Morning: I would wake up at 6:30 to be on time for classes that started at 8:00 AM. I would get ready and grab some food from the kitchen in my home-stay and then walk about 1 block to wait at the bus. My host family didn't wake up as early as I did so I didn't usually see them in the morning. I waited for the bus usually for about 10-15 minutes and once I got on it was a 20 minute ride to school.
The ride wasn't far but traffic was usually pretty bad and it usually took longer than it should've. I could take 2 different buses and both dropped off right in front of the campus where my classes were. All of the morning classes were Chinese classes. Once in school we would begin at 8:00 and the first thing was to take a vocabulary quiz with about 25 other students. That lasted for about 15 minutes, after which the teacher would go over the important points of the day's lessons while choosing students at random to answer questions about the text. That lasted for about 35 minutes and after we would have a 15 minute break.
The next class would have only 6 students and one teacher who would review the grammar points and call on students at random to make example sentences. That class was 50 minutes long and after it we would have a 10 minute break. The next class was a group activity that usually involved writing a piece of text based on the vocab and grammar from the day's lesson. That also lasted 50 minutes. After that there would be a 5 minute break and classes would be reduced to 3 or fewer students for the discussion class. The teacher would ask each of the students complex questions to facilitate a discussion. That lasted 25 minutes. Chinese classes ended by 11:50.
Afternoon: I would walk across to the east side of campus to meet my Chinese tutor. She and I would usually just speak to each other in Chinese the same way I would with a friend in English. This really helped develop my conversation skills. We would meet for an hour and after I would return to the west side of campus and attend an "Area Studies" course. I took Chinese Government & Politics as well as Calligraphy. These classes would usually run from either 2:00-3:30 or from 3:00-5:00.
Evening: I would leave the campus around 5:00 PM and take the 20 minute bus ride home. I would hang out with my host dad and brother for about an hour until my host mom got home and we ate dinner. We usually ate around 7:00 and that lasted till 8:00. After dinner I would go to my room to study for the rest of the night.
Highlights: The highlight was meeting my tutor, whose name was Cao Yanfei. She became one of my best friends and I still talk to her all the time. The highlight of my overall experience was the 2-week trip that IES arranged for us to take. We traveled all around the Northeast of China and I saw many things that I would not have seen if I was in China as a tourist. One example being an overnight stay in a traditional Mongolian yurt on the grasslands. I also bonded really closely with the 2 accompanying teachers and the other students in my group.