From one superpower to another
My blogging came to a sudden end when I was at Dalian and I failed with my promise to keep you updated with photos and text about my adventures there. I'll blame it all on the slow internet! I sincerely tried a few times but when it takes close to an hour to just upload ONE picture..... I simply gave up. Maybe I will upload the pictures I took later on when I have nothing to do some day if anyone would still be interested in seeing them. To make a long story short though, Dalian was a really nice place. Although it wasn't that much to see there, so as for tourist people it would be very boring. It was, on the other hand, a great place to live at. Well great in Chinese standards. The air and environment was fairly clean and you didn't have to worry about smog. That doesn't mean there weren’t a lot of cars though, because there were tons of cars everywhere. And people littering all over the place, including coughing, spitting and snorting. However, the school I went to, Dongbei university of finance and economics, was a clean and it was a nice place, the campus had trees and flowers and it was mostly student moving from one class room to another, making it a very relaxing place almost shut off from the surrounding traffic and daily life.
The teachers were great and friendly, and used to handle foreign students. Few of them could speak English which gave great opportunities to challenges one's Chinese. Overall it wasn't many Europeans or Americans there at all. Other than me, there was one student from Belgium studying Chinese in the same building as me. Then there was a handful of Americans in different kinds of exchange programs whom never was afraid of trying there Chinese everywhere with everyone even though most of them where just beginners. That's one real source of inspirations for especially us Swedish people, since we tend to be very careful when speaking to strangers. Not the best strategy of learning a new language I've noticed. There was also a dozen of Germans at the school, but wthey studied other courses other than Chinese; therefore, was in another building. So, as you can see, it couldn't have been better for a student who wants to practice Chinese and not fall in to the trap of hanging out with people who could speak English. In my class the second semester, there wasn't even a single person who could speak English. If I had a question I had to use my Chinese even though it could lead to very embarrassing situations where I made no sense at all.
As most of you know, assuming the ones reading my blog would be my parents and some friends, I met this really nice guy in Dalian, whom also was an exchange student. Although he was born in Korea, he has been moving around and been living in several of different countries. At that moment he was a college student in the United States, and was in Dalian just for one semester to learn more about China and Chinese. Now, two years later, I have come to the States for the first time in my life (well I haven't lived that long yet), and I will again tell you my impressions of a large country on the other side of the planet. So from China to America, here is what I've experienced...
