the other abroad experience

Last night I went out to $7 all-you-can-eat/all-you-can-drink sushi. I'll say right now that it was a great deal. It wasn't only sushi and beer, but also deep-fried chicken, edamame, salad, etc. etc. etc. and it was all made to order, none of that bacteria-filled hot plate bullshit. But that's all unimportant, you'll find that surprisingly good value (when measured with the American dollar) is everywhere you go in China, 到处可见。

What IS important is who I was eating with and how much fun it was. (Now before I continue, I'd like to first state for the record that I like ACC, I think it's the best study abroad language program in the world, and that I've had a delightful, albeit painful, experience there.) After accepting an invitation from a friend at ACC to hike all the way across town to meet up with her college friend at Qinghua University, I found myself sitting down with about 20 strangers at one of those Japanese tables where they make you take off your shoes and there's paper walls surrounding you should you ever have the urge to start taking notes or something. Surrounding the table were what I imagine are a group of your more typical study abroad students doing what the more typical study experience might encompass.

There were a bunch of Australian-Chinese, a British-Chinese girl, a hilarious dude from the Netherlands, a Bible-toting Tennessee-er, some Japanese girls, Korean girls, my ACC friend and her friend, and me. To be honest we were all strangers, it's just these Qinghua students had had a semester to get used to it. Everyone was just so goddamn curious, happy, and fun. I'm never good at describing reality, so I'll just say that I found myself laughing more than I have for the past six months in Beijing as the Australian/British-Chinese all made fun of the the guy from Tennessee and the Dutch guy because "white people would never dare to suck a fish head." I nearly doubled over when the Dutch guy began to describe some food saying that it was like "an angel pissing in your mouth." (Apparently a direct translation from Dutch.) Then I did double over when a couple Australian guys began betting on whether or not the Tennessee guy could catch a piece of chicken with his chopsticks. And somewhere between the smiles and laughs, I managed to have some really interesting conversations with the Australian girl, my friend's friend, and the Dutch guy.

I know I didn't describe that right. The ability escapes me and I apologize. I have never been one for telling stories, the gene is probably absent in my family line. But the point I want to make is that, I regret not being able to have this kind of study abroad experience. The kind where you CAN speak english, but you still are meeting amazing people from around the world. Maybe I just like Australian accents too much or something, but I think I missed out on a lot by not being able to meet the motley groups students that many study abroad programs entail.