At the beginning of an adventure, we all have fears and those questions like, what will it be like in Chengdu? Will I be fine? Is it worth it? At the end of our travel, all these questions are answered with a "It's one of the best experiences I've had in my life" because that's what traveling is all about.

Today, I want to introduce you to Onyx! She is a student at the g-MEO Chengdu American Center for Study Abroad. The major of Onyx is Criminal Justice and she is currently a junior at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. As I have been telling you guys, this semester we have a mix of multicultural students. The parents of Onyx are from San Salvador, Central America. Therefore, like many of our students, she can also speak two languages, Spanish and English. Onyx will share with us some of her fears, thoughts and first impressions of Chengdu and its culture.

Onyx Flores

I have to say that I never thought I would ever come to China, and even less to study in Chengdu. When I first started the process of applying to study in China, I thought it was a crazy idea, that I was going to back out or once I got here I was going to hate it and be depressed. However, it has been a great experience so far and very rewarding. Adapting to the culture, lifestyle, food and time in Chengdu has obviously been a bit of a struggle. I am not used to air drying my clothes, or eating spicy food, but living and learning is something that we all have to go through at some point in our lives.

Meeting Chinese students, "buddies" and people has been very interesting. They are very welcoming to foreign people and are eager to know about you and show you around. On our first day we met them, they wanted to have lunch with us, make plans with us and even help us get around the city. In addition, the idea of obtaining an internship in China scared me a little for the simple fact that I do not know the language. During the interview, the interviewer was really welcoming, he was very interactive and was glad that Gabby and I are going to be interning with him this fall semester.

Although the interview did not go as I expected, I am glad to be able to have this opportunity. I know that my main goal is not to become a lawyer, but interning at a law firm will give me an insight into what type of cases lawyers here deal with and what type of crimes are committed here to have a better idea. Chengdu has definitely turned out to be the opposite of what I thought, I actually love it here and cannot wait what else it has to show me for the rest of the semester.