New Location: Beijing, China

            Ever wanted to travel to China?  Beijing is the newest addition to the LVC study abroad program. Jill Russell, LVC’s study abroad advisor, answered a few questions about this new location.

            “LVC is always looking to expand our study abroad offerings to underrepresented areas of the world,” she says.  “After visiting three different cities – Hong Kong, Chengdu, and Beijing – we decided that the Beijing program located at Capital Normal University was the best for LVC.”

            Students who choose to study abroad in China will be enrolled at Capital Normal University and live on campus in apartment style dorms.  Students take three to four classes, in addition to learning Mandarin!

            “Our students will enroll in a 3 credit Mandarin course, 9 – 12 credits of culture courses taught in English and have the opportunity to participate in a 3 credit internship in an English-speaking placement site.”

            I think that this is an amazing opportunity for students.  China is a country that is growing rapidly, and becoming more of a world superpower, contending with countries like the United States or the UK.  Since China is becoming more and more influential in the world, it is important that people learn about the culture and especially learn the language.

            As for actually living in China, Jill can also enlighten us, after traveling there in 2009.  “We visited three very different cities,” she says.  “English is spoken in Hong Kong so it was easy to navigate the city and the infusion of different cultures was most realized in the variety of foods offered at the restaurants.

            “Our last stop was Beijing, a well-manicured city, vast and clean.  I can best describe the city as having a “corporate” feel – more business oriented than Chengdu.  There is so much to see and do.  I had to pinch myself when we were actually standing on The Great Wall.”

            The program offers trips to see The Great Wall, as well as Tiananmen Square and Shanghai.

            There is one student who is going to be studying abroad in the fall of 2013.  “I am confident he will be successful both academically and socially – and he will certainly have a stellar experience to add to his resume upon his return,” states Jill.

When asked if the study abroad office is considering adding more countries to the program, she responded, “Yes, we are always investigating new study abroad program offerings.  Stay tuned for possible new locations in Latin America!”

Big Adjustments

On Monday night, there was a Study Abroad Night, in which students who are interested in studying abroad can meet and play games and eat snacks with students who have already studied abroad.  I attended, and while I didn’t talk to too many interested students, I did reminisce with my fellow London travelers about all of our interesting and often hilarious moments abroad.  Replaying all of those memories made me realize that I am homesick for London sometimes.

We were warned that when we came back the US we would experience this kind of backwards homesickness.  It seemed strange to me that I would have culture shock when I returned home, but I did.  Especially when I came back to LVC.  The first few days of this semester were kind of hard for me, and it was a lot of change to deal with.  First of all, I had to adjust back to living in a tiny dorm room again, not a furnished apartment.  In addition, since I had a small selection of rooms to choose from when I returned, I ended up on the third floor among a bunch of noisy freshmen.  I got over it eventually, but at first I felt really strange sitting in my room, and having to share the bathroom my whole floor again.  It was also kind of a let down to go back to eating Metz food after being able to cook all of my meals in my apartment.  It was like I got a taste (no pun intended) of real life and really living on my own and then I had to return to being more dependent.

            The workload of my schoolwork was also much easier when I was abroad.  I only had four classes from Tuesday to Thursday, so I had a four-day weekend every week.  I wasn’t really assigned any reading or homework, and I didn’t have any exams to study for.  All I had to do was write essays at the end of the semester.  Coming back to five classes, five days a week at LVC was a little challenging.  I still feel like I don’t have any motivation to do homework anymore.  I was also accustomed to having lots of free time, which was nice because I could explore pretty much the entire city over the course of the three months I was there.  Now more than ever I realize how excruciatingly small Annville is.  I was used to being able to walk or take the tube or buses anywhere I needed to.  Now that I’m back in Annville, there is not much to do that is in walking distance, and when you don’t have a car on campus, you are a little bit stranded.  I severely miss just being a short tube ride away from Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Oxford Street, and other exciting attractions.  There is a virtually endless list of activities that you can do whilst in London.  It made me very spoiled when I came back to Annville.

            It was also very strange when I came back to campus and I felt like I didn’t know anyone.   I don’t know if it’s just because I didn’t know the freshmen class, but I felt extremely disconnected from the rest of the students.  It was definitely a bit of a depressing feeling.  I’m glad that I had friends here who also studied abroad who could relate to me.  I also sorely miss all of the friends that I made while I was abroad.  It’s kind of heartbreaking when I think that I will most likely never see most of them ever again.  I would never regret making them though. 

            I don’t know if I will ever fully return to how I was before I went to London, I hope I don’t.  I hope that I can maintain the changes that happened to me.  And I really hope that I can adjust to considering both the US and the UK as my home.