Overview of my Time Abroad Thus Far

      Hi All! I wrote this article for my Gilman Scholarship experiences abroad. Feel free to leave comments and questions below.

       Before I came to China to participate in a rigorous language program called Chinese Flagship Capstone, I was determined to improve my Chinese to the best of my ability; this meant working very hard in all of my classes, in addition to exploring my surroundings and getting in tune with the local culture. Before arriving in China, I was confident that since my Mandarin abilities were already at an advanced level that I would be practically fluent by the end of my year abroad, since the program I am currently participating in only accepts those who are already somewhat proficient in Chinese. However, as I am reaching the midway point of this program, although I am extremely satisfied with how my Chinese ability has progressed thus far, I am beginning to realize, if I plan on being completely fluent in Mandarin, I still have a long way to go.

      If I had one word to describe my study abroad experience thus far, it would be enlightening. This is due to the fact that I have recently had a change of heart concerning my language goals; although I can communicate most of my ideas in my second language, and understand what is being said in conversation and in classes, I cannot yet express my ideas the way a native Chinese speaker can. Simply put, I still use my native language, English, to translate my ideas, and I do not have the strongest grasp on Chinese language and culture in order to optimally communicate in my second language.

       I quickly came to this realization after being immersed with many other American students learning Chinese. No longer was I one of the best students in my language classes; not even close. However, instead of deterring me from further studying Mandarin, I have decided to keep on pushing, and have become inspired by my classmate’s knowledge and perseverance in their language studies. From this experience, I have learned that, no matter how well I might think I understand a subject, there is always room to improve.

       Thus, my current goals have greatly changed. Even though, at the moment, I am in an intensive program in order to improve my Mandarin, I have begun to consider ways to keep up my language abilities during the internship portion of my time abroad, and after I return back home to the United States. The latter goal, keeping up my Mandarin abilities after I return to the United States, will undoubtedly be a huge task. This is especially apparent because I will no longer have access to the language resources that provided by my college after I graduate, and I won’t be constantly immersed in my second language. Therefore, I am very motivated to find a job that utilizes my second language ability soon after I arrive back in the United States so I can easily keep up my language skills, and hopefully, continue to improve.

       In conclusion, although this experience abroad in Nanjing, China has been one of the hardest experiences I have had to go through in my life, during my time here, I have undoubtedly learned quite a few life lessons, and have a more humble perception of my language ability. For this experience, I will be forever grateful.

Spending the Holidays in China

A terrible photo of me

A not so nice photo of Melissa

     Unfortunately, Flagship has provided no time off for any western holidays. However, I do get New Years Day off! So far, I have no specific plans to celebrate New Years.

     As for Christmas, many of my classmates came together and organized an big holiday get together, complete with decorations, food and presents. Although the event was fairly small, with only those involved in Flagship and their roommates in attendance, it was still a lot of fun. Melissa and I spent most of our time there at the photo booth, and even then we failed to take any nice photos.

    

Christmas Toast

Hot Pot!

     Also, this last weekend, a good friend from Shanghai came out
 to Nanjing, and we got together on Christmas Eve and had a big meal of hot pot in celebration and had a great time! 
     Much to my surprise, on Christmas Eve in China, it seems to be customary to give away apples (I mention this because I received a ton of apples on this day, from restaurants, my teachers, and my roommate. Needless to say I was good on fiber for the rest of the week). In part, this might have to do with the fact that the word for “peace” and “apple” 

平安夜苹果
Peace Night Apples

in Chinese are somewhat similar. However, it is strange that this custom is common practice in China in the first place given that it is appears to be closely related to Christmas, which is not a widely celebrated holiday in China. I have probed a few of my Chinese friends about it, but they have all claimed that this practice was originally Western. However, although I was born and raised in the West, I have never experienced nor heard of such a custom. Thanks for reading! Feel free to ask questions/leave comments. 

Community Service

     Since arriving in Nanjing at the end of August, I have completed 10 hours of community service required by my program. However, I have not completed all of my community service hours at the same place; for the first two hours, I helped out at a Chinese nursing home, for the second two hours I picked up trash on a mountain, and for the last six hours I tutored at an elementary school. 

Melissa Hanging Out

     My least favorite community service experience by far was working at the nursing home. This is because, before going to the nursing home, my friends and I prepared to play various games, such as majiang, with the residents of the nursing home we were about to meet, and have pleasant conversations. However, after arriving, we found out that it was a nursing home for those who needed intensive care, thus most of the residents wanted to do their own thing and needed a lot more individual attention. Although providing these people with companionship was rewarding in its own way, it was very difficult to communicate and care for these people with no prior training.   

(Some of) the trash we picked up!

     Trash picking on one of the various mountain of Nanjing was fun, but we had to climb up a lengthy amount of stairs for about an hour to reach the garbage pile we were looking for.In addition, the trash we had to pick up was very gross (surprise). However, it was a great bonding experience, and I regret not doing it again while the weather was still somewhat warm and sunny (which made the trash stinkier, but what are you gonna do). 

If you look closely, I'm pointing at the word
 "look" while the children were all looking 
(I found this humorous)

Melissa teaching

For the last six hours of my community service, I went to a nearby school to teach English for kids who wanted extra tutoring on Saturdays. In total, I went to this school twice, once for two hours, another for four. The first time I went, I went to various lengths in an effort to teach my student English, from taking him on a walk, pointing out different colors and various items, to writing jargon on a blackboard in an effort to get him to remember anything. However, during the last fifteen minutes of a two hour class, my student whipped out his textbook and started reading about sustainability in English relatively fluently. I was in shock, and was embarrassed that I had spent so much effort trying to create my own curriculum.
The second time I went to tutor at the school, I was not paired up with a single student since there were not enough students for the volunteers. Instead, I sat in on a class of fifth graders learning English, and helped out with their pronunciation and homework. Afterward, we had a wonderful lunch of homemade Chinese food, and then headed home.

Thank you all for reading! Feel free to ask questions and write comments!

Clara playing soccer with the kids!

Eating Habits

Not much has been happening in Nanjing these days. For the most part, I have been gearing up for finals to start (they begin January 1st), and trying to finish up my thesis. My thesis topic has to do with popularity of food delivery services in China, their societal and environmental impact, and how to (potentially) change the system in a more sustainable way. 
In the mean time, I have been trying to make a huge effort to cut down on spending; this means that I have been cutting out a lot of expensive western food out of my diet (such as salads and sandwiches) since I haven’t been missing home so much lately, and have gathered the courage to eat at more hole-in-the wall restaurants, and to try more street food. My favorite meal of the day in China has to be breakfast; not only is the food cheap, but it's super tasty! Here's a list of some of my favorites:

Baozi!

Baozi: Baozi are large steamed buns stuffed with meat, veggies, or bean paste. My favorite flavors must be either the turnip or greens and mushrooms.

Soymilk: Soymilk in China tastes much better than it is in the States, most likely because, in the States, soy milk comes from a box. In China, oftentimes vendors will make it right in front of you, hot and ready. This means the milk is super fresh and foamy, and that you can ask the vendor to make it to your liking. I don't like that much sugar in my soy milk, and one vendor I go to will even add coffee!

Porridge!

I thought it was funny that this store
translated "rice porridge" to "gruel"

Rice Porridge: Rice Porridge is a great homey dish. This dish can either be sweet or savory (I always ordered the savory rice porridge, and you can ask to put just about anything in it. However, there are some classic ingredients that go in rice porridge, the most popular being perhaps the pork and thousand year old egg combination (don't knock it until you try it). 

Fried Stuffed Bread

Fried Stuffed Bread: This food item is exactly what it sounds like: stuffed bread (or pancake). Inside of the outer, almost thin crispy skin is usually a savory mixture of well seasoned meat and/or veggies.

Jian Bing!

The jian bing at this place tended to have more
cumin in it (unlike the most popular kinds of
jian bing), and the wrapper was paper thin. 

    











Jian Bing: Although this dish seems to be getting more and more popular in the West, still, many are unfamiliar with the jian bing outside of China. Many liken the jian bing to a Chinese version of the crepe, but I like to think of it more as a burrito. Basically, the wrapper is made on a giant flat surface, and the vendor puts whatever you want on it, such as eggs, hot dogs, lettuce, vegetables (even seaweed and kimchi), fried crunchy chips, and various sauces, and is wrapped up like a burrito. However, there are many different kinds of jian bing; on my block, there were (at least) three different jian bing vendors, and each had their own distinct wrappings and overall taste. So,if you have the opportunity, I would encourage you to not only try a jian bing, but try a few different kinds from a few different places, and see which one you like best!

Also, it's important to note also that what I eat in Nanjing is not necessarily what people eat all over China too; while I was in Yunnan a couple months ago, I ate rice noodles for breakfast every day (and it was soooo good), so don't get mad if I didn't post your favorites! That's the end of my post today, please feel free to comment which dish looked best to you, and what kinds of Chinese breakfast items you like to eat if I didn't list your favorite! Thank you for reading!

     

Old Friends and Cooking Crabs

This week, I was able to visit with quite a few old friends that I haven’t seen in over a year. They were all students from the Flagship program spring cohort; they were back in Nanjing to take their final tests after completing the internship portion of the program. While they were in Nanjing, I went out to karaoke with them, and they introduced me to some of their favorite spots to eat out. My favorite was Gugu Chicken, a place that specializes in Korean fried chicken not far from school.

Besides getting together and doing some fun activities, they also provided me with much needed advice and encouragement. For example, although the schooling portion of the program is quite intense, the internship portion is quite lax. All of the friends I talked to said that, during their internships, they were able to take mid afternoon naps every day. Thus, I am very excited to start my internship; I really need a break!

Meeting with these friends definitely changed my perception of this program. I am starting to realize that a year really isn’t that long, and that I can definitely make it through this program. 

 Crab!

Eating Crab

Another activity that I did this week that was worth mentioning was I cooked some live crabs with my friend Melissa and her roommate! Melissa’s aunt sent her 10 live crabs through the mail, and we had to cook them all within two days before they died. Thus, we feasted on crabs! 我真的是世界上第一个吃螃蟹的人！
Thanks for reading! Feel free to ask any questions or add any comments!