While many Americans spent the last few weeks watching the Olympics from their living rooms, Camilla Teng experienced the games first hand.

Teng always wanted to see the country her parents emigrated from over 30 years ago — extending her student visa to watch Olympic soccer was an added bonus. Teng, 21, said that despite hardships like the devastating earthquakes in May, the Chinese people stood excited and proud to host the Olympic Games. Because of her Chinese lineage, she felt proud too.

In the summer of 2007, Teng, who is double majoring in Chinese and biology, left San Francisco for Beijing as part of the Cal State University system's international studies program. Including Teng, 25 CSU students studied in China during the 2007/2008 school year, 13 of which attended SF State. Teng returned from Beijing last month, one of the last CSU students to return from studying in China.

“If I wasn’t studying abroad, I don’t think I would have gone all the way to Beijing for the Olympics,” Teng said. She watched three Olympic soccer matches, including a women’s game where Japan trumped Norway 5-1.

The excitement was palpable. Teng said it was difficult to describe her exhilaration as she watched the games. She experienced a sense of global unity as westerners and Chinese participated in “the wave” together, a popular spectator activity where crowd members throw their arms up in the air in unison. She dreamed of seeing the Olympics in person since she was young, and that fantasy finally came to fruition.

Because of SF State’s study abroad program, Teng said she witnessed Beijing’s transition from a highly polluted cityscape to a cleaner, more tourist-friendly world stage.

Experiences like Teng’s help students gain international perspective in today’s shrinking global economy, according to My Yarabinec, assistant director of the Office of International Programs. The program places students at Peking University in Beijing or Jiao Tong University in Shanghai. SF State also has a special bilateral exchange with City University of Hong Kong while programs at Peking and Jiao Tong are open to anyone in the CSU system, said Yarabinec.

Classes aim to integrate American students into Chinese language and culture, and studying abroad is affordable for all SF State students, Yarabinec said.

“This isn’t just for rich kids,” Yarabinec said. “These programs are for anyone who comes to SF State.”

While events like the Olympics make studying abroad sound all fun, that’s not exactly the case. Students are challenged by an array of cultural differences during their time abroad, ranging from language difficulties to meeting the rushed pacing of China’s crowded streets. Hildy Heath, director of the Office of International Studies at SF State, said these cultural acclamations benefit students in the long run.

“We always tell students the only way you can gain maturity or personal growth is by doing something really difficult,” Heath said. “That’s the only way it happens.”

While students may look back proudly at all they’ve learned, it doesn’t make cultural differences — like a dense population — any less difficult to overcome. Charles Egan, associate professor of foreign languages and literature at SF State, visited Beijing in January and said the vast number of automobiles can be hard on walkers and bikers.

“They won’t wait for the pedestrians,” Egan said. “They expect you to jump out of the way.”

However, during Teng’s year abroad, she navigated the thick traffic of Beijing on her bike without accident. Strangely enough, the roaring, bumper-to-bumper streets seemed to make it safer for Teng on her bike.

“There are so many bikes and cars and people that everyone goes pretty slow,” Teng said.

Population density aside, another cultural difficulty Teng experienced was hygiene based: no toilet paper. While it’s culturally normal for American bathrooms to stock toilet paper, Teng said in China that’s not the case. The issue may seem insignificant compared to learning a foreign language and battling Beijing’s crowded streets, but these minute concerns made Teng appreciate things in America she previously took for granted.

“None of the restrooms have paper towels and toilet paper,” Teng said. “I take it as a blessing almost. Over there it’s kind of precious.”