JSA China: I came, I saw, I conquered

[B]By ALLYSSA SHARA-MAE ARANGORIN[/B] [I]Kagman High School[/I]

Albert Einstein, a famous German scientist and mathematician of the 20th century, once said, “Imagination is more than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

When we visualize things, it seems we can easily reach our highest potential. Of course, the potential is in some way limitless, as all the “impossible” become “possible.” A lot of times, imagination is the key that opens the doors to endless learning, helping us conquer and achieve our dreams. Still, there is one limit to our imagination—ourselves.

Coming from such a remote and desolate group of islands, there is nothing but small contact between different ethnic backgrounds. Consequently, it is difficult for me to educate and engage myself with people of various personalities and diverse cultures. I feel as if I’m being kept in a bubble, unable to parse the things I’m not used to. Frankly, I know nothing about the unfamiliar places around the globe. However, all that suddenly changed. It was the morning in mid-December when I was walking down the hallways of my school that something caught my eye. The place is usually filled with noisy students and busy teachers scurrying past each other. But this day was different. I squinted my eyes as I made out of what looked like a respectable man wearing a nice looking suit. He is Elliot Nguyen, the JSA program director; I recognized him from the recruitment of last year, or from the little piece of information stuck to his shirt. My friend and I were jumping simultaneously once we were absolutely sure it was him. But our little celebration was cut short when the bell rang, telling us to go back to class. I was in my math class when I received a note telling me to go to the library. There, I found a bunch of other students, listening to Elliot talk about the program. From there, I zoned out and went back to my wonderful experience at Stanford University last year. I thought about all the life lessons I’ve learned and all the friends I’ve made. I was caught up from my own reverie and was later blown back into reality as the bell rang.

That afternoon, I told my mother about my encounter with Elliot. I went to my room and gave everything a lot of thought. Last year, I spent my summer exploring the ways of life in America and now it’s time for me to discover life outside the mainland. It was then that I know I had to go out of my comfort zone and enter the pathways of China. Same rules apply. Interested students need to write an essay as to why they are the most qualified candidate for the full scholarship. The whole process was due by February. An unexpected phone call would only mean one thing: an unforgettable experience of your life.

[B]December. January.[/B]

I’ve been working on my scholarship essay for two months now. Going back and editing my paper occupied most of my Christmas break. I wanted to make sure there was no grammatical errors or anything that would throw off my chances of getting what I aim and worked so hard for. That just proves how much I really want this.

[B]February. March. April. [/B]

Waiting took forever. I was beginning to lose grasp of hope as the days went by. One morning, a miracle happened. I was in chemistry class when I got sent to the principal’s office. I had no idea what was going on so I thought I was in trouble. Thinking of the possible “bad things” that I could have done, my mind went blank. When I couldn’t come up with anything. I had a good feeling deep in my gut that I must be receiving some kind of reward. As I was making my way toward the office, I remembered that I applied for JSA China. The butterflies in my stomach made my heart jump and so I ran even faster, eager to hear the news. When I stepped inside, the lady in the front desk handed me the telephone. It took me a while to realize it was Elliot on the other end of the line. Everything around me became blur. It was not until he said the words “See you in Beijing” that I knew it was real. I felt paralyzed. I hardly noticed his words until he congratulated me for the second time. I was unable to reply and only managed to thank him. As soon as I hung up the phone, I screamed. Everyone looked at me with a puzzled look on their faces. My face turned red but I didn’t care. I was ecstatic, literally jumping for joy. It was unbelievable.

[B]May. June[/B]

The months had passed so quickly. School had just ended and it was officially summer. I’ve spent most of my days marking X’s on the calendar. My enthusiasm skyrocketed.

[B]July 1, 2011, 7am. Guam Int’l Airport[/B]

I stepped inside and saw two students waiting patiently as I hurried toward the counter, giving the lady my passport. While looking for a place to sit, I figured they’re the ones I’ll be spending my summer with. I was right. The girl with black, short hair turned out to be my roommate. Her name is Doyi Lee. She’s from Saipan and she goes to Saipan Southern High School. The tall girl who was wearing a blue sweatshirt said her name was Beatrix Naholowaa. Our flight to Japan was delayed for two hours due to bad weather. Once we got there, the worst thing happened. Because of the delay, our connecting plane had already left. We were stuck in the airport for 10 hours, just waiting for a new flight. Soon enough, the weather cleared up and we continued our journey.

[B]July 2, 201, 1am, Beijing, China.[/B]

I couldn’t see anything but streetlights as I looked out the plane’s window. I climbed out of the plane and my eyes could only make out of what seems like darkness. I assumed it was early in the morning. The sight of Beijing’s huge airport overwhelmed me. There, we claimed our luggage and changed our money to the new bills that we’ll be using for the next month. They felt different. We then waited for a JSA representative to greet us but because our flight was messed up, there was no one there. We couldn’t possibly wait for someone to take us to the dorm; it’ll take all morning. We decided to take a cab to our new home—Capital Normal University. It took us an hour to get to our destination. That was the scariest one hour of our lives! We didn’t know what we were doing, the signs were foreign and none of us spoke Chinese. The driver couldn’t speak English so we just showed him the map. An enormous building enshrouded us. We took our belongings and went in. In the lobby, we saw a lady sitting down. We introduced ourselves and found out that she was part of the program. Her name is Elvira Hammond and she turned out to be our professor for Chinese History and Government class. She helped us register and gave us our keys to our rooms. We hurried up the fourth floor and unpacked. It was 2:30am and we were all exhausted.

[B]Week 1.[/B]

The first three days were orientation. We took time getting to know all 27 of us. We also spent the days being used to our new environment. The food was not what I expected it to be; food stands were just scattered all over the place, vendors selling the same things. And I’ve never seen so much pollution in my life! The haze made it impossible for us to see the sky. Where I’m from, the sun is always up in the blue skies. However, there were no clear skies, starry nights, nor clean air. They were all nothing but myths of China.

[B]Week 2[/B]

Our daily routine: Breakfast, two hours of Chinese History and Gov’t class, one hour of Mandarin class, one hour for lunch, and another hour of Mandarin and an hour more of history. Some days we substituted history class to go on field trips. We visited the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and the Great Wall of China. We plowed for community service at the Organic Farm. We also had free afternoons to catch up on work, do laundry, or explore Beijing on our own.

[B]Week 3.[/B]

Just when I thought I’ve gotten used to China’s way of life, another hurdle got in my way. We went to Xi’an for the weekend and to be able to get there, we took a train. There, culture shock got me: squatting toilets. I’ve never seen such a thing! I was so hesitant about it I ended up not using it anyway. This week was also the week I learned important lessons. We went to one of the poor villages and visited children of migrant workers. We took care of them and even for a short period of time we tried to make them happy. JSA as a whole changed my opinions on how life would really be. People in America have the easy way out while the majority here has to really work hard and sometimes it’s barely enough. It just really opened my eyes about everything. Graduation day came and a few days later and we soon had to leave.

[B]July 26, 11am, Saipan Int’l Airport.[/B]

The travel back was not the same. All the enthusiasm I had had vanished. We had left our hearts in China. I have learned many things during my stay in Beijing. A huge part of learning is taking risks, which brings me back to the very first day we arrived in China where we took a cab by ourselves. I’ve met so many amazing people! Everyday I look back and see how far I’ve come. Yet, my conscience taps me in the shoulder, reminding me to plant my feet on the ground because I still have a long way to go in the order to prove myself. Three weeks isn’t enough but I’m thankful I was given this experience. I came to follow my dream, I saw the things I was not used to and I conquered my fears.