China- Beginning
As I am about to embark on a journey I will hopefully never forget, there are definitely a few things on my mind about it.
To start, I decided that I wanted to go on this dialogue for a few reasons, but the biggest reason was to continue learning Mandarin and receive an even stronger education after being fully immersed in the language for several weeks. In addition to that, as a planned Chinese minor I thought that this opportunity was too good to pass up. Besides just learning more of the language, I will be able to truly experience the native culture, something I wouldn’t be able to do if I stayed in my comfort zone and didn’t go abroad.
Hopefully, I will come back very changed from this experience, with a much deeper understanding and appreciation of other cultures and their traditions. All of the culture classes we will be taking and excursions we are planning to go on cover a wide variety of the cultural traditions of the Chinese and I expect that will be a very eye-opening experience for me. On a more scholarly note, I do hope to come back from this dialogue with a better understanding of Mandarin and the ability to use it with more ease. These expectations of change are also my goals for the trip: to really let myself be changed by this experience and not be avoidant of new situations but rather embrace them fully while I have the chance. I personally think that the only way for me to achieve these goals is to relax and enjoy my time there and force myself to participate fully in every opportunity even if I’m not sure of the outcome. I know going into this that the planned excursions and lessons are all meant for our good and embracing them will only make my experience more worthwhile and memorable.
I don’t have too many fears going into this, besides a general fear of the unknown as I’ve never been to Asia before. However, I think my excitement outweighs my fear and thus dulls the few fears I do have so that they are barely noticeable. I am slightly worried that I will get sick from such a large change in diet, but I know that is probably inevitable and will pass with time. I’m also a little worried about the course load, as it is a lot to learn in a shortened amount of time, but I also know that the curriculum would not be planned as it is if it were not doable. But again, due my extreme excitement for the experience, my fears pale by comparison.
It might seem like a cop-out to say I’m really excited for the whole experience, but I cannot begin to choose a single thing that I am most looking forward to. I guess if I had to say one thing it would be that I’m excited for the new perspective I will gain as a result of seeing a completely different culture and how they live everyday.
My thought is, without this opportunity I would most likely never learn what I am about to experience. As a result, I want to take as much advantage of this trip as I possibly can and get the most out of it while I have the chance.
