I returned to the restaurant where we had our first Chinese meal, Daqinghua Dumplings. This time I went with my MSU friend Lauren and two Chinese friends we met in Qingdao, Julie and Nancy. The dumplings were just as delicious as the first time, and they even let us wear the hostesses’ hats! 🙂

This week we also had our last Taiji class,

and our last Mandarin classes. We all aced our exams, which made our teachers very happy. And we gave them thank-you gifts, which made them even happier! Giant teddy bears, red carved lacquer boxes and jade charms. They loved them.

Later that night, we had our closing ceremony and dinner. We went to a very nice hotel where a private room was set up for us. The dinner was lovely, and we had great conversations with the school faculty. We each said a few words in Mandarin about our time in Qingdao and experience at the university. It was great practice and our teachers were very encouraging. We made a lot of progress from our first day here!

After dinner they set up Karaoke in the same room and we spent hours and hours singing and dancing.

After the ceremony we went back to LPG, one of the bars we frequent, and played some pool. The Mandarin teachers came with us and stayed for a couple of hours. They even joined in on the pool game!

Afterward, we said goodbye to our teachers with lots of hugs and kind words. They truly helped us immensely with our Mandarin proficiency. They were patient and understanding the entire way. We will always remember them and our amazing experience as Qingdao University students.

Future International MBA (IMBA) students, I cannot say enough wonderful things about this experience. I highly recommend selecting Mandarin as your foreign language to learn during your IMBA studies, and taking advantage of the amazing opportunity that is the China Track. You will be glad you did!

View all articles by Deborah Zinn.