Sitting at the Airport

Hello again, everyone!

I was not planning to post again until after I had arrived in China; however, two reasons have changed that plan.  One is that I have been overwhelmed by all of the extra love and support I have received from my family and friends over the past week or so prior to my departure.  The encouragement and faith they have given me are truly humbling, and I feel incredibly blessed to have each and every one of them in my life.  I wanted to take this opportunity to sincerely thank everyone who has made this once-in-a-lifetime experience possible for me.  The other reason for my additional post is that my beautiful, intelligent, loving mother insisted that she and my stepfather bring me to the airport three and a half hours before my flight, in case there were any problems.  Luckily (maybe not?), there were no issues and I arrived at my gate with Starbucks in hand three hours before my flight is scheduled to depart.

I am extremely excited to arrive Sunday morning and to get myself settled into a whole new world!

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to my blog!

My name is Alessandra Cianni, and my Chinese name, given to me by my first Chinese teacher nearly six years ago, is Chi Yaling (池雅玲).  In English, the title of my blog is “Alessandra in China.”

I just finished my second year at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), where I am pursuing a major in Chinese and a double minor in Philosophy and Professional Writing.  In one week, I will be leaving California to spend my third year of college in Beijing, China, where I will be studying at two universities and participating in an internship through UCSB’s Education Abroad Program (EAP) Freeman Foundation Internship Program.

My first immersion with the Chinese culture was in the summer of 2008.  At the age of 14, I flew to Taiwan by myself for a two-week study abroad program at Chang Gung University near Taipei, where I studied the Chinese language and mentored Taiwanese children at a summer camp.  The following summer, I went to mainland China to continue my pursuit of this passion, and this time, I spent six weeks in the beautiful country.  I studied the Chinese culture and language at East China Normal University in Shanghai and participated in a three-week homestay.

I hope you all enjoy my blog, and I look forward to submitting my next post from the other side of the world!