Eight weeks later, we finally all finished our study abroad program, complete with a mini graduation ceremony, and are starting to head home. Most people are already headed back, though a few of us will be around for the next day or two, and I personally won't be going home until Tuesday. Until then, I'll just be hanging out and doing some last minute exploring--it's still hard to believe how quickly everything finished up.
The last week has mostly been dedicated to preparing for Thursday's test and oral presentations, which overall went pretty smoothly. We also had an ending ceremony and lunch on Friday, where we said goodbye to our teachers and received certificates of completion from the heads of the program. It was bittersweet--as much as I enjoyed being in Shanghai for the past two months, I think we're all excited to be home.
I don't have many pictures from this week since most of us were studying or packing for a good portion of it, so I figure I might as well talk a little about studying abroad as a whole instead--if you are at all interested and can fit it in your schedule, I highly recommend studying abroad at some point while at CMU. My Chinese has definitely improved, as has my confidence in using it, and I'm really glad I got to see everywhere I visited during our two months here. We also met some really amazing people from both CMU and SISU, so overall a very worthwhile opportunity.
This being the last post and all, I also wanted to list some of the best advice I can offer to anyone planning on studying abroad to China:
- Bring bug spray, and a lot of it. Mosquitos are evil and will strike when you least expect.
- Bring toilet paper with you EVERYWHERE you go. You'll thank me later.
- A Chinese phone number and bank account are worth the hassle, as is Wechat Pay--I thought it would be more convenient to stick with cash and Wi-Fi, and I was wrong. :(
- A few words to add to your Chinese vocabulary if you don't know them already: 免费 (free of charge)，外国人 (foreigner), 空调 (A/C), and 我听不懂 (I don't understand).
- The Chinese subway system will be your best friend--even for me, who'd pretty much never taken a subway before this trip and regularly gets lost on the Pittsburgh system, it's pretty simple to figure out, it's cheap, and it doesn't require anywhere near Chinese fluency to use.
- If you're a CMU student, there are a multitude of study abroad scholarships that might be worth looking into (modern language scholarships for major/minors, Tartans Abroad, CIT Travel Grant for engineers, MechE Travel Grant if you happen to be in mechanical engineering, etc.).
- Lastly, if you're going abroad, live your best life--go to class and do the homework, but use your free time to really check out the city you're in and see everything there is to see. Even just walking around Shanghai tested my Chinese understanding more than I thought it would, and the real-world practice was worth it.
Okay, well, I guess that's the advice I have to give (hopefully someone finds that useful). And since this time I can't say that I'll see you next week, I'll just say:
谢谢你们看这个网站。我觉得这次来中国是一个非常好的机会让我的中文水平提高－如果你对中文有兴趣，我希望你会找到同样的机会。我回国以后一定会继续努力学习，让我的中文越来越好。 谢谢！
再见～