Study Abroad with CET Shanghai Fall 2014

When I first came to Shanghai four years ago for the World Expo, I felt something buzzing in the Pudong air (not the AQI). It read like a template for the globalized future. Global Citizens had converged on this city because Shanghai had proved herself to be a vibrant cultural center unlike any other in the world. As I sat at my desk last Spring in Washington, DC, I thought to myself, "I want to be in China and I want to be back in that in the midst of that development and optimism and thus I found a home at CET Shanghai."
I am proud to say that in Shanghai, I can attend a marriage market in People's Park in the morning, and be at an electronic music festival with 10,000 people on South Bund by night. I am proud to say that I can enjoy a cup of tea and a bit of tranquility in the 600 year-old Yuyuan Garden at breakfast time, hop a train under the Huangpu and be rocketing to the top of the Oriental Pearl Tower for lunch, 15,000 feet up.
After a semester in Shanghai, I have heard more languages than ever before in my life, tried stranger dishes than any Westerner should lay eyes on, and experienced a 5,000 year old culture that opened its arms to me. I have worked among the people who are driving China's growth, I have learned from her brightest minds, and I have forged lasting bonds with the Middle Kingdom.
After studying abroad with CET, I have built a global network of friendships that I hope will last me a lifetime. The connections and experience that I have gained from my internship will help me establish a career in the future. I recognize that mastery of a second language is a lifelong pursuit but after a semester living in China with intensive study, I am proud that I can converse on a deeper level with native people in a language that is not my own.