Final China Reflection

I think the thing that surprised me the most about the trip was how well it was executed and how smooth it went. I didn’t really think about how much logistics would be required to travel with 60+ people until I got there and I kind of just figured things would have to go wrong. So I think it’s a testament to the great planning of our chaperones, guides, and Beth for the success of the trip.

I learned quite a bit from the professional aspects of the trip. One part that stood out to me was during the BP panel. One of the panelists was giving advice on how to best approach living in a new country and said that it is important to remember that things can be very different in government and way of living, but in the end every country has normal people trying to live their best lives. Its easy for us to travel to other countries and make comments on things that are weird or don’t make sense to us, but the same can be said about problems that exist in our country. I tried to continue to have that mindset as I traveled throughout china, especially as we were experiencing new things for the first time. I really liked the BP panel because they were able to give us an informed impression of foreigners in china.

I liked the DiDi visit because I realized the things I had previously learned in an optimization class last semester directly relate to the problems they face. So it was interesting to learn about a company I had never considered working for and realizing there is a lot of reason why I might want to. DiDi was very informative, but I think Disney was my favorite visit. Its amazing to see how much of an impact one company has had on all of our lives. It makes sense how much they put into marketing and truly immersing their viewers in their stories. They were basically telling us how much control they have over our preferences and I was honestly completely ok with hearing it.

The night that everyone sang karaoke was one of my favorite moments of the trip. It was the moment I felt that we had first all come together as a class and as friends to just enjoy ourselves. Everyone was comfortable to perform karaoke infront of people they had just started spending time with because of how the trip had led up to it. And the great part about it is that it happened by chance and mostly only because of the rain. It was a happy change of plans.