春天到了！
Spring is here!
As the semester is coming to an end and I’m getting ready
for finals, I thought I’d take the time to list some things I’m going to miss
about Chengdu, and some things that I’m looking forward to when I come home. So
here we go, in no particular order:
Things I’ll Miss:
·
Convenience of the city. The inconvenience of
driving instead of taking a subway or a bus will be weird.
·
Cheap prices (for most things). Paying in US
dollars is going to be painful.
·
The kind people I’ve gotten to know in my time
here. My teachers, USAC program directors, and my tutor family are all obvious,
but I'll also remember random experience I’ve had with strangers in public.
·
Spicy (麻辣) food. It’s become necessary to
live at this point.
·
The pace of life in Chengdu. It’s laid back and
feels like no one is in a hurry.
What I’m Looking Forward To:
·
INTERNET. Unrestricted, fast, internet. I’ll
never complain that American internet is slow again, seriously. (A side note: I
am trying to respond to all of the comments, but loading blogger through a VPN
on Chinese internet is torture, and times out 50% of the time. This is my third
time writing this blog post because it won’t load. Needless to say, comments
will have to wait until I’m back in the US).
·
Food variety. Chinese food is amazing, and I’ve
developed some kind of addiction to Sichuan spice, but I also feel like I eat
the same things all the time.
·
Being back at MC. I have USAC friends here of
course, but the campus environment is just so different here, especially since
our campus is mostly made up of graduate students.
·
Not being stared at or getting my picture taken
when I’m out in public.
·
Dryers. Like for clothes.
·
Temperature controlled buildings. It’s getting
very hot here.
I had more points when I wrote this previously, if I remember
them I’ll add them.
Kayleigh, I love reading about all of the things you will miss and wont miss, it makes me appreciate what I do have a lot more and excites my inner adventurer to go explore other cultures! In class we have discussed the Richard Lewis Model, which attempts to explain how different cultures work. The United States is a linear active culture, meaning we like to make strict schedules and stick to them and only do one thing at a time. China is at the opposite corner, being a reactive culture. Reactive cultures use time cyclically, which was described in "The Silent Language" by Edward Hall, a book we have read on class. Cyclical time can be thought of as a large pool of events, which the person can pick and choose which task they would like to complete based on importance. With these descriptions of how each culture uses their time and plans I am interested to see how preparations for finals differ. You had said in your post that you were preparing for finals as well, have you noticed your preparation change? Do you plan ahead, or pull the more important tasks out of the "pool" as they come? How do you see your foreign peers preparing?
ReplyDeleteGood luck and safe travels home!
Jake