My name is NAKYAZZE MARTHA, I am 21 years old and I am from Uganda. Uganda is found in East Africa. it’s a nature filled country with tourism at its heart, we have very good hospitality and welcome people of all races. I am a second year student at Changzhou University Xitaihu campus. It has always been a dream of mine to study abroad in a prestigious university such as Changzhou university, so I am grateful for my family that has supported me especially my mother who have encouraged me to achieve this dream. Changzhou University in Jiangsu province promotes diversity and its academic oriented, which promotes success. My bachelor course is International Trade and Economics with Chinese language study on the side for one year, so am here in china for four years. Ever since coming to Changzhou I have made many new friends who have been helping me adjust to the life as a foreigner in china and learning the language. My teachers have also played a big role in my life since they are teaching us the Chinese language.

My school life in Changzhou university has been amazing. it’s an international community together with the Chinese students, my classmates are helpful and focused on academic success, my Chinese university friends are the best. They have helped me since the first day. they are friends for life, Chinese people are very welcoming and loving, they even communicate with us in English which is the best. Jiangsu province has many foreigners, so it feels just like home, we have many people from different countries, this province is global, we have people from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania, Thailand, Laos, Mongolia, Japan, Finland only to mention but a few. So it’s very easy for international students to adjust living here and the Chinese citizens here speak English which is even better for us foreigners to go around and in case you have a problem you can stop anyone around you and they would be willing to help. It has been a dream of mine to study in a friendly environment and ever since coming to Changzhou Jiangsu province that's what I have received am able to study here with no worries knowing am safe.

Last summer before it begun, I wanted to find an innovative way to spend my summer. It had to be educative since my aim was to improve my spoken Chinese since we learn written Chinese in class, but it also had to be fun with experiencing the Chinese culture. So I approached my teacher and asked her if I could do home stay, since in my country we do home stay, my mother hosts foreign students from the USA, they try our cultural food, experience our culture and also try to learn the language. So I wanted to do the same here in china but it’s very difficult to achieve this as a foreigner you have to be trustworthy, academic oriented, respecting your teachers and having good social behavior this became a dream of mine to achieve in this period because the different period in our lives have different dreams to achieve isn't it?, when I told my teacher she was willing to help, so after a long period, later she came back with a positive reply saying I had not only gotten one but five families who were willing to host me. We then visited the families the next day and they were all loving and welcoming but the family that caught my eye the most was the family of MR YUANG QINGLAI AND MRS YANGYAN with two of their handsome sons HUANG BO (11 years) AND HUANG ZHE (5 years ).

My home stay family was very welcoming and they were amazing, I loved them from day one. Through staying with them I learnt new Chinese words every day since they could speak English it was easy to communicate with them and when we went out they would point out to me the Chinese words and meanings of places and streets through this experience I learnt how to use the Chinese A maps app and also how to take the bus alone. When I first came to china I got lost a couple of times since I came back to school after summer I have not gotten lost not even once I now help my classmates and friends I now even more places to visit in Changzhou. My home stay family took me to visit many places in Changzhou Jiangsu province since that's where they lived we visited places like Wanda Plaza and Jiangnan Global Harbor and many other places we always we out to eat or watch movies at the cinema . My experience was amazing because they also cooked for me the Chinese cultural food and I got to expedience the culture too, they told me to consider them family, my own family in china whenever I had a problem and called them they were always willing to help me which was of great help to me. Me and my new brothers got on well and had the same interests which was amazing so I was with them always, we had lots of fun. We visited different places in Jiangsu province they wanted me to experience more Chinese culture which was what we did. I also visited Suzhou City, in Jiangsu province I went to the Suzhou Museum it was amazing and I also visited Nanjing City such as Nanjing Museum .We also sent off for Zhou Shan and we visited many places such as Mount Putuo, Zhou Shan Museum, Ningbo Museum in Yinzhou City, Haishu, Shaoxing City (Luxun Native Place) and Shaoxing Museum, this experience has been educative and amazing.

Seeking dream in Jiangsu Province as a foreigner is an achievable goal and an amazing experience with loving people and I love china and I love Jiangsu.