Feel, Touch, Cross

I cannot imagine how I could finally end up having a very good relationship with some Chinese friends. It began when I decided to ask them to go travel to the beach along with some Indonesian friends. We were classmates in an “English for Business” class, and we had a project to do a group presentation for midterm test. Our relation was so awkward at the beginning, then I and other Indonesian friends asked the Chinese to arrange a travel to the beach. They enthusiastically accepted the offer.
We had a great moment with them in the beach. They exposed their real identities. Some of them looked very introvert in the class, but I cannot believe that they were all ‘crazy’ in the water. Ha! I got it. I could make them having a good impression of my country because I found the beach was so magnificent above the white sand, and the sky was so crystal clear.
The most important point I got was when we had sharing moments. I got several interesting information I did not know in advance. Do you know what the meaning of “Gong Xi Fa Chai” is? I thought it would be a kind of “Happy Chinese New Year”. No, I was wrong. Its true meaning was a kind of “I hope you earn much money and blessed”. Wow, that was wise words for all people in the world. I was so delighted to hear that. The next surprising fact was about the history of how they pronounced themselves as ‘China’ instead of ‘Cina’. In Indonesia, the word ‘China’ was English and Indonesian language for China was ‘Cina’ (pronounced as Cina, Ci like in ‘visit’; not China, Chi like in ‘fly’). Therefore, we called them ‘Cina’ without feeling any mistake. Then, they told us the right way of pronouncing ‘China’. Cina as Indonesian pronounced it, was how Japanese called Chinese people when Japanese was invading China. It had bad meaning as they said, but I did not ask any further information because I had to respect them as well. Thus, we began to call them ‘China’ as it supposed to be pronounced.
The traveling gave me a new glimpse for China. Since that moment, I wanted to improve my knowledge about China, the Chinese, their culture and language, and of course their foods which are famous in whole world. That was the reason why I challenged myself to apply this scholarship. I can improve some experiences by catching every moment there and make it written because writing is my passion as well :)