What China Has Truly Taught Me

I thought I would do something a bit different using this blog as more of a ‘what has been on my mind lately’ than just being more or less informative of the adventures I have been having here in China. Don’t get me wrong, I love writing about these events and trying to give them as much detail as possible. Bear with me on this one though; it may be long, but hopefully you get through it and understand that this trip has been so much more than just a mere studying abroad opportunity. It has helped me grow not only academically; but I think more importantly, spiritually and socially as well. Before I get started, I think it only does it justice to give some background on my past and what ultimately led me to make the big decision to embark on this opportunity in China. This is pretty personal, and I am not sure really if anyone knows how I really felt through my first couple years of college; but I feel like this experience really has made me understand it all. Hopefully you can get through it without skipping too much of it =]

            So there I was first day of college, finally having my big boy pants on ready to tackle whatever was thrown at me. I was really enjoying the whole experience, was going to a great school with my best friend and brother Logan, had a great girlfriend, amazing relationship with Christ, and honestly just loving life like any college student should be. Although my faith was tested time after time that first year of college, I felt like I was still making it a priority to be that Godly man I was taught to be, but also that I wanted to be.

Most of you know that my relationship with my girlfriend in the beginning of the summer after my freshman year came to an end after dating for almost four and half years…I put these dots here because this is the point where I felt like I was stuck in a deep ravine struggling to pull myself out. Now I know that looking back, I honestly believe that it was my fault that the relationship ended, but getting out of the ravine seemed like a pretty daunting task. What made it so hard for me was that she wasn’t just my girlfriend, she was my best friend. It may sound hard to believe, but other than Logan, I can honestly say that after my first year of college, I did not really have many people to confide in while at school. Making good friends at such a big school proved harder to me than I originally thought =/ She also kept me in check when it came to my faith, and to this day, I still cannot thank her enough for that.

            Now I only say this because this whole thing really affected my decision to go on this trip. Needless to say, I lost that person in my life that seemed to keep me on track…and my sophomore year, I would honestly say I wasn’t myself…

            This is where I began to struggle the most. From that point forward; the decisions I made, and the person I saw myself as was because of me and not anyone else. I found it hard to understand God’s plan for me, doubting Him for choices I was making, and not really allowing myself to be open with new people. This stunted any opportunities I may have had to grow and move on with a near-sighted attitude. I did not want to meet new people, have fun at parties, and really just stayed to myself. This may come to a surprise to people, but I was able to put on a happy face because frankly I was really good at it, and it made other people happy.

            School just seemed to add to the stress as well. After a decent freshman year, classes seemed to be getting best of me, and my grades showed it. I would often complain to my parents how stressed out I was and all this time. I felt as if I was being suffocated with this work load, and no one seemed to be able to help me. It was at this moment when I started to really think about this China trip as a way to really start over, as a way to find myself. The more I thought about the opportunities it could bring me, the more it seemed like an amazing plan to pursue it. I started thinking to myself why it sounded better to me now versus at the beginning of the semester. I began to ask myself questions like: Would I have done this if I was still in a relationship? What opportunities will this open to you? What reasons would keep you from pursuing this? Are these reasons justified, or do they just stem from uncertainty and being scared? So many questions…and then I was asked by someone who went on this trip two years ago, “Why not?” It was something this simple that gave me the final push to send in my deposit reserving me a spot for China 2013. As I am writing this I would say, one of the best decisions I have made in my young 21 years as I will explain later.

After accepting that I was headed half way around the world in less than a year, my mindset seemed to change. I was actually happy again =] I really started to trust that God had a plan for me again. I ended that year pretty close to a few of my fraternity brothers but no one really outside my house minus some friends from home. After feeling like I ended the year well, a bomb shell was dropped on me in the form of me losing my internship that I worked hard to get. I again felt like I was pretty subpar with what everyone thought of me. I really was pretty hurt, and felt like I was again lost so deep in a ravine, that no one could help me out. Thank the Lord for my brother, Nate, who was able to get me a job in Indy that I absolutely loved. I was also able to live with one of my best friends from middle school and his sister. It really was a great summer looking back at it.

It started to make me look at where all my doubts were coming from, why I had lost my motivation to be that person that so many people looked up to. Simply put, I had lost my foundation in who I was in Christ. I looked back on why I felt like I couldn’t climb out of that hole. It was because I was doing all the work myself. God was just waiting for me to stop being so selfish, to understand that He is more than willing to lend the helping hand, and to realize that He does have a plan for me.

