Alston said: "There are a lot of differences between Chinese and US people. We have been raised with different values, but through interacting with the students I've seen that we just like the same things … we share the same videos online, we enjoy the same clothing, and we both like to go out to eat.

"And even if maybe the way we were raised was really different, we're both really interested in connecting and interacting with different and new things. Being here has been a great opportunity to learn about things that are different from me and use them to grow (wiser)."