Page 18 - Newsletter Winter 2018

Houlton Alum Spends Month Studying in China
Thank You!
By Joseph Cyr ’89, Houlton Pioneer Times – Reprinted with permission
While most college students were enjoying their summer relaxing from
classes, John Thatcher of Houlton was busy spending a month overseas
learning about Chinese culture.

Thatcher, 19, returned to Houlton from a month-long excursion to
China, as part of a cultural program through Drew University. The
2017 graduate of Houlton Middle-High School recently completed his
freshman year at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, where he is
majoring in music with minors in Chinese studies and theatre.

“When I was registering for my first year of classes, I wanted to take a
new language class,” he said. “So I signed up for the Chinese program.
A lot of people thought I was crazy because it was so difficult.”

As part of that class, Thatcher was invited to spend the month in
Beijing and Harbin in China as part of an intensive language course
and cultural immersion. Thatcher was one of just two American
students on the trip, along with 22 Chinese students who attend Drew
University. He received eight college credits for the trip.

From May 20 to June 17, Thatcher along with several other classmates
spent three weeks in Harbin, the capital of the Heilongjiang province,
and largest city in the northeastern region of China with 5.2 million
people. He also spent one week in Beijing, the capital of China with John Thatcher ’17 of Houlton took a photo of himself while
21.7 million people. A typical day started with three or four hours standing on the Great Wall of China during a recent month-
in a classroom “with a teacher that doesn’t speak a word of English,” long visit to the country. (contributed photo/John Thatcher)
Thatcher said. “You try your best to follow along.”

“I tried to go to China with as few biases as I could,” he said. “That was hard because you always have preconceived notions of how people
are going to be or what the culture would be like. I didn’t expect China to be as culturally diverse as it is. Every city is completely different
because of all the different influences that have split China over the years.”

Thatcher said he was surprised at how Harbin turned out to have a climate very similar to Houlton.

“There is also a Russian-Japanese contrast going on in Harbin and it made for much more interesting architecture,” he said. Thatcher said
he was surprised by how few people spoke English.

“It took me by surprise as I was on my own a lot more than I thought I would be,” he said.

The food was another bit of a culture shock for him as the chinese food found in America is very different from what is available overseas.
“I don’t think anyone can understand how vastly different the two are until you have tried both,” he said. “There were things like duck
tongue, which was one of the strangest experiences I have ever had. It tasted like you were kissing a bird.”

KFC is one of the most popular American eateries found in China, he said, far surpassing McDonalds. But the food at both was completely
different from the offerings here in the United States.

“KFC is huge over there,” he said. “You could order something that looked like a chicken sandwich, but tasted completely different from
what you expect.”

While in China, Thatcher found he was somewhat of an attraction for the local residents. People would often walk up to him, say, “Hello,”
and then run away giggling. Some also snapped photos of him. “It was interesting being a very tall, white kid in China,” he said. “People
would run up to me, take a photo and then run away. It was surreal.”

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