I took this mindset into my first semester as a junior, and although I still struggled with school; I was able to have the most fun I have had in college thus far. The semester came to an end which meant that my trek to China just got very real. My original questions crept back into my head about why I decided to go, but this time the uncertainty and nerves seemed to fade as quickly as they came. It almost felt like at this point during winter break that God had been preparing me for this trip. I honestly had no nerves leading up to leaving in early January. This was the first time where I felt at peace with myself, that all the struggles I had leading up to this were for something, and that God knew what He is doing with my life even if I didn’t.

The weekend before the big day of departure, I went to a New Year’s party with some of my best friends from middle school. While I was there, I was able to talk with Matt, who had done this China trip the previous year, and Bryan, who had also had done a studying abroad. They both just gave me more confidence that I was making the right decision while also telling me this: “This experience will change you as a person.” Although not understanding what they really meant by that, I thanked them for reassuring that this was the right choice for me. The night ended with good times and somewhat sad goodbyes as I wouldn’t be seeing them for an entirety of a semester.

The day came that I was to leave for China, and I had only high expectations for what was to come knowing that God had my back in whatever was to happen. I boarded the plane with confidence knowing that although I was leaving my family behind, I would be making a new one with my fellow students on the trip. The plane made a soft landing after an 18 hour flight, and the new adventures became a reality.

I am writing this finally understanding what both Bryan and Matt were talking about before I left. “This experience will change who you are as a person.” It is somewhat of a hard thing to explain, but I will try my best to explain at least what this experience has taught me. If you have read my other blog posts, you know that my adventures have taking me far and wide in this strange country. I was able to get to the middle of China on my own only knowing a handful of Chinese words, I played soccer with an entire team of Asians (they are pretty good), I drank a beer in the tallest bar in the world, I have traveled countless miles in a subway beneath Shanghai being completely confident I will get off at the right stop each time, I have been able to keep my faith in a country where my faith causes much controversy, I befriended a complete stranger on a 14 hour train ride to the point where he was inviting us for dinner the next day (he spoke almost no English), I have climbed a famous mountain, I have ridden a bike on top of 1400 year old wall, I have visited an army that has been dead for hundreds of years, I have done many things that I wouldn’t have dared to do or even thought I would be doing my freshman year of college. I have grown so much as a person, as a student, and as a Christian.

Coming to China has not just been a studying abroad experience. It has shown me that the small town of New Haven, Indiana is not actually the center of the world. I was a person who doubted he wanted to live outside of this small town, as amazing as it sounds; now see that opportunities live in all parts of the world: not only for work, but for spiritual outreach as well. I know now that I am a stronger individual, and I am giving myself credit for once. Again this feeling, it truly is hard to explain…its like a feeling of being happy all the time, even when you aren’t, knowing that through all the struggles, TRULY KNOWING, that God is that backing you always needed and will always have.

Hopefully you have caught on to why my choice to go to China and my experiences while I have been here were and are so important to me. Looking back to see what got me here only reassures me that I am where I need to be =] I lost my best friend who kind of held me together, struggled in school, struggled with new relationships, and lost an internship. These things may not sound too extreme compared to other trials, but it still was enough to question really everything. Finally realizing its not about myself but rather about Him, I got a new internship that I loved, faith was stronger, new friends, came to China, gained a new family, faith has never been stronger. Not saying that losing my best friend was a good thing, and not at all what I was feeling at the time, it was definitely something that I wouldn’t change even if I could! It just proves that through struggle, positives still arise =]. I understand that there will be many more struggles to come, but I can only smile knowing I have a great group of friends, family, and most of all God that has my back =]

My overall goal of sharing this with everyone is to instill two things!!

1.      Don’t let new challenges or experiences seem intimidating, there is always something to learn from each of them

2.      Do not doubt God’s plan for you! Understand that you will be put through trials but will ultimately be okay =]

I truly hope that sharing this has been beneficial to you somehow, even if it was just to put a smile on your face with the reassurance of God’s love and grace for you.

One more thing before I head out =] The Easter service that I went to was so fulfilling today. Seeing a couple hundred people from literally all over the world singing and rejoicing for the raising of Jesus from the dead put me in awe. It gave me goosebumps just seeing all of God’s people of many denominations under one roof for the same reason…it is definitely a sight I will never forget! One of the important verses that was used in the sermon was “Philippians 4:13” which I feel is so fitting for what I have shared.

            “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength”

                                                                                                -Philippians 4:13

Hope all is well =]

Cheers from China!

