I can hardly imagine how time slips so fast. Only half a year ago, I was still a normal high school student, but now I am staying here, sharing my experience of my high school exchange year.
Anyways, it’s really hard to use a simple word good or bad to describe being a high school exchange student. Apart from your country, first thing I learnt was how to get hold of your life by yourself. It’s probably not hard to understand, since being along in the US, the only one you can rely on is yourself. I learnt how to contribute to the host family by doing stuff like feeding the horses, picking up horse poop, helping host Dad to deal with tractors which in Shanghai I wouldn’t normally do. For doing that, I made myself more flexible and more able to adept the country life.
As you can see, many foreign students from China study a lot and never care for things like community service and volunteer work. For the sake of that, many Chinese students here could seldom make friends. That’s what I am worrying about and struggling with. Fortunately, I got my subject here straight ACE and made lots of friends, but sometimes it’s tough for you to do study while other classmates are having fun. We should always beware of that because friendship is also crucial to success in your life, not only your grade.
Another great point of my exchange life is that I am amazed to see what you will often think of as a Christian. Growing up in Shanghai, I am seldom aware of things associate with religion. As we normally believe, the establishment of the universe relies on Big Bang Theory and we came from evolution, but at a Christian school these things are not really agreeable. That really blew my mind! However, it’s never ok to not respect another even if he or she holds a different believes. From that, I also care more for others despite their different opinions. I think that is why it’s necessary to remind myself to give a smile to even a stranger.
After a few months, I will go back and be able to share it to all of my friends. I’m just about to freak out not seeing my friends. Obviously, that’s another thing to think about when you are in a foreign country, alone.
By the way, I would like to show one of my pictures. I was selected as a representative of our basketball team at the home coming night .See, how cocky I was! XD