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 Zariah ’27 as she shares reflections on her final days in Shanghai, highlighting meaningful bonds with her host family, memorable cultural experiences like traditional fan dancing, and deep gratitude for the growth and joy this journey has brought.
We have approached the 15th day and it’s bittersweet. We are all really excited to experience another city of China via bullet train, but many of us have grown very connected to our host families especially 妹妹(little sisters) and 哥哥(little brothers). They’re so adorable and full of energy. This week we found out that everyone in China goes to bed a lot later than those in America. I could just be a grandma but I’m tired at 7:30. After dinner I’m in a full food coma, and incapable of being a part of society. In terms of food, Brandon, Isaac, Eman, Cam and I tried Chinese McDonalds, and I got a burger sausage, French fries, chicken nuggets and a McFlurry for only 8 dollars. I love China. In our morning classes we are preparing our second project to present on our last day and mine is 很漂亮(very beautiful). My Chinese has gotten so much better and I’m excited to show it off again. Speaking off excited, during one of our class breaks Feng老师 (Ms. Kelly) brought out 毽子 which a traditional Chinese game. She gives the best gifts; my favorite were the amazing rice cakes. She’s really good at 毽子 standing next to her while playing we looked like we had two left feet and one leg. She says we will get better at this with time. I took her word for that when she was talking about speaking Chinese, but I think 毽子 will take more time than she intended. After the break we went over to the local restaurant to put our speaking skills in action. The lady we interviewed was very sweet and helpful. She said 我们的中文很好 which meant our Chinese was really good. By far the best compliment you can get here. For lunch Jeanne and I ate Baozi for the 3rd time this week. It’s that good, after that we went to get a popsicle which was inevitable in 90+ degree weather. Thankfully, today’s afternoon activity was air conditioned and required minimal walking despite the large amount of body movement. We learned 秧歌舞 which is the name of a very popular traditional Chinese dance. Originally, I was under the impression we were only learning a small amount or just a section of the dance which I later found to be untrue. I thought we were incapable of learning such complex movements which I wasn’t entirely wrong about, because some of us definitely struggled. The fans we danced with were the best part, though hard to control they were very pretty and fun to use after like 45 mins of trying to learn how. After a couple of lost brain cells, Brandon falling, Ella reteaching everything, and a confused Oscar we learned the whole dance. Well… to some extent, we have some cleaning up to do before October when we bring it to Deerfield. School meetings are not ready for us and our traditional dance clothing and dance moves combo. Even if I didn’t leave that room with new dance moves, I left with an amazing experience and core memories. Today we were able to connect with Chinese culture on such a personal level, something we can’t do anywhere else. I’m so grateful for this opportunity to evolve in this manner as a person and as a student of China, both the language and culture. We ended the class with a group hug after the touching words of Ms. Kelly who is an amazing individual, I would like to thank her and CIEE for providing such an amazing experience for us all. I’m so grateful for this opportunity to evolve in this manner as a person and as a student. Thank you to everyone who was a part of this process, it’s been amazing. As our final Shanghai days come, I will truly miss the place and my host family who have made this place my home. It has been great from the dancing, many meals and helping with homework. 谢谢(thank you) until next time.
