It is terribly difficult to believe that we’re already saying goodbye to the Chinese students. Their enthusiasm was, with no doubt, infectious, and I entered the bus every morning with a smile, eager to explore New York City with my new friends. For our final day together, we visited Rockefeller Plaza, as well as The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the United Nations Headquarters. The UN HQ was very fitting, considering that over the course of the past several days, we all did indeed grow into global citizens, immersing ourselves with each others’ cultures by virtue of teaching each other our respective languages and sharing perspectives on whatever came to our minds.
During our free hour at the Rockefeller Plaza, Jules and I tagged along with a group of Chinese students to the Lego Store, the NBC Experience Store, and the Nintendo Store. A very small, although memorable, connecting moment took place in the NBC store when a couple of the Chinese students told us that they had seen The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Hearing this, it was great to know that humor knows no borders; if something is genuinely hilarious, then it will find itself unhindered by communication barriers – and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon is, in my humble opinion, worthy of inducing laughter in many, many different languages.
The Nintendo Store, which I frankly thought would be a huge hit among my Chinese peers, was actually met by some uncertainty and curiosity. Characters that I thought to be familiar among all people of my generation were not recognized by my Chinese peers! As much as I wish to have been able to introduce each of my favorite characters to my new friends from overseas, we quickly ran out of time, and had to settle for a group photo in front of a large, in-store statue of Donkey Kong before leaving to rejoin the rest of the program.
At the end of the day, I’m simply glad to have made a group of amazing, intelligent, energetic new friends who have taught me so much in the short time we spent together; I can only hope that they think of our trip to the Nintendo Store the next time they stumble upon Donkey Kong!