Dr. Ann Hoffmann and her family embarked on the Silk Road Trip with the TBC staff and students this fall. They brought along with them the necessary medical supplies and their bright smiles on the trip. Without their help and care for the students, the trip might have not gone well for a few. We are extremely grateful to have had them on the trip and wanted to hear from them their intake from the trip.
This Fall 2016 started off with excited students eager to meet their new Chinese roommates and discover their new dorms! We have students coming from Rivier College, Santa Clara University, Elon College, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali, Saint Joseph’s University, Georgetown University, St. Louis University, Seattle University, Stonehill College, Gonzaga University, Loyola University Chicago and Loyola University Maryland.
1. Chinese is hard!! You’d think that even after being surrounded Chinese here and there for at 10 years, I’d get around better than I do. Speaking aside, there is literally a character for every single word you can imagine AND it’s not based off sounds like English is. As much as I love being in a foreign country, the complexity of the language makes it a lot harder to read and get by than I originally thought I would. Probably explains why everything I eat either is a dumpling (because I can recognize the word) or has a picture attached to it. And I can guarantee you by the end of this semester, we will still not know anything.
Now, you must be wondering what the Silk Road trip is. The Silk Road is a historical trade route between China and Eastern Europe where Chinese silk made up a significant part of the trade. The route ran along many different cities in China and the middle east but since The Beijing Center planned this trip for two weeks, we got to visit a few of them and experienced the vibrant cultures each had to offer. The Silk Road trip was an incredible adventure that I will forever cherish in my heart.
For my first blog post, I want to give you some advice. I don’t want to spoil my experience in Beijing to you just yet and nor do I want to tell you about the unforgettable Silk Road excursion I just came back from. I will tell you that I am having the time of my life and I am happy to be here. I will reveal more details soon…
China so far has been amazing! These past two weeks especially have been filled with adventures that taught me a lot about this beautiful country and the fellow students I have had the opportunity to share this experience with. I enjoyed every single moment of the Silk Road trip and will definitely not forget these two weeks spent exploring a very different side of China and meeting new people.
Hello from sleep deprived me. We just finished our 13 day trip across China to follow the Silk Road, which I have to say was one of the coolest trips I’ve ever taken. I don’t think I ever would have traveled 2 hours from the Pakistan border on my own.
Our trip has finally calmed down enough for me to get to sit down and blog and sleep (!!) and think about what I’m actually doing aka studying abroad for 4 months.
Yesterday was by far the most “zen” and top 10 days that I’ve had in my life ever which is why it gets it’s own post. We traveled to a town in the GanSu province called Xia’he, which, is a significant Tibetan monastery town.
Hi it’s me. Literally one week ago I boarded a plane to China and since then I’ve been going nonstop. Currently, I’m sitting in the middle of Tibet, 5 days into our 13 day trip to follow the Silk Road route.
I am currently sitting here wondering what I am about to do with my life. In just over a week I will be on a 13 hour flight to spend the next 4 months of my life in the vast country of China. Don’t mind the fact that there are over 1.381 billion people living there or that the entire country is covered in vast and diverse landscape or the fact that China has the largest economy in the world. Or, alluding to the title of this blog, that I literally don’t know how to use chopsticks and the chances of me finding a fork in China are slim, yet alone if I were to find some I would be hard core judged.