After rain there is always a rainbow

My first year in China was one that I will never forget for the rest of my life. As soon as we arrived at Nanjing international airport, the freezing air immediately greeted us students from Indonesia. When at the airport we had problems communicating with airport staff because our Chinese language skills were still very lacking. At the right time, the teacher from our campus had come to pick us up at the airport and helped us out of the airport. We all hugged and greeted each other, and also took pictures together before finally taking the school bus to campus.

Unfortunately none of us Indonesian students had the chance to exchange our country's currency into Chinese currency, so we couldn't buy winter coats here. We cannot buy winter coats in Indonesia because our country is a tropical country, and winter coats are not available. Seeing this our teachers immediately rushed to give us all their winter coats so that no one fell ill. They also quickly helped us change our money to the bank and helped us make new ATM cards so that we had no trouble buying the things we needed.

At the end of December we participated in campus activities in the year-end art show. We international students from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Cambodia performed the traditional Wuhu City song entitled "半城山半城水" about the beautiful Yellow Mountain and Yangtze river which makes Wuhu City very beautiful. We all practice continuously until we can perform well at the year-end art performance, because this is a valuable opportunity where we can perform traditional Chinese songs in front of Chinese teachers and friends.

We all just got used to the environment and learning activities on campus, when the winter break arrived we started hearing news about COVID-19. However, because there was no certainty, the teachers told us not to worry, and to maintain our health by urging us to always wear masks. In early January all international students from Cambodia return to their home country for winter break, while we students from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia choose to stay on campus to take additional Chinese classes during the winter.

In mid-January the situation did not improve, and our campus was still in a state of lockdown. We are all worried about whether we should return to our countries or not. We communicate with our families every day via telephone and video calls, asking each other how they are. Our teachers always take turns to come to the dormitory to give antiseptic liquid, and check our body temperature patiently, and every few weeks there is always a doctor who visits the dormitory to check on the health of our students.

During the lockdown we had to cook in the dorm kitchen. We were not allowed to leave campus to buy groceries, for safety reasons. Our teachers are our superheroes during this pandemic. They always take turns every week looking for food ingredients that we leave at the supermarket. They did everything to make us all feel safe and not worried during this pandemic. Some of the remaining students among us chose to return to their countries because their parents were worried. But my friends and I made up our minds and chose to stay in the dormitory until things got better. Because our teachers here make us feel like we have found a new family here. We choose to believe in our teachers and stay in China through the difficult times of this pandemic together. Our parents also feel at ease knowing we are all safe and comfortable in the dormitory thanks to the presence of our teachers who always help us in anything.

In February, the spring festival arrives. The campus surprised us by hosting a banquet between international students and teachers and campus officials. We feel very happy when we all miss our family and home, our teachers understand and are there for us at that time.

There are so many places in China that we really want to visit but because of the lockdown, we can only take online classes at the hostel. We also want to interact with Chinese students to practice the Chinese we are learning but they are not allowed to return to campus to study with us yet.

In early September things were much better, China didn't take long to recover from the pandemic, and that's a really great thing. Chinese students have started to return to campus and we are all very happy to meet them and to be able to start a new semester together in class.

Our teachers have prepared many fun activities for us to participate in. We've learned about Chinese culture and Chinese festivals during our online classes, and we had the opportunity to celebrate live with our Chinese students and teachers.

We celebrate the Dragon boat festival in June we celebrate the dragon boat festival by holding a paper cutting activity "剪纸". The teachers also gave us rice dumplings to enjoy together. In the fall we celebrate the mid-autumn festival by holding an event with Chinese students and teachers while sharing mooncakes and exchanging cultures. At night we gather in the chili field enjoying the moonlight. What an amazing experience!

In this second academic year, our teachers registered us so that we can get vaccinations in China for free, hearing this our parents feel at ease that we can get free vaccinations here.

My friends and I may not have had the opportunity to explore China more because of COVID-19, but we have seen the beauty of China through the presence of Chinese teachers and friends who always help us to get to know China more and giving us so many valuable experiences. I'm glad I made the decision to stay here and continue my studies in China. Because after the rain we can always see a beautiful rainbow.

My name is Andriana, my nickname is Ana. I come from Indonesia, born 18 October 1999, 21 years old.  I am a second year international student of D3 program majoring in network engineering. My campus is in Wuhu City Anhui Province. My campus name is Wuhu Institute of Technology. I came to China because I was interested in learning Chinese and got a scholarship opportunity to study abroad.

The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of China Daily and China Daily website.