Corbin

The New Campus and St. Patty's Day

First of all I just want to say that I am sorry for now posting too much since I have gotten back from our Trip. This campus although extremely large, is quite dull and uneventful compared to the city life back at the other campus.

I just wanted to stop in and talk about really how different going to school at a university in China is verse one in the states like Purdue. I also will share of my St. Patty day journey back into the heart of Shanghai to celebrate the Green holiday. It was quite the experience being in an area where the knowledge of this holiday is almost non existent.

On Monday and Tuesday I have class at 8:00 in the morning which really is not too bad. The main difference  is that on this campus, all of the classrooms have windows on at least two sides. This is because the academic building are set up in such a way that all the classroom doors lead straight outside. The stairwells and everything are outside with big almost courtyard areas incorporated into their design. It actually causes a great airflow through each classroom which allows them to save money on not installing any air system. It also makes for paying attention much harder than at Purdue. You would not notice the nice sunny day in most classrooms at Purdue, but on this campus, its just tempting you to give it a chance to wonder about. I will make sure to get some pictures of this so you guys understand more of what I am talking about.

Because I do not have classes on Wednesday, a group of guys I hang out with usually go to play some pick up games of basketball on one of the many courts on campus. Whether on either campus, the love of this game is extremely evident. The courts will be full from sun up until sun down with teams usually lining up to play the next game. We usually only have to wait one or two games, and then the games begin. Our overall record is I think 18-3. To clear some things up, most of the guys we play are the same height if not taller. They also have perfected the turn-around-no-look-throw-shot-over-shoulder shot, which happens to go in more times than not it seems. The games are actually much closer than I originally thought they would be. It definitely feels good to get out there and brush up on some skills that may or may not have been lost in the past couple years haha.

There is also a soccer field, track, vball court, and ping pong within a 5 minute walk of our dorm which is really nice. Below is a picture of my dorm room. It is actually much bigger than most of us thought they would be. Each room has its own bathroom and fridge which is extremely convenient.

Mom, I am sorry that I did not make my bed...(its the nearest one)

This campus also had six pretty large cafeterias. Each has its own specialty but most serve the same stuff. My favorite dish so far is fried noodles with beef or chicken. They make it in front of you and only costs about a dollar for the entire meal. I also have been a ton of rice and chicken which has helped me perfect the use of chopsticks even more! This pretty much covers the extent of what the campus has to offer which other than sports, is really not a whole lot. There is not much to do outside the campus either because its on the outskirts of Shanghai. The trip in by metro is about a hour and half ride, but its totally worth it when you know green beer is being served on the other side.

On St. Patty's weekend, we had signed up for a Bar Crawl to celebrate all that is green and lucky. It was a pretty eventful and fun filled night. We got to the first bar to register where we got a free t-shirt, free beer, free shots, and best of all free fries! The bar was packed full of people, maybe 5 or 6 of them were Asian haha. After a couple of beers and shots, the buses came to pick up the masses to head to the next place. We pulled up to a club and started the party. It was at this club I must mention, that Elliot decided to get up on the bar and dance on the stripper pole. It was quite the view...haha leave it to Elliot to be awesome like that. I did get video of it, but for some reason it won't load to Facebook =/ We then made it to the next club where it was even crazier. The picture below was taken by the event staff and shows most of the people who were in our group. It calmed down after that as we ended at a local Irish pub in downtown Shanghai. More green beer was served and our night ended at about 3 AM as we fell asleep in the hostel.

Just look at our facial hair...pretty awesome thats for sure!

It was a pretty awesome weekend! If you are ever in China, you must come visit Shanghai. Its a pretty great city. I am not sure what else to talk about because there really has not been much happening at this new campus.

If you guys have any questions that I have not covered answers, I would love to attempt in answering them. Just email me or Facebook message me =]

I also cannot believe that I have been here for about 3 months. Time flies when you are on an adventure thats for sure! =]

Hope everyone is well!

Corbin

P.S.

This is a kilo burrito that we ordered from downtown. I did not feel well the day after...

This is where I usually get my snacks...nothing like meat on a stick, quite delicious!

Xi'an - The Final Few Days

Hello all!! I am sorry that I have not posted about the rest of my travels from my spring break trip to Xi'an, China; but the first couple of weeks of school seemed to fly by and kept me busy. Anyways like I said, I am going to finish up with my vacation so that I can start telling of my adventures here in Minhang!

JUST A SIDENOTE, MAKE SURE YOU ACTUALLY READ WHERE IT SAYS READ BELOW! IT IS A PRETTY AWESOME STORY!

