Emanuel Santana
留学经历
Study Abroad Experience
Experiencia en el Extranjero
C U in China 2019
During the summer of 2019, I had the great opportunity to study abroad in China for two months with fellow classmates.
Beijing
The first five weeks of the CU in China program took place in Beijing, where we studied Chinese and Chinese culture/philosophy at Minzu University of China. Although this was not my first time being abroad in a non English speaking country, it was my first time abroad in a country where I wasn't fluent in the language. The first day of travelling to China from the US was extremely long, by far the longest flight I have ever taken. Once I got to China, it was truly a massive culture shock moment. At that time, even after 3 years of studying Mandarin in Clemson, I still felt completely overwhelmed and knew I had so much more to learn. The entirety of the trip was very enjoyable. My classes were both very engaging and interesting, and offered me an insight into the culture which I did not have before. We took many class trips to a variety of places including: The Forbidden City, The Llama temple, the Heavenly temple, The Great Wall, and Taiwan. We also explored on our own in groups with our language partners as our tour guides to destinations such as the 798 Art District, The Silk Street Market, WuDaoKou District. A small group of the class also took a weekend trip to Shanghai, the New York of China.
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Dalian
The second and final four weeks of our study abroad took place in Dalian, a small coastal city in northern China which neighbors the Korean Peninsula. In Dalian, my classmates and I studied at Dalian University of Technology. Myself and three other classmates completed an intern requirement while in Dalian in addition to class. We all interned at FREEN Architecture, an architecture firm that works with the government in developing and preserving domestic and foreign commercial and administrative buildings. During this internship we completed a cross cultural analysis of building information modeling (BIM), gave the company suggestions regarding the matter, aided in logo designs for a new historical architecture preservation society and one of their business partners new venture. Outside of school and interning, we went on many excursions around Dalian and got to participate in many activities such as making dumplings, first hand experience of traditional Chinese medicine, and teaching a high school class. Our midterm excursion gave us the opportunity to go visit Seoul, South Korea.