by Rohan Sakhrani,
Although it feels like months since we all met at RDU last week, I have trouble believing I’ve spent almost half the time in Zhengzhou. It’s hard to think about the fact that communication with all the friends I’ve made throughout this trip may always be limited to text messaging, but I see that as another reason to come back to this beautiful city. With all that said, my time here is full of lasting memories, and the last full day was definitely a good time.
For breakfast, I tried 胡辣汤, (hu la soup)- a very famous spicy soup in Zhengzhou. It took a second for me to decide whether it was good or not, but before I knew it, my cup was empty.
Our activities began as soon as we arrived to school, with the first being a visit to the Henan Museum. I considered buying one of the earpieces that explains different parts of the exhibits for you, but our exchange students quickly elected to be our tour guides instead. I really appreciated our time there, as it was a great visual representation of familiar topics in school. The museum gave a history of the Henan province from as far as the neolithic period up until modern times. The exhibits included simple passages, stunning models, ancient artifacts, videos and more. I thought the models were a nice touch, especially the ones about architecture in the early dynasties.
Following our time in the museum, I attended one more class before our lunch break. It was sad to see more and more people starting to feel under the weather, but fortunately we had a lot of time to rest and recover. I was really glad to see similar material in their curriculum, because I enjoyed being able to do some work together with my student.
Because our exchange students aren’t too fond of the school’s canteen, I spent lunch nearby but off campus. Over there, I was really happy to meet my student’s friends from the grade above who also came to NC in January. We had some more familiar barbecue with a small flavor twist that made this meal unique. I got barbecue chicken with a citrus-filled salad including pomelo and oranges.
After a really nice walk with Rayan around the city for almost an hour, we hurried back into the classroom for math. Because there wasn’t too much to go over in that class, when I got a call from my friends asking to help them with chemistry in the classroom next to us, I went there instead. We got a chunk of the work done in the short time I was there, and we celebrated with a picture that we sent to our teacher back home since we’re all in the same class.
The most memorable part of the day for me was taking a break from all the learning and letting off some steam by hitting some golf balls on a nearby driving range. My exchange student and two of his classmates that I’d grown somewhat close to took me to one of the 3 only golf courses in Zhengzhou. While there, I enjoyed a beautiful sunset and some beef noodles for my dinner. After our time ran out, we walked around the streets surrounded by the course in the dark, and it was really nice to see parts of the course illuminated by the city lights a mile away.
I’m very excited for what we have in store for us next, however taking a moment to appreciate the city on the ride home felt necessary.
