Nĭmen hăo! My name is Sandra. I am a 21 years old student from Germany. I am studying economics and business administration in Konstanz but grew up in and out of Stuttgart. Since I am studying for two years now I am very excited to have the chance to trade my German study-life for working experience in Qingdao.
When I moved to Konstanz I secretly thought that it would be the start of a whole new exciting era in a city with the proportion of students that high that it might not sleep a lot. But instead of students I got thousands of retired people everywhere I looked. Hence I think you might see why my desire to escape out of that sleepy town and into a big city strengthened from day to day. And finally I arrived…. Qingdao, 8 million people, shops, restaurants and stores at every corner, night markets, busy streets, everything I was looking for!
But of course that is not the only reason why I wanted to come to China. This incredibly huge country with a culture and language different to the bones fascinated me for quite some time. After finishing school I decided to go to Asia to see the other side of the world. But instead of China I travelled through Thailand and Singapore. I experienced country and people and got hungry for more. Unfortunately my studies started immediately after my journey and I needed to spend some time in good old Germany. At the beginning of my third semester I decided that it was time to implement a new culture to my daily life and signed up for a Chinese language course. Starting to learn Chinese was a lot of fun. Everybody in the room almost broke their tongues with the new pronunciation of the letters and the unusual tones. But trying to learn the language wasn’t enough. I wanted to go to China. So I started looking for internships on the Internet and somehow found InternChina. The vacancy, the company, the city, the country, everything seemed to be the perfect fit for me. So I revised my CV and applied. By then everything went really fast and easy. I was invited for the first Skype interview in my life. But even though I had some worries, none of them became true. Jack, our Qingdao Office Manager easily guided me through the interview. After I was accepted they helped me with everything I needed. They provided advice for the flights, credit cards the visa, what to bring and what to leave at home. With their help everything worked out fine and suddenly I found myself at the airport of Qingdao looking into the smiling faces of Rita and Stephan that welcomed me and brought me to the lovely apartment. From the second I arrived I knew that it was the right decision and that Qingdao could offer me everything I was hoping for when I finished school and dreamed of getting in touch with a new world.
With the help of my roommates Stephan and Marina I survived my first days in Qingdao without getting lost.
By now I am having my first days in the office. I am still in the beginnings but I already feel more comfortable and home than I could have imagined. I am looking forward to working with my colleagues and new interns and maybe also with you. 🙂
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Hey all,
Just wanted to make a quick post about our hot spring journey yesterday. Was pretty nice, but sadly we werent allowed to take pictures there. So after we asked a slipper- and towel rearranging lady to take a group picture of us in one of the waterthingies, we had a security guard on our heels the whole time, just to make sure we abide the rules. Chinese really like rules, but for the mudbath we got an exception. We could go in with our swimming trunks on. But actually, the rule to go in the mud as god created us, wasn’t that dumb. My flowertrunks will never be as bright as they used to be :(.
Oh ja, we still took some pictures (which I will add later the day).
Oki doki, have a nice upcoming week and soon CHRISTMAS.
From left to right- Dennis, Martin, Simon, Viet-Ha, Mia, Andrea, Steve, Kristen, Nicole, Danou, and Jacob-(he is a teacher who has just graduated from college in the U.S.). We had a great journey that day. We had tons of laughs and took some amazing pictures and the hike really wasn’t that long. Fu Shan is one of the coolest places to hike. I found it to be the single most spectacular view that I have seen in China (even better than my experience in Beijing at the Great Wall).