Shanghai Saturdays

NOTE: I WROTE THIS POST LAST THURSDAY.

For me, the months and weeks prior to this semester were characterized by a wide variety of emotions. Excitement and worry are never an easy mixture to swallow alone, but it was even more difficult to balance these emotions while trying to develop a strategy to deal with the culture shock I expected to encounter when I first landed here.

When I finally got here dealing with culture shock was difficult, but I was glad that I had thought about it before hand, and that Ole Miss Study Abroad and friends that had been to China were able to provide resources and insight into dealing with culture shock. And of course the problems of culture shock eventually faded as I developed a comfort zone in China.

Now I have less than 10 days left in China, and I've begun to prepare to what they call reverse culture shock. Tonight my host program, IES, held a seminar on preparing for reintegration into life back home. The major part of this program was watching a video about reverse culture shock. The video was made by another study abroad program popular with Ole Miss students called CET, and it featured an array of former study abroad students talking about how they were able to reaclamate to life back home.

I watched the video half paying attention to what the studnents had to say and half thinking about everything I need to do before I get home. Then something in the video caught my attention. It was a familiar voice accompanied by the familiar face of another Ole Miss Croft student that studied in China: Rose Bui.

For those of you that don't know Rose's story, she was an exceptional student at Ole Miss that was stricken with cancer during a semester studying in China. When she was diagnosed with the disease, she had already to come to China and gone back to Ole Miss one time and was on her second study abroad. She fought cancer hard for a long time, but lost that fight earlier this summer. She was a good friend, and had been since we were classmates in a high school summer program.

Seeing her in the video was completely unexpected. But it made me think about how friends that go before us never really leave us. The shared experiences, interests, and insights they were able to give us are always a part of our lives, and these memories often influence us daily without us even realizing it. Even if you're hundreds of thousands of miles away from home.

The last time I saw Rose was in a hospital room during last spring semester. I was begining to prepare for this trip, so Rose and I talked about her experiences here in China. She offerred her advice on the strengths and weakness of the study abroad programs she had been a part of. She told me about some of her favorite places in Beijing, and helped me begin to prepare for that dreaded culture shock.

Now, through this video, Rose has again advised me on how to readjust once I get home. Of course Rose talking about China, the study of which was one of her passions, is exactly how it would and should be. God has a pretty unique way of putting people in your life when you least expect it.

Thanks Rose.