My second exchange with AIESEC in China

51 days in China was unbelievable as my second exchange after Malaysia. I did not get scared at the first place since I experienced abroad a few times already either alone or with my family but what shocked me the most was that not many people speak nor understand English well, even at the airport. Nevertheless, I felt warm after arriving at the house of my host family, a small family with one son living in the apartment altogether.

Though sometimes I felt homesick and a little bit bored with the project because it was totally different from my previous exchange in Malaysia, due to the fact that there was only one-hour teaching especially all of the exchange participants need to work and stay separately. Until now something changed me as I could see and learn a lot from the culture and environment around in Suzhou, China. As a matter of fact, I also believed that I made a right decision with the sake that China is one of the best and largest economies in the world, with a huge potential significantly with many high buildings, Sky Bridge, subway and many other stunning infrastructures. Green Power Now was the project that require all of the EPs to teach high school students about environment specifically we had different topics in different weeks. From week to week, we usually gather around to come up with any idea to design our class in order to make it run smoothly. Indeed, most of the students there were very energetic, smart and active since they always participated in class and ask for further information. Hard work did pay off, as I remembered from my class that all of the students were very lovely with sympathy so that they all asked for my signature, gave postcards, souvenir and finally took photos together with my flag. Amazingly, it really touched my heart and all of my tiredness gone when the students said that even if we cannot understand everything from you but you taught us a lot both about environment and English exceptionally changed the way they live and study. So I was glad that I could make a big impact on the students and people there who allowed me to share the culture, experiences, and knowledge that I got. All in all, seven weeks in China was a blink of an eye but very invaluable in the way that I could go through on how Chinese people live, deep understanding about culture and tradition, and no doubt tasted a wide range of delicious food there. Uniquely, I truly enjoy the solo travelling that I did for my last week, given that I think I felt more independent especially got out of my comfort zone and be more confident by asking local people, making new friends, finding my own way, learn new languages particularly not to get panic when get lost but try to come up with many possible solutions in hand.

On the whole, I would like to thank and really appreciate AIESEC once again for this precious and priceless program, which allows me to widen my university boundary, better understand my strengths and weaknesses, gain new perspectives, and made a lifelong connection. Deep down from my heart, it is worth to try at least for once in a lifetime mainly experience aboard or anywhere and made an impact out there; a good investment as I can say, with this in mind I can both travel and learn at the same time from everything around. Time is limited, get out there and do something extraordinary. Be ready to be a global leader and explore the outside world. It all starts from you.