We went for a start. Then gong. And the race has begun. We started rapidly; we used all of our energy to move the boat. By driving ourselves with every push against the water with our oars, we were on our way to the pedestal. At the end of the first round we found out that we passed the qualification and are going to participate in the second round. This round will be the final one. We were in seventh heaven. We were a bit tired, but we knew that we can do it. So we put ourselves together and went to the start again. After crossing the final line we were wild with joy.
My name is Evgenia Saduakassova, I am an alumna student of ECUST. I want to share one of my memorable stories of my student life in ECUST. It is a story about Dragon Boat Competition among international student in Shanghai in 2012. It was 5 years ago, but I still remember that day, that feeling, that excitement. It was one of the best days in my student life in ECUST, which I will remember forever.

As we all know, The Duanwu Festival, also often known as The Dragon Boat Festival, is a traditional holiday originating in China. During this holiday people eat zhongzi and race dragon boats. Every year ECUST welcomes participants from the universities of Shanghai to take a part in the Dragon Boat Race Competition. It is a big honor to be a part of this event. Same as other university teams, our team had been selected out of all ECUST international students, different faculties, different majors, people from different countries and different age. We were very proud that we could represent our university on that special day. It was a special day not only because Dragon Boat Festival is a huge festival, widely fete in China, but also because East China University of Science and Technology had been celebrating the 60th anniversary in that year. It was a big day and we were excited. It was a big day not only for us, but for every university, which participated. Year by year every university is striving to get the first place in Dragon Boat Festival event. And our team was not an exclusion; we wanted to be first so badly that couldn’t even think about anything else. The excitement was very high, adrenaline in our blood was pumping through our veins, we realized that our team is under a great pressure, but we should keep an equal mind in any situation. We knew that our competitors are very strong, but we must remain calm in order to win. You may ask why the pressure was so high. Because our university holds this event on an yearly basis and we knew that we should not lose being surrounded by ECUST’s walls. We were ready for a fight.

We thought we won. But we were wrong. We lost one millisecond. Only one millisecond. That was a very dramatic moment. We thought that we were the winners, but at that day our team of international students won 2nd place among all universities which participated in that event. Of course, at first seconds our team was a bit disappointed, but we were still happy that we were in top three. It was an amazing achievement for us. We were truly happy! That moment made us very close. We had the same aim, which connected us, to win the medal for our university. We become very good friends and still keep in touch. We realized that we are a part of the huge family. Family which name is ECUST.

That was an exceptional day for me and I will keep that fantastic day in my memory forever.

Thank you ECUST, thanks to our international department and thanks to our 2012 Dragon Boat Team! We are the winners of the hearts!