China
For my sophomore and junior year in high school I had this teacher, Fro, who graduated from college then taught in China for a year. She then came back to America to teach in NC and pay her teaching fellows scholarship. She only taught English in America for 2 years and I had her both years she taught. She always hated teaching Americans because most of my didn’t do anything and didn’t give a shit about school and the Chinese students were always pumped to work. So she moved back to China my senior year and told me and my girlfriend we could come whenever. Yeah right, our parents would let the two of us go to China together, no way…way.
Okay so the Christmas break of my senior year in high school, me and my girlfriend ended up going to Shanghai, China. Don’t ask me how our parents let us because I don’t know. We were staying with our old teacher (which is odd by itself) and it was an awesome opportunity; and there is no way I explain this to prove that it wasn’t weird staying with my old teacher for 9 days. The concept is really strange and weird but in actuality it wasn’t at all! I promise.
Wellll it was the best 9 days of my entire life, hands down. After a super sweet 15 hour plane ride, we had a 3 hour layover in Japan and just hanging out in the Tokyo Narita Airport for 3 hours was insanely cool. Then we had a short flight into Shanghai. We got off the plane and walked to meet Fro at the baggage claim. It was right then I knew we were completely on the other side of the world; walking around the corner it was hundreds of Asian people and one white woman. The whole time I was there I only saw maybe 10 other non-Asian people, and only spoke to 3 Chinese people who knew English well enough to converse.
One of the crowning moments of the trip and my life was sitting in a restaurant on the top floor of the Jin Mao Tower, the really tall building on the right, drinking a scotch on the rocks. It was sooo insane. That along with about 100 other remarkable experiences made up my trip. Even small miniscule daily activities were exciting there, like riding the metro, walking around, and ordering food when no one speaks English. I could seriously have an entire blog dedicated to this trip. It’s really frustrating not being able to say everything that was so memorable but since there is only one negative thing I’ll say that—fish. NEVER have fish in China! Period. It was soo bad; all the other food was delectable but the fish was horrible. We were in a nice restaurant too, it was a splurge night; but the fish was completely boned and everything. They didn’t do anything to it; it was just an entire fish on a plate with some red slimy sauce.
All in all, even the negative was a memorable experience and I seriously advise every single one of you to go to Shanghai or somewhere in China at least once in your life.
This blog was great to read because I know exactly the feeling you had going abroad. I went to England and Norway 2 years ago (with my boyfriend.. how ironic!) and it was by far the most exciting experience I've ever had. I got to eat different food, learn about the culture, and attempt to speak the language. Although I couldn't speak Norwegian, just being able to go shopping, eat amazing ice cream, and see the beautiful scenery was enough. I honestly think about it every day because it was definitely an "eye-opening" experience. I realized my love for traveling. This summer I am going to the Dominican Republic on a volunteer mission, and I couldn't be more excited. Even though I love this country, interacting with other people of the world is so fulfilling. It reminds me that although it seems like our world is small, it is actually quite large and worth seeing.
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