Expo Blog - July: Nearing the Halfway Point

Getting on a Jet Plane                                                   July 21, 2010
By ANDY CHARLTON - Macalester College

So I get on a plane back to China in 6 hours. I have said goodbye to everyone, packed everything, and eaten all the cheese-related food I can (pizza, bagels, quesadillas), and took one last long glimpse at Facebook. Still, I feel unprepared for tomorrow. It's been over two months since I've had any consistent source of Mandarin practice, much less any motivation to study characters and in a few days I will be expected to work in those languages. I initially was interested in Chinese because after years of studying romance languages, they all blended and became one big easy, but Chinese was supposed to be a challenge. I soon get to find out whether or not I am actually up to such a challenge when push comes to shove in the queue line at the Expo and it's up to me to line up the unlineuppable. Read more of Andy's post...

How to Prepare?                                                           July 13, 2010
By MARY ANNE MCELROY - Loyola University Maryland

How exactly do you prepare yourself for three months in China? With just about one week to go before I start work as a USA Pavilion Student Ambassador I have been toiling over how exactly to answer this question. Do I eat every meal with chopsticks for practice or do I religiously worship the fork for one last week? Should I practice my Chinese with the waiter at the Chinese restaurant, or avoid Chinese restaurants all together in order to prevent a pre-departure language embarrassment? Should I stock up on books, games and other activities for that dreadful fourteen hour flight- or do I just run out and buy sleeping pills? Read more of Mary Anne's post...