We had two groups that met up in Shanghai and Beijing, before departing as a whole to Yichang. At Yichang, we met with the other group and embarked on the 5-hour drive to the school. The drive was enveloped by amazing views of the mountainside and rivers flowing alongside. Our captivation made the drive feel very short.

Our first thoughts of the school was that it wasn’t bad. We had previously envisioned it as a school with little to no technologies and schoolchildren who were oblivious to everything outside of China. However, the fact was that the school was clean and sophisticated. The landscaping was well kept and the grounds were swept hourly. The children all had WeChats and smartphones and even knew about American pop stars and famous trends among teenagers. Over the coming days, I was surprised by how much the children knew.

We arrived at approximately 4:30 in the afternoon. The school had prepared an opening ceremony for us, but the delay in our travel had made that unavailable. We settled into our rooms, which was comprised of 4 bunk beds that had a carrying capacity of 8 people. Us 5 boys had more than enough room. In the room, there were two squat toilets with dividers and doors. The view from the window was magnificent as we were situated in a mountain valley. I can’t imagine the scenery in the fall. Staying on track, the boys dormitory was 5 floors and we were on the third, right next to a staircase. Our room was the only one with a lock on it, which allowed us to keep our belongings safe while we were away from the room. However, there were some faults that we overcame with time. Firstly, the door could not be locked from the inside. Thus, when we were in our dorm anybody could come in at any time. Secondly, the door had a window situated right in the middle. There was no curtain to block it, so theoretically anyone could just watch us in our room at any given moment. Luckily, there was spare cardboard on a bunk and Brandon was able to fasten a blocker that slid into the slot of the window like a glove. This saved us from the notion of being stared at by the curious neighbors of our dormitory. Lastly, the room smelled like a very sweaty, due to the lack of filtration that mixed with the humidity of our environment. Personally, I wasn’t very bothered by this but other people (Jiahui) struggled with the stench.