Although it's only the second month of 2010, it's funny to think that I've spent more of this year in China than I have in the United States. This past January, I participated in the inaugural Harvard Winter Service Learning Program, sponsored by the Harvard China Fund, along with 28 other undergraduate and graduate students from my university. I'm still slightly jetlagged, but looking back on all we saw and did, the exhaustion is worth it!
I wrote previously on the APIASF/GMS blog about my trip to Greece last summer. While that experience was similarly incredible, I'll be honest - digging for 7 hours a day does not fill my heart with as much warmth as teaching for 7 hours a day does. My international service learning experience was life-changing! If you have the opportunity to participate in such a program, do it! You'll get so much more out of a trip than a cadre of Facebook photos (although you'll have that too).
Week 1: Beijing
During our trip, we interacted with students from Peking University (PKU). The students were incredibly helpful and good-natured. They also made up for my deficiency in Mandarin knowledge. We had lectures from PKU professors about China, visited primary schools, talked with migrant families, and toured the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. We didn't get to go to the Great Wall since the roads were icy. Mao Zedong once said that one is not a man until he has climbed the Great Wall. I guess I'll have to wait until next time to "become a man."
Week 2: Hohhot, Inner Mongolia
Hohhot is like no other city I've ever visited. The food is sumptuous, the taxi drivers insane, the architecture awesome, and the temperatures chilly (as in the below 0 F).
We co-taught 7 classes/day for 4 days at a government-run primary boarding school, with our evenings spent creating and fine-tuning lesson plans for the next day. My class had 55 6th graders, which may seem impossible to handle, but my students had boundless enthusiasm and so much respect for us teachers. All we needed to do was channel their energy productively. Seeing how little these kids have compared to most American students and how much they took it in stride was inspiring. Interacting with the kids, visiting their dormitories, playing outside with them, and challenging them to speak out confidently (not the norm in a Chinese classroom) helped me realize how much I LOVE leading a class. Teaching and living in Hohhot was at times frustrating and grueling, but building connections to my students was reward enough.
Week 3: Shanghai
Finally, we stopped by Shanghai. We toured the city, shopped for souvenirs, took a night cruise down the Huangpo river, and met with government officials. Shanghai is the most westernized of all the cities we visited, and the cosmopolitan atmosphere is so vibrant. I also got my own hotel room, which was a major plus! It was a great end to an amazing adventure.
Now that I've been to China, I know why people fall in love with it and are compelled to return. There is so much to learn about and see in China! This trip helped me figure out my life's passion - teaching - and made me think about the world in ways that I wouldn't have if I had just stayed home for winter break.
While traveling abroad is great in itself, I don't think tourism can enhance your leadership training as much as service work, or at the very least, prolonged interaction with people from an area can. By straying out of your comfort zone, you'll gain so much more knowledge, think more critically about disparity and cultural differences, and be more appreciative of how amazing our world is! Or at least, that's what this experience helped me to realize. I hope your international experience can do the same for you!
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