This last week has been pretty hectic, as all ZJU students (international and nationals alike) took their mid-term exams. Everyone’s last exam was Thursday, giving us a well-deserved 4 day weekend to relax. My family came to Hangzhou to  come and see me, which was really fun. It was great to see familiar faces and to catch up on what was happening back home.

When you’re in a completely different country cultural/language wise, at times you can’t help but become homesick. At times like this, you really might need to depend on some of the people in your group. Most of H-23 are Crusaders except two. Bert is from Rowe and Oak in Virgina while Joel goes to Simpson in Iowa. I won’t lie—you’re not all going to become best friends right away at the start of the program. But over time, as you continue to be around each other more and more, you can easily adjust to each other and it is possible to find yourself naturally becoming friends. Bert admitted that he was slightly worried about joining our Hangzhou program because he didn’t get the chance to meet any of us in person. But he was “pleasantly surprised because everyone is actually really nice. We bonded as a group pretty quickly and we’ve been hanging out ever since then.” Before we met Bert in person, we had Skyped with him occassionally, which led to an add on Facebook. He thinks this is a good step for anyone looking into joining a study abroad group, so that you can become familiar with the people who will be a big part of your life during your semester abroad.

Joel, however, had never been introduced to us before we met him in person. No Skype, QQ (China’s instant messaging system), nothing. I thought it would be much harder for him than for any of us, since he REALLY didn’t know any of us. But he said that Julie, who is a big help with the study abroad programs, helped him ease into the program and told him she thought he would fit right in. And once we really got to know him, Joel insantly clicked with the rest of us. Additionally, for anyone outside of Valpo that is looking to join any of its’ study abroad programs, he suggested:  “I think studying abroad is a must have experience. It is important to go to a place that you are really interested in, and since I couldn’t find it at my school, I searched outside and found Valpo. You should take the chance, because you never know what you’ll be missing out on.”

(Note 1: Forgive me for the lack of pictures in this entry, wordpress has been very difficult for me to access here lately and each time I have tried to post pictures in the entry, the page will crash and lose the entire entry. I promise pictures in the next post!

Note 2: the title comes from a famous Chinese saying)