2nd Week of Classes Done

Hey everyone! Like Krysta I want to apologize for the delay for new posts. Certain things we take for advantage in the United States can become very taxing in China. Other then the few negatives like the pollution and a few other bumps in the road everything is wonderful all eleven of us a thoroughly enjoying our time here. I feel like we have became a family already, be that a slightly dysfunctional one. As Krysta said it feel like we have been here for months and not just a week and a half. The Chinese have been so nice and accommodating to us and we have become very close to a few. Our new friend Paul (his Chinese name is pronounced Jin Ye) has been especially amazing. When we went to Beijing last weekend he come with us and helped us get around, and I am so grateful.

I’m not going to reiterate the time we all spent in Beijing since Krysta’s post summed it up very well. I will add that we all did get lost in Summer Palace, it is absolutely immense. The group I was with needed to resort to the little bit of mandarin we have picked and a playing charades to find our way out. For us that did find it to the exit our friend Paul took us to a restaurant to eat near his house where we ate the most delicious eggplant. I have always loved eggplant, but what they do to it here is magical and I must find out how to replicate it.

After the meal we went to the Olympic park and walked around. The scale of everything was so overwhelming, and beautiful. The Watercube was absolutely breathtaking. Afterwards we made out way back to the hostel where we hoped to find our lost counterparts. Once we found out everyone was safe it felt like a weight was lifted from all of us and we went to sleep to get ready for the Great Wall.

After the wall we had to make our way back to Tianjin exhausted and in desperate need for a shower. After a bus ride and a walk we reached our campus where we were greeted by the scent of the neighboring pig farm. Which in this case brought on the sense that we were home and could get so rest and unwind.

Then it was back to classes, which honestly for the most part are very boring. The Chinese students though are very attentive and quite. We noticed that none of the doodle or fidget with anything during the class. Also the teachers single us American students out from the class and sometimes it sees they are teaching to us instead of the whole class.

Recently a few students from France have moved onto the same floor as us and have fit in well. It amazing how many different languages are now flying around on our floor; English, French, Spanish, Mandarin, Korean. This experience is definitely going to make us all appreciate the different cultures and make us more global intuned.

That brings us up to date I wanted to leave you the view from my window since today the pollution isn’t so bad and you can actually see the building that are usally hidden.

One Week Already Gone

Hey guys! First off I want to give a quick apology for not posting for a while. There was some difficultly with setting up the internet here and then there was difficultly getting onto blogger. Anyways, week one in China has already came and left! I feel like I have been in China for almost a month, because this pass week was so busy and packed with fun. When I first arrived in China, it still didn't hit me that I was actually in China. This was my first time ever leaving the United States and I was really worried that I would get scared and want to crawl to a corner and just hide. I was in the exact opposite! Standing outside the terminal and seeing the different people, cars, language, and even air was nothing but exciting for me. I love experiencing new things and I can't be more thankful that I took advantage of this opportunity. After landing at the airport in Beijing, we drove about two hours in a van to Tianjin. It was incredible to look out the window during this drive and seeing the different stores, restaurants, apartments and the way the Chinese people live. I noticed during that drive and throughout the week that there really aren't any houses, or at least I haven't seen any. The Chinese live in high rise apartments which don't look very large. I never knew that living in an house was as much of an advantage as it is. When I think about it, I couldn't imagine living without a living room, dining room, individual bedroom, or fully loaded kitchen. I'm so grateful that I have those things back at home, because when it comes down to it, those things aren't necessities after all, they are just advantages I'm lucky enough to have.

The food here is FANTASTIC! I could probably start a blog on nothing but the food in China. I'm in heaven and I honestly thought I would be losing weight while in China, but at the rate I'm going I'm doing the exact opposite. :-P My first meal in China, was at a small local restaurant near the TUC-FIU campus. We were all starving by dinner time! We had so much variety from dumplings to chicken to pork to beef to vegetables. Some dishes are spicy, some are salty, and some are sweet. All in all the balance of textures and taste satisfies all of my taste buds. The first dinner was very memorable, especially since we all got to share it together as a family. After all, we are one big family since we are living and traveling together for 4 months. Not only is the food different from America, but also the way they eat. Obviously for one, our utensils for the next 4 months are chopsticks. I'm not the best at eating with them (especially when it comes to eating corn), but I'm slowly getting better and as long as the food eventually makes it from the plate to my mouth I'm happy. :-) Almost everywhere we go to eat, we don't order an individual dish for each of us. The portions are huge here, so sharing is the best method here. At most places we sit around a large round table that has a spinning round glass, lazy susan-type-thing, in the middle. As dishes come we just spin to eat a little bit of everything. When we are not out to eat, we eat at a canteen that is one the first floor of our campus. Fortunately they have a menu with both English and Chinese on it so we know what we are ordering. The challenging part is try to communicate with the kitchen staff to order since they know little to none English. My plan is that by the end of this trip I will know how to order in Chinese! The best dishes I have had to far, is a spicy chicken dish with chilies and peanuts which I guess is called Kung Pao chicken, any dish with eggplant, and there is a spicy stir-fried string green beans dish. Talking about food is making me hungry!

