We were all very tired particularly from our 14-hour flight. I know for most of us it was the longest flight we have ever taken, which made 4-hour long flights seem like nothing! While boarding our second plane a couple asked us if we were from a group or if it was a school thing, because we all had matching CSUN shirts. I quickly responded yes, we’re from CSUN – I didn’t finish my sentence when it hit me we were almost 7,300 miles away from home and I had to explain that CSUN meant California State University, Northridge. That alone made it feel more exciting – It meant we were in China!
Upon arrival you could immediately feel (besides the humidity) the eagerness and some tiredness from the group and myself. Although I have traveled before to Mexico about 6 years ago, it felt nothing like this. I am no stranger to the feeling of culture shock, but this time it was extreme. As soon as we got off the plane I hoped that my ability to play “Charades” would come in handy because I didn’t hear a word of English that came from anyone else but our CSUN group.
A few hours later we were ready to go on the train and it turned out to be quite a challenge. Who would have guessed getting a simple token would require the building of a human wall! We quickly found out that when it came to line formation this was not a common concept in China, everyone is in hurry and trying to get to their destinations as quickly as possible. Besides that, the language displaying on the screen was of course Chinese. This is where I got a sense that this trip would build camaraderie among us, because as soon as one of us figured out the process we helped each other out. We only had one native speaker in our group, Professor Li. Putting this experience behind a career spectrum, it is very important to have a proactive team mentality when dealing with new tasks. Especially if something as foreign as finding your way in a new country with such a strong language barrier that there is no one you can ask for help but each other.
