DRESDEN -- Immersing themselves in a different culture thousands of miles away, Beth Painter and Sarah Holdren engaged in a learning opportunity of a lifetime this summer.

It's been more than a month since their return, but the Tri-Valley High School freshmen are still beaming about their recent trip to China.

Along with fellow Tri-Valley freshman Hailey Jenkins, Painter and Holdren were eager for a different type of language experience, so they enrolled in Tri-Valley's Chinese classes. The classes were offered for the first time at Tri-Valley last year.

"Everyone takes Spanish, and I wanted to see what this would be like," 15-year-old Painter said.

"It's a very different language, and the way they write is different too," added 14-year-old Holdren.

Holdren's mother, Lillette Holdren, said she's heard teachers refer to Chinese as the "language of the future," especially concerning the business of electronics and exporting.

The class, geared toward business language, is a video distance learning course, with lessons televised at the high school. While an available teacher is on hand to monitor the students, they actually are being taught by a Chinese teacher from Metro High School in Columbus.

It took some getting used to for the students, not being able to have their teacher physically in the room, but they are still able to learn and ask questions.

When an opportunity came to visit China and put what they've learned into practice, the girls jumped into action. Based on grade-point average, application, essays and letters of recommendation, Painter, Holdren and Jenkins were chosen out of the 10 middle and high school students enrolled in Tri-Valley's Chinese course.

The two-week trip in July was coordinated by Tri-Valley's affiliate, the Confucius Institute at Miami University. The girls had to get their passports and two-week work visas and pay for their plane tickets to and from China.

But the Chinese government and Hanban, Chinese language international counsel with the Confucius Institute, covered their expenses for further transportation in the country, housing, food and other activities.

A pre-trip meeting at Metro High School helped calm parents' apprehensions before they sent their children overseas.

"I don't know a whole lot about China other that what's on the news," said Bobbie Painter, Beth's mother. "I know their government is different, and I was concerned at first about their safety. But the meeting was reassuring, hearing from people from China and professors at Miami University who have been on the trip before. The more we learned, the more we were comfortable with it. I was impressed with the whole trip, and it changed my outlook on China."

"Talking to them on the phone or even getting a text, you could feel their excitement," Lillette Holdren added.

For the first few days, the group made up of high school students from four different schools from Ohio and Georgia engaged in typical sightseeing around Beijing visiting the Temple of Heaven, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Great Wall of China and Olympic Park. Then they flew to the province of Jilin, where they spent the remaining 10 days learning more about the country's language, culture and education.

The girls have a wealth of stories from their travel such as seeing how the Chinese make tea, buying Oriental dresses, bargaining with market vendors, shopping, mastering chopsticks, eating a lot of rice, making dumplings, playing badminton, taking tai chi classes and posing for numerous photos.

Most of their time was spent interacting with other teenagers and sitting in on the English classes at a school in Jilin. The girls were surprised by the differences in educational systems.

"They have no lockers in school, and the teachers rotate rooms," Sarah said. "They go to school year-round from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., then go home and spend the rest of the night studying. This has made more grateful for what I have, like a social life."

"We sat in as they learned English," Beth added. "I've never heard someone teach English like that before. They speak it pretty well. I've wanted to be a teacher, so this might help me if I end up teaching English."

Beth said last year's Chinese class kicked off being televised at Tri-Valley Middle and High School, as well as Heath High School.

Last year four high school students and six middle school students participated, and this year the class has been consolidated into one for both middle and high school students at Tri-Valley. One of last year's 10 students has since graduated, but the remaining nine have chosen to continue with the language. Lillette said students have been guaranteed at least three years in the class.

"Tri-Valley needs to be recognized because this says a lot about the district," Bobbie said. "It's wonderful that Tri-Valley brought something new to the school that's not available at a lot of other schools."

These two weeks opened the girls' eyes to the world. Not only was this an educational trip, they said they also made lasting bonds with new friends. They each said they want to take advantage of advancing in the Chinese class, and visit the country again once they become more fluent in the language.