My TWU, Xi’an China Experience

Komal Kotyal
Sep 7, 2018 · 4 min read

I had lots of questions before entering China , would I be able to understand English with different accent? How do I communicate to my family ? Is whatsApp banned even with VPN? Oh! there are people with experience ! who will also be learning with me! I don’t know how to use spring framework and there is going to be a project on spring.
I don’t know how to eat with chopstick!!! Do I get to eat only noodles every day ! And lots more.

After a month I got answers to almost all my questions.
whatsApp works on VPN , But no video calls using whatsApp ! I can use WeChat payment even if I am not Chinese Citizen. Spring is not that difficult to understand on surface level and people helped me whenever I struggled. I can surely understand simple English in all accents. And Speaking is not the only way of communication , we can do actions , we can draw . We can set some social contracts to make it easier.

Diversity” is the word that comes in my mind when I think of TWU. There were people of all region , religion , race , gender, LGBTQ , age … !

They all had very different experience , background and interests . But In the end I finally found something that is very common in every one I met , I would describe it as Empathy . I got help from everyone to learn how to use chopstick , how to practice mindfulness and how to speak their language , how to improve presentation skills and a lot more.

I shared my values , my experience and my concerned topics with them , and people were really understanding and interested to learn more about me , India and my experience. I was nervous before my first presentation. When I went on stage I saw those smiling and encouraging faces, and I realised this is the place I can feel safe to talk about my every idea.
I was nervous to share about the things that I am struggling with in my go to check-in , then Dhruv just shared his experience of TWU and I felt oh, he might understand me. He helped me a lot throughout my journey. There is a difference between a trainer and a mentor. And I think He is my mentor.
I was concerned about how to achieve so many objectives in one month but there was no expectation that I needed to achieve all of them and I had all liberty to chose where I want to improve myself and just ask for help in that objective. Here nobody tells you to go this way , instead will encourage you to choose your own journey of learning.

So life at TWU is awesome and hectic , but how was my life in Xi’an. Xi’an had some of the best flavours of tea , and food that surprised me with their taste. I loved HotPot .It has many kinds of meat inside a boiling soup, This dish is usually shared with 4/5 people , which brings people close. And I love peking duck , beng beng noodles , cold noodles , sticky rice, and potato pumpkin sweets , clams and xi’an local chicken …. and many more food options. Muslim street is my favourite place to try different kind of food.

Apart from food I also loved Huashan mountains in China, I realised how giant mountains can be. And I saw even small kids and people above 70 climbing mountains which encouraged me to not give up and climb higher.

I have a lot to share on mountains maybe in next blog.Then on weekend trip I visited Louguantai Temple and thanks to Lin Ning for sharing his knowledge of taoism I really liked the history behind it.

I also visited city wall where I enjoyed riding a two seater bicycle.

I learned about Chinese culture , how people gather and do square dance. And I really enjoyed the lightings at night.

There was a time when I felt low as I was away from home for very long and I fell sick , I went to hospital and came back to hotel. Everyone came at night. I was eager to ask what I missed ! and everyone came asking me how I am now? I saw everyone was more concerned about me throughout the day than I was in the end of the day.
The news was even spread to India office that when they came back from office they were also asking me how I am . I am very grateful to be part of this TWU62 family.

Thanks to Raeger Tay

Komal Kotyal

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