Standing on the Great Wall of China is on most bucket lists. Entering the Forbidden City is on a few bucket lists. Standing in the center of Tiananmen Square, kayaking the Li River, bartering at the Silk Market, riding a camel, and watching the sunrise in the Gobi Desert was on my bucket list and I didn’t even know it.
My four months in The Beijing Center study abroad program last semester were the best four months of my life. Through the friendships I made, the things I saw and the moments I experienced, I came to realize a lot about China and a lot about myself.
When I hugged my dad goodbye in Fargo, North Dakota, I was nervous and worried considering China was on the opposite side of the world, I didn’t know anyone, and I would be away from the comforts of home for four months. I stepped off the plane 13 hours later into a huge crowd of people and looked up to a huge, wide-open ceiling with white lines crisscrossing in front of a red background. My first impression of China was very accurate: it was big, congested, complex and incredible.
In my program, there were 100 students, most from the United States but a few from Columbia, Spain and the Philippines. After arriving in Beijing, I realized most students were in the same situation as I was; they were dropped off in a foreign country with little direction to guide them.
Three days after I arrived in Beijing, I left on a two-week excursion across the Silk Road. Being thrown into such an alien environment forced me to accept and adapt to Chinese culture.
My companions on this journey soon became my friends because we worked together to figure out all of the peculiar things we were witnessing. The friendships that I made in China are always going to hold a permanent place in my heart.
The Beijing Center provided two immersion trips during the semester. One was a 6,000-mile excursion across the Silk Road and the other was a weeklong trip to Guilin. Between these two travels, I had the chance to do a homestay in a Uighur and Kazakh village, dance around a bonfire in the Tibetan grasslands, tour a Buddhist monastery, stand in front of an ancient army of stone warriors, bathe in a mud cave, hike beautiful rice terraces and ride a camel in the Gobi Desert.
Life in Beijing was just as much of an adventure. Everything from ordering food in Chinese, breathing through the dense pollution and becoming accustomed to using chopsticks made each day a challenge, but a challenge that I looked forward to. It was a wonderful feeling of accomplishment when I could relate to something that was so different from my usual lifestyle.
The more my Chinese improved, the more I began to understand that different languages may separate people, but their actions unite them. My blond hair of course made it hard for me to blend into a sea of black hair. This was evident when people asked me to be in pictures with them, or force their children to take pictures with me, or just straight up take pictures of me. I usually tried to avoid the situation by not making eye contact but I have to admit, it was nice to feel like a celebrity for four months.
As I learned more about China and its culture, I came to appreciate and understand my own culture. I wanted to know more about my country’s history and my family heritage. Studying abroad broadened my horizons in numerous ways. It opened the door to a world I couldn’t have imagined and brought me insight on my own life that I didn’t know I was missing.
I can honestly look back and say that my study abroad experience was the best decision I have ever made.
Mallory Asp is a mass communication senior. She can be reached at
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