The first of week of October celebrated the Autumn Festival in all of China, and it gave our students the opportunity to travel all over China and explore Beijing even further! Students shared with us how their trip went, how much it cost and what their favorite part of it was:
Beijing, Oct. 20, 2017 – Last Friday, U.S. Ambassador to China, Terry Branstad, welcomed nearly 100 guests into his new Beijing home for a welcome reception with Project Pengyou, the flagship program of the Golden Bridges Foundation, and the U.S.-China Strong Foundation, to stress the importance of people-to-people exchange for the future of U.S.-China relations.
I have to give thanks to my parents and my uncles for making me love nature and be an adventurer at heart. And I also have to give thanks to my friends Kate and Reed for organizing the trip to the best park I’ve visited in a long time.
The Monday of the Chinese national holiday, the Autumn Festival, we embarked on a twenty-four-hour train to the Hunan province, on the south of China.
Living with a Chinese roommate
As we approach our month mark of living in Beijing, there are many things I’m grateful for that TBC has provided to make the experience of studying in another country comfortable.
It’s been a few weeks into classes and I can say that I have pretty much adjusted to the unusual ways of China’s living. This has been no easy feat. Culture shock is a real thing, and it happens to everyone. It affects everyone differently. I will not brush over it. It did not hit me lightly. It hit me like a full on emotional bus full of doubts and stressors. It ran over me at full force leaving me completely lost in what to do and how to feel like I was going to be able to make it.
On Friday, resident Jesuit Father Gene invited nine students to his apartment to cook and eat delicious Ibero-Latino food. It was a very fun night in which we shared laughs, spices, recipes, and stories about our first month in China.
The countryside filled my window as we left the busy metropolis of Nanjing. My neck began to ache as the ride wore on, but I couldn’t stop watching the varied drama of the landscape. My friend Jacob Miller and I first traveled in China during our junior year at Loyola while studying abroad at the Beijing Center. The fall after our graduation from Loyola, we returned to China to continue searching for a full and honest picture of life there.
By Almudena R., Loyola University Chicago, TBC Fall 2017 Student
*Scroll down to read in Spanish*
Beginnings in Beijing
I’ve been in China for almost a month. And I’ve never been happier. I keep saying it to everyone I know, but I cannot help it. I feel like I’m flying, moving through my days with an aura of joy surrounding me, leading me into another hour of exploring the beauty this country has.
Have you ever thought about traveling abroad, or even studying abroad? The chance of a lifetime at your doorstep and all you have to do is open the door. In the fall of 2017, I will be opening the door, grabbing my suitcase, and hopping on a 13 hour flight to Beijing, China.
A spring 2017 survey completed by TBC alumni shows that participants are overwhelmingly happy with their academic adventure abroad!
A big area alumni say is working for them is: Work. Ninety-five percent of respondents say they’re currently employed. Their specialties are diverse: They’re working in the popular fields of finance, education, law, government, and marketing — but also aviation, non-profits, technology, and journalism.