Three University students were swept up in the wave of nationalism taking over China during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Mandi Ash, Maggie Hicks and Charlie Ho lived and studied in China from February through August and were able to witness the changes the games brought to Beijing and the rest of the country.Hicks, international studies senior, said she noticed a major difference between American and Chinese perspective regarding the Olympics. She said the 1996 Olympics were “Atlanta’s Olympics,” while the Beijing Olympics belonged to the entire country.”There was such elation,” Hicks said, citing there were even songs about the Olympics playing on the radio.The entire country was caught in “Olympic fever,” said Ho, international studies and political science senior.Advertisements to have a national cheer traveled to the most remote towns in China, Ho said. “Even my kids knew it,” he said, referring to students he taught English to in a small school in Henan Province in eastern China during July.While she was in Beijing, Hicks said the national pride was overwhelming. “I didn’t think about America until a week before the Olympics,” Hicks said.There were signs in Beijing  in Mandarin Chinese and English with phrases like “One World, One Dream,” and “Love Mankind, Love the Homeland; Love Science, Love the Olympics.” She found herself wanting to cheer for China, Hicks said.Each of the students questioned the country’s post-Olympic morale. “It seems like everyone’s purpose is going to be gone,” said Ash, international studies senior. Beijing changed right before his eyes, Ho said. China experienced  boycotts, an earthquake, flooding and bus bombings in the last year, so the change was emotional and tangible, Hicks said.With the Olympics coming up, it was much harder to get a visa to go to China, Ho said. He heard stories about foreign students and English teachers being asked to leave the country as the Olympics approached because of the space limitations. Their group was not asked to leave.When he returned from his teaching trip to Beijing on July 20, Ho said he was amazed at how crowded the train stations were with migrant workers.”You were basically told to leave the city if you’re not a Beijing resident,” Ho said.The students traveled to Beijing through International Student Exchange Programs, which has an agreement with Peking University during the spring semester. They then separated during the summer, Hicks said. ISEP is a network of 275 universities in 39 countries which allows students from around the world to participate in an exchange program. Member universities cooperate to assist students with obtaining an affordable exchange experience. “They ran out of space on campus, so we essentially stayed in a hotel,” said Hicks.The hotel was located inside the Haidian Sports Center where some Olympic training was going on, Ash said.The transition from the U.S. to China was intense, said Ho, who is half Vietnamese and half Chinese. Even though he was familiar with many cultural oddities, some still caught him off guard, he said. One, he described, was children without diapers who would simply urinate on the sidewalk, or even on the carpeted walkway on the train. During dinner, the Chinese simply spit their bones on the table. Ho said this didn’t faze him while Hicks said she couldn’t bring herself to do it.This was the first trip to China for Hicks and Ho but a second for Ash. She said she visited Beijing when she was 16 on a mission trip but didn’t stay long.”Once you’re used to it, you’re leaving,” Hicks said.—-Contact Olga Kourilova at [email protected]