July 16 | Wuhu, Anhui

3:01 PM - Lao shi Minh says hello from the classroom with the kiddies! Day 2 of the Wuhu conference and my energy is pretty much drained but when you’re in China, you just keep on going! Looking back at the past 3 conferences, it’s mind blowing how different each group of students can be. Unlike my first two groups, whom were very young, this is my oldest batch of students (most of them are 18). I thought having an older group would be much less challenging than a younger one, but boy how I am wrong. It’s not about the age, it’s all about their English level – although some kids may have been 14-15, their English level surpasses some of these seniors! Never have I ever been more appreciative of communication in fluent English… it is astounding how difficult communicating the most basic things are – you definitely take it for granted back at home. Something as basic as asking a store merchant where a certain product is may take a good 10 minutes, versus the 10 seconds that it would take back in Canada (for example, went to the pharmacy to ask about a cream for my mosquito bites and was presented with a box of pills with a picture of a bug on the front cover… ya, no). Trust me, when I say it is draining, it is draining but definitely valuable experience. In general, the language barrier that we have experienced in the last 3 weeks is definitely an eye-opening experience that makes me respect exchange students so much more. Imagine moving to Canada, with minimal English knowledge and expected to pass the exact same BBA courses that us native-born are already struggling with – cannot even imagine.

Don’t get me wrong, these occasional moments of frustration all melts away when we see how collectively incredible these kids are. For example, yesterday was a rough day for me as I felt like I couldn’t get through to my kids – definitely one of the lowest points of the trip. Though when we hosted our ‘talent show’ at night, my heart was literally blown up into pieces seeing a line up of +20 students belt out the most beautiful Chinese ballads and even the kiddos in grade 6 knew every single world. Absolutely amazing to hear and see – definitely an unforgettable Wuhu memory. (Also, I think I convinced one of my students that I’m actually Chinese as I sang along to their rendition of Michael Wong’s ‘Fairytale’ LOL).

 Where did the past 3 weeks ago!? To think we only have less than a week left in China is heartbreaking. Before this trip, I thought by this time I would be anxious to go home but – again – I was wrong. Yeah, there are certain things that I miss about being home but this is too great of an experience to not want to continue to experience. Aside from family and friends, here’s of list of things that I do miss, dearly:

• The confidence that every washroom will have toilets and not a hole in the ground/not having to carry around tissue or toilet paper with me everywhere I go.
• Waterloo’s shawarmas. Nom. Oh, and sushi.
• Easy access of Internet/WiFi
• Driving! (but having a driver here is pretty sweet too…)
•  Access to my entire wardrobe… (#FWP)