Hangzhou- Classes Start (Sep 19, 2016)

Through our Tufts-in-China program, we're enrolled in Chinese language classes for a semester at Zhejiang University, which is pretty highly regarded. All the Tufts students had to take a placement test to determine which class they'd be in for the semester, and somehow I was placed into a different class from everyone else. :O

My first day of classes went okay. I was honestly pretty nervous because not only was I by myself (of my program group), but also once we started class introductions, I noticed a lot of my classmates were very comfortable at speaking, one of my weaker points. Quite a few of them had already been studying Mandarin here for over a year. A few, despite being born in other countries and living outside of China, spoke Mandarin with their parents regularly at home, as 1 or both of their parents were Chinese. Their main reason for taking classes was to improve on their formal grammar and writing. It's pretty intimidating to speak up during class, but I hope I'll get more comfortable in the coming weeks.

When I introduced myself to the class, my teacher immediately said that I looked Chinese. She taught me the word for a person who wasn't born in China but whose ancestors were originally Chinese: Hua yi. It's interesting because I'd never really thought about how "Chinese" I looked to the outside world until I came to China. Being on campus, though, I've noticed that no one really pays special attention to me, and I seem to blend in until I open my mouth and start speaking.

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Sep 2, 2016

Dang Tufts-in-China crew cleans up well

Heading off to State Street Hangzhou to learn about the Tufts/State Street internship program.

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Sep 25, 2016


First meal with my classmates!

It's really neat meeting so many different international students, something I didn't necessarily expect to do here! My class has students from Japan, Korea, Italy, Mexico, England, Egypt, Canada, and more.





Went on a boat ride with two classmates, Woxian and Yurika, before trying out Waipo Jia (grandma's house), famous for its delicious Hangzhounese cuisine!