My experience this summer studying abroad in Shanghai was one of the most exciting, educational, and ridiculous 3 months of my life. From learning about a new culture, to making new friends, to earning credit towards my major, to having one heck of a good time, my trip was definitely one I will never forget.

I am a mechanical engineering student in the Engineering Global Leadership Honors Program and I decided to study abroad in Shanghai the summer after my junior year. I had previously chosen to focus on Southeast Asia as my region of interest for EGL, as I've heard over and over again that China is going to be one of the most important countries in the world during my life time. I had taken 2 years of Chinese language classes, but after struggling through them I would definitely not consider myself anything close to fluent. I had heard about the Joint Institute and summer program that Michigan has with Shanghai Jiaotong University (SJTU) and realized this would be a great way to study abroad and still take classes required for my degree. I had done some traveling in the past, but never to a country that didn't speak English. I thought this program would be a good way to visit China, but make things less overwhelming for me.

I spent May and June in Shanghai studying at SJTU at the Minhang campus. The campus is technically in Shanghai, but it is a 30-60 minute subway ride from the downtown parts of the city. I took EECS 314 and a Chinese culture and language course for a total of 7 credits while I was there. EECS 314 was taught by a Michigan engineering professor and the culture and language class was taught by 2 Chinese teachers. The Chinese teachers were very easy to understand and it was really interesting to not only learn all the material, but also be able to ask questions and get opinions from someone who has spent their entire life in China. Overall, I think the workload was fairly light, at least compared to classes back in Ann Arbor, and I think the professors understood that we were there to do more than just study.

While studying at SJTU, we also got to meet a lot of the Chinese students. They not only became an invaluable tool to learn about Chinese culture, but also became good friends. We often would go out to eat near campus with them. They would show us good restaurants and explain to us what we were eating (you'd be surprised how often we had no idea what was sitting on our plates). Overall, I enjoyed the food, but it took me a couple weeks to figure out what types of Chinese food I liked, where to find them, and how to order.

Most weekends a group of us would take the subway downtown at night to go out to the bars and clubs. Shanghai has a very large European and American population living in the city, so there are plenty of places to go at night, many very Westernized . There are some very expensive clubs and bars, but we quickly learned most of the best and cheapest places to go in the city. One of my favorite bars had a $12 cover for guys and a $6 cover for girls, but once you got in it was an open bar and had two balconies that had amazing views of the city.

Our classes ended at the end of June and I started a short internship with Whirlpool in Shanghai. I had worked for Whirlpool two summers prior and decided to set my internship up on my own. I dealt with the whirlpool office in Benton Harbor, MI to set things up and had things in figured out before I even left for china. A woman in their HR department in Shanghai helped me find an apartment to live in about 4 miles from work. The apartment was actually very similar a hotel, with one double bed, one bathroom, no kitchen, and free house cleaning, and cost me $16 per day. I would take a $1.50 cab to work every morning and a free shuttle home.

I worked from 8-4:30 every day, with a break from 11:30-1 for lunch. The internship was a good experience, but I didn't do very much work. I found it difficult to find work, other than proof-reading English, but was able to meet a lot of people and find out a lot about what they do. Everyone in the office spoke proficient English and was very helpful. One of the best parts was that they invited be to their "team building exercise" one evening, which consisted of a nice 3 hour dinner and playing cards at a tea house afterwards. It's very interesting to see some of the differences in social etiquette at a business dinner in China compared to the US.

I loved my experiences in China this summer. I only knew one of the other 26 people on our trip before leaving, but became very good friends with many of the other students throughout the summer. I'm excited to hang out with a lot of these same people this year back in Ann Arbor. I highly recommend anyone who gets the chance to study abroad while in college, and specifically consider Michigan's study abroad program in Shanghai. You'll be sure to have an amazing time.