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 Cam ’28 who shares that despite the rain, the students embraced a full day of cultural immersion in Qingpu—gardening, cooking, and kayaking their way through unforgettable hands-on adventures outside the classroom.
大家好！
Today, following our first two days of classes, we got our first break – or so one might think. As it turns out, the cultural activities and immersion is by no means limited to the school week. By 9:30 we were all (minus a few latecomers who will not be named) gathered in our classroom discussing the day’s plans. On tap for today was a day of fun in the Qingpu (青浦) district.
As we all packed into the van, ready for the hour-long journey ahead, the first thing Ms. Kelly asked was if we were still jet lagged. The Chinese word for jet lag, Shi cha (时差), was one she had taught us all a few days prior, but unfortunately, most of us forgot. It was only after we all went around repeating the new word, making sure it stuck, were we allowed to start driving.
When we arrived, to everyone’s dismay, it was raining, an expected occurrence but disappointing nonetheless. However, we put on our plastic ponchos (雨衣) and shoe covers (鞋套) while being told the details of our first activity: gardening. Together, we were tasked with planting 3 rows of onions. We each took a different job: some people dug the holes, others cleared the weeds, and some distributed the seeds and fertilizer.
By the time we finished, the rain had gone from a drizzle to a downpour, and we were all desperate for a bit of shelter. After returning our tools to the bucket we got them from, we darted into the nearest tent, a kitchen of sorts, where we were told we would be preparing two meals for ourselves: stir fry and pizza. Once again we split into groups to accomplish this. Among the roles were tending to the fire, washing vegetables, and chopping said vegetables. I along with Emanuel and Jeanne did the stir frying.
Once the stir fry was done, we all gathered around a flour covered steel table to toss our pizza doughs. By the time we were done shaping our dough and covering it with sauce, mozzarella, and basil, we all had our own unique pizzas ready to go into the brick oven.
After our lunch, with the rain still incessantly coming down, we put on our life vests and grabbed our paddles as we paired up to go on a kayaking adventure. With relatively few collisions and fortunately no unexpected swimming, Zariah and I navigated the looping river, going under bridges, trees, and past one extremely large rubber duck whose purpose I am still unsure of.
Once finished with our loop, we were all drenched, which was problematic for the majority of us (myself included) who did not heed the teachers’ advice to bring a change of clothes. One watermelon snack session and a few goodbyes later, we all got back on the same van, still wet, as we prepared for the drive back.
An hour or so later, we arrived back at East China Normal University (华东师范大学) where we each went our separate ways back to our home stays but with a shared excitement for the days to come.
