For future applicants, I suggest you apply to multiple programs and not just one when going for project GO. It's fairly easy to get the scholarship, but if you apply to just one school's program you may miss out because they prioritize cadets/midshipmen from their school over outsiders. However if it is your own school and you're at least a decent candidate your chances are pretty solid so it's far less risky to put all your eggs in one basket.
@Chlobear
Some advice:
- I did Chinese project GO two summers ago. Take lots of pictures, I didn't document the trip nearly as much as I now wish I had. Don't whole up inside your dorm/hotel, get out and talk to people. Keep in mind, Americans tend to assume a lot of ppl in China speak english, this isn't the case. Even in a big city like Shanghai, I rarely ran into anyone who knew enough english to communicate effectively. Very few older people understand it, you may have luck with younger people but even still the ones I spoke to had about a 2nd grade proficiency level.
I talked to a Chinese cop for about 45 min as he helped me get to my hotel, the guy remembered a bit of elementary school english but I had to tell him to speak to me in chinese b/c his english was so hard to understand. This taxi driver was sharking me outside of an airport asking for a ridiculous fare and followed me around sabotaging my negotiations with other legitimate taxi drivers. When I ran out of options I checked his car out and it was a black car, not even a black taxi with a meter, just a black car smh. DON'T GET IN THE BLACK TAXIS, they are illegal, expensive, and dangerous. I basically told him in chinese hell no I'm not getting in that and that I was going to the police. The cop was super nice and helpful and got me to my hotel for free.
- People will always try to rip you off. The price of 95% of what you purchase in china is negotiable. They do that to everyone, even locals, but for Americans the initial asking price will be on average 10x the amount they're willing to sell it to you for. Keep haggling, threaten to leave, lie and say your a poor college student, discounts come easier when you say all this in chinese. Don't settle for what a good price would be in america, the lowest price they'll sell it to you for is probably half of that. Be sure to buy plenty of gifts for friends and family. My group got a vendor to sell us beats pills/headphones for 90 yuan (which is about $14), they were really good quality and just had some cosmetic abnormalities (like a misspelled word). I wish i had bought them in bulk, but I only got two.
- Keep track of address of the places you stay for a week or more and names and contact info of the people on your program, you'll need it later for your security clearance.
- Buy your plane ticket now or very soon. I bought mine early and ended up paying just under $1600, some people on the trip bought theirs later and ended up paying hundreds more. Remember some days are cheaper than others when looking for tickets, i.e flying on a tuesday is cheaper than flying on a friday. Also, I advise you to fly in a few days early to settle in and get over your jet lag. I went 3 days early and stayed at a youth hostel with 3 other girls in the program (it was like $10 a night, if that). Im so glad I did b/c for 2 days we slept all day and were only awake during the night. Took a while to fix our sleeping schedule.
- Don't be afraid to push and shove. It's a densely populated country so people bump and push each other to be first in the queue and in walking down the street regularly and they wont acknowledge it. There's no word for excuse me in chinese (as far as pedestrian settings go at least) so you're going to have to push and shove with the best of them if you want to get anywhere. I was hesitant at first, but soon we had a system for making sure our group all got on the train. As an average sized female I was bigger and stronger than many of them anyways so it wasn't hard boxing them out to make sure my group got to where we wanted to be, I elbowed quite a few very pushy old ladies lol
. Giving up your seat for the elderly, children, or ppl carrying a ton of stuff isn't a thing either. I did that twice and the ppl I offered my seat to looked at me like i was insane, then a young fit male stole the spot.
- Be open to trying really weird and new things. You may like it, and if you don't you can now say you ate [insert odd thing you didn't know people ate here]. The only thing I said a hard no to was bugs. I was not going to eat any creepy crawly or grub, and they sold alot of those. Though now I wouldn't say no to cricket with the proper persuasion lol.
- There will come a time when the honey moon phase of study abroad will end and you'll feel homesick and feel resentful of the big culture shocks you're dealing with there. 3 weeks in I was done with china, I didn't want to be there anymore. But I took the weekend and did American things with my other ROTC buddies on the program, went to the French/German designed part of town, played soccer in the park, happened to hear about a German beer festival going on just down the street and went and got to have a real burger with beer. We nearly cried. It was exactly what I needed to rejuvenate me and get back to enjoying the experience. We partied hard for the 4th of July too, the only day it's excusable to be obnoxious Americans in a host country, it was awesome. At the end leaving is a bittersweet experience.
Congrats OP, I'm sure you'll have a great time.
Multiple people have told me to try the 北京烤鸭！