10 Weeks in China

What are look looking forward to the most?

I'm looking forward to learning a new language. I have heard from friends that you can buy dvd's very cheap there so I'm planning to get a lot of new movies too. This will be the longest time I've ever spent out of the country and I think it will be a cool experience.

What gives you any sense of anxiety at all about going?

I'm not really sure what kind of work I will be doing, and I'm hoping that my advisor lets me do something interesting. My fear (and expectation, really) is that I'll spend a lot of time doing data-entry work and things that are very simple, since it's probably very tough to judge what each of us know how to do going in...

Not everyone who expressed interest ended up applying to go... what was the most compelling aspect of the program that made you DECIDE you wanted to do it?

I like the idea of living in China, and that is something I have wanted to do for awhile. A few of my friends have done study abroad programs in the past, and they all had very good things to say, so I already knew I would like to go to China if I had a chance. I really like the idea of getting to try doing chemistry research in another country. I think it will be cool to see how people at another University run a research group, and I also think this setting will provide a unique set of challenges that should be interesting... I think I will learn a lot and probably have a lot of fun too.