This past weekend was our first weekend traveling outside of Tianjin together! We chose Beijing since there is so much to do there and since it is nearby. Our Chinese friend Paul decided to come with us, which was a blast! I love hanging out with the Chinese students, they could talk to you for hours and they are so much fun. To get to Beijing we took a high-speed bullet train. The train got us from Tianjin to Beijing in exactly thirty minutes. It went as fast at 293 km/h, which is around 180 mph. We stayed at a hostel in Beijing called Happy Chopsticks. This was my first time staying in a hostel and it was a great experience. We met so many people from around the world just traveling. Beijing has so much to do that it's near impossible to do it all in one weekend. For this weekend though we went to the Summer Palace which is huge park that is spiritual for many, since it contains ancient statues of Buddhas and temples. The down part of the Summer Palace was that my friend and I got lost trying to get out! We all agreed to meet at the entrance at 5, and since the park was so enormous at around 3:30 we decided to start heading there. Well, we had no map, we can't read Chinese, and signs saying "exit" don't exist! It took us over an hour to exit the park, and just when we thought we could be relieved we realized that there is more than one exit! We had no way of getting to where everyone else was, and we don't have cell phones so we can't exactly communicate to one another. It was fine though, because we had fun getting lost and we got to figure things out on our own. We found the subway station, figured out which subways to take, and switched subway lines, and got to the hostel. We didn't get back to the hostel until 8:30 at night, but I enjoyed being lost. It was a challenge and there were many obstacles, but we overcame each and every one of them. On Sunday we went to the Great Wall of China! The section of the wall we went to was called Mutianyu. It was about an hour and a half drive to get there. The view was spectacular! There aren't enough words to describe the Great Wall. The Mutianyu Great Wall had a section of the wall that had not been restored. The steps went from being 6 inches high to 18 inches high in a matter of one step. It was amazing and exhausting. We hiked up the great wall for about 3 hours. I got to see and experience something that very few people get to do. I will be recommending the Great Wall to everyone! Getting to the top was a self accomplishment. It's physically exhausting, but if you have the mental strength than you can do it. I enjoyed every minute of being on top and I plan on going to a different part of the wall before I leave China.

Beijing was overall a very successful and fun-filled weekend, along with the whole past week of being in Tianjin. I am having the time of my life! I enjoy every minute here and I almost don't want to ever leave. I have yet to even miss home. I'm enjoying being here so much that it's kind of scaring me that I don't miss home. This experience can only get better from here and I look forward to each morning, afternoon, and night. The self discovery I'm finding here in China is unexplainable, but it is happening. I'm going to go back to America with a completely different outlook on life. Everyone has at least one life changing experience, whether it be a life threatening one or a thrilling one. China is my life changing moment and I am loving every moment of it! I wish everyone could experience what I'm going through. I will be blogging more now throughout the week so check in often!

P.S. Don't forget you can email me if you have any questions at all! My email is krysta [dot] dibenedetto [at] gmail [dot] com.


Tags: FIU Chaplin School of Hospitality
FIU - TUC
Beijing
Summer Palace
Great Wall of China

And They're Off...

The students are China bound!

Almost There

Hi everyone, my name is Alex Reany. I’ve been given an extraordinary opportunity to travel to China to study hospitality management and its culture and customs. This opportunity was made possible through Florida International University’s study abroad program at the Tianjin University of Commerce. Krysta DiBenedetto (who will be also blogging on here and already has) and I received a scholarship to chronicle our experiences while abroad in China. There will be eleven of us traveling from FIU to China and I’m looking forward to the experiences that we will all have together.

Getting ready to travel to another country for a substantial amount of time can be a daunting task. Especially when then country’s culture seems so different from my own. Our health while abroad is important and each student was given health insurance through HTH Worldwide Insurance Services. I also visited passporthealth.com to see what health problems exist in the countries I’m going to visit as well as which vaccines I should get before traveling. As far as the visa was concerned the school took care of it almost completely, we just needed to fill out the appropriate paperwork. The other big concern is access to money while abroad. It turns out that Bank of America has a partnership with China Construction Bank (which has an ATM at our school). So I opened an account to avoid fees. Unlike here where people swipe for everything with their cards in China many business still only except paper currency. When it came to scheduling classes and any questions or concerns we had we turned to Dawn Fagnan and I would like to thank Dawn for everything she has done for me in getting everything ready. I feel like I was more then a bit troublesome in the whole process, So thank you Dawn for dealing with all the complications I’ve thrown your way these past couple of months.

