This blog post was written by Tom Abbott, studying in China for the summer.
The thought of being able to travel to China, work in a Chinese company, and take a class at one of the top rated Chinese institutes for a month was more than enough of a reason for me to decide to take part in this awesome summer program through Valpo. Having studied Chinese for more than 7 years, I was overjoyed when I learned of this opportunity and immediately began planning to go on this trip. It did not hit me until the day before I was leaving that I was ACTUALLY going to China! I was very excited, but also a bit anxious because I had never left the country before.My mom and I began packing probably close to a week 
before I left (she was obsessed with triple checking and making sure I had everything), so when the day came to head to the airport I was definitely not worried about forgetting anything. I met up with the group of Valpo students when I got to the airport and everything up until we boarded went smoothly. There was a mechanical issue when we boarded so our flight got delayed about an hour, which was no big deal. After this, it was time to sit back and relax for the next thirteen hours that we would all be on the plane (yes the plane ride was very long). I ended up sleeping and listening to music for the majority of the flight, which made the time go by somewhat fast.
before I left (she was obsessed with triple checking and making sure I had everything), so when the day came to head to the airport I was definitely not worried about forgetting anything. I met up with the group of Valpo students when I got to the airport and everything up until we boarded went smoothly. There was a mechanical issue when we boarded so our flight got delayed about an hour, which was no big deal. After this, it was time to sit back and relax for the next thirteen hours that we would all be on the plane (yes the plane ride was very long). I ended up sleeping and listening to music for the majority of the flight, which made the time go by somewhat fast.
After arriving at the Shanghai International
Airport, we proceeded through customs and met up with Megan, who had taken a separate flight. We then made our way to the bus that was there to transport us to Zhejiang University in Hangzhou. To be honest, I do not remember much of the bus ride, as we were all exhausted at this point in the day and slept for most of the ride. The bus ride turned out to be about another 4 hours and we finally arrived at the university around 8:30pm! Although traveling had completely wiped me and my fellow students out, I was ecstatic to finally be in China and to experience life here!Tom Abbott
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