I remember booking my flight to Shanghai on Virgin Atlantic and realizing, wow! I am actually studying in China, not for a mere two weeks’ summer camp but for a whole five months. As you can tell, I was ecstatic. After a grueling fourteen-hour flight I finally arrived at my temporary home not knowing what to expect in the coming weeks.
Whereas some peoples’ experiences of living in China stems from teaching on a TEFL qualification, I had come as an exchange student from the University of Nottingham UK campus to study Mandarin as well as to take up Business Modules. The first thing I realized about China was that, certain procedures such as opening a bank account and setting up your wireless connection are not as simple and as straight forward as it is back home; which stressed me out. Also, into my first week I realized that the Chinese great firewall is real and certain websites such as Facebook and google are actually blocked, that too I found infuriating. With that said, it was no surprise that I was going to experience a culture shock but it just showed me that whichever country or situation you find yourself in, you need to be able to adapt because, it is the only way you learn and develop as a person.
During my exchange program, I got infused into the different cultures that existed within the walls of the Ningbo campus. I got to interact with people from all other backgrounds and experience the various Chinese cuisines and the locals who worked in the nearby stores on campus. What made these interactions different from that of the UK was the fact that the campus was a lot smaller and the students came up as very warm and welcoming. I socialized with Russians, Koreans, Kazakhstanis, Sri Lankans, Indonesians and even the local Chinese people. Forming friendships with such a diverse range of people was definitely something out of my comfort zone and it made me appreciate the tight-knit communities that were formed during my stay.