| Brett Merrill Testimonial |
| I love the people; they are all so kind, so fun, so happy and playful. I learned to enjoy life the way they see it and I discovered a kind of happiness I never knew. I also learned hard work and the importance of a proper mind set, some from teaching, but mostly from just being with and interacting with the people. I had the advantage of actually being younger than my students by a year or so and now I have excellent friends that I hold dear, I was able to be both teacher and friend. In a very real sense I am now Chinese, being here and having these friends has made me learn as much Mandarin as possible and the local ways of doing things. I love the culture here. It's very different from any other culture I have yet come across, and I love the complexity it involves. Each region of China that I have visited has pretty much its own language, its own food, its own views and its own culture that is both alike and entirely different from any other region. The people are always so complex, the countryside and the city are like two different worlds. The people in the countryside are generally more kind but definitely more shy, whereas the people in the city are aggressive and it makes them very interesting. The food in China is the best, especially if you get the food from the countryside like I have. I love the food. Each morning the people in my city pick their produce from their own fields and then sell it in the town market and each restaurant goes and buys first. Even if you go to a restaurant you get the best, freshest vegetables. The meat was a little hard to get over seeing that they kill it in the morning and then let it sit on a table till it gets bought...a couple days even. But after a week you don't care. One of the coolest things I love is just the different kinds of food. I stumbled across a meat market one day, the kind where the animals are alive until you select them and I saw the dogs. In China they do eat dogs. It doesn't taste that bad, it's not great but it's not bad either. I could go on and on telling you about each dish and how they make it, but all you need to know is that it is all good, I have only had 2 dishes that I didn't like and I've tasted many many things. Just as a side note you are really going to want to try the Muslim-Chinese foods! Don't be afraid of anything, try everything and be glad that it's the cheapest (cost not quality) food you will eat in your entire life time. I'm really going to miss it, so I've been learning to cook it. If you want to learn to cook the food here the restaurants are very nice about it and the cooks will teach you everything, it's a blast! The places in China are astounding! Everything is different; either it's serene countryside, crammed and huge cities, or epic vistas. Nothing in China is as expected. My favorite place so far was the city of Xi'an, the most ancient and former capital of China. I love seeing how everything here has changed and become new, but at the same time there are things everywhere that are older than I can imagine. I bought a coin that is far older than America and I wear it on my neck, I like having a connection to the distant past. If you want pictures, China is the place to do it. I've had a great experience in China. I've had some very special moments with my students, one student even gave me a Chinese name and I had it engraved upon a seal in ancient characters. Other students have taken me to their homes. One never gets bored with serenity though, just when you think it's too nice something happens. I was walking with a foreigner and we crossed by an old lady who lunged at the foreign girl and "attacked" her to feel her skin and accidentally hurt her, so China has never left me bored. I'm going to miss this place, and these people. I'll never forget this and I'll never regret it. I've enjoyed the company of a most wonderful host country. My school has given me almost no problems. The people have been great and the sheer freedom I've had is more than most people get in a life time. Some people I've talked to think China is a frightening, but you learn once you get here that what you think China is and what it actually is are two entirely different things. I'm definitely going to come back to China at some point. Don't worry about the rest of your life, you find it's not as pertinent as you think it is. When you come back from China you will be a different and better person. Something about China does that to you. I'll never be the same. My adventure has seemed so grand to me and I'll hold it close forever. China Horizons has been the best program anyone could ask for and I am glad I found them, Jacob is especially nice, I'm glad it was him who took me to my first foreign country. Brett Merrill Tongcheng, Anhui, China |
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