p.m. each night just because they had midterm exams all week! I guess studying for exams was ensured this way. I could tell that students felt very pressured in school. Their education makes me seem spoiled. The only reason I say I’m spoiled is because they’re constantly in school mode, since they live in their school. I have the advantage of going to my school, entering at 9 ending at around 4:30, and actually leaving. I complain about school, but this experience has made me realize others have to be in school for a longer time. I’m glad I’ve come to realize this. I should be thankful education isn’t as enforced here in New York as it was in that school. Yet, having that type of education will really benefit the student in the future. At least from what I saw, all students value education more there than students I’ve seen in New York schools. I made many friends in that school with people I look forward to staying in touch with.

Other than the school experience, meals in China were very different from the ones I’m used to eating at home. I tried things in China I never thought I’d try. There was either soup or porridge in every meal I was given. Tea is also very popular and greens were everywhere too. And of course, let’s not forget the rice. I had it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was usually good to know what I ate after I tried it. In one meal I ate duck blood, without knowing! Another unusual dish that I tried for the first time was turtle ... baby turtles in fact! I actually ate this dish in the boarding school with a special lunch we had with the principal and staff of the high school.

One uncomfortable thing I experienced in China was the way I stood out to most people in the street. I was basically stared at. Many people wanted to take pictures with me. But after a while I got used to these things and tolerated them. I understand that most of the people who stared and wanted pictures with me rarely got to see people different from what they are used to seeing. So I don’t really take their curiosity to offense.

Something I absolutely just loved about China was the bargaining. Buying things and getting them at prices I wanted to pay, was the best. I learned to hassle vendors to sell me items at a lower price, for example from a price that was 35 Yuan, and I bargained it all the way down to 8 Yuan. A Yuan is the Chinese currency. To be more accurate it’s called RMB. One US dollar is worth 8 Yuan in China. Bargaining was awesome, and it is something I’d certainly love to do again!

When it came to communicating with people, I used the very little amount of Chinese I knew, sign language, an electronic translator, and a book I borrowed from the school. Communicating wasn’t really a problem since most people that were around me knew English.

The only difficulty I’d like to mention about traveling in general, not just to China, is getting accustomed to the time change after you get back home. Jetlag is very difficult to fight off. But I’ll get adapted to my surroundings again. Once again, I’m very thankful for this trip. It feels good to say that I’ve physically been to, seen and walked the Great Wall of China. China is a beautiful country and it was great to find out that their national day is on my birthday, October 1st. I hope I have the chance to go to similar trips like these in the future. It’s better to experience different cultures hands on than through secondary sources.

My Experience in China
by Kimberly Huacon
Grade 11

China is a country full of amicable people: a country with a different culture than that of the U.S. I was fortunate to experience the Chinese culture, lifestyle, food, history, and cultural sites first hand. Since the moment I learned that I would be traveling to China, I felt the enthusiasm and excitement to go there and live a different lifestyle for a few days.

When I first heard the trip to China was going to take about 17 hours, I took it calmly. I knew it was a lot of hours in a plane, but my enthusiasm was stronger. Once in the airport and on the airplane I didn’t feel those hours to be so heavy and exhausting. When the plane arrived to China I told my friends who were on the trip with me, “We are finally in China.” My famous phrase in China that I used almost every day we were there was, “We are in China.” I never got tired of saying that.

What is the best way to experience the lifestyle of the Chinese? To actually live with Chinese under their customs. My experience in the student exchange program included living with my Chinese host family. This was a once in a lifetime experience through which I was able to live under the Chinese culture. One of the lifestyle customs I practiced was taking off your shoes and putting on slippers when entering a home. Another one was eating traditional Chinese dishes with chopsticks. My host family taught me how to eat with chopsticks; in fact, they were very patient. I got to feel that warm and cozy feeling of a Chinese family. I got to see that Chinese families are caring, lovely, friendly and outgoing. They made me feel like I had a home away from home.

Staying in the dormitories at the boarding school was another experience. With the host family it was more of a Chinese family lifestyle experience. In school it was more of teenager’s lifestyle experience. The Chinese teenagers weren’t so different from us; instead, we had similar likes and dislikes. I observed that Chinese students are serious about their education and that they put a lot of dedication to their studies. School had become like their 2nd home where teachers became their parents and guardians. It felt nice to be in this environment, and to feel someone cares about the students.

My room-mates, my host, and I were able to create a beautiful friendship. Even though it is a long distance friendship, it is a true one. We had the opportunity to exchange e-mail addresses and home addresses in order to maintain contact. They got to show me how much friends care for each other. I was very lucky to meet these special people and to be able to establish a friendship with them.

Besides the school exchange experience, the program included visiting historical sites. Eating Chinese food and visiting cultural sites were two things the students traveling together on this trip and I were looking forward to. I knew that if I was going to participate in this trip I had to be open-minded and be ready for the unexpected. The foods we got to eat were typical Chinese dishes. The taste was exquisite and different from the Chinese food I ate back home. Through the visiting of cultural sites we got to learn Chinese history and value it. It is easy to learn Chinese history at school, but many students just learn it for the moment. I was lucky to go to China and obtain all that information in China from the Chinese. I can now hold on to that knowledge for a lifetime. I think that traveling to China is a good way to enjoy China in every extreme.

At the conclusion of this outrageous trip, we learned a lot about China and its people. Fortunately, the Chinese also got to learn a lot from us and our culture. In my host family home and at school I was often thanked for allowing them to see how Americans were like. They often told me that thanks to us, they concluded that Americans were lovable people and cool. When I heard these commentaries my heart filled with joy knowing that I was being a good ambassador for my country, and that I was returning what they gave me: knowledge and a friendship.

For me, China has now become a country that has no limitations for its success. China consists of many intelligent and good people that are willing to open their hearts and even their homes to those who want to learn from them. I’m very thankful for the program which allowed me to have this experience and teach others what I learned about China.

May 11, 2005