Hey,
my name is Philipp,Ā I am 25 and from Germany. It is now my second week at InternChina and I could already write a book about my experiences here in the beautiful coastal town Qingdao !
The team of InternChina is really great, working here is fun and I had a lot of responsibility from the first day on. The connection between all the interns here in Qingdao, placed by InternChina, is perfect. We have a lot of things going on, like having fun at Bars and Clubs, visit the most exciting places or go out together for lunch or dinner.
To describe a part of the cultural experience the best, I would like to give an example of my evening yesterday:
I decided to live with a host family (a great thing to deepen your cultural insight of China) and accompanied my host mother to a revival of her old class from school. After a lot of āGanbeiā with Tsingtao beer and delicious food (served in China mostly on a āturn aroundā table), I was invited to a friendly family and was suddenly confronted with the question, if I would like to marry their daughter ! Ā So some sort of an āarranged marriageā ! Her parents told me that she is very clever and hardworking and I could marry well. They took me around in the house so I could see for myself that they have expensive furniture and stuff. If I could imagine a marriage?! I was so surprised as I had never ever expected thisĀ and said (big surprise)that unfortunately I canĀ“t imagine that. Even so, she was beside me all the time and looked after me very well. That was a pretty dazzling experience, but that makes life interesting, right ?
The āLaowaisā (foreign people) are definitively a highlight for the people here in China, as most of them donĀ“t have the chance to travel and go abroad as we do in Europe for example. I got used to the fact, that people stare at us western people quite indiscreetly, but this is not meant in a bad way as they are just curious.
So there are still a lot of experiences to be had and I look forward to my time in China, as I see this as a really awesome modern adventure.