My Experience at CLI Guilin

It was overall an incredible experience, especially as my first trip overseas, it was the longest 5 weeks of my life in the best way, doing and learning new things constantly. The school has many staff members that can help you before and after arriving as well as a number of interns who were all incredibly interesting, friendly, and especially helpful, with any issue or problem I had during my stay. After arriving you may need to visit the police station in order to let them know that you've arrived safely, you will also likely need to acquire a Chinese SIM card if you do not have an E-SIM or your device cannot use them like mine, depending on how you intend to pay for things you may also have to visit the bank, and many other things like these, and for all of them the staff and interns helped me every step of the way to make settling into life here as easy as possible. Everybody was a friend, staff and students alike, and I enjoyed talking to every single person I met here which was a lot. Students often spontaneously get together, occasionally with some staff members/interns too, in order to all go to a restaurant together for dinner or explore the city. There are also several activities posted on the activity board every week for fun things to do around Guilin and the surrounding countryside together, though these are payed for separately from tuition on the basis of which ones you sign up for. I intend to return hopefully soon which brings me to the next point being the price, due to how much fun I had I can't help but feel it was worth it, but it can be pricey especially if you intend to stay for longer durations of time. That being said the tuition price accounts for in-school housing, lunches on all weekdays, 20 - 30 hours of one-on-one classes a week, and probably some other things I forgot, assuming you set up your immersion program the same way I did (which is also very modular depending on your needs and preferences). The classes are all great too and I've enjoyed doing them with all of my teachers, it's sometimes difficult to tell how much your Chinese has improved but they accept people of any level, even if you don't prepare at all before coming like me. Apologies for the long-winded review, it's my last day here before I go home as I wright this and I really want to make sure I capture just how accommodating and awesome it's been here, I've already told many of my friends to come here with me when I return and I haven't even left yet.