By Aurora Cai ’21, Contributing Writer

As an international student from Shanghai, China, this was my first summer going back home after a whole year of living in a foreign country that is almost 10,000 miles away. Therefore, the question that most of you may have been asked hundreds of times, “How was your summer?” is difficult for me to answer in just a few words.

I quote some of the pieces in my journal entry:

June 21st

Today is the last day of my internship. I work in an asset allocation company, helping analyze data and graphs. Getting up early, taking the subway during rush hour, and working for eight hours at the same spot… I miss college already. The limited social network and the high number of technology-based tasks make me doubt if this is actually the career path that I want to go on. Before I took this internship, I was contemplating whether I should follow a similar career path as my parents or step outside their comfort zone to work on the things that I am actually interested in: the humanities and social sciences. I am glad that I realized that the kind of work my parents are doing is definitely not suitable for me while I still had time to explore.

June 24th

I managed to climb to the top of the Great Wall! Dad told me that the last time we were here, I also climbed to the top, although I was on his back the whole time. I often went picnicking and hiking with my dad before I entered high school. As he became busier and busier, however, we seldom went outside together. I can’t even remember the last time he went on a family trip with us — maybe 3 years ago? This summer, my Dad finally had the time to travel with us, even though it was only for two days. It has been 16 years since we last visited Beijing. We went to the same places we went to the last time — the Summer Palace, the Great Wall, and the Imperial Palace. Along the way, my parents kept telling me the stories about our last trip to Beijing. I could not remember any of them, so when I heard the story about how I fell asleep on my dad’s back by the time he made it to the top of the Great Wall, I laughed really hard.

July 13th

I am on a plane returning to China from Korea, where I visited my best friend from Hamilton and met her family and her friends. I was really, really nervous about going to a place where I could not understand anything, yet we were screaming when we saw each other in the airport as if we had not seen each other in a century. We cooked Naengmyeon (a type of Korean noodle) and Sundubu (Korean tofu — ugh, it is so good) together and traveled around Korea for only one week. We relaxed on the beach and laughed at a woman whose slipper got whipped away by the waves. We went shopping and put sample makeup on each other’s faces. I am going to miss my home in Korea.

July 24th

It has been such a unique experience of discussing veganism, sustainability, effective altruism, and other topics that I am passionate about. Having more knowledge about things like nutrition, moral ethnicity, and clean meat technology enables me to share my values with others in a better way.

In the United States, people are generally aware of veganism and there are many vegan options in the restaurants. After I came back to China, however, I found it really hard to stick to veganism because of the misconceptions people have about veganism and the limited vegan food options. Instead of giving up, I started to do more research on veganism. I attended a vegan conference that was held in Guangdong, China, and over 160 people gathered together to brainstorm activities to promote the vegan lifestyle, share our vegan journeys, and learn about the nutrition facts of the vegan diet. I ended up convincing my parents that a vegan diet can be very healthy and nutritional, and persuaded my family to eat less meat.

August 6th

Can’t believe that this is my last night at home. I am gonna miss this cozy, warm, soft bed a lot. Like, a lot.

This is what I did this summer. This was a summer that I finally got back to my beloved home. This was a summer about my career plans, my personal values, my family, and my friends. This was a summer of reunions and separations.

‘From Where I Sit’ is a column dedicated to international students’ voices.