Yes, the end of my program finally arrived on Friday, August 17th. Hooray! I did it; I finished! No more language pledge, no more classes, no more waking up early. The final day was interesting... to say the least. In the morning we took our finals and then I started packing like crazy because I was leaving the next day. We went out to lunch with a friend that was leaving that evening. After lunch I continued packing like crazy - I took one suitcase to Shanghai, but prepare yourself for this: I left one suitcase, one carry on, one huge box, and one plastic container in Beijing. Jimmy, my savior, picked up my boxes and stored them for me while I was going to be in Shanghai. By 4pm, I was all packed up and ready to attend the closing ceremony for ACC. Minor detail, I was giving the closing remarks for level four. I prepared and I did it, but it was really at the last minute in between packing my things. Finally I could relax. After the closing ceremony, where I was given my certificate of completion, we all went to have Peking Duck. It was great. It was my first time in Beijing. You dip the duck in a sauce then roll it up in a "pancake." Delicious! We also had many other dishes: mushrooms, vegetables, fish (which I don't eat in China because all the rivers are polluted), fruit, pork, duck soup, and fried ice cream balls? (it was a sort of dessert dish). After the wonderful meal, people socialized in the dorm. I went to the gym. Yes, I am a hard core work out person. I used my two-month gym membership until the very last day. After that we all went to the Bar Street to dance and have fun for one last time together. The teachers even came out to party. I have to admit, it was weird to go clubbing with them and the dance room would have been less crowded for sure, but at least they enjoyed themselves. They really tried to dance, but I just don’t think Chinese bodies can dance to Shakira (it was funny to watch). I slept probably three hours because I left early for Shanghai the next day...ah Shanghai.
Some last thoughts about ACC...
-I'm glad I did it. At the beginning I was scared of level four (the weekly exams, weekly orals, weekly essays, daily tests), but I'm proud of myself for finishing it
- I feel more comfortable with my Chinese. I can read more, write more, hopefully even speak better with my tones on target
- ACC staff was really supportive and great to work with. Even until the end, they were guiding us. My teacher was correcting my tones on a piece of paper right before I gave the closing remarks
- and just like in a movie review (haha) I do recommend this intense language program for anybody who doesn’t mind being targeted/attacked/made feel really bad about their level of Chinese every five seconds. My tones were really off so I got corrected about twenty times for the same word, a pretty easy word too, but now I can correct myself and I know I improved.
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