Summer School Opportunity
It all began with one fateful morning in which my alarm, the sun rays, peeped through my windows to greet the corner of my eyes, waking me up instantly. That spring morning, I hesitantly opened the email with Chinese characters and “Congratulations” in the subject line of the email. Brave heartedly, I had opened the email, and to my surprise, I had really accomplished something. The feeling of excitement and disbelief woke me up from my daily staring contest with the ceiling.
The email had noted that I got accepted into a university in China for the summer semester on a full scholarship! Hesitant, I popped the email into google to see if it was a scam, but it turned out to be the real deal. A month before this event, I received a scholarship opportunity for this school via a company that I had subscribed to. I applied thinking nothing would come out of it but was shocked when something did.
Even though I had to pay for my plane fare and housing fees. I worked hard over the summer to accumulate enough funds for this once in a lifetime opportunity since I was about to become a senior. On the first flight from JFK to Guangzhou, China, I met someone in my program who was sitting next to me. This took away all of my nervousness as I did not know how I was going to survive in a country in which their first language is not English.
One of the cheaper alternatives to get to Beijing was to do a connecting flight to Guangzhou, China which is a southern city past Beijing. Credit: Kimberly Scott-Williams
Chinese Visa
Studying in any country that you do not reside in requires a student visa. Luckily for me, one of the only Chinese consulates in America was in New York where I was staying at the time. The Chinese program I got into offered a free step-by-step visa consultation which helped me in filling out the application. Personally, the website that the consulate has was very confusing for me at the time, so I read views online from people who had previously gone to the consulate. There were so many bad reviews that I honestly was rethinking about going to China. However, because of these reviews I learned from their mistakes and made extra copies of every document I had to submit. The day I went to the Chinese consulate I was not sure if I needed an appointment, but I asked the security at the entrance, and they told me that I do not need one before checking my documents. The security then smiled at me before saying that he was proud of me as there may persons who were denied entry simply because they did not even have a typed application. Once I stepped foot in the consulate I was a little nervous after reading that you had to abide by the laws of China while being under their roof. Even though I know I would not do anything, seeing the past news about foreign prisoners had me scared. I was given a number, and when it was called, I spent five minutes at most with the Chinese official at the counter before telling me to come back for my passport, with my visa, in two days. It was that easy.
3 square Meals are provided by airlines for long distance travel. Credit: Kimberly Scott-Williams
First Day in Beijing: Commute to Dorms
My first arrival into china was through my connecting flight in Guangzhou. Like every foreign Port-Of-Entry into the country, I had to go through immigration. Immigration prevents illegal visitors from coming into the country. What had seemed like a simple task had turned into a nightmare at immigration. Subconsciously, I left my invitation to the country in my checked luggage, which resulted in me having an apathetic breakdown. With no copy on my laptop or bag, I began to sweat profusely and fear that they would send me straight to my homeland. Luckily, the immigration officer allowed me to enter the country while giving me the most fed up look ever. Although I was relieved, I was so embarrassed as I walked toward the girl I had met on the flight. Apparently, she did not need proof of entry, she was allowed in just by showing her student visa.
Because I took a domestic flight into Beijing, when the passengers were coming out of the plane, we took the stairs down onto the runway and took a bus to another section of the airport to get our luggage. This to me was fascinating as I’ve only seen people exiting on the runway on TV. When I got my luggage, I went to look for the program organizers who were picking up the students at the airport, but to my dismay, they sent me straight into a taxi. I was so confused as I thought they were going to take us to our residence, but instead, I was placed in a taxi to my destination by myself with the knowledge of only two words in Chinese, xie xie (thank you) and nihao (hello). The entire journey my heart was in my mouth, I was thinking ‘what if he gets lost?’, I cannot tell him where to go as I am confused myself. I was terrified and in disbelief that they would do this to me. But, on my way to my unknown destination, I realized that there was so much smog in the atmosphere that the sky was not visible, and that there were numerous trees to offset the rate of pollution in the atmosphere.
It took about one hour and 15 minutes to get to the hotel that I was staying in, but my room was not ready. On the bright side, I met my roommate in the lobby, she seemed distant and tired from her journey from Brazil. While waiting in the lobby, we met twin brothers in the program along with a teacher assistant within the program. We decided to get lunch at a traditional Chinese restaurant, where we had the famous Beijing duck. The Beijing duck was first only cooked for the royal family during the different dynasty. However, after the Qing Dynasty, the last imperial ruling, the chefs from the Forbidden City, a city where only royals occupied, went and shared the recipe throughout Beijing. Even though it had such a beautiful history, I did not fancy it.
China mainly use toilets that are built into the ground and not the normal one that we are accustomed to. Credit: Kimberly Scott-Williams
Registration with Police Station
Because the international students from the program were not living on campus, but a hotel nearby, we had to register our stay at the hotel with the police station. According to Chodorow Law Offices, Chinese law states that where foreigners stay in hotels in China, the hotels shall register their accommodation following the regulations on the public security administration of the hotel industry. If the foreigner is staying in another accommodation that is not a hotel, they or the persons who accommodate them shall register them within 24 hours after the foreigners’ arrival. Failure to register will result in a fine. Interesting enough, China is not the only country to go through this procedure. Countries such as Slovenia and Croatia as the same or similar procedure, thus China policy is not solely dependent of their Communist nature.
This Chinese university had professors from both China and America that had taught in predominantly English. This had enable me to learn Mandarin Chinese to learn the lessons better. Credit: Kimberly Scott-Williams
Meeting with our Buddies
The program that I was in not only included internationals but Chinese citizens as well. Unfortunately for me, I was the only person amongst the internationals who had not taken Chinese language class before, but the program gave us an opportunity to transition into the society via a buddy system. We were paired with Chinese students who were doing summer classes at the same university in we were to attend. They had volunteered to help us during our time in China to adjust to the cultural differences of the country. Each Chinese person I had met had an English name. This English name was a substitute for their Chinese name as frequently non-Chinese natives find difficulty in pronouncing their Chinese name. Because of this, I only knew my peer by her English name. For approximately three hours, we had spent time with our peers. Some persons talked while others, both peer and their subordinate, either filled the atmosphere with their goat-like screeches or they were engaging in a fierce battle of Uno. There were also old machine games like Pacman to pool in which we could enjoy with everyone, along with an array of Chinese snacks. Sadly, we were jet-lagged with classes in the morning, but little did we realise that this was the start of our bitter sweet journey together.
