Leadership Junior Briana Glass in Shanghai, China! – Monthly Update Part 4
A skyline shot of Shanghai looking across to the Bund.
In approaching the end of my wonderful experience in Shanghai, I have begun to feel a variety of mixed emotions on how to ensure my memories and experiences live on, once I return home. I have met some phenomenal people and while everything has not been pure bliss, the challenges I have faced have made me that much more determined to continue pushing myself and reaching for excellence in all that I do. For this update I want to focus more on my academic experience and what things I have observed and learned while being here for almost 4 months. In coming here I had my expectations, who doesn’t? Nonetheless, I quickly began to realize that the ability to absorb all that I was learning and wanted to learn in a mere five months was a challenging task. And just like a blank journal waiting to be filled with stories, I have tried to savor and store all my experiences.
To begin, all my classes are in English except for my Chinese language courses held late in the evening for two and a half hours twice a week. In my English classes there are a combination of exchange students and Chinese students. Here at SUFE the Chinese students are required to take a certain amount of courses in English. In addition, they take in total around 8-9 courses a semester which is 24-27 credits. I have even met some students that take 13-14 courses! I was shocked that they are allowed to take so many, and it made me reflect on how I view my 18 credit semester. As for the classes, most of the work has been group oriented with presentations, group projects, and group papers. The amount of group work has definitely been more than I have ever done before and occasionally it has been a challenge with the language barrier.
As for extracurriculars, when classes have finished for the day or evening students run on the track, play basketball (which is by far the most popular sport), play ping pong, and many other sports. Also, the club events on campus are a big deal as well. While I have been here, I joined a club called the English Corner, which focuses on helping SUFE students improve their English and foreign students improve their Chinese. From this club I have enjoyed learning more about similarities and differences between my life and my SUFE friends as well as other cultural customs in China. Just this past week I learned the difference between Chinese black and red tea and how to properly make tea.
Briana and a group of SUFE students at a club event called the English Corner
Lastly, in regards to living arrangements while at SUFE, I currently live in one of the international student dorms on campus and have a wonderful roommate. My dorm has A Yi(s), who are women that are in charge of the building. They are very motherly toward us and make sure we don’t have any problems such as the time when I could not figure out how to close my window! As for transportation around campus, I mostly take the bus or walk. However a month into living here I wanted to be able to travel around my campus and surrounding area quicker and thus I bought a bike for 250 RMB (around 40 USD). This ended up being the best decision ever and I quickly embraced the chaotic yet natural flow of transportation here. If I’m not on or around campus and located more in the central downtown area of Shanghai, I take the metro or a taxi. Overall exploring Shanghai as well as surrounding cities has been a blast and as I approach my last month in China I look forward to the new adventures ahead.
BG
- Leadership 101 Meeting with Kevin Cummings from Investor’s Bank
- Three Minute Leadership: Together We Have No Gaps