Today was the day that none of us was looking forward to. It
was time to say goodbye to our great friends and the city that became home to
us for the past two weeks.
Before leaving to China we were told that we would get to
meet some Chinese students and we would have the chance to interact with
them. This seemed like a great
experience and a chance to learn more about the culture. This is what I knew before we went to
China, but now I know that this friendship has become deeper than any of us
could have imagined. Even though
we have only known each other for two weeks, I feel like we have known each
other for at least two months.
What I really liked about this friendship is there was a
mutual interest in each of our cultures.
We were so curious about the differences and similarities in our daily
lives. I don't want to speak for
the Chinese students, but I feel like they learned so much about my culture
without even going to the United States.
They were asking many thoughtful questions and were interested in
anything that we could tell them. We
asked any questions we could think of and they would always try their best to
answer the question to the best of their knowledge. This mutual interest in
each other is a reason why some of us became so close over the past couple of
weeks.
I really enjoyed everything that we did together with our
new friends. We had some good
times in the classroom learning about business and culture, playing sports,
going to dinner in markets, making dumplings, coffee shops, and any other thing
that we did together that I can't think of right now.
We left our hotel just about four hours ago, and now we are
sitting on the train heading to our next destination. It is hard for me to
think that our time in Tianjin has past already. It is clear that we most of us wanted to stay longer in
Tianjin, and that we did not want to say goodbye to our new friends. If someone told me before the trip
about how great of people we would meet and how much we would enjoy their
presence, I would be a little skeptical about it. After spending just one day with them, I was already
impressed and realized that we would become good friends. Over the two weeks, they
have become some of the best people I have ever met. We all appreciate what they have done for us during our stay
in Tianjin. They are great people
and we will truly miss them a lot.
I hope that we will continue to stay in contact with each other in the
future and hopefully we will meet again someday in the future!