I left off saying that I would talk about the bike ride around the wall. I want to preface a little bit by saying that we knew that there was a wall that surrounded some of the city, but we were not expecting it to be such a major part of the city. It still stands after hundreds of years, has been renovated a couple of times, and still brings people from all over China and the world to see it. Like most walls, it was used to keep the inner city safe during wars with other nations and actually was never penetrated from my understanding which is pretty cool. We woke up at about 10 AM with the ambition to bike around the inner city on top of the wall. Although the ride was about 9 miles long, it was well worth it just for the sight seeing.

As the journey continued around the wall, you could start to get the feeling of what it might have been like all those years ago. The seemingly impossible feat of winning this city just seemed completely unfathomable, having walls that stood 30+ feet the whole way around the city. You could definitely get the feeling that living inside the walls brought not only the feeling of safety, but that also of being important to what was happening inside the walls. Again, I keep saying that its nothing like I have ever seen, but it truly is exactly that! There really is nothing to compare it to back in the States where hundreds of years seems like a forever ago, but these walls have been here 5 times that! Anyways, after countless amazing views, the trip around the wall finally ended, and we made our way back to the hostel. It was definitely another day well spent on our trip! Below are just a few of the many pictures taken while on the journey around the wall with some brief explanations.

Carlin and Zack thought it would be a good idea to get a tandem cycle...they were regretting it later haha. Josh is just a boss in this picture.

This is the shot down North Street I believe. You can see the Bell Tower in the distance down the middle. That is the halfway point for the inner city. Another one of these distances will get you to the other side of the wall. It just shows how big this wall is all the way around.

This picture was take from a corner of the wall. We weren't sure what this building was, but it had a gold roof that we thought was pretty cool.

I had to try to take a scenic shot from the wall. This was what it ended up being; you can be the judge haha.

A picture looking back at the East Gate I believe.

We took a couple group shots, but this one was one of the best ones that was on my camera. We pretty much were the kings of the wall while we were on it =]

Alrighty, so this pretty much accounts for what we did most of Wednesday. We ended the day by playing some cards and hanging out at the bar in the basement of our hostel.

Thursday brought even more fun with our trek up one of the most scenic mountains in China. The Huashan Mountains are pretty renown when it comes to China mountains. We got up pretty dang early, and by dang early I mean about 5 AM to catch a bus to the mountains. Mind you, we still really don't know how to speak the Chinese language, so getting anywhere is quite the struggle with the language barrier. After much pointing and looking like confused white people that we were, we made it to the bus! The ride was about 2 hours which we all used to catch up on some needed sleep. We got there where a taxi immediately took us to the base of the mountain. Because it was the off season, we were able to get the tickets to enter the part for about half the price which we were all pretty happy about. 

A couple of pictures that I took at the base of the mountain and while we were in the city of Huashan that I thought turned out quite well!

The city is really dwarfed by the mountain really anywhere you look.

The trek up started by taking a sky tram to the lowest peak, The North Peak. Me being afraid of heights, well lets not say afraid, I do not particularly like being that high haha, was a little nervous going up on a tram or actually heading up a mountain in general. Regardless of what I liked, we made it through the ride with some ridiculous sights. After we got out, we decided to keep heading up the mountain, and holy cow...some of the climb was extremely steep. Steps seemed to be haphazardly placed at random intervals and heights. This made the journey that much more tiresome. Although we did not quite get to the highest point of the mountain, we still got pretty high. By the time we got back to the base of the mountain, we were pretty well spent having not really done anything like this before. We also did not know we could take any bus back to Xi'an without paying extra, so we waited about 3 hours for our bus to leave just hanging out in the town seen above. We got alot of strange looks like we didn't belong, but we were content just playing cards on a bench we found. We got back to the City of Xi'an at about 7 PM, so our day was pretty involved in quite long...we all decided to call it a early night and decide what we would do in the morning. Again below are some of the neat pictures I took on the mountain.

IF ANYTHING, READ BELOW!!!

Friday brought a pretty relaxing day just because we knew that we were leaving extremely early the next morning to make our flight time. We went and visited the drum tower, hit up the Muslim quarters again, and ended up a pretty raging club! I first want to tell you of our adventures into the shopping part of the Muslim corner of the inner city. While we were looking through the fake market, Carlin decided he wanted to check out a calligrapher who also did very intricate paintings on scrolls.

