First day of the real trip, I woke up at 7:30 am, surprisingly full of energy. Some of us gathered up for a morning stroll, but the true nature of our exploration was one of our most primitive instincts: find some food. After wandering the campus for some arbitrary amount of time, we finally came discovered a source of nutrition. It was a small grocery store stocked with basic necessities: instant noodles, processed carbohydrates, booze, and water. None of us really understood what exactly we were buying, but the pictures and colors gave us a general idea between red bean and potato filling. Fifteen yuan later, I bought a half liter of water, sweet potato sandwich, and some chocolate panda bread; there was a depressing drought in protein.
We returned to the dorm eventually and were joined by the rest of the J school students in Prof Weber’s room. Apparently, the faculty had already gathered food for us ahead of time because there was a box of “goodies” awaiting our arrival. So, all nine of us were gathered in the professor’s dorm living room around a small coffee table, devouring the processed delicacies of a Chinese grocery store.
Sometime later, some of the business people arise and John takes us down to a market right outside the gate of the school. They fed us enough steamed buns to feed a small village. We also got plenty of pictures.
The order of events that occurred next I may not be remembering correctly, even though I’m writing this only a day later.
After the morning market buns, the J school squad, at this point “kewl kids,” took some group pictures with Jacob’s selfie stick at the top of the steps. We then made our way down into the surrounding urban area and stopped in a café for those of that find coffee a more than necessity. The coffee was decent, and of course we took plenty more pictures.
Somehow we spent way too much time in the café, and I still needed to buy a towel. We head back up the mountainous stair case and stop in the market. At this point, my only pair of shoes were already soaked through and even though it was cold and wet out, I was sweating from the layers I had to wear. The towel was pink, covered in elephants, and only 25 yuan (about $4 USD). Once everyone bought whatever they needed, the J squad returned to campus for the tour.
The student volunteers showed us around campus, and it was this beautiful mix between urban and forest that’s so difficult to describe. On one side of the small road would be an old, five-story apartment complex covered in clothes hanging to dry, and on the other side of the road would be trees and a field of flowers or some kind of wheat.
They released us to fend for ourselves for a couple hours, and I honestly can’t remember what I did the rest of that day. I can recollect, however, how quickly I fell asleep on the most uncomfortable bed in existence; it might’ve been an actually plank of wood with a blanket and pillow, but I was so exhausted it did not matter.
Study Abroad in China 