Home away from Home!

After a year abroad with IES, I fell in love with Shanghai. What's not to love? It's exciting and always has something to do! It has amazing food where you can sample local delicacies like 小龙包 (Xiao long Bao), authentic Chinese regional cuisine like Sichuan and Zhejiang food, and international staples when you are craving a little taste of home. My favorite part about IES Abroad's program was having the ability to be independent. Our apartments couldn't have been in a better location. It was about a 10-20 minute walk to the Bund, and we had a major subway line really close to us as well. I also enjoyed the local life of our neighborhood. During the day, the streets were crowded with mopeds and taxis as people drove to work. The restaurants were filled with people during their lunch or dinner breaks. At night, the street vendors began to open up shop feeding brave customers without much understanding of food safety the most delicious stir-fried noodles and grilled squid. When I wasn't eating or exploring Shanghai's beautiful parks, extravagant malls, and historic sites, I was studying Chinese and other classes relating to China. The Chinese classes were great. I loved my teacher both semesters because they always found ways to make a 2.5 hour Chinese class relatively fun. As for my other courses, I enjoyed having the freedom to choose what I was interested in, but the 3 hour long classes could be tough to get through sometimes. IES Abroad's program in Shanghai didn't have class on friday, which allowed me to travel during the weekend to some pretty amazing parts of China. I valued that free time to help me gain a more holistic understanding of Mainland China.