Reuben Kozary, a student from ANU, Australia, had never traveled to China before. Before coming to Shanghai, he had only heard about life in China through friends, social media and classroom textbooks.

Reuben Kozary was very curious to see what life in China was truly like. Fortunately, he was chosen to go on a one-month exchange program to ECNU. After living in Shanghai for a month as a student, he can now say that being a student in China was one of the greatest experiences in his life.

A Warm Welcome came from ECNU. The reception he got from the Chinese was a warm one, and it wasn’t simply because of the weather. His Chinese language teachers and program coordinator were all so friendly and excited to meet new students. Teachers gave them a tour of the beautiful ECNU campus, which is filled with sports facilities and cafeterias. To top the first day off, the teachers even treated them to a delicious dinner at one of the four cafeterias on campus. He quickly learnt that Chinese people love to eat tasty food together!

The teaching style at ECNU is quite unique. Their language classes were taught entirely in Chinese, and students were not allowed to speak English. His teacher even told them, with a smile on her face, that if she caught them speaking English more than five times, they would have to buy ice-cream for the whole class. While this was daunting at first, it helped Reuben Kozary to improve his listening and speaking skills much quicker than when he was studying in Australia. Life outside of the classroom was full of adventure. Because of the central location of the ECNU campus and Shanghai’s extremely convenient subway system, the after-class travel possibilities were endless.

Although there was much more to say about his time in Shanghai, he can summarize by saying that this one-month ECNU exchange program had been a life-changing experience. He had made many new friendships, and been inspired by the Chinese and their culture.

When you re grocery shopping, have you ever noticed that most grocery stores often don’t have windows and if they do they’re only at the front of the store? You might not pay much attention to the architectural features of the building you re grocery shopping in—you’re there to shop for food, not admire the layout! But that’s not just it!

“Grocery stores want to create a separate environment within the stores, where the outside world doesn’t exist,” explains Andrei Vasilescu, a shopping expert who has studied shopping behaviors and psychology. “You don’t get bothered by the rain, sunshine, or the fact that your kids are waiting in the parking lot. All your focus is on the shopping experience.” This technique also prevents shoppers from noticing that it’s getting dark out.

“Walls instead of windows can keep daylight out of grocery stores and help preserve the products, as some products can go bad faster in direct sunlight. Too much sun exposure can even cause packaging labels to fade. Furthermore, having windows in their stores would decrease the space available to showcase products,” says Margine Biswas, an architect with expertise in retail (零售) design. “Compared to windows, exterior (外部的) walls have stronger structural supports and can hold the heavier items on the shelves of those walls.”

Are some grocery stores going against this trend? In Germany, a study was conducted to test out stores with more natural light. A few stores had some bread products going bad rapidly due to the sunlight. They needed to replace the glass with specially designed panes (窗格) that help reduce the heat and radiation. This technique hasn’t caught on widely yet. A National Rewable Energy laboratory study in 2002 assessed the effects of natural light on shoppers—and it found that shoppers felt vastly more comfortable when there was more natural light around. They were also better able to identify both products and other people in the stores. It’s worth noting; though, that this study assessed natural light in all retail spaces, not just grocery stores. The challenges of adding more natural light to grocery stores remain.