The story I am about to tell, I still can't believe that it happened, especially in the middle of China of all places! We walk into this woman's shop just casually looking at all of her work. The paintings and calligraphy were awe-inspiring, done with such detail, such a steady hand, and with such love. That may sound corny, but here is why I said that. After a few of us decided to go ahead and buy some of her work that included common phrases and some with Bible verses, the lady, appalled that Americans were interested in her work, just decided to open up to us, complete strangers, about her life story and struggles she had gone through. She first warmly thanked us that she was so grateful that we were buying from her shop, and secondly blew me away with what she said next.

She started showing a picture of her and her father, saying that he opened this show many years ago, and had taught her everything she knew about the arts. She then told us that about seven years ago, he was diagnosed with cancer. She was heart stricken and really didn't understand why this was happening to him or their family. She found out that many people were actively praying for him and their family, which gave her hope. After seeing that her dad was at peace with the illness, not letting it get the best of him and never deterring him from being the happy person she always knew him to be, she came to the realization that prayer was an extremely powerful thing! She began to actual read out of the book that so many verses came out of that her father had written onto scrolls. She began to understand God's grace and the eternal Love He has for all people! Although two years after her Dad was diagnosed with cancer he passed away, she said that she was happy to have those couple years with him in complete happiness. She also mentioned that she was never able to do calligraphy before he passed away, but seemingly mastered it which she attests to God's love for her.

As she was telling us this, I could not help but tear up a little bit knowing the struggles she went through. I then started to realize how powerful God truly is! I did not expect to experience anything like this being in China where Christianity is not really looked highly upon. This woman is a testament to God's love for all people no matter where in the World! Through all the adversity and struggles, you could definitely tell that she loved her life and knew that God had a plan for her! Elliot and I talked to each other after this experience, and we both agreed that we could feel God's presence while standing in a simple shop in the middle of China! WHO KNEW!!

If this doesn't give you hope and strength in Christ, then I am not sure what will. I know it definitely reassured me that Christ is everywhere, working in those you would least expect. He is such an amazing blessing to all of us, that I think often times we forget that He helps us in times when we least expect it. So I guess what I am try to say through this amazing woman's story is that don't just assume that someone is different from you religiously just because culturally there are no connections. God has an amazing plan for all of us and chooses us as His own! I think to this point in my adventures here in China, nothing has really stuck with me as much as this one! If you are ever interested in visiting Xi'an, Helen has quite the story for you!


After ending our journey in the Muslim corner, we headed off to a club called Salsa. For some reason in China, I have been letting go of my timid "I can't dance" mentality and trying new things, this club being another prime example. Us five white people were the only foreigners it seemed in the entire club of what seemed like hundreds of people. That being said, there was one platform on the dance floor, not only did we take this platform and dance, but I took the platform and did the best I could haha. We were quite the spectacle for all of the Asians that were also on the dance floor. The attention was on the crazy white foreigners who decided to get up there and dance! I am sure this is hard for you guys to picture, Corbin in front of a crowd of Asians dancing, but it really did happen, just ask Elliot! haha, regardless it was a great time! I have quite a few videos I took on my phone, but this blogging site doesn't really do well with videos, so I will just have to show them to you when I get back. Just ask!!

We got up extremely early on Saturday around 4 AM to take a van to the airport. We got there about 6 AM and made our flight at 8. Taking the flight actually was pretty fast, and there wasn't a delay of any sort. We got into Shanghai at about 10:30 AM and made it back to the campus by noon.

The journey was an amazing one, mostly because we were able to get to a random place in China on our own, and then make it back in one piece! These are the kind of things that I will always remember and use in the future when traveling.

So that brings me to the new campus which although isn't in downtown Shanghai, it still has its own flavor of things to talk about. My next blog will hopefully be sooner than later talking about the different things discovered at this new campus!!

Again hope all is well at home! Hopefully you were able to take something away from this post, especially the story of the woman finding God.

Corbin

P.S. Because we are at a new campus, my address has changed! It is:

CHINA
Shanghai CITY
Min Hang JiaoTong University
Dong Chuan Rd #800
Foreigner Student building #9
Room Number 107
P.O. BOX 200240

Update on My Spring Break Posting

I know I said I was going to post my adventures of spring break here, but for some reason these past few days have seemed to fly by! I am not sure whether or not its just me getting used to this new campus or what, but I have not seem to have time to get my posts on here. I will be posting about the rest of our adventures of spring break in Xi'an by the end of this week!!

Hope all is well in the states! It is going quite well here in China =]

Corbin