Now that I’m about 2 days away from being in China and pretty much all ready to go, minus being completely packed, you think I would be super excited. The truth is it hasn’t registered yet that I am going to be in China. I’m sure it won’t be till I get off the plane that it will hit me that I’m actually there. The funny thing is all I can think about right now is what my first meal is going to be once in China. We are going to be on a plane for thirteen hours and I’m sure I’m going to be starving and jet lagged. Whatever we eat I'm sure it's going to be very memorable for me.

Though I travel a bit this will be the furthest and longest I’ve been away from home and the first time I haven’t gone with family or incredibly close friends. I’ve been calling everyone to say goodbye, (since communication is going to be difficult while over there, Facebook is illegal, and the 12 hour time difference) and it feels odd. It’s going to be hard not to be able to pick up a phone and call someone when I want. So I’ve turned to email and Skype to keep in contact with everyone.

As it stands now I’m 90% packed, but I know that I’m going to miss/forget something that I need/want/could use. I find myself packing things and then taking it out only to put it back in. This is the exact opposite of how I usually am. I typically pack in 5 minutes and call it a day, but this time I feel like I need everything.

I hope you guys enjoy reading this blog and sharing what Krysta, the group and I are going to experience while abroad. Please post comments and email me reanyalex [at] gmail [dot] com

Preparing for China!

Hey guys! I'm Krysta DiBenedetto and this is my first blog - ever! Throughout my duration of the fall 2011 term in China I will be blogging about my experiences. This is such a great opportunity and I'm so excited I'm practically speechless. I would really like to thank Florida International University's Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism for first allowing me the opportunity to expand my education through study abroad and secondly for choosing me as one of the participants to receive a very appreciated scholarship. A special thanks to Dawn Fagnan for putting up with my million questions and emails along with the ten other students questions and emails. Dawn has stayed so patient with us all and have really helped out, even with the multiple times she has had to redo visa applications paperwork AND class scheduling paperwork due to so many changes. Thanks Dawn! (And I know I'm not speaking just for myself on that one.)

Anyways, time to get to business. Approximately 76 hours from now I will be at Fort Lauderdale International Airport, beginning my journey to China. Most people would think I would be prepared for this trip by now, but in actuality I'm far from it. Let's just say that the only thing I have done is shop and buy suitcases. I really need to pack! There is just so much to take in while packing. I mean who honestly knows how to pack to go off to a foreign country for four months? This trip is going to contain a lot of "first times" for me. So far it's my first time leaving the country, my first time obtaining a passport and a visa, my first time being on a plane for over 13 hours, my first time being away from home for 4 months, my first time experiencing a new culture, and my list can go on and on!

I want to share with you all one of my biggest questions I have for myself and that question being, "What do you hope to gain from this experience?" Truth is so many people have been asking me this question and I give them answers, but now I'm actually pondering the question. So my answer? Well, first off I really hope to expand my mind. I mean I have lived in the same place my whole life. I have no idea what it's really like on the other side of the world. Sure I read about it online and see it in the news, but no one really knows what something is like until you have tried it, seen it, or done it. It's like someone who has never tasted ice cream before. They can go online to research it and asks others how it tastes and whats it like, but that some one will never truly understand it or get it until they try the ice cream themselves. (Ice cream was the first example that came to mind, because I love it too much!) I also hope to learn about my life values. By being completely away from everything I'm hoping to realize what exactly I take for granted and what truly is important in my life. We always hear the saying, "you don't know what you got until it's gone." Well, that's exactly what I'm hoping to find out. I could go on and on about what I want to gain because there are so many things. I mean after all this is a life changing experience and an awesome one at that!

I think I can get used to this blog thing very fast. :-) I am honored to be able to share my experiences, thoughts, and feelings throughout my study abroad in China. If you have any questions, comment and I promise to answer back quickly! You can also send me an e-mail which I check almost regularly.

Email: krysta[dot] dibenedetto [at] gmail [dot] com

Tags: FIU Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management, Study Abroad China, Blog

Leaving in 9 days...

We've announced our scholarship winners for Fall 2011.  Congratulations Krysta DiBenedetto and Alex Reany!  These students will be blogging for the duration of their semester abroad.  Check back for their exciting updates all semester long!  They'll leave in 9 days...