The city was full of skyscrapers,
people everywhere and retail
shops. Just as if we were at home
in Ireland.
The immediate thing I noticed
was that none of the local people
could speak English at all which
made communicating difficult and
surprising given the size of the
city and its cosmopolitan nature. I
should say here - that the
population of Shanghai is 24
million and growing. The locals
found me bemusing too. They
tried speaking Chinese to me but
I just nodded, smiled and had to
walk away.
We headed to KFC for dinner but
I refused KFC as I wanted some
REAL Chinese food which I found
and it was delicious.
The Global Communication, not
to sound too pretentious, was
different !!!
There is no
snapchat, Instagram, gmail,
WhatsApp and such.
The
Government does not allow it.
You could
download a VPN,
which most of us did, to use
Western communication but it
was strange at first. In China they
use WeChat. I used it too. So
much was different that I was
surprised I did not get a culture
shock. I was struck by how small
the people generally are compared
to the Irish who are huge by
comparison! So much for us as
leprechauns.
As the days went by I
recovered from jet lag, started
remembering peoples names in
my group and made friends. I
remembered peoples names
better and was really enjoying
the experience. One major
difficulty remained - it is near
impossible to be a vegetarian in
China. Everything has a small bit
of meat in it.
China is very polluted which
makes the air very stagnant.
Cherry blossom blooming at the
time was not the “odour du jour”.
The smells were sometimes
intolerable. Bathrooms took
serious adjustment but other than
that it was an amazing time.
Trying to summarise all the trips
and events we went on would
take too much time. I think I would
be writing pages and pages. To
say we did a lot would be an
understatement. I am so grateful
to have had this experience and
to have revisited the land of my
birth.
I have seen 12 people driving
motorbikes in a huge ball, 10 girls
fit onto one bike, been to an
ancient town, gone to see
beautiful architecture, survived
very long Chinese classes, learnt
to break people’s arms in tai chai
and way more. The best part was
being able to make new friends in
a new culture. I can say that I now
have so much memories that
make me laugh when I think of
them and wish I was back.
I would highly
recommend that if you
get the chance to go abroad
in TY take it, even if
you’re scared or nervous.
There were a few people on the
trip who had never flown before
and they flew to the other side of
the globe. So take any
opportunities that come your way
and you won’t regret it.
UCC Confucius Institute
3.35 O’Rahilly Building University
College Cork College Road, Cork
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 021-420 5153
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