Natalie is blogging while in Chengdu, China for the fall 2015 semester. Her blog can be found at https://natalietravelstochina15.wordpress.com/. Here's a recent excerpt from her experience so far:
Another fantastic Saturday night! A wave of cold seems to have swept into the south of China so yesterday it dipped into the 30s which was an unwelcome surprise!
After a nice Saturday getting work done and reading, a huge group of us went out for dinner. We found a really lovely Turkish place. I know. Turkish? In China? Yes! It was pretty fantastic. The waiters spoke English which is always a treat as we are all now used to ordering completely in chinese. Also, they had knives and forks! So that was pretty fantastic. I had a chicken kebab and the entire table shared a whole chicken. It was a fantastic dinner!
Then we all headed for a karaoke club in the middle of town. It was pretty funny walking around town in a group of about 20 people, all of whom were foreign, so we drew quite a few stares as we got onto a bus and headed over. We had an entire room to ourselves and we all paid 28 kuai which is 2 or 3 dollars so really cheap and easy! I must confess when I arrived, I didn’t think I would end up singing… I can be pretty shy. But it ended up being so fun and I sang a few songs. It was such a brilliant night! It’s so cool to get to know your classmates because you basically do everything together. You live together and take classes together and go on field trips so it’s important to get to know everyone!
One tip for study abroad is just… Get out of your comfort zone. Back in the US, there is no way I would have considered going to a karaoke club and actually singing. I’m expanding my horizons so much by being here, both socially and intellectually. It’s fantastic!
Read more here.
Another fantastic Saturday night! A wave of cold seems to have swept into the south of China so yesterday it dipped into the 30s which was an unwelcome surprise!
After a nice Saturday getting work done and reading, a huge group of us went out for dinner. We found a really lovely Turkish place. I know. Turkish? In China? Yes! It was pretty fantastic. The waiters spoke English which is always a treat as we are all now used to ordering completely in chinese. Also, they had knives and forks! So that was pretty fantastic. I had a chicken kebab and the entire table shared a whole chicken. It was a fantastic dinner!
Then we all headed for a karaoke club in the middle of town. It was pretty funny walking around town in a group of about 20 people, all of whom were foreign, so we drew quite a few stares as we got onto a bus and headed over. We had an entire room to ourselves and we all paid 28 kuai which is 2 or 3 dollars so really cheap and easy! I must confess when I arrived, I didn’t think I would end up singing… I can be pretty shy. But it ended up being so fun and I sang a few songs. It was such a brilliant night! It’s so cool to get to know your classmates because you basically do everything together. You live together and take classes together and go on field trips so it’s important to get to know everyone!
One tip for study abroad is just… Get out of your comfort zone. Back in the US, there is no way I would have considered going to a karaoke club and actually singing. I’m expanding my horizons so much by being here, both socially and intellectually. It’s fantastic!
Read more here.
