I love Chengdu!

USAC Chengdu was a great experience. I spent a summer term there and fell in love with the city and the language. Since going, I have decided to study abroad in China again, this time for a whole year, and without that experience in Chengdu in the summer I would not be where I am today in terms of knowing what I want to do career-wise.

I had taken 2 semesters of Mandarin before going and my Mandarin greatly improved while I was there. The downside is that the locals speak Sichuanhua which is difficult to understand and is a different dialect, so opportunities for speaking are still good, but be aware that other places (Beijing) would be better suited for the actual experience of speaking and practicing.

The classes were small. My Chinese class had 3 other students in it. You get a lot of attention, and Wentao Song, the director, is wonderful. One of my teachers, Jiangbo, was incredible and everyone loved him so much, we spent hours playing the "Mafia" card game and got to know him some more. Field trips were great- especialyl Emei Shan, where we got to hike up a mountain and see monkeys.

I would not trade this experience for anything. It was the best summer of my life.