Autumn 2018 in SDU Qingdao Campus

To acquire my higher education from a country, which is emerging as a super power in the world, i.e. China, was one of the best thing that ever happened to me. I got admitted to the Masters program of Shandong University, Qingdao Campus, to study International Relations. Although it was a little scary to leave my family and move to a new country, I was excited to join the Shanda family and make new friends.

I reached the campus on a September evening and was mesmerized by the beauty of the place, where the impressive maroon and beige buildings of the university were surrounded by majestic mountains. It was easy for me to settle at the new university with the help of old international students, who tried their best to help the new students to adjust to their new surroundings. This friendly atmosphere among all the international students was very beneficial in bringing them together and increasing respect among each other. For the orientation of the new students, the university had organized a welcoming ceremony on September 28, 2018, and despite the continuous drizzle of Qingdao monsoon rain, I, along with other new students, was excited to be there. To welcome us,the university's faculty members delivered informative speeches and the students gave us various energetic musical performances. I also got introduced to Beijing Opera for the first time, where international students dressed in Chinese cultural dresses were miming and dancing beautifully along with the music. During the event,some of the university's brilliant students were awarded Excellence Award Fund and other scholarships. After seeing them at the stage, I decided to study hard in the future and achieve a position to stand with these students and get appreciated at a platform such as this.

The first cultural shock I received after coming to this foreign place was the language barrier. It created a little problem for me to communicate with people. To tackle this issue, I got enrolled into a Chinese language course, offered by Shandong University to allow their international students to learn the new language and appreciate its uniqueness. It was fun to attend these classes together with other international students, where we had a good laugh whenever somebody made a mistake in the pronunciation of the words. Another cultural shock I got was the difference in the level of advanced technologies adopted by my country and China. The people of the latter had adopted different types of technologies in their everyday life, including self-service machines, electronic payment method etc. Even to access to water, I have to scan a card instead of using the traditional method i.e. turning on the tap. It is a great experience to observe how China has travelled very far in the world's race to introduce tech-based solutions for improving the daily lives of people.

Apart from the academic courses, the university had arranged sports contests, organized informative seminars with foreign intellectuals and introduced other activities for the students to take part in. I participated in one of such activities, namely English Corner of Shandong University, on October 17, 2018, where foreign teachers and both international and Chinese students were gathered to hold discussions in English to improve their language. It was a great social experience from which I made new Chinese friends. In addition to this, having the Yellow Sea bordering the university's north gate also provided a way to get a break from studies by going there after classes, taking relaxing strolls on the beach, interacting with the locals and collecting beautiful shells from the seaside.

I had the best two months of Autumn at Shandong University, Qingdao Campus, and I am looking forward to spending the rest of my two years here as a part of the Shanda family.

Written by Khadija Ikram (Pakistani) from the School of Political Science and Public Administration