1) What are you looking forward to the most?
I'm looking forward to being totally immersed in the Chinese lifestyle, complete with the research work, the language, and the culture. Having grown up with the American "cultural lens," it will be interesting to see how the Chinese approach similar issues and problems. The food too, of course. We went to a Chinese restaurant earlier in the week and ordered some of the more exotic items on the menu, so I'm looking forward to trying many new things.
2) What gives you anxiety about going?
The language - I'd like to pick up conversational Chinese, but at the same time I'm pretty self conscious about saying the wrong phrases and using the wrong accents. I hope to be able to understandably use basic Chinese by the end of this trip.
3) Not everyone who expressed interest ended up applying to go - what was the most compelling aspect of the program that made you DECIDE you wanted to do it?
This program was completely unique in that it would give me the opportunity to both travel and do research work. The research work being in a field that I enjoyed, chemistry, made the program more valuable. I had travelled to Thailand every summer to see relatives before I entered college, so when I spent last summer staying in the states and doing research, I realized how much I missed that travelling despite the enjoyment I had with the research. This year I was determined to make my summer both travel-filled and experience-filled, which this program achieves. Since it takes place in Asia, it is also allowing me to visit Thailand and see my relatives once the program ends.
4) The pre-program period in Ann Arbor is meant to get the group to get to know each other before the trip. Is this a good idea? Were the activities effective?
The past four days spent in Ann Arbor have been useful in letting the group get comfortable. The programs have been entertaining, though we have had a lot of free time that I wish could have been filled with more language lessons since we've only had one of those. We learned a lot from our first language lesson, but I keep forgetting the accents and the words. It would also have been nice to have a planned outing to other parts of the area beyond walking distance around campus. Since most of us don't know this area, we've been hanging out in the dorm, bonding over episodes of tv shows and soccer.
