This summer, 10 students and two faculty members are traveling to China to enhance their Chinese language skills while experiencing the country’s vast and diverse cultural landscape. Please enjoy this next blog post below from Isaac ’27 where he shares the emotions and highlights of the group’s last day in Shanghai, from confident final presentations and a scenic river cruise to meaningful farewells with their host families.
Our final day. Final everything, final full day at the homestay, final class and presentation, and final afternoon activity of the school. Waking up, I was determined to not be late to school again, as Brandon and I had a slow bus the day before and arrived to class 20 minutes late. We ended up getting to class on time and immediately prepped our presentations, wanting to have them our best ones yet, and make them funny. Brandon did a better job. As everybody was presenting, I realized how far all of us had come with our Chinese, making sentences without reading off the sheets, being able to have smooth conversations, and being able to make jokes in Chinese. It was also really sad for me because I realized how much I really enjoyed it in Shanghai, and I wanted to make the best of this day. When Ms. Nichols told me I was writing the blog, I was excited because we were going on a cruise, which might have been the best part of the trip so far. The boat was bigger than I expected, and from the river you could see all of the futuristic side of Shanghai, and the national parts too. We got so many good pictures on the boat and we had so much fun. When we got off, we came back to campus and Brandon, Oscar, Ella, Ava, and I got food at a place around the school, and Brandon and I made our final bus ride back home. At the homestay dinner, I presented my gift to the family, and it was really moving. I hope I can visit them again.
