July 6-July 31, 2009

This will be my last journal entry of the summer here in Qingdao. Again, it was very difficult for me to find a way to log onto this website because it was blocked but I want to thank everybody who has been reading about my adventures. I cannot believe that it is July 31 and I will be coming home in about 7 days. I would write more as the week continues until I leave…but unfortunately I will not have internet access. In the beginning of the trip I had to pay a fee for the internet for the two months that I was here. Since tomorrow is August 1st my internet time is up. So with that being said, I will share some of what I have been doing for the past month….

My first week back in Qingdao was good. All of the Communication students started their internships while the other half of the students remained in their language classes. Time definitely slowed down once we returned from the 17 day trip around China. It was nice to finally have a chance to relax some but I would have to say that traveling was my favorite part of the program. My internship went very well with Creative 100 and it was interesting seeing the business side of China. Overall it was good experience and I also enjoyed seeing how different the American and Chinese work styles were from each other. The Chinese are very hard workers but I noticed over the last month that the work atmosphere is much more relaxed and flexible than back in the States.

Within Creative 100, two other girls from the study abroad program and I were working for the Olympic Call Center. You are probably saying, “Aren’t the Olympics over?” Believe me I was saying the same thing. Last year, since Qingdao held the sailing events for the Olympics, there was also a volunteer Call Center that was created. Now that the Olympics are over, the Call Center wants to become a business within Qingdao. With that being said, this upcoming September will mark the beginning of this business. Basically for us as interns, Sunny Yanli (our boss) wanted us to find information about different call centers in America. The other project that she had us work on was making a study abroad guide for Chinese students who will soon be going abroad to Australia. Again, you’re probably questioning, “Why Australia?” haha…but it was what they needed help on. So for the past few weeks we have been gathering data over American call centers and we have been collecting tons of information for these students who will be traveling to Australia. I did think that the internships would be much different but we still we were able to stay busy and help with their projects. Our boss, Sunny is such a friendly person and we all really enjoyed working for her.

Other than my internship, I also had another A&M Communication course to take with our professor, Antonio La Pastina. We had to read a book called, “What Does China Think” and have class discussions and papers written over the book. I have enjoyed my classes with Antonio this summer…he is a great teacher and I have learned a lot about China that I did not know before. Qingdao has been great as well! The weather was very rainy at first when we returned but lately it has been so sunny and in the low 80’s. I have heard Texas is in need of some rain, so I will try and bring some back with me J Every morning I run down to the beach which is so nice, I am really going to miss that when I leave.

I have a conversation partner here so I have been getting together with him a lot over the month too. I have been helping him with his English while he helps me with some Chinese. Like I have said before, apparently he is known for being a fabulous ping pong player here at Ocean University. We had a ping pong tournament a couple weeks ago and I definitely impressed him with my ping pong skills! Last weekend three girls from the study abroad program and I decided to go back to Beijing one last time before we left. Beijing is my favorite city in China, we went to see the Summer Palace and visited the Pearl Market again which was a lot of fun. We travelled by the bullet train, it took five hours but the train was so comfortable it was not bad at all. That is also something I will miss here in China. Traveling by train is so easy and convenient…I wish America has more passenger trains. Last week I was able to see the solar eclipse here in China!! I had never seen an eclipse before so yet again, another fabulous experience for me this summer!

I cannot believe that this is my last entry and that I will be coming home so soon. This summer has flown by so fast and I would do it all over again in a heart beat. There have been waves of homesickness throughout the trip and of course right now I am very excited to get back home…but the memories that I have made in China will never be forgotten. Thank you all who have been reading about my study abroad adventures and thank you for supporting me throughout the summer. Like I said earlier, starting in about two hours from now it will be August 1st which means I will have no internet. I have posted more pictures up on photo bucket (information below) so I hope you all can take a look at them. Hope everybody is doing well and I will see you all in just a few days!!

Love you all,
Alison Benedict

www.photobucket.com
Username: abenny12@neo.tamu.edu
Password: aggie2010