{"id":2152,"date":"2013-11-20T11:52:55","date_gmt":"2013-11-20T15:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crosscultural\/?p=2152"},"modified":"2017-03-01T14:44:15","modified_gmt":"2017-03-01T18:44:15","slug":"new-friends-in-anqing-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/2013\/11\/20\/new-friends-in-anqing-2\/","title":{"rendered":"New Friends in Anqing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We have been in the city of Anqing for only 11 days and it already feels like home to me. Anqing is a “small” city of 700,000 people and even though I come from a town in Ohio with only 1,670 people, I still feel comfortable here. The fact that my host sister’s middle school alone has over 3,000 students is a little daunting, but the amount of people does not lessen their generosity and hospitality. This is our second home stay and I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we are more comfortable this time around simply because we have dealt with this before.<\/p>\n
For me, Anqing has been an enormous blessing. Unlike in Nanchong, we have personal Tutors to help is with our less-than perfect Mandarin. Our tutors are all students at Anqing University who are majoring in teaching Mandarin as a second language. Having this time every day with students as our tutors has been a great opportunity to make new friends and to really connect with Chinese people in the same stage of life as us.<\/p>\n
The university has a drama\/music department, which houses their very own Huangmei Opera troupe, put on a show for us last Friday. The local news station caught wind of this and thought that a bunch of foreigners watching traditional Chinese opera was news-worthy. Thus, we were interviewed and caught on camera.<\/p>\n My tutor’s name is He Yu and her English name is Halinda. Every day, I get off of the bus and she is waiting for me with a hug and a smile. Brittany, her tutor (Jojo), He Yu, and I have become a small group of friends who just sit and chat every day. While we maybe learn a little less Mandarin than some of the other students, I am not upset because, in my book, a new friendship is just as valuable as knowledge. I am actually dreading leaving Anqing (in 2 days) simply because I don’t want to leave these new friends behind, but I can at least look forward to coming home to my friends and family at 91¶ÌÊÓÆµ.<\/p>\n Emotionally torn,<\/p>\n Emma King<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We have been in the city of Anqing for only 11 days and it already feels like home to me. Anqing is a “small” city of 700,000 people and even though I come from a town in Ohio with only 1,670 people, I still feel comfortable here. The fact that my host sister’s middle....<\